Time is Fleeting – Change of face
by Cardassian Vi'kar Gul Tharek Getal & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
ON:
Chelsea was doing her rounds with something of an uncharacteristically absent air. Usually, she would have been focussed. She loved her job and always gave it 150% but today there was still too much on her mind.
That was until something very unusual happened. A Cardassian Ambassador walked up to her. Startled out of her far away thoughts, Doctor Adams looked surprised for a moment before recovering her 'doctor on duty' straight face.
Naturally there were other Cardassians on the station - civilians like Y'Inchu and Natrina and Chelsea wasn't incapable of dealing medically with their physiology, nor worried by them personally, but none of them had ever needed to be dealt with from a politically correct official 'Starfleet Officer on Duty' stand point.
~Oh crap!~ was Chelsea's first thought. ~How does one officially address a Cardassian Dignitary without giving offence and starting a Sector war?~
"Welcome to Sickbay, Ambassador. I'm Lieutenant Commander Chelsea Adams, how can I help you?" was all she could think of. She hoped it was appropriate and gave him the same pleasant smile she would have offered any other new visitor, working on the mistaken supposition that underneath their reputation the Cardassians were probably pretty much like Rh'vaurek and Isha. She decided to try to deal with this exactly as she would deal with the Romulans.
~Keep an open mind and be civil. Don't forget they like formality but be yourself too, that was what Isha liked about you.~ she instructed herself, holding out her hand to shake his.
He looked down at her hand with a small amount of reluctancy. He then took it and shook it vigorously. "I am Vi'kar Gul getal, and you shall address me so. I am here for my medical checkup. Nothing more, nothing less. Do I make myself transparently clear Commander?"
"Indeed you do, Vi'kar Gul getal!" Chelsea vibrated from the force of the handshake and tried not to let her teeth chatter together audibly. "Allow me to allocate you a private room for your check up, right this way, Vi'kar Gul Getal" she was careful to copy the exact intonations of how to pronounce his name and designation and stepped back respectfully to allow him to pass before her into the side cubicle.
As he passed her and entered the room, Chelsea indicated to Sally by a silent flick of her head that she should accompany them inside.
"Vi'kar Gul Getal, may I introduce Sally, my most senior nurse. Would you like her to assist me with your check up, in order to facilitate the minutiae quickly? If you have time, I would be happy to send for the Chief Medical Officer to assist so that you have the two most senior officers? Or perhaps you may prefer that I handle this alone?" Chelsea inquired, offering all the options available.
"I'm a Cardassian, not a medical officer. I don't know anything I have to do besides sit here and be poked and prodded." Tharek then switched his gaze sharply between the two. "Well?" He asked with a slight hint of urgency in his voice. "Get on with it!"
Chelsea nodded to Sally and took out a med-scanner from her kit. Sally moved to the control panel and began to set it for Cardassian physiology read outs.
Without further ado the medical team worked their way through all the routine tests and investigations. Normally, Chelsea would have asked most patients to lie down but the Ambassador's rigid back and stiff stance told her to work with it as he was.
Finishing with the scanner and adding the information to that which Sally had collected from the static equipment, Chelsea moved to the panel and produced a summary on a padd.
"Well?" Tharek eagerly said.
Chelsea had a puzzled look on her face which was forming into a frown. What was she going to do now? A decision had to be made quickly but fortunately, decisions are what doctors do best in a professional capacity. It was only the personal ones she wasn't good at.
"Vi'kar Gul getal, you are in good health, although i am obligated to ask if you have been in contact with any infectious diseases or exposed to any hazardous chemicals, gases or minerals lately?" she finished the medical first.
"Not that I'm aware of." He said crossing his arms.
"Then I am pleased to hand over this padd certifying your health check is all in order. However, if I may make a comment, Vi'kar Gul getal?"
"I suppose so." He said with a sigh. He wanted to get out of sickbay as soon as possibly.
