Follow the yellow brick road
Posted on Sun Aug 23rd, 2020 @ 12:08am by Lieutenant Ausra Danton & Commander Taeler Santu M.D. & Lieutenant Commander P’rel M.D & Jerant van Rijn
Mission:
The Shadow of Arachne
Location: Main Bridge, Deck 1, USS Athena
Timeline: MD-03 (concurrent with 'Retribution Unleashed')
2565 words - 5.1 OF Standard Post Measure
Previously in 'Retribution Unleashed'
'Alright then, severe it is,' Santu noted to herself, "It's alright, we'll find M'Ttan in a moment, I'll give you something against the pain, alright?" Her hands were already automatically putting together a hypo with the right mixture of pain relief and other medication, as she said this, "Don't worry, we'll make sure to get you to safety." She pressed the hypo in the woman's neck, it would relieve the pain and hopefully some of the initial swelling as well, her Vulcan anatomy was a bit rusty, so she hoped that she had remembered the right mix.
Eyes rolling around her head, P’rel managed a moment of clarity as a cooling calm washed over her, spreading from her neck; “oh not you...” she mumbled, looking up at Taeler in the few seconds before another wave of delirium hit. “M’Ttan...?”
In the corner of her eyes she saw someone stumble back to their console, arm cradled close to their body, clearly at an awkward angle. The officer seemed like she still had her wits about her, and probably would protest to being ordered to the sickbay, "Lieutenant Danton, I need your help," that didn't take away the fact that she needed to go to the sickbay because a complex fracture like that could easily cause circulation issues with all sorts of nasty consequences later down the line.
Ausra blinked, "Yes ma'am," she said as she stood up from her station. She didn't know what sort of help that might be given that she only had one arm working at the moment but Ausra resisted the urge to ask.
[And now the continuation]
Santu looked up at the Science officer, "We're going to need to take Lieutenant P'rel to the sickbay, and you could use some help yourself. Can I have a look at that?" Her voice was calm, collected. Even though everything around them was seemingly falling apart, and Kane was shouting orders in the background, this was an environment that she was familiar with, almost comfortable in. She calibrated the medical tricorder to scan the science officer, the small light on the rod happily bouncing over the officer in teal's anatomy.
Nodding, Ausra braced herself for any prodding and poking. Though the arm was still throbbing painfully the pain wasn't as sharp as it had been. "Done a lot of field medical work sir? er ma'am?" Honestly she wasn't sure which to use in the moment and she didn't really think she cared much about it right now either.
"I've had my fair share, though I have to say I never really had access to this type of fancy equipment," Santu said with a comforting smile towards the science officer, "your fracture is restricting blood flow to your hand, I'll give you something against the pain, and lock it in place, once that's done we'll have to drag the Lieutenant over here in to sickbay and get her looked at, alright?" She was already preparing the painkiller, together with some anti-clotting agent, a big risk with complex blunt force trauma was clothing due to crushed veins. The scans had told her there was no internal bleeding, so that was good enough for her to confidently administer the drugs.
"Yes ma'am." She replied, the adrenaline somehow working its way out of her body already and making her much more calm than she had been only moments before. What was going on around her was suddenly muffled if she focused her attention on what the Commander was doing.
Santu barely waited for confirmation as she pressed the hypo against Ausra's upper arm. She put everything back in the medical kit and slung it around her shoulder, maybe they would come across other people in need of medical attention. She put out a hand towards P'rel, "Let's get you off the ground, Lieutenant, no lying around on the job." She looked back over to Ausra, hoping the painkillers were doing a good enough job of suppressing the pain of a broken limb, "Support her from the other side." she said as they started to make their way over to the turbolift.
Ausra did as she was asked, leaving her arm alone as much as possible. She had a feeling though that this was going to be the longest trip to sickbay ever, even if her arm wasn't hurting at the moment. "Yes, Ma'am. Are you injured? Because I could get someone else to help me with the Lieutenant."
“Please...” mumbled P’rel, in a moment of passing lucidity; she couldn’t stand the Bajoran Commander and would sooner not swallow her pride and take her help, if she could possibly avoid it.
