Take Ones Medicine

Posted on Mon Apr 20th, 2026 @ 3:49pm by Lieutenant JG Tuhjer Mil & Lieutenant Commander Nyxala Valentine

1,810 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Flight Of The Valkyries
Location: Main Sickbay
Timeline: Present

Nyxala Valentine sat in the chair in her office, overturned drakeling in her lap as she idly gave the belly scales a gentle scratching motion while she reviewed the lists of personnel that still required initial onboarding exams, as well as those who had been on board closing in on a year, or as she herself would make her preference known: Every six months at the latest. Even back on Unicorn, she’d gotten in the habit of making checkups on people more often than was the norm, because her own practice back in special operations was to make sure everyone was in top shape at all times. If that meant more routine exams, so be it.

Now the problem was going to get everyone else to buy in and be willing to suffer with her vision for the medical condition of the ship and there was nothing but to start early. But where to start? Most of the senior staff were behaving so far, but there were still junior staffers that could use the attention and she closed her eyes before reaching out to the list in front of her with a finger, waved it around and poked. This one still needed the onboarding, but wasn’t even an assistant chief, so may as well.

“Lieutenant Tuhjer Mil, please report to main sickbay at your earliest convenience.” The stress on the last words made it more a meaning of ‘right the heck now’ barring him being in the middle of something, rather than to give the impression of allowing him to take his time. Engineering would have to do without him for a little bit. She abruptly rose to her feet, the small dragon almost rolling off before the claws dug into the skirt of medical-teal that Nyx wore and scrambled up to her shoulder, wrapping the body around the back of her neck with a sigh of draconid annoyance.

On receiving the message, one that he had been waiting for, Tuhjer happened to be in a slight lull in his work so he decided to head to sickbay. On arrival, he made his presence known to one of the staff on duty who he hoped would advise the good doctor.

The nurse, a small woman gestured towards the taller one that exited the office just a few seconds later, the light blue eyes having locked onto the Trill in gold uniform as if sizing him up as a target. Her uniform, clearly not standard, was more a skirted jumpsuit that showed more than a hint of cleavage to go with the bright red lipstick and matching hint-of-teal eyeshadow. Around her neck was the drakeling, the slow twitch of the tail and the glitter and occasional blink of the eyes the only sign that it was a living being, “You must be Lieutenant Mil, I presume?”

"That's correct. doctor. I am here as requested."

“Indeed you are.” She made a short gesture towards the far end of sickbay, clearly a direction for him to precede her to an area that could be curtained off as needed, “Go ahead and take off the uniform jacket, have a seat and we’ll get this over with as soon as we can. Like most others who arrive, you, Lieutenant, have not volunteered yourself for the traditional onboarding exam by the medical staff, though to be fair it was rather busy as of late.”

"I wasn't actually aware of the onboarding exam. I knew I would have to come for a first medical though." He replied, removing his uniform jacket. He took a seat. His arms at rest with his hands on the end of his thighs just before his knees.

“Which is why it’s called Onboarding.” She gave him a bright smile, one which accentuated her figure somehow, “But don’t worry, you came in willingly, which isn’t the norm, so I’ll forgive you.” She made that sound as if it were a benevolent proclamation, “So, while I start the scan, let me ask you if you have any aches, pains, medical conditions that I will need to know about?”

" No aches or pains that I'm aware of doctor." He replied, making sure he didn't stare at her cleavage. " As for medical conditions, I am a joined Trill if that counts. " He added.

“I’d hope that you’d be aware of something not feeling right.” Nyx smirked at him, then gave a rising tone of a whistle and the creature around her neck perked up, then unwound itself from the doctor’s neck and dove off, wings flashing out and flapping a couple times until it reached a hanging platform, perching there for a moment before banishing over the lip and into the hollow that was there, the head peeking out over to watch, “As for being Joined, that does count, having a large parasite inside you. Have you ever met Armox, by the way? I served with him in the Corps, but he went on convalescent leave about a year or two ago, I’m sure he’s back in action again.”

Still somewhat startled by the winged creature that awoke from around the doctors neck, he looks over at it, peeking out to watch then back at the doctor.

"Um Armox? I don't recognise the name, should I? ". He asked. "I'm still getting to know members of the crew." He added

“Armox is a friend of mine, Dahler Armox specifically. I know some Symbionts know each other from previous lives, so I just thought I’d ask. He’s in special operations, which I thought was almost prohibited, given the historical value of them?” She asked him, going over him with the a tricorder as well.

