Medical In-Processing

Posted on Tue 26th May, 2026 @ 11:07am by Lieutenant JG Pifanyi Itzyana & Lieutenant Commander Lanis Dhuro MD

3,240 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: [MAIN] Learning to Fly
Location: Sick Bay
Timeline: Current

Pifanyi ventured to Sick Bay. Though she had not yet been added to the duty roster, she was in uniform, sans the footwear. It was within regulation for Hermat to go barefoot while on duty. She kept her claws retracted though as there was little need for them. Though the corridors were carpetted, she still felt that wearing footwear too often would soften her feet and prevent her from performing adequately when the need arose.

She extended the claws of her hands a time or two and retracted them just for the exercise of doing so, before bring up her PADD and swiping at it, bringing up her in-processing worksheet, complete with the stops she had made already and the signature she had already collected. Next on the list was Medical, her place of employment. She would feel at home there but also felt that was not going to be her permanent duty assignment.

Pifany's orders did not specify SB109 Medical as her duty station, just that she needed to report to 109. She could not help but to entertain the idea that something secret was going on. Seeing that entertainment was something she never really partook in nor embraced much in her past, she set the thought aside and stepped on into Sick Bay.

She went to the office of "Doctor Lanis Dhuro" she read the name aloud. With that already committed to memory, she pressed the chime on the door hoping he would be inside and could process the Medical portion of her in-processing.

Lanis sat at his desk, reviewing the latest M&M statistics, when he heard the chime. He glanced at his door. "Come in," he called out. He blinked in startlement a moment later at the woman who stood in his doorway. She was as short as an Ocampa, slender and quite physically fit. Black hair was brushed back from a face he would have described as handsome and intense more than beautiful. She was not strictly bipedal, he saw to his surprise, judging by her pelvis shape and the length of her arms. She was also bare-footed, but given the rather impressive claws on her feet, Lanis suspected footwear might be a bad idea.

What was her species? He didn't recognize her, but as she wore a Sciences uniform, he suspected she must be new. "Yes, Lieutenant?" he said as he opened a new screen on his monitor and typed a request for the computer to identify her species. An instant later it supplied him with a name and basic physical data for her people: Hermat. He hadn't encountered any of them before.

"Good day, sir," Pifanyi said. She stood at attention in the doorway, noticed he was doing something behind his computer and just assumed he was closing a report. She stepped into his office halfway between the door and his desk. "Lieutenant Pifanyi Intzyana reporting for duty, sir!" Then she glanced down at the PADD in her hand. "Well, my orders do not indicate my assignment to Starbase 109. Just to report here for In-Processing. If you have a moment to help me complete the Medical portion of the in-processing. Sir," she finished.

"Yes, I can do that," Lanis said. "Have a seat, Lieutenant. Let me take a look at your orders." Deployment orders were usually precise, so he wondered why hers weren't clear. His eyebrows went up as she handed him her orders and he began reading them aloud.

"You are ordered to active duty for the period indicated unless sooner released or unless extended...MOB station is Starbase 109. Hm! That is indeed strange. There's no deployment station from your mobilization point." He glanced at her. "Sorry for restating what you've already told me. It's just very odd. I've never seen orders like that before." He read over the orders again until his eyes widened and his gaze suddenly stilled. "Accounting Code Sigma00." It was not a normal accounting code, but it was clearly designed to look like one to anyone casually skimming over the orders.

Lanis pursed his lips together for a moment and then looked back at Pifanyi. "I think I know where you've been assigned, but I'm not at liberty to tell you, save that it's a classified assignment. You'll likely have to talk to Captain Francis or the XO to get your full deployment orders and an explanation of the assignment. Given that, let's go ahead with your in-processing, Lieutenant."

"Classified," she repeated softly. Pifanyi found herself intrigued by this. But she would have to dwell on that later. "Of course, sir."

