Boom Goes the Dynamite
Posted on Fri Mar 1st, 2013 @ 5:06pm by Lieutenant JG Marcus Augusta PHD & Captain Elsie Halliwell & Captain Alexsa Kendrick & Captain T'mpest Michaels & Lieutenant Commander Morai Keen & Lieutenant Commander Dylan Blake
1,681 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Sowing the Seeds
Location: Sickbay, Deck Five
Timeline: Mission Day 5, 0730 hours
Bridge, Deck One
ON:
At first the explosion caught most of Deck Five off guard. No warning, no malfunctions, nothing. Elsie felt the rumble as she was sat quietly on the bridge as the fireball mushroomed out into the external corridor surrounding the main entrance to Sickbay. She gripped the armrests in shock and then shot a look to T'mpest who glared back.
"Captain," Cedric called out from behind her, reading his internal sensor display readout with concern. "There's been an explosion in Sickbay. I can't quite pinpoint the origin but fire-suppression systems have been activated." His face scanned side to side the information as it trilled down his screen. "It looks like a power conduit exploded."
She stood up with a rush and nodded to T'mpest. "Monitor the situation from here and get medic teams down..." Elsie's voice trailed off. "Um," she interjected herself, thinking quickly, "contact all off-duty medical personnel to report to Sickbay immediately."
"Yes, ma'am," T'mpest said. She was concerned for the crew in and around sickbay, but knew that one of them had to stay on the bridge. As the Captain walked off the bridge she moved to the command chair. "Damage reports," she ordered, fearing that more than sickbay had been damaged by the explosion.
Elsie then turned on her heel, motioned to Blake and said, "With me," as she entered the turbolift and waited, heading to Deck 5.
Without argument Blake followed, dreading the sight that may greet them and hoped depseratly Sehra hadn't been caught up in the blast.
Sickbay, Deck Five
As Elsie and Blake stepped over the torn pieces of metal that littered the corridor outside of sickbay, the look of devastation was written across both their faces. "Chaos," she muttered as through the extinguished smoke she could see two officers in teal collars hunkered over a prone figure.
Laura tried to take a clear reading from her medical tricorder but was still struggling to see properly in the poor illumination that sickbay was now struggling to offer its occupants. Her usually pristine hair and uniform were covered in debris and stained with the black of extinguished flames. She had been entering sickbay when the explosion had occurred, being spared from all but a slight ringing in her ears and a small laceration on her left cheek.
Unlike her, sickbay was a mess, two of the biobeds had been blown across the room and through the glass partition that separated the CMO's office from the rest of the bay. She had been able to count at least four plasma relays that had fused in the explosion making restoring even rudimentary power very difficult. The surgical bay was unaccessable thanks to a fallen bulkhead that had taken half of the surrounding walls with it, exposing nothing but naked wiring and scorched tritainium alloy and the entire room was covered in fire suppression liquid that had begun to stain everything it had touched with a slight tint of yellow.
The damage to sickbay seemed insignificant compared to the damage to the only notable casualty thus far, the CMO himself. Fox had been stood more or less on top of the focal point of the explosion and the delay between the explosion and the fire suppression systems kicking in had not been sufficient to avoid third degree burns to at least sixty percent of the doctor's body before even considering any internal injury.
Against the backdrop of the captain's arrival Alexander was desperately trying to save the chief's life, her arrival had gone totally unnoticed. Reciting her readings to Dr Toral, Laura spoke calmly.
"His left lung has been punctured, internal bleeding, three... four broken ribs, a compound fracture to his skull consistent with a blunt forced trauma, aortic rupture, brain compression. His cerebral cortex is flat lining! Cortical stimulater!"
Counselor's Office, Deck Five
Keen felt dazed as he came around; the explosion had come out of the blue as most do. Only his time in the camps and sudden and deadly weapon's fire set his reflexes in motion. The junior lieutenant; Mendoza, had been talking of her growing fears of things. She had been noticing her senior officers more on edge and she was a team lead and expected to be a leader.
The shaking of the ship from the explosion took out a part of the ceiling or something. He instinctively dove to use himself as a shield to Mendoza; she was a member of his flock, she was a woman and he was responsible for the safety of his flock. The action came without thought; he felt the heat of an explosion and seemed to remember something hitting his back.
