inside the lizard.

Posted on Wed Oct 18th, 2023 @ 4:55am by Lieutenant J'airesh Mora-Heath & Commander Sthilg

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Medbay
2899 words - 5.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Sthilg let out a sigh as he looked at his to do list. He understood why the task was there, but it's not like he didn't have a thousand other tasks to do.

Walking over to J'airesh office the lizard tapped on the door. " Hello there J'airesh. I have my medical health checkup due i don't sssuppossse you can fit me in?" He asked politely.

J'Air looked up from the PaDD she had been reading. She was a little surprised to be asked that question by the CMO, but then, on a few seconds reflection, it was 100% normal and appropriate so she the began to wonder fleetingly why she hadn't anticipated it.

"Of course, Sir" she replied immediately, the previous flashes of thought over before a pause could even happen. She stood straight up without hesitation. The Commander was a busy man... gorn.... and she didn't want to delay him unnecessarily.

"Is Cubicle 2 free?" she asked, feeling rather stupid asking that as he was probably as unaware of the answer as she was right now.

"It's just that it's the roomiest, being a corner site.....not that I'm making any size comments, Sir, I was just hoping to offer you more comfort by picking a cubicle that would offer..... well, more room..... " she sighed and looked up at the huge officer.

"Should I requisition a shovel, Sir, or just stop talking before I dig myself deeper into this metaphoric hole?" she decided to just come right out and acknowledge how awkwardly she was handling this.

She had met the CMO lots of times and worked alongside him even more. She thought a great deal of him and yet somehow she was convinced she was destined to say something wrong and upset him somehow. She was almost sure she was making it a self-perpetuating prophesy.

Sighing deeply, fiercely telling herself silently to pull it together, J'Air went straight into setting up the whole cubicle to offer the CMO his medical. Starting by tapping the LCARS with fast competent fingertips and causing a programmed series of tests and readings to line themselves up ready to begin.

Opening her arm towards the bio-bed, J'Air offered her boss to lie on it so she could start. She stood back respectfully as he came in and looked around.

The gorn snorted as he let out a hearty chuckle. " My dear I'm over two hundred years old. I'm not going to moan or get angry by you being worried about my sssize. " He said reassuringly as he gave her a reassuring smile as he moved to sit down on the biobed. " Though i mussst warn you i am a medical messss on the inside." He said as he sat down though his feet were over the bottom of the biobed edge.

"A mess, Sir?" J'air began, looking at first a little confused but then quickly realising that the old addage "Physician heal thyself" probably held true here.

"People always seem to think that a doctor should be the healthiest person around because of all they know about what *should* be done to keep that way but it's often my experience they are the opposite, their own health being the last thing that they worry about. Maybe it's the busman's holiday idea that if its something one does all the day and night for a job, then its the last thing they want to do in their *rest* time?"

" I have to worry about my family both real and the ssship. My medicine is coffee and my grandchildren's laugh. " the gorn said as the scan started up. He could tell by the look spreading on her face he was unlike any patient she'd have seen. " The armsss klingon cyberneticsss. Losssst the real one in dominion war courtesssy of a Cardassssssian integrator and hisss Vorta boss." He explained.

"Wow" she breathed trying to adjust not only to the basic differences in how he was put together naturally, but also the newer 'repairs' he'd had to take on over his long and clearly *very* eventful life.

"Did you accept my application for this job with the research I've been involved in with AI and cybernetics giving me an edge over other candidates?" she wondered aloud, making it a question that she was in two minds as to whether she wanted him to answer it or not and if she really wanted to know what he might say.

" It certainly helped. Your research is fassscinating and I'm sssure the ssship can ussse it. " The gorn added with a smile as he reached over and tapped his artificial arm. " It'sss klingon made. Sssame prostheticsss their elite red ssscar commandoesss have inssstalled. Sssoild asss a rock, but can morph into which ever tool it'sss ussser neededsss. Makesss my job a whole lot easier. "

"That's super tech!" J'air was impressed. "Maybe one day when you've got a few minutes free, you might let me take a look at that, if you don't mind?" she asked.

" Of course my dear." Sthilg replied calmly as the scan continued. " The hole above my left leg wasss where my sssecond and fourth testiclesss were. courtesy of an IED whilssst reading a ssslaver base when i was serving in the kdf. Ssstill have phantom pain sssometimesss."

"Well that was very RUDE of them!" she frowned as if offended on his behalf but smiled straight after, hoping to lighten the conversation by complaining about his attackers.

