Lower Decks
Rated: G
Category: Triple Drabble. Rok. Original Characters.
Time Frame: Post Season One/Open.
Spoilers: Nothing Specific.
Summary: This is a follow-up story to "Double Trouble." Same events, from a different perspective.
Note: Written for the Thirty Days of Prodigy prompt of "OCs."
Lieutenant Frasier was the lowest-ranking dentist on board.
Which was probably why he'd ended up doing a root canal on a Klingon targ in the middle of ship's night. Still, it wasn't all bad. The patient was completely anesthetized, so it wasn't complaining, unlike so many of his more bipedal patients. And at least it had a good reason for its injury. Self defense and all. Or its best shot at self defense, anyway.
"Guess it won't do that again," he murmured.
"Nope," agreed Lieutenant Hamata, the lowest-ranking anesthetist on board.
"How's the kid, anyway?" asked Frasier.
"Feeling bad for the targ," answered Hamata, "but otherwise fine."
"No damage?"
"None."
"Gotta love that particular physiology."
"Yep."
"And hopefully she learned something too."
Hamata snorted. "Yeah. Don't get gored by the wildlife."
"Even if you've got rocks for skin."
"I'm just glad she wasn't hurt, and that we can fix this easily enough."
"Yeah," agreed Fraiser. "All's well that ends well."
"Yep. Two lessons in one. Or something like that."
"Exactly. And I'm done here. You good?"
"Sure," said Hamata, "I can wake him up any time."
Twenty minutes later, the targ was awake and had been transported back to the wildlife refuge where it lived. Shortly after that, Lieutenants Frasier and Hamata were back in their bunks, soundly asleep.
The next day, they'd have a story of a targ that made the very bad choice to try to gore a Brikar, and a kid who learned to respect wildlife, as it has no respect for you, in the very luckiest way possible.
They'd give lots of details that would be embellished with each retelling, of course, but it all boiled down to two points. One, don't try to eat rocks. And two, never get too close to a sleeping targ.
A/N: It used to bother me that doctors on Star Trek ships treat animals. Where are the veterinarians? Trust me, you do not want a physician treating your pets. Then it occurred to me that Trek doctors already treat multiple species due to treating Humans, Vulcans, Tellarites, Klingons, etc. So, perhaps they're already qualified? Perhaps they aren't really physicians at all, but essentially veterinarians? Which leads to the whole head canon I have explaining that, as it doesn't make sense given the current trajectory of human medicine and litigation matters. If things kept going as they are, by the 24th Century, doctors would treat just your pinkie toe. There would be separate people for every part of you, never mind every species. So, something had to change. In my mind, suffice to say it involves WWIII and targeted weapons. Yeah, it's a whole thing, but I do believe there aren't enough doctors in Trek to go around. They have to be all things to all species, like vets, because they have no choice. That's the only way to make it less offensive, so it works for me. Oh, and there's no way a higher-up is getting up for this.