An Apple a Day... (Idina, Open)

[jesslewis]

Before they could set off on their mission, Jess had to give everyone a medical exam just to make sure they were physically fit and well enough to continue on the mission. She was the most qualified person to do it, she done it so many times before. It basically meant she just weighed and measured, took blood tests etc, made sure they had nothing contagious or particularly life threatening, and wouldn't succumb to sickness from being in space. She also had to get them to fill out a quiz which Julia, the ship's psychologist, would review over the next couple of days.

First on her list was the youngest crew member, Idina Petrov. originally she wasn't sure someone so young should have been lumbered with such a responsibility, but once she'd read Idina's file, she was sure Idina would be able to handle it. She looked to be the brightest kid on the planet, if not in the galaxy, and there was nothing in her medical records that sent up alarm bells to Jess. The check should be pretty straight forward. While she was waiting, she tied her shoulder length hair back, and checked all the computer consoles were still working. She glanced at her watch and sighed slightly.

[idina]

Even though Idina had only been on the ship a few hours before she was starting to get used to it. At least for the most part. It was true that every new room she entered she found something else to over whelm her. This was all so new, and part of her was starting to doubt that she could do this. If a starship caused her this much trouble then what was she going to do when they ended up landing on some strange plant light years away? She would surely lose her mind. All the new technology and things that she had only read about in books. It was different when you actually saw it in person. Not to mention the fact that she was years younger than even the second youngest on the ship. And was already put out on the outs with the rest of her crew because of that. Of course none of them had actually been rude to her because of her age, but Idina was smart enough to realize that it was a problem for most people.

Thus she had taken to her room by herself after the meeting to unpack by herself. Sure it wasn't that good to be isolating herself this early. It could only lead to her being by herself the whole time while on the ship. And that wasn't something she wanted. It could get very boring and lonely if that happened. Especially when there was only the few crew members to keep her company. But she needed some time to get used to all this. And she took as much as she could until she was needed in the medical bay for a per-exam. When it can this time she exited and began to walk, hoping just by chance she would stumble upon the right place. Of course she had memorized the ships floor plans, but when she was walking through it it was a lot harder to know where to go.

Luckily she did stumble upon the right place, and just in time too. She softly entered the room awe struck by the room. Of course she had been to similar medical area's in her home town, but there was something different about it when she knew they were on a ship. She swallowed hard and quickly made a soft noise so that she wouldn't scare the doctor. "Um.. excuse me.. I'm Idina... I'm here for my exam..." She said her voice failing her again and becoming shaky. She hated that. She wanted to seem brave and ready for that, but her voice kept failing her and giving away her true nervous.

[jesslewis]

Jess turned round as Idina entered and gave her a warm smile. She'd managed to meet the Captain in the time before she started duties and he'd mentioned what the other crew members were like. It seemed like Idina was nervous. She was the youngest and knew it. It was a shame there wasn't someone else her age or someone she knew on the ship, bad thinking on the part of the government. It wasn't fair to place a child alone on a ship with a bunch of adults. Jess knew that she would have been freaked out in that situation, so she wouldn't expect anything less from anyone else. Even the bravest kid with have jitters.

"Hi Idina, I'm Jess, the Doctor on board," she introduced herself, "why don't you come and sit down for a moment, we can have a chat before we start the exam." She gestured to one of the beds for Idina to sit on, then grabbed a chair, pulling it up to beside the bed. Once Idina was seated, she gave her another smile, "I just wanted to find out how you were settling in," she said, "whether you've met any body yet?" Then she added, "don't worry, I'm going to go over stuff like this with everyone." Maybe not in exactly the same vain, but making sure that everyone was completely okay, or at least would be soon.

[idina]

When the doctor asked her to come sit down she stood still for a fraction of a second trying to get herself together before she went forward. She had known that this was going to be hard, but her whole life she had been good at hiding her emotions, her fear of her father. But from the moment she had walked on to this ship all the years of practice had gone out the door and she had been a wreck. She couldn't even began to think about what the ship mates she had already meet thought of her. That she was just a little scared girl tat had no business being in space. That was the last thing that she had wanted. She had wanted to walk on with her head held high, acting like she had done something like this before and automatically gain the respect of her crew mates just for being brave. But now she was going to have to prove herself and she wasn't to sure if she could do that.

Pulling herself together she stepped forward and placed herself on the bed. She felt awkward sitting their but she hid the feeling well, the first time since she got on the ship. Of course the doctor had most likely already heard about her and how nervous she was, everyone had to know by now. After all a sixteen year old on a starship was big news, and in a place with not much going on at the moment people were bound to talk. So there was no way of erasing what she had already done. The damage was already done. Nothing she could do about it but some damage control. Hopefully she would pass the exam quickly, and be able to get back to being by herself. She didn't want to have to be around people right now, because she knew she wasn't under control, and at any moment she could break down again. In her head she began to repeat random facts about animals, a topic that she spent most her childhood reading about. At one point she had thought she would work with animals when she grew up but over time she had thought against it. The facts helped her calm down, and keep her mind distracted from what was going on around her.

When Jess asked how she was doing, and that she would be asked everyone she knew differently. Of course Idina would get special attention. She was so young and new at all this, and the doctor wanted to make sure she was okay. Part of Idina understood this and part of her was mad at it. Why was so different? Why did it matter if she was a little scared. Everyone was at one point. But in the end there was nothing she could do but go along and try and keep a straight face, if not even through a smile in every once in a while. "I'm good." She lied knowing that that one would be seen right through, but she wasn't about to confess that she was falling apart. When she thought about the people she had meet already she let a fake, yet seemingly real smile cross her face, which wasn't all that hard. She had faked a smile her whole life, she could barely remember a time she actually smiled for real, not since she was fourteen. "I've meet the Captain, Anna, and Natalie at the meeting. They all seem very nice." She said smoothly.

