Mining Frustrations - Continued

Posted on Tue Nov 30th, 2021 @ 2:46pm by Commodore Jacob Kane & Lieutenant Leah Bailey & Commander N'Garzi Zora & Lieutenant Commander Michael Ki & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII & Lieutenant Xavier Leiko & Lieutenant Bharani Gupta & NVeid tr'Rehu

Mission: With Gleaming Eyes
Location: Mine landing pad & USS Athena
Timeline: MD2, morning?
2497 words - 5 OF Standard Post Measure

[Mine Entrance landing pad]

Douglas and group rematerialized on the surface, about twenty meters from the shuttle. There were cries and groans from the Metis as they found themselves suddenly out in the open.

Douglas looked around the group, thankfully it was still midmorning and warm, no risk of exposure even in their weakened state. Still they needed shelter and aide. She tapped her commbadge

=^=Nice job, now I need some of those emergency shelters, blankets, food and water. Let Medical and Command know we're got twenty-six infected Metis workers and... =^= She hesitated before speaking the grim reality =^= And one exposed Human.... me =^=

There was a pause =^=Will do Chief, we'll have the stuff down there in ten minutes and sorry to hear that. We'll send down a bio-suit for you too =^=

"Better late than never I guess" Douglas muttered to herself.

She looked around the poor bedraggled Metis and fixed a smile to her face. "Hi! I'm Chief Warrant Officer Victoria Douglas of the Federation Starship Athena, but for right now you lot can all call me Nurse Bondi!"

A few minutes later supplies began appearing, pop-up emergency shelters, piles of blankets, water canteens and boxes of self-heating rations as well as a bio-suit. Douglas donned the suit and began helping the Metis into the shelters.

[Bridge]

"Sir, urgent message from the surface." The duty comms officer entered the Ready Room where the Captain and Executive officer were.

"There is a dangerous malfunction at one of the mines, risk of an explosion and radiation leak. Lieutenant's Keating and Leiko are attempting to shut it down. They also found a group of Metis workers, who all appear to be infected with the virus. They have been transported out of the mine to the surface. Chief Douglas is with them and may have been exposed. We have sent them down emergency supplies. Orders sir?"

"Lock them down," Kane responded. "Full quarantine protocol; inform Dr Ki immediately."

While the Captain was speaking to his people on the ground Zora was already in contact with sickbay. "Zora to sickbay, we need a medical team down on the planet in full bio-suits. Prepare for full unknown virus protocol and also inoculations for radiation poisoning for the entire party."

"Acknowledge Commander," the voice on the other end of the comline said.

NVeid stood close by as the request came in. "Commander, this is Doctor tr'Rehu. I have experience with viral outbreaks, I will beam down to assist," he volunteered.

"Do it. Coordinate with the medical team in the Cardassian compound," Kane replied.

----------------

Xavier, Finn, and Jackson materialised around 20 meters from the shuttle, on the other side, so forty meters from the emergency area. Xavier was happy to see that the Athena had already sent down emergency supplies and Douglas seemed to be in control of the situation. He turned to look at the two with him, "are you both okay?"

"I'm good," Finn kept a straight face, not wanting to let on how she really felt. As if everything she'd ever eaten wanted to expel itself from her system. She couldn't even look at the pile of rations on the other side of the shuttle. "What about you?"

"Don't ask," Xavier replied as he swallowed loudly. "Jackson?"

Jackson shrugged. "I feel ok, just glad to be out of there and up here in the fresh air"

Xavier tapped his combadge. "Douglas, sitrep?"

Douglas emerged from one of the shelters, looked around and saw the other three. She walked over towards them, stopping some ten meters away. The speaker on the front of her suit carried her voice. "Best if we don't get any closer to each other I think, no point you three risking exposure. There's twenty-six of them alive, barely. Maybe six or seven who were already dead are still down there. Got them all inside the shelters and wrapped in blankets for now. I was going to start warming up some ration packs, but what's happening with the mine, we still in danger?"

"The mine is fine, just filled with radiation. So there's no danger unless someone decides to stroll in there for a nice picnic with a side of alpha particle emissions," Finn half smirked.