Chelsea beckoned Sally to leave which she did, closing the door behind her. The doctor then picked up the med-scanner again and hovered it over his external skeletal bones at the rear of his neck where it rose into a small ridge. The scanner bleeped and a grey blur appeared as a shadow on the screen of the panel behind the bed.
"I don't think *that* is part of your natural physiology, Vi'kal Gul getal. I feel inclined to think it's metplasitine shell and electronic activity indicates that it's an added endorsement to your natural functions which may or may not be something you know about and or wish to be symbiotic with." she commented, waving her finger at the image to show him what she had found.
"I might know what it is. Tell me what that bleeping machine thinks it is, and I shall clarify." He dimmed his eyes to an almost pitch black. A black that pierced the soul.
"The machine does not recognise the material it is made of nor the design, but it does identify the sub-space signal it is beam back as a kind of homer or tag, however I would not presume to ask nor wonder whether it is something you choose to wear for your own reasons, Vi'kar Gul Getal, or if it has been planted upon your person." Chelsea replied carefully.
"It is a teleportation beacon, Ms. Adams. It was... Necessary, for my 'missions'." He then rubbed the back of his neck gently. "You will erase all trace of the beacon and if you speak of it outside this cubicle I will personally see that you speak of nothing, ever again. Do i make myself immaculately clear!"
"It is disrespectful of you to threaten me, Vi'kar Gul Getal. As a professional doctor I am bound by my Hippocratic Oath and being a Starfleet Officer I am equally obligated to adhere to the strictest code of patient confidentiality over even the slightest matter that might have come up" Chelsea replied tightly, erasing the scan details and classifying the medical file with the usual tightness applied to any and all patients' requests of this type.
"Starfleet's highest ranking officers have no codes that would get them into a medical record that has no patient-authorised access, Ambassador, so I think we're done here."
Chelsea pulled herself up to her full height, reverting to addressing him as 'Ambassador' now that he had crossed the line, as a reminder that she had *chosen* to pander to his behaviour earlier but could have been more demanding of her own rights, had she so wished.
Tharek stood up to his full height also, which went considerably taller than Chelsea. "I threaten who I like. I am the highest ranking Cardassian official in this sector of space, and you will show me respect." He then grabbed her wrist to stop her from going out of earshot. He went closer to her ear and whispered quietly. "Remember your place in my presence Bajoran."
Chelsea had been raised on Earth or in Starfleet for as long as she could remember. Apart from her year working in the hospital at Ilvia, she had not lived on Bajor as a child nor had been exposed to Cardassian/Bajoran racial tension so she had not seen this situation coming.
Trying to wrench her wrist free, she found him too strong to shake off so rather unwisely but in the heat of the moment, full of adrenalin, she kicked his shin instead.
"Unhand me or I'll send for Security!" she demanded, tugging and twisting her wrist within his powerful grip which was hurting her now.
"Pure Bajoran. Always afraid to fight their own battles. I suppose you'll probably get Rh'vaurek involved? Go ahead. I'm sure that he'll find someone to blame... Perhaps the chief medical officer?" He grinned and released her hand. "Oh yes Ms. Adams. I know all about certain troubles the three of you are sharing. Do you want to risk both of them getting hurt!?"
Released, Chelsea straightened her tunic in what had become known as 'the Picard manoeuvre', the action restoring her to a slightly-less dishevelled mode mentally as well as in appearance.
With disdain and a look of someone with a bad taste in their mouth Chelsea looked the sinister Ambassador up and down. "That's odd Ambassador " she replied in a dark tone, imitated from one Rh'vaurek had unintentionally taught her.
"I did not judge you to be a foolish man, although clearly, anyone who would threaten to *hurt* an eirie'Khrein of the Tal Sh'iar cannot be in full control of his senses. It is clear you weren't paying attention in Universal Elementary History Class, since you neither acknowledge the Romulans' ability to take care of themselves nor that Bajorans continued to fight on valiantly and ultimately successfully against tyranny and ignorance, even as the under-dogs."
