Lt. JG. Gnai - New Doc, Who Dis?
Lich
(( Primary Sickbay - Deck 7, USS Artemis-A ))
There had never been a time where Gnai was totally comfortable within the walls of the Artemis’ sickbay. Something about it gave Gnai the distinct impression of being mounted onto a slide and put underneath a microscope, a feeling that had persisted even after the Academy and all the various check-ups that it had been put through as Starfleet Medical tried to get to grips with Galadoran physiology. The only part of coming to medical on the Artemis that didn’t get its tendrils all in a tizzy was getting to see two of its close friends, who it trusted to take care of it while going through the hoops of a medical check-in.
But even that small silver lining had evaporated recently. First, Cmdr. Adea (Genkos, as he had asked Gnai to call him) had transferred off of the vessel (but not before asking it to dogsit Toto for a bit, which it joyfully did - even if Gnai still didn’t much understand the point of something like a pet, it did find Toto enjoyable to be around). He had been the first person on the Artemis to really connect to Gnai, or so it felt. No one else on the ship had held telepathic conversations with it, and really connected on a level that surpassed the clunky way that Federation Standard shoved the nuances of Galadoran into unfitting boxes. He was moving on to bigger and better things, though, taking up the mantle of first officer on the Eagle, after briefly being Gnai’s own first officer for a mission. Good for him, Gnai had thought, even though it did miss their talks.
Still, when he had left, there was still Dr. Sadar (as it had learned to call her, preferring that over the far-too-friendly “Gila” it had accidentally called her on the Kitty Hawk out of fear) who had been there to treat it, and sign all the requisite paperwork that let Starfleet know that it wasn’t in danger of dying on their watch. They’d… well, bonded perhaps was an overly nice way of putting it, but there wasn’t much other way to describe how they had grown slightly closer together after the chaos of being posted to the Kitty Hawk for part of Frontier Day. She’d protected it and carried it through the ship after it lost its protective tank, and they’d both sworn each other to secrecy over some of what they experienced in the heat of battle with the Borg. It had wanted news of its suit going rogue and killing officers to not be spread, just as she’d requested that it just… not mention anything about her jaw opening up to attack a Borg that was threatening her.
And now even Dr. Sadar was strangely not present. When it had requested an appointment with the Medical department, it had asked to be seen by her, as per usual. But it had received a message on its PADD before the appointment that it was now to be seen by another doctor entirely (some Lt. JG. Meyers, it seemed). Someone that it had never met before, but from looking her up in the crew manifest before the appointment (it wasn’t stalking, not at all, it was just curious and trying to make sure that it wasn’t going to mix this doctor up with some other humanoid in Medical) revealed that it had definitely seen her around Sickbay in the past, off doing her own work in the background, and never actually interacting with it. So she wasn’t new to the ship, as far as it could tell. That was a good thing.
One of the things that it was most hesitant about with approaching a new person for medical assistance was being non-humanoid. So many physicians seemed to find that endlessly fascinating, to Gnai’s chagrin, and it had found the newer doctors and residents at the Academy medical school to be the worst of the bunch. Always curious about everything, sometimes pulling in another person to observe or assist, when all it wanted was to just get everything over with so it could get on with its life. So this new person it was seeing as a doctor being not new at all gave Gnai a little bit of hope. Just a little.
All in all, it found itself waiting awkwardly in the middle of Sickbay, trying to spot the person whose image it had tried to memorize for the sake of making this whole ordeal even just seconds shorter. She had to be here… somewhere right? Ah, yes - there she was, off on the side, in medical teal (different from the blue that was painted on its chassis that designated it as a science officer, as it couldn’t really dress the transport suit like the humanoids could, which had the unfortunate side-effect of making Gnai subconsciously “on the job” most of its waking hours). It quickly made its way to her, aware that it had arrived slightly before it was supposed to (well, “slightly early” was in the eye of the beholder it guessed, not that bastardizing that idiom made much sense in hindsight, as perhaps “slightly early” should be instead in the eye of the beholder…), with the hope that she would be free anyways.
Gnai: Doctor Meyers?
Meyers: Response
It bobbed in its tank slightly, colors of mild embarrassment and just the tinge of anxiety (and frustration, as even if it was hoping that a new doctor would be fine, it was still a fraction grumpy that anything in its schedule had changed, even a bit) pulsing down its many tendrils.
Gnai: This knows that it is early… But this didn’t want to miss the appointment. ::pause:: Are you free right now, or should this come back later…?
Which was a bit of a lie, of course. It would have absolutely loved to miss this appointment (or any appointment in Sickbay, really), but with the stress building up for it after recent missions, and a note from Starfleet that it really should be getting another check-up soon, it really couldn’t in good faith miss this. Talking with Genkos about its stress ages ago had done wonders for it for a while (as had the chance to actually relax and wander the arboretum of DS9 with him and Toto), but everything that had happened since was now bearing down hard on it.
Meyers: Response
Gnai: Thank you! ::following her, still talking the entire time:: This hasn’t had a proper medical check-up in a while, just short visits here and there, as this hasn’t seen the need, but recently this has been feeling some adverse effects from stress and whatnot on missions…
Meyers: Response
Tags/TBC :)
((OOC: Leaving tags for Meyers, who will be picked up by Gila’s writer!))