High Falling (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 08 May 2012 @ 10:46am by Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren
Edited on on 10 May 2012 @ 5:36am

3,441 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Deck4 - Sickbay
Timeline: MD03 - 1400 hrs

[ON]

Her PADD beeped a reminder even as Lilou was finishing up the last of her interior ODN checks. Rolling over, she dragged it up from her hip holster and blinked. Right. Med check. =/=Peers to Engineering, I have finished the ODN review. All clear. Heading to sickbay for mandatory exam. Will report back to Main Engineering when completed.=/=

=/=Copy that, Peers.=/=

Ten minutes later, she was crossing the threshold into Sickbay, the top half of her coveralls peeled off and tied around her waist, lumpy over the tool belt, PADD hip holster, and thigh tool holsters. There didn't appear to be any medical officers waiting around for her, despite the appointment she'd been assigned, so she moved into the next room, hoping to get a good look at the EMH before she had to submit to the attentions of a doctor... and was waylaid. "Hey," she said quietly, dropping to a stool next to Rothgra's bed.

"Hey."

"Hands?"

Rothgra held up his bandaged forearms. The massive balls of padded bandages around his hands had been reduced to thinner coverings, the skin red and raw between them where it breathed.

"Hurt?"

He shook his head, "Not too bad."

"Will this be happening again?"

"No, sir."

"Why not?"

"Gloves," he answered with a hopeful smile.

She grinned. "Good, you heard me."

"I heard you."

She ruffled his hair, "Need anything?"

"I'd like to catch up on what I've been missing. I'm supposed to get out of here soon and if I don't know what's been done, I can't learn and can't help. If someone could bring my PADD-"

"I'll see what i can do. Meanwhile." She unlatched her own PADD from her hip holster and reset the security settings. "Here," she tapped the screen and brought up the completed tasks list for their department. "Read up. I've got to go talk to the doc and we can talk through the rest later. Yeah?"

Having just managed to usher Will out of sickbay, Pola had intended to head back to her quarters to grab a quick nap before she started on the beta shift. Already she seemed to have done so much today but she guessed that was the joys of being the ACMO. Hearing a voice she wasn't familiar with, the young Doctor found herself wondering over to where she knew Rothgra was currently in situe. Seeing the young trill speaking to a young woman and holding a PADD in his hands, Pola found herself laughing gently. "Rothgra, what have you been told about resting those hands? Holding and playing with a PADD isn't something I constitute as taking it easy."

Walking over to stand beside the young woman, Pola held out her hand,"I'm Doctor Pola Ni Dhuinn. Are you the one responsible for corrupting my patient?" The Doctor smiled at the young woman, allowing a twinkle to enter into her eyes.

"You can't keep an engineer away from his spec sheets, doctor. It's cruel and unusual," Lilou winked at Rothgra. "And you're going to get back to being an engineer soon instead of a layabout, right?"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"Sorry, Doc, here," Lilou fumbled in one of her holsters for a small gizmo and plugged it into the side of the PADD. It was a little device that allowed for verbal instructions to move through the pages of the PADD when an engineer's hands were busy working. "You get to keep this until you're allowed to use your hands again. Don't break it. Cost me three months' wages and two months' work to build that thing." She smiled, turning back to the doctor. "I'm Lilou Peers. Got a memo I was supposed to report in for mandatory exam. Not sure who I'm supposed to see about that; looks like you guys are keeping busy."

Leaning against the biobed behind her, Pola watched the exchange, seeing an almost protective like quality around the young woman as she took care of her colleague. Once Lilu turned to her, the Doctor straightened up an made an executive decision."Well I tell you what, I can help you with your medical if you'd like? I'm technically not on shift yet but I don't think anyone is going to try stop their semi boss."

Winking at Lilou, Pola briefly turned to Rothgra."And you young man, you've got a cute nurse coming over in abit to reapply your dermaline gel. Try not break her heart, I know I'm a great Doctor, but U don't fancy trying to piece it back together." Tapping the Trill on his shoulder, Pola turned to face Lilou once and and motioned for the woman to follow her to a biobed in main sickbay. "So Lilou...if you don't mind me using your first name, I assume you must be an engineer?"