Mendoza looked pretty shaken as she was closer to the explosion than him; it was painful but he shook off the daze to check her vitals manually. He had a Medical bag near the door, she was stable with possible concussion or the like. He was sweating he could feel the beaing on his back as he went to the door past the 'odds and ends' that had flown about.
He passed in front of the door and it remained closed, it must be jammed. Reaching into his bag he took out a Type One phaser; being an Emergency Medic he sometimes had to get to the wounded so this helped with a fine focus most of the time.
He set it to high and took out the door, no need to be subtle. Then crossed to Mendoza and helped her to her feet as she was beginning to come around.
"Come child, w-we have to go." He started to move her out of his office, he was definitely sweating and fighting the dazing effects as he walked with Mendoza into the corridor towards the emergency Sick Bay, if his office was damaged so would main Sick Bay.
He did not notice his lack of a comm badge left under the rubble.
Main Sick Bay, Deck Five
Elsie surveyed the destruction with Blake and had to recruit his strength heave a fallen bulkhead off to the side so that they could gain access. She looked at both Alexander and Toral, and then down at Fox. She stepped back a little aghast and swallowed hard. She knitted her brow and with a look of concern now written across her face, she flicked her attention between the two and said quickly, "What can I do?"
The lifeless look on Fox's features worried her and, not wanting to overstep her mark hopelessly added, "Will he live?"
Over her shoulder Blake glanced at the wounded Doctor sadden by his condition. Fearing the answer they would receive he shuffled away to inspect the damage and extracted a scanned from his belt.
Laura responded without even looking up to the captain, instead standing bolt upright and hurling a piece of debris out of the way of the only medical console left intact with a force granted to her by the adrenaline now flooding her system.
"His synaptic pathways are on the brink of degrading, sustained neurogenic pulses will hopefully stimulate brain activity for long enough for us to treat his internal injuries. But with sick bay in this state and without immediate access to our medical supplies and equipment, I don't know if we will be able to treat him quickly enough. His injuries are catastrophic. Unless we can treat the brain compression which we can't do adequately until we have repaired the severed aorta....it's unlikely we will be able to save him."
Laura's last sentence was met with a loud bang and erupting sparks coming from a wall mounted LCARS panel on the other side of the room.
Elsie ducked and covered her face with her hand at the sound but then righted herself.
Blake too flinched at the sound and bravely crossed over to silence the outburst for good.
Laura stood pondering for a brief moment, trying to save the doctor in the current environment was futile, she had to face that. But if she could buy more time, given the medical abilities of the current generation it was completely possible he might live. His injuries weren't complex medically speaking they were just numerous and difficult to treat given the current circumstances. She needed to stop the clock, and buy the Fox more time.
=/\= Sickbay to Bridge =/\=
"Bridge. Michaels here."
=/\= Do we still have any stasis pods in cargo bay two that are operational? =/\=
T'mpest ran a quick check. "We currently have four operational and two being repaired," she replied.
Laura didn't acknowledge the commander but rather spoke directly to the captain. Paying no heed to her rank or status.
"We can stabilize his brain functions long enough to put him into stasis, that will effectively stop the clock and allow us to treat his major injuries at a later date when sickbay was capable of treating them properly. The alternative is we try to save him now, potentially fail, and risk losing others whose injuries we won't be able to treat because of the time involved."
Laura's final sentence was accompanied by a gesture toward the several other crew members being treated frantically by medical staff, some in uniform, some in casual wear and one who seemed to have come running directly from the sonic shower, all trying to help their friends in need.
Stating abruptly and directly to the captain, not out of poor respect but out of urgency.
"Make a choice! Before we lose them both!"
"Stasis," Elsie said quietly, looking at the rest of her crew in pain and jeopardy on the floor to her right. "I'm not losing any more hands today."
She then tapped her combadge and gave the order. "T'mpest," she called out over the intercomm. "Transport Doctors Fox and Alexander directly to Cargo Bay Two." She turned to Toral. "You can supervise the clean up here."
"Confirmed," T'mpest said. She then sent the order and had the two officers transported to the cargo bay.
OFF
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