Serendipity (Book 1 of the Dana Halliday series)

SHERLOCK MCSCANNY. SICKBAY. DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS.

It took us several days to get to Galileo's Outpost, the colony where all travelers to our solar system are required to check in and out. It's located on Callisto, which is, of course, one of the Galilean Moons of Jupiter. 

I used some of the time to review the solar system, which I think I last studied in junior high. I used a little of the time training Billie to relieve herself in a sort of dog-sized litterbox, which she took to fairly easily. I used more of the time organizing my new workplace and reading up on the various spacefaring species I'd be meeting.

Serendipity isn't a large craft, or so Adrian told me, but it seemed spacious enough to me. The upper level consists of the shuttle section, and the deck below that the living quarters and Sickbay.  The bottom section is the largest, containing the main cargo hold and the engine room.

Adrian called it a hospital, but I had decided it must be a Sickbay. 

"Are you busy?" I asked Flynt, on the second day. We were traveling through the asteroid belt, which is not nearly as nerve-wracking as it sounds. Although I hadn't yet gotten tired of watching the occasional big rock streak by us in the distance, I figured I should familiarize myself with everything I had.

"Well, I was just—"

"Then get in here. You get to be my first patient." I smiled. "Well, my first speaking patient." I had already poked and prodded Billie enough that she was giving the Sickbay a wide berth.

Flynt sighed, but he followed me cheerfully enough. The entrance is a small lobby with a few bolted-down benches and couches. No magazines, though. Behind this is a hallway with six treatment rooms, and behind that is Main Treatment: a wide area encompassing two surgery suites, a laboratory, a pharmacy, and what I had dubbed Sherlock McScanny. It looks a bit like an x-ray machine with a comfortable wheeled bed, but it's larger and equipped with some fairly awesome technology.

I gestured at McScanny. "Hop on. Take your shirt off." I paused. "I mean, if that's okay." I wasn't used to asking my patients for permission to violate them.

Flynt turned slightly away from me, head tilted a bit. "I'll take everything off if you want. I don't have a problem with it." 

Besides being completely comfortable with nudity, the Fenn have very formal body language, which Flynt had suppressed when mingling with clueless Earthers. This posture was respectful, but in a less-than-serious way; it meant he was teasing.

"Um, no, that's okay." I waited as he pulled off his shirt and sat on the table, curling his legs under himself. "I just want to get your baselines. That's the problem with not having any experience, I don't know what's normal for you."

I wrapped a wide black elastic band around his left forearm, and McScanny erupted into life. A large screen at the head of the table lit up, as did the light over Flynt's head. The light began to rove over him, and blanks started filling in on the screen. Absolute magic.

"Hm," I said, reading the screen.

"Hm, what?"

"You weigh about twenty pounds less than I'd have thought. Your temperature's crazy high, a hundred and eight Fahrenheit. Heart rate...like a freaking hummingbird. Blood pressure's lower than I'd expect. The EKG is all jacked up...guess that means your pacemaker is in a different chamber? Respiratory rate...same as mine."

Flynt smiled. "I have no idea what you just said."

I smiled too. Flynt and Adrian were constantly spewing ship-related technobabble, which I neither understood nor really wanted to pay much attention. It would have made me way more nervous about the whole space-travel thing. Flynt seemed to feel the same way about medical technology.