Negotiations

Posted on Mon Aug 10th, 2020 @ 2:00pm by Lieutenant Avery Paxton III & Lieutenant Scott Hayes

Mission: The Avenger
Location: USS Wayfarer - Sickbay
Timeline: Present

ON:

Worst second day ever, Avery thought as she reluctantly dragged herself to her least favorite part of the ship. She’d barely had any sleep the night before and was putting in extra hours to ensure that every possible upgrade had been applied in engineering before they arrived at the nebula, but for whatever reason, the XO saw it fit to make her report to Sickbay instead of letting her finish her job.

Avery loathed sickbay. In most cases, she’d rather die than display any sort of weakness or vulnerability and in her opinion, one only went to sickbay if they couldn’t hack it. In other words, sickbay was only for the weak.

As she arrived, she took a momentary pause outside of the room and drew a deep trying to steal her nerves before she entered. She could do the math to calculate plasma flow in her sleep or fix a coolant leak under pressure in record time, yet somehow the mere act of entering Sickbay made her feel on edge.

Upon entering, she saw the well groomed physician and stated, “Lt.Paxton reporting as ordered,” with a notable tone of annoyance.

Scott poked his head out of his office; he was becoming very impressed with how quickly all of the senior staff were reporting it; it would be setting an excellent example to their departments. However, looking at the Lieutenant, he figured this would be a more delicate physical. "Lieutenant, take a seat on whatever biobed you would like, and I will be with you shortly." The doctor wheeled his chair back in and went to pick up his scanning equipment before heading to the main area of sickbay.

After a quick survey of the room, she picked the biobed in the corner that was closest to the door, to allow for a more speedy exit when this was over. Avery unenthusiastically sat and waited, nervously tapping her fingers on the seat. At least the tone in his voice from his first statement seemed to indicate that he was nice. Maybe she could work out some sort of deal with him to return to engineering, she thought.

"You know this is a lot less painless than people think," Scott began as he pulled the small hand scanner out of the tricorder. "Any new aches and pains? Anything worrying you medically? Any family history of things you think I should know about?" He smiled, realising he always needs to ask a lot of questions at first but trying to put his best face on it to soften the experience which was clearly not a favourite activity.

Avery let out a sigh, “I know, sorry, I just have a lot of work to do. No aches or pains, no family medical history, and the only thing worrying me at the moment is the pile of engineering upgrades that I need to sign off on.”

"And," Scott sighed also looking at his screen, "you have been working flat out to get them done? Not getting a lot of rest? Not taking time for yourself?"

“I mean, upgrades and modifications don’t just happen on their own. So, no to answer your question. But there’s a lot at stake and not much time to get everything done, so I don’t really see an alternative.” She responded plainly.

“Can I ask you something?” Avery inquired as she tilted her head and looked him in the eyes for probably the first time since she’d been there.

"I can see that. My scans show you are running to the point of exhaustion almost, although you are hiding it well. As one department head to another though, you have a whole department. Delegation is key. You are the one who helps keep this ship running. You are doing yourself no favours without taking appropriate rest," he put the scanner away. "And ask away," he smiled, meeting her eyes, continuing his warm, open smile.

“What’s your opinion of the XO?” She asked, point blank, ignoring the delegation remark for now. This was her chance. If he thought that the XO was as much of an ass as she did, maybe they could work something out.

"I haven't had much in the way of interaction with the XO yet," Scott confessed, 'however it is early days on a new ship. Everyone is stressed. People aren't necessarily acting like themselves. I tend not to let first impressions be my first impressions at times like this. I give it at least a week out in space before I form opinions."

Diplomatic answer, she thought to herself. “That’s fair,” she stated. “I guess I’ll just get to the point then. I need one more hour to finish the upgrades that we’re working on in engineering,” she raised her hand to deflect any rebuttals before continuing, “I hear you on delegation and I can promise you that every single person on my team is busy, but we have limited time and not enough people to make all of the upgrades that would help for the upcoming mission. So, it’s either work more or don’t get all of the upgrades done. It’s like if the ship gets attacked and you get inundated with casualties, do you stop after 8 hours of treating people because you need to rest?” she raised an eyebrow as she waited for his response.

"This is true," Scott conceded, "however, if expectations to complete things mean a whole department is having to work this hard, those that set the expectations need them readjusted. I'm no engineer, but these are upgrades. Can't the ship work perfectly fine on what we have and allow the upgrades to be done at a more manageable pace? And if not, why are we launching?"

“You’re right, I could adjust the expectations, we could defer some of the upgrades, but doing so means entering the nebula at a greater risk. The upgrades I selected aren’t just random upgrades, I specifically picked them because they reduce the risk of electromagnetic interference screwing up our systems.” She said, annoyed that he wasn’t making this negotiation easy. “Look, one hour, that’s it, I promise. I won’t be able to sleep with unfinished work on my mind anyways.”

"Then speak to the Captain, see what he says about cost versus risk. The cost of a tired department that will end up putting pressure on sickbay in a few days time versus the risk of delaying heading into the nebula or if there is a level of acceptable risk of going in as in," he took a breath, "this is all above my expertise level, but I know people. If you and you're department are like this, I know I would rather take some time to get this done than have the people who help keep us safe be too tired and stressed out when we could actually need them the most. You are the surgeons of the ship. Would you trust me if I was tired and overworked?"

“The department isn’t tired, everyone is busy but they’re working regular shifts. I don’t mind putting in the extra hours, I love what I do, but I don’t subject my people to it. Just one more hour. Please?” She was getting desperate. “Look, I’ll even come back to sickbay afterwards so you’ll have a guarantee that I’ve stopped working. Plus, I’ll owe you one.”

"One hour, back here," Scott replied, "your scans show you are good for that. I am, however, duty-bound to pass this on that I have concerns over the well-being of a senior officer. If I don't see you back within that time, I will have to consider fitness for work. It is a horrible thing to think about, but it will be keeping you and the ship safe. I am also making a recommendation that if you haven't already, you speak to counselling and raise some of these points there also. A two-pronged attack from both sides of medical could help out." He began looking for the PADD he carried with him as part of his routine and began to type up his reports.

“Yes!” she exclaimed, as she jumped off of the biobed. Before sprinting towards the door, she paused and looked at the doctor with a serious expression, “To answer an earlier question, I would trust you if you were tired and overworked. I think you, like me, know where your actual limits lie and that above all else you’ll do what’s necessary to keep the crew safe. That’s all I’m trying to do here. I promise that this isn’t my status quo, but I want my people to be safe and I know that these upgrades will help make that happen. And I know that I can safely get the last of it done in one hour.”

Avery turned, sprinted through the door and towards engineering. She had one hour and she was going to make the best of it.

"One hour or I am sending a security detail to come and get you," Scott said with a small smile. Then, he turned to his PADD to quickly finish his report before sending it to the Captain and XO.

OFF:

Lieutenant Scott Hayes
Chief Medical Officer
USS Wayfarer NCC 72113

&

Lieutenant Avery Paxton III
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Wayfarer NCC 72113