Through the Breach (Part 5 of 12)

Posted on 18 Jul 2015 @ 3:42am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy & Jonah Chaparral M.D. & Petty Officer 1st Class Eric Anderson & Alethea Coleman Ph.D & Crewman Apprentice Sigrid Thelin & Lieutenant Olsam Mott & Petty Officer 3rd Class Veri RN

3,807 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Episode 09 - Empires
Location: USS Galileo - Various
Timeline: MD 01 - 2050 hrs

Previously, on Through the Breach (Part 4)...

"Ha!" Sigrid laughed, though her eyes conveyed the fear she was feeling. "Psh, that's only 4 decks up. Here, take this." Sigrid handed her a data chip with all the available information she'd been able to gather from every available astrometrics sensor and instrument she could manage during their ride through the vortex. "We need to get this to engineering or..the bridge."

"Indeed." Coleman said, frowning at the humour from the young woman. Perhaps she was also suffering a concussion. She took the data chip and placed it in her pocket. "You need a doctor before an engineer. So let's get going then, shall we?" Coleman finished adding the ring of gauze around the shard of metal, and using the lack of gravity to help her wrap it in place around Sigrid's stomach.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Deck 3 - Sickbay

Before the impact, Tuula tried to restrain herself by gripping as tightly onto her console as she could, but to no avail. She found herself getting sent flying halfway across sickbay, backwards into a biobed. Fortunately for her, though, her chair took the brunt of the impact, leaving her with no severe injuries, just a painful bruise on her elbow.

But as she clutched her elbow and tried to recover, she was feeling even more dizzy and lightheaded than a moment ago. It took her a moment to realize that the artificial gravity had failed and she was floating through sickbay, but when she saw her chair beside her, there was no question.

"Olsam! Allyndra!" she called out, floating helplessly through the air. Zero gravity simulations were just one of the physical qualifications that she was exempted from due to her condition. With her chair floating just out of reach, she began to panic. "Help!" she called out, as she reached for a console that she found herself floating by.

Jonah was a civilian. He'd never had any Starfleet training, never felt a need for it. Not until now. He'd been sitting down when everything started going to hell. First he'd been knocked to the ground and the next minute he was floating in the air.

He saw Tuula floating about 4 meters from him. "Hey it's okay," he called out reassuringly. He kicked off a bulkhead and began moving in her general direction.

Allyndra was in the lab trying to secure the loose equipment. Bit and pieces of equipment and glassware fell even so as the ship shuddered. That was bad enough but when the ship lost power the still moving shards became a moving cloud of sharp objects. Allyndra covered her face to protect her eyes and her instinct was to open her wings but there was not quite the room. Bits of glass and sharp edged metal cut her arms and hands. She heard Tuula call out for help and with a very careful movement headed back for the door. Once she got to main sickbay there was just enough room to use her wings.

"I have this," Allyndra called out. "Wings here come in handy." She saw Tuula was out of her chair and if the gravs came back on would be on the floor.

Dru was lying limp in midair blood pooled around her head from where it had rebounded against a sickbay console prior to the gravity disappearing. Motionless, the young woman was unconsious.

Swearing loudly as he surveyed the damage, Eric shook his head as he tried to rid himself of the roaring in his ears. As his eyes darted around the room, he tried to survey the damage before seeing the counsellor. "Can we get some help over here!" Swearing more, he manipulated his body until he could grab the edge of a biobed, propelling himself in the direction of the woman's body to try and survey the situation.

Thankful for the anti-grav boots Coleman walked into Sickbay with a floating Sigrid in tow. They'd had to use the jefferies tube, and it was very slow going, but eventually she managed to arrive without too much trouble. Sigrid had passed out around deck 5, and Coleman was quite certain it was from blood loss. She saw various other casualties among sickbay and she looked around with a look of boredom for an available doctor.

