#12 The Everyday

Posted on Fri Aug 14th, 2020 @ 10:08pm by

Mission: Character Development
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: current/somewhere in between

ON:

Doctor Tore Bjorgo was seeing to his patients. Amandora was, after all, a Galaxy-class. That meant there was a constant civilian population aboard, unlike any other Starfleet vessel. Sure, other ships had a few children aboard, sons and daughters of crew, but it was not the norm. If not on a Galaxy class then crew and officers needed permission from the CO to breed, since space was limited. It was the same on a Galaxy, people letting the captain know. Again, due to space.

Currently, Tore was dealing with a very precocious eight year old, Human, who was quite brave and quite intelligent. The boy sat on a biobed, legs hanging over the side as he waited for Bjorgo to finish his tricorder bioscan. "Well, you have a cold, Jacob. There are some growing pains right now, which leads me to believe the cold symptoms are directly related but, you'll be fine. I have a few medications to induce and then you're free to go."

"How?"

Tore jacked his head back as he gave the boy a look of confusion. "How? How--what?"


"How will you give me the medications?"

"A hypo, of course," answered Tore.

The boy's eyes went wide and he shook his head. "Oh, no. I am not a pin cushion and last time the needles hurt."

"Needles?" Again, Bjorgo was confused. "MY hypos here on Amandora have no needles, lad. It's pneumatic, pressed through the skin with little or no pain. A slight stinging may be all you feel, if that."

"You're lying," accused the boy. "Every time I went to a doctor back on the colony, it was always needles and pain."

Tore looked to the boy's mother, who explained they had been on a backwater colony, newly established, so amenities were few and far between.

Frontier medicine, thought Bjorgo. He reached over and picked up a hypo with medication in it. He made to hand it to the boy.

"What's this?" Asked Jacob, the boy in question.

"That," explained Bjorgo. "Is a hypo. One of your meds is within. But, with your dislike for injections due to a bad experience I figured I would let you inject yourself so you can see there is no pain, or harm."

"Really?" Jacob's eyes lit up, excited by the prospect of doing his own meds which caused him to forget about his fears, momentarily.

"Really." Tore replied with a grin. "Press the tip anywhere, even through clothes, and tah-dah, you're medicated." Bjorgo stood up straight, motioning for the boy to go ahead. Jacob pulled his shorts up on his left leg, pressing the tip to flesh and hitting the thumb depressor. The hiss of the hypo made him jump a bit but he recovered quickly and smiled up at the Doctor.

"It didn't hurt."

"I would never lie about something like that," assured Bjorgo. "May I continue to inject the rest?" The boy gave a nod. "Thank you." Tore took up one at a time, injecting the lad, speaking as he did so. "Now, some of the medications may make you groggy so you may crash out for a nap. It will pass shortly. Others may affect appetite. Try to drink water and snack on healthy foods, even if you don't feel hungry, okay?"

"I will."

"Good man," said Tore, helping the lad down to the floor. He gave the mother a nod and grin, glad to see she had been alleviated of her worries. The two of them left with smiles on their faces as they talked.

OFF: