She hurried down the corridor, her boot heels clicking against the polished surface while passing through the blurs of blue, yellow, and red without so much as a glance up from the data pad she was tapping on, but as she turned the corner to get on the turbo lift, a trilling voice broke through her concentration.

"Ms.Q'eil! Oh, Ms.Q'eil wait!"

She turned to acknowledge the bobbing blonde as the girl practically crashed into her in the excitement of her errand. Catching her breath, she handed her an order slip. Glancing over it, Lt. Q'eil handed the data pad she had been working on back to the blonde, "Why isn't Ensign Yates reporting to this station?"

"Uh," the girl squirmed under a steady lavender gaze staring her down quizzically from under bangs that were a pewter shade of gray; "I don't know ma'am, I was only told to fetch you by First Officer Spock to relieve her and report directly to the CMO."

Lt.Q'eil arched an eyebrow and then dismissed the girl. Watching the blonde duck back through the crowd, she was left to ponder such a direct request from the bridge as the turbo lift door slid shut.

When the door opened, she made her way gracefully and quickly to the medical bay. She was greeted by Nurse Chapel, the ship's head nurse, at the door.

Standing at attention, she announced her reassignment and was waved into the bay.

"Be careful, dear," the charismatic blonde clucked at her, "he's in a mood today, probably from the department being understaffed during the mandatory physical exams.... You better wait until I get back from running to the lab before you try to go into the office."

"Yes, ma'am." Lt. Q'eil responded, and watched the figure of the head nurse disappear down the corridor. She hated remaining idle, however, and began inspecting her surroundings. Having little use of the Enterprise's medical resources herself, she'd never reported to this area of the ship before.

A shuffle and a small human noise from behind a semi-opaque partition caused her to pause. Thinking it may be a patient in need, and seeing no other medical staff in the room, Lt. Q'eil cautiously peeked around the partition to see if she could offer assistance to whoever was on the other side. Instead of a biobed, however, she was met with the sight of a disassembled office stacked nearly knee-high with various datapads, order forms, and medical tools. The infuriating disorganization aside, she was further shocked by the visage of a man with dark brown hair slumped over a desk in the middle of the disarray, head laying awkwardly on the desk, whiskey flask in hand.

Examining the sleeping man, she deduced he was a senior medical officer, early thirties, most likely the doctor on duty as there didn't seem to be another soul in the bay. His age was imprinted by the age lines already starting to crease under his eyes, probably from lack of sleep, or from being easily stressed out; and as she could surmise from the contraband flask, he was probably unable to adequately cope with said stress.

Just as she was about to back out of the office, the man stirred and lifting his head off the desk, his eyes flew open to reveal startling blue irises. His eyes remained unfocused for a mere moment before settling on her.

"Damn, can't a man close his eyes for two seconds?" he turned to his screen, hiding the flask somewhere underneath the desk.

"You're early, which I guess isn't the worst thing, better than being late." He sighed and stood up, grabbing a tricorder scanner from somewhere buried in the mess, and headed towards her.

"Sir, I'm here-"

He threw up his hand. "Look, kid, the whole process goes easier if you just answer my questions, sit still for the pokes an' prods, and don't give me any lip."

He motioned to the closest bio bed. "Up on that."

Lt. Q'eil complied, slightly confused, but before she could ask, he demanded her name and began scanning her with the tricorder wand.

"Lt. Chakra Q'eil, but Doctor-"

"Damn, this can't be right," he glanced over the tricorder screen, and then started tapping on the transparent screen next to the bed, "how you spell that last name?"

"Doctor, please, I don't need an exam, I-"

"Quit wasting my time and answer the question, I'm a doctor... I have better things to do than listen to your yammering."

She clenched her teeth. Like what, drink yourself into another nap?

"Q-apostrophe-e-i-l."

After tapping her name into the computer, his face twisted into a scowl. "What the hell?"

She sighed inwardly, and sat compliantly as he scanned her again, glared at the computer, then turned to glare at her, "it says you're not authorized for an exam, in fact, you're a Ty'roi , so you probably won't ever need one... so what the hell are you doing in my medical bay?"

"That's what I was trying to tell you!" she hopped off the bed, exasperated. "I was sent to assist in your paperwork filing, not get 'poked an' prodded,' as you put it."

