"For the Love of Baylee"

Posted on 27 Sep 2025 @ 2:50am by Lieutenant Commander Riah Amberlyn XMD

1,586 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Fractured Accord
Location: Main Sickbay :: Arawyn
Timeline: While underway to the Astroid Field

Note: Main Sickbay, Deck 7, is quarantined to contain any possible spread of nanobots, so the staff confined there are taking care of the patients they have. No one can enter or leave main sickbay and other medical needs are being handled at the smaller sickbay on Deck 16, by two of the other doctors on staff.
~~~

// VIP Patient Room :: Main Sickbay //

The littlest patient, Baylee the Kitten, had been moved out of the isolation room into the VIP room, which was a private room intended for the Captain or high-level diplomats or Admirals. It was a private room as opposed to the ward, and it was quiet and out of the way, compared to the busy sections of the Sickbay. The medical personnel had been faithful and stepped up with great enthusiasm and patience to feed Baylee through a small feeding tube as much as 12 times a day, down from her initial arrival when feeding took place about every hour 24 hours a day.

Riah approached and Baylee sat up in her little crib, basically a round toddler’s wading pool, lined with disposable toweling and a small litter box. Tiny mews began in earnest when she saw someone lean over her, as she expected to be fed. Riah prepared the formula and the kitten laid down as she had learned that was the way one ate. After introducing a syringe of formula into the port at the end of the small feeding tube, which hung from the corner of her tiny mouth, the doctor proceeded to pet her tummy and tickle her tiny paws as she slowly administered the formula into the tube. The kitten was still puny, but alert and beginning to show signs of playfulness, batting back at Riah’s fingers.

“Baylee, you are a very polite little girl. No claws. That’s good kitty. Is your tummy happy now? Yes? You can play. I’ll play,” Riah cooed, picking up a little toy that was basically mouse shaped and bright aqua blue.

The replicator had added a tail, which Riah immediately cropped off so the kitten would not choke on it. She needn’t have worried. Baylee far preferred the small pink nose for whatever reason. So, the doctor proceeded to play with the little patient, bopping her ever so gently on the nose and between the ears, getting the little one to extend her front legs, kick a little with her back legs, exercise her back wiggling around. Trying to gently encourage development that she ordinarily would have had tumbling and crawling over her littermates.

Riah looked up from her reverie when Nurse Clara Barton entered the room. “Hey. Everything ok out there?”

“Yes, quiet as usual,” Clara answered as she looked at little Baylee and smiled. “But you can almost feel the frustration rolling off the people in isolation like angry waves. Those crewmen and woman know they have a job to do, and being quarantined and twiddling their thumbs isn’t allowing them to do it. They realize there is an encroaching danger out there and they want to help their teams combat it, so there’s a bit of guilt thrown into the mix as well. That guilt is unwarranted, of course, but I can certainly understand their mindset.”

Then Clara couldn’t help herself. She gently picked up the little kitten and held Baylee near her face. She began to coo softly to the tiny feline and laughed when her low-pitched murmuring was answered with tiny purrs.

“Ah, little one, you like to be cuddled and stroked. Touch is a pleasurable sensation, is it not? It makes you feel comforted and connected to someone, and in your case, I’d call that therapeutic."

Then Clara felt bold enough to offer a suggestion to her superior. “Dr. Amberlyn, do you think Baylee is now stable enough to visit with our quarantined guests? Comfort flows both ways. Our little miracle baby will be on the receiving end, but she could provide comfort to others as well.”

“I agree and love that idea,” said Riah. “I think she’s still a little weak, so maybe invite only a couple of people when she’s awake for a few minutes. She eats a minimum of every two hours, so if people are interested, they could hold her while one of the trained staff administers the formula into the feeding tube. You like animals?”

“I do like animals,” Clara answered, “although I’ve never had a pet of my own. My parents weren’t big fans of creatures that shed hair or chewed and scratched the furniture. And when I was on my own, I didn’t think it was fair to leave an animal all alone and cooped up during my 12-hour shifts at the hospital. But I have seen how support animals are so helpful to people going through turmoil, either physically or mentally. Animals are nonjudgmental and seem to have an innate sense of what to do at the right moment. Sometimes, they know when they should come close, or when they should just be a silent presence watching over their owner.”

Then Clara reluctantly placed Baylee back down in her little cocoon. “You know, this little one reminds me of the tiny preemies I once cared for in the NICU. She’s about the same size. Although it surprises me that a feline was born manifesting a cleft palate, I did care for human babies with that anomaly. In time, we introduced oral feedings using very soft, pliable nipples with a type of shield atop them to encourage the sucking reflex while minimizing the possibility of aspiration. Maybe in time when Baylee is strong enough that she won’t tire from the effort, we could use the replicator to produce a specialized nipple small enough to fit her mouth. What do you think, Doctor?”

“That is brilliant. Yes, the information I got from the veterinary database did not mention anything like that, but it will be so important. You can’t feed with the tube after their little teeth begin to come in as they will gnaw through the tube and swallow it. The condition is apparently rare, and most don’t survive. I guess people are not really that observant to see that their kittens are not nursing properly and never report it, never realize what the problem is. And then to manage it requires a huge commitment of time to tube feed them for 6 months until they can be surgically repaired. Can I put you in charge of researching that and arranging specs for the replication of such a device? That would be a wonderful gift to all of us and Baylee in particular.”

“Of course, Doctor Amberlyn, that would be my privilege,” Clara immediately responded. If truth be told, like the quarantined patients stuck in Sickbay, she was desperate for something to do besides the repetitious stocking of supplies and testing equipment shift after shift.

//Sickbay//

Once Clara returned to Sickbay, she settled herself to begin her tour of duty. She was presently covering the night shift, which usually proved to be tediously long. Tonight, she decided to turn her thoughts to the mechanics of fashioning a new type of unique supportive appliance that would eventually be beneficial for a little motherless kitten. Perhaps she should start by using the very advanced ultrasound in her arsenal of tools to map the parameters of Baylee’s tiny mouth. Then she’d use the Doppler results as fodder for AI to take it from there and make an educated guess when it would be safe to fashion custom-made nipples so the little creature could ingest nutrition in a more natural manner. Okay, so she now had a plan for moving forward.

When Clara sat back in her chair, she closed her eyes and could feel the softness of kitten fur against her cheek and neck, and her brain did the rest, flooding her bloodstream with serotonin, a natural mood stabilizer, and oxytocin, a bonding hormone that is released during and after physical touch. This must be how new mothers feel when they hold their infants in their arms, and it almost made her sad that long ago she had chosen career over marriage and a happily ever after with a soulmate that she’d probably never find.

It was at this point that Clara was sorry she couldn’t return to her private quarters and write in her journal, something she found so cathartic. But like her patients, her movements around the ship were limited. So tonight, she’d mentally make an entry in her adult form of a diary that nobody would ever read but her.

“I think I’m in love,” she’d start the entry. “But it’s not with someone walking around on two feet. No, my new infatuation is with a little lady with four tiny paws. At least I have been told my new crush is female, but gender doesn’t factor into our choice of whom we love. I realize that I can’t expect to have her all to myself. Love shouldn’t be like that. It’s a beautiful gift that should be shared with everyone so the world around you can become a better place. And right now, with the present danger in this world, a lot more love is needed STAT.”

~~~
LtCmdr Riah Amberlyn, XMD
Chief Medical Officer
USS Arawyn
&
Crewman Clara Barton
Nurse
USS Arawyn

 

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