"I hope you gave them a proper full broadside, lasers and torpedos both, firstly for being Slavers, the creeps, and secondly to remind them not to mess with the future generations of Gorn Surgeons like you, who are quite rare in starfleet but as far as your reputation goes, also extraordinarily good at their jobs!" She proceeded through the standard tests as they chatted, recording quite a catalogue of not-so-standard results.

"You already seem to have plenty of scars and marks of former injuries, Sir, if I may say, you do appear to have been a very active over your time!" she added, hoping it wasn't disrespectful to mention the evidence of his many recoveries and the extent of his long life so far.

As someone doing his medical assessment, she couldn't possibly have missed these and hopefully by talking about this she could show him she had noted and observed the whole screening. The last thing she wanted was for him to think she'd skimmed it or skipped over important details, but she didn't know him well enough yet to be sure how personal he wanted her to be when she was discussing things directly referring to his own self.

"Believe me my dear the klingonsss may ssseem primitive, but their treatment of ssslaversss the whole galaxy could do with copying. " Sthilg responded his eyes moving slightly as he did. " Sssorry. I can tolerate a lot of things in the world, but ssslaversss aren't one of them. Not after what they did to my....." He said his real arm scrunching into a fist. " My Ssshassssssou."

Angling her head to one side in failure to fully understand, J'air asked "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't know what a Shassou is, but it sounds like you've been through more wounds than just what's shown on your body. My condolences for the pain you've had to endure" She spoke softly and with respectfully downcast eyes and tone. Even if she didn't know what exactly he had lost, or whom more likely, she could still tell that it was a matter of great pain and suffering to him, just from his expression and his body language.

" Ssshe was my first wife." Sthilg said his voice filling with sadness. " Sshe was a gentle sssole. No one deserves to go through what those ssslaver animalsss had done to her. I ssstill remember crushing the ssskull of the ssslaversss ssship'sss captain in a rage. Not that was anything close to what they deserved. " He told his tale his fist turning into a ball of rage as he did so. " I took Ssshasssssou away from that. Taught her to live again and ssshe gave me her heart. Then i killed her." The lizard said softly tears forming in his eyes.

Filling up, with tears forming in her own eyes as Sthilg told about his first wife and what terrible things had been done to her by Slavers, J'Airesh's emotions were jolted and she was startled by what he had said last.

"I'm sorry, I thought for a minute that you just said you killed her?" she stumbled with the words.

~Was it a mercy killing? ~ she wondered, unable to think of any other reason that he would do such a thing as kill someone at all, let alone someone he clearly loved and said was a 'gentle soul'.

~but he's a doctor, what about his Hippocratic Oath to 'do no harm'?

She was dangerously on the fence about euthanasia but she knew there were some situations under which she would want to ask for it for her own self, if she were facing one of the most dreadful ends she'd learned about or witnessed, so she had to have some empathy and understanding if someone had been put to that dreadful a choice in a critical situation with a loved one, wouldn't she?

J'Air thought all this out in a split second or two and didn't say any of what her mind was racing through as she waited for her boss and senior officer to go on with what he wanted to say.

" I did." The gorn said reaching for the holo crystal around his neck. Flicking it on the image of his first wife and their daughter who never lived appeared in the blue holo recorder. " All ssshe wanted wasss to hold our child in her armsss. We should never have tried the drugsss were beyond primitive. Orion and gorn DNA is still hard to combine, but then...... It wasss a difficult pregnancy and when it came....." the gorn explained before he swallowed hard. " I lossst both of them. Are Gedesss never breathed and Ssshassssou ssshe never woke up." he added the pain in his voice showing it still burned his soul.

"Oh, that is so sad, I am .... well Sorry doesn't seem big enough to hold such a double tragedy. How devastating for you, I wish you hadn't had to experience that. Your wife is so lovely.... she almost reached out to the holoimage but withdrew her hand before reaching it. Even if you weren't a orion, the light in Sthilg's wife's eyes was obvious and her features were softened in some way, at least to J'Airesh's eyes.

Perhaps it was the fact that she had been told that Shasou was a gentle soul had helped J'Air see that in the image, or maybe it was truly there, but either way, genuine tears at such a terrible thing, losing them both at once on a day that should have been the joyful birth of a beautiful new baby soul with the opening of a new life-chapter for her loving parents.

".... and you had to bear all that instead of starting a new life of a family of three? I don't know how you were brave enough to come through it sane. I think I would have been too grief-ridden to cope....." J'Air's previous tears refilled her eyes again and she did her best to try to hold them back out of respect, but the idea of the dear little baby girl, Gedes who never breathed and her heart-broken father, and ...... she choked back a sob and tried to cover it with a few more quick settings on the LCARS panel that flickered dutifully in response, reeling off yet another test result on the monitor behind the bio-bed.