"Assistant Chief," Lilou nodded, hopping up deftly onto the biobed. She glanced back towards Rothgra and lowered her voice, "He is doing all right, isn't he? Nothing extra from that sparking?"

Pola was of the firm belief of not hiding anything from anyone, especially in this case where people should hopefully learn from the mistake of another to ensure nothing happened to others."When he arrived there was a concern over.." The Doctor tried to figure out the simplistic way of explaining this,"..basically his heart beat. A shock to the body like he got, was partially absorbed by the heart. This caused it to beat twice as fast as usual, causing a strain. Your lucky you got him to use when you did, and also the fact you kept him concious saved his life. The issue with the heart was easily fixed and the burns to his hands are repairing quickly. I'd be inclined to think he'll be out of here tomorrow aslong as his hands keep responding to the gel, once we get the burns reduced, we'll be able to full repair using a regenerator and he'll be like new."

Leaning back against the bio bed behind her Pola allowed a smile on her lips again,"Sorry that's alot of info but I guess I find the more that people know, the better understanding they achieve. Also as an assistant chief myself, I know I prefer to know more rather then less when it comes to my people."

"More is always better," Lilou nodded. "Thank you. The nurse I spoke to the last time I was in here wasn't willing to tell me very much. Rothgra's a good kid. Impetuous, yeah, but so was I when I was his age. And I don't think you'll be seeing him back in here again; not for that anyway." She shook her head. "I remember the first time I got zapped like that, they had me laid up for weeks."

Taking a tricorder but leaving it at her side, Pola hoisted herself to sit on the biobed. More often then not she found that she got more information talking to patients then a PADD or tricorder would tell her, it also, more often then not, allowed the patient to be more relaxed."Well the way I see it, I didn't tell you anything more then will be in his report to your COE. If there was something more confidential then obviously I wouldn't tell you." Leaning back on both of her hands, the Doctor frowned slightly."Weeks? What exactly happened? It's highly unusual a patient would have to spend that much time in sickbay."

"Current routed through my whole body, through my feet. My heart stopped for a little bit," Lilou shrugged. "And since I was on a research station at the time, and a kid, everyone used it as an opportunity to figure out what made me tick. Tests, tests, tests." She smiled. "I guess you'll get your share of that, working with the research officers on this ship."

"Tests on me? I assure you not..they know I'd chase after them with an excoscapel and then there'd be alot of trouble, especially if they were male." Grinning to herself, Pola leaned forward."But seriously I do hope so. I'm used to being medical to help sick people or injured people. Being onboard a science vessel is going to open up so many avenues for me in relation to working with science if we find new strains of foreign virii or bacteria. It's always fantastic to be able to sink your teeth into something new."

Taking the tricorder and jumping down off of the biobed, Pola pressed a few buttons before starting a scan on Lilou."So aside from your heart stopping, has there been many more eventful occurrences in your medical history?"

"Sure. Ah... let's see. Ripped up both my knees when I was about ten," Lilou glanced around, making sure that no one was in earshot, "Also, I dislocated my shoulder, broke my left arm in two places, broke my nose, and cracked some ribs. Had a couple head injuries, too, but nothing with lasting damage. Knocked my head last night actually, falling off... well. Falling." She folded hands that were pocked with tiny burn and scratch scars and lifted her brows. "But I'm feeling fine. Like I said, gotta love you doctors."

"Well....My only responce is that without people like you, Doctor's would have gone out of business a long time ago." Pola smiled across at Lilou before picking up a PADD and scanning through the notes."How about we start with this bang on your head last night and why this is the first we know about it?"

"...I fell out of an access shaft. Not too bad. Only about a seven foot drop. Chief of the Boat was there and he checked me. After a while, once the nausea was over, I felt fine again. Stayed up for a couple hours just to make sure, but there weren't any problems." She shrugged. "It was the middle of the night. Not much point waking anyone up for something I could deal with."

