Through the fog..

Posted on Sun Oct 1st, 2023 @ 4:32pm by Senior Chief Petty Officer Mason Malone & Lieutenant Didrea Zade & Ensign Rimal Iska

Mission: Wrath of the People
Location: Alpha module sickbay
Timeline: A few hours after "through the tubes"
2707 words - 5.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Slowly, Mason drifted his way back to awareness. He didn't know how long he'd been unconscious but as awareness returned, so did his jumbled memory. "George," he choked out as he struggled to sit up. His body was exhausted even though his injuries had been tended to.

As he sat up, his bare torso still showed faint evidence of the fighting from a few hours prior. His right arm was bandaged tightly and there were several patches across his torso. His left hand too was bandaged. As his eyes regained focus, they fell onto the patient next to him. A young looking Bajoran whose name wouldn't come to mind even though their struggle through the tubes did. Had this man called the EMH? Had this man saved his life? But what of George? Where was he?

A light 'tut tut' came from somewhere in the room, and the EMH was suddenly next to Mason's biobed, offering support where needed. "Easy, crewman. You lost quite a bit of blood." The hologram took a quick glance over to the other officer, seeing that he was still unconscious. The Bajoran had his own collection of bandages, but the two prominent ones were on the arm that had been burned and across his torso to support the newly mended bone.

While he had been waiting for information, it was important to stop the bleeding. His initial scan detected the knockout gas in both of them, and the EMH wasn't sure if it was intentional or not but it slowed down their heartbeats and reduced blood loss, at least for a while. After the alpha section was rescued, the EMH was able to transport himself and the two officers to sickbay so he could replace his patch job with real treatment.

"Senior chief," Mason breathed, glancing over towards Iska. "How is he? Will he be alright?" He allowed the holographic doctor to help him sit up. "How bad was it?" He had so many questions but his head was still swimming and he felt a little nauseous. "Can I have some water?" He felt like his throat was parched.

"Of course, Senior Chief." The EMH briefly left the side of the biobed and returned with the requested glass of water. He grabbed a second glass, anticipating the Bajoran requesting one as well when he awoke. "He will be fine. I'd say he fared better than you." Grabbing a tricorder, he pulled out the scanning wand and began a thorough scan of Mason. "The worst of his injuries were two broken ribs, a mild concussion, and a large second-degree burn on his arm. You had several deep knife wounds, some fractures, blood loss, and more phaser burns than I've seen on a man in a while."

While the EMH was rambling on about the injuries, the Bajoran on the other bed began to stir. Iska's eyes opened a tiny amount, then closed them again when he saw it was way too bright. Did he die? A quiet groan escaped him as he slowly brought one arm over his eyes to block out the light. No, he couldn't have died, his whole body ached and the dead didn't feel pain... what happened? He knew he had been injured but his memories were hazy.

"Ensign?" Mason queried, interrupting the EMH and trying to lean a little closer to the Bajoran officer. He winced as he stretched too far and fell back into his pillows. "Ugh, I hate this so much..." He grunted unhappily. "Just...just fix it please, so we can go home?" Though of course he knew better than to rush a doctor, but being idle just made him feel restless. He turned his head towards the Bajoran. "We made it," he said, trying to smile.

The hologram couldn't help the shake of his head as his patient interrupted him and instead tried to move. "That is my job, young man," he said, making sure Mason didn't fall off the bed. "Your injuries have been repaired but your duty now is to rest." Turning to Iska, the EMH started scanning the injuries. "How are you feeling, Ensign?"

"Like I had a warp core dropped on me," mumbled Iska. As he continued waking up, the jumbled mess of memories started becoming more coherent. The Gorn in the control room, engineering, crawling through the jefferies tubes. Testing the brightness again, Iska squinted as he peered around what he recognized as sickbay from under his elbow, eventually seeing Mason, alive. "Thank the Prophets..." As more of his memories cleared up, he remembered just how bad Mason had looked, and he vaguely recalled his last thoughts before losing consciousness, silently hoping that he would make it. "You look better than before," he commented, a faint smile on his face.

"Hi," Mason answered, "I feel better too. It was close, I think? Doc here said I lost a lot of blood. But I'm doing better now, just waiting for the go to get up and go home. How do you feel?"

"Been better, honestly," the Bajoran responded, in an attempt to try and lighten the mood. Bracing himself with both arms, he slowly sat up. "Mostly stiff, which is less than I expected."

