Dashi
The morning meeting after breakfast was unavoidable and usually incredibly boring. One thing Dashi had quickly learned about life on a submarine was that it rarely changed, and the only time anything exciting happened was when things were going wrong.
So she sat there, patiently waiting for it to end, while checking the Octopod's stats on her tablet, pretending to listen. It wasn't like she was the only one not paying attention, the others were simply more discreet about it.
She didn't need to look up from her tablet to know that across from her Tweak was also, constantly, checking her work phone under the table, most likely looking at the same information she was.
Nor did she need to glance to her side to know that hidden on the other side of Hallie's outstretched arm was her phone, opened to some reading app. She didn't even have to look to know it was most likely some smutty, ridiculous romance novel.
And she knew others around the table were also doing their best to look like they actually cared. She didn't care about being discreet though.
"Dashi!"
She hummed a response, tapping at a weather alert that had just popped up on her screen.
"Dashi, will you please pay attention?" the Captain asked.
Seriously? She let out a sigh, "I can pay attention to you droning on about the same five things you've been droning on about for the last week and a half or…" She tapped at her tablet screen, "I can pay attention to the Octopod and not let us all die." She leveled a look at the Captain.
"We'll live."
"Well, I guess if what you have to say is more important than our well-being," she set her tablet down and made a show of turning to face the Captain.
The Captain rubbed his forehead for a moment and let out a forceful huff of air. She had to hold back a laugh; she knew just how to get under his skin.
"Thank you, Dashi. As I was saying," the Captain dropped his hand back to the table and took a moment to look at each member, all who were now paying attention since she had been called out, "Dr. Rogers was hoping to speak with the crew today. He has apparently hired a new Medical Lead for us and has things he wants to discuss with us before the new doctor arrives. Kodi and the Professor will both be joining through conference call."
That explained the phone the Captain had set in the center of the table earlier. "So, we're finally getting another doctor? That was the big important news?" Dashi asked reaching for her tablet again.
"They're not a transfer from another sub again are they?" Tweak asked.
Dashi wanted to cringe just from thinking of the last doctor they were sent. She was happy he had not lasted long on their sub.
"No, this doctor is from a hospital in Georgia," the Captain informed them, "Dr. Rogers said he knew someone who works there, and this doctor was recommended by that person."
"Dr. Rogers sent me some information on him last night," Hallie chimed in excitedly, "He's like a doctor doctor."
"As opposed to what?" Shellington questioned, leaning forward to look down the table at her.
"I just mean like he's a real hospital doctor. This hospital is a teaching hospital and he's worked there for forever so he must have had residents of his own and all that stuff. I just thought it was cool…," Hallie trailed off a bit at the end.
Dashi flicked her eyes to Shellington who already was no longer focusing on Hallie, he had turned back to the Captain. She stopped herself from rolling her eyes, it was one of the few things that annoyed her about Shellington, he always seemed quick to tear at others' excitement when he thought it was over something minor.
"Great," Barret groaned from across the table, "so this time we've ended up with some smug asshole who thinks they're hot shit just cause they boss kids around."
A few others murmured their agreement.
"No! Stop that, right now." Captain Barnacles intervened sternly, "I don't want to hear anything like that from anyone. We don't know anything about this doctor, and I don't want you all to start forming opinions about him before you've even met him."
"He has a lot of positive reviews from patients. Well, there was one that they said he was super rude to their Dad but they still rated him five stars, so I guess that's still a positive review." Hallie shrugged her shoulders, "Dr. Rogers didn't warn me about anything so he can't be that bad."
"What's this guy's name, Hallie? I'm going to look him up," Dashi opened up the browser on her tablet.
"Peso Guin."
"Like the money?" Kwazii asked, stifling a yawn, "That's weird."
"Yeah, I kind of thought so too, but I didn't want to judge anyone on their name," Hallie answered, leaning her elbows on the table and resting her head in her hands.
Suddenly the phone started ringing, Captain Barnacles leaned over the table to press a button on the phone's console, "This is Captain Barnacles."
"Captain! It's nice to hear from you! Is everyone present?" Dr. Rogers said brightly over the phone.
Dashi caught Tweak's eye quickly and rolled her own. She recognized this tone from Dr. Rogers, it was his fake 'I'm a nice person' voice.