"Right..I always hate doing this but the Doctor hat has to go on." Leaning back against the biobed behind her, Pola hoisted herself up to sit on it."One....we are the Doctor's, let us decide if it's bad or not. I'm sure if I tried to fix a broken replicator, you'd be after me missus. Two, there's a reason Doctor's are known to work 24/7 and there's a reason we have an EMH and sickbay staffed 24/7...when something happens we are here to be bothered."

"Moving slightly to bring up a scan on the monitor beside her, Pola swung it to face Lilou."See this...a drop of seven feet and a case of nausea are indicators you need to come see us. You have a liner fracture about 5mm's in length along your skull. Thankfully it's nothing too critical, we can heel you right up with an osteo generator and then ship you right out. But there's no point in leaving yourself injured because you wont come see us hun." Pola watched Lilou, as the young woman digested the information.

Lilou looked at the scan curiously. "It doesn't even hurt anymore. Not more than a slight ache..." She frowned. "It wasn't that so much as I only had a couple hours before I was on duty again and I thought sleep was more prudent. But you're right. What if I'd actually had something wrong and messed up the ODN when I was working on it? Careless. All right. I guess I should probably mention I took a couple punches to the stomach and some bruising yesterday morning. Might as well get that checked too, huh?"

Loooking at the woman, Pola wasn't certain if she should be surprised, certainly she was questioning herself how on earth Lilou was still alive. The young Doctor made an internal note to have a word with the CEO, surely there was a problem if this level of injuries were occurring. Looking around her, she grabbed the closest chair and sat infront of Lilou. "Right...fancy telling me how it came about that you received punches to the stomach and some bruising?"

"Holodeck," Lilou chirped, untroubled. "The job keeps me busy, which I like, but I tend not to get ongoing training as a Starfleet crew member because of it. So I have a regimen to keep in shape." She shrugged. "It's good practice."

Taking back up her tricorder, Pola rolled her chair over to place her infront of Lilou, allowing a scan of her abdomen."No tell me, what does this regimen entail?If you want exercise I'm sure I could find some work in here which would keep you running around." Pressing a few buttons on the tricorder, the Doctor smiled up at her patient as she waited for the results to appear on the biobed monitor.

"It's a holodeck program I designed. Borg attack. It keeps me thinking offensively and defensively, gives me firearms practice, running, scrambling, climbling, and field technical solution experience. I usually only make it through about twenty or thirty minutes, but I pushed through an hour yesterday." She smiled, thinking back. "The XO came through. It's easier with someone else."

Pola found herself becoming very confused now and turned her attention to the monitor to give herself a moment."So our XO did this to you or the borg did this to you?" Looking through the scans, the young Doctor satisfied herself there was was no internal bleed, just the presence of bleeding capillaries under the skin. The bruise depth was showing as 1.5mm in depth so very minor.

Lilou laughed, amused by the idea that John Holliday would have waltzed into her holodeck session to beat her up. "The Borg," she said, still grinning.

"Course. That would make more sense. Well your abdomen is fine, it's literally just surface bruising, I can run a dermal regenerator over it for you to remove the discomfort, it can't be nice when your trying to pull yourself along inside jerfferies tube. Before we start all of this repair, anything else you want to share?" Pola sat back in her chair in a relaxed stance.

"I... don't think so?" she asked, wondering if she was forgetting anything. She was always covered in bruises and scrapes just from day to day work; it was hard to think of that as anything to ask to be repaired. It was much a part of her as her tool kit.

"Right. If you can lie back for me on your biobed, we'll get your head sorted first and then I'll sort your bruises. Got any scars or burns or nicks you want repaired while I have the dermal regenerator out? It will only take me a few moments so feel free to hand me a mile long list. Also any loose marbles you've found, give them to me now before I repair your skull." Winking at Lilou, Pola turned to the nurse behind her, taking first the osteo generator.

"Think you could take a look at my knees? The scar tissue there isn't helping anything. Last doc I talked to said it was too thick to deal with without surgically excising it and that'd be for aesthetics only so it wasn't worth the time, but since you asked..."