Douglas grinned wryly. "Huh, well maybe the rads will kill off the virus before I get sick from that too. Wasn't that some kind of old-fashioned medical treatment, irradiating people to kill off cancers and stuff? Sounds barbaric!"

"Radiation does not necessarily kill a virus," a gentle voice said as its owner emerged from the shuttlecraft which he had transported into. The Romulan hybrid was wearing a full hazmat suit, in order to protect himself. "It should, most of the time, but there's no guarantee." He glanced at the people before him. "Can you tell me how long you were exposed for, and how far you were from the blast site? That'll give me an indication of how to treat you and with what."

"Nveid?" Finn squinted in the sun, attempting to see who's body possessed the suit. "We weren't in the mines that long, but that is where all of the radiation came from. All in all probably less than twenty minutes? No big deal," she did her best to smile and shrug it off before dropping to the ground to sit, leaning against the shuttle. "Man it's hot out here. Now that the mines are in a stable state, can't we get back to the ship?" She asked.

"Then your exposure is possibly minimal," NVeid concluded, though he ran his tricorder over them anyway. "No, you can't get back to the ship until we're sure you're not carrying, or are infected with this virus. I'm afraid that, until we know more, you're quarantined here."

He paused, looking over at the other suited -female- form. "Since you are in a suit, are you able to assist me with the patients who are confirmed to be sick? I'm afraid we need to isolate those from the rest, and monitor those who have not yet shown symptoms. Our own people are to be quarantined separately for now, if possible."

"Wait wait wait. Exposure? We weren't exposed at all to the virus," Finn interjected not wanting to lose her chance to get off of the hell-scaped planet. "Look, there was a build up of pressure and radiation in the mines. We went down there, fixed the pressure problem to keep it from blowing up. We were going to just leave since the alpha particle emissions were having a party in there but then Douglas found the miners that were infected but she stayed away from us once she was exposed. Then Xavier and I tried to clear radiation away from the miners to get them safely beamed out and then we got out. We were never near the miners! Can't we just get one of those hypospray radiation exposure fixes and then beam home? The ship could lock down our quarters for quarantine couldn't they?" Finn pleaded with Nveid. The radiation poisoning made her feel awful and she hated to be around anymore when she didn't feel in top shape. She wanted to curl up in a dark corner of her quarters away from everyone else until the sickness had passed.

Inside his suit, NVeid showly shook his head. "No lieutenant, you can't. As we know precious little about the spread of this virus, or even what actually caused it, anyone exposed must remain here in quarantine. We can't risk it getting spead to the ship. Now it's possible that you're indeed not infected but until such time we're sure that you aren't, here's where you'll stay." He knelt down beside her, cumbersome as the move might be, in an act of sympathy. "And in your current condition, as you're clearly unwell, I'm afraid you're not going anywhere, and all we can do is make you feel comfortable while we figure out how to best treat you."

Finn nodded in understanding. As much as she wanted to retreat to her own quarters, she couldn't live with the idea of possibly endangering anyone on the ship. If that meant staying on a scorching disease-ridden planet then so be it. What she needed now was a distraction.

Xavier turned to face Finn, he could tell that she was struggling with the idea of being stuck on the planet. "We can wait it out in the shuttle," he said with a half smile. "Beats waiting in this heat."

NVeid turned to the only other party member he'd not yet spoken to. "Lieutenant Leiko, how are you feeling?"

"Not great Doc," Xavier said truthfully. "But your focus needs to be on those infected people over there," he said pointing to the group they had just rescued from the mine. "Just leave us some hyposprays to counteract the effects of the radiation and then see to them. Let's go to the shuttle," he added to Finn and Jackson.

"I have a better idea," Finn said as she pulled herself up from the ground to stand. "Why don't we have Paxton beam down a generator? Then we can set up a forcefield over the entrance to the mines to keep anyone out. Besides, we all know that what happened down there wasn't a mistake. We don't want anyone else to be able to get in there until we're able to do some more in-depth investigation ourselves." And setting up a generator was exactly the kind of distraction she felt she needed to keep her mind off of everything else.