"I already have Mr. Riveria and Professor Inkling on the line," Dr. Rogers continued.
"Hello everyone," The Professor greeted softly from the phone.
This time Dashi turned to the Captain, hoping to catch his attention. She saw the same look of concern in his eyes. The Professor was upset about something and it had both of them on alert.
"Hey everyone" A younger, much more cheerful voice came across the phone.
The crew began returning greetings.
Dashi hadn't taken her eyes off Barnacles yet. Despite how much she enjoyed annoying him, and what some of the crew thought, she and Barnacles were actually very close. She watched him try to puzzle out the Professor's tone in his head until finally, his eyes flicked to the phone, then back to her then the phone once more.
Rogers. She concluded. There's something going on with this situation that the Professor hasn't been able to tell the Captain or the rest of us. She nodded her head at the Captain and focused on the call.
"When are you coming back? We all miss you!" Hallie asked.
"We're coming with the new doctor and the shipment," Kodi answered for them.
"Shipment?" Barnacles questioned, "What shipment? We already got ours a few months ago. Dashi were we expecting any deliveries?"
Dashi minimized the browser on her tablet, she hadn't even gotten to search anything yet, and pulled up another app, but before she could start looking at anything Dr. Rogers answered the Captain.
"This one isn't scheduled Captain," Dr. Rogers supplied, "It was ordered by Dr. Guin. That was why I asked you for a list of everything in the Med Bay, Hallie. Dr. Guin reviewed it and found it to be lacking in certain areas." He had dropped the bright, overly happy tone he had used early.
Dashi's eyes flicked back to the Captain and she raised one eyebrow. So Dr. Rogers didn't seem to like this new doctor. That was different from what the Professor had told them earlier. Did something happen?
"Who approved this?" the Captain asked. He tilted his head at Dashi, agreeing with her silent look.
"I did Captain. It won't affect any of our overall budget for the year. It was taken out of separate funds." The Professor answered.
"Well, then I guess that's fine."
"Hallie, "Dr. Rogers had his fake bright tone back, "Did you send that file to everyone like I asked?"
"Uh, no. I did not see that mentioned in your email," when he didn't respond Hallie quickly grabbed her phone, "I will get that sent to everyone right now."
"Okay, thank you, Hallie," Dr. Rogers's tone lost a bit of its brightness, "Well what Hallie is about to send to everyone is an employee review that Savannah Grace's Chief was kind enough to put together for us. It just contains a bit about Dr. Guin, his work history within the hospital, degrees, and certificates, and some peer reviews."
Dashi turned to Halie, "You were really gonna let me waste my time looking this guy up online, weren't you?" she asked.
"I honestly didn't even think about it," Hallie replied apologetically. She gave her phone one final tap, "There it's been sent to everyone on the crew!"
Around the table chimes and bings sounded from everywhere. Everyone reached for their own devices, pulling them from pockets, jackets, or in one case from under the table. The Captain gave Tweak a sharp look, she just shrugged her shoulders at him.
"Now Chief Attenburg asked quite a few different staff members to participate in creating this file, he wanted to get a few different viewpoints of Dr. Guin so that everything we learned wouldn't just be his opinion." Dr. Rogers continued.
"And he obviously didn't read any of them himself," Hallie interjected, grinning, "Because there is one in here that just says 'I don't like Dr. Guin. He's a bastard. I'm happy to know he's leaving us.'," she barely held back a laugh, "another encourages us 'to only refer to him as Dr. Penguin', it goes on to state that that is the only name he will respond to."
"What?!" Dr. Rogers questioned, clearly confused.
"Did you not read it?" the Professor asked, disappointment clear in his tone.
"Well we both met Dr. Guin in person –" Dr. Rogers started but was interrupted.
"Oh, I get the penguin thing," Pike said from the end of the table. Dashi had already seen the photo of Dr. Guin in the file and was guessing Pike had just scrolled to where it was. "What's wrong with his skin?" Pike asked.
"Yes, Dr. Guin does have a skin condition –"
"Oh," this time it was Kwazii interrupting, "He's got vitiligo. Right? My Granddad has that too…his isn't as dramatic though."
"Yes, that is the condition he has. I feel I should also mention that Dr. Guin is on the shorter side."
"Wait how short is he that you feel like you have to warn us?"
"Do we really have to call him Dr. Penguin?" Pike asked, his tone dead serious.