"Now, aside from all that, I have to remind you that you are a *guest* of the Federation on this Starbase and you have just assaulted one and threatened *two* Starfleet Officers, so I do believe you were leaving?" her eyes flashed defiance despite the physical risk of being alone with the much larger, menacing bully in front of her.
"My dear Commander, I do not wish to hurt Raedheol. He doe's that very well himself." He repositioned himself to make him look even more menacing... Not that it was difficult.
"I have no intention of hurting an eirie'Khrein of the Tal Sh'iar. But defiance toward a Vi'kar gul of the Obsidian Order? Thats just plain stupid." He lent closer to Chelsea's face. "I will leave, and forget everything that happened here today. On the grounds that you release my medical information to no one but me. Is that acceptable Lieutenant Commander?"
"I have already explained that your medical information is not and will never be available to anyone without your express permission for its release, Ambassador. Your Obsidian Order has no power here but your rights as a patient have. You are free to leave without fear of your private information being revealed and I am free to defy you in any *other* was I see fit, as long as I don't violate my medical duty." She responded coldly.
"No Commander. I want you to delete every single piece of medical data you have acquired from me. I want no record of this conversation. I want to remain as I was when I entered, and I hope you want the same."
"Very well" Chelsea complied with erasure of the data as was her duty as a doctor when so requested by her patient. "There you go. Goodbye Vi'kal Gul Getal. It was nice never to have met you!" She opened the door and left him to leave Sickbay of his own volition.
"It was... interesting meeting you. I will be seeing a lot more of you... Bajoran." Tharek scowled at her back. Hoping she wouldn't hear, but he made for the door to sickbay quickly just in case he did. Last thing he needed was Gabriel and his lacky's breathing down his neck...
OFF:
A jp between:
Vi'kar Gul Tharek Getal
Cardassian Ambassador
and
Lt. Cmdr. Chelsea Adams
ACMO - DS5
by Cardassian Vi'kar Gul Tharek Getal & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
| Title | Change of face | |
| Mission | Time is Fleeting | |
| Author(s) | Cardassian Vi'kar Gul Tharek Getal & Commander Chelsea Dunham | |
| Posted | Tue Sep 08, 2009 @ 9:44pm | |
| Location | Sickbay | |
| Timeline | SD13 - 08:30 hrs |
Chelsea was doing her rounds with something of an uncharacteristically absent air. Usually, she would have been focussed. She loved her job and always gave it 150% but today there was still too much on her mind.
That was until something very unusual happened. A Cardassian Ambassador walked up to her. Startled out of her far away thoughts, Doctor Adams looked surprised for a moment before recovering her 'doctor on duty' straight face.
Naturally there were other Cardassians on the station - civilians like Y'Inchu and Natrina and Chelsea wasn't incapable of dealing medically with their physiology, nor worried by them personally, but none of them had ever needed to be dealt with from a politically correct official 'Starfleet Officer on Duty' stand point.
~Oh crap!~ was Chelsea's first thought. ~How does one officially address a Cardassian Dignitary without giving offence and starting a Sector war?~
"Welcome to Sickbay, Ambassador. I'm Lieutenant Commander Chelsea Adams, how can I help you?" was all she could think of. She hoped it was appropriate and gave him the same pleasant smile she would have offered any other new visitor, working on the mistaken supposition that underneath their reputation the Cardassians were probably pretty much like Rh'vaurek and Isha. She decided to try to deal with this exactly as she would deal with the Romulans.
~Keep an open mind and be civil. Don't forget they like formality but be yourself too, that was what Isha liked about you.~ she instructed herself, holding out her hand to shake his.
He looked down at her hand with a small amount of reluctancy. He then took it and shook it vigorously. "I am Vi'kar Gul getal, and you shall address me so. I am here for my medical checkup. Nothing more, nothing less. Do I make myself transparently clear Commander?"
