Casualties (Part 6 of 7)

Posted on 26 Sep 2014 @ 8:24pm by Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Oren Idris Ph.D. & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Luke Wyatt & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley" & Commander Norvi Stace
Edited on on 26 Sep 2014 @ 8:28pm

2,093 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 5, Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD 07 - 1515 hrs

Previously, on Casualties (Part 5)...

Olsam looked down at the placid flight control officer with a sense of relief as the physical manifestations of the treatment began to take hold. The pained expression on her face, the thrashing and involuntary movement, all seemed to have passed away. She was far from cured; in fact, she likely had a long psychological journey ahead of her to address the lingering effects of her encounter with the aliens. But medically she'd been treated to the best of his abilities, leaving on some palliative measures to be undertaken once Sickbay returned to a sense of normalcy. Whenever that might be....

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Meanwhile, in the Holodeck 1 Triage Center...

Asahi had decided right then and there that holodecks were a strange place to be triage centers. The thought was tossed to one side as soon as he found himself settled on the floor, pain shooting through his knee and up through his body. Gritting his teeth, the engineer focused on something other than the near eye-bulging agony he had never experienced before, doing his best not to re-enact a scene out of a horror movie.

As Stace materialised in the holodeck, she continued to cough and clutch at her thigh just above the knee. In the stark light of the room, she could see the matted blood now covering the suit of her entire lower limb. The pain was somewhat eased by the shock but she decided to turn away from it until she was attended to.

Finally gathering his bearings, the first thing Oren did was reach for his helmet. Immediately, his left arm erupted in pain once more and he cursed loudly in Bajoran. Breathing heavily until the pain died down slighty (or he got accustomed to it, he couldn't tell), he reached up with his right hand and finally managed to take the helmet off, throwing it aside, Starfleet propery be damned.

He looked down at himself. The left sleeve of his suit was covered in blood and he could feel it under his fingers in the glove. As he tried to shift to get a better view of himself, he felt a sharp pain in his back and for a moment of complete absurdity, he wondered just how ruined his tattoo was from the cut.

The heavy holodeck doors heaved open to allow access to the ship beyond. Andreus Kohl came limping in from the passageway, pushing two antigrav carts of medical supplies ahead of him. He wasn't moving terribly fast, but he considered that if he could still move (sort of), he was still fit to treat patients as a nurse practitioner. His hair was mussed, but he had availed himself of the sterilization fields in Sickbay, which meant at least he wasn't sweaty and dirty anymore. Once he passed through the archway, Kohl found himself standing in the simulation of a sprawling Starfleet hospital ward of the kind that would only be found on a modern Starbase.

"Everyone's still breathing in here, yeah?" Kohl called out, and even he wasn't certain if he was asking sardonically or seriously. After he had spoken, Kohl locked eyes with the splash of red marring Oren's crisp white environmental suit. Leaving the equipment carts aside, Kohl lifted up one of the medi-kits and slung it over his shoulder. He closed the distance between himself and Oren, and then he asked, "Where does it hurt the most?"

Oren looked up at Kohl and couldn't help but let out a small chuckle despite the seriousness of the situation. "If I had to pick, my arm. It's broken," he finally decided. Truth be told, the part of him that ached the most was his head, but he chalked that up to the pulse of energy from the caves. He seriously doubted there was anything to be done about it besides pain-killers and he wasn't about to drug himself over a few aches and pains.

"I really need to get this suit off," he admitted, knowing that it was the only way he himself could see how much damage was done to his body.

Kohl reached out to Oren, hovering his hand near the shoulder, but was careful not to put any pressure on the injured arm. "Here, come sit on a biobed," Kohl said, and he led Oren towards the nearest one. The holographic sensors and bio-function monitor would be as good as the real thing, and it would mean he could keep a tricorder out of his hands. As soon as Oren was still, Kohl wrapped his hands around the shoulder of the environmental suit and he released the seal. Once the sleeve was released, Kohl carefully, but quickly, pulled it away from Oren's arm.

On the biofunction monitor behind them, Oren's vital signs began to pulse and beep. On an inset display, a sensor composite of the broken blood vessels and bone fractures coalesced on the screen.

Oren watched the damage his body had taken with a kind of morbid fascination, almost reveling in it. A strange smile tugged at the corner of his lips at the sight before he turned his attention back to his arm. The real wound was much messier and looked worse than the composite showed. The uniform sleeve on his left arm had been cut through by one of the energy tentacles, along with a good deal of flesh from Oren's upper arm. It was still bleeding slightly and what was left of his sleeve was soaked through.

"Huh," Oren let out, looking down at the wound. This was the first time he'd broken something and, now that the pain had lingered for almost an hour, he could say he wasn't as bothered by it as he had been when it happened.

"There's also a cut like that on my back and my thigh," he informed his coworker. Wanting to make his wishes known, he continued. "I'd prefer if you healed the break completely, since I need that arm for work but, as far as the cuts go, I'd like you to just heal the blood vessels to stop the bleeding then run an autosuture over it, without the dermal regenerator function." He knew that it may sound like an odd request, but Oren liked to have his body looking like someone actually lived in it, so he wasn't concerned with scars or other marks of any kind.