Hallie started laughing, "I think someone close to him probably wrote that, so no I don't think we'll have to."
"Why would you assume it was someone close? It seems like a rather cruel joke to me," the Captain commented.
"Yeah, but if we had to write reviews of each other would they be serious?" Barret countered, "Cause I know I would put down Dashi's a stone cold bitch."
Dashi simply raised a hand and flipped him off. Barret grinned back at her.
"I would never write a review that was going to an employer like that." The Captain said. Both the Professor and Shellington quickly agreed with him.
"Well then I guess I'm just an asshole," Barret said, continuing to scroll on his phone.
"Don't worry I think I would be too," Min offered gently from next to Barret.
"I wouldn't trust any reviews I wrote either," Hallie said with a chuckle.
Dashi caught the Captain shaking his head from the corner of her eye and had to hold back her own laugh. So straight-laced.
"Can we all please get back on topic?" Dr. Rogers demanded, pulling everyone away from trying to figure out where on the scale of asshole behavior they all fell, "You all can look over his profile at a later time if it is going to be so distracting.
"We need to discuss something more serious." His tone lost all its brightness, "This is the last doctor I will be sending to the Octopod."
"That's not entirely true. Dr. Guin has only been contracted for a year of employment with us," the Professor interrupted.
There was silence from the phone for a moment, "Yes, that he is. I guess what I should have said is that Dr. Guin will not be the one to leave the Octopod if problems occur."
"What are you talking about?" Shellington demanded.
"The Octopod has been without a Medical Lead for over forty percent of its operation, that's forty percent of the time there is no medical professional to care for any of you," Dr. Rogers informed the crew, "The board has decided, and I have agreed, that this is unacceptable. Therefore this will be your, as the crew, last chance."
"What do you mean our last chance?" Tweak set her hands down and the table and raised herself up just a bit, "What are you planning on doing?" Dashi could hear the suspicion in her voice. "You can't decommission the Octopod."
Is that where this is going? Dashi didn't think so. But she also didn't trust that Dr. Rogers had anything good to say.
"You're right Miss Bunswik, I can't do that and neither is the organization willing to do that." Dr. Rogers took a deep breath, "During Dr. Guin's interview he pointed out that perhaps we were approaching the situation wrong. Always choosing to replace our doctors. He suggested instead that we replace the source of the problem. Which would be the members of the crew itself."
"Excuse me?" Barret half shouted, "So you're going to start firing people because of what some asshole doctor said? You think that's fair? This is bullshit!"
"I have severe doubts the board would agree to something like that," Shellington said, agreeing with Barret's opinion in a more mannered fashion.
"Unfortunately," Dr. Rogers raised his voice so he could be heard, "there was a member of the board present for Dr. Guin's interview and he did agree with Dr. Guin. He took that back to the rest of the board and they decided it was a more logical step.
"Now it is known that many of you are of vital importance to the organization itself, so you wouldn't be fired. Just relocated to most likely a land-based job position. Simply put being a part of this crew is a privilege and it can be easily taken away."
The room was quiet, shocked by this announcement. Dashi was the first to recover, "Barret's right. How is this even fair to any of us? You're punishing us because the doctors you hire quit? Hire better doctors!"
"Ms. Daughtry you know as well as I do that I only hire the best doctors for the job –"
"Really? Do you? Cause I beg to differ." She shot back.
"The problem isn't with the doctors I hire," Dr. Rogers continued, ignoring her, "The problem is with this crew. This isn't the first time we've had to address this issue. This crew treats its doctors unfairly."
"We do not," Grover said quietly, finally joining the conversation. Dashi guessed he was finally awake enough, he wasn't a morning person.
"We do nothing other than ask them to do their jobs," Shellington spat out.
"He's right matey, we don't do anything to them. If anything they're the ones who cause problems." Kwazii seconded.
"That is not true," Dr. Rogers said, "every exit survey has cited disrespect, neglect to follow basic medical advice, insubordination, violence, and other various things. These doctors are here to help you and care for you, not just put bandages on you."
Dr. Rogers didn't even bother trying to hide the anger in his voice anymore, "Director Reynolds has already decided that if Dr. Guin contacts anyone, me or a director, about the crew causing him trouble, that crew member or members will be removed.
