Chief Medical Officer’s Log:
It has been a relatively easy day in sickbay today. Nothing more than the usual annual physicals, pregnancy checkups and treatment of minor ailments. It is becoming a little bit tedious. Because of the ongoing shakedown cruise, the ship is still not fully operational which for instance restricts the full use of the medical labs. Thankfully we can fill our time with testing and checking every piece of equipment that we have aboard. I am already looking forward to recalibrating the 248 hyposprays that are present on the Callisto.
Fenna Nayru and Malek were inside the neurological ward, a few meters down the hall from the center circle, recalibrating several sets of neural stimulators. Though upon delivery of a starship, all of the medical equipment is fully calibrated, and certified, it was a good practice that everything is rechecked by the medical staff as part of the shakedown cruise. “That should do it.” Malek said after he finished using a micro laser capacitor to decrease the current through a certain set of microchip in a neural stimulator. Fenna who was standing in front of Malek, on the other side of the treatment biobed, nodded. “Let’s see whether that did the trick.” She walked to the other side of the room and picked up a plate containing an artificially created specimen of a humanoid quadriceps muscle. She placed the plate in the middle of the biobed, allowing Malek to position the neural stimulator on top of the muscle. With surgical precision the Suliban phycisian put the stimulator on the right position, quickly eyeballing his superior for confirmation. Fenna concurred with her colleague’s assessment by giving him a subtle nod. She reached to her left and got the medical tricorder, powered its circuitry and took out the medical probe which she pointed at the muscle. “Resting potential is minus 10 millivolts.” she reported. “Charge the stimulator for a 12 millisecond burst of 300 millijoule.” Malek nodded as he set the stimulator to provide the required power Fenna provided. “Ready.” He reported as soon as he completed. “Proceed.” Fenna said, eyeing her tricorder. The neural stimulator delivered the small jolt directly into the muscle’s sarcolemma, which induced a certain contractile response. “Impulse intensity of 21 Frahm” Fenna finally showed a smile on her face. “Finally we got this unit performing to specs.” She said, powering down the tricorder which she then put back in one of the free utility pockets of white phycisian’s overcoat. “Well done, doctor Malek.” She patted the young man on his left shoulder.
Not long after Malek and Fenna finished recalibrating the neural stimulator, Commander Brenn walked into the medical bay. He held his cybernetic left hand up high as if it was broken. The bearded Bajoran male science officer seemed to be a bit upset. As he made his way to the center circle, he passed each of the offices to see whether the Chief Medical Officer was around. “What can I do for you, Commander?” Malek asked. The green hued Suliban second-in-command physician exited the center office as soon as he spotted the scientist coming in. “Is Fenna around?” Brenn asked, still looking around to see if he could spot Commander Nayru who he had started to call a friend. “Is there anything I can assist you with, Commander?” if there was something that doctor Malek had developed over the last few years, it was his bed-side-manners. “I am having a slight technical mallfunction…” Denaris seemed to be quite on edge. He made absolutely sure that no one else could hear him say that. “Is there anything wrong with your cybernetic devices. “Could you please keep your voice down.” The chief science officer corrected the more junior physician. “Of course.” the Suliban responded with a lower voice. “Let’s proceed to diagnostics room 3” Malek said, knowing that that room was the furthest one away from the center circle and the main ward. It provided the much required privacy that the science officer seemingly required.
“Computer, shut the door, run privacy protocol 1.” Malek said and with him having given that order, the glass door shut itself and the windows went opaque. “So what seems to be the matter.” Denaris sat down in the examination chair and after a good sigh or two he let go of the support he have to his left arm with his right one. It dangled down as if it was completely lifeless. “That’s… serious.” Malek did his best to hide his concerns but it seemed to him that he did not do an all to good job on that. “You know, this is not the first time…” Denaris complained. “Ever since we are aboard this damned Azura class starship, it seems to be a reoccurring problem.” He said, getting out of the chair again, pacing the deck plating in front of the biobed. “Can you elaborate on that?” Malek asked him, in an attempt to get a more complete anamnesis out of his patient. “I’d rather not…” He said. “It’s already embarrassing enough for me as it is. Can’t you just call dr. Nayru? She is all up to speed on things. “As you wish.” Malek said, tilting his head down slightly “She is doing her rounds though, so it might take a few minutes. “I won’t be going anywhere.” He said with a far from sincere smile.
About 20 minutes later, Fenna walked so fast towards the diagnostics room that it almost felt like running. On her way, she shortly paused at the instrument cabinet in which she looked up the cybernetics diagnostics kit, knowing that she would be needing it. “What did you do this time, Brenn.” Fenna smiled as she entered the room. “Don’t you laugh, Fenn.” Denaris was far from amused. Fenna put the kit on the biobed and opened it. “You will need to take off your uniform top. You think you can manage that?” Fenna calibrated her tools as the science officer struggled to do just that. “What happened?” Fenna asked him while she approached his left arm. She placed the lower arm onto the biobed so she could do her magic. With a small tool, she managed to open a small hatch in his arm that revealed the cybernetic interface panel. “I was working on an experiment with vertiron radiation wells. After several runs my arm just quit.” He said. “It seems as if the vertiron particles have severed the neural link between your prosthesis and your cyberneural implant.” It didn’t take Fenna long to diagnose the issue. “Have you forgotten to check the polarization frequenties of the vertiron emitters?” She smiled. “I should have done that, shouldn’t I?” Denaris felt a bit ashamed. “Yes, you should, Brenn.” Fenna said. “I thought you knew that vertiron particles that modulate in the same frequency band as your cyberneural inplant will interfere with the leptonic signal transduction.” Fenna said, opening a small latch on the small implant just to the left of his left eye brow. “Let me reset the frequency modulators. In the mean time, can you run a level 3 diagnostic on your sensory and motor pathways?” Fenna asked him. Denaris nodded briefly and with his mind he ordered his internal bioneural interface to perform the diagnostics. “It appears that you are right, Fenn.” Denaris smiled “My processor is indicating several faults in the frequency modulation of signalling pathways.” Fenna smiled “Of course I am right.” She chuckled. “I’ll have it fixed in a couple of seconds.” A few moments later, he was able to use his cybernetic left arm again as if it had not been experiencing any kind of malfunctions. “Thank you, Fenn.” He seemed to be grateful. “You are a lifesaver.” “That is what I am supposed to be doing, yes.” She smiled. “You can put your uniform on again, Commander.” She winked at him.
“All hands, this is the First Officer. Senior Staff briefing in 5 minutes.”
Fenna looked at Denaris. “Just on time.” Fenna smiled as they both headed out of the diagnostics room. “Computer, reset privacy protocols in room 3.” Fenna instructed the computer and together they left sickbay towards the first turbolift they could find.