Jasmine And Ensign Wei

Posted on May 13, 2020 @ 6:19am by Lieutenant Jasmine Yu
Edited on on May 13, 2020 @ 6:19am

Mission: Dog Days Of Summer

“Jasmine and Ensign Wei”

(contd from ‘Damn Feelings’)
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Location: USS PHOENIX
SD: [2.20] 0512.2350
Scene: Yu’s quarters


After waking up, Lieutenant Jasmine Yu’s daily routine began with twenty minutes of yoga stretches to loosen her stiff muscles and clear her mind, needed to handle the rigours of work. Seated on a green square mat, dressed in blue and green flannel pajama pants and a loose dark blue t-shirt, and her long black hair tied in a ponytail, Jasmine inhaled and exhaled through her nose as she raised her arms to the side. After taking in another breath, she then lifted her arms above her shoulders, maintaining the pose as she inhaled and exhaled again. She brought her arms down to her chest, bringing the palms together. She repeated the stretch a few times before moving onto the next pose.

Ten minutes and a couple of stretches later, Jasmine was now lying flat on her stomach. With her palms pressed on the floor, she slowly lifted her head and then her chest and remained there, taking in a couple of breaths. The young woman curled her lips into a smile, noticing at the corner of her eye, Wei attempting to imitate her. The corgi puppy lay on her stomach, with head and chest gently raised but then immediately dropped back down. Yu let out a light chuckle as the puppy hopped to a sitting position and yapped.

After completing the rest of her stretches, Jasmine began to get ready for her duty shift and that included taking a quick shower and putting on a fresh, clean uniform. With Wei in tow, she headed to the living room, making her way to the replicator. The puppy followed, her tongue hanging out, eagerly awaiting her breakfast. Jasmine first ordered breakfast for her puppy. A moment later, a bowl of dog food, appeared. Jasmine took the bowl and placed it down in front of the corgi. Then the Sec/Tac made her own order and in the window, a tray materialized, holding a cup of hot, steaming green tea infused with lemon and honey, a plate with two slices of thin pancakes, soaked in a light brown syrup, and a bowl containing an assortment of fresh fruits. Jasmine picked up the tray and walked to the coffee table in the centre of the room. Placing the tray on the table, she sat down on one of the forest green sofas. Wei joined her, having finished her breakfast.

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Scene: Sickbay
TI: Later in the afternoon


The doors parted, permitting Jasmine and Wei to enter the sickbay, which looked to be busier than usual. She furrowed her brow and sighed, remembering the notice, sent by sickbay, to everyone’s terminals, reminding them of their routine physical. Yu had initially planned to do her physical the other day, sometime after her counseling session but she was called to deal with a security situation in the last minute and had to reschedule. Now here she was, amidst a large group of officers and crewpersons, waiting in line for the next available medical officer to attend to them.

Wei began yapping in excitement, bouncing around. Jasmine let out a sigh – the sight of so many people in one room had excited the puppy. Not surprisingly, the little corgi began sniffing around the feet of two humanoid engineers, waiting beside her and barked to get their attention. One of the engineers, a young male smiled and waved at the animal before she moved onto the next person, a Vulcan female in science blues. The Vulcan, merely looked away from her PADD, and arched her brow before returning to her reading.

“Wei,” Yu called out. “Come here.” The puppy looked behind her, hesitating a little before turning around and trotting back to stand next to the Asian. But the corgi, even in a stationery position, continued greeting with her yaps at anyone passing by them.

Another ten minutes had passed. Jasmine sighed, studying her surroundings. Judging from the size of the crowd, apparently a lot of the crew had been neglecting having their physical done. Yu never had been able to understand this type of behaviour from others. In her view, both the routine physical and counseling were essential to functioning efficiently as a Starfleet officer as taking care of one’s physical and mental health was considered vital for their well-being. Life as a Starfleet officer, especially when serving out in the field such as on starships, could be very stressful. While the Asian was neither a doctor nor a counselor, she, however, did understand that stress could cause or exacerbate a number of serious physical and mental health problems, which if left unchecked, would be detrimental not just to the individual in question but to their fellow crewmates.

“Next,” a female voice, belonging to the new Klingon/Betazoid assistant chief medical officer, called out.

Jasmine looked around – no one was in front of her and realized it was she and Wei. She approached the tall doctor with the corgi puppy by her side. The security chief took note of her features, the doctor’s athletic build and the ridges of her forehead were indicative of her Klingon heritage. Maybe she gained empathic abilities from her Betazoid side. Well, she was going to find out soon, when the young woman and the pup stopped in front of the hybrid.

“Okay, Lieutenant, what seems….” Tulla Keiku growled, muttering under her breath. “Not that noise again...no wait…that humming is familiar yet louder. This one’s quite chatty.”

Jasmine raised an eyebrow, wondering what the doctor was talking about. “Doctor, I don’t hear any loud, chatty humming.” She felt a brushing against her leg as the puppy trotted forward, now standing in between her and the Klingon/Betazoid. The corgi began yapping, sniffing around the doctor’s feet and then pausing to look up at her. The puppy opened her mouth, tongue hanging out as she wagged her tail, excited to meet this new person.

Tulla’s gaze moved downward until they fell on the corgi. The half-Klingon growled under her breath, glaring. “So, you’re making that noise.”