"There isn't anything anyone can do in this case; your jobs can literally be decided by this man. I want you to treat him respectfully and do what he says exactly. If you choose not to then that is your decision and your job lost. And for god's sake don't ask him what's wrong with his skin either!"
Dashi could see Pike visibly flinch at the mention of his earlier comment.
"I still don't understand how this is fair to any of us. He doesn't know anything about us." Dashi didn't bother to hide the annoyance in her tone.
"Ms. Daughtry life isn't fair, and this decision came as a direct result of the behavior of this crew. You –"
Shellington cut him off, "You agreed with this decision, Professor?"
"I," the Professor paused, "I was overruled," he let out a short sigh, "What Dr. Rogers says is true. One negative report from Dr. Guin could mean permanent removal from the Octopod and that extends to me as well. So I simply ask that everyone is on their best behavior around Dr. Guin."
The group sat in silence. Dashi couldn't believe that their jobs would all basically depend on whether this new doctor liked them or not. It was ridiculous. She shook her head and looked at the Captain. His face was a mix of disbelief and anger as well.
"Does everyone understand?" Dr. Rogers asked. There was no answer, "I'm going to take your silence to mean yes. Does anyone have anything they would like to ask or add?"
"Oh me!" a new voice said excitedly, "You are rude. Dr. Penguin is a respectable 5'3" for one and also, you're just kind of a dick."
"Excuse me? Who are you and how are you on this call?" Dr. Rogers demanded.
There was a sigh and then another new voice. "Alec, you suppose to be in surgery for another four hours without complications, though knowing Mary I wasn't expecting you for at least six. What are you doing here?"
"Dr. Guin?" Dr. Rogers asked.
The first voice, Alec, answered, "Well she got all the way into the OR and then changed her mind. So I told the Chief to take me off her case cause this is the third time and today was my day off. I'm done with it and over it."
"I see. Fair enough I guess. How long have you been in here?" The second voice, Dr. Guin, replied.
"Oh, since the part about what was wrong with your face. I liked that part. It was funny."
"Dr. Guin, how are you on this phone call?" Dr. Rogers asked again.
"I received an email from Dr. Bakewell, you can get the rest of the story from Professor Inkling." Dr. Guin answered plainly.
"I didn't know he had a crew email yet!" Hallie whispered to the table, her face turning red.
"It's fine Dr. Bakewell," Dr. Guin said, "It was an…enlightening conversation. But I would suggest in the future double checking just who exactly you are sending emails to."
"Dr. Guin you were not meant to be part of this meeting so if you could just kindly disconnect…" Dr. Rogers suggested.
"No," Dr. Guin said, his voice taking on a colder edge, "you openly asked for comments and concerns so I might as well share mine.
"Firstly, I believe you have been incredibly disrespectful to Dr. Bakewell. You have addressed everyone else formally throughout this whole discussion but not her. I don't believe, personally, it would be possible for you to be close enough to anyone to speak to them informally.
"Not only that but Dr. Bakewell is a medical professional, which means contrary to what you said there has always been a medical professional onboard to take care of the crew. So I believe you owe her an apology
"Secondly, I've never in my entire career had a colleague who felt they needed to 'warn' others of my height. That was rather interesting. I will be remembering that."
"No. No, I think that was fair. After my comments about calling you Dr. Penguin, I think they would be shocked if a penguin-sized doctor showed up." The other man, the one Dr. Guin had called Alec said before laughing.
His laughter quickly died. There was silence from the phone again, then, "Well, wow this apartment isn't going to pack itself up. Shouldn't we get to work?" Alec spoke again.
"I don't have anything else to say," Dr. Guin said, his voice losing its chilly tone, "and it looks like I'll have to be going now. I'm certain there are no objections to me leaving this call." No one answered. "Then just like Rogers, I'll assume your silence means yes."
The room was mostly silent for a moment, the Captain's knuckles tapping against the table being the only noise. "We're all in agreement that this call has been disastrous, correct?" the Captain said finally.
"I'm so gonna be fired," Pike said from the other end of the table.
"You don't know that," Tunip said, setting her hand on his arm, "It seemed like he was only upset about the short comment."
"No," Dashi spoke up, she wasn't one hundred percent sure but, "It seemed like the only problem Dr. Guin had was with you, Dr. Rogers."
