Jinx, Part 3

Posted on Mon Mar 2nd, 2020 @ 10:49pm by Captain Wilkan Targaryen & Captain Bakti Kret & Galatea & Lieutenant Commander Sawbones & Lieutenant Zomuul jav Ghul

1,945 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Genesis
Location: Main Sickbay, Starfleet One
Timeline: 2430-01-06, 17:35

Sawbones fastened the holographic lab coat that he wore as he sat another PADD on the nurse's station in the Emergency Room section of Sickbay. This was the 9th patient he'd seen this hour and none of them were a challenge fortunately. Even though he was a hologram his subroutines were highly advanced, making him experience a wide variety of emotion during his daily routine. Today he was experiencing one of the most dreaded: boredom.

He sighed as he picked up another PADD and looked at the information for the 10th patient. As he was about to walk over to the biobed the lights flickered and switched to the red alert lighting. "We're under attack," he called as the ship entered battle readiness.

Hannah could understand the boredom Sawbones felt. Despite their arrival at the station, things kept to a routine and, well, sometimes that routine was just...routine. "This should help out, but not if you keep 'kirking' about. Next time have a better idea of who you're with," he said as he tapped a few notes into his PaDD.

"Will this...do you have put that into the file?" the crewman asked trying to look over Hannah's shoulder.

Hannah was about to ask when the ship rocked slightly and jumped into red alert mode. "Duty station," Hannah ordered the crewman, dropping the PaDD into his pack and tossing it to where it would be easy to grab if he had to leave Medical suddenly. Until then he'd be in Medical to do whatever he could here.

The ship rocked as Galatea's voice warned of a collision. The medical hologram received real time updates, quickly typing on the wall panel. Doctor Porter would be along soon.

Sherwin was in the chief medical officer‘s office when the ship rocked. He lost his footing slightly as he had been walking from his desk across the room. He immediately turned and headed out the door into the main sick bay area.

Just after the ships hologram made the announcement about being under attack, Sherwin barked out, “All personnel to duty stations! Prepare for casualties.” He looked over at Hannah” llock down all loose equipment.”

“What’s happening,” The CMO asked Sawbones.

"I have limited information," the replica informed as he pulled equipment from the nearby cabinet. "Sensors indicate that Gateway Station is under attack from the Dominion vessel. We are still docked at the station; however, the Dominion ship is nearly free and clear to navigate. Portions of the station have broken free and impacted the vessel."

‘Oh gods,’ Sherwin thought, ‘here we go.’ “If the Station’s medical facility is hit, please let me know. We may be able to handle some of their casualties.”

"Aye, Doctor," Hannah said right before he received a beep alerting him to an incoming message. He glanced quickly at the output on his chrono. "Oh, crap!" he said "Haz is being activated. I gotta go to the Spock." He grabbed his pack and hastily shrugged into it.

Sawbones looked over his shoulder as the casualties started getting brought in, "I may need your help here. With all these patients we're going to get overwhelmed..."

The replica shimmered and winked momentarily out of existence before the system reset and returned him to the medical bay. He grabbed the side of a biobed, "Another hit like that and I'm going to be down for the count."

"Yes, Doctor," Hannah said, letting his bag drop down out of the way. He tapped his commbadge as he kicked the bag further out of the way. Everything he'd need, he'd find in Medical and wouldn't need to deplete his supplies. Tapping his commbadge he spoke quickly. "Hannah to Spock, due to projections of the nature of the emergency, it looks like I'll be needed in Medical on the ship. Or the station."

"That's fine Hannah," Hawkins voice sounded tinny as he replied having arrived aboard the Spock. "Stay safe," he signed off.

"Doctor, you want me to take on triage or handle the minor cases?" Hannah asked, turning to Porter.

There was no time for an answer. On the central display an update came from Starfleet One's sensors. The main computer displayed a warning as the lifesigns for the dinner party began to drop. The President himself was not immune to the injuries as his health declined.

Then she hit her combadge. "Sickbay, incoming injured." She stated as she finished her adjustments to the transporter system. She had modified the transports into a sub-space transporter. Once the first cycle complete the second started. Just as the cycle complete, her console exploded. This sent her stumbling backward as the whole transport array went down.

Sawbones watched as the biobeds throughout the Emergency Room section of Starfleet One filled in the wink of an eye. There were 18 biobeds taken and readouts told him that the clinic was also filled. The Intensive Care Unit was the only area not overwhelmed, but it would be too soon enough. He moved from patient to patient as his program activated copies, but another impact destabilized his program. He struggled to his feet as his legs became like jelly, static covering his body for a moment as the holoprojectors reset.

