Casualties (Part 4 of 7)

Posted on 26 Sep 2014 @ 7:53pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Olsam Mott & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Ensign Jaana Voutilainen & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Amon Mormont & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Lieutenant Elijah Williams IV, M.Sc.
Edited on on 26 Sep 2014 @ 8:26pm

3,205 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3, Sickbay
Timeline: MD 07 - 1600 hrs

Previously, on Casualties (Part 3)...

Stepping closer and bumping into the side of Tuula's chair to see what exactly she was doing and how she was doing it, Lirha huffed at the woman's response and instead stubbornly stood mere inches from both her fiance and the surgeon to personally oversee the mending of her wounds. "Well? What is taking so long?" she said with agitation while also taking one of Siren's limp hands and squeezing it softly with reassurance.

This was the last straw for Tuula. She placed the autosuture on the tray next to her. "You want to know what is taking so long? I'm trying to perform delicate medical procedures, but I keep getting interrupted by some green-skinned psycho won't just leave me alone and let me do my work." She was shouting through a bloody surgical mask. "You're not a doctor, so why don't you go bother someone who isn't busy trying to save lives? Or do I need to call security and have you removed?"

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Once again Lirha's eyes went wide with anger only this time she retaliated with her own verbal barrage while stepping even closer to Siren in a protective manner. "I have an idea... Why not stop worrying about me and do your damn job and save her life after you almost just killed her with your asinine medical procedures?!" she shouted. "Do I need to find another doctor who is more competent because you are not mentally capable of working in a triage situation?" she threatened with the utmost sincerity. The nerve of this so-called 'doctor'. Lirha couldn't believe how she had managed to make it aboard Galileo, and she would be sure to have a talk with Holliday about her future presence aboard the ship. If there was to be any.

Seething mad, Tuula ripped off her gloves and tapped her comm badge. "Dr. Voutilainen to security, I need a team down here to remove a disruptive individual from sickbay." She positioned herself back over the patient and reached for a clean pair of gloves.

"Saalm to Security, belay that order and hold your stations," came Lirha's swift and calculated reply. She quickly reached down and snatched the commbadge from Tuula's breast then tossed it without care to the side. "Finish your work, now!" she yelled again to Tuula with urgency in her voice knowing that Siren's life was on the line.

Olsam kept looking back and forth from the patients still scattered on the floor to the surgical bed a few strides away. The Commodore seemed to be making some fairly ridiculous demands, aside from actually drawing a weapon in Sickbay. One of the nurses actually scurried off to find a privacy screen, which was completely asinine in the middle of a triage situation. Privacy? Was this the Daystrom Institute or a ridiculously compact sickbay filled with injured crewmembers? And all the yelling had managed to not only draw Dr. Wylde away from his duties but also distract several of the nurses and even split his own attention between patients and the unfolding drama. With no less than a dozen people injured on board the ship, Olsam scowled at the nonsense going on over there but seemed reluctant to leave his own patients.

The Bolian reached down and casually patted his coat pockets, but the last of the hyposprays were gone. Someone either needed to remove the commodore or sedate her before she started shooting up the whole place; flag officer or no, this was definitely not her show and while Dr. Voutilainen was still a young doctor, a new doctor, she was a doctor and a qualified one at that. He cast around, looking for Dr. Allyndra, and finally spotted her.

"Dr. Allyndra!" Olsam shouted, motioning sharply toward the surgical ward. Since the commodore didn't seem to be in the mood to listen to anyone, maybe someone with a little more authority and expertise could calm her down or, preferably, get her out of the way. Once he thought he'd sufficiently gotten her attention, he turned to look over his shoulder and try to get Dr. Wylde's attention. A blue hand waved erratically all over the room to indicate his attention should be elsewhere - there were no shortage of patients lying about on the floor that needed treatment, which seemed a damn sight more important than a privacy screen.

Allyndra had been headed out the door to go to the holodeck sickbay. It was already over crowded here. Several things happened first the sound of the Commodore shouting, Tuula shouting back and then Olsam calling to her. Allyndra spun eying the Commodore and wondering if security needed calling. An emotional outburst like that was expected but pulling a phaser on a doctor with several other witnesses would certainly prove enough to have the flag officer, rank or no be confined.

"Doctor Mott," she said coming over to the Bolian.

Olsam cut his eyes up to look at her from his kneeling position over Lt. Cmdr. Mialin. His teeth were clenched and his breath came faster than usual; everything about his demeanor seemed to suggest the jovial Bolian physician had wandered off and been replaced by someone with a short temper; everyone had a breaking point and havoc in Sickbay seemed to be Olsam's.

"I believe we may need to review procedures with some of the staff." His eyes cut over to the gang of people, including the ship's flag officer, then back to her. "That we can be so easily thrown into chaos speaks volumes about our preparedness for a triage situation. Privacy screens? Former intelligence officers questioning the competence of medical professionals at the end of a phaser? This is not a Klingon ship."

"Agreed," Allyndra said flately. There had been a lot happening in the few moments that had passed. She approached the Commodore. She herself needed to get to work as well. "Please continue on," she added.

