Carefully Controlled Chaos

Posted on 19 Nov 2024 @ 7:36pm by Lieutenant JG Dylan McConnor & Lieutenant JG Thalla zh'Ennev MD

694 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Stranded
Location: Sickbay

The entire Sickbay was a hotbed of carefully controlled chaos and mayhem. There was debris everywhere, and patients were still coming in from all over the ship. A secondary infirmary had been set up in the nearby cargo bay. Communications and auxiliary power had just returned, but the main computer was still offline. Without it, medical personnel were hurrying back and forth between Sickbay and the cargo bay, carrying supplies and rushing to report their latest patients' data.

Thalla zh'Ennev took a breath to collect her thoughts as she moved from one patient to the next. So far she had set six broken limbs, placed neurological stimulators on four others who had suffered traumatic brain injuries, placed another four in stasis until they could undergo surgery, and black-flagged another eight who hadn't made it. She suspected that was just the talon beneath the snow. There were far more of the same all over the ship than those who had made it to Sickbay.

On a ship of roughly 800 crew, they had been fortunate enough to have four doctors on board. Ravi, the Chief, was stuck on the Bridge, taking care of the wounded there. Becker was touring the decks, treating people left and right, occasionally popping back in for supplies. Kensington, the ship's surgeon, was where he should be - performing surgery on some of their worst cases. But without main power to generate a quarantine field, he was forced to do it the old-fashioned way, with surgical masks and a makeshift sterile field that imposed extra precautions. Nothing unfeasible, but it added more delays and the surgeries took longer.

That left Thalla as the sole doctor, along with a dozen nurses, to cover Sickbay and the auxiliary infirmary, where at last count one hundred and twenty-seven patients were waiting to be seen.

She glanced over at the biobeds. None of them were in working order. Four had been occupied by survivors from the Bixilfiz. Two of them had been killed when the bed's power unit had overloaded. A third had died when the biobed's life support , which they had been entirely dependent on, had shorted out. The fourth was in critical condition, having been thrown to the ceiling, and sent crashing back down on the thing only to suffer a spinal fracture.

Thalla had commandeered non-medical personnel to help in Sickbay. Working with dermal regenerators, applying bandages, or just settling patients somewhere comfortable. Some, who couldn't stand the sight of blood, were being put to work clearing the area of debris and making sure the medical personnel could move around without climbing over fallen struts.

She walked over to the nurses' station and looked at the stack of data padds. Without the main computer, patient charts were kept on these portable devices, waiting for her attention. She began shuffling through them, quickly assessing the status of each patient one by one. A few, she set aside so she could take a look at the patient for herself. On others, she wrote down instructions. On a third series, she simply added the need for observation. The fourth stack was for patients who could be discharged and put to work helping around. The fifth, which she dreaded, was for patients who were beyond her help. One padd in this stack was one too many.

"Doctor zh'Ennev," came a voice at her left.

She turned to see a young man in engineering colors. The man had exceptionally thick dark hair in complete disarray, in contrast with her own thick purely white Andorian hair. He was almost as tall as she was, and his uniform was torn and stained with dirt, dust and soot.

"Triage is in Cargo Bay three. Nurse Marchand will see you."

"I'm not here for treatment." He held up his toolkit. "I'm here to help. Lieutenant McConnor."

She let out a breath she hadn't realized she's been holding. Her antennae perked up in encouragement. "The biobeds first," she instructed simply, nodding in their direction.

Without another word, McConnor nodded, walked over to the beds and got to work.

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A post by

Dr Thalla zh'Ennev
Medical officer

And

Lt JG Dylan McConnor
Engineer

 

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