Doing a Better Job

Posted on Sat Mar 27th, 2021 @ 3:40am by Centurion Nancy Gable & Colonel Sehan t'Varis & Lieutenant Kaol Ralaa & Sublieutenant Seira t'Reiza & Uhlan Sari & Sublieutenant Gedak K.I.A. 238702.10

3,831 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Chapter IV: Unravelling the Mystery
Location: Medbay
Timeline: 238702.10

"Medic!" S'Tan called as he half-carried Merik into the medbay.

Gable ran over, quickly assessing the disruptor wound in the man's side. "Get him on the table. Someone start an IV, he's lost a lot of blood," she directed. "Any other wounded?"

The Romulan gave a short jerk of his head in negation. "No one anyone can help."

She frowned, but there's be time to ask after who died later. For now only one medical emergency would have to count for a win. "Kaol, since it looks like there's rush, you can take this one."

BAM!! No sooner had the patient been laid on the table than the ship rocked hard!

Kaol was cursing at the ineptitude of the bridge crew at keeping the ship stable. What if he had been in the middle of a surgery? He was trying to organize his instruments again when Gable called out to him... he sighed and muttered, "My scalpels...."

Merik was placed onto a treatment bed and Kaol assessed his injury, "This is one hell of a wound, Mr Merik...." He put in an IV and began to examine him for additional injuries. "This is one nasty disruptor shot, next time you should duck," he attempted to joke as started to repair the internal injuries.

"Just patch it," Nancy snapped, picking herself up off the deck. "We'll be getting more after that hit."

As if in answer to her prediction, wounded began arriving. Some beamed in, other being carried by comrades.

Gable pointed at a nurse. "You're on triage." But she'd already made her own quick assessment as they came in - 4 that were beyond help, 2 critical, 4 in the next tier, 10 that could wait. In fact, three of that ten who were 'walking wounded'...

"You, you, and you - I assume you have basic first aid, grab a kit and do what you can to assist," she ordered even as she motioned for a crewman whose lower leg was covered in plasma burns to be moved to a table. "Nurse, set up for amputation."

Kaol rolled his eyes, this haphazard medical treatment was just going to cause more problems later... but he did as he was told and patched Merik up to not die, for now.

He walked past those that couldn't be saved and he sighed, "Such a waste...." Kaol then took the next critical patient, with burns to the chest, "Let's see if I can save your life, friend..." He then said his next words slightly louder, "I'll try not to amputate anything..."

Gable paused only long enough between cut and cauterize to throw a very human hand gesture at him. "Almost done here. Prep the next one," she called out. Movement caught her eye - the pilot who was in medbay. "Seira, you're close enough to fit. Help with the yellow group - keep people alive until Dr. Perfect there is ready to take them."

"Yes ma'am." Her own time in recovery had given Seira a passing familiarity with the layout of the area, down to the location of its stores; and she helped herself to a medical kit and made her way to some of those in question and began working. She had to pass over several former Raven's Claw crew of assorted species; lacking any knowledge of how to handle them, and stuck to what her training had covered; combat first aid for her own kind. Luckily or unluckily as it was, though, there were plenty of those. Then she caught a glance of Gable's work for a moment, looked down at her own hand, and froze; lost in a half-remembered, half-imagined recall of what had happened to her, until a few long moments later she managed to pull herself out of it and return to the task at hand.

:: Rogers to Medbay, you have inbound wounded... its Raven ::

An instant later an unconscious Raven materialized on the medbay deck.

"Close for me," Gable told her assistant and ran over to Raven. She ran medscanner over her swore fluently in three languages. Severe concussion, occipital fractures, the eye was a complete loss... "20cc vertazine - stat," Nancy ordered, picking her up and placing her on a clean surgical table. "Neural calipers. Her brain's swelling - I need to go in."

Kaol looked over at who just beamed into medbay, "Oh dear... that looks even worse than this guy..."

Raven's intact eye fluttered open briefly, and she weakly reached for Doctor Gable's arm. "Doc," she muttered, barely able to form a coherent sentence. "Did... did we get away?"

I hope so... She'd felt the tell-tale vibration of warp engines engaging, but that was as much as she knew. Not that she was going to say any such thing a patient. "Don't worry, " Gable assured her. "The ship will be just fine. Now I need to get to work to make sure you will be too." And with that, she placed the neural caliper on on Raven's forehead, sending her into a deep unconscious state.

Just before she went out, Raven managed to mutter "Someone feed Eavy". Then, everything around her went dark, and she was gone.

