Season 11: Episode 3 - Decon Duty

[Non-Playing Character 1]

[Conference Room]

NPC - CMO Zollin

Dr. Zollin entered the room next.  A padd dangled from his left hand.  "Captain, Commander, Sorry for my tastiness.  Sickbay seems to get further and further away from this part of the ship" he complained before he took an open seat. 

[Klabax Cottle]

[Sickbay]

"Oh" Zex replied.  She blinked a few times as she gathered her thoughts.  "If that is the case, then it is the first time I have every heard of a species doing it" she admitted.

"Usually, you hear of civilizations who exhaust all the resources of their planets.  They promoted industry over nature and end up killing off all the vegetation on the planet.  The animals too, in some cases" she explained in the typical chatty nature.  "Denobolans may just be one of the more evolved species in the universe" she added.

"Excellent idea, doctor.  I will join you in just a moment" Zex replied.  Then she finished her work at the last bio bed and returned to the closet to get a tricorder for herself.  "Should we split the work 50/50" she proposed as she walked up to the spare work station.

[Sickbay]

"Hmm. Yes, it is indeed rather... Unique." he said, rather disinterested in the society he'd left behind long ago to be a Starfleet doctor. Though he was officially part of Starfleet, he didn't have Federation Citizenship, that was because Denobula had not joined the Federation due to the Federation's rather... archaic policy on genetic manipulation. Too much fear of the past.

Officially, Klabax served in the medical exchange program, which had served, more or less, since the 2140's. He'd seen civilizations blow through their resources... and then some became militant to survive. The effects of overstretching what a planet could provide inevitable resulted in either an abandoned planet wasteland, or a destroyed planet like Praxis.

He waited for her, and nodded at her assessment. "We could do that. Or we could each study the work so we can provide equal care to all patients. Or we can specialize 50/50 as you suggest. Which would you prefer?" he asked, looking at her with a very analytical gaze. You could tell a lot about a person from how they answered this type of question. Most would choose to do 50/50, to minimize the workload, some would choose to be equally knowledgeable about each patient, or some would point out that he had listed option "A" twice. Usually those who did the latter were Vulcans.

[Kyle Briggs]

[Conference Room]

Dr. Zollin entered the room next.  A padd dangled from his left hand.  "Captain, Commander, Sorry for my tastiness.  Sickbay seems to get further and further away from this part of the ship" he complained before he took an open seat.

Kyle stood as the Doctor took his seat and spared a moment to look at his Senior Staff. He straightened his uniform before speaking.

"No worries, Doctor. We're just getting started." he began. "First. I'd like to introduce our newest Chief Flight Officer, Lt. Filitov. Welcome to the Discovery. If there's ever anything you need, I have an open door policy. Please don't hesitate to come see me. And thank you to everyone for being so prompt to our briefing."

He took a few steps back so that he could activate the wall monitor.

"I'm sure some of you have heard some things about our mission, so let's get into it." He activated the screen and  a beautiful, blue, almost Earth like, planet appeared. "This is Calabar. Currently, it can best be described as the equivalent of Earth's Victorian Era." He went on to describe how the Observation Team was put into place and the recent rumors of their being discovered and the effects it was having on the community of the city as a whole. "It has since been brought to my attention that the Observation team had actually been divided into two locations. That means twice the man power for Away Teams and twice the work to try to get everything and everyone out of there as quickly and quietly as possible."

He tapped a few commands and the image changed to that of a city map.

"This is Slita. It's basically their capitol city. The two circled locations indicate the Observation Teams locations. The one down here in the South East area is the one near their "City Hall" if you will and is where the troubles are said to have started. Excuse me." he said as he reached for his glass of water. After replacing it on to the table, he continued. "Commanders Wu, Pardek and myself have already discussed teams. We've evened them out with members from all departments. Ops and Engineering will work together on removing any and all equipment and information. Medical will assist with any, well, medical issues discovered. Commander Pardek will lead Team one and she will be joined by Kaz, Brooks and Cottle. That team will clear the Northwest Observation post. Team two will be led by Commander Tekin and will also include Filitov, Reyes and Zex." He looked over at Nevir. "You guys will have the Southeast post. It may be a little more difficult as that's the one where everything started and is constantly under surveillance."

