Triage on the Bridge

Posted on 04 Aug 2024 @ 8:53pm by Captain Bane Plase

1,341 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Stranded
Location: Bridge, USS Cygnus
Timeline: After "Surviving"

ON

With orders given to his crew, and watching them file, one by one, into the turbolift shaft to carry out their tasks, Bane moved to Chief Petty Officer Sorbek to help her out. She was bleeding from the mangled stump that used to be where her hand was. The Chief was also still sitting behind the Commander Bast's chair where she had landed, almost wedged in there. As much as he wanted to help out Bast, Chief Sorbek was the most serious injury. He had to stop the bleeding, and from shock setting in too much.

On his way to her, he stopped to grab the discarded medkit. Only the tricorder had been used, and it too was sitting right next to it. "I'm here to help," he told the Chief in a soft, yet authorative, voice. She looked at him through glassy eyes. Whether it was because of the shock or because she had been crying, he could not yet readily tell. "I need to see your arm," Bane said, gently putting his hand well above where the damage had been done. He pulled lightly at it. At first, Chief Sorbek resisted, but relented and held it out, wincing as she did so. Her arm was quivering slightly, no doubt from the extreme pain she was in. He scanned her quickly, tapping the command for recommended pain medication for an Andorian. The screen changed, giving the recommended dosage of 2 cc's Morphenolog. Bane reached over to the medkit, pulled out the hypospray, then fumbled with the various pain medications inside the medkit before loading it. According to the tricorder, he needed to press it directly on the Brachioradialis. The Captain had no idea what this was, or where it was. He tapped the screen once more, and it showed him exactly where to press it, on the inside top forearm, the muscle there. He did so, and as it hissed, the tenseness and rigidity of Chief Sorbek relaxed considerably.

"Feel better?"

"Yes sir, a lot better. Can you fix me?"

Bane couldn't, but he wasn't about to tell her that. "I am going to do all I can," he stated. "Now, let me concentrate. If I hurt you or cause you an discomfort, please let me know."

"I will. Thank you," Sorbek said.

Bane went back to the tricorder and scanned again now that pain medication had been administered. The tricorder could then get much better readings now that the muscles and tendons weren't jerking involuntarily. He didn't need a tricorder to tell him there was considerable damage -- her whole right hand was missing. Where her wrist used to be was now mangled and torn soft tissue, her blue blood oozing out slowly. There was cartilage, shattered bone, severed ligaments and tendons, and circular holes where Bane assumed the veins had retreated back into the existing muscle. He could also see exposed nerve endings which had to be extraordinarily painful. Among the many items on the screen being listed as damaged included the transvers carpal ligament, the palmar carpal ligament, the pronator quadratus, the dorsal branch ulnar nerve, the flexor carpi ulnaris tendon, the extensor digiti quinti tendon, the ulna bone, and the radius bone. Completely missing, according to both Bane's eyes, as well as the tricorder, were the carpal bones of the wrist, the metacarpal bones, and the phalanges of the hand (the fingers), as well as every single tendon, ligament and nerve cluster in the hand. There was little Bane could do. The tricorder stated as much, that Sorbek needed to visit Sickbay immediately for surgery. 'If only I could get her there,' Bane thought.

Rummaging through the medkit, he pulled out corophizine, an antibiotic to help keep from any infection spreading. He loaded it into the hypospray and pressed it to her skin, this time at the neck, injecting her with 24 cc's of the medication. It would help not only for her severed hand, but also the burn and cut marks down the right side of her body, where she seemingly took the brunt of the blast. Wrapping her arm where her hand used to be in bandage, he was careful to place the bandage according to how the medical tricorder stated it needed to be placed. "Does that hurt?" he asked her.

"No, but I can feel the pressure. That is a good sign."

Another good sign was that her eyes were no longer glassed over. He was hoping he was helping with any shock that was setting in. Shock was especially dangerous to humans and Andorians, who both came from relatively close in the galactic neighborhood. They were practically neighbors. Where Humans and Vulcans would have been next door neighbors, Humans and Andorians would have lived right down the street from one another, in a galactic sense. Vulcans just happened to be a lot tougher than either Humans or Andorians (and, for that matter, Bajorans).

Satisfied with the bandaging and wrapping, it was now time to get her moved. With one last scan of her body to make sure her neck or back wasn't broke, nor that any other bone was, he was satisfied he could move her now. He would have to get her out in the open and lay her flat, with her feet elevated slightly. "Can you help me move you?"

Sorbek nodded. "Yes sir. I think I can move." Cradling her severely damage arm in her other, she allowed the Captain to help her to her feet. She was surprised at how strong and good she felt, forgetting that she had been given the Morphenolog. She allowed the Captain to steady her, and to help her from behind the XO's chair. For the first time, she saw the carnage on the Bridge. "Is everyone dead, Captain? Are we the only one's left?"

Plase smiled at her. "No, Chief. Commander Stovek is right there, working on that console, see?" He pointed to the Vulcan working. "And while it doesn't look like it, Commander Bast is right there. He is alive, but hurt. I will be helping him as best I can as soon as I get you situated." Plase was cautious to avoid talking about Lieutenant Krasha and pointing out both sections of his body, one on one side of the collapsed beam, the other section on the other side of it.

Sorbek shook her head. "Oh, I can help. I am not in pain anymore," she said truthfully. In fact, she was rearing to go. She felt like she could take on three Nausicaans by herself.

"Whoa, easy there, Chief," Bane said, directing her back towards the starboard ramp of the bridge when she tried to pivot and go elsewhere. "The best help you can give me right now, is to take care of yourself, to take it easy. I need for you to lay right here, your head down there, your feet up here, and just relax. Stay awake, but relax. Can you help me do that?"

It seemed an easy enough task, and perfectly reasonable to do on the shattered bridge, to Sorbek. "I sure can sir. Thank you for trusting me with this. I can do this!" And she laid down just as he had asked her to do so.

Thankfully she did not have a concussion, and currently only a minor level of shock. With any luck, Lieutenant McConner would be getting to Sickbay before long, and would have someone up here on the bridge to help out. Not just with Sorbek, but also with Bast. "Ok, good. I am going right over there to help Commander Bast. If you need anything, just sing out, okay?"

"Ok. I can do that. Thank you, Captain."

Bane didn't respond; he was already half way across the bridge to attend to Bast. He hoped so much he could help his friend, and the symbiont inside. Losing either of them would be tragic. Losing both would be an incalculable loss.


OFF

Bane Plase, Captain
USS Cygnus, Commanding

 

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