"No pain killers, either," he added after a moment, finally looking up at Kohl and away from his arm. "Just do what you have to do."

As Kohl pulled the pistol-like vascular regenerator from his medical-kit, his head was snapping his gaze back and forth between the wound on Oren's arm and the sensor readings on the monitor. Kohl pointed the emitter crystal over the damaged blood vessel, and pressed the activator long enough to stop the bleeding. After retrieving a small circular steri-field generator from his kit, Kohl handed it to Oren and asked him to, "Hold it over the wound for a minute." Kohl stepped back, and said, "Stand up," and then he grimaced. "...Wait. ...No dermal regeneration?"

"Right. Just suture it and then wrap it and leave it alone to heal by itself," Oren confirmed, aiming the steri-field generator at wound. It required some effort to keep his left arm still, but he managed. The small device felt awkward in his right hand, but he managed to keep it as steady as possible as he pushed himself to stand properly, wincing as pain shot through his leg. Twisting his body around, Oren tried to get a good look at his thigh but there was no angle for him to be able to properly investigate the damage. From what he could tell, the bleeding wasn't quite as profuse as it was on his arm or back. He concluded that the break must've been what worsened the damage.

While Oren spoke, Kohl managed to stop the bleeding from Oren's leg through the gash in his environmental suit. The moment those critical blood vessels were repaired by his medical device, Kohl moved on. He stood and he moved behind Oren, where he began to unlatch more seals on the EV suit. As Kohl began to speak again, he pulled off the back plate of the suit. "Is there, uhm," Kohl haltingly started to ask, "Is there a reason you want your wounds only half-treated?"

"Yes."

Oren's tone took on a tone of finality, clearly indicating that he wasn't about to delve further into it with Kohl, of all people. He hissed in pain as the nurse finally managed to pull the suit off of him. "How does it look?" he asked, temped to reach behind himself to touch his wounded back. Giving it, he tentatively felt around his lower back, feeling the tear in the fabric of his uniform. It was wet but a little more stiff than he'd imagined it to be.

From Kohl's point of view, the tear in the uniform was much bigger than the actual wound underneath it, which was about ten inches and swiped across a tattoo. The elaborate design couldn't be seen well from the staining around the wound but seemed to stretch up towards the El-Aurian's shoulders.

Kohl didn't answer immediately. When Oren reduced their conversation to monosyllables, Kohl had set his jaw and pinched his lips. He maintained his gaze with steely determination on Oren's body, avoiding any brief possibility of eye-contact. He raised the vascular regenerator again and he operated it on the shredded blood vessels in Oren's back. When Kohl had nearly stopped the bleeding, he answered back with, "Jagged."

Stepping back, Kohl swept a hand in the direction of the biobed. He trained his eyes on the biofunction monitor when he spoke. "Lay on your stomach, please," Kohl said in his clinical timbre. Assuming Oren would comply, Kohl rounded the biobed and began to operate the LCARS controls at its side. "I'm going to use the autosutures in the surgical arch."

Stace sucked in air through her teeth as pang of pain surged through her leg and into her abdomen. She clutched her Symbiont as it struck through her and then breathed more easily as it subsided. "I'm fine!" she called out, obviously in pain. "I think it's the shock more than anything."

Naois watched the people coming in, and listened to the speakers. One however, stood out in his silence, so he ordered the EMH to tend to Stace, who was visibly injured. "Move her to a bed, and start cauterization process on her leg," he ordered, while kneeling down at Asahi's side. "Come on, let's get you onto a bed," he offered, while taking tricorder readings. The man was silent, therefor he was of Naois' primary concern. "Can you tell me what happened?'

Moving was not something Asahi was all that interested in. A triage bed sounded more comfortable than the floor, but movement meant he would have had to deal with the pain that came with it. "Oh, I'm good. I think it's just a knee dislocation anyway. The floor is all nice and comfy and-" He went to give the floor a faithful pat, nearly screaming everyone's eardrums out the moment a sharp pain shot through his body at the slight twitch of moment. Gritting his teeth again, he attempted a smile. "... Honest, just fine. I'm sure there's someone else who could use the bed!"

"Eventually," Naois reassured him, "and otherwise we will simply add more beds to the program." He easily lifted him up in his arms, conscious of his injuries and mindful of them, but jarring his was inevitable. "I am moving you to a bed sir, and then I will tend to your injuries." He had grimaced visibly when his scream assaulted his sensitive hearing. "Tell me what happened," he asked his again.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

Lt j.g. Naois Mercy, MD
Medical Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC T'Vanna]

EMH Mk-X
Emergency Medical Hologram
USS Galileo
[PNPC Holliday]

LT Asahi Kita
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Luke Wyatt
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

LT Andreus Kohl
Asst. Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Oren Idris Ph.D.
Anthropologist/Archaeologist
USS Galileo

LT Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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