The morning after

Posted on 24 Dec 2024 @ 10:05am by Lieutenant Commander Temerant Bast & Lieutenant JG Thalla zh'Ennev MD

1,096 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Shoreleave and Reassignment
Location: Starbase 375
Timeline: Current

The softness of the bedsheets was the first thing that came to Temerant Bast's attention as he drifted back to consciousness. There was a sluggishness to his thoughts, which the symbiont recognized as a side-effect of the pain medication that had been administered to the Host.

He opened his eyes slowly, and squinted, even though the lights were dim. A monitor beeped softly. He turned at the sound, and read the display on the wall to his right. All of his vital signs were normal, at least to the best of his knowledge. Both Host and symbiont seemed to be in good health.

The second display on the wall showed another patient, who was a bit worse off, with some indicators displayed in yellow. He turned, and saw that there was a second bed in the room. That ruled out the Cygnus - the ship's sickbay had no double-occupancy rooms. Nor did Deep Space Nine, their usual port of attachment.

His memories were hazy at best. He remembered an explosion, being thrown across the bridge... Ravi's face on a darkened Bridge. A nurse, and the Captain hovering over him. But very little was coherent.

He turned to look at the second bed, but the movement caused a wave of nausea. He shifted his weight on his left arm, steadying himself on the bed. He felt as though the display from the wall monitor had imprinted itself on his retina and seemed to be following his gaze. The effect almost gave him motion sickness.

He controlled his breathing for a full minute before getting to his feet. The sudden draft made him notice that he was fully naked, draped only in a hospital gown that didn't close in the back. He turned slowly, and looked at the patient in the second bed. He recognized the unconscious crewman from the Cygnus - he remembered passing the young man in the corridors, someone from the Engineering department, but he couldn't place a name on the face.

The door to the room opened with a soft hiss. Temerant's hands snapped over to his backside as he tried to pull the gown closed. He swiveled on his feet to face the door, and immediately regretted the reflex as a another wave of nausea washed over him.

"Don't worry, nothing I haven't seen before. A bit too pink for my taste. The spots are a novelty, though," came back a familiar voice.

Temerant opened his eyes once the nausea subsided. "Thalla," he said, looking back at the Andorian medical officer.

"It's good to see you back on your feet," she said. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been hit by, uh..." He let his voice trail off as he sat back down on the biobed. "What happened?"

"I don't have all the details," replied zh'Ennev, sitting down in the visitor's chair next to the bed. "It looks like the ship we were towing exploded, and the Cygnus was caught in the blast. We took a lot of damage."

"How many casualties?" asked Temerant, his voice hollow.

"Over sixty percent," she said quietly.

Temerant's eyes opened wide, and he was silent for a minute as he absorbed the news.

"The Captain?"

"He's fine. He wasn't injured."

He wanted to ask about the rest of the crew. About the senior staff. About the deckhands. About the Sickbay staff, with whom Thalla worked every day. But the number of casualties was staggering. Sixty percent of the crew had died. How many more had been injured? How many were still fighting for their lives?

"And you?"

"I'm fine," she said with a slow nod. "Bruised antennae, which can take a while to heal, but I'll be fine. You, on the other hand."

She got to her feet and walked up to him. She pressed her hands to the sides of his neck, tilted his head upwards, and felt his cervical vertebrae, and probed the base of his skull with her slender fingers.

"Anything unusual?"

The retinal imprint he thought was just an afterimage of the wall monitor shifted, startling him.

"You took a severe blow to the head," she explained. "There was damage to the left optic nerve. Too severe for us to repair. We had to replace your left eye with a cybernetic implant. We also had to replace the head of your left humerus - that's in your left shoulder."

"I know where the humerus is," he snapped, waving that part away. "So I 'm... I'm blind in my left eye?"

"Your left eye has been replaced with a cybernetic implant. The very best technology available, short of cloning a new eye. In many ways it can be even better than your natural eye, and allow you to see deeper into the infrared and ultraviolet spectra."

"Why am I seeing things that aren't there? It's almost as if it's connected to the biobed."

She pulled out her tricorder and scanned his head. "The newer Starfleet-grade models incorporate basic sensor functionalities, like those old visors. It's connected to your brain, so that interface can take some getting used to. Maybe someone left that functionality turned on. I'll turn it off for now, you'll have time to try it again once you're used to the new eye."

She tapped a few keys in her tricorder and his eyesight returned to normal, as the phantom displays vanished.

"You also suffered a broken femur. We fixed that, but your leg might feel sore for a while."

Temerant was silent for a minute, his brow furrowed as he took all of this in. "Where are we?" he asked finally.

"Starbase 375. They're just starting the refit on the Cygnus. We're going to be here for some time. Not that I intend to clear you for duty just yet."

Bast nodded. He was far from feeling ready to return to duty anyway.

"We'll talk more later," she said. "This is all a lot to take in. Get some rest, and I'll have someone come in with food in a few minutes."

"Yes, Ma"am," replied Temerant. He pulled this legs up and laid back down on the biobed.

As Thalla turned to leave, he called out to her one last time.

"Kireth?" he asked.

She made a face that let him know the truth. He knew she and the Andorian nurse had been close. His death surely had hit her hard.

"Get some rest," she said before heading out of the room.

____________

A post by

Lieutenant Commander Temerant Bast
First Officer
USS Cygnus

And

Dr Thalla zh'Ennev
Medical Officer
USS Cygnus

 

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