Visit [Before arrival at Hayes]

Posted on Tuesday 19 July 2016 @ 13:08 by Commander Caroline Miller & Lieutenant Commander David Tan

Mission: Old, New Ship
Location: Deck 10 : Operations Center
Timeline: Current
1377 words - 2.8 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Caroline had heard that the new chief operations officer was on board so had decided to pay a visit. She wondered if he might be amenable to a favour. Pressing the chime of his office door she waited for admittance.

There was still time before his family arrived on the USS Galapagos, so he decided to make his first visit to his Department, the Operations Center was situated on Deck Ten. His Deputy, Lieutenant jg Lysia Teng, was sat at his desk and stood as he entered. She was giving him a brief rundown of the Department and his Staff when the door chime activated.

"Come." he said, and stood as a woman entered.

"I'll leave you to it." Lysia said, acknowledging the newcomer before leaving the office. David turned his attention to the woman.

"David Tan .... What can I do for you Lieutenant ?" he asked, motioning to the seat opposite.

"Doctor actually," Caroline smiled taking the seat offered. "Caroline Miller. Don't worry though, I'm not hijacking you for your medical chief."

"Doctor Miller .... Good to meet you, you're the first of the Senior Staff I have had the opportunity to meet thus far, with the exception of Commander Barstow that is. Sooo ... If you're not here to prod and probe, to what do I owe the visit, unless you are doing the rounds." he said, a wry grin forming while he wondered how long it would be before the Doctor actually did require him to return the compliment and visit her office 'officially' ... He got up and walked to the replicator, requesting Kopi Luwak, "I had to program this in from a program I keep with me, it's the only coffee I'll drink, can I get you anything ?" he asked.

"I'm a bit of a coffee fiend. Could I try some of that?" Caroline asked as the delectable smell hit her senses.

"Of course, though I'm not sure you would appreciate where it originated." David said, requesting a second cup and giving a brief history of the beverage, "In the twentieth century it was made by combining virgin coffee beans, untouched, with part-digested coffee cherries eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet." he said, placing the cup before her and retaking his seat, "Now, you were about to ask me something ?" he said, sipping his own coffee and waiting.

"So I wondered if I could ask for some extra time with the EMH. Well one of them. To run it while its not an emergency with some rerouted power. To help with some research. I'm part of a group working on the Floxian issue," she told him. "This by the way is excellent. Perhaps you could let me have the programme?"

He knew that at present there were no issues, Stellar cartography was inactive at present, so he thought she was going to be OK.

"Floxian issue, I'm not familiar with that, something worth your attention though, so, any idea of how long you will requi ....." he began, then corrected himself before she replied, "No, of course you wouldn't know, it would depend on the data you are getting from your research et cetera .... I don't see why we can't assign one of the holograms over for your use, if you're going to be using one of the main labs adjacent to Sick-bay then we can have the holo-matrix transferred there for the duration." he was taking an isolinear chip from his desk and placing it in the desk console before tapping in instructions, grinning he retrieved the chip and handed it to the doctor:

"That's the coffee." he said.

"My thanks," Caroline said pocketing the insolinear chip. "It certainly is an unusual delicacy. "I lived through the outbreak of the Floxian virus. My last ship saw the initial strain. It seems to be fatal to telepaths. We thought we had found a treatment, then it mutated. Its mutated several times. So I am part of a group trying to irradiate it. So I just thought more hands ....." she said softly.

"You can have the EMH for as long as as you need it." David said, realising her concern for both the research and those suffering from the virus, "Living through the initial outbreak must have been traumatic, but the strain was in it's initial generation that I take it, so less fatal ? ... It must be difficult trying to keep up with the mutations, let alone get ahead significantly." he got up,cup in hand and took her almost empty cup from her, returning them both to the replicator, he wondered about the woman before him, he couldn't recall anything in her file regarding telepathic ability, but that didn't mean it wasn't there.

"Can I get you another ?" he asked.

"No thank you," Caroline said putting down her now empty cup.

"Mind if I ask .... Your interest in the Floxian virus, is it, something you want to help irradiate because of it's potential catastrophic effect on those contracting it, or something that you could possibly be affected by ?" he continued quickly before she replied, "Sorry for the interrogation, it wasn't meant to sound that way. If I'm overstepping a personal boundary here please fell free to say you would rather not answer, I won't be offended ..... And I won't ask for my coffee recipe back either." he finished, trying to lighten his query.

"Both. As a doctor, I want to eradicate any disease that inflicts pain on others. As a person, its personal. I have lost people to this disease. Good people," she told him. "And I was one of the first doctors to witness it."

"I see ..." David said, not realising she was so close to the research, nor that it was personal to her, "I've not come across it personally, but from what little you have told me so far, I'm not too sure I'd want to either. It must be frustrating not being in a Laboratory permanently, although the research and test results are available via sub-space, there's no substitute for having hands-on, I imagine. I'm assuming the EMH will be able to do a lot of the repetitive work on your behalf, freeing you up to try to move forward ?" he asked, interested in the fact that a Star Fleet Officer could devote time to such a worthy cause, despite serving as a full time Chief Medical Officer out in space for long duration's.

"That's the idea," Caroline smiled. "I thank you."

"No problem ..... Well, as I said, the EMH is your's for the duration of your research while we're out here, barring emergencies, obviously, but I'm sure you can program a sub-routine into the EMH to ensure all your work is automatically backed-up to a dedicated section of the Medical computers, though I suspect given the importance of your research you might be doing that already." he said, realising the Doctor would naturally have multiple copies of her work to cover any eventuality, "I tend to back-up work to a second computer as a fail-safe basically, you never know when something could happen, and I would hate to see your hard work lost." he said. Wondering vaguely if the Doctor had had an ulterior motive for her visit, or if it was as it seemed, purely social combined with a request for resource allocation ... To be honest, he wasn't sure .....

Caroline flinched ever so slightly as he started talking about backing work up. Then she caught herself. The paranoia that someone could get all the way out here to try get at their work was ludicrous. Yet they had even got the most solid Klingon she had ever met.

"That sounds the sensible thing," she nodded after a moment trying to talk her head out of the stupid notion that Tan could be one of them. Or was it stupid? Maybe she should be worried.

"I'll make sure I do that," she finished. Slapping a smile on she decided to get out of there ~just in case~. She stood up. "Thank you for your time Chief."

"Anytime Doctor." he said, watching her leave. His Deputy entered, handing him a PADD with the current Duty rota's ..........


OFF:

Lieutenant jg David Tan
Chief Operations Officer

Dr Caroline Miller
Chief Medical Officer