Gremlins (Part II of III)
Posted on Thu Feb 27, 2020 @ 3:25am by Captain Maritza Soran & Commander Caleb Ryan & Commander Amia Telamon M.D. & Lieutenant JG Erich Hartmann & Lieutenant Commander River Morgan & Charghwl'IH of the House of Soval & Civilian Opal Oliver (Deceased) Dr
2,297 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: Various, DS5
Timeline: MD 01 1500
Previously on
Caleb had spent the morning down on Pangea working on the cabin he was building, and now he’d returned to his quarters to clean up, since he went on shift in an hour. Zandy would be home from school soon, too. He hummed a little tune as he showered, washing the sawdust from his hair, not noticing the lights flickering, as his eyes were closed. He ducked under the hot water and rinsed, then blinked his eyes open.
And then the water turned from comfortably hot to scalding.
“Ah! Sonuvabitch!” Caleb screamed, “Ryan ta Sickbay!” he managed to get out in agony, bent double. The comms chimed, but went dead.
“Ah swear ta God…” Caleb managed to drag himself out of the bathroom and to a medical kit, grabbing and activating an ice pack and shoving it against his agonized man parts.
And now the continuation
Sickbay
Being a mix of species, two of which were not built for cold, had not been to Charghwl'ih's advantage. Having just completed his workout, being covered in sweat, being clothed in next to nothing, and then going instantly from heat to extreme cold and altitude had not only produced near instant hypothermia, but oxygen deprivation as well.
His escort had had no choice but to help him to sickbay after collapsing through the holodeck doors. As they arrived, the ambassador had his legs under him, for the most part.
Amia was attempting to contact Commander Ryan, as she'd heard his call come in, but then be cut off. She was not having any luck getting back through, and was about to assign River to go to investigate and offer whatever help was required when she saw the ambassador come in. River, nearer to the door at the time, immediately rushed forward to try to offer assistance and deployed a hover-gurney for the assistant to get the patient onto so she could shift him by hovering him over to the nearest cubicle and up onto a bio-bed, which she immediately activated and began scans and an assessment.
Whilst she was working she turned to the ambassador's assistant and began to enquire as to what had happened to him.
"Can you describe to me what happened? I am doing full scans, but it might help me to have some idea what to focus on?" she asked.
Removing his arms from the shoulder of his escort as he leaned against the bio-bed, the ambassador replied haltingly, "The holodeck malfunctioned. I was exercising and meditating...in a rather heated setting when it changed instantly to glaciated mountain tops. Freezing temperatures...extremely thin air. We had to force the doors."
"Hypothermia and shock," River muttered, and offered to help the ambassador up onto the bio-bed. Some of these ambassadorial high ranks were touchy about being grabbed and assisted, so she looked at the escort expectantly. "Please may we get him onto the bed?" she asked more audibly, setting the bio arch in readiness, her fingers flickering deftly over the softly lit LCARS controls. She set the arch up to formulate a light forcefield that was both a protective and a cocooning surrounding of oxygenated, slightly humid, air that was warm enough to thaw him out without too much sudden effect. "This is designed to return you to your normal balance thermally and chemically. The air should help you breathe better and you should feel more like yourself very soon," she explained as the escort lifted up the patient's legs and helped him lay into the recess of the bed. As soon as he let go and the ambassador lay back, River raised the arch, which slid up and over the patient's chest, activating the gentle sparkle in the air around him as the field set on.
"Are you comfortable, Ambassador? You should be able to speak normally, but it will work better the less you move around. Is that okay, sir?" she asked.
The effect of the field produced by the bio-bed had been immediate and he nodded. "Much better." He began to move his fingers, toes, and flexing his muscles to stimulate blood flow.
Amia tried to call Opal, but the comms were still playing up, so she went to look for her, hoping she might be on shift. Her luck was in, as Opal was indeed in Sickbay at the time, having just brought in a minor casualty.
"Opal, just the doctor I need. Have you been with Commander Ryan this morning? I'm not asking to intrude on your personal lives, but because I'm concerned that something might be wrong and I wondered if you had an update?" Amia asked.
Opal's eyes widened and she looked immediately very worried herself. "No, I haven't seen him today yet. What makes you think there's a problem?" she asked, speaking quickly, showing her concern.
"There was a short, cut off message that came in, but all it said was his name and that he was calling Sickbay. Ordinarily I might think it could be asking for an update or checking in on us in his capacity as XO, but there was something not right about the way he sounded, and I would really like someone to go check him out. I checked with the computer, and he's in his quarters, and if you would do me a huge favour and go to see for me? I'd be very glad of your help," she continued, explaining her worries.
Opal nodded and grabbed a med-kit. "On my way. Leave this to me, ma'am. You can rely on me to find out what's happening and to help, if it's needed." She began to hurry out straight away.
"Thank you, Opal," Amia called after her. "I'll owe you one."
"Not at all," Opal replied over her shoulder. "If he's needing medical help, we'll both owe you for sparing me to go and check it out." She was gone.
Amia returned to the cases in the main bay that were now beginning to increase in numbers at an alarming rate. Clearly, up to now it must have been the calm before the oncoming storm. She would have to put in some calls for off duties to come in, if this continued to get busier like this.
His breathing restored, he looked about him at the growing number of arrivals, and he was taking up valuable bed space. His body could continue any remaining healing on it's own. "There are others in greater need than I, and you need help."