He set down the tricorder and stroked his chin as he seemed to be tossing the information around in his cranky little skull. She had a hard time trying not to mimic the scowl that seemed to be permanently pasted on his face.

"Doctor, I'm sure the CMO can verify that a request was put through the bridge for administrative assistance if you don't believe me, but I have a few hours left to my shift, and I will spend them doing what was ordered of me, even if he is not here."

His face erupted into a full snarl, "I am the CMO damnit, and I didn't request anything of the sort, especially not for them to send someone in between physical examinations who'd waste my time and my patience with her attitude! Now, like it or not, it is my job to file an examination of each and every member of this crew, and since you're here, you'll have to go through it, and you will, before you touch a scrap of my medical files."

She sat back down on the edge of the biobed, taken aback by his explosive reaction. He continued to tap the screen next to her head while she struggled to comprehend why he would badger her in such a manner.

Grumbling to himself, he grabbed a datapad from a nearby cabinet, "All right, besides a few basics the federation felt like sharing, there is nothing in your medical file, so we'll have to start from scratch, and I'll need to know everything that could possibly become a medical issue later. We'll skip the vaccination history since there is a notation that you have an extremely high immunity to nearly every known bacteria and virus; and aside from your odd coloration, you appear human in every physiological aspect, save one... your heartbeat is unusually quiet."

Her eyebrows raised in surprise, "how so?"

"Well it's not like it isn't pulsing regularly, it's just... quieter than it should be, I can't explain it without an internal scan, but I don't have time right now to conduct one, I will schedule you one for after the ship-wide exams..... So aside from that, are there any unknown genetic factors of your alien heritage that I need to know about?"

"Are they not filed?" she asked as he checked her eye reflexes.

"There's only an ambiguous note about an unusual adrenal reaction." he responded as he injected her with a hypo.

"OW!' she exclaimed, "What was that?"

"Nothing to worry about, it'll hit in a minute," he tapped at the datapad, "Now, how about answering the question?"

"There are really only two things that could be classified as medical hazards," she responded, rubbing her neck, "that is my kinetic-psionic ability and the adrenal reaction listed."

"By kinetic, you mean..."

"I am a touch-telepath. Nowhere never the level of Vulcans, but I can sense and sometimes see what others think and feel through contact." Her heart started to feel like it was racing.

"What about the other thing?" he seemed to be looking at her intently.

"I-" did it get hotter in the room?

"I-" no, her heart was definitely racing. "Doctor, what was in that hypo?"

"A mild stimulant," he murmured, "to test your reaction to determine if it's something I should really be concerned about, as a hazard to yourself and the other members of this crew, or-"

Her eyes widened, and she slid off the bed away from him, "What- Why... why would you do that?"

He glared at her, "Damnit woman, I just told you-"

She felt it starting in her left cheek, frozen droplets beginning to form out of her pores and solidify, shingling into each other to form a blue crystalline layer over her pale skin.

"My God," he grabbed her arm, staring at the crystals building across her wrist, "I was not expecting the reaction to be anything like this!"

She struggled to calm her body before the crystals could meld to form solid plates across her skin, only half-hearing the doctor re-scan her and chatter on about how indignant he was that Starfleet would allow someone like her on board without notifying or informing the ship's CMO; or at least provide a half-decent god-damn medical file so he'd know what to expect from a person whose species were so unfamiliar. Slowly, too slowly it seemed, her nerves started to settle, and as they did, the formed crystals dried over her skin were shed.

When she could breathe normally again, she glared at the doctor who was tapping furiously at the datapad.

He murmured, "Well, that concludes the tests, now-"

"Doctor!" she exclaimed, furious. "That was the most unethical, intrusive-"

The door to the medical bay slid open, and nurse Chapel walked in, chatting with another nurse with long black hair.

"Oh, my." She glanced between the scowling doctor and equally infuriated Chakra Q'eil. "Dr.McCoy, is everything all right?"

"Everything is fine." he replied coolly, "Lt. Q'eil has finished her physical exam, and has been granted medical leave for the rest of her shift."

Chakra turned to glare at him, then turned back to Nurse Chapel and bowed her head before hurriedly leaving Medical Bay, angry tears and another layer of crystal barely being held back.