Pifanyi knew well the medical section of in-processing; a quick and full body scan with a biobed, going over her list of medications if she had any, and anything anomalous when all that was compared to her medical profile as it was listed in Starfleet Medical Command. She did not see that taking too long.

Lanis led Pifanyi to a biobed and had her lie down upon it while he called up her electronic medical record. The biobed hummed softly as it scanned her, and Lanis looked over her records. "Your immunizations are all current. Dental class 1. It's been a while since I studied Hermats. I take it your people are obligate carnivores, Lieutenant?" Lanis asked.

"Yes, sir. We are." Pifanyi thought about that time on Hermav a few years ago when she was being chased by other children. That was her first taste of Hermat blood. The sensation was, surprisingly, addicting. "Though we do have vegetables from time to time. Fruits too. Our teeth though," she bared her teeth at him to exhibit what she was talking about. Her teeth were very sharp and very canine-like all. "Our teeth...well we evolved these for piercing and tearing." She looked back up at the ceiling as the biobed scanning wand continued doing its thing. "The Gluflel," she started then stopped as though to correct herself, "the Hermat are natural predators. All of us." She said that last bit in such a way as to lead almost anyone to believe that she rather disliked the fact.

Lanis nodded as Pifanyi showed him her teeth. "That's why I asked." He looked at the scan results. "How are you feeling overall? You're slightly underweight."

"Underweight?" she asked immediately. "Mada always said I eat...how is it the humans like to say it...like a horse. 4 meals a day and I snack almost all the time." She shrugged. "In fact I was going to go to the replimat after finishing here. Other than that, I feel fine. No trouble sleeping. Three hours of that and I am ready for another day." She finished then looked at Dhuro. "Why do you ask...sir?"

"I'm seeing some overactive cells on your thyroid, a small nodule about 5mm in diameter. Your scan says it's benign, but your TSH levels are high. The nodule needs to come out," Lanis told her. "I can schedule you for a transporter-assisted glandular lock and scan. It shouldn't take long at all to beam the nodule out."

Pifanyi thought a brief second. It had been a while since her last full scan. "Let's do it," she said. "I would ask for this to be removed as soon as possible. And...how long do you think this nodule has been there, sir?"

"Less than a standard year," Lanis said. "It doesn't show on your previous full scan." He read through Pifanyi's current scan results. "I notice you have a hormone called cycobaramine. It's rather low. Can you tell me what it does?"

Pifanyi audibly grumbled. "Cycobaramine is something that gets into our blood in dire situations. It is akin to, but far more potent than, adrenaline. My scan will show a hindbrain...behind my...brain and about the size of a walnut. The hindbrain is essentially our base instincts and gets activated when there is a sudden increase of cycobaramine." She rolled her eyes. "When activated, we became feral, with only survival as our instinct." She clearly didn't want to say it, but, "Some call it 'going cyco.' You will, of course, see trace amounts of baramorzone in my system. That is a medication to help keep cycobaramine down when we know situations will get tense."

She rather disliked that trait about her own people, feral and uncivilized, and felt herself tense up a little just talking about it, maybe enough for the doctor to see a single percentage point increase of cycobaramine in the readouts.

Lanis nodded. "I saw the baramorzone in your list of medications. Do you need any refills of that or any other medication?"

"I do not, sir," she said. "I always keep a hypospray with me with plenty of doses," though she managed to sneak a second hypospray out of medical before leaving Earth. "One hypospray can hold 2 dozen doses and I generally take half-doses if I think a situation may arise." She thought briefly and took mental stock. "I still have 14...15 doses left."

"So you take them PRN?* How long will 14 or 15 doses typically last you?" Lanis asked Pifanyi.

