Loose Leaves

Posted on Fri 19th Jul, 2019 @ 6:51pm by Commander Paul Graves PsyD
Edited on on Sun 17th May, 2020 @ 4:55pm

891 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: A Diplomatic Affair
Location: The Graves Home, Tivoli Gardens
Timeline: MD 5, 1920

"Now that is interesting," Chlamydia said, setting down her wine glass. "Lieutenant Commander Ramirez-Briggs' death certificate was filed by the end of the next working day; signed by the Chief Medical Officer aboard Typhoon, Lieutenant Commander Dodger "Dod" Blevins. That's not the interesting part.

"The interesting part is that Doctor Blevins had relieved the existing CMO only six weeks earlier, and yet, when Typhoon made port two days after the explosion, Blevins was relieved by Lieutenant Commander Denise Applewood. Odd enough that Starfleet would leave a CMO in place for less than two months; as I do an LCARS search, I find no publications by Blevins." Chlamydia paused and looked at Paul. "I don't know how it is for counselors, but for medical officers, it's a virtually iron-clad though unwritten rule that, to become CMO on a starship, let alone reach the rank of Lieutenant Commander, you must have published a minimum of two case studies in the Journal of the Starfleet Medical Corps."

"Counseling is comparable," Paul said, "and you have to continue publishing if you hope to make it to Commander or Captain, much less Commodore or Admiral. So how did this man achieve even an MD without a publication credit? Residents everywhere will want to know how he did it."

"He did it by not existing," Addams said. "No service record. No current posting. No birth certificate. No naturalization certificate. Nothing but a few weeks aboard USS Typhoon." There was a long moment of silence. "How many people are we aware of who could arrange that? And what motivations would they have?"

Paul thought a moment. "No nothing? I'd say Intelligence--but that's rather sloppy, don't you think? Intelligence doesn't normally let its people go out the door without a complete legend--background, ID, a full service jacket, family history, education. If this Blevins was in Intelligence, he was sent out in a hurry--and clearly left in a hurry." Paul frowned. "Do you think Blevins could have been behind Victoria Briggs' death?"

"Presumes facts not in evidence," Addams said primly. "After all, we started this to determine if she truly is the late, lamented Victoria Briggs."

"Sorry--I meant, 'behind whatever happened to her' to cause her to be in this nebulous state in which she's visible only to her husband. If he can see and hear her, why can't the rest of us, if she truly is present--which she is? What is special about him? If they were both Betazoids and imzadi, then I would understand why they have a particular mental bond. But between two humans? That doesn't seem as likely, but I won't rule it out. By human standards, they might even be imzadi."

Addams drummed her fingers on the table, absently, then stopped herself and took a sip of her wine. "Oh, that is a good vintage," she said. "Nicely sweet, without being cloying." She moved her hand to the PADD and did some more tapping. "Someone attached a completely mechanical prosthesis to Mr. Briggs' body, without telling him that there were options... and they did a rushed, botched job of it."

"Mechanical?!" Paul gave Chlamydia a baffled look and shook his head. "All I'm coming up with are more and more questions. Who uses purely mechanical prostheses these days, when biosynthetics are so readily available and so much better--especially in Starfleet? What medical staff would just stand by and let even a mechanical one be implanted badly? There are so many fail-safes in surgical programming now, so Lanis tells me, I don't see how even an intern could make an irreparable error without someone being alerted and correcting it. Who wrote the op report for the prosthesis attachment?" Paul asked. He looked at Chlamydia. "I begin to wonder if whoever performed this procedure on Briggs wanted him to be impaired."

"The procedure was done by our friend Blevins," Addams noted. She took another sip of her wine, and sighed. "Do you have another session with the Biggses before he's scheduled for surgery?"

"That's bizarrely soon to fit a prosthesis onto a fresh amputation," Paul said. "I'm seeing the Briggses again in two weeks. When is his surgery scheduled?"

"Saturday," Chlamydia sighed again. "Unless something changes. And now, I'm not at all sure we should go ahead with it, quite yet."

"I can arrange to see them sooner," Paul said. "Do you want me to do that? Even if nothing were suspicious about Lieutenant Briggs' previous medical treatment, I'd want to see him before he underwent an operation of this magnitude."

"When I graduated Harvard Medical School," Addams responded, "I raised my hand and pledged to abide by the Declaration of Geneva. The third point of the pledge is respect for the autonomy and dignity of the patient. I have always believed that included the principle of informed consent. I believe we need the Briggses... both of them... to hear the questions we have, and the information we've uncovered, before we disturb the situation which may be connecting them."

"Ah, you're thinking what I'm thinking," Paul said, "that the prosthesis might be why Briggs can see his wife. Yes. This will not be a session. It will be a pre-operative consultation--for the four of us."

 

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