"Excuse me? And what problem do you think he has with me?" Dr. Rogers spat back.
"Let's just call it a day!" Captain Barnacles interrupted loudly, "I don't think anything of value will come from continuing this meeting. We all have jobs we have to get to onboard the sub and on land. Is there anything else you needed to say Dr. Rogers?"
"No, there wasn't."
"Then we will let you go about your work," the Captain said while quickly leaning in to press another button on the phone's console before Dr. Rogers could add anything else.
Kwazii immediately burst into an awkward laugh, while Tweak dropped her head in her hands, "We made a wonderful first impression."
"I didn't know!" Hallie said again, "I just hit 'send to all' under our crew list! I swear I didn't know he had been added in yet!"
"How did he join the call though?" Barret wondered aloud.
Just then the phone rang again. Dashi looked at the Captain and he gave her a weary nod. She leaned forward and hit the answer button.
"It's me. And Kodi," the Professor said quickly.
"He told Dr. Rogers to ask you how he got on this call." Shellington didn't bother with greetings, he jumped straight to accusations, "Did you let him listen in on us?"
"No, Shellington that wasn't the point –"
"Did he know? Dr. Guin?" Dashi cut in, "About what the board had decided, did he know?" She thought it over again. She was positive Dr. Rogers hadn't said anything about Dr. Guin actually knowing he would possibly be deciding their jobs.
"No. He didn't know yet. I wasn't sure how to tell himor if I even could, but then he sent me a text message saying he got an email about himself. So, I quickly sent him a text to answer his phone and just listen. I knew that Dr. Rogers was planning to tell you that…and I just thought it was unfair to Dr. Guin."
"If he didn't know then why didn't he say anything to defend himself?" Barret asked, "I mean we were all pretty pissed off, still am. Or why didn't he say something at all?"
"What should he have said?" Dashi asked, "It's not like it's a decision he gets to make. Its literally from the board."
"Nah he had to have known," Barret argued.
No one had anything to say to that. Dashi admitted to herself it would be a very awkward position to be in, having everyone know you could be the reason they get fired.
"I take it Dashi is right?" the Captain asked, "About Dr. Guin and Dr. Rogers possibly having issues with each other."
The Professor hesitated, "There arose an issue that none of us were aware of at the time, other than Dr. Rogers, during Dr. Guin's interview. I don't want to get into it right now, but I agree with Dr. Guin in that matter and I doubt we will be able to get a doctor from this area again thanks to Dr. Rogers."
"Damn, what did he do? Con this dude into working for us or some shit?" Barret asked.
"Now isn't the time, unfortunately. Dr. Rogers has already called me three separate times and I don't think I can ignore him much longer," the Professor gave a little chuckle, "I don't want him calling the board on me. Listening to any of them giving me a lecture on not ignoring my employees doesn't sound appealing."
"Wait, before you go," Tweak started, "how do you feel about him? Do you think he'll actually try to get any of us fired?"
"From what I can tell Dr. Guin takes his job seriously, and so far that's all I can really say of him. So I don't have an answer for you. I would hope that he isn't that kind of person, but…" he trailed off.
"But what?" the Captain asked.
The Professor groaned, "Reynolds is calling me now, I have to go. I promise I will speak with you again soon." With that, he hung up.
"I'm so fired then," Pike dropped his head to the table harshly, "I literally said what's wrong with his skin. I didn't even mean it like." His voice was muffled from the table but it wasn't hard to figure out what he was referring to.
Kwazii started laughing again.
"What's so funny?" Dashi snapped.
"The Dr. Penguin thing," Kwazii said, "Whoever he was with, joked about it too. And he didn't even care."
"I doubt he would since that's literally his name," Dashi said, she had scrolled back to the top of the file where this new doctor's full name was listed.
"What?" Tweak asked.
Dashi passed her tablet to Tweak and told her to read the name.
"He has two middle names?" Tweak asked, "Oh, yeah. With his initials and his last name. It P.E.N Guin. That's" she paused, "that's unfortunate? Or maybe it's not? I don't know.
Kwazii had started laughing again at this new discovery next to Tweak.
"Wait," Pike picked his head from the table, "So do we have to call him Dr. Penguin then?"
Dashi stared at him for a moment before shaking her head, "Yeah, you're gonna get fired sweetie."