" Part of me wondersss the sssame." Sthilg said. His artificial arm morphed into several strings which moved over to a draw handing J'airesha a tissue with it flexibility. " I was in a daze for nearly a year after wouldsss. Thankfully i had the klingon houssse i wasss working for to help me. Afterwouldsss i threw myself into my work. I became one of the galaxy leading hybridsation doctors to make sssure it wouldn't happen again to anyone elssse. It took me nearly a hundred and fifty yearsss and thisss beautiful girl to help me heal fully." He said tapping the side of the biobed indicating he was meaning the ship. " I'm sorry I've upssset you. You don't reach my age without picking up a lot of regretsss. " he added.

"Hybridisation?" she replied, her interest very peaked. "I was told you were an expert geneticist and it's something I'm so very keen to get to learn about. I hope you'll see your way to perhaps teaching me something of your research and results, if you wouldn't mind? I'd be a very dedicated pupil and I'd study very hard. But thank you for your kind concern, I was upset by the sadness you've had to endure but don't apologise. Sometimes life itself can be very cruel and it always makes me sad to find out about others' suffering, even if it's in the past as it will always have left scars and pain."

" One of the galaxiesss best my dear. " Sthilg said grinning slightly. " I'm always up for teaching othersss in any of the ssskillsss I've learned over the yearsss. I owe it to my wife and child to never let that knowledge die."

J'Air nodded in keen acknowledgement. "Yes, that's right" she said finalising the tests she had to do and commenting on how well he was keeping. "Obviously you have cybernetics in your right arm and left leg, both of which I am deeply curious to explore with a view to learning how they function, what they do well and what you don't find helpful about them, if I could have your permission to learn about those please?" she requested, almost as an aside to the Routine Medical itself. She decided against summarising her scans of his other more intimate injuries to his testicles as the scars and damage were clearly from a good while ago and not really relevant to today's examination.

"Also, I was of the opinion that Gorns would only live about 50yrs on average but you seem remarkably fit and healthy for someone who left that milestone well and truly behind you, if it's not rude of me to say so?" she commented as she began to print him off a data rod with his examination results on for his own keeping. She saved the main file to his Medical Records and raised the biobed to a sitting position so he could climb off when ready.

"I'm very happy to offer you a full endorsement of your fitness to continue working as long as you so desire. I could find no reason whatsoever to fault your physical prowess. Congratulations Sir." she concluded, passing him the data rod she had copied for him and standing back for him to rise.

Sthilg smiled as he stood up. " No, my dear it'sss not rude to sssay. I take great pride in my long life even though i don't know why the all mother blessssed me with sssuch long life. I will happily explain my cyberneticssss asss well sssome day over lunch." he added.

J'Airesh's face lit up. "Oh that sounds awesome Sir! Yes Please!!" She couldn't stop grinning. This was the whole reason she had applied for this particular ship and this particular CMO. She could barely contain her enthusiasm.

" Don't mention it my friend. " Sthilg said with a grin on his reptilian face.

"This is going to be such a COOL posting on this ship!" she breathed, excited and full of anticipation.

Overcome with these emotions she reached out and took his huge hand in hers and shook it, even though that wasn't at all necessary at this point in their interaction but she couldn't contain herself. "I'm SO happy to be working with you, Sir" she said, realising with some embarrassment that she'd grabbed his mechanical hand. Blushing she released him and stood back another step, wishing the floor would swallow her up. "Sorry Sir" she apologised and held the cubicle door back for him to leave.

" It'sss okay my dear. It'sss good to know thisss old doctor ssstill can impresses the new generation. " Sthilg said with a smile on his face.

J'Air blushed and returned his big smile with one of her own which she hoped matched up.

"I never doubted that Sir, and if I may say so, you're clearly lying about your age because your medical say's you're not a year past your prime!" she beamed. It was true, he was in remarkably good shape and could pass for a Gorn less than half his age.

"I understood it was unusual for Gorn people to make it past a quarter of your years but you're proving our science and so called knowledge> to be nonsense. You'll be impressing whippersnappers like me forever it would seem, Sir. Whatever you're doing, keep it up! Doctor's orders!" she beamed.

" I'll do my best doctor. " Sthilg replied with his own smile. " Now if you excuse me the organ replicator will be needing it'sss monthly check. I bessst get ssstarted. " He added as he turned to leave.

OFF