He left the city image up so that it could be studied as he slowly began to walk around the room.

"I can't express how important it is that this mission be done as clandestine as possible. However, on the off chance that something does go wrong and any of you are seen by the locals, we're going to have Doctor Zollin here do some alterations on each of you so that you will blend in. He has all the information needed and will get started as soon as we conclude here." Kyle added. "Are there any questions so far?"

[Kirok]

[Sickbay]

"Hmm. Yes, it is indeed rather... Unique." he said, rather disinterested in the society he'd left behind long ago to be a Starfleet doctor. Though he was officially part of Starfleet, he didn't have Federation Citizenship, that was because Denobula had not joined the Federation due to the Federation's rather... archaic policy on genetic manipulation. Too much fear of the past.

Officially, Klabax served in the medical exchange program, which had served, more or less, since the 2140's. He'd seen civilizations blow through their resources... and then some became militant to survive. The effects of overstretching what a planet could provide inevitable resulted in either an abandoned planet wasteland, or a destroyed planet like Praxis.

He waited for her, and nodded at her assessment. "We could do that. Or we could each study the work so we can provide equal care to all patients. Or we can specialize 50/50 as you suggest. Which would you prefer?" he asked, looking at her with a very analytical gaze. You could tell a lot about a person from how they answered this type of question. Most would choose to do 50/50, to minimize the workload, some would choose to be equally knowledgeable about each patient, or some would point out that he had listed option "A" twice. Usually those who did the latter were Vulcans.

[Sickbay]

Zex could tell by Klabax's tone that he had lost interest in the topic regarding Denobula's population issue.  Given that she was a people pleaser, she followed his lead.  So, she simply nodded in reply.

"It's unlikely that we will be able to segregate the Observation Team into two equal groups.  If we could I would obviously suggest that I take the men and your take the women" the Deltan replied with a slight chuckle.  "So, we should probably review each file independently, doctor" she said.

Zex tilted her head to the right slightly and offered the man a smile.  She got the impression that he was warming up to her.  But her cultural inclination was to make sure things continued along that path.

[Klabax Cottle]

[Sickbay]

Zex could tell by Klabax's tone that he had lost interest in the topic regarding Denobula's population issue.  Given that she was a people pleaser, she followed his lead.  So, she simply nodded in reply.

"It's unlikely that we will be able to segregate the Observation Team into two equal groups.  If we could I would obviously suggest that I take the men and your take the women" the Deltan replied with a slight chuckle.  "So, we should probably review each file independently, doctor" she said.

Zex tilted her head to the right slightly and offered the man a smile.  She got the impression that he was warming up to her.  But her cultural inclination was to make sure things continued along that path.

[Sickbay]

"Very well." he said, and pulled up the first batch of files. The team wasn't small... but thankfully it wasn't huge either. He caught in his scan a few people who he'd need to keep an eye out for, due to allergies to medication. He found one person with a deadly allergy to the common painkiller Metorapan, which he had prepared before, so he substituted it. From there, he went back and checked the rest. Finding only minor problems that were already taken care of, and so he finished looking through the files, committing as much of it as he could to memory. The vast majority of the people had no known medical allergies, so that was good.

He made the finishing touches on sickbay, it was now as prefect as it could get. He waited for her to finish her review of the files.

[Kirok]

[Sickbay]

"Very well." he said, and pulled up the first batch of files. The team wasn't small... but thankfully it wasn't huge either. He caught in his scan a few people who he'd need to keep an eye out for, due to allergies to medication. He found one person with a deadly allergy to the common painkiller Metorapan, which he had prepared before, so he substituted it. From there, he went back and checked the rest. Finding only minor problems that were already taken care of, and so he finished looking through the files, committing as much of it as he could to memory. The vast majority of the people had no known medical allergies, so that was good.

He made the finishing touches on sickbay, it was now as prefect as it could get. He waited for her to finish her review of the files.