⸶ ⸳ ⸸ ⸳ ⸷
It was later that afternoon when she got a text from the Professor. It was a simple text, 'Call when you can' but when she considered how little the Professor actually texted it made it seem all the more urgent.
She told the Captain that she had to make a call and would be taking her break. She headed down to the only place in the entire sub where you could actually have a private conversation. The Captain's Office.
Well technically it was also the Professor's office, and Kwazii's office, and it was mainly used as a storage area but still, it was the most private place in the sub.
He answered on the first ring, "Dashi, you were faster than I expected."
"Well, you had me a little nervous. What's going on?" She had a feeling it had to do with the new doctor.
"I didn't really know who else to ask, and I don't want everyone on the crew suspicious –"
"So it is about our new doctor?"
The Professor hesitated again, "Yes. It's just something Chief Attenburg said when I spoke to him privately hasn't left my mind. He said that Dr. Guin picks at problems and doesn't leave them alone and then that makes his hospital like this."
"Like what?"
"He didn't say he simply gestured around himself. And he didn't explain it either, he said it wouldn't affect us, but I did notice that the hospital seemed very understaffed. Not that I think one doctor could cause a whole hospital to be understaffed but it's just stuck in my head."
"So what do you want me to do?"
"I don't know exactly. Do you think you could find anything out if you looked online? I know you're good with all that technology stuff."
She grinned and held in a laugh, yeah she was definitely good with 'all that technology stuff', "So you want me to dig up information on him? I mean I could see what I can do, it's just how deep do you want me to dig?"
"I'm not asking you to do anything underhanded or sneaky, but I just tried looking him up online and the hospital and I just got articles that seemed normal. I thought maybe you could do better." He hinted.
"Do you think he's going to be a problem?" Dashi asked, hoping for a serious answer.
The Professor was silent for a moment, "Honestly Dashi, overall I have a very good feeling about him. I think he will fit in with our crew nicely. I'm just worried about what Chief Attenburg wouldn't say."
"It might not have been anything. I mean if you truly think he's going to work then do you really want me digging into his life?"
"I would feel better if you found nothing interesting."
"Okay, then I'll try to see what I can find. Do you really think he'll make it a whole year?"
"I don't know but I do hope so."
⸶ ⸳ ⸸ ⸳ ⸷
She reached her arms far above her head, stretching out her back, and looked at the clock.
Ugh.
She had to get up for her shift in a few hours, they were headed closer to where the supply ship was supposed to meet them, which meant overnight for at least tonight and maybe tomorrow. The closer they were to shore the better overall, no need to make the supply ship come all the way out here for one trip.
She looked back to her laptop screen. So far she had found nothing incriminating about their new doctor.
The only thing shocking thing that she had even found out was there had been a shooting incident at the hospital, Savannah General, one member of staff had died, their previous Chief. Chief Grace Stewart. Later the hospital had changed its name to what it currently was, Savannah Grace.
And it wasn't really about Dr. Guin or the hospital he worked at, but she did find that one reporter, in particular, seemed to do a lot of stories about the hospitals in the area in general. Millie Smith-Sanders. But Dashi couldn't find any way that she was connected to Dr. Guin, so it was probably more of just an area of special interest.
The only other thing of note that she had learned was of Silverwood Hospital closing.
They had been bought by another hospital in the area. Shortly after the purchase they announced that Silverwood would be closed for a period for 'repairs and updates'. Just a few months after that they announced that the hospital would be closing indefinitely.
But other than those few things Dashi found nothing she would deem worth mentioning. There were bits and pieces of news about Dr. Guin here and there, a short history of his schooling and work history on the staff page of the hospital. Even just a standard google search pulled up basic information about him, but she had guess that a basic search was what the Professor had done.
She tapped her nails against her keyboard. She could, of course try digging a little deeper. It would be the only real way to find anything more than just surface level information. She just had to decide if it was worth the effort…and the Captain's potential wrath. It would be difficult but doable.
At the same time, she didn't want to poke around any farther. Professor Inkling had said that he had a good overall feeling for this new doctor. He seemed like a generally good person from what she had found, so it felt a bit like overkill to dig deeper. She knew telling the Professor this would make him feel better, so she didn't feel like she had wasted her time.
She shut her laptop and set it on the floor next to her bed, it would be fine there for the night, and she at least needed to nap before her shift.