The Cruelest Break

Posted on Tue Nov 3rd, 2020 @ 10:00am by Petty Officer 2nd Class Corvus Hannah
Edited on on Thu Nov 12th, 2020 @ 1:35pm

2,258 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Short Treks
Location: Crotalius VI
Timeline: 2430-06

Hannah looked up as he heard the sound of the logs hitting the cavern floor. While it wasn't ice covered due to finding a small curve in the entrance that opened into a larger chamber, the dirt and rock floor was still plenty cold even with the fire going near the back wall, the smoke able to rise out of a small opening that was possibly carved by Spring melt. Eying the logs, he judged they should be appropriate their their purpose...not to thick but still sturdy.

"Okay, split them lengthwise. Try to make the split as flat as you can. That'll help it fit flush against the leg." His voice had a slight echo quality to it but as more of the team filed into the chamber, filling it up and helping to dissipate the cold, the echo was diminished.

"You're going to have to grab the leg and try to set the bone as best to it's original position as possible," he said, finding it amazing that he was in this position to teach a medic recruit. It was the reason he was on Crotalius VI in the first place. He'd been tapped, after their return from the Gamma Quadrant for this training mission. It served as double duty - updating his training requirements to retain his combat medic designation while helping to train and evaluate several newly minted corpsmen that thought they might want to go the combat medic route. There was only one other medic with them at this point. He hoped the other two that were part of his 'team' made it back to base camp safely.

The remaining ten of them were separated by a freak and sudden snow storm that had descended upon them with speeds no one believed possible. It caught them out, erasing the tracks the other half of their group made in minutes. By the time they realized their predicament, they were already in dire straights. Though he had little actual leadership - the training sergeants were in charge of the recruits - he suggested they stop to prepare emergency shelters rather than risk getting into more trouble than they had been. To his credit the sergeant was already contemplating the problem and came to the same conclusion. This was winter training and Crotalius VI was perfect for it. Winter lasted ten months and the planet was, much like Earth, comprised mostly of water. The tilt of the planet in it's seasons was more extreme than Earth's and the orbit was just at the edge of the 'goldilocks' zone. The two factors combined to make a planet that had extreme winters and summers. The six month spring and fall seasons were said to be idyllic but the remaining eighteen months of the planet's orbit were sheer hell.

Maybe some day down the road the population of the Federation would require this planet to be colonized, but at the moment it wasn't necessary. Still, it allowed for great training operations for the Federation's Marines and special forces - especially in extreme weather training.

That winter was well advanced by the time they began their extended field training - the teams were to ruck out of the operating base for several weeks before making it back. The training was set to teach the recruits skills such as survival and emergency shelter. Fortunately, these recruits seemed to pay attention in their classes. The first night they dug snow caves into the deep drifts. While not the most comfortable, they were warm enough that most emerged the next morning sound and safe. The blizzard, however, continued to rage around them and didn't show signs of letting up.

The second night forced the recruits to have to build lean-to shelters. While there were drifts, they had hiked near the top of the tree line, hoping to use the height advantage to find their bearings, and the drifts weren't as deep down in the forest. So they dug down into the hard packed snow and then created roofs woven with branches and boughs. It sufficed but was not as warm and comfortable as the shelter the night before. Terrain grew treacherous from that next morning and they were fortunate to find this cave.

Which was the first time they were able to have a fire. It took some finessing from the sergeant and several of the recruits to get the wood burning but they carried axes and phasers which helped to cut the branches they were using as firewood into manageable size. Phasers on a low enough setting heated the wood to a point they finally dried and burst into flame. They stacked the remainder they brought in the first few trips as close as they dared to the fire to further dry them from the snow. The problem came in that they had to travel further and further in order to find firewood.

In other occasions they could use low level phaser settings to heat up some of the larger rocks in the cavern to help create heat but these rocks either exploded just as they got hot or simply melted into puddles that quickly froze solid once more.

"You sure about this?" Sergeant McKay asked, squatting next to where Hannah was. The logs were just about split, two of the burlier Marines doing the chore with axes to help conserve phaser batteries.

Hannah shook his head, "Has to be done. Pain can be managed, but with a break like this, walking is nearly impossible. Snow's too deep for create an effective litter, it would waste energy and time. It has to be set, and quickly. Then hopefully we get to the base quickly where it can be dealt with properly."

Sergeant McKay let out a long held breath and looked down at the patient's broken leg. The blood around the tear in the pants where the bone stuck out was already iced over. McKay was a career Marine, already serving several enlistments. He'd seen injuries such as this before - and ones that were much, much worse - but it still made his stomach flip to think about it. Hannah ordered they keep their patient near the opening of the chamber and away from the fire, where it was coldest. He stated the cold would help mitigate blood loss and pain. After they got it set, splinted and bandaged, he said they could move him back to the warmth.

"It's going to hurt, alot," McKay said.

Hannah nodded. Nobody here knew that more than him.

