Ain't No Rest for the Wicked

Posted on 18 Oct 2024 @ 9:50am by Lieutenant T'Lara Ahmad & Lieutenant JG Katja Becker

1,552 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Stranded
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: Current

The silence within main engineering was unnerving, even more so than the complete darkness. Her vision was subpar in such minimal light conditions, an evolutionary adaptation from a planet landlocked with another, smaller, world leading to nights that were illuminated by the quickly shifting phases of T’Khut’s surface. It was the lack of sounds though, that concerned. T’Lara’s acute hearing strained to hear something, anything, but the silence was absolute.

She was tired. So very tired. It was becoming harder to think through what was going to be needed once auxiliary power had been restored.

“Internal comms…life…life support…” It was getting incredibly difficult to remember. The overwhelming nausea hit her so quickly she was barely able to lurch sideways enough to miss her own lap as she began to vomit, and retched until there was nothing left to come up. The action caused an ice pick of pain the lance through the side of her injured head. A low moan escaped past gritted teeth, but the sound was loud enough to alert another.

Lieutenant Seitha had all but run into Katja as she made her way down the corridor with a flashlight and a medical tricorder, trying to find survivors with the device. He informed her of the injured chief engineer, somewhere in main engineering and so she made her way directly to evaluate.

The moan alerted Katja to the direction to go and she found the young Vulcan woman leaning against a bulkhead looking quite unwell. Even with a flashlight, Vulcans generally had a bronzy glow to their skin. This one’s shade was pale, almost waxy, as a sheen of perspiration coated her face. A large, still oozing, laceration cut across the top of her scalp line down to her temple. Her eyes were glazed, and sluggish to react to light…her left pupil was larger than the right. Increased cranial pressure.

“Hallo, Chief. I am Lieutenant Becker, medical officer…can you hear me?” The tricorder was honed into the Vulcan’s head and began chirping back its findings.

“I hear you…” T’Lara slurred.

Katja saw the readings. Epidural hematoma. Shit. She didn’t have the equipment to treat such a life-threatening injury here. Surgical intervention was required, or bare minimum…trepanation. Looking down at the location of the hematoma on her tricorder screen, Katja bit her lip considering. She was in engineering…

“Lieutenant, you have a brain bleed, and the pressure is building in your head. Ideally, we’d get you to sick bay, and—”

“No!” T’Lara blurted out, but the sudden expenditure set off another round of retching and she fell over onto her side as her right arm no longer was strong enough to support her. “Internal comms…life support…need…”

“Ok, ok, ja.” Katja agreed, pulling the woman back upright. “I need…do you have any drilling tools?” Oh man, this was dirty medicine, but she was potentially in a good place for a suitable tool. The pressure was steadily building in Ahmad’s braid, and if Katja couldn’t reduce the pressure, the woman would most likely die.

T’Lara slowly, unsteadily turned her head towards the voice of the woman she could not see very well. She licked her lips before answering in a slurred voice, “Tool locker…across…laser drill…”

Katja nodded. “I must take the light to go find it. I will return, Lieutenant. Stay with me, ja?” Ok. Laser drill…might be superior. The laser frequency could cauterize any bleeding as it went and possibly reduce risk of pathogenic introduction. Well, it was the only plan she had for now, so it was a go. Katja scrambled across the dark space, stepping over various debris and at least two bodies before she found the tool locker Ahmad had spoke of. It had already been opened; and she shone the light on all of the exotic looking tools in a stepwise fashion until she found the tool in question. Grabbing it, Katja also discovered a small medkit at the bottom of the locker and grabbed that too and quickly made her way back.

“Lieutenant…what’s your name?” Katja said in ‘greetings’ as she crouched back down to the engineer’s side. While she cracked open the medkit and looked within, Katja listened for her patient’s response. It was slow in coming, and she shone her light on the woman’s face to assess her again.

“T…Lara…Ahm..ahm…Ahmad”

“Gut, gut. You’re still with me. I need you to stay awake, T’Lara Ahmad. It is imperative. I’m going to use the laser drill to try to relieve the pressure of the bleeding in your brain and I found a medkit…this…I think I can save you.”

T’Lara slowly turned her head to face the voice. Save her? That…that would be ideal. She knew she could no longer effectively assist in power restoration in her current state. “What must…”

Katja grabbed antiseptic and began to spray it liberally above the laceration where the epidural hematoma was at the greatest depth. She watched the Vulcan woman twitch as the antiseptic got into the large cut and knew it had to sting, but that wasn’t the priority. The flashlight was then trained on the tool and Katja fiddled with it to get it to turn on, and was rewarded with a vibrant blue light as the laser was honed to a suitable length.

“Ok. You must not move, T’Lara. If you want, I can lay you down, but—”

“Just…just do it. I will not…” Her voice trailed off and Katja watched T’Lara’s eyes start to lower. It was now or never. No pressure. Popping the end of the small flashlight into her mouth to point the light source where she needed it, Katja leaned in and turned on the laser. She felt the Vulcan woman jerk, but true to the engineer’s word, she did not move. The laser made quick work burning through the bone, making a small ‘burr hole,’ through the skull, and once she entered the epidural space was rewarded with a spray of green blood. Ok. The pressure was being relieved now, but that didn’t stop the bleeding part. That was where the medkit came in. Each of the kits came with a hemostasis device to help staunch bleeding. Although Katja was using the item well outside its operating parameters, it should work to mend the arterial bleed in her brain…she hoped.

Katja placed the device over where the epidural bleed was located and turned it on. The device began to hum and chirp, and she left it to do ‘it’s thing.’ Turning her attention to the still draining wound, Katja began cleaning her up the best she could and placed a dressing over three edges, leaving the lower edge open so it could continue to drain. Next, she focused on the laceration, cleaning the wound the best she could, and then used the auto suture to begin pulling the wound edges together. It would most likely need a dermal regenerator to reduce scarring, but that was a problem for another time.

“How you feeling, Lieutenant Ahmad?” Katja asked after she finished closing the wound.

“It is easier to think…I am in a significant amount of pain.” T’Lara replied, her voice sounding clearer.

“Oh ja. You broke your head. I will give you an analgesic, but you really need to get to sickbay.”

“We are attempting to restart the impulse reactor…I will be needed to restore critical ship systems. If this does not occur, we will all die. I…I will take your counsel under advisement.”

Katja hissed between her teeth. Not ideal. “Understood. If you start experiencing worsening confusion, weakness, increased vomiting, get your arse to sickbay. I gotta keep looking for survivors.”

T’Lara reached out and gently laid her hand on Katja’s. Katja looked down at T’Lara’s elegant hand and then back to the engineer’s face. Vulcans didn’t generally touch other people.

“Thank you Katja Becker for your assistance.”

Katja flushed, uncomfortable in the moment. Thankfully with no lighting, no one was able to see. “Don’t thank me yet. You’re now well enough to get back to work. No rest for the wicked, T’Lara.”

The hemostasis device began a low trilling noise indicating repair was complete. Medical tricorder in hand, Katja scanned and saw that, yes, the epidural bleed had been stabilized. It wasn’t completely repaired – that would take surgical intervention, but hopefully this quick fix would hold until then.

“I’m serious, Lieutenant. Take it slowly and easy. I’ve put a bandaid on you. Any sign of neurologic decline you must try to get to sick bay, ja?”

“I will heed your warning.” And just like that, T’Lara’s feather light touch was removed from Katja’s hand. The deed was done, and Katja had to move on. She pushed herself off the ground, flashlight, tricorder, and now medkit in hand, and made her way out of engineering to continue her search for casualties.

 

RSS Feed