Olsam almost always kept two hyposprays of sedative in his doctor's coat, as they tended to come in handy when one needed to sedate a belligerent crewman or the ship lost gravity control. Being completely without gravity allowed him to use just an injection or two of the hypospray into the air to gain forward movement. Leaving jet trails of standard sedative behind him, Mott went sailing through Sickbay like a fish through water; in fact, being from what amounted to an ocean planet gave him quite the advantage in operating in the weight less environment. It was practically like swimming in Bumbaloo Bay back home.

"Hello, Dr. Coleman, welcome to Sickbay," he said cheerily, using the hyposprays to slow himself so that he was face-to-face with her. Of course, he was upside down, but that was just a minor inconvenience. Without waiting for a response, he produced his medical tricorder from its belt holster and began scanning Sigrid. "Uh-oh, poor Siggy, she's lost a lot of blood... Get her strapped in that biobed on her side, I'll get some medicine."

Coleman did just that. She stomped over to the biobed, taking the floating Sigrid with her. It was a little tricky, but she managed to get her on the bed, and secured.

Out of the corner of his eye, Olsam caught some commotion around Tuula but didn't stop to investigate. From the supply closet he gathered up lectrazine for the blood loss, a few other medications for pain, a dermal regenerator, an isotropic restraint, a vascular regenerator, and a laser scalpel. With everything barely contained in his hands, he pushed off the bulkhead in a trajectory toward Sigrid's body.

"Catch!" the Bolian shouted as he neared Dr. Alethea Coleman, releasing everything in his hands in a tight bundle toward her. With his hands free, he grabbed the edge of Sigrid's biobed and held on tightly as the momentum swung him around to plant his feet roughly on the ground. While barely organized chaos raged around them in Sickbay, Olsam cheerily bounced on one foot while keeping himself braced with a hand on the biobed. "I dub thee Nurse Doctor Alethea Coleman, you'll be assisting me with Siggy here."

Coleman scoffed in annoyance at the things flung towards her. "I am not a bloody nurse, thank you. I'm an ecologist. I know anatomy and first aid, but that's about it." She managed to gather the rest of the things floating in the air around her and brought them to the bio bed, thumping her boots for emphasis. She scanned the a hawkish look around sickbay for a more capable nurse or doctor to assist.

Hearing the commotion, Eric felt his temper flair as he continued to try and guide the unconscious counsellor to a biobed. He had managed to gather that the head wound was superficial, a scrap across the skin which bleed out more because of it's location. He had no way of knowing if her unconsciousness was serious or not but figured she'd be fine until a Doctor freed up. "Coleman was it? Get your stuff ass over here and help me with this woman. If your skills stretch to helping tie someone down in zero gee gravity, I can help the Doctor seeing as your not willing to."

"Not trained to." She corrected. "Has nothing to do with my willingness." Her expression continued to remain bored except for a single raised eyebrow at the man's tone. She still shuffled her anti-grav boots towards him nonetheless. With a heavy sigh she took over for him and began strapping down Dru while trying to remind herself that everyone reacted to stress differently and to try not to be so hard on the young man.

"We've a ship falling apart and once the gravity is back, this place will be swamped. Common sense should be telling you that aslong as you can stick a plaster on someone's boo-boo than you are of use to use." Eric hands clung to the edge of the biobed he had guided the counsellor too, only releasing as he pushed himself back to propell himself over to Doctor Mott. There was a time and a place for an argument with the woman, and this was neither. "What do you need from me Doc?"

"Indeed." Was Coleman's only response as the nurse floated away. She looked down and stared at the unconscious counselor, sighed heavily, then busied herself with tying Dru down.

Olsam looked up from the patient and blinked. He'd been so engrossed in his treatment procedures - administering the lectrazine, placing the isotropic restraint to immobilize the patient, and prepping the wound area for extraction - that he hadn't noticed the exchange between Anderson and Coleman. To his eyes one human female had been exchanged by another human male of the exact same height.

"Oh, hello, Nurse Anderson," Olsam beamed, oddly jovial among the raging disorder around him. He picked up the vascular regenerator and gave it a gentle nudge to send it floating over Sigrid's body toward the other man. "We need to extract this piece of console from Ms. Thelin here and repair the damage, standard procedure. Would you mind using the vascular regenerator to control the internal damage while I extract the object itself?"