"I take a half dose or so when going on an Away Mission or if I am dealing with disruptive patients. So...as needed. I had 3 Away Missions during POSSE while at the Academy. Those doses will last me a few months I am sure. Alternatively, I frequent the holodeck about once a week. It is in the SF Regs that Hermat can do this without holodeck credit expenditures and can bump the lowest rank's scheduled holodeck time only if necessary. But there is a preprogrammed HEC...Hermat Expenditure of Cycobaramine...in the holodeck for us to..." she sounded like she did not want to admit to it, but, "...go feral. Once HEC is enabled, safety protocols include locking the holodeck doors to anyone trying to get in...or the Hermat within trying to get out...until our HB coefficient is back to normal parameters or there is a Command Override." She looked at the doctor. "If we do not run a HEC every 2 weeks at the very least then..." She let Dhuro deduce the consequences.

"So you have plenty for your current needs," Lanis concluded to which Pifanyi nodded. "If you don't mind my asking, what's POSSE?"

"That is the new program the Academy is putting into practice. Phasers On Stun Student Exercise...POSSE. As students, we take command of a retired starship, a student captain is assigned, student XO, medical chief...that was me. There is a full student crew. Instructors and ranking personnel are also on board but as observers. We set out on a 3-month trek following Earth's orbit around the sun and back to Earth. On the way, we encounter staged anomalies, suffer engineering mishaps, viral outbreaks, etc. We even get attacked by other ships. Klingon, Xindi, the Romulans had fun," she held up her hands to create air quotes, "'killing' us and destroying our ship. That was our Kobayashi Maru. All the while, our phasers are on stun, ship phaser banks are severely underpowered and torpedoes break apart on impact without an explosion. POSSE is not really a rest, but a simulation." She finished that speech as the biobed was finishing its scan.

"That would have been a fascinating exercise to go through, and I like that it involves all the students, not just the ones on the command track," Lanis said. "How did you like it?"

Pifanyi shrugged and gave an indecisive hum as an answer. "Our ship was an old Constitution Class; fitted for replicators and biobeds, but no holodeck. Taken that there was a Hermat on board, the Academy had to supply us with a mobile holodeck set up in the Cargo Bay so that I could indulge in my..." again she paused and hesitated to say, "...feral nature...once a week. During that...state...that is the only time my adherence to the Hippocratic Oath does not apply. 'First do no harm.' Well, I am in survival mode and not really in control of myself...so..." she shrugged again. "And the other students did not like it that there was a holodeck set aside for me to use and they could not. Again, I could only use it once a week for that one purpose, but they did not see it that way. Not even the Student Captain, though she abided by the rules and regulations regardless."

"You did not 'indulge' in anything. You attended to a medical and biological necessity," Lanis said. "It isn't anything to be ashamed of. Even Vulcans go through something similar, though far less often than you need to. You needed holodeck access as a medical accommodation. I wish your classmates had been mature enough or experienced enough to see it that way; that made an already difficult situation even worse for you. I don't think any less of you for having such a need. You're all right, Lieutenant. If you're being assigned to where I think you are, the people there are reasonable and should be able to work with you."

The biobed scanning wand started working its way back to the head and started its power-down process. With that much done, Pifanyi sat up and turned to let her legs dangle off the bed. "I'm sure you are right," she said with little sound of confidence. "That was the Academy and this is real Starfleet. Many of the students did not like it that I was 'hyper-accelerated', getting through the Academy in only 1 year and getting my rank where they spend 3 or 4 years for the same."

"It annoyed them that you had to do all that extra work?" Lanis shook his head. "Cadets. I entered Starfleet Medical just after the Bajoran Occupation ended, in a special admission program for Bajorans. I was 45 years old at the time--no doubt ancient to you," he said with an amused look. "A couple of my classmates called me 'Grandpa.' But what I lacked in youth I made up for in experience. The studying, though, was difficult, because I had to learn Federation Standard and medical terminology in Standard, and all the different anatomies. I can't imagine how you got through four years of study in one. When I was a cadet, I used to fall into bed at night, mentally exhausted."