[Sickbay]

Zex worked in silence for a few minutes.  That as a feat in and of itself.  She was a social butterfly and got most of her self worth from how others saw her.

She flipped there one file.  Then the next.  "Pretty routing stuff" she reported.

"High blood pressure for this one" Zex said aloud as she was reading one of the last files.  "Allergy to Penicillin?  Do they even make that anymore?" she asked more to herself than her somewhat crusty co-worker.

[Klabax Cottle]

[Sickbay]

Zex worked in silence for a few minutes.  That as a feat in and of itself.  She was a social butterfly and got most of her self worth from how others saw her.

She flipped there one file.  Then the next.  "Pretty routing stuff" she reported.

"High blood pressure for this one" Zex said aloud as she was reading one of the last files.  "Allergy to Penicillin?  Do they even make that anymore?" she asked more to herself than her somewhat crusty co-worker.

[Sickbay]

Although he was entirely attentive to his job at hand, he made sure to always pay attention to anything anyone said, as it could be important later. He was used to working in silence, though he had never heard of a Deltan that was skilled at such a feat.

He listened as she reported what she found, and responded to her sarcasm with his own. "Yes, indeed." he said, an eyebrow raised.

"Well blood pressure shouldn't affect anything" he said, thinking. He though about the penicillin. It was an old, archaic human disease-fighter that was made from mold of all things. It hadn't been used on Denobula in millennia. "I do not recall any such use of the drug, at least not in the last few hundred years." he said, looking at her.

[Kachina Filitov]

[Conference Room]
Kyle stood as the Doctor took his seat and spared a moment to look at his Senior Staff. He straightened his uniform before speaking.

"No worries, Doctor. We're just getting started." he began. "First. I'd like to introduce our newest Chief Flight Officer, Lt. Filitov. Welcome to the Discovery. If there's ever anything you need, I have an open door policy. Please don't hesitate to come see me. And thank you to everyone for being so prompt to our briefing."

He took a few steps back so that he could activate the wall monitor.

"I'm sure some of you have heard some things about our mission, so let's get into it." He activated the screen and  a beautiful, blue, almost Earth like, planet appeared. "This is Calabar. Currently, it can best be described as the equivalent of Earth's Victorian Era." He went on to describe how the Observation Team was put into place and the recent rumors of their being discovered and the effects it was having on the community of the city as a whole. "It has since been brought to my attention that the Observation team had actually been divided into two locations. That means twice the man power for Away Teams and twice the work to try to get everything and everyone out of there as quickly and quietly as possible."

He tapped a few commands and the image changed to that of a city map.

"This is Slita. It's basically their capitol city. The two circled locations indicate the Observation Teams locations. The one down here in the South East area is the one near their "City Hall" if you will and is where the troubles are said to have started. Excuse me." he said as he reached for his glass of water. After replacing it on to the table, he continued. "Commanders Wu, Pardek and myself have already discussed teams. We've evened them out with members from all departments. Ops and Engineering will work together on removing any and all equipment and information. Medical will assist with any, well, medical issues discovered. Commander Pardek will lead Team one and she will be joined by Kaz, Brooks and Cottle. That team will clear the Northwest Observation post. Team two will be led by Commander Tekin and will also include Filitov, Reyes and Zex." He looked over at Nevir. "You guys will have the Southeast post. It may be a little more difficult as that's the one where everything started and is constantly under surveillance."

He left the city image up so that it could be studied as he slowly began to walk around the room.

"I can't express how important it is that this mission be done as clandestine as possible. However, on the off chance that something does go wrong and any of you are seen by the locals, we're going to have Doctor Zollin here do some alterations on each of you so that you will blend in. He has all the information needed and will get started as soon as we conclude here." Kyle added. "Are there any questions so far?"

Briefing Room

Katcha listened to the briefing with care. It was clear that Starfleet had some sort of duck-blind mission going on and something had gone very wrong. She hoped it would not be to the level of Prime Directive problems, but they would have to wait and see. She raised her hand.

"Keptin. Do ve have information regarding zere social customs, language and behaviour? It vill help us blend in if ve do not go in blind!" She asked, filing away the information and wondering if she should request to join the other team. She decided against it as she had promised Hrafn to give him a chance and this seemed like a good one.

