Personal Log: Malcolm Adeyemi

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

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In the vein of improving myself and keeping a liberal knowledge of my field I have been studying up on an old subject related to medicine, healthcare.

Apparently, back in the 20th and 21st centuries if a man got sick or hurt through no fault of his own he had to pay for the treatment to make himself better.

There was a giant mechanism in place to make sure the man paid everything he possibly could. Not only that, this same system also pretty much guaranteed that he'd never be healthy again. This monster of efficiency and greed was called healthcare.

The main reason for healthcare was to make money off of people's misfortunes. Anyone who worked for a living had to have healthcare. They even made it a law!

The shadowy leaders behind healthcare even forced its own workers, all of whom had undeniably dreary jobs, to buy into a company's insurance so that, they, too would be bogged down by healthcare. I am truly glad no one but me can read this; there are a lot of archaic terms and concepts I'm flinging about.

Insurance consists of a promise of monies paid out to a doctor or hospital if a person was hurt or sick. The cost of the treatment was so astronomical that no one could possibly afford it. The best way for a corporation to make money off of a man being sick or hurt was to get a worker to give up his or her pay to buy in to some insurance.

After being treated the patient was probably so loopy from the cockamamie medicine of the day that they were never quite right again. And even if they managed to slip through the cracks they were kept in line. If a man got decent treatment healthcare kept him pinned down for years with bills, follow up visits, referrals, expensive untested and in truth dangerous drugs.

You almost have to sit back and admire such a behemoth, as savage as it is. If a man wanted to make money he had better find a way to destroy his fellow man with healthcare.

Luckily we're more evolved these days.   

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

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We have finally returned from the away mission. It seemed like I had been clinging to that mountain-sized floating tablet with the brutal infinity of space trying to rip me off of it for centuries. But I am finally back on the Gettysburg.
 
How strange that after so short a time this ship is beginning to feel a little more like home. My quarters are a whirling mess, just like back on Earth. There's a few more nods of recognition as I begin to see the same people more and more often. Not that I respond to any, mind you. Riffraff is riffraff is riffraff.
 
I was in sickbay running a diagnostic on a biobed when I overheard that there was a new Flight Control Officer appointed. Apparently he's experienced and knows the captain. While I usually only mix with my own kind I don't mind the redshirts as much as their lunk cousins, the dreaded gold menace. Flyboys are OK, you just have to know how to handle such hotshots. And command officers are, of course, everything I aspire to be. One day I'll be in command. I feel I deserve it after having to go through what I do on a daily basis...
 

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

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I was flexing in front of the mirror the other day and noticed a small band of fat sloshing over the brim of my undergarment. Concerned, I moved my body until I found an angle where it didn't show so that's taken care of.
 
The latest news on from the home front is heartening. As Laura is past the first trimester the morning sickness is fading and her food aversions are not as strong. There was a time with our first child that certain food smells made her nearly vomit.
 
Gerald also is beginning to realize that there's another baby on the way, though I don't feel he will truly know what it entails until it's here.
 
Speaking of it, Laura's next check up will be when she is 17 weeks, well within the time a person can find out the sex of the baby. I fully intend to and to be prepared. Research and preparation cost little compared to failure and disaster, my father always said.
 

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

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I am not sure how or why but my fitness has definitely been lacking lately. I guess in all honesty my heart isn't really in it.

There is a thing called couvade which is a man displaying symptoms similar to his partner who is pregnant. Mood swings, irritability, cravings, tiredness. Check, check, check, and check. So if I get a little more doughy blame it on the awesome all encompassing couvade.

Part of me just resents that I am missing a very special time in our lives. Laura may never be pregnant again. A man simply cannot get any time spent back, my father used to say.

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

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I'm not young and foolish enough to think everyone will get along. I have always had the attitude that work and my personal life are separate. This is all for the better. The less those worlds interact the better off they both are.

But now I am not so sure. I miss my family as if they were a physical need like eating or drinking. My mind is beginning to crawl over every argument and fight, every look and every tone of voice I've ever had with Laura. Compounded with the fact that I am missing out on my son's toddlerhood and my girl's pregnancy...

It's not common for raw recruits and junior officers to have family on board. I have always wanted to advance anyway, but now my goals are affirmed: get ahead and get my family here.

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

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After our first mission I find myself more eager to prove myself than I ever was before. With that in mind I have set my mind to doing some unfinished jobs in sickbay that no one else seems to want.

Starfleet Medical has recently began issuing a newer dermal regenerator that apparently causes even less micro-scarring than the device now in service. This is one of the the many reasons I try to keep on top of the latest news from back home. Even with all the stormclouds and rainbows gathering in my personal life I have been making  a diligent point of it. A man who doesn't take pride in his work doesn't take pride in himself, my father always said.

I've began to update the medical kits without the approval of Ensign Xoran, or Trisha as she prefers to be called. Hopefully a little iniative will go a long way on the G'Burg. Neural Tech Third Protheus is now Ensign Protheus. New officers will often be reassigned. While Protheus is a good man if he is transferred it can only be good for me.