"Good idea," Xavier said with a grin. "Call Paxton, Doc hypospray please, before I ruin my favourite uniform."

The Romulan trudged over to the operations chief and knelt at his side. "Favourite hm?" he chuckled, "we can't have you do that.." He slapped a new vial into his hypospray and pressed it to the other hybrid's neck. "That should make you feel better soon, but I recommend all of you rest as much as possible and let me know if you take a turn for the worst."

Xavier felt the coolness of the medication as it entered his bloodstream and spread throughout his neck. He was already starting to feel better but knew that was more of a mental effect rather than a physical one. "No time for rest Doc," he said as he watched the man in the environmental suit administer hyposprays to Finn and Jackson, "we have a mine to secure. Jackson stay here and help the medical relief team, Finn let's go."

As if on cue a stream of glittering matter appeared close to the entrance of the mine. Although they were some distance away from the entrance, it looked as though Paxton had sent everything that was needed. Finn grabbed a canister of water and joined Xavier in a walk back towards the mine, happy to get away from the sickness and death that resided so close to them even if it meant trudging back across the desert like terrain.

----------


Douglas waited until the other conversations had concluded and the answered the remark the Doctor had made to her earlier. "Yeah Doc, so you guys already have an identification on the virus to be able to confirm if people are sick?

Because all twenty-six of these people appear sicker than hell! They were all in one bunkroom down in the mine. It looked like they'd been left there, abandoned, for days if not weeks. Six or seven of them were already dead, they'er still down there.

As for exposure, besides actually being down in the mine, the rest of the Away Team never even saw the miners. I was the only one who entered the bunkroom and I certainly got a lungful of the air in there, if this virus is airborne. Besides breathing the air I only touched the outside of the bunkroom door. "

"They may not have seen the miners, but they did touch equipment. We know very little about the surface spread at the moment. All we know so far is that among the Metis, it spreads really fast." He gave her a gentle smile but it was filled with concern. "I need you to inform me as soon as you feel any different, and I need you to remain in your suit when in contact with others just to be safe." He paused. "Can you take me to the other patients so I can examine them? I believe the medical team can use all the data they can get in order to track and trace it."

"Sure" Douglas pointed over her shoulder at the six pop-up emergency shelters, that could each hold eight people "They are all in those. They just have blankets at the moment as we only got them out here some fifteen minutes ago"

"Is there any water nearby for all of you to get rinsed with?" NVeid asked as he started to move towards the tents, "are they mixed or already triaged towards severity of condition? Any without symptoms should be separated from the others immediately."

Douglas gave the Doctor a sideways look and repeated what she had just said. "Doc, lm a Security Officer, not a medical expert. Like l said, they are ALL sick!

I got them beamed up here from the hell-hole they were dying in, gave them a blanket and helped them get into the shelters, that's it. I didn't start any kind of triage or screening..."

"Surely, a security officer has field training as far as medical procedures go?" NVeid mused out loud, "because you've just got drafted ma'am. I only have two hands, and we have a good many sick and dying. I'm going to need your help to triage them."

"Yeah, disrupter burns, blunt force trauma, impact weapon injuries, cuts, scrapes, bruises and breaks or a cardiac arrest lm on it" Douglas agreed "But trying to assess somebody with a deadly virus in a tent on top of a radiation-leaking mine is kinda out of my league Doc"

"But you want me to help you move them around or even carry bedpans" She shrugged "Then lm here to help"

"If you can read a tricorder, you can determine if someone needs immediate help, or if someone can wait," NVeid pointed out, "please, lead the way."

Within the next hour more supplies began arriving form the ship, power packs, lighting, camping cots, a remote science station module, emergency medical module, portable replicator, decontamination and sanitation station and so on. Then some Operations personnel arrived to assemble a pre-fabricated building and within three hours the Athena crew had set up a makeshift hospital and laboratory.

Douglas and the other Team members were scanned, poked, prodded and tested for another hour, then declared free of infection, given anti-radiation medication and permitted to return to the ship, with instructions to check in to medical daily for the next seven days.