As Eric grabbed the railing of the patient's bed with one hand, his other reached out to grab the regenerator before it spiraled over his head and out of reach. "Got it Doc."

"Right, wonderful," Mott grinned, turning his eyes back to the patient but still speaking to the nurse. "So, how has your day been? Seems something drastic must be going on, hm?"

Eric was used to Mott at this point, noone needed to be working in sickbay for too long to learn the Doctor's personality. Although he was extremely bright and a fantastic Doctor, his obsession with food and general joviality took some getting used to. "Ah sure Doc you know how it is. Got up this morning, got breakfast, processed some of our left over patients from the war games and ended my shift hanging upside down after we got thrown about abit. Nothing above average to what we are used to around here aye?"

"Certainly not," Olsam said, grinning. He closed the surgical arms of the biobed over the patient and used the monitor on them to keep track of his progress. He cut away the majority of the exposed console and gave it a gentle shove with his finger so that it floated downward in the zero gravity environment. It came to rest on the deck plating and he used his foot to make sure it stayed there. "All right, now the tricky part. If you'll stop the blood flow around the wound then I'll start the extraction process."

If Eric had been able to, he might have scratched his head. With his foot hooked around the biobed support, he glanced around at the instruments floating around the sickbay before pinpointing the one he needed. Grabbing the tissue mitigator with a large stretch, the nurse applied pressure to the skin surrounding the wound as he cut off blood supply to the wound area in order to stop the bleeding. "All yours Doc, just say when."

Olsam watched the monitor until he was satisfied with the nurse's work then began to slowly slide the foreign object out of Sigrid's body. Thankfully, it had missed most of the major organs but it had done plenty of damage to her cardiovascular system. Even after they regenerated the veins, arteries, and capillaries, she'd be feeling the wound for days to come. With a sick sort of suctioning sound, the last bit of the console slid free from the woman's body, and Olsam repeated the process to place it on the floor.

"Hm, looks good, looks good," he mumbled, reaching for the dermal regenerator. "I'll patch up the outside, you patch up the inside?"

"Whatever you command Doc." As Eric released the pressure he had been applying, he paused for a moment to ensure that there was no areas still seeping blood; ensuring that the sutures he had watched Mott apply actually held. Satisfied, he grabbed a t-cell stimulator as is floated by, using it to ensure that any infection introduced by the foreign object was killed before it could do any further damage.

Once this was done, the nurse used sutures to attack the severed muslce in order to promote rehealing before taking a metaphorical step back and allowing the Doctor to finish the job. "As good as new Doc!"

"Well. Almost as good as new. But we don't have time for detailed cellular reconstruction, so she'll just have to deal with 99% as good as new, won't she?" Olsam asked rhetorically.

Allyndra had not gotten to Tuula before Jonah had. None the less she asked, "Tuula are you alright?"

Tuula released her grip on the biobed and grabbed a hold of Jonah as he flew by. "I think I'm fine," she said, wrapping her arms around him tightly as her legs flailed in seemingly random directions. For a split second, she was reminded of Jynn and her mind flashed back to the blissful experience she shared with him only minutes before.

She shook the mental image away though, trying to focus on her predicament. Floating around sickbay with patients to treat, and not even a pair of magnetic boots for all the good it would have done her. It was hard enough to get around in zero gravity, and even harder without the use of her legs. Unless gravity was restored soon, there was little she could do but float around helplessly and hope she doesn't get in anyone's way. "Can you strap me down or something?" she asked, blushing slightly as her words reminded her of what she was doing only minutes ago. "I can't..."

Suddenly, she had an epiphany. "My chair!" she exclaimed. "It has provision for a portable anti-grav unit to attach underneath the seat!" She looked down at Jonah. "I think I have one in the office, in the second drawer on the left. Maybe if you can reverse the polarity, and strap me into my chair..."

Allyndra felt in her element here. This was actually easier than having to use ones wings to lift oneself. All she needed to do was to make small flicks to change course, stop or even hover.