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

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I wish I could say my recent feelings of fondness for my time here were continuing, but that is not the case.

Ever since that ugly episode with those yellow lunks who jumped me I've been meaning to step back into the holodeck and get back to training. But it just hasn't happened quite yet.

Part of me is torn. I think everyone is made up of several different people and these people will war with each other.

The root of everything I do is my family. My spiritual and physical center is them. That part of me does realize that entering into some clandestine secret society revolving around fist-fighting is barbaric, short-sighted, and wrong. This is also echoed by the part of me that is a medic in Starfleet.

There is another portion of me, however. It exists in every man but we like to pretend it doesn't. Especially these days. I suppose I am different in that I come from a much different place than most Starfleet personnel.

My home is in what was once Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. It's a brutal, rugged country, the kind of place where a man is not only expected and raised to fight but it is required. I shall explain more on that later.

I realize I make it sound like a harsh and inhospitable place but it is in fact the opposite. It was first visited by Europeans in the 17th century and was inhabited by indigenous peoples long before that. It fought through the Susquehanna Boom, the Underground Railroad, the Abolition Riots and the American Civil War and by and large it changed little throughout this. Nowadays, four hundred years later, it still proudly clings to its traditions. This is the portion of me that wants to go back and fight.

We shall see which one wins...

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

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I've been monitoring the situation somewhat on the bridge. The G'Burg is approaching a mysterious nebula filled with die-meth something. Whatever it is, it's dangerous. Die is right.

I sincerely doubt any of this is of any import whatsoever to the Federation. But it's there, unexplained, and therefore must be explored. Or so their thinking goes, and by that I mean the officers. Not a care in the world, that crowd.

I just had the computer look up and list off the effects of this stuff on a person, which are myriad and harmful. Besides being highly toxic and flammable the stuff was also a main ingredient in a recreational hallucinogen back in the day on Earth. Thanks to insatiable desire to learn I now have to prep sickbay for burns, gas inhalation, and crazy drug addicts.

Yippee.

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

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Well I am now a Nurse Tech Senior. It's a cool title, I have to admit, and the extra bit on my uniform does look spanking snazzy. Before long it will be Nursing Technician Third Stafford and finally Ensign Stafford. Then maybe I can bring my family aboard.
 
It began with Rennan but now it seems that officer fever is sweeping the Gettysburg. Somehow Revek got promoted to Petty Officer Third Class and now to ensign. I'm sure he'll be even more insufferable than usual. But isn't that what being an officer is all about, after all?
 
With so many new pips being handed out lately like handshakes and autographs it may be a long time before this lowly crewman sees one. Until the next recruiting period, at the very least.
 
Until now and then, who knows if I'll survive the machinations about this vessel. Maybe I should transfer to a nice, quiet science vessel or something...
 

 
 

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

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I have almost reached a crossroads here in my career. With my bump to Senior Crewman comes the noncommissioned officer ranks of Petty Officer looming just ahead. And therein lies my conflict.
 
My father was an enlisted man in Starfleet but not particularly proud of it. He disliked it all and was mustered out despite being a good crewman. He had low opinions of everyone in Starfleet: noncoms and officers alike. With his every breath he warned me to stay away.
 
I was not particularly rebellious but my heart just leaned toward serving the Federation. On one hand, being a Senior Crewman is in many ways a breeze. You're not highly ranked enough to have responsibility and you're not lowly enough to be contemptible.
 
Anything higher, though, entails greater power but more worries, as well. It's a matter I shall have to meditate upon before I make any decisions. 
 

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

=/\=Personal log

In a move that makes compete sense we have sent a probe to the nebula. If its a living organism we've just attacked it. If it's dangerous it's now on the ship.

In an equally confounding maneuver Revek is now an ensign. I'm used to Starfleet carelessly endangering its personnel but this kind of magnitude is unprecedented.

Will update further on these disturbing developments.

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

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As I get closer and closer to being a father for the second time I find myself thinking of my own childhood. My father was a good man and a hard worker but that was as far has involvement went into raising my brother and I. I joined Starfleet for many reasons. One was because I wanted to give something back. But primarily it was to show my children than they should follow their dreams. A man shouldn't have to merely work and work and never pursue his interests. All that accomplishes is a lifetime of drudgery and estrangement.
 

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

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My first bridge time on the Gettysburg has certainly been enlightening. For the first time since I arrived onboard I have had a chance to work with my fellow crewmembers. The results have been good. There is a sample of corrosive and flammable diethylamine that we are examining. I was called to the bridge to analyze and interpret the results.

They have been astounding. The command staff was concerned that the nebula itself might be an organism. My research indicates it is the beginning of one, kind of a primordial stew that hasn't started in the slow cooker. One of my fellow blueshirts in science, a Dimitri Brooks, also stated that such a concentration of compounds is not naturally occurring. I was a bit dubious at first but I have to concede, it's exceedingly rare.

I enjoy when work is actually interesting. It helps me forget about how much I miss my family.