The doors to alpha section's sickbay hissed open, and Zade entered the room with haste, supporting an unconscious officer in yellow. Once the other two sections came to their aid, Zade got permission to leave the bridge and start helping with cleanup. She had some injuries herself, mostly minor cuts from the explosion and a few bruises hidden under her uniform, but they didn't inhibit her movements. The worry evident in her expression became relief when she saw Mason and Iska, and she brought Kivel to an open bed, accepting the help from the EMH.

Once Kivel was on a biobed and the EMH started assessing the damage, the Trill turned to the other two. "I'm glad you two made it." She had pieced together what had happened on the lower decks, but still lacked the entire story. "What happened in engineering? The place took a beating."

"We were overrun," Mason explained, closing his eyes at flashes of memory, " they hit the warp core controls, disabling the forcefield. We had to retreat to one of the maintenance rooms. From there, Ensign Iska and I fled through the tubes. Ensign Paxton sealed the hatch behind us, there was no getting him to come because he..." Mason faltered, looking away, "he tossed us in before he sealed it. Literally ma'am. And Iska wouldn't let me go back, we had no time to go back. We barely made to astrometrics and I don't remember how I got to sickbay."

"After one of you summoned me in astrometrics, I transported you here," the EMH chimed in with a hint of pride, his focus still on the tricorder.

Iska frowned, not quite remembering astrometrics. He vaguely recalled getting out of the tubes, but not the room they tumbled into. Looking to Zade, he asked, "Paxton... is he alright? He insisted that we keep going, and with the containment field down-"

Zade nodded, holding up a hand in assurance. "Yes, Paxton is fine. He's helping with damage control." Mason's explanation cleared up how inhospitable engineering had become. She placed a hand gently on the end of the biobed, partly to show her care and partly to simply take a breather from how busy she'd been. "It looks like engineering, deck four, and deck six got the worst of it."

Relief washed across Mason's face at this news, followed by a very brief hint of disappointment. Brief, because Mason understood why George probably hadn't stopped by. It was the fundamental basis of their relationship, that duty had to come first. "Was everyone on the bridge alright?" Mason then asked, "I lost comms for a while and didn't have time to check in when I encountered pirates on deck two." He winced as he shifted, clearly favouring his bandaged right arm.

Another nod from the Trill. "No critical injuries. Comms went out for a few minutes, but we eventually got them back." A lingering trace of the dust from the explosion tickled her throat, and she covered her mouth with her arm to cough. "Commander Lance had me release anaesthezine across the ship to stop the takeover. We had some more pirates try to transport onto the bridge while we were restoring external communications to get in contact with the other sections." Glancing to the EMH, she asked, "how long will they remain here, doctor?"

Finishing his scan of the unconscious security officer, the hologram set aside the tricorder and began treatment. "It depends on how much they insist on not laying still," he replied, sparing a glance toward Mason and Iska. With the pieces of information he picked up from the conversation, he concluded that all of these individuals, and perhaps more to come, were in a difficult battle. Not that it meant anything special to his programming aside from which protocols to follow. "The Ensign and Senior Chief's inuries are no longer critical, so they can be released once the anaesthezine wears off in a couple hours."

"Hours?" Mason looked somewhat distressed, "can't we rest at home? If we're not critical surely you'll need these beds for other patients?" Was it wise to debate with a hologram? Probably not but surely it saw the wisdom in his suggestion? "Can't you give us something to clear the fog?" He looked towards Iska, then Zade. "I fought four pirates on deck two," he admitted, not wanting to appear to be a hero, just trying to report his findings instead, "the last one gave me a good fight, an Andorian. He should be treated with some degree of honour...he was hurt too."

The hologram took in a patient breath, an entirely useless action for an entity unreliant on air but decidedly better bedside manner than the urge to roll his eyes. "You're not in a critical condition, but you're still injured and require treatment if you wish to get back to your duties in a timely manner. The 'fog' will clear as the anaesthezine in your system gets flushed out, which takes time. Until the chief medical officer returns, this is my sickbay, and I will run it how I see fit."

"Gentlemen," Zade interjected, trying to diffuse the tension. She held up a hand toward Mason, a silent request to be patient, before addressing the hologram first. "Doctor, what's the concern against them recovering in their quarters?"