"Indeed you do, Vi'kar Gul getal!" Chelsea vibrated from the force of the handshake and tried not to let her teeth chatter together audibly. "Allow me to allocate you a private room for your check up, right this way, Vi'kar Gul Getal" she was careful to copy the exact intonations of how to pronounce his name and designation and stepped back respectfully to allow him to pass before her into the side cubicle.
As he passed her and entered the room, Chelsea indicated to Sally by a silent flick of her head that she should accompany them inside.
"Vi'kar Gul Getal, may I introduce Sally, my most senior nurse. Would you like her to assist me with your check up, in order to facilitate the minutiae quickly? If you have time, I would be happy to send for the Chief Medical Officer to assist so that you have the two most senior officers? Or perhaps you may prefer that I handle this alone?" Chelsea inquired, offering all the options available.
"I'm a Cardassian, not a medical officer. I don't know anything I have to do besides sit here and be poked and prodded." Tharek then switched his gaze sharply between the two. "Well?" He asked with a slight hint of urgency in his voice. "Get on with it!"
Chelsea nodded to Sally and took out a med-scanner from her kit. Sally moved to the control panel and began to set it for Cardassian physiology read outs.
Without further ado the medical team worked their way through all the routine tests and investigations. Normally, Chelsea would have asked most patients to lie down but the Ambassador's rigid back and stiff stance told her to work with it as he was.
Finishing with the scanner and adding the information to that which Sally had collected from the static equipment, Chelsea moved to the panel and produced a summary on a padd.
"Well?" Tharek eagerly said.
Chelsea had a puzzled look on her face which was forming into a frown. What was she going to do now? A decision had to be made quickly but fortunately, decisions are what doctors do best in a professional capacity. It was only the personal ones she wasn't good at.
"Vi'kar Gul getal, you are in good health, although i am obligated to ask if you have been in contact with any infectious diseases or exposed to any hazardous chemicals, gases or minerals lately?" she finished the medical first.
"Not that I'm aware of." He said crossing his arms.
"Then I am pleased to hand over this padd certifying your health check is all in order. However, if I may make a comment, Vi'kar Gul getal?"
"I suppose so." He said with a sigh. He wanted to get out of sickbay as soon as possibly.
Chelsea beckoned Sally to leave which she did, closing the door behind her. The doctor then picked up the med-scanner again and hovered it over his external skeletal bones at the rear of his neck where it rose into a small ridge. The scanner bleeped and a grey blur appeared as a shadow on the screen of the panel behind the bed.
"I don't think *that* is part of your natural physiology, Vi'kal Gul getal. I feel inclined to think it's metplasitine shell and electronic activity indicates that it's an added endorsement to your natural functions which may or may not be something you know about and or wish to be symbiotic with." she commented, waving her finger at the image to show him what she had found.
"I might know what it is. Tell me what that bleeping machine thinks it is, and I shall clarify." He dimmed his eyes to an almost pitch black. A black that pierced the soul.
"The machine does not recognise the material it is made of nor the design, but it does identify the sub-space signal it is beam back as a kind of homer or tag, however I would not presume to ask nor wonder whether it is something you choose to wear for your own reasons, Vi'kar Gul Getal, or if it has been planted upon your person." Chelsea replied carefully.
"It is a teleportation beacon, Ms. Adams. It was... Necessary, for my 'missions'." He then rubbed the back of his neck gently. "You will erase all trace of the beacon and if you speak of it outside this cubicle I will personally see that you speak of nothing, ever again. Do i make myself immaculately clear!"
"It is disrespectful of you to threaten me, Vi'kar Gul Getal. As a professional doctor I am bound by my Hippocratic Oath and being a Starfleet Officer I am equally obligated to adhere to the strictest code of patient confidentiality over even the slightest matter that might have come up" Chelsea replied tightly, erasing the scan details and classifying the medical file with the usual tightness applied to any and all patients' requests of this type.
"Starfleet's highest ranking officers have no codes that would get them into a medical record that has no patient-authorised access, Ambassador, so I think we're done here."
