Avon Calling

Posted on 03 Nov 2024 @ 6:28pm by Lieutenant JG Ziyi Zhao & Lieutenant JG Katja Becker & Crewman Apprentice Thobius Chaluk & Ensign Chell

2,034 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Stranded
Location: Deck 6
Timeline: current

It seemed like hours passed as Katja climbed and scrabbled through the darkness, although she knew it hadn’t been that long. Her muscles were starting to protest all of this unplanned activity, but until power had been restored and they knew exactly what they were dealing with, she was on duty.

A strange amber glow got her attention from an open hatchway. Pulling herself out of the turboshaft, Katja saw a small canister that put off quite a bit of light. That meant someone was alive to do such a thing. Flipping open her medical tricorder, she was rewarded with a number of life signs and almost hooted in triumph. There hadn’t been many that she had come across on her slapdash trekking across the ship. Following the life signs, which coincided with the cannisters, she finally found herself in front of the open doors of Science Lab 2.

“Hallo? Apparently someone left the light on. I’m with medical – does anyone need assistance?”

Crewman Chaluk looked up from his emergency ration that had been given to him some minutes earlier to the strange voice. He could see the light outside the room and could see the outline of the person the voice belonged to, but it was so dark that he could not make out features, other than the person was a slender female. It was not his place to say anything, being a lowly crewman. He waited for one of the several officers in the room to say something. He also noted all of the sudden shifting and movement in the room from all the other people in here. It was almost wave-like. He didn't know why, but figured it was because most were startled by the shadowy figure and the sudden new voice.

Lieutenant Ziyi paused in her rounds and turned to the door. Her hands were full of emergency rations, which she had been handing out to the injured crewmembers who were lined up around the Science lab. Most of the injuries were minor - a few broken bones, and some mild to heavy bruising. All but two of the most critically injured patients hadn't been ambulatory enough to be carried to the Science lab. Ensign Chell, her new best friend in this crisis, had consigned their location on a data padd. She walked to the table, put down the rations, and picked up the padd. The two that could be moved had been carried here, and were resting as comfortably as they could, with other crewmembers keeping watch over them.

"Yes," she spoke, walking up to the newcomer. "I'm Lieutenant Ziyi. We have twenty-six minor injuries here, and two critical. Another seventeen critical at these locations on this deck." She handed the padd over to the medical officer.

A shadow loomed behind the medical officer as Ensign Chell returned once more to the Science lab. He was carrying one of the fifty-six children they had aboard the ship, a little girl of about ten years old. The girl was unconscious, and a bone was protruding from her thigh.

"I have felt a pulse," said Chell. "Where do you want her?"

Katja took the medical padd offered by the other officer and opened her mouth to instruct them to take her to the critical patients when another rushed into the lab holding a small form of a child in their arms. The padd was forgotten for the moment.

"Get her to one of the work benches." Katja rushed over with the other other officer to the respective table, pulling one of the medical bags she had collected off her shoulder so she could access its contents.

Chaluk saw where they were headed. He leaped up and made it to the workbench before they did. In a mad (and appearing angry), in a sweep of his arm, he cleared everything that had been on that workbench. Rations, tools and PADDS went clattering to the floor. He then stepped back several steps just in time for the Doctor and Ensign to place the child on the workbench.

"I"m going to need both your help." Katja directed towards Chell and Chaluk. "Do you know anything about the critically injured patients? You can tell me while we work so after we stabilize this one I can get to work on the others."

She flipped her Medical tricorder open and she began a diagnostic on the child, while she dialed up a powerful analgesic in one of the preloaded hyposprays she had and pressed it against the child's uninjured thigh. Broken femur for certain - but it took a lot of energy to break a thigh bone; she had to be certain the child had no other injuries.

After laying the child gently on the table, Chell picked up the data PaDD, handing his palm beacon to Ziyi so she could provide Katja with some light. He tapped on the device and brought up the list of injured he'd catalogued.

"Two impalements, Section Six-Alpha-Two. Three people caught under a heavy structural beam that I was unable to move, one in Section Six-Gamma-Three and two in Six-Theta-One. One neck injury, Section Six-Beta-One. Two serious head wounds, one in Six-Alpha-One and one in Six-Delta-Two. Two back injuries that I didn't dare move, sections Six-Epsilon-One and Six-Kappa-Two. One... I doubt this one survived, there was a lot of blood. Severed leg, Six-Gamma-Three."

He went on enumerating the list of injured that he clearly couldn't have moved, or hadn't dared to move.

"And that does not take into account all of the fatalities that I encountered on this deck alone. I did not keep count of those."

"I don't care about the fatalities. Exsanguination - black card. I don't have anything to treat that. OK. Impalements, I need your eyes on that, ja? - Was the bleeding controlled? If the item tamponaded off the bleeding, they'll keep. Back and neck injuries; you were right to keep them where they are at; They'll need tricorder scanned to ensure no unstable fracture before movement. The head wounds could be concerning...scheisse, I should have brought the drill from engineering..." She talked while she dug through the medical kit to find splinting material.