[Kirok]

[Sickbay]

Although he was entirely attentive to his job at hand, he made sure to always pay attention to anything anyone said, as it could be important later. He was used to working in silence, though he had never heard of a Deltan that was skilled at such a feat.

He listened as she reported what she found, and responded to her sarcasm with his own. "Yes, indeed." he said, an eyebrow raised.

"Well blood pressure shouldn't affect anything" he said, thinking. He though about the penicillin. It was an old, archaic human disease-fighter that was made from mold of all things. It hadn't been used on Denobula in millennia. "I do not recall any such use of the drug, at least not in the last few hundred years." he said, looking at her.

[Sickbay]

"I know, odd isn't it" Zex replied.  She read through the file a bit more.  "Father had it and his father too.  I'm guessing it goes back though the family tree on the male side" she surmised as she finished the file.

She picked up another file, the last one thankfully.  She opened it and gazed down.  "Ah here's one.  Hemorrhoids" the Deltan read aloud.

[Tekin Nevir]

[Conference Room]
Kyle stood as the Doctor took his seat and spared a moment to look at his Senior Staff. He straightened his uniform before speaking.

"No worries, Doctor. We're just getting started." he began. "First. I'd like to introduce our newest Chief Flight Officer, Lt. Filitov. Welcome to the Discovery. If there's ever anything you need, I have an open door policy. Please don't hesitate to come see me. And thank you to everyone for being so prompt to our briefing."

He took a few steps back so that he could activate the wall monitor.

"I'm sure some of you have heard some things about our mission, so let's get into it." He activated the screen and  a beautiful, blue, almost Earth like, planet appeared. "This is Calabar. Currently, it can best be described as the equivalent of Earth's Victorian Era." He went on to describe how the Observation Team was put into place and the recent rumors of their being discovered and the effects it was having on the community of the city as a whole. "It has since been brought to my attention that the Observation team had actually been divided into two locations. That means twice the man power for Away Teams and twice the work to try to get everything and everyone out of there as quickly and quietly as possible."

He tapped a few commands and the image changed to that of a city map.

"This is Slita. It's basically their capitol city. The two circled locations indicate the Observation Teams locations. The one down here in the South East area is the one near their "City Hall" if you will and is where the troubles are said to have started. Excuse me." he said as he reached for his glass of water. After replacing it on to the table, he continued. "Commanders Wu, Pardek and myself have already discussed teams. We've evened them out with members from all departments. Ops and Engineering will work together on removing any and all equipment and information. Medical will assist with any, well, medical issues discovered. Commander Pardek will lead Team one and she will be joined by Kaz, Brooks and Cottle. That team will clear the Northwest Observation post. Team two will be led by Commander Tekin and will also include Filitov, Reyes and Zex." He looked over at Nevir. "You guys will have the Southeast post. It may be a little more difficult as that's the one where everything started and is constantly under surveillance."

He left the city image up so that it could be studied as he slowly began to walk around the room.

"I can't express how important it is that this mission be done as clandestine as possible. However, on the off chance that something does go wrong and any of you are seen by the locals, we're going to have Doctor Zollin here do some alterations on each of you so that you will blend in. He has all the information needed and will get started as soon as we conclude here." Kyle added. "Are there any questions so far?"

[Conference Room]

Nevir remained relatively quiet.  Most of the information on the planet and culture was in his hands, and while he would never assume to be an expert on this pre-warp culture, he was the closest they would probably have with one.

Which was good, considering Nevir would be leading the team that had the hardest part.  They would be naturally suspicious to say the least, and the fact that this was the capital city meant playing the part of government workers would be more difficult.  When Kyle mentioned alterations, Nevir's hand went straight to his nose.  It was too be expected, again.

"Do we know why Starfleet didn't follow standard protocols?  Who thought it would be a good idea to put a covert observational post in the middle of their capital city?"

[Non-Playing Character 1]

[Conference Room]

Nevir remained relatively quiet.  Most of the information on the planet and culture was in his hands, and while he would never assume to be an expert on this pre-warp culture, he was the closest they would probably have with one.