"Eidetic memory," Pifanyi said. "We Hermat all have it...naturally. Aside from that, a 'mentally exhausted' Hermat will need no more than 4 hours of sleep and we are ready to go again, though we average only 3 hours of sleep. Prior to adulthood, a growing Hermat only requires 1 hour. My waking hours at the Academy...if I was not eating...I was in class." She let that sink in some and watched as he did the mental calculations. Someone with an eidetic memory, pouring over information for 18 hours, or so, a day. In short, 18 hours of hearing information after information that the student will never forget after hearing only once. They reconnected eyes, "I sat in on one medical operation and quickly acquired my MD."

But Pifanyi did not say any of that as though boasting or even proud of herself. She remained indifferent to it all; sounded as though she wished none of it were true.

"You 'sat in on' one procedure?" Lanis gave Pifanyi a very worried look. "Are you going into general medicine or surgery as your profession?"

Again she sounded indifferent, but, "I can do both," she said. "I was told I was going to be the head of Sick Bay, but I am only an LT. And my orders..." she knew the doctor saw her orders; a secret posting. "You can bet, I am ready to get to where I need to be and get to work."

Lanis shook his head. "No one becomes a chief medical officer fresh out of the Academy, no matter how good they are at the academics," he said. "A chief medical officer is someone with extensive administrative experience, who knows how to manage people, budgets, and materiel, as well as a medical caseload. You only acquire that kind of knowledge by spending time learning how to do it. That sort of thing cannot just be memorized.

"If you're going where I think you're going, you will likely be the sole medical officer there, with assistance from an EMH. Medicine likely won't be your only job function. When you are needed to perform as a medical officer, the need is likely to be immediate and critical. If you've only ever observed one surgery, you are woefully unprepared. That means you've observed one surgery on one species. You're supposed to have undergone an eight-week surgical rotation, at least, before graduating. You should have actively participated in 80-120 procedures on a variety of species--and I mean live patients, not in simulation. Simulation is in addition to that. There's a reason why it takes six years to train a surgeon. It's the only way you can begin to get the amount of practice and exposure to different procedures that you need--because every patient is different."

He tapped his PADD to look through her service record, and the alarmed look on his face relaxed a bit. "I see you have ER experience; that's good. I'm guessing they considered that to be your residency. All right, I think I'm beginning to understand. What did you do in the ER, Lieutenant? Tell me about that, please."

Pifanyi glanced at his PADD without seeing the screen, then back to him. "That is just what is in my service record. Yes, I did work the ER at Starfleet Medical. I also transported up to work the ER aboard Space Dock. I also worked ER at the University of San Francisco School of Medicine. Also Zuckerberg San Francisco General, and the Cochrane Interstellar Hospital...to improve my skills with non-Terran patients."

That laundry list of appointments happened only when they started hearing about a medical personnel who could potentially work 21-hour shifts. Certainly someone with that ability came in high demand...and from multiple places.

"There were times when I came off-shift from one place and Site-to-Site transported to another to go on-shift. All in all," she shrugged, doing a mental tally, "I've stopped brain bleeds, set and repaired compound fractures, limb reattachments, myocardial contusions, reversed full septicemia, repaired abdominal aortic aneurysms, many hernias, and delivered 2 babies. And I worked on members of just about every race represented in the Federation, to include some who are not Federation members." She felt along her leg at the hypospray in her pocket. "The baramorzone was utilized a lot during those times."

"Then it sounds like you've had more than sufficient experience," Lanis said. "I frankly think they were working you too hard, but I'll also say that the first year of residency is usually exhausting." He gave Pifanyi a wry look. "I only survived my first year of it by discovering raktajino."

He initialed several places on his PADD and then added his signature at the bottom. "You are medically cleared, Lieutenant. Welcome to Starbase 109, and I wish you the best of success in your posting. It's been a pleasure meeting you."

Pifani hopped down from the biobed. "Thank you, sir. And you. I do hope we get to work together. I like to think there is always more to learn and more who we can learn from."

 

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