“Noise?” Jasmine blinked. “You mean her barks?”

“The animal is loud and chatty,” Tulla remarked dryly, giving Wei a wary look. The puppy stepped back, now sticking close to the raven haired woman.

Yu furrowed her brow, briefly glancing down at her little one. The puppy was silent, only letting out a tiny whimper. “Doctor, I don’t understand.”

“Never mind.” Keiku sighed before changing the subject. “Anyway, Lieutenant, what seems to be your problem?”

“Well,” Jasmine replied. “I’m here for my routine physical and so is my puppy.”

Tulla gave the corgi a fixed stare. “Hmm…it seems to have calmed down a bit but still a little chatty.”

“Chatty? I don’t understand.” Jasmine looked confused. **Is she trying to tell a joke that I missed? Does she have some kind of a dry humour? **

A group of human male and female nurses were passing by them. Wei began yapping, bouncing and wagging her tail in excitement. She then trotted towards the group, sniffing their feet, jumping up to them and then circling around two female nurses. The nurses stopped to each take turns to pet the puppy.

Tulla growled, calling out to the group. “Hello! Why are you all standing around there wasting time?” She then gestured at her surroundings. “In case, you have not noticed. There are a lot of patients here.”

“Sorry doctor,” one of the female nurses replied, wearing a sheepish grin. The nurses, whispering amongst themselves, began walking. But as Wei put her foot forward to follow them, Yu called out to her.

“No. Wei.” She waved the puppy towards her. “Come here.” The raven haired woman sighed out of relief when the pup obediently returned to her. She turned her attention back to the aCMO. “Sorry about that. Wei tends to get very excited around other people and I am still working on teaching her to not give into her herding instinct too much…”

“Lieutenant,” Tulla interjected, sounding annoyed. “Not interested in your personal story so if you and your pet could just wait over there, Dr. Bartlett or another medical officer on duty will be with you shortly.” She pointed to her right, near a row of biobeds, where a couple of officers stood.

Jasmine raised an eyebrow. This new doctor seemed cranky, lacking bedside manners, making her wonder if Keiku often got out of the wrong side of her bed. From the Klingon/Betazoid’s complaining of loud and chatty noises, which didn’t make sense to the Sec/Tac at all, Tulla seemed a little annoyed by Wei.

“Thank you, doctor.” Yu nodded, waving at the corgi to follow her. “By the way, Doctor Keiku, welcome aboard and hope you’re settling in nicely on this ship.”

“What? Why would you want to hope I am settling nicely?” The hybrid remarked in a harsh tone, followed by a low growl.

Yu sighed. “Well, I know you are new here.”

“New? Are the words written in bold letters on my forehead?” She growled, when the puppy yapped at her, wagging her tail. “Oh, not the loud chatting again.”

**Not the chatting complaint again. I mean I don’t hear anything.” Jasmine sighed at the crankiness of the doctor but she chose to maintain a calm and polite tone. “Lieutenant Jasmine Yu, chief of security and tactical. I was made aware of your arrival this morning.”

“Nice meeting you, Lieutenant Yu,” Tulla said impatiently. “Now if you will excuse me, I have other patients to deal with.”

Jasmine sighed, turning away from the tall woman and headed to the ‘designated waiting area’, where she and Wei lined up beside a Bolian man with a gold collar. She narrowed her eyes, glancing at the new aCMO. **I wonder if Doctor Keiku would be more comfortable hitting something to blow off steam than talking with people. **

She was broken out of her thoughts at the sounding of a yip, followed by a yap and then the yip and yap went back and forth. Jasmine let out a sigh, looking over her shoulder. The ship’s resident counselor pug was sauntering towards them, holding his tongue out – a little drool was spotted dripping to the floor. Wei bounced up and down, yapping rather loudly. Her friend was here so it was time to play. Now Captain Smooshy and Ensign Wei trotted alongside each other and then began running, while yipping and yapping at the same time. “No, Wei! Come back.” Jasmine went after them.

“Hi Jasmine, looks like I’m not the only one chasing a dog,” Eve Dalziel commented, joining the Asian woman on their dogs chase. “Smooshy!” She called out. “Come back here. There’s still lot of counseling to do.”

But the dogs paid no heed to them as they navigated around multiple pairs of legs with ease, while Yu and Dalziel kept excusing themselves as they moved past others, both patients and medical personnel alike. Luckily, it took no more than a few minutes before they managed to catch up to the animals as they were approaching a medical closet.

“Come, Smooshy.” Eve patted the back of the pug’s head, while Jasmine herded the little corgi away from the storage closet. They made their way back to the main area of sickbay.

“Lieutenant Yu,” Tulla called out. “You and your pet are next.” She pointed to third biobed to her right. “Please, wait at that biobed over there.”

Jasmine sighed as she and Wei headed for the biobed, while listening to Eve talking to Smooshy.

“Don’t worry, Smooshy,” Dalziel said gently. “I’m sure Owen is planning to set up another playdate for you with Wei.” The pug released a soft whine.

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Jasmine and Wei eventually got their routine physical completed. Both the young woman and puppy had received a clean bill of health.

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NRPG:

Sarah: Hope my handling of Tulla is okay with you.


~*~
Ranjani S.
Writing for

Lieutenant Jasmine Yu
Chief of Security and Tactical
USS PHOENIX