Olsam looked down at Dea, frowning and mumbling completely to himself as if it helped his thought process. "I've stabilized her the best I can with medication, but so far her mind is not responding particularly well. Physiologically, she's in a coma but her consciousness is...present. It seems to be trapped in some sort of...well, waking nightmare is the closest approximation I can come up with. It's causing some very unusual neural activity. I'm afraid if it goes on much longer there will be lasting repercussions."

Dea's body shifted once again. This time wasn't any more violent than her first but it had not quite calmed yet either. Signs of physical pain were still evident here there. Mialin's breathing had eased a bit a sign that she was in an environment with more normal atomospheric pressure and air mixture. Other than that Dea was clearly fighting something mentally.

Olsam watched her struggle for only a moment before reprogramming his medical tricorder for detailed neurological scans. The feedback to the device from the sensor wand waved over her head was not encouraging at all, and time was of the essence. Without treatment she was likely to go into shock and begin to suffer permanent brain damage. The Bolian dropped the tricorder carelessly to the floor and shouted at one of the nurses nearest a medcart. "Cortical inhibitor and neuralyte probe, NOW!"

The urgency in his voice must have worked as the two requested pieces of equipment flew through the air; surprisingly, two pudgy blue hands shot up and caught them perfectly. Swiftly, he programmed the cortical inhibitor and attached it to the base of Dea's neck. He glanced at the tricorder on the floor and with relief watched her neural activity begin to normalize. It was a stop-gap measure, just something to halt the unusual brain activity temporarily until he better understood how to approach treatment.

Olsam picked up the neuralyte probe carefully and looked down at Dea with no small amount of sympathy. "I'm sorry," he whispered, as if she could hear him, before he placed the probe against her head. Activating it set the device to work, piercing flesh and bone to obtain an extremely small tissue sample from the brain for further analysis. With any luck, he'd be able to use it to design an effective treatment....

Aria frowned as she walked from her place by the wall to the Commodore and the doctor screaming at each other. "Hey!" she got between them, physically, looking at Tuula. "Calm the hell down. I will not have you threaten the Commodore with anything, show some respect to your superiors," she told the doctor sternly, looking at her with anger before turning to face Lirha. "Commodore, come with me. Hex is safe, she is being healed...you need to step back for a moment and take a breath..." she moved closer, her hand touching Lirha's. "It's okay. I promise...it's okay now. But the last thing Siren needs is you ripping the woman's throat out." No matter how much Tuula might deserve a slap in Aria's mind, having witnesses some things she was pretty sure she never should have seen. "So take a breath...and remember who you are. Okay?"

Lirha cast a sideways glance towards Aria who she'd not realized had also been present in the room. Her appearance was a calming and friendly sight, but she also barely registered her words in the midst of her own attentive focus on Siren. "She is not safe," came Lirha's disgruntled reply as she pointed towards the large open wound which Tuula was now attempting to close. "She cut her open and almost killed her. I watched it," she protested, not wanting to move away from Siren without any proper reassurance that she'd be properly tended to. Tuula was the last person who Lirha wanted to see working on her future wife, but apparently she had no choice in the matter. The sooner the procedure was completed, the better.

Aria looked over at Tuula, pointing a finger at her. "Don't use anything that cuts people up, okay? If you do, I put you in the brig..." she turned back to Lirha, smiling gently. "There...see? I will put her in the brig if she does anything we don't like. Right now...we should get Siren to a private, quiet area and she can recover a bit. And then you can sit down...hold her hand until she regains consciousness again. Sounds like a plan?"

Tuula tried to ignore the asinine ramblings of two people who clearly knew very little about practicing medicine. Am I the only one who has heard of surgery? She was trying to keep calm while two laymen with no medical training questioned her competence and professionalism, but when someone threatened to throw her in the brig again for the second time in the past ten minutes, her hands began to tremble with rage. "This is insane!" protested Tuula, pulling the autosuture away from the incision that she was trying to close. "I'm a doctor; I save lives, and I'll I'll use whatever treatment method I see fit. I don't go barging into your office and tell you how to eat donuts or whatever it is that you do all day. Just... just... go away! All of you! Leave me alone!"

"Excuse me, Commodore Saalm," Aria said softly, taking a breath before turning to Tuula. She looked down at Siren, not quite healed up yet, and then back at the woman. There was no smile, no mirth, in Aria as she spoke. "Either you heal her up, without any whining or rudeness, without shouting at the Commodore, the highest ranking person on the ship...or, you can go and treat someone else and I ask someone else, someone who will do the job quickly without shouting at the woman's fianc. And if you raise your voice again towards Saalm, I will be wheeling you out of this sickbay the moment people have healed up and put you in the brig. Understand, Doctor?"

"You've both lost it, and this is the most ridiculous behaviour I've ever seen in a sickaby. This whole incident is going in my report." With that, Tuula took a deep breath and tried to get back to work.

