Cleared For Duty?

Posted on Thu Jan 5th, 2023 @ 4:43pm by Ensign Tobias "Toby" Dienstag & David Meddows MD-Ph.D.
Edited on on Mon Jan 16th, 2023 @ 8:32am

995 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Fool’s Errand
Location: Deck 7: Medical Section
Timeline: M1 MD08 (2268.23.05) 0830-0950

The last thing Ensign Dienstag had to do before returning to duty was being cleared by the ship's psychiatrist. Even though it occurred off duty, a concussion was a head injury so regulations dictated he needed to be cleared for duty. He sat out in the small waiting room on the port side of the medical deck. He crossed his arms and leaded back, trying to keep from fidgeting in the Burke chair.

There was no receptionist, just a computer voice and a melodic ding as the door swished open.

"Doctor Meddows will see you now" said the ship's computer on one of its more husky female voice settings.

As Toby entered, the doctor's chair, facing away from the door, swung round dramatically and a man in his thirties, oddly old and young at the same time, sat stroking a calm black cat. He looked the young Ensign up and down.

"Hello, Toby." he greeted the lad in a voice as calm and relaxing as that of the computer voice that had bid him enter.

"Uhh, good morning Doctor," Toby responded, looking rather uneasy. He wasn't used to being called by his first name by a senior officer. It was usually Mister or Ensign.

The Doctor stood up shaking his head and put the cat onto his desk sideways. It was stiff, evidentially a stuffed real animal or a very realistic toy. "Hey, Toby, I'm Dave. And you know what? I'm OK, and you're OK." he intoned.

He suddenly looked at the ceiling of his office.

"Computer?"

"Yes, Dave?"

"Turn down the lights and leave." Meddows ordered. The lighting became more ambient and all of those subtle little blips and bleeps that haunted every space on the ship disappeared. It was eerily silent in the room.

"Come over here, Toby." he walked over to an old fashioned psychiatrist's couch next to an impressive, large leather office chair. "Nobody else uses one of these anymore, but I'm a great believer in the psychiatrist's couch." he announced, and hopped on to it making himself comfortable.

"Take the chair, Toby" he said. His eyes were closed and his voice still quiet and calm yet, somehow, he delivered the words with great import.

The young officer hesitated but did as he was told. He was off set by the atmosphere... More than a tad creeped out in fact. He wondered if the doctor was going to start burning some incense and align his chokras or something. He sat down into the hot seat as he felt his blood pressure rise. He had never seen a shrink before and so far this was following all of the creepy stereotypes.

For a minute it looked like the doctor had nodded off; then, without opening his eyes, he assured the nervous Ensign "We're quite alone here Toby, only life support, no ship's computer. No one else can hear us: security, the Captain, Commodore Fletcher, Admiral Nogura, even those black shirted b******s at Fleet Intelligence... none of those creeps can hear us, Toby."

He took a deep breath that filled his lungs and then let it out with a slow sigh.

"All right, Toby... you can start asking me questions now."

"What the hell does any of that mean?" Toby asked, "And what the hell does any of this have to do with me being cleared to return to duty." He stood up out of the chair, thoroughly uneasy by the entire appointment.

"Toby, I can't help you unless you trust me." answered the doctor, unperturbed by Toby's agitation. "And to trust me, you have to know me. Ask me what you like Toby, and I will answer truthfully. Then I can ask you some questions. You see Toby, this isn't about your physical injuries in the hockey match, this is about why you let those injuries happen."

He opened his eyes and turned his head with a concerned frown.

"Ah... is it the chair, Toby? Is it... the 'big chair'?"

"You're right, I don't trust you... Did you get your license in a cracker jack box?" Toby asked, getting even more weirded out, his voice was getting louder and more agitated, "The chair has nothing to do with it... All I did was trip and fall. This meeting is a formality, nothing more. If you don't clear me for duty, Mike will get Dr. Kitchner to do it."

Meddows closed his eyes and resumed his recumbent position, one word escaped his lips... "Mike?"

"Ahhh, Doctor Amato. You admire Doctor Amato, don't you Toby? He was there, too. Doctor Amato and Captain Faust: the two men on the ship you most admire. Both on hand when you had your 'accident'."

Every time Toby heard Dr. Meddows say his name it made his skin crawl, "Ensign Dienstag," he corrected. "And yes, I do admire them. Every junior officer is should look up to their Commanding Officer."

"But from the floor Ensign? From the hard, cold icy floor?!!" Meddows suddenly opened his eyes and twisted up into a sitting position. "Scared of the chair?! Grovelling on the floor, waiting to be picked up by the Captain and... and 'Mike'?? No, no, no, no."

He stood and pulled out a feinberger and hovered it over Toby's head like a priest bestowing a blessing and shouted "Computer ON!" in a slightly irritated voice, like he'd had just about enough of Toby's nonsense. The bleeps started again in the room.

"Ensign Tobias Dienstag, cleared for active duty!" he declared and moved past the young officer and back to his desk with a dismissive "Good day!"

"What the fuck?!" Toby responded in a loud voice before turning and quickly running out of the ship's physchiatry office. He passed Dr. Amato in the hallway but kept on going, leaving a confused look on Mike's face. He needed out of this section before he had a panic attack or something.

 

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