Which was good, considering Nevir would be leading the team that had the hardest part.  They would be naturally suspicious to say the least, and the fact that this was the capital city meant playing the part of government workers would be more difficult.  When Kyle mentioned alterations, Nevir's hand went straight to his nose.  It was too be expected, again.

"Do we know why Starfleet didn't follow standard protocols?  Who thought it would be a good idea to put a covert observational post in the middle of their capital city?"

[Conference Room]

"Possibly a young Medical Officer who was too wet behind the ears to know better" Zollin grumbled.  "The standard medial equipment requires one to be very close to their targets.  So, if the goal was to monitor vitals or other medically oriented data of the people there an inexperienced doctor would have wanted to be situated in the city - if not in the very center of it" he explained.

[Klabax Cottle]

[Sickbay]

"I know, odd isn't it" Zex replied.  She read through the file a bit more.  "Father had it and his father too.  I'm guessing it goes back though the family tree on the male side" she surmised as she finished the file.

She picked up another file, the last one thankfully.  She opened it and gazed down.  "Ah here's one.  Hemorrhoids" the Deltan read aloud.

[Sickbay]

"Well a simple genetic realignement should be able to take care of that... Except it's illegal." he said, a smug element in his own mind knowing how backwards the laws of the Federation were. He saw she had finished the files, and was glad for that.

He thought about hemorrhoids, but decided it likely wasn't any big deal. "Good. Then I assume we've likely gotten the people ready on the team... what about the inhabitants?" he asked, knowing that if there were injuries they would have to treat them as well.

[Leela Kaz]

[Conference Room]
Kyle stood as the Doctor took his seat and spared a moment to look at his Senior Staff. He straightened his uniform before speaking.

"No worries, Doctor. We're just getting started." he began. "First. I'd like to introduce our newest Chief Flight Officer, Lt. Filitov. Welcome to the Discovery. If there's ever anything you need, I have an open door policy. Please don't hesitate to come see me. And thank you to everyone for being so prompt to our briefing."

He took a few steps back so that he could activate the wall monitor.

"I'm sure some of you have heard some things about our mission, so let's get into it." He activated the screen and  a beautiful, blue, almost Earth like, planet appeared. "This is Calabar. Currently, it can best be described as the equivalent of Earth's Victorian Era." He went on to describe how the Observation Team was put into place and the recent rumors of their being discovered and the effects it was having on the community of the city as a whole. "It has since been brought to my attention that the Observation team had actually been divided into two locations. That means twice the man power for Away Teams and twice the work to try to get everything and everyone out of there as quickly and quietly as possible."

He tapped a few commands and the image changed to that of a city map.

"This is Slita. It's basically their capitol city. The two circled locations indicate the Observation Teams locations. The one down here in the South East area is the one near their "City Hall" if you will and is where the troubles are said to have started. Excuse me." he said as he reached for his glass of water. After replacing it on to the table, he continued. "Commanders Wu, Pardek and myself have already discussed teams. We've evened them out with members from all departments. Ops and Engineering will work together on removing any and all equipment and information. Medical will assist with any, well, medical issues discovered. Commander Pardek will lead Team one and she will be joined by Kaz, Brooks and Cottle. That team will clear the Northwest Observation post. Team two will be led by Commander Tekin and will also include Filitov, Reyes and Zex." He looked over at Nevir. "You guys will have the Southeast post. It may be a little more difficult as that's the one where everything started and is constantly under surveillance."

He left the city image up so that it could be studied as he slowly began to walk around the room.

"I can't express how important it is that this mission be done as clandestine as possible. However, on the off chance that something does go wrong and any of you are seen by the locals, we're going to have Doctor Zollin here do some alterations on each of you so that you will blend in. He has all the information needed and will get started as soon as we conclude here." Kyle added. "Are there any questions so far?"

