Stepping up to the plate?

Posted on Wed Jun 17, 2015 @ 5:53am by Commander Amia Telamon M.D. & Lieutenant Benj Amoran

1,727 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Eye of the Beholder
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: MD3 - 18.00hrs

Previously:

** The M-class planet and its sun were by now almost fully emerged from their subspace rifts. A vast meteor shower was visible on the night side of the planet. To those who could see, it was almost like a fireworks display. Gradually the sensor disruptions began to subside. Other planets began to emerge at varying distances from the new sun, each with their own unique characteristics. They couldn't all be seen yet, but could be detected by their gravimetric wakes.

"Our space is clear, Commander." Soran turned to Aldrex. "Bring everyone home?"

Aldrex nodded wearily. "All hands stand down from red alert. Department heads report your status and casualty count when you are able. Let's get this place cleaned up." **

Current:

Lt. Amoran, Benj was weary but he was relieved to be able to direct those patients, civilians, medics and sundry, whom he had chivied into the escape pods, shuttles and other evacuation means of exit, finally back into the station that they all considered to be their home.... or at least their 'haven' until recently.

They had at least one medic in all the shuttles and pods that contained wounded and although the CMO had overseen the first to leave, after she got shot, (well, stunned to be precise) Benj had been obliged to step up to the plate and see the operation through. It wasn't his first time in charge of any situation but he had found it more stressful than most, mainly due to the apparent likelihood that if their injuries didn't kill them, then whatever that planet and its rift had to offer was threatening to be even more deadly. It felt like an "out of the frying pan, into the fire" dilemma.

Amoran was having flashbacks too. He had been right there when his CMO had fallen in front of him. He had seen the whole thing. It had felt like slow motion as they had all been trying to herd the panicked crowds into the escape vessels. He had seen Amia juggling what seemed like a dozen clammering people, all with their own fears and problems and all trying to get her attention. It had been the same for himself. People everywhere, reaching out frantically: '.....me, me, ME!' Benj too had been fending off babbling questions, anxieties and needs as he'd attempted to get so many beings into such small spaces.

Then it had happened. Out of the blue. Out of all the noise and mayhem, the unthinkable! Benj had spotted the old-style phaser. He could see its lights flicker into life. He had tried to call out a warning but it happened so fast that his words didn't seem to get halfway across before the sound of the phaser came back at him.

He could still hear what Amia had said. "No, put that back, you don't need to take phasers as there will be plenty of Security personnel to protect the escape pods without civilians arming up." Benj's heart had run cold, he had heard those words and leapt towards the man instinctively. Should he have done it that way round? He had asked himself a thousand times since! Should he have leapt to push Amia out of the way? Was he closer to her than the idiot with the phaser? Perhaps he might have got to her quicker? He certainly didn't get to "Rogers" as it turned out the fool's name was.

"No, give it to me please" she had continued to say, the seconds feeling like years as Amoran threw himself over toward her as fast as he could lunge.

"...is the safety on that? WHY THE HELL NOT?" her voice had lost it's characteristic calm tones. Another year seemed to pass and Benj was still hurling himself through, over, round, people.... why didn't they get out of the way??

"GIVE IT TO-- Oh crap… " Those were the words that hurt him the most. Those and the thud as her unconscious limpness hit the deck with a horrifying crunch, the sound of bones breaking against the harsh metal hull of the docking ring. Her head...... Prophets! Had she smashed her head with that sickening sound?

"Doctor Telamon! OH MY GOD! Doctor... HE'S SHOT THE DOCTOR! Someone disarm that stupid *******"

That was probably his own voice but he barely recognised it. No, perhaps it was a bystander? Benj couldn't be sure. All that was clear at this point in his memory of the event had been that he'd skidded across the rough metal 'flooring' and scooped her head into his own lap. ~Rookie mistake~ he growled at himself angrily but silently, every time he relived it. ~All the worse seeing that I'm no rookie... what was I thinking? What if her neck had been fractured? What if I'd dislodged or dislocated any vertebrae for the Prophets' sake!!~

But he hadn't and she hadn't and now they were here, in their own Sickbay again. She was safely on the life-support mode of the Bio-bed. Just because he needed to keep checking everything and monitoring her. She was doing okay though. She didn't actually need life support. She was only in shock and that was balancing out now that she was being mechanically stabilised.