[jesslewis]

”Well, that’s more than me,” Jess said. Since she’d arrived on the ship late, she’d missed the big briefing and everyone settling in; she’d sort of missed the boat. She was lucky in that everyone had to come to her for their medical, so she would get to meet everyone, but anyone else who’d missed the briefing would have to manage on their own. She’d hit it off with the Captain pretty well, more than well really, and she was interested to meet the rest of the crew, the people who were supposed to be the best of the best. It would probably be an interesting study to bring a load of people like that together on a space ship if they didn’t have a serious mission.

”Nice?” she repeated, well that was a start. Years of working with people in denial of their illness meant that she could tell when someone was lying, but as long as Idina was just avoiding the truth about her situation, or admitting it to anyone else, then Jess wasn’t going to say anything for now. Anything that Idina didn’t say would come up on the quiz that Julia had set up for Jess to give to the crew members. Same with everyone else. In fact, Jess was going to have to fill out one at some point. An in depth look into her psyche; she’d avoided it for a long time but now it was compulsory. She didn’t imagine anything horrendous would come up, she hoped not anyway.

”Well, let’s get started with the exam,” she said, figuring they didn’t really have to waste any time if Idina didn’t want to be here for long. ”First we’re going to weigh you and measure you, then take DNA and blood samples before I check a few other things, then I’m going to give you a quiz to fill out for Julia, the ship’s psychologist to look at, comfortable with all of that?” She got up off her chair, pushing it out of the way, then began setting everything up, gesturing for Idina to come over to the computer that would take all her measurements. Jess tried to keep up the conversation while they went over everything. ”So, managed to figure out how to not get lost on the ship yet?” she asked, ”if you have, I could definitely use your help. I’ve walked into the bathroom instead of the room I intended to go into a couple of times already.”

[idina]

Idina new that she hadn't fooled Jess by a long shot. Luckily it seemed like she wasn't going to push it. Which Idina was very thankful for. She didn't want to go into her life. Didn't want to have to share who she was with anyone. She liked to be in the shadows, not be seen. Which seemed to work very well with her newly appointed job. As an observer she could just sit in the back ground making her notes, and staying out the eye of other. At the same time Part of Idina didn't want to just be in the background when it came to help the universe. She wanted to be able to say that she had helped saved all those people and aliens. She hadn't been able to help her sister, save her from the death that both had known would come if someone didn't stop her father. Which she hadn't been able to do. But she could do this. She could find a way to help someone else. Hopefully she would be given the chance to though.

Idina only nodded her head as Jess explained what she was going to be doing. Everything seemed simple and straight forward. The only thing that worried her was the exam that she had to take for the psychologist. She knew she had some problems, and didn't want those to come to light to anyone. But if she took the exam she knew that they would. There was no stopping it. Even if her problems didn't get her pushed off the mission they would still put her a step further behind everyone else and maybe even worse. Of course she was smart and had taken a few psychology courses in the past so she new how to fake the test. But she wasn't sure if she wanted to be that. She was all for the rules and not breaking them, even the implied one's like not cheating on your psych eval. She was going to have to think about what she was going to do. She had time.

Upon order she got up and made her way to the examination area where Jessica began to work on her. She knew she would pass all the health tests. Of course she was a little skinner than she should have been, but in general she was in good health. Always had. Hadn't even been sick worse than a cold, or broken any bones. Idina flashed Jess a fake smile at her story. "Not yet. I though but memorizing the floor plans I could do it, but its alot different when your actually in the place, and can't see actually where you are in the ship like you can on a map." She said her voice matter of fact. One thing she was good at was talking about fact and things that weren't about her or others. "I'll have it down in a few days, though, as long as I keep walking the hallways." She didn't seem to sound too smart, but it just came out and she hated that.

[jesslewis]

Idina was so quiet, there must have been a lot going on in that head of hers, she just didn't verbalise it. Jess was used to dealing with all sorts of people, quiet people who were shy, or antisocial, or weren't very good at communicating with people, sometimes through no fault of their own. There were chatty people, friendly people, funny people. Then there were the loud ones, people who put a fight because they didn't want to be treated, or couldn't accept the situation that they were in. Jess had seen a fair few of those. In the end, they usually took the treatment anyway, or refused and were sent home. There had been tragic cases where people hadn't taken their symptoms seriously until it was too late to do anything. They could prolong peoples' lives when they were ill using medicine and machines, but sometimes it wasn't possible to save everyone.

Jess had met Julia, the ship's psychologist, briefly earlier on, and she seemed very serious about making sure the crew were all psychologically well at all times. They'd need that, especially with some of the stuff Jess imagined they'd be seeing. These rifts were causing real destruction, wrecking peoples' lives and homes. Even some of the strongest crew members were going to need help with what they were seeing on a day to day basis, especially the ones who had to deal directly with the investigations. Jess didn't know exactly how much Idina would be doing or seeing as an observer, but she hoped the girl would be okay. She and Julia would make sure she was anyway.

"Good," Jess said with a smile after Idina had spoken, "if you see me wandering around looking lost, be sure to point me in the right direction. Seriously," she added with a nod. The computer did most of the work for Jess, taking all the measurements it needed before it stored it all onto the system, then the results flashed up in a table on her hand held computer. "Everything looks good," she said, "you have a great immune system," she commented, "probably all those cold winters." She got Idina to sit up, then grabbed a tourniquet, fixing it around Idina's upper arm before picking up a cotton swab, cleaning the area where the needle would go in, "I'm going to have to take two or three small amounts," she said, just forewarning Idina, "but I promise you'll be able to walk out of here after." She picked up the needle, looking back at Idina, choosing a topic to talk to her about while she took the blood, "what's your home town like?"