"Almost prohibited?" Tuhjer asked, looking a little confused. "Forgive me, doctor, but I am not sure what you mean by that."

A curious look came across her face and she hesitated before continuing the scan, "Symbionts are living repositories of information and knowledge, given that they retain the memories of everyone that the symbiont was joined with previously. The Trill government discourages extraordinary risk taking, such as actively going into dangerous situations like Marine Special Operations, so that they don't lose them, but they also can't stop it or else it looks like they're controlling their people." She closed the tricorder, "I'm surprised you don't know that."

" I am what is referred to, by the Symbiosis Commission, as an EJT, Emergency Joined Trill. Basically, a Trill joined to a Symbiont under emergency circumstances, regardless whether or not the new host has gone through the initiate programme with all it's training and in-depth evaluations or not. The latter being the case for myself. So I am not fully up to speed on the intricacies of the Trill government's stance on such activities carried out by joined Trill. "

"Interesting..." Nyx added that to her mental list of things she knew about him. All of the time she'd spent with Armox had made her a relatively knowledgeable source regarding Joined Trill, so she knew how vulnerable an injured symbiont could be. "Have you been in contact with the Commission since it happened, I mean for an intense short-term familiarization period? From what I know, which isn't too much, it can be a bit 'loud' upstairs at times."

" Indeed it can. I took a short leave of absence after it happened and spent it on the homeworld where I got some counselling and some material to read but there's not much the Commission can do once its passed the 93 hour rule, which I assume you know about."

"The point in which a Joining can't be reversed, though there are documented instances of severe psychosis and some physiological issues after seventy-six hours if they are forced to change." Nyx nodded with a smile, "Just means that you get to learn as you go as time goes on."

"Exactly. Normally, a host undergoes checks to ensure there are no potential issues that could arise during the first 93 hours. EJT's like myself don't have that luxury. "

"Indeed. What gets me is that there are as many as there are that require emergency placement, despite the 'normal' practice of having a backup candidate, even if the Commission doesn't advertise it." Nyx's smile softened, "I heard about a half-Trill who was the only option, the Joining bond was made, but her system crashed and she's had to be on a custom medical cocktail to keep her alive. Had to do with her isoboramine levels, just like yours, but instead of yours diving, yours are a bit higher than the norm. I'm going to want to check them every week for a month, then we'll re-evaluate the checkup cycle."

" Sounds good. High Isoboramine levels are not good for the Symbiont but so long as they are within an acceptable range, then there shouldn't be an issue but it's often recommended to try to reduce them to the normal range. My previous host, Lerani, had slightly elevated levels but only just above the norm so they weren't considered an issue. They, did settle, after a month or so but then rose slightly when she had her son, Jared. Quite a difficult birth."

She blinked a couple times, again digesting the information, "Sounds like something that's on the symbiont end rather than the host side of things... Let's monitor for now, if they stay high we'll administer treatment to lower them to about mid-normal range, but to be fair, I'm not a fan of just covering up the symptoms, I prefer to treat the root cause whenever I'm able to." She gave a slight shrug, "Thanks for the additional research case."

" You're welcome. I assume I am healthy putting aside the Isoboramine issue? "
He asked.

"Assumptions kill." Nyx responded, closing the tricorder with a snap, "But in this particular case, you are correct. I expect that if anything changes that you'll come and see me instead of doing something like, say... Letting yourself or someone else do more than heal minor injuries, then avoid me like the plague? I'm here to make sure everyone is in good shape, not judge them for their choices."

" Of course I will come to you, doctor. If there is nothing else, am I excused to return to duty? " Tuhjer asked.

"That you are, Lieutenant, but if you see anyone down in Engineering that needs to be seen, send them on up." Her smile turned from bright to feral to bright again in between heartbeats, "I do so love to keep busy."

" Of course. I'm reasonably sure that Ensign Rodriguez has not had his checkup yet. I will encourage him to visit. Thanks again. "

Tuhjer headed out of sickbay.

Off

Lieutenant Commander Nyxala Valentine
Chief Medical Officer
USS Tokyo

&

Lieutenant JG Tuhjer Mil
Engineering Officer
USS Tokyo.

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