The surgical assistant was closing the prior patient and the rest of the small medical staff augmented by the available 'voluntolds' where busy handling the influx of casualties arrving form all over the ship, so it was back to solo surgery. After a careful look at the area of intracerebal hematoma, Nancy set up the presser field, calibrating the weak force field to restrict bleeding from the affected blood vessels and limit the need for drainage as she worked. She also preset the controls to be able tell it to fix and move tissue as a crude substitute for an assistant. It was times like these that she envied Nasat doctors their extra sets of hands. At least the ship had stopped shaking.

Taking one last scan around for trouble before focusing on surgery, she spotted someone coming through the door - a tall blonde supporting a Romulan limping into medbay with an obvious compound fracture. Gunnar was disheveled and moving as painfully as the Romulan, with tell-tale marks of spark burns, scrapes under a torn sleeve and blood stains at the edges of a gash in his pants leg. She had never been so happy to see him - both because she assumed it meant that they had in fact gotten away, and because whatever injuries he had, his hands looked to be working. "Arnason! Let Seira take take one," she called. "I have a head trauma over here."

Gunnar eased the Romulan to lean against a bulkhead and expelled a breath of relief at releasing his weight. But when he saw who was on the table and read the monitor showing her injuries, any pain in his side was forgotten. He waved his hands through the steri-field and reached for the instrument tray. "Protoplaser," he said, handing it Gable. "Go ahead, Doctor, I'll follow with the shunt and cortical analeptic."

Gable nodded curtly, fighting to suppress a smile as she started to repair the cerebral contusion. Gunnar could be a real pain in the Sa'Hut sometimes, but he had the experience to make it seem like she had actually grown a second set of hands when he assisted. She'd yell at him for working while he was injured later.

Seira had swapped place with Arnason; and given the lack of available bed space for anything but the most critical patients, grabbed a blanket and threw it on the deck near the new arrival Gable had pointed her at, easing him down onto it so she could work--there wasn't much she could do with regards to the injury itself at the moment; more simply to stabilize him until a real medic could take over; giving pre-set doses of meds for shock and pain and broad-spectrum antibiotics and antivirals, then spraying the injury itself with a direct dose of such, laced as well with agents to slow any bleeding; the sting of such made her patient hiss in pain in spite of himself before Seira pulled a dressing out of the kit and wrapped it loosely around the injured area as best she could.

A moment later, Sari, the young Orion from engineering, entered with one of her colleagues, carrying a large piece of metal that they had turned into a makeshift stretcher. It looked like it had originally been part of a door. On the door laid the unconscious form of the ship's resident Ferengi, Gedak. Sari waved over one of the medics. "Hull breach in his quarters," she explained. "Something was dragged out by the loss of pressure before the containment field kicked in and hit him in the gut on the way out. He's breathing, but only very weakly, and he's barely got a pulse."

Kaol finished with his patient and went over to Gedak. He looked over at the Ferengi and he didn't see any outward signs of bleeding, which may prove more problematic as it means there was likely internal injuries.

"Dammit," Kaol said as scanned Gedak. "Looks like he lacerated his liver and his abdomen is filling with blood. "Where are my scalpels!?" he called out, trying to find the one he needed. "Someone get over here and assist me! I can't find the source of bleeding if I can't see!"

Gable rolled her eyes, which got a stifled chuckle from Gunnar. But he knew Raven was stable enough there was little risk if Gable continued alone. "I guess I should go claim the 'honor' of assisting the best doctor in the quadrant?"

"Don't stab him with a scalpel until we get through the casualties," she said by way of assent.

Gunnar stepped across and deftly retrieved a scalpel, while preparing to provide suction for inevitable gush of blood after the incision. "Scalpel, Doctor."

Kaol looked over at Gunnar and recognized him from their conversation before, "I'm glad you're here to assist, perhaps you may learn something." Kaol did have to admit that Gunnar was good, moving with him, knowing where he was going next. "Where is all of this blood coming from?" he muttered as he stuck his hand into the blood filled insides of Gedak. "I think I have it, more suction here," Kaol said as he felt the damage... this might take more effort than he thought. "Damn, this isn't a clean wound... whatever hit him really did a number on his liver."

Both Gunnar and Kaol worked in tandem to repair the damage to the Ferengi's liver, but even after the repair, there seemed to be more blood coming out, "Mr Arnason, is there something wrong with the suction or is there more blood coming from somewhere?"

"He's hemorrhaging," Gunnar said urgently, adjusting the pressure field to try to clamp off the worst bleed. Ferengi typically had higher blood pressure than humans, but Gedak's was dropping rapidly and the transfusion bag was nearly empty. "We need more blood!" he yelled.