[Conference Room]

Leela nodded along as the Captain reviewed the outline of the mission. She gave a slight nod to Commander Pardek as the teams were announced. It wasn't really anything that concerned her. One of her previous host, Juval, had managed to infiltrate pre-warp civilizations many times. She did wonder, like Tekin, why any legitimate researcher would put their base of operations in the center of the populated area.

"Only one question captain, when do we leave? One of my previous hosts has some experience with this, Juval managed to successfully infiltrate several pre-warp cultures throughout his career. Of course, that was a different time. If anyone pulled those stunts today they would be ushered out of Starfleet and straight into a prison cell." Her tendency to ramble withstanding, she knew this was something many of these officers would have done before. It was much more common in the days before the prime directive was so literally interpreted.

Leela's mind drifted to the days before the Prime Directive got in the way of all of the fun. In the days before rigid first contact protocols. Starfleet was a different place back then. Leela could appreciate the implementation and enforcement of the rules but she sometimes yearned for the old days. The days when the Alpha Quadrant was largely unexplored and a Klingon bird of prey lurked around every planet. They were quicker to load the torpedo and far less likely to invoke the prime directive. To her past hosts space seemed much larger in the early days.

With her chin resting on her hands it was apparent her mind had begun to wander. She caught herself and shifted into a more upright position in her seat, quickly locating a PADD she jotted down a few cursory notes to feign that she hadn't lost focus.

[Kirok]

[Sickbay]

"Well a simple genetic realignement should be able to take care of that... Except it's illegal." he said, a smug element in his own mind knowing how backwards the laws of the Federation were. He saw she had finished the files, and was glad for that.

He thought about hemorrhoids, but decided it likely wasn't any big deal. "Good. Then I assume we've likely gotten the people ready on the team... what about the inhabitants?" he asked, knowing that if there were injuries they would have to treat them as well.

[Sickbay]

"Sad, but true" Zex replied.  She thought about the topic of genetic manipulation for a moment and knew that she should just let the topic pass without further discussion.  But she simply couldn't,

"And it's unfortunate that genetic manipulation is illegal" the Deltan said in hushed tones so only the doctor would here.  "There are so many benefits to consider.  Potential to eradicate simple allergies being just one of them" she said confidentially.

Zex turned to Klabax and was silent for a long moment.  "That is an interesting question, doctor.  How could we possibly treat the inhabitants without violating the none interference regulations?" she asked.

[Klabax Cottle]

[Sickbay]

"Sad, but true" Zex replied.  She thought about the topic of genetic manipulation for a moment and knew that she should just let the topic pass without further discussion.  But she simply couldn't,

"And it's unfortunate that genetic manipulation is illegal" the Deltan said in hushed tones so only the doctor would here.  "There are so many benefits to consider.  Potential to eradicate simple allergies being just one of them" she said confidentially.

Zex turned to Klabax and was silent for a long moment.  "That is an interesting question, doctor.  How could we possibly treat the inhabitants without violating the none interference regulations?" she asked.

[Sickbay]

He didn't think genetic manipulation would make a reappearance in their conversation but it did, and he wasn't too upset about that. In fact, he wasn't upset at all.

"Yes, indeed it is unfortunate." he said. "Although I am not under such constraints, Denobula has used genetic manipulation with great success for centuries." he said. "In fact the only reason I'm allowed to serve in Starfleet is through the medical exchange program, I wouldn't have been qualified to serve with Federation citizenship."

Klabax listened and thought. "Zex, are you familiar with the Hippocratic Oath?" he asked, which would provide his first standpoint on how to deal with the rules and regulations issue. "Secondly, There is Starfleet Order 2: A regulation against the taking of intelligent life. Refusing to treat those in need would be murder by proxy, and is against Starfleet morals. Thirdly, the transport of a patient is to be performed at the discretion of the attending physician. As the medical personnel who would volunteer to go, or at least I would, any patient that has suffered due to direct contact with Federation observers becomes my patient. I could go on citing regulations, medical directives, and examples, but the Prime Directive has already been breached: Anything we do would likely reduce the risk of contamination, by not leaving wounds that could not be explained."

He looked at her, a broad smile on his face. He had a solid stance, but knew that there was rough patches and a lot of technicalities and grey areas he was counting on.