Lt. JG. Gnai - Say It Ain't So...
Lich
(( Primary Sickbay - Deck 7, USS Artemis-A ))
The stress had been building up for Gnai, and it needed to talk to someone now, even if that meant heading to the dreaded Sickbay, and enduring an actual check-up. Its nerves were not at all soothed by the sudden and unexplained changed in doctors, but it wasn’t going to back down now, not when this had become an issue that impacted its performance on a mission.
Gnai: Doctor Meyers?
Meyers: You’re two minutes early, Lieutenant Gnai.
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: Mph... I can take your appointment now. This isn’t time-sensitive. ::grabs a PADD:: Follow me.
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: Please sit.
Her tone made Gnai’s tendrils tense a bit, and it stopped blabbering, responding quickly with as few words as it could, before following her order to sit down.
Gnai: Yes, doctor.
Meyers: What adverse effects have you been experiencing?
As she started to attach diagnostic instruments to the containment suit that it wore, Gnai’s nervousness started to creep back in again, even as it tried to not go on and on and on about its problems. It didn’t get the feeling that she wanted to hear its whole life story…
Gnai: Well… there have been multiple, multiple things. The first that this noticed was an increased level of irritability. And distractibility. There might also be some physical side effects, but this isn’t completely certain it isn’t psychosomatic…
Not that it was at all a doctor by any means, but it couldn’t be sure that its mind wasn’t causing some of the tense twitching that it had noticed from time to time in its tendrils.
Meyers: Hm... And you believe these effects to be the results of stress from work? Any specific instances you feel these are more frequent?
Gnai: Oh well… generally during or after being on away teams. They aren’t as noticeable while onboard the Artemis.
Even in the stress of the ship battle, as Gnai had sat on the bridge, in grave danger, it hadn’t been as tense and snippy as it had been down planetside, even in the calmer moments.
Meyers: Response
Gnai: Oh, sorry, yes. ::moves in its tank so she can get better readings:: Yes… most of the recent irritability has been planetside. But that could also just be because this most recent mission, this was pulled away from some… time-critical experiments to join an away team… Maybe it’s not stress?
It was definitely a bit of both, but Gnai didn’t want to be slapped with a label of “terminally anxious” or “not fit for duty”. Being in Starfleet was the only way that it got to do the science that it lived for, and if it got dismissed from duty, it would probably have to make its way back to Galador II, proving the rest of its species right.
Meyers: Response
Gnai: Are you certain? Can you take another reading? Just to be sure?
Meyers: Response
Gnai: This just… if that’s true, is it grounds for dismissal from duty?
Meyers: Response
Tags/TBC :)