"We had orders to bring everyone home and we've done that Sir" Opal reminded Benj.

"Yes?" he looked up.

"And Department Heads were to report to Ops, Sir??" Opal's clear eyes brought him back to the stark realities.

"Department Heads? She isn't well enou.....OH! I see what you mean!!" he realised what she was reminding him.
"Yes... I guess that's me for now.... I should get right up there? Or can I just call in? I have SO much to do here... we all do!"

Ensign Opal Oliver moved to his side. "We're all coping well. We've been trained, honed, drilled and perfected.... we all work well as a team and even without Amia, we can still cope without you watching over us for at least half an hour. Pop on up there and grab a few breaths on the way. You need to break what you're doing and come back refreshed, even if only from the change of scenery for a few minutes" she told him.

She was right and he knew it. With one last check over Amia's readings and a roll of Opal's eyes at him, she managed to shoo him off.

As he was persuaded out he looked back over his shoulder. "It was the XO who ordered that, right?" he asked.

"Yes it was" Opal confirmed, knowing exactly what was gradually sifting through Benj's head now. She didn't envy him that meeting.

"Start by telling him she's going to be okay before you mention what happened. That way he *MAY* delay throwing you out of an airlock before you can tell him no-one could have seen it coming." she grinned at the spreading terror on his face as he realised the news he was going to be taking up to the XO and how obvious it was going to be to the Commander, simply from the fact that it was Benj being there as Acting Head of the Department, reporting in.

"Prophets!!! Dear Prophets!!!" he muttered and broke into a run so that he would get up there before the XO might call again, this time to see why his wife hadn't reported in yet.

Opal turned to the prone CMO, her attention attracted by the little moan she uttered as her eyes began to flutter open. "Check that she's getting enough pain relief!" Ensign Oliver hurried over to the bio-bed and started to instruct the nurse attending.

"Cade?" Amia's lips tried to form her beloved's name. She had no idea what had happened, nor for that matter who she was.... who was she? And who was Cade...... well, whoever he was, she felt like she needed to be with him. Desperately... she must get up... she must find him.... "Cade....?"

"Steady Ma'am...." Opal tried to persuade the CMO not to try to sit up. She didn't have too much trouble because the Bio-arch restricted Amia's movements and Telamon's head was swimming so badly that she began to feel she was about to throw up with the nausea and giddiness.

"Please don't try to get up ma'am...." Opal tried to coax.

"Ma'am..... who.... is.... ma'am.... is .... are you talking .... to me?.... who am i? I'm going to be sick..... "

Opal fetched a receptacle and frowned deeply. "Take it slowly please. You're Amia. Do you recognise your name?" she asked softly.

~The LAST thing we need is for her to have amnesia!~ Opal groaned inwardly.
~It had better be temporary! PLEASE let it be temporary.... or we can ALL hope for being thrown out of an airlock as a best case scenario!~

"You need to rest. It'll all make sense when you wake up." she tried to reassure her boss, who clearly didn't know that's who she was.

Silently holding the senior woman's forehead and offering her sips of water to wash out her mouth, Opal reached behind and turned up the dosage of analgesic another notch, gently making the dizziness swap for drowsiness, resulting in Amia's drifting back to sleep again.

Now all she had to do was await for Amoran to reach the XO and all Hell to break loose.

"If I had known not to get out of bed this morning, I would have saved myself all of this!" she muttered, thinking aloud and making the nurse smile.

"What's so funny? You're the first one Commander Aldrex is going to see when he arrives!!"

Opal felt bad immediately after her words turned the nurse's face pale. "Oh don't worry.... I'll be here with you." she conceded.

"We're a team in this Sickbay, and this "patient".... she gestured to the sleeping CMO. "would be the first to be both proud of that and furious if we abandoned each other at at time like this."

The nurse looked temporarily a little less ruffled but then they just had to wait! Opal decided that Amia would sleep a little so they could (and should) get on with helping to tend all the other patients, at least until the XO arrived.... and arrive he would.... that was as sure as fact that her name was Opal May Oliver.

tbc......

 

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