Sari had decided to stay in medbay and assist as a porter, and was rummaging through the cabinet that held the blood transfusions, clutching a PADD that listed all the types that were compatible with the patients. "We haven't got any more! Can we replicate it?"

Kaol's eyes widened, "How do we not have more blood??? What kind of a medical facility is this? We will have to transfuse him with his own blood... hook up the cell saver to salvage what blood we can."

Gunnar was already beginning to cycle recovered blood through the saver as Kaol spoke, but he knew it wouldn't be enough. He'd seen this too many times. "Do you know how to program the replicator using a sample?" he asked Sari.

"What do you think," Sari replied. "I'm an engineer, not a moron! Give me the blood."

Kaol handed Sari a sample, "Go, hurry!"

The young Orion ran over to the replicator and cursed. "Fucking replicator is busted!" She took her tricorder from her belt and ran a quick diagnostics. "If you can keep him alive for five minutes I can get this thing working again." Hurriedly, she took the maintenance access plate off the replicator and got to work.

"IV fluids," Gunnar said, switching the connection and applying a hypo of triox. "If we can at least keep oxygen going to the brain, he has a chance. Doctor, you may have to resect to find the bleeder. Ferengi can survive with half a liver."

Kaol shot Gunnar a look, how dare a nurse presume to direct him! But he was right and Kaol was about to do that anyways, "Desperate times call for desperate measures.... this man should not have to lose part of his liver. When the Colonel is awake, I'm going to have strong words for her...." Kaol continues to cut trying to isolate the bleeding. He was not going to lose this patient.

Sari hectically sliced into the replicator's innards, causing a small shower of sparks to shoot out of the wiring. "Sorry!" she shouted. "But that's what happens when we need a rush job, no time to spare for silly things like disconnecting the power!"

Suddenly, Gedak began to shudder and convulse. His heart rate spiked, causing another massive spurt of blood to stream out of his guts.

"He's seizing!" Gunnar tried to hold the patient down with one hand while handing a hypo to Kaol. "Hyperzine, Doctor." He pulled off the neural caliper - the patient was not regaining consciousness anytime soon - replacing it with a neural restraint to stop the thrashing.

Kaol nodded at Gunnar, trusting the nurse, time was of the essence. The replicator was down, there's no stopping the bleeding, the patient was seizing.... he injected Gedak with the hypo. "This is not looking good..." Kaol was mentally running through all of the options... none look good... he was growing frustrated at how everything unfolded to this point. There was no reason that this should be happening.

As soon as the Ferengi was injected with the hypo, the seizure was over as suddenly as it had begun. The bleeding, too, slowed as his heart rate went back to nominal for a moment, before it dropped out completely. His heart, overwhelmed by the injuries and the seizure, had stopped.

"Helvitis," Gunnar cursed under his breath. "I'll handle cardiostimulator, Doctor. Find that bleeder while there's still any chance."

Kaol took the time to take a breath, far too tired to correct the nurse, who again, was annoyingly correct, "I am trying.... whatever hit him practically made his liver explode..." He then kept checking and then cursed loudly, "His pulmonary artery is shredded..." He quickly tried to repair the damage, hoping not too much time has passed. But regardless, he knew Gedak would have a long recovery and possible neurological deficits from being without blood so long... his frustration becoming more and more frantic as he makes the repair and hope it's enough.

Another shower of sparks shot out of the replicator, followed by colourful Orion swearing. Sari kicked the machine. "It's completely fried," she said, turning back to the operating table. "It'll need to be replaced. There's a replicator over in the engineering lab, I'll try that one." Without waiting for a reaction, she rushed out of sickbay.

Kaol looked at Gunnar, "Without more blood...."

As much as the arrogance had grated, Gunnar could see genuine pain the Kaol's eyes and felt for him. He could feel the sadly familiar hollow in his own gut at knowing the patient wasn't going to make it; indeed was only showing marginal life signs because he was pumping his heart. And there were other patients in need... He stopped the cardiostimulator. "He's gone, Doctor."

Kaol nodded silently, internally raging that he could not have done more... he should have been able to save his life... but this man's life was lost because they didn't have and couldn't get what they needed to save him. He threw down his instruments, "Time of death... 1303...." and stormed off to check on other patients.

The doors to medbay slid open as Sari returned, clutching three pouches of Ferengi blood. She had just entered the room when she heard the Doctor pronounce Gedak dead, and almost threw the blood to the floor in frustration. All of this, for nothing. She took a deep breath. "Replicator over in engineering is working, Doctor. Let me know if you need something and I'll go get it."

Kaol turned to Sari and flung his blood covered gloves to the ground, "How about getting us a better medbay that doesn't have broken replicators!"