Katja turned to Chell. "OK, padd down. Keep her still, and I mean hold her down. I'm going to attempt to reduce the femur; we just don't have a choice right now." Glancing to Lieutenant Zhao, Katja ordered, "Keep the light on the wound, nowhere else. The child is most likely going to scream. I've given her some analgesic, but it's not going to be enough. Brace yourselves."

Then, most importantly Katja leaned down towards her young patient. Her eyes were glazed; meds and shock. "Okay, liebschen...I know you are very brave. I have to move your leg - I will be very fast, and then I will wrap it with something to keep it straight..." She continued murmuring softly to the child while gripping the leg and applying firm, controlled traction.

Multi-tasking, she continued, "Ziyi, yes? Who are the two critical here - do you have any outline of injuries?"

Ziyi nodded in the direction of the two most critically injured patients who were here in the Science lab, holding the light steady. "Over there. The tricorder identified internal bleeding on the patient on the left, but I couldn't find the source. Patient on the right, the tricorder reported a collapsed lung."

Chaluk listened intently as the officers spoke. He was fascinated with how well they were working together, in spite of their differences. In fact, he was mesmerized by it, and although he was not being included in the conversation, he felt an odd sense of belonging that had been missing prior to this moment during his tour in Starfleet.

Katja listened intently to Zhao's descriptions as she pulled the child's leg with a significant amount of force and watched the jagged edge of the femur withdraw back under the skin. The child's strident scream was expected, and she instead chose to focus on her task versus her patient's distress. It was necessary. "Hold her down!" She barked as the child started to struggle and the femur began to shift back again.

Chaluk jumped up. "Here, I'll help," he said loudly, over the poor girls screams. He put his arms over her legs at the ankles, but that proved to not be enough, so he put his weight down on her. Still, she was moving, so he put everything down on her. Through gritted teeth, he mumbled, "Is she part Klingon?" It was obvious she was not, but she was certainly exhibiting the strength of one, he thought.

Ziyi extended a hand and stroked the young girl's hair, softly singing a Chinese lullaby tos oothe her. The girl opened her frightened eyes, and looked into hers.

"It's all right, we're trying to help you," said the Science officer.

The Romulan lower enlisted nodded. It surprised him that this young girl and he had more in common than did the two older officers, most notable was that he was closer in age than they were. "Hey kid, I heard you have been as brave as Seven of Nine, and as strong as Commander Uhura. You got this," he cheered her on softly, reassuring her.

Through no small amount of elbow grease, Katja was able to reduce the young girl's fracture. It was by no means perfect, but it was what it was at the moment. She reached over and grabbed the temporary traction splint from the medkit that had been set up prior to the reduction and fitted it around the girl's leg. Once that was done she used a dermal re-generator to close up the fracture wound. "We're going to need to get this little one to sickbay; there's nothing more I can do for her here and now."

Katja remembered where she was. "Thank you both for your assistance."

She then picked up the large kit and carried over to the two 'critical' patients Zhao had described. Medical tricorder on...she scanned the internal bleeding patient and frowned at what she saw. Grade 3 splenic laceration, still bleeding. Mild hypotension and tachycardia noted. She dialed up a hypospray with an coagulant medication. It wouldn't repair the damage, but potentially it was a quick fix to stave off hypovolemic shock. "Another one that needs to get to sickbay."

Turning her attention to the downed lung, Katja pulled out a decompression kit and unzipped the uniform jacket and cut the undershirt to expose the crewman's chest. While she cleaned over the upper chest over the pneumothorax, she calmly explained, "I am cleaning your skin; I am going to insert this syringe over the downed lung and connect it to a valve that allows one way air movement. This should help to reverse the deflated lung." She explained things in a simplistic step-wise approach and one this was done she inserted the syringe into the upper chest between the ribs and was rewarded with a hiss. Once the hissing stopped, she hooked it up to the one-way valve and reviewed the data on the tricorder. It wasn't perfect; but it had halted what was becoming a tension pneumo. It was at that moment that the auxiliary lights began to flicker and slowly came on.

"Well that's a big of good news." She said in a cheery tone as she looked about the lab and saw all of the various injuries many of those present had sustained.

Chaluk was thrilled that he had got to be a part of this, almost as thrilled as he was that the lights came back on. "There are more people alive," he exclaimed. "We are gonna make it!"

Katja did not reply. She did not want to do anything to dampen Chulak's almost irrational exuberance. Given what they had just experience, some optimism wasn't a bad thing. Regardless, it was time to keep moving....

? Final tags from any

=====

Lieutenant Katja Becker
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Cygnus

&

Crewman Apprentice Thobius Chaluk
Master-at-Arms
USS Cygnus

&

Lieutenant JG Ziyi Zhao
Science Officers
USS Cygnus

&

Ensign Chell
Supply Specialist
USS Cygnus

 

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