Chelsea pulled herself up to her full height, reverting to addressing him as 'Ambassador' now that he had crossed the line, as a reminder that she had *chosen* to pander to his behaviour earlier but could have been more demanding of her own rights, had she so wished.
Tharek stood up to his full height also, which went considerably taller than Chelsea. "I threaten who I like. I am the highest ranking Cardassian official in this sector of space, and you will show me respect." He then grabbed her wrist to stop her from going out of earshot. He went closer to her ear and whispered quietly. "Remember your place in my presence Bajoran."
Chelsea had been raised on Earth or in Starfleet for as long as she could remember. Apart from her year working in the hospital at Ilvia, she had not lived on Bajor as a child nor had been exposed to Cardassian/Bajoran racial tension so she had not seen this situation coming.
Trying to wrench her wrist free, she found him too strong to shake off so rather unwisely but in the heat of the moment, full of adrenalin, she kicked his shin instead.
"Unhand me or I'll send for Security!" she demanded, tugging and twisting her wrist within his powerful grip which was hurting her now.
"Pure Bajoran. Always afraid to fight their own battles. I suppose you'll probably get Rh'vaurek involved? Go ahead. I'm sure that he'll find someone to blame... Perhaps the chief medical officer?" He grinned and released her hand. "Oh yes Ms. Adams. I know all about certain troubles the three of you are sharing. Do you want to risk both of them getting hurt!?"
Released, Chelsea straightened her tunic in what had become known as 'the Picard manoeuvre', the action restoring her to a slightly-less dishevelled mode mentally as well as in appearance.
With disdain and a look of someone with a bad taste in their mouth Chelsea looked the sinister Ambassador up and down. "That's odd Ambassador " she replied in a dark tone, imitated from one Rh'vaurek had unintentionally taught her.
"I did not judge you to be a foolish man, although clearly, anyone who would threaten to *hurt* an eirie'Khrein of the Tal Sh'iar cannot be in full control of his senses. It is clear you weren't paying attention in Universal Elementary History Class, since you neither acknowledge the Romulans' ability to take care of themselves nor that Bajorans continued to fight on valiantly and ultimately successfully against tyranny and ignorance, even as the under-dogs."
"Now, aside from all that, I have to remind you that you are a *guest* of the Federation on this Starbase and you have just assaulted one and threatened *two* Starfleet Officers, so I do believe you were leaving?" her eyes flashed defiance despite the physical risk of being alone with the much larger, menacing bully in front of her.
"My dear Commander, I do not wish to hurt Raedheol. He doe's that very well himself." He repositioned himself to make him look even more menacing... Not that it was difficult.
"I have no intention of hurting an eirie'Khrein of the Tal Sh'iar. But defiance toward a Vi'kar gul of the Obsidian Order? Thats just plain stupid." He lent closer to Chelsea's face. "I will leave, and forget everything that happened here today. On the grounds that you release my medical information to no one but me. Is that acceptable Lieutenant Commander?"
"I have already explained that your medical information is not and will never be available to anyone without your express permission for its release, Ambassador. Your Obsidian Order has no power here but your rights as a patient have. You are free to leave without fear of your private information being revealed and I am free to defy you in any *other* was I see fit, as long as I don't violate my medical duty." She responded coldly.
"No Commander. I want you to delete every single piece of medical data you have acquired from me. I want no record of this conversation. I want to remain as I was when I entered, and I hope you want the same."
"Very well" Chelsea complied with erasure of the data as was her duty as a doctor when so requested by her patient. "There you go. Goodbye Vi'kal Gul Getal. It was nice never to have met you!" She opened the door and left him to leave Sickbay of his own volition.
"It was... interesting meeting you. I will be seeing a lot more of you... Bajoran." Tharek scowled at her back. Hoping she wouldn't hear, but he made for the door to sickbay quickly just in case he did. Last thing he needed was Gabriel and his lacky's breathing down his neck...
OFF:
A jp between:
Vi'kar Gul Tharek Getal
Cardassian Ambassador
and
Lt. Cmdr. Chelsea Adams
ACMO - DS5