Commander Mira Novak walked through the corridors of her station, each step on the deck just a little more uneasy than the last. She’d managed to ignore the discomfort she’d been experiencing at the periphery of her chest for the majority of the duty day, but her body had finally reached the point where willpower alone no longer kept things in line. Mira had brushed against the idea of summoning the Chief Medical Officer to her office on the command-and-control deck, but had abandoned the notion given how intensely she valued her privacy when it came to her biology.

Crossing the threshold into the Main Infirmary suite, Mira was surprised by just how modern the compartment looked in comparison with the rest of the station. She’d been half-expecting old bio-beds ringing the walls, and antiquated displays that were more common in medical museums than in the active fleet. To walk into an infirmary that would have been right at home inside Earth’s Spacedock caught the woman by surprise.

As Commander Novak was standing in the reception area, gazing at it with a mixture of confusion and awe, one of the nursing staff walked over to inquire about her visit, “Good afternoon, Commander. Can I help you with something?”

“Hm?” Novak muttered absentmindedly before catching on to what she’d been asked, “Yes, I’m here to see Doctor Vreen… as a patient.”

“Alright,” the man nodded and indicated toward a nearby corridor, “I can show you to an examination room and take down some preliminary information.”

“Thank you, but I’d prefer if the details of my visit are kept as confidential as possible. Guiding me to the exam room would be sufficient,” Mira said with an edge of defensiveness in her voice.

“Understood,” the young Lieutenant said in an empathic tone, “Please follow me.”

Mira fell into step behind the nurse as he guided her along a short corridor with doors dotted along its walls. The man stopped outside of one that had ‘Exam Room Six’ emblazoned on the identification plate at eye level, and once they parted with a soft hydraulic hiss, Novak stepped through.

“I’ll let Doctor Vreen know you’re here. May I tell her your name, ma’am?” the Lieutenant asked from the doorway.

“Commander Novak,” Mira replied as she took a seat on the examination table that doubled as a bed.

“Ah!” the man said in a flash of understanding, “Our new station commander. Understood, I’ll let her know and she should be right with you. I don’t believe she was attending to any patients this afternoon so you shouldn’t need to wait very long.”

“Thank you for your assistance, Lieutenant,” Novak said with just enough warmth as to not sound dismissive.

The door swished closed and Mira started to glance around the modern examination room with the same restrained amazement as she’d viewed the reception area. The dissonance between the Infirmary and the rest of the station was jarring, and completely subversive to any expectation she’d had before she’d arrived. It began to ferment a curiosity about some of the other facilities aboard the station that might not have survived in their rustic aesthetic state.

Mira’s thoughts only had a few brief moments to flirt with the notion of aesthetics before the door to the examination room slid back open to allow a woman wearing the teal uniform of the sciences division with the softer teal jacket that many Chiefs of Medicine wore throughout Starfleet. The woman’s Zakdorn features made it obvious at a glance who she was, being that she was the only representative of her species currently assigned aboard.

“Doctor Vreen,” Mira said in acknowledgment as the woman made her way inside and retrieved a tricorder.

“And you are Commander Novak,” Halda said flatly as she began running the medical scanner around Mira’s head and chest, “What brings you to my Infirmary under such clandestine circumstances?”

“I’ve been having some discomfort at the edges of my chest since this morning. They’ve become distracting enough that I couldn’t ignore the sensation anymore,” Novak explained.

Dr. Vreen pursed her lips into a thin judgmental frown, “And do you often ignore physical signs of medical distress?”

“I wouldn’t define it as often,” Mira countered. “But given my… heritage… it’s difficult to address it each and every time it comes up and still maintain a level of privacy. At least aboard a starship.”

“Yes… hybrid children often have medical issues that require regular maintenance to preserve biological normalcy,” Halda said in a dry tone, “This isn’t the first case of Multisystemic Hybrid Modulation Syndrome I’ve encountered, nor will it be the last. And your particular variant is one of the more benign I’ve seen in a long time. There’s nothing about it that would raise any alarms with any of my staff.”

“I’m not worried about the condition itself,” Novak said after letting the doctor’s statement hang, “It’s why I have the condition that I’d rather not advertise.”

Dr. Vreen checked her scans a little more closely before her eyebrow popped upward, “I see. And here I was assuming you were just another Vulcan hybrid. You’re actually rather fortunate you don’t have some of the cognitive issues that a Romulan hybrid has been shown to suffer from in certain cases. The medical journals about Human-Romulan offspring are only now starting to circulate with some regularity…”

“Hence my aversion to having that information getting around. I was born before it wasn’t strange to see a Romulan walking around on Earth… or Luna, where I came from,” Mira said, her fists balling on her lap.

Halda noticed the gesture but refrained from drawing attention to it, “It is your information to divulge or conceal, Commander. I don’t make it a habit of passing judgment on my patients for accidents of birth.”

The Zakdorn replaced the medical scanner into her tricorder with a sharp snap, “What I do take issue with, however, is patients who ignore the body for nonsensical reasons. If you are concerned about confidentiality, I am happy to attend to you personally. That is one of the privileges of your position in the first place, so that would not appear in the least bit suspect.”

Halda moved over to the hypospray container near the entrance to the exam room, “Given how minimally your Romulan heritage presents physiologically, we can simply reference Vulcanoid complications if we need to speak of it in front of my staff at any point to maintain a semblance of anonymity in regards to your background without compromising care.”

Dr. Vreen loaded a vial into the hypospray and return to Mira’s bedside, “I will administer Inaprovaline to combat your current symptoms, and I will send you off with a dose to take before you go to bed tonight. You will probably need to report back to the Infirmary every seven to ten days to receive routine doses, and so that I can monitor your condition and amend my treatment plan as needed.”

The sharp hiss of the injector delivering the medication directly into Novak’s bloodstream came without warning, startling the woman just slightly with how abrupt the Zakdorn was in the practice of her craft. Once the hiss stopped, Dr. Vreen dropped the hypospray into Mira’s palm without even looking to see if she was ready to accept it.

“Thank you, doctor…” Novak said, gazing at the medical device in her hand for a moment.

“Was there anything else causing you discomfort?” Halda asked bluntly.

“No,” Mira shook her head, “That was the only reason for my visit.”

“Very well then. Give the Inaprovaline about two minutes to cycle through your blood stream, and you should feel well enough to return to duty. I will have my head nurse make a reoccurring calendar event for your follow-ups so that you need not track it yourself, and conveniently forget,” Dr. Vreen said before turning about and leaving the room in the same brisk manner she’d entered.

Once the door had slid shut and Mira was alone, she muttered quietly, “And people say I’m cold…”