Looking to his escort, Charghwl'ih said, "Assist them in retrieving the injured. Now, if you would remove this thing, I too can be of assistance."
Being content that he was stable, River nodded and disabled the med-arch which retracted back neatly.
"If there are any recurrences or new symptoms I need you both to promise to return for a reassessment though!" River added before signing the discharge on Charghwl'ih. "Ordinarily we'd have kept you for observations just to be sure, but in the circumstances, I am putting you both on trust to take care of my patient!" She smiled warmly and stood aside to let them leave, handing over a datarod of details of his treatment and the conditional discharge.
>>tag CHARG
Caleb’s Quarters
Opal hurried to Caleb's quarters, her med-kit in her hand, speed walking where there were people in the corridors and running when there were none. She arrived pretty quickly and rang the chime. "Commander?" she began formally, not knowing what his call might have been about, nor who might be with him. She had no idea if he were fine or injured, just calling for an update or needing help for someone else. She waited several moments which seemed like several years, and then rang again. "Caleb? It's Opal. Are you okay?" she said, barely having left him enough time to answer, but she was anxious about the idea that he might be hurt and time might be of the essence. "CALEB?" she tried it again, this time raising her volume in case he might not be able to hear. She didn't want to imagine why that might be the case, but she did call into the speaker with more urgency anyway.
The doors slid open, admitting Opal. Caleb had managed to drag himself onto the couch, sitting there naked with the ice bab in his lap. This was embarrassing as hell. He gave Opal a bit of an annoyed look at being caught out like this. Well, at least it hadn’t been Aleczandra coming home.
Opal's breath caught and she rushed to Caleb's side. "How ... what happened?" she gasped, genuinely alarmed and snatching up her medkit to get him some pain relief and take out her medcorder to assess the injuries and damage. "Burns?" she was taken aback and looked at him with deep concern and sympathy.
“The cold water went out while Ah was in the shower. Scalded.” He winced as he moved the ice pack over his manly bits. “More mah pride hurt than anythin’. Ah need ta get out there. What’s goin’ on? No one’s answerin’ comms.”
Opal looked Caleb right in the eyes and held his gaze even though he seemed keen to avoid this at first. "It's not only your pride that's hurt here, sir!" She reverted to the formal to keep his attention on the seriousness of what she was saying. "You're suffering from serious scalded burns. There are blisters forming and the skin is damaged to the second layer. You must have antiseptic mediation and the skin must be cooled right through before it deepens. You might even go into shock, so I am not letting you get off this sofa until I have treated this properly!" she informed him, bracing herself for this to become a problem.
"Are we going to disagree over your health?" she asked him, her eyes deep and moved and very serious. "This is what I do. I know what I'm saying. Please don't give me a hard time," she added, now more of a plea than the initial firmness as she worked to try to cool the area of the most damage with an intention to move on to the surrounding, less harmed, but still damaged skin near to it in due course.
"Comms are out. All over," she added quietly at the end, in answer to his earlier enquiry, her heart fluttering as she knew how much this would make him go intense about getting up and getting involved in whatever was going on.
“Ah don’t have time for this,” Caleb said. “It just needs some ice an’ a dermal regenerator.” But he didn’t try to get up, letting Opal work. “In other circumstances, Ah wouldn’t mind ya playin’ doctor down there,” he added with a faint smile at Opal.
Opal couldn't suppress a soft smirk at that comment. "I might take you up on that later," she said quietly, her cheeks showing spots of pink as she worked. "Yes, sir. I'll work as quickly as is safe and thorough. It shouldn't take too long," she added in her normal voice, dropping back into rank and business modes.
True to her word, Opal had the scalded skin deeply and properly cooled and regenerated within a short period. She was then able to move on to checking that he was stabilised thermally on the inside as well as the out. She checked him for shock, but he was tough and hadn't succumbed to anything untoward that the now regenerated and repaired burns might have left behind at the time of their infliction.
"I think you're good to go, sir, but I would ask that you promise to get a further check within the next twelve hours and then again at twenty-four hours, to see that the regeneration has taken successfully," she said, putting the medkit back together and packing it up.
Shortly after she'd first arrived, the lights had failed, and she'd been working by a battery powered light from her kit. The handheld regenerator had been fully charged and was still holding plenty of power, so she was able to finish all her ministrations to full repair levels. Now all they had to do was to get Caleb dressed again and try to leave his quarters without power to the door or light to see their way.
"I should try to get back to Sickbay," she said, somewhat doubtfully. She pointed the torch across to see if she could see his clothes close by, and it was then that the gravity failed. She swore softly, clutching at the torch to stop it floating away. "Just when we thought it couldn't get any more complicated," she sighed, but then she realised something else more complicated had come up as well.
Operations
Lieutenant Erich Hartmann walked quickly from terminal to terminal, listening as subordinates reported fluctuation after fluctuation, failure after failure. Reports streamed from all areas of the massive station, and it seemed as if the big girl would simply lie down and die. Erich tried to display calm to his crew, but internally his teeth were gritting over the problems popping up. He was quickly running out of resources to fix the issues, and even novel solutions had failed so far.
It was finally too much for the German. He tapped his combadge. “Ops to Engineering...”
To be Continued…
Cdr. Caleb Ryan
Executive Officer
Lieutenant Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
Ensign Brianthe Oaxaca
Botanist
Paula
Botanist
Lieutenant (jg) Scaliontis Lovok
Chief Engineer
Lieutenant Annora Tessaro
Chief Security Officer
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