Ruff Night
Posted on Tue Nov 17th, 2009 @ 12:23am by Commander Curtiss Drake
608 words; about a 3 minute read
Mission:
Shoreleave - Welcoming Old Friends and New
Location: Sick Bay
Timeline: 0300hrs
Doctor Fox stepped through the door’s into Sick Bay, rubbing his eyes sleepily. It was 0315hrs, by the ship’s time, and there was hardly a soul awake at this hour, save the gamma shift crew and the scattered non-human crewman who operated on a longer hour day or didn’t require sleep.
Fox hated being woke up in the middle of the night by the ‘Emergency in Sick Bay’ line through the Comm. It wasn’t the emergency part that killed him, that was part of the job, it was the trying to get back to sleep part that he had a problem with. It simply never worked. No matter how much he tried to get back to sleep, he almost never could and usually ended up taking the rest of the shift in Sick Bay as well as all of the Alpha Shift following it. He’d long ago given it up as an occupational hazard, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.
The Sick Bay was alive with the usual amount of activity that surrounded any kind of Medical emergency, but a seasoned eye could see that it was only a minor one. Walking into a relatively empty Sick Bay where all the Staff was centered around a single bio-bed usually meant that things weren’t that bad. Had the bio beds and the floor been filled with crewmen, that would have been a different story.
“What’ve we got?� Fox asked, pulling on his lab coat from the inside of his office door and turning to the nearest Nurse.
“We’ve got a foreign object lodged in the trachea, basic ejection techniques have been unsuccessful and have, in fact, pushed said object deeper down. We can’t reach it with forceps and the patient is too hyperactive to attempt a transport.� the Nurse said.
“Transports are always a last ditch effort. If we can’t coax it out, we’ll have to go to surgery. Sedate the patient and prep for surgery.� Fox said, crossing the room to the sterile basin and preparing himself for a surgical operation. He turned around after a few moments, covered up appropriately and headed towards the crowd of people before the bio bed.
“Put the scan on the large screen please.� he said, looking up at the large screen in the bio suite expectantly. An image appeared after a moment and Fox stared back at it, not quite sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. He turned to the Nurse beside him, one eyebrow cocked up and she smiled crookedly back. He continued his turn, now looking to the patient on the bed, his tongue lolling out lamely as a young boy petted his chest quietly.
Fox started to speak, but couldn’t quite find the words to say, and instead puffed his cheeks out like a bullfrog before deflating just as quickly.
“Can you save him?� the boy asked.
Fox nodded back to the boy and gestured for the Nurse to take him out as he took the boy’s place beside the patient and looked down, shaking his head.
“Anyone have any experience with Beagles?� Fox quipped, smirking at his staff hovering around the table. “No?� he asked. “Well then, we’ll start from the top and see if we’re barking up the right tree.� he said.
“Keep those jokes up and you might have to sedate us.� replied one Nurse, holding the hypospray kit.
“Yah, shut your yapping.� Fox replied with a wink.
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