"The injuries to both of you are severe, and could get a lot worse even in the short time it'll take us to get to sickbay," Santu felt like she had to drag both of them into the turbolift. "Sickbay. Priority One." She ordered the computer, which simply confirmed receiving the order with a cheerful bleep. The turbolift came into motion, then shuddered. The lights flickered as it came to a halt, clearly stuck between decks, "You've got to be kidding me," she looked over at Ausra, "let's set her on the ground"
Ausra tried not to let panic well up inside her. She was a scientist and was not used to very many dangerous situations. Well, there had been the man eating plant but she hadn't counted on that just as she hadn't counted on getting stuck in the turbolift on the way to be healed. "Computer go down? Or Damage to the lift or the corridor itself?"
Thus far, Jerant had been quietly stood against the wall, in utter silence and cradling his right arm. He looked pale and his normally already dark eyes were almost black with pain. Sensing the utter discomfort of the others wasn't exactly helping either. Quietly he moved over to Ausra and gently bumped her uninjured arm. "Claustrophobic?" he asked softly, mistaking the sense of panic for that of claustrophobia.
"Not normally . . ." Ausra replied, feeling like in this moment she just might be. It was more anxiety about her arm though and if the pain would come back. Now that she thought about it her stomach wasn't feeling the best either.
"Do you want to sit down ma'am?" Jerant asked, "I'll help if you need it, then you can rest your arm in your lap. Or would you like something to support it? I can probably make something out of my tunic.." He looked around the group. "Unless someone is willing to donate their uniform jacket?"
Without thinking Santu pulled her uniform jacket off and folded it to function as a sling, draping it around Ausra's neck. Her now bare arms and shoulders showed different levels of scarring from the abuse she had sustained in the camps. Normally she was very conscientious about keeping them covered, but there were bigger fish to fry and the people in the small lift were depending on her to fry them. Before she stood up she quickly grabbed the comm badge from her uniform jacket and put it on her shirt. With that done she looked around the lift for an access hatch, "Are you still with me, P'rel?" She asked to try and keep the severely injured Vulcan conscious, "Tell me, have you ever been stuck in a lift before?" She knew the woman would probably hate small talk but she had to remain engaged, Santu had to make sure that she wasn't losing consciousness or deteriorating in another way.
Her eyes rolling, P’rel struggled to lock onto the voice “M’Ttan is that you?” she asked searchingly, hoping her brother would answer. Her eyes instead landed on the Bajoran Officer leaning over her and she squirmed backwards a little “urgh never with things as bad as this...” she mumbled, ambiguously enough that the statement could be about the sorry state of Athena, or the sorry state of being marooned with Taeler. Her head pounded like a sehlat had used her skull for a chew toy, though she could feel the pain being held at bay with some kind of drug. “How much longer....”
Santu resisted the urge to roll her eyes and scold the woman, being satisfied with the fact that she was still responsive for now and seemed to be in the same personality, "Ausra, can you keep talking to her, I want to know if anything changes about her demeanour or speech. Slurring, word confusion, that sort of thing." With that she looked over at Jerant, "Can you help me get up there?" She asked, pointing at the hatch above them.
Jerant looked up then back at Taeler. "It won't be for lack of trying ma'am," he answered, moving to brace himself against the wall of the car. "Be careful ma'am, I'm not sure I can catch you safely if you lose your balance. Not with one arm available."
“That would be terrible...” P’rel muttered wryly to herself, not overly aware of whether the words were internal or audible anymore. She was nonetheless the physically strongest amongst the group and drew her feet up to stand, ready to support Taeler. As soon as the balance came to her legs it was gone again and she dropped back to her knees, wincing as the shock found her pounding head “ow...” she sighed, dropping back against the turbolift wall.
"Oh I think you need to sit down. Let's talk like the XO suggested." Ausra said. "Tell me about where you are from. What's it like? Either that or I'll bore you with tales of Montana and no one here wants that. Save them and me."
P'rel pondered a moment why someone would offer tales of their homeland, but warn off the telling of such tales. It was most illogical and probably some form of humour she hadn't grasped. Looking at the human woman, she had to close one eye to focus on her face; "Natha Kell" she replied with some considerable effort, "Natha...Kell. Starship."