"While rare, some patients have adverse side effects when waking up from anesthesia." The EMH responded. Once he finished what he was doing, he turned to check out Mason and Iska again, making a point of ushering Zade out of the way with a wave of his hand. "Aside from brain fog, what other symptoms are you experiencing?" He asked Mason, scanning him with the tricorder.

"Exhaustion, like I've run a marathon," Mason confessed, "moving is painful and I feel a little lightheaded. But I'm sure I can make the walk home if I take my time. I'll probably sleep a lot, assuming I won't be cleared for duty for a while." That seemed to bother him more than being in pain, the requirement to sit idle. He looked over at the Bajoran, hoping he'd feel the same.

Iska had mostly tuned out the conversation and was staring at the bed, trying to remember the rest of what he and Mason went through. Everything was in pieces, following a vague order of events but there were gaps where things should have been. It didn't help that the gas contributed to the disorientation, and it took effort to keep the bed from swaying on him.

Nodding, the EMH too turned his attention to Iska. "Ensign?"

Mason looked on with concern in his eyes. "Iska?" He prompted.

Blinking, the Bajoran looked up to see eyes on him. "Sorry," he sheepishly said. "Symptoms... uh, aching, tired, little dizzy... I'm, uh, also having trouble remembering what exactly happened."

"A concussion can do that," the EMH responded, finishing his scan of the Ensign. After a moment, he turned to the Lieutenant, "I want to monitor the Ensign for a bit longer, but I see no reason why your petty officer can't go to his quarters. I would recommend that you escort him, though, to make sure he doesn't get too lightheaded."

"That's unnecessary," Mason objected. "Just..." He seemed to be aware of his lack of attire now. "Just help me get a new shirt on? I'll be careful, I'll go to George's, they're closer than mine "

"Consider it a security precaution, then," the EMH offered, moving to the replicator to get him a shirt. "You are not in any fighting shape if there are intruders on the loose and you have to defend yourself." Returning to the biobed, he handed the replicated shirt to Zade. "Though, since you have technically been released from sickbay, I will defer to your superior. If you'll excuse me." With that, he returned to the beds with the other two security officers, leaving an expectation that Zade would step in.

Coming around the bed, Zade unfolded the shirt and held the holes open for Mason to stick his arms through, taking care to keep them low enough so he didn't have to reach. "How about we assess once you're on your feet?" she suggested.

Mason nodded slowly. "I'll be fine," he promised once again, "I'll take a few minutes and drink some more water, but then I'll go. You probably have other things to attend to and I don't want to keep you."

Throughout the discussion, Iska had turned his attention to Kivel, on the bed next to his. He looked terrible, and for a fleeting moment felt guilty for thinking that his own injuries were bad. Like how Mason looked earlier, it looked like he had lost a lot of blood, and he had way more cuts on his body. "What... what about Harrison?" He asked Zade, peeling his eyes away from the unconscious man. It was the only other officer from the alpha section that he hadn't seen since their security briefing.

Glancing to Iska, Zade gave a somber little shake of her head. She hated giving bad news. While the casualties were nowhere near as bad as the Avalon mission, it still wasn't easy.

Overhearing the query and seeing the shake of his superior's head, Mason sighed softly. "We'll give him a proper send-off when we feel better, right?" he asked quietly as he finished his glass of water and slowly slid off of the bed to test his balance. "And everyone else," he added as if in afterthought.

"Of course." It was procedure to do so anyways, but it still wasn't something to take lightly. Standing nearby in case Mason lost his balance, Zade watched him carefully. "And I'll see what I can do about the Andorian you mentioned earlier. For now, though, you feel alright?"

"Well enough to make it home," he promised, "I doubt I'll be allowed on shift anytime soon, right?"

"At least for the rest of the day," Zade confirmed. "I want as many hands as possible to finish securing the ship, but you three," she briefly glanced to Kivel and Iska, then back to Mason, "need to recover." Her communicator chirped, and she accepted the call. "Zade."

[[ We have a pirate in the temporary holding cell that is awake and aggressive. We are having trouble with the containment field. ]]

Should have put on running shoes, the Trill thought, accepting the knowledge that this was probably the last break she'd get for a while. The brig filled up pretty fast, so she had configured part of cargo bay 4 to hold more of the pirates. The containment fields weren't at their strongest due to Alpha's damage, but Zade made sure to enable some extra security measures in case the pirates did wake up and escape. "Acknowledged, I'm on my way." Addressing Mason one last time, she said, "focus on recovery." With that, she ran out of sickbay to go deal with this pirate.