Which Doctor's Apprentice Pt. 2 (Backpost)

Posted on Sat Aug 30th, 2025 @ 4:45am by Lieutenant JG Kally Kellerman & Tessa di'Orion

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Holodeck 1
Timeline: Concurrent with Land of the Living Part 1

Kally walked into the holodeck and clapped her hands, rubbing them briskly. "All right," she said. "Let's get started. Computer? Recreate the Chimera Sickbay, no crew or patients present."

The computer beeped and they found themselves back in Sickbay.

"Now," Kally said, "what should we begin with?" She looked at Tessa. "How about something easy as a demonstration. Removal of an appendix?"

“A vermiform appendix, a vestigial internal organ in humans and some other humanoids that used to have a function in the digestive system to break down plant matter, really no longer of use, but can become inflamed and burst rapidly causing internal damage.” Tessa stated, pointing at the lower right portion of her abdomen, showing she had learned much about the anatomy of other species already, “Completely absent in Tialans, but good to know about.”

Kally grinned, impressed. "All right, someone's been reading up on her neighbors, good job," she said. "Computer, move us to the surgical bay for medical training simulation. Patient has chronic appendicitis, standard surgical tray arrangement."

The computer beeped and the scene changed to the prep room. Through the transparent aluminum window, they could see a patient unconscious on the table. Kally reached into the storage lockers and pulled out two surgical suits. "We put these on to maintain sterility in the bay," she said. She quickly removed her uniform jacket and sat down to undo her boots so she could remove her trousers. "Make sure every lock of hair is tucked up inside it before you go in as well."

Tessa gave a dubious look at the surgical suit even as she began to follow her own way to Kally's own movements and slid the skirt off in order to pull on the ugly set of clothing, "Kal- My Lady, I'm sorry, but how can my aura aid in the healing process if I'm covered up, and with these on?" she held up one of the gloves, "There will be a loss of tactile feel with these on. I'm not expecting to find anything sharp inside the patient, so a full scrubbing should keep infection from entering with me."

"Organic bodies are covered in microorganisms. A good scrubbing is all well and good, but we try to go for something a bit more fool-proof," Kally said. "Normally for something that's laparoscopic we can forgo this, but I wanted you to get the full experience, especially if we go into some deeper stuff and...." she looked up. "Did you say your 'aura'?"

"Yes, My Lady, I did." Tessa had yet to bind her hair underneath the cap and it laid across the back of her shoulders, but most of the rest of the 'suit' was already on, "I am a Priestess of Urd." She stated as if it meant more than just a title, "One major difference between Tialans and humans is the level of phosphorous in our systems." The young woman was concentrating hard, "And the use of it is common enough among us." A slight glow began to emanate from Tessa's head, the golden locks emitting light. She held up her left hand where the tattoos she had also began to glow, the tattoos starting to glow green.

"Oh....I see....." Kally said. She wished she'd had a non-holographic tricorder. "If you don't mind, I'd like to take some readings some time. It affects other life forms?"

"Yes, and it's complicated." Tessa admitted as the glow in her hand traced up the tattoos, encasing her hand in the greenish light, "Self-sterilization and the proximity to the patient will also activate their own. Experimentation has shown that it will kill bacteria and other infectious diseases within the effect. It means that we priests of Urd have another weapon against illness."

"Fascinating," Kally said, genuinely interested. "Starfleet medical regulations are still rather clear, but if we could scan and understand your ability to prevent infection, that would be a helluva feat."

"I'll stand for any scans you desire, Kally, but I am truly concerned about the tactile difference. Being able to feel what I'm working with is very important, because I can tell by touch any other issues when delving to the problem. Nodules on a liver, the rush of blood from an open vein or artery, each thing could be fatal if approached wrong." It clearly was troubling the young woman.

"We use the tricorders to detect other issues," Kally said. "They can scan further and deeper than tactile exploration, and, again, reduce contact so there's less chance of contamination. They can also do so without risking further trauma to the patient. Let's go take a look." She gestured for Tessa to follow her into the surgical bay.

Tessa clasped her now glove-clad hands in front of her as she followed Kally meekly. It just... Felt wrong to her to be all bound up within the cloth, all freedom taken from her, even though she still had a fair amount of movement to her. She took up a supporting position next to the doctor as she had done innumerable times back at home when she'd been assisting senior priests.

Kally had the holodeck furnish her a padd to interface with the program and stood by the patient. "Give the tricorder a try. The patient should be unconscious and with a chronically inflamed appendix. Read through the readouts and tell me if you notice them flagging any other body parts."

Tessa picked up one of the tricorders that the holodeck provided and began to scan the patient, watching the readouts and graphics, noting the elevated temperature and swelling in the immediate area of the appendix. There were no signs of the appendix having burst, which was a good sign, but directing the sensor at the liver, kidney and intestines near the maligned organ showed that they were functioning properly, "No, it's not that I can tell, My Lady."

"Doctor," Kally corrected. "When we're in here, there's only one acceptable title for either of us. Formalities in the operating room are strict and ancient for our people as well. If you don't call me Kally, you address me as Doctor during surgery. Same with how I'd address you. When you're in surgery communication has to be quick and clear. If "Milady" came out, you could be talking to me or half the staff. Similarly, if I were addressing...say..." she got a gleam in her eye, "Henry, I would refer to him by name, or as Nurse. Calling him anything else might not be clear."