The Romulan yelling in her face made Sari go full Orion. "I am an engineer, not a miracle worker, Doctor. If you hadn't noticed, this is a warbird. It goes into combat. It sustains damage, that then causes other systems to fail. If you want a medbay that is guaranteed to not experience these issues, go find yourself a cushy nice hospital on some rich, leafy colony." She shook her head and struggled to stop herself from spitting into Kaol's face. "War is hell, doctor. People die in battle, even the best doctor in the quadrant can't change that. As an engineer, I know that sometimes, no matter how hard I try, I can't fix something. Like that damn replicator over there. So I accept my limitations, and move on to the next repair that needs my attention." She waved her hand around the room. "And from the looks of it, there are plenty of repairs that you should be seeing to right now. But instead, you waste your time yelling at me."

Kaol stared her down, seething, "Do. Better."

Sari shook her head. "I hope you are talking to yourself, Doctor. I did all I could. And so did you. He was a lost cause." Without another word, she left the Romulan standing, and walked over to Seira. "Sublieutenant, do you require any assistance?"

Seira nearly froze; mind reeling at exactly what she was potentially getting into here; Kaol was a superior officer (as bizarre of one as she had ever encountered); and getting in the middle--even tangentially--of a dispute between the Lieutenant and the Orion was not high on her list of survival-oriented-choices. "I...think I have it under control. The flow of casualties seems to have stopped, for the most part."

Around the two women, a veritable spread of wounded-but-not-critical Romulans lay on the deck or propped up against the bulkhead or nearby equipment, along with some from other species in that same category, for whom she had been able to do little but guess.

Gunnar exchanged a look with Gable, who just shook her head. She would have words with Kaol later, but for now she was in the middle of the delicate process of ensuring Raven would have an intact optical nerve interface for eventually connecting to a prosthetic eye.

For his part, Gunnar understood Kaol's frustration, and he imagined that the doctor also had not had much experience with losing patients. Running off in a huff with casualties waiting was incredibly unprofessional - and he imagined Gable would make that point painfully clear when medbay was cleared - but in some ways it was probably for the best. He knew well enough that Romulans did not ...function well... when angry, and he'd been in the middle of Romulan and Orion tempers flaring often enough to know storming out was the best one could hope for there.

Refocusing, he joined the two women tending to the crowd of wounded to the best of their abilities, looking to provide some direction and also maybe take emotions down a notch. "Thank you. You did the best you could," he said to Sari, and quickly surveyed the waiting casualties. "We could in fact use more Romulan blood, and it would be a good idea to type the two hybrids here and bring a bag for each of them."

Sari nodded. "Yes, sir." She reached for her tricorder, before shaking her head. "Silly cow, an engineering tricorder won't do any good," she muttered to herself, and went to retrieve a medical tricorder from the locker before proceeding to scan the patients that Arnasson had indicated. When she completed her scans, she headed out of medbay to go get the blood from the engineering lab's replicator.

Proceeding to Seira, Gunnar bent to check her patient - and bit back a wince; now that the adrenaline from trying to save Gedak was waning, his ribs were starting to complain. "You're doing well here. I can take the non-Romulans, and if you can manage an osteoregenerator, I'll talk you through mending the breaks."

"Sure." Seira noted Gunnar's pained motions, but at the end of the day, she was an officer of the Empire, not a human medic; the default expectation being one would remain at their station until either the crisis had passed or they could no longer continue. "That may be beyond my ability, however." She jerked her chin a few patients over towards the earlier man Gunnar had brought in with the compound fracture.

"I wouldn't expect you to be able to set that," he agreed. "But I could use help holding the leg and once I have the bones aligned and the knit started, I can show you how to use the osteo to finish it." He headed over to the man, confident she'd follow. It was one of the nice things about working Romulans - they didn't object or shy from this sort of work. As he sucked air through his teeth upon kneeling down and bending to examine the leg, he also appreciated that not one of them would say a word about working with any injury less than life threatening. Nancy might make him pay for this later, but he could count on Romulans to see it as normal and expected. "The muscles are pulling the broken pieces together, so I'm going to have to pull them apart so the fractured ends can be aligned. I need you to hold ankle and knee once I do that so I can match them together properly before starting the regen. Okay?"

"Yes." Seira wiped a bloodied hand on the side of her pants and moved into the indicated position.

Gunnar nodded, offering a half-smile in encouragement. "Consider this cross-training as a medic..."

Kaol looked out into the sea of patients and sighed. None of them will receive the treatment that they needed and deserved. Most will be maimed or dead. He grabbed a med kit and went back into the fray, not making eye contact with any of the rest of the medical staff. He found another patient in serious condition and started working on him in silence.

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