Who's more stubborn? An engineer, or a captain?

Posted on Sun Dec 13th, 2015 @ 8:21pm by Captain Tim Williams & Doctor Rikka Takanashi M.D.

Episode: Lost Property
Location: USS Highlander - Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD01 0730hrs

Rikka Takanashi held her med kit firmly. A royal blue medical file under her arm. She had to report in, but she also wanted to check out the Commanding Officer too, in a medical way of course. She strode onto the bridge a Stethoscope around her neck causing a few heads to turn. After seeing that Captain Williams was not on the bridge she walked over to the ready room.

She reached out pressed the bell and waited. She casually flicked through his medical file while waiting for a reply. She had already printed out all of the crews medical records onto paper and they were all stored on shelves in sickbay's record room. Usually it was a room with just a small computer in, but now it had shelves full of records like a proper record room.

Tim had moved straight into his ready room after breakfast to start going through his usual reports from Starfleet whilst the rest of the senior staff finished up and got to their posts. He'd had each downloaded to a separate PADD, each of which were now strewn over his desk in a very rough 'read' and 'not read' set of piles. He glanced up from the one he was reading at that point and called "Come in!"

Rikka walked in and placed Tim's medical report on his desk. His name clearly printed in large white letters. "Ohayo!" she said with a small smile. "You seem to be overdue for a physical Captain. Also, reporting as ordered"

"I swear you doctors are always saying that. How was your trip over? I understand the Repulse ran into an ion storm on the way here."

"Yes" Rikka said. "We had a few people come down with acute Ion Radiation Sickness. Nothing we couldn't handle" she explained.

"Well at least it didn't delay you too long," the captain commented, keen to keep the doctor talking. "Have you had time to settle in yet? I'm guessing that you've managed to find your quarters easily enough."

"Yes sir. I was on an Intrepid Class before this one, so I know where everything is" she explained.

"Ah, a fellow Intrepidee," Tim said knowingly, as though that was actually a thing. "Well, while all of the rooms are likely to be in the right places, the Highlander is a very special ship. I've spent a lot of time over the years upgrading and modifying her systems myself, so she should still have more than a few surprises in store for you."

"I see" Rikka said. "The sickbay is still in the same space" she explained with a smile. She placed the medical file down on the desk infront of him and slid it across the surface. "How are you still alive?" she asked curiously indicating the file.

"You've been in the job long enough you should know by now Doctor," Tim answered, without even glancing at the file. "All engineers in Starfleet are miracle workers. It's a requirement of the job, actually. Your first day you get asked to perform your first miracle; if you can't perform, you get moved to security. If you manage to make your way up through engineering to Captain, well, you're either a really good miracle worker, or a really bad one that sent all the rest of the senior staff to the doctor with only you left to command."

Rikka raised an eyebrow at his answer. She wasn't quite sure what he was talking about, afterall she was a doctor not an engineer. She let out a small sigh. "I suppose that you're going to be like all Captains?" she asked. "As in, dragging you to sickbay when I need to right?"

"Well hopefully not quite the same as all other captains," Tim smirked. "I am an engineer too, so think about how difficult it is to get any chief engineer of a starship into sickbay and multiply that by how difficult it is to get a captain there."

"Challenge accepted" Rikka said with a smile. "I should probably get back to Sickbay, I have a lot of paperwork to fill out"

"It was nice meeting you, Doc," Tim said. "You should make sure to join us for breakfast again tomorrow. I hear Rijan is planning on doing something extra special to welcome you and the rest of our newest bunch on board."

"I'll be sure to do that" Rikka replied with a smile. "Oh, and don't make me send the EMH... you know that I will"