Beads and rattles

Elliago Nasaro-Myth entered into the largest and most state of the art medical facility he had yet to see outside of a starbase. There were enough biobeds for a dozen patients up front, just as much in the emergency ward and the recovery ward was just as large. Even the autopsy lab and morgue were able to process as much people at a time... and there was even a stasis section filled with enough stasis pods to put the entire crew and then some into suspended animation!

" What do you think of your new kingdom, Doctor? "

The warm, almost alluring voice that came to him preceded the arrival of a stunning Deltan woman with mesmerizing violet eyes in an angel's face still disturbingly seductive despite the clean shaven head. Her body swayed like poetry in motion despite the strict and dull black and grey cut of her standard uniform.

And she was not alone. Another Deltan woman, challenging the looks and charm of the other one with her own angelic presence, came up with her to meet Elliago. And there was also another Deltan, this time a male, who's handsomeness invariably had every other female in the vast medical center turn their heads to look at him as he also approached the CMO.

" Doctor Sheelya Osaro-Lyth... Doctor Sayla Nedaro-Lenn... Doctor Odori isharo-Saenn... glad your transfer orders I asked for were accepted. "

Of course he knew them well. Fact was, all Deltans in Starfleet knew one another. Most served with the first staff officer to ever come out of Delta IV, Admiral Zele of Starbase 39, but there was a substantial number of them also serving aboard the USS Wisconsin of Deltan Captain Onia within Lotus Fleet. The rest of their kind, they were now almost all together in this sickbay.

" Captain Kheren is Andorian; of all people, they know how important it is to be with their own, especially on long deep space voyages " Odori explained matter-of -factly.

" So, Elliago, what do you think of this facility? " asked Sayla taking one arm as Sheelya took the other and that of Odori as they toured the medical center. " It got all the toys. "

" Captain Syntron is certainly going out of his way to make this ship a state-of-the-art flying lab, " observed the CMO, looking at the replacement equipement that was being delivered almost continuously inside while tehnicians and engineers worked to install each new piece of hardware quickly and efficiently, the Starfleet way.  " And too think that the USS Horizon's facilities are even larger... "

" But not better, " now chimed in Sheelya with a wink. " Try the EMH for one.

" Computer; activate... "

" Hold on, " interrupted Sayla. " You're too old-fashioned. "Computer; list as off-duty and unavailable all senior medical personnel. "

" All medical personnel are currently off-duty and cannot be contacted at this time, " comfirmed the disembodied voice of the ship,s computer.

Then Sayla took a laser scalpel and, with a smile cut her own hand with it.

Almost instantly, a humanoid form shimmered next to her, looking like a greying, kind-faced human male in his late forties, with big soft blue eyes and a smiling mouth, wearing a blue collared Starfleet uniform and the pips of a Lieutenant-Commander.

" You are injured, " said the apparition, " please let me help. "

" The EMH then looked at her and then at the other Deltans with a frown.

" This is one more damn test, right? "

Despite his sudden change of mood, he was already grasping a hypospray with a sterilizing agent and injected Sayla before using a dermal regenerator to heal her injury in mere seconds as easily as anyone else would be breathing.

" Impressive, " commented Elliago with a charming smile towards the artificial doctor which seemed to mollify him.

" That I am, " shot back the EMH completing his duty. " You're not dealing with a crude balding, bad-mannered Mark I here, or a green, kid-like mark II. I am a Mark IV emergency medical hologram. Note the word, ladies and gents; emergency. I integrate the latest holotechnology with the full safety hardware of Lotus Fleet protocols and Federation current legal status regarding artificial intelligence constructs. So, if you would please excuse me, I will deactivate before risking sentience emergence and too many legal and moral problems for you to handle. "

And so saying, he disappeared as quickly as he had come.

" Integrated memory wipe-out against accidental sentience and self activation and deactivation upon detecting an unattended medical need, " observed Elliago. " Truly impressive. "

" And he can appear all over the ship and in as many copies as needed to answer multiple emergency situations at once, thanks to the entire hologrid spread across every deck, including jefferies tubes, " added Odori. 

" Captain Syntron got that one from the new flagship's own specs, " said Sayla with another wink.

" You noticed that he didn't use any medical tricorder to assess exactly Sayla's injury and medical condition before treating her? " asked Sheelya.

" His eyes, ears, nose and touch act the same as a tricorder, he is directly connected to the ship's internal sensor net and his memory is that of the entire medical and biomedical section of the ship's computer, including all Starfleet personnel medical files and transporter pattern buffer records, " answered Elliago, returning her smile. " I know because I am the one who made those recommendations four years ago to the General Surgeon's Office for the next generation of EMH. Having a ship computer-linked medical instrument use a scanning medical instrument had always looked as bad engineering and completely ludicrous to me. "

" So... you like it here? " teased Odori.

" As much as working in a computer center, " shot back the CMO with a contradicting smile. " Give me patients... "

" Let's ask security to shoot a few people aboard to get them both and us some practice time, " jested Sayla.

" Hmmmm... let's go see the biomedical labs instead, shall we? " proposed Elliago then.