Health and Psychological preparations

As Jolie Bindo left the conference room, she found herself meeting deep, mesmerizing purple eyes and a charming smile from a bald-shaven Deltan wearing the same uniform as she was.

"Doctor Bindo I presume?"

The smile widened at the age-old greeting joke.

"I am Doctor Elliago Nasaro-Myth, chief medical officer on board the USS Artemis. I am pleased to finally meet the heroic medical officer of the Borg War."

His praise was obviously sincere, but his handsome face was starting to get creased by deepening lines of worry.

"Doctor, I think we should find some place quiet to discuss certain... difficulties our officers and crews may have to face in the upcoming days."

The Lotus' CMO couldn't help but flush pink at the praise. She waved it off. "We all did what we had to. I was blessed enough to come out unscathed." She tipped her head in thought at his condern for their respective crews. "I agree that we need a medical briefing. I thought of a simple way to know if any of the Horizon Children are masking as our crew. We can scan the cerebellar neural patterns and compare them to their baseline scans. If they're different, we'll immediately know if it's an imposter."

"Already ahead of you on this, Doctor," retorted Elliago with a respectful smile. "Not that we 're so smart; but we on the Artemis were once manipulated by a false admiral... and we are the first and only starship hit by the cult, months ago, and we had time to learn and prepare... not to mention that our captain is himself aformer tactical chief of your flagship."

He offered her a PADD on which was already highlighted: "ship medical security protocols, USS Artemis" and a list of measures he sumrized for her. "As you will see here, we have implemented thorough procedures into our ship routines since then; A level 1 full medical and psychological examination of the entire crew when docked, using the entire personnel, as well as for any individual coming on board for the first time; A level 2 complete medical and neurological scan from the EMH grid every shipboard day; a level 3 internal sensor scan to compare with established records at the start of every shift for both leaving and incoming shifts; a level 4 sensor sweep every hour for contaminants or unregistered lifeforms, inside and outside of the hull; level 5 random computer scans of crew health status during every shift, also good for locating any unrecorded presence, from bacteria to intruders. Decontamination protocols and level 3 examination are in effect with every transport, boarding or away team return. All the medical data, down to the subatomic level, is recorded and updated for each transport on and off the ship which are done exclusively with shipboard transporters. Ths way, any discrepancy is immediately detected and automatically keep the suspect in beaming transit for futher identifying before rematerializing, be it on the pad, in sickbay isolation, in the brig, back to its point of origin or dispersed in space..."

The last sentence was said with a somewhat sour tone, but the Deltan doctor quickly smiled again.

"Stringent measures to be sure; but this way, even a changeling or a genetically disguised Undine will not manage to slip in or out undetected. Of course, any refusal to undergo examination at any point is suffcient ground to be immediately relieved from duty and confined, or removed from ship complement. Captain being no exception... by his own orders."

This time, his smile grew even wider. But his eyes remained most serious. If there was one single person in the entire galaxy that was most apprehensive, almost hostile, to medical and psychlogical examination, it was Captain Kheren. If even he submited to, more than that, ordered such severe measures, it showed how grave things were.

"Of course, Doctor, this all does not remove your privilege of ordering a medical examination of anyone you have resonable doubt about their physical and mental health."

She rubbed her chin as she considered the 'difficulties' to which Dr. Nasaro-Myth referred. "We have a number of personnel who are still raw from the Borg war and yet are facing this new threat. I'm concerned about stress disorders. I've ordered the ship's Counselor to do a full review on all officers..." she let the thought hang in the air as Capt. Gould and Lt. Vincent emerged from the meeting room.

Before any of the two medical officers could speak further, they were interrupted by the arrival of her commanding officer.