"Good," Ausra said. "Is it big, small? Cold? What in this moment do you remember most about it?" They were silly questions but it was information that she could learn about the person plus it kept them alert and talking, two important things right now.
“What...?” P’rel asked through squinted eyes of mildly disdainful confusion; “Excelsior, it was new when we were aboard” she winced as a small head movement felt like a plasma torch in her brain, “...destroyed since”. She pondered a second, temperature had never especially occurred to her but she had to acknowledge she was always somewhat chilly. A product no doubt of evolving on a desert world.
"I generally don't pay much attention to ship classes or design. But I find starships to be cold, it doesn't matter how I tweak environmental controls, it's psychosomatic I'm sure. Do you have any siblings?"
Feeling a knot of anger and upset tighten in her stomach, P’rel thought of the pointed eared Borg drone she’d seen crossing the bridge, “no”, she uttered with a lump in her throat - a half truth. “Can we leave now?” She asked; now having had enough of this conversation, especially so with her slowly returning lucidity. She looked up, painfully, to the open ceiling hatch “how can she not be done yet...?” asked the irritable Vulcan.
Using Jerant's knee and then the shoulder on his good shoulder, Santu had ascended into the ceiling of the lift. She still stood on his shoulder, stretched out, undershirt slowly pulling up revealing some of the deep scars on her lower back. She had a quick look around and found that the emergency break had triggered on the turbolift due to a burnt-out chip. Luckily there was a way around that. That's when she heard the complaint from the Vulcan, "because she is trying to fix this without plummeting us to the bottom deck, without the use of any engineering tools, or replacement parts." A sound of a small electrical discharge, "Shit!" She waved her hand to get the painful tingling out of her hand. She then looked at the small red indicator flashing. "Why don't you work? You should work." As she looked over the connections again she realised something, "oh, right." The turbolift safety protocols wouldn't allow a cart to continue on its way when the hatch was opened and biosigns were in the vicinity. She closed the control panel on the top of the cart and pulled herself back into the lift, closing the hatch above her head before getting back off of Jerant's shoulder.
“I thought terrorists were resourceful....” mumbled P’rel, just glad at least that Taeler was back in the lift as she felt it begin to move. Sarcastic barbs aside, she was genuinely grateful to the Bajoran for assisting her. There were other wounded on the bridge and the former doctor could just have easily tended to those.
Santu shot a glance at P'rel, "I'll let that one slide on account of the massive head wound," her kneejerk reaction was to make note of yet another clear sign of the woman's insubordination, but she realised that she was just lashing out for the situation they had found themselves in, "Let's get you all into sickbay and fix you up." She looked around the group of broken bones and head trauma.
Ausra raised her eyebrows but didn't say anything, if she didn't want to talk she wasn't going to make her but she thought it did help take their mind off things. "What about you ma'am, any siblings?"
Leaning back against the wall of the turbolift, Santu let out a sigh, "A brother, he's with the Starfleet Marines, and a sister, she's a primary school teacher back on Bajor. They're both younger than me by about half a decade." Before then they were too busy mourning the idea that their only daughter had died fighting the Cardassian occupation. She looked at Jerant, "how about you?"
"I have two sisters, one older and one younger than me. I'll admit I haven't seen them in quite some time though. I grew up away from them because of my telepathic abilities."
P’rel rolled her eyes, unable to suppress the exasperation of this insufferable calamity she found herself in the midst off, “oh good, a sharing circle” she reeled off with a sarcastic bite. “Can we-“ she stopped mid sentence as the turbolift doors opened into a busy corridor. Clearly sickbay had overflowed a bit, pop-beds lined the corridor filled with patients being tended to by medical personnel. “Finally” she stated, indifferent to the scene in front of her and just grateful to be heading out of the turbolift. She paused before trying to move, a reluctant compulsion creeping over her, “Thank you, Commander”, she offered to Taeler, sincerely.
Santu took a moment to appreciate the gesture with a slight bow, "Don't thank me yet, we're not out of the woods just yet. Let's find the Doctor." She put her arm around P'rel to support her in the short walk down the corridor towards Sickbay.
Jerant held out his hand towards Ausra, offering to help her up to her feet.
End