"You do that," Aria said lightly, like she would to a child, before turning to Lirha before taking her hand, gently pulling her back. "Lirha, I know you are angry. But Siren needs you strong and positive for her. Think you can do that?"

The commodore looked at Aria, then to Tuula, then Siren, then back again to Aria. She pursed her lips and chewed on the bottom of her lip before finally giving the faintest of nods. The young security officer was right, she decided, and she slowly took a step back with her arms now folded across her chest while she watched the doctor work.

Allyndra was going to intervene. She had her authority, she had Mott to back her up and that was more than enough with the witnesses here to have the Commodore removed. She decided the carrot approach first, more tillits were caught with bloodflower juice than with vinegar. She clapped her hands, though it made her left one hurt and spoke in a lull.

"Actually, I am going to have to INSIST," she emphasized the word, "that everyone not injured, and not medical personnel clear sickbay. We all have work to do and it is overly crowded in here. NOW please!" Again it was not a shout but emphasized and she pitched it a tone that implied there would be no argument.

Aria looked at Allyndra before taking a breath, lifting her chin as she watched them. "A flag officer has expressed concern about the care and safety of Miss Hex, which means that it is my duty as the senior Security Officer to provide a security presence. Until Miss Hex is conscious, Security stay by her side, to ensure her safety. The Commodore is her next of kin and considering the...blood all over your sickbay floor, I suggest that we keep here by her side until I feel secure in knowing Miss Hex is safe," she said bluntly, before looking over at Mormont. She motioned him over, meeting his eyes. "WO Mormont, please make sure no one tries to forcibly remove the Commodore...and that Miss Hex is being given medical care and a corner or room to heal in. I do not want you to leave her side."

Mormont walked over, frowning as he walked over. This had been hard to watch. He was glad Aria had intervened. If anything, it had calmed the situation down and hopefully allowed things to be worked on. He gave a nod, moving to the side of Hex, who was still being healed up.

Aria looked over at Allyndra, taking a slow breath. "I understand you want to do your job, but I am in the same boat as you. So best thing is that Hex is healed as quickly as possible, put aside somewhere a bit quiet and we will physically be from under your feet. If you want to move more people who have not been treated yet, I suggest getting them to triage."

Allyndra narrowed her eyes for a moment. "Very well but if threats are made again I will use my medical authority backedup with the Assistant Chief Medical officer and other witnesses to either ask for you to remove anyone doing such and all actions noted in my medical log." She then turned to take care of patients, there was no more time arguing here but this was far from over. Aria should realize that her excuse for the Commodore was thin and even more so the Commodore should realize her actions were out of bound. That was a bridge to cross later though.

"What crawled up her arse?" Mormont whispered, shaking his head. He reached to touch Siren's hand, wanting to offer the unconscious woman something. "Let me know where to move her to when she is closed up. I'm here to help," he told Dr Voutilainen.

Autosuture in hand, Tuula once again got back to work. "Just stay out of my way until I'm done and we'll get along fine."

Mormont arched an eyebrow before looking at Siren. "Wasn't planning on stopping you," he breathed, watching the unconscious woman.

Olsam looked up from Lt. Cmdr. Mialin's unconscious body for just a few moments with the same cold, methodical, calculating gaze he'd used during the initial triage period. He took a quick note of those who were or had been gathered around Petty Officer Hex's body then turned away, clenching his jaw tightly and quietly reminding himself that - unlike some on staff - his primary responsibility was seeing to the well-being of the crew. He had plenty to say on the matter unfolding in the surgical ward, not the least of which the Commodore's seeming disregard for the well-being of everyone else on the ship, including her flagship's second officer. But all that would have to wait until after everyone had been treated and he had a moment to sit down with the chief medical officer.

Elijah looked on, he had tried to get the commodore calm and walk away but where Aria succeeded he failed. He just wasn't persuasive enough, or forceful enough. It was the yelling, the threatening, that was what bothered him. In the end, he fell by the wayside and maybe that was for the best. He felt fatigue wash over him and he realized he still had most of his EVA suit still on. He moved from the group that was standing near Hex and began to remove the suit when he noticed his friend, standing over another woman. What was Abbey doing out of bed? He approached.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CDRE Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

Crewman Apprentice Abbey Wyatt
Scientist's Mate
USS Galileo
(Pnpc by Jake)

Lt.JG Luke Wyatt
Chief of Secuirty
USS Galileo

LTCMDR Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (J.G.) Tuula Voutilainen, M.D.
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Aria Rice
Security Officer
USS Galileo

Master Warrant Officer Amon Mormont
Security Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Markos]

Lieutenant Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

SWO Alexion Wylde
Medical Doctor
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

Ensign Jaana Voutilainen
Stellar Cartographer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Elijah Williams, IV
Geologist
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Olsam Mott, M.D.
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Allyndra Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

CN Finnix Pixis
Nurse
USS Galileo
[PNPC Miir]

ENS Grayson Jones
Asst. Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

LT Andreus Kohl
Asst. Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

EMH Mark-X
Medical Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Holliday]

LTJG Naois Mercy
Medical Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC T'Vanna]

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