"Holy biscuits and gravy," Hannah said as he saw the entirety of Medical filled in an instance. Add to that the problems with the EMH and this was looking to be a disaster of epic porportions. Which is why he found it unsettling that he had pangs of loss over not being able to get a refill of his jerky stash. And with the station damaged as badly as it was, he was pretty sure it would be a long time before he could. However, that was only a part of his mind. Fortunately he trained in catastrophic emergencies as both a corpsman and as a combatant. This wasn't his first mass casualty event.

"You three, begin triage and get people sorted," he said to the corpsman coming in, "you two are assigned to Dr. Porter." Technically he wasn't their commanding NCO, or in their direct chain, but that wasn't stopping him. The doctors were the COs but they had their hands full of patients, and, from his glancing around there were serious cases, as well as anybody from their ship that was brought back. Admirals, ambassadors, the president. That was important and the less they had to deal with minor problems like directing enlisted, the better.

"You," he said to one of the nurses, "get on the backup comms to engineering, they have to have some holoprojector specialists standing around being useless. Get them down here to get Sawbones stabilized. If they give you any flak over sending them, then make sure these are orders coming from the CMO."

He was about to say something more when he heard an alarm on a biobed and then the nurse call for a doctor. Except, Sawbones was destabilizing randomly and Porter was already up to his proverbial elbows in the proverbial guts of another critical patient. Hannah didn't waste time moving to the side of the bed, automatically putting his hands into the sterilizer fields. He glanced at the monitor displays.

"Respitory distress, ox sats are crashing," the nurse said stepping aside as Hannah stared down at the bloodied patient on the bed. The results of the automatic diagnostic scans were coming in now.

"His lung has collapsed," Hannah muttered as he pulled over the surgical tray, "increasing distress throughout the entire cardiopulmonary system." He grabbed the laser scalpel. "Preparing for a pneumothorax puncture with tube insertion." He spoke for the medical record as he worked, describing his procedure while a CNA was put to work holding the man's arm above his head to give Hannah room to work on releiving the pressure around the lung so it could reinflate. "Inserting tube," he said after setting the forceps down, having cut through the skin and connective tissue between the ribs with an audible crunch. He immediately put in the tube. "Suction," he called, as he worked to stabilize and tape off the tube.

"Oxygen sats rising, heart rate decreasing," the nurse stated.

Hannah nodded as he studied the rest of the diagnostic scan. Broken ribs, mild head injury but not indication of brain bleed or swelling. Several more broken bones. The rest of the injuries were bad and would require surgeries but not enough to keep him on the critical list. "Move him to constant observation," Hannah ordered, sterilizing his hands once more, watching as the blood and other particulates were eradicated by the field. He moved to the next biobed to continue triaging critical cases to send over to the doctors.

Just as quickly as it started it all came to an abrupt end. The patients throughout the Emergency Room shimmered and vanished as the displays above them returned to standby status. A large alert window appeared on each screen for a moment stating END SIMULATION. It had all been a test.

Sawbones returned to full cohesion, "Nice of them to give us a warning."

"What the biscuits?" Hannah asked as the laceration he was in the process of closing suddenly disappeared, along with the entire patient with it. Not to mention the tool he was using. He turned around and saw the same confused looks on the faces of his fellow corpsmen and nurses. There was a generalized murmur of confusion until the screens flashed the details about the simulation. Then the muttering was changed to one of disbelief, shock and a bit of anger as well.

"Lock it up," Hannah ordered, having not much real authority other than his status as a NCO and, well, he was a combat medic which gave him some cache that often translated into 'leadership'. "Command has authority to run training exercises." Still, he wasn't happy either. Especially since it kept him from getting his jerky.

The image on the screen was replaced with that of the Admiral, the confines of a small office aboard Gateway behind him, "I want to thank you all for taking part in this training exercise. I know that it was unannounced and caught everyone a bit off guard, but the reality of this situation is that's exactly the scenario that we're going to face if our diplomatic mission goes south. We need to all be prepared for any eventuality, and the risks of our President and government facing genuine harm increase with each passing moment. Do your best, that's all I ask, and thank you for your efforts here. I look forward to reviewing them," the recorded message ended.

Sawbones sighed, "Enter the bureaucrat."

"I'll review the corpsman responses and prepare a report for the CMO," Hannah muttered, shaking his head. "As well as any recommendations for improvements that may need to be made."

“You do that,” the CMO said from behind him.

Sherwin smiled at the Petty Officer, “you’re work was excellent during this exercise. I’ve been through many training simulations in my days. You’ve shown here that you what it takes.

Honestly, as difficult as this was, it wasn’t as bad as some real situations I’ve been in.” He gestured around the room, “imagine what just happened but with systems failing, or while being boarded by people trying to take over the ship.“

"Unfortunately an everyday occurrence aboard this vessel," the holographic doctor teased as he felt happy to not be on the way to cybernetic oblivion. He just hoped that this was the only time on this mission that their talents were put to the test.

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