"Okay, Petty Officer," one of the privates said as they finished splitting the log. The recruit medic that Hannah was overseeing had already laid out strips of rope that would be used to bind the two logs together around the leg to form the splint. They procured another that would be crafted into the best crutch they could. Hannah watched with approval as the medic checked the length of the logs against the patient's leg. The break was in the tibia but the medic was working to immobilize the entire length of the leg. He handed one of the logs back, instructing that it be shortened by eight inches to match with the interior of the leg.

In short order, everything was ready. Hannah looked over the supplies and nodded. It seemed they were ready. In a classroom setting, he would instruct this would be the time to explain what was going to happen to the patient, that they would give slightly more pain medication before performing this emergency procedure. But that was already done.

"You two," Hannah said, pointing to two of the privates who were crouched nearby, watching. One of them appeared pale as he watched. Probably shock from what was about to happen. It was better, then, that he be given something to do to help get him past this. Last thing they wanted was for anyone to faint from observing it. He realized as he began the orders that he should have left it for the medic, judge if he was capable of realizing what was necessary. Too late for that. "You'll have to hold the patient down by the shoulders and upper body. One of you on each side. If you only had the one, then you'd want to hold the patient around the back. Most likely your patient," here Hannah shifted his gaze to the medic as he spoke, "is going to pass out as you begin. That would be merciful because if you don't get i right the first time and have to repeat it, it will be unbearable."

The medic nodded, wiping his mouth. "It'll be okay, you'll do fine," Hannah said, hoping he sounded reassuring. He took a deep breath, steadying himself for what was to come. "Grab from the foot, down and over. You want to try to set the bone as near where it goes as possible."

"I..." the medic said, wiping his mouth again as he stared, wide eyed, at Hannah. "I can't do this. It'll hurt!"

"It'll hurt your patient either way. This way you can work on the lacerations and hopefully help the patient be mobile if you have to continue the hump, if not, make it easier to carry him on a litter. Your other option is a field amputation. You'd rather do that?"

"No!" Corpsman Brooks nearly shouted, shocked at the very idea. Like most people living in the Federation, the idea of a person having a limb unnecessarily chopped off was anathema. Though it continued to happen, modern medical technology made it unnecessary for all but extreme cases and even then only if events were such that the limb was destroyed at the time of injury.

"Okay, then this is the merciful part."

"I can't...you..." Brooks started but Hannah cut him off with a sharp gesture.

"You are the one that wanted to be a combat medic, to go with the fighting forces. This is bad, sure, but there will be times you'll have to do worse. You can renege on that decision later, but as long as you're here on this training you'll have to suck it up and do it!"

Brooks looked to the sergeant who only shrugged. "You two ready?" Hannah asked the privates. They nodded and moved forward. McKay waved off the pale one, quietly instructing him to check the perimeter around the entrance to the caves. The private moved off quickly. Others watched him go, no doubt wishing they could join him. However, one of their own was injured so a sense of loyalty kept them in place. McKay took up one side, showing the private the best way to hold the patient to help immobilize him and keep him from thrasing about too much.

"Okay, everyone ready?" Hannah asked, watching Brooks. He did feel sorry for the young man but what he said was true. If he balked now, when would he be ready for wounds obtained in combat? If he didn't do it know, there was nothing Hannah could do but make sure he washed out. Maybe out of the MoS entirely. But Brooks nodded and moved forward and prepared to grab the patient by the lower leg.

"Back and twist," Brooks muttered, staring down at the blood soaked leg. "Okay," he said, glancing up quickly to indicate the others. His gaze lingered longest on Hannah and what the young medic must be thinking of him went unknown. Hannah was sure he didn't make any friends that day by forcing Brooks into this position. "On three," Brooks said.

"One, two..." Brooks yanked.

Hannah screamed as his leg was lengthened, the bone slipping back under the flesh and then twisting. He felt the tearing of the jagged edge of bone through flesh and then the grinding as the two broken ends were forced together. McKay yelled to the private to hold him tight, to keep him from moving around until the splint was secured.

"You said..." he gasped as the chamber grayed out around him, "..three!" The light continued to dim and Hannah was sure he was going to vomit. He fought against it because the two holding him weren't giving him much freedom to roll to his side. The danger of aspirating on his own vomit was greater than his compound fracture.

"Yeah, well, this way you wouldn't fight against it," Brooks said, working quickly to tie the splint with the ropes as Hannah instructed him. He needn't have worried about explaining himself, Hannah had already passed out by that point, the shock of pain much worse than when he sustained the original injury slipping on a hidden ice shelf and speeding too fast until he dumped over the side of a high ledge and up against a large tree.

"You did good," McKay said to the chamber at large. Brooks only nodded but kept working. He wanted to get the leg secured and immobilized then to get Hannah next to the fire before he began working on bandaging and binding the lacerations caused by the break. He hoped to minimize as much blood loss as he could and, despite the warmth of the chamber and their cold weather gear, the shock to the system and cold was not doing the petty officer any good.

But, not that Hannah passed out the only sounds coming through the caves were the crackling of the burning logs and the faint but distinct sound of several people retching outside the entrance to the cavern.

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