Watching as Lilou lay down, Pola placed the osteo regenerator at her side, picking up the tricorder again."What happened?" Standing up, the Doctor scanned both knees, programming the tricorder to provide a 3D representation of the scaring so as she could easily seen depth so best decide what to do. As She waited for the results to upload to the monitors, Pola picked back up the osteo regenerator. Consulting the previous scans, the Doctor isolated the liner fracture to the Paritel area of the skill. Seeing it in depth, Pola released somehow when Lilou landed it's like the back of her head hit the ground with force. Tilting the engineer's head forwarded slightly, Serena started to repair the fracture.

"To my knees?" Lilou asked, chuckling. "You know, it's a funny story. I was a kid, and I was in the arboretum on the station I was growing up on - the Qin-Harbinger, have you heard of it? - so I was just standing there and I heard my father calling me so I turned around really quick, but I was next to this big furry looking plant. And it turned out that the furry stuff was actually billions of tiny, really sharp quills that basically ripped my knees to shreds. Lots of blood. Really not pretty."

Taking up her tricorder, Pola rechecked the repair in Lilou's skull and found the fracture to be completely healed over. Moving back, Pola checked the monitor to see that the scans on the woman's knees had loaded. Typing some commands into the monitor, the Doctor brought up the measurements to judge how to best treat the scar tissue."This should have been treated at the time with an autosuture, it would have lessened the damage." Running a hand over her hair, Pola let out a sigh."I think I can repair about 90% of the scar tissue but it'll take 2-3treatments, the first of which I can start today. It'll involve me using an anabolic protoplaser. It should make a difference in the long run. How do you feel about that?"

"I don't know what that is. Will it stop me from being able to work?"

"Essentially it works like a dermal regenerator, a beam penetrates your skin, with breaking it, in order to encourage growth of healthy skin over the dead scar tissue. The only difference with an anabolic protoplaser is that the beam also activates an anabolic responce in the area that beam is directed, thus encouraging the body to help repair the scar tissue itself also. It's why I'd need to see you 2-3times as after the first application Id want you back after to see how it's getting on." Nodding to a nurse, Pola indicated that he should bring her one if these instruments to allow Lilou to actually see it.

"Ah... if it'll get rid of the stiffness and it won't stop me from being able to bend or crawl on my knees, I don't see any problem with it." Lilou smiled, "Thank you."

Pola ran a hand across her hair, trying to figure out how to proceed. "Right, what we'll do is give you the first treatment on those knees and then we'll sort out those bruises across your abdomen. I'm going to get you to get undressed though, you can just removed your dungarees at this point if you'd prefer, I only need access to your knees. Is that ok?" Walking to the top end of the biobed, the Dictor drew across the curtain for privacy.

There were many things that made her nervous. Talking to most people, public embarrassment, and marines were the top of that list; but she'd grown used to doctors over the years. She didn't always like them, but she respected them. They tended to say what they believed; and even if that belief was that she didn't need or warrant the care she thought she did, she at least knew where they stood. So Lilou shrugged, slipping off the bed and peeling off layers. In a few minutes, her heavy regulation boots, two tool belts, her coveralls, and her uniform were piled on one side of the biobed and she was sitting back on the other end again in her underwear, thick socks, and a thin white tank top. Her knees were a mess of scarring with green and purple bruising around where the scar tissue didn't cover; her arms were bruises, elbows purpling, the impression of grip marks on her left upper arm. Through the simple tanktop, her narrow, tight torso visibly bloomed with bruises. From the back of her left hip ranging up about five inches was a dark patch where she'd landed on the ground the night before. Around her ribs and upper back there were patches of lighter and darker purple differentiating where she'd taken the impact of rolls and walls versus punches.

Walking back around, Pola stopped short at the sight which she was faced with."Lilou....what the heck!" Realising what she'd just seen she went so apologise but then spotted, the sight of bruises covering the woman's body would give anyone a shock. "Lilou....what on earth have you done?"

--
[TBC]

MWO Lilou Peers
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Pola Ni Dhuinn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

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