“Understood, Doctor. In our surgery, communications are the same, but ‘My Lady’ or ‘My Lord’ would specifically refer to the lead surgeon, mostly because they would be the highest ranking. Multiple priests or priestesses would be rare, unless it were truly complicated, and most of our ‘nurses’ would be specially trained Sentar and would be called by name, rather than title. Each surgeon has their own team which is on duty with them.” Tessa wasn’t arguing, just pointing out the tradition on her own world.

"We're less rigid in assignments," Kally said. "If we have multiple surgeries going at once, nurses can get shared, traded, et cetera." So, could you show me how you'd remove the appendix?" She tapped her padd, altering the surgical tray to a series of low-tech options, and slid the tray over to the biobed.

This was it, the test she'd been waiting for. True, an appendectomy for her was purely a hypothetical, but in her mind she equated it to removal of a foreign body that had nicked another organ. She gave a guilty look to Kally as she removed the gloves, then walked over to the sink in the corner and fastidiously scrubbed her hands with the harsh soap that was provided, meanwhile murmuring to herself a mantra that she used to promote healing as taught to her, drying her hands with a lintless towel and moving back towards the patient, "If you would be so kind as to assist me?"

"Yes, Doctor," Kally said, stepping up to the table on the other side with the instrument tray. "Ready," she said.

Tessa exhaled deeply, "Scalpel, please." She bent over slightly for a better angle with her hand held out for the blade, which in this case was a focused laser and she shook her head in near disbelief before looking it over and back down, using the laser scalpel to make a smooth, quick cut effortlessly through the skin and muscle layers of the 'patient', about seven inches wide. She then held the scalpel back out to be taken back. "Retractor," and the device was handed to her as she set it to open the incision. This was where small hands were a blessing as she used one to slide in among the exposed innards. Her eyes were half-open as she watched for anything, but went with a more tactile feel as she moved aside organs, naming them quietly as she did in her search for the inflamed appendix.

Kally winced, watching the display, but didn't interfere.

Her studies of human anatomy did her a favor as she sensed the heat of the diseased organ, ignoring the hologram that showed where everything was. She cupped her hand in behind the intestine, with two fingers cradling the hot appendix and began to lift the whole thing towards the surface of the incision. so that it could be exposed. "Ligation thread, tie it around the upper extrusion from the colon." She waited while Kally did this. "Scalpel." She used the scalpel to cut the appendix just below where the thread had cut off the bloodflow. She used the 'flat' edge of the laser scalpel against the cut appendix to cauterize it and inspected the work, nodding once before releasing the colon to return to the depths of the abdomen as she still cradled the inflamed organ, now in her full hand and placed it in the offered tray before placing the scalpel back on the tray, "Sutures." And it was just a matter of sewing the wound shut from there.

Kally helped close and nodded. "Well, overall a very competent procedure," she said. "A bit more invasive than we would go for, but you didn't cause any other trauma to his internal systems." She smiled at her. "And you were careful, methodical, and calm. You're a skilled healer, indeed."

"Thank you." Tessa said softly as she stood there, hands still wet with the holographic blood, "We don't have the technology assists on Tial that you have here, with us it is literally hands on and we don't have the option. We have to be fast, accurate and skillful or else we lose those we try to save."

Kally nodded. "That was human medicine for centuries." She flipped a mental coin and decided to join Tessa's level of comfort. She quickly stripped back out of her surgical gown, happy to be just in her shorts and tee. "Computer," she said, "reset patient and reset surgical tray to Federation standard."

The patient went back to uncut, the tray updated with modern tools, and the blood disappeared from everywhere, including Tessa. "We have similar methods, but we use something more direct," Kally said. She activated the surgical support frame and as it closed over the patient, she brought up the visual display, showing the side of the abdomen. "Now, we use a similar scalpel, but using the robotics, we can reduce the incision to two small incisions."

She carefully made two small two-inch cuts in the skin. In one, a small tube inserted, inflating the area gently with an inert gas. The second incision had two small robotic 'fingers' insert. Using her monitor, she moved them to the appendix and, in similar fashion, isolated it, cut it, cauterized and healed the wound, then extracted the organ.

Once the appendix was out and contained, the tube removed the gas and the abdomen returned to its normal state. The incisions were immediately closed and healed, and the patient looked good as new. What little blood had come out had been contained by catch-alls around the incisions, and all that was left was to clean him off, which she did quickly.

"Not as personal, but sufficiently efficient," Kally said, smiling.

"I think in either case the patient would survive." Tessa judged, "But to be fair, I believe your method is better overall." She paused for a few moments, then spoke out again even while she pulled on the gloves once more, "Would it be all right if we reset and I tried it your way?"

"Of course," Kally said. She stepped back a bit and let Tessa step in front of her. She moved behind and guided the girl's hands through the controls. "All right, just imagine you're a puppeteer pulling strings," she said into Tessa's ear, as they worked to save another theoretical life.