"Come on Tuula," Allyndra said. "Hold on to me. I will get you there. We will need every doctor I fear. And if grav is off then the holodecks are affected as well. I want you and Olsam to work here and I will fly to the cargo bay one to handle setup of triage."

"Okay," said Tuula, letting go of Jonah and grabbing Allyndra by the hand. Trying to navigate in zero gravity felt almost like swimming, only more difficult as the air in sickbay didn't allow her to get as much traction as water. The best she could do was push off of things and hope for the best.

Allyndra pulled her close and then with little flicks of her wings guided the two of them over to her chair. It hurt in her hearts that she realized just what Tuula had to deal with even more so and she vowed to redouble her efforts to figure out a way to make the Akkadian regeneration work for her. The chair was there and she helped Tuula get in place and strapped to it.

"Ready?" Allyndra asked and pushed the chair toward the floor. She figured Tuula would know best how to use the chair's magnetic locks.

Tuula caught the flat, boxy, antigrav unit for her chair, and, having removed the cover, she stared at it for a moment. "Hmmmm..." she muttered as she tried to make heads or tails of the various wires and circuit boards. Taking her best guess, she swapped out two of the wires. "Just like surgery," she said, hoping that she managed to do it right and not cause a fire in her chair.

Leaning forward, she snapped the anti-grav unit into place and powered it up. As it pulled her chair down towards the floor, she let out a hint of a smile. "It's working!" she exclaimed, before pusing herself towards Olsam and the nearest patient.

"Excellent!" Allyndra exclaimed and turned. Her goal now was to check out the cargo bay on the same deck and if it was alright get the medical supplies stored there operating.

"Doctor Mott, you are in charge here," Allyndra said as she gently wafted by. "Off to get the cargo bay triage set up.

"Okay, toodles!" Olsam said, looking up from Sigrid's body to give Allyndra a parting wave.

Typical Veri... The poor Deltan had been so consumed with inventory that was lucky enough to be in Sickbay's main supply closet when the gravity cut out. For which shelf of blankets she held on to, caved forward with the gravity.

There was a loud clash in the closet as the shelf began to float, followed by two loud thumps. In the end, Veri found herself nearly engulfed by blankets galore and a headache from smacking the ceiling.

Once Dru was secured she watched the large winged fairy take away the disabled doctor away to fix her wheelchair. A single raised eyebrow was the only indication that she may have been slightly surprised by it. Her passive face then turned to the Bolian doctor and the nurse working on Sigrid. Her first thought was why on Earth was she the only one with enough sense to put on anti-grav boots? She rolled her eyes and clomped her boots over to the supply closet and opened it.

Her eyebrow was certainly getting a work out today as it raised yet again at seeing the Deltan nurse clambering around in mid air with blankets every which way.

"I work in a mad house." Coleman said out loud, though she didn't sound as astonished as her words would imply. She ignored the nurse for now, instead opening a locker where EVA suits and other PPE gear were stored. She took out two pairs of anti-grav boots, before she shuffled her feet back towards the Bolian and Nurse Anderson. She dropped on pair beside the doctor then walked around the biobed and dropped the second pair beside the male nurse.

Coleman made eye contact with the young man long enough to say, "Oh, look. Common sense." She said sardonically before shuffling off, not waiting for a reply.

Eric blinked as eh watched the woman walk away, allowing himself a smile when he knew that she wasn't looking. She had some gumption he had to admit. Moving to attach the boots to his feet, he moved onto his next task as they prepped sickbay for the onslaught of patients they would receive once the gravity issue was fixed.

Olsam eyed the gravity boots with suspicion. He liked the sensation of weightlessness - it felt a bit like the ocean - so he decided to forego the devices and just pull and push himself around Sickbay to tend to his duties. It was much less exhausting than walking. Honestly, he didn't see why they didn't turn the gravity off all the time. It was much easier. So much less exertion!

Coleman made her way back to the struggling Deltan and sighed heavily to get her attention. She put her wrinkled hands on her hips and cleared her throat. "Do you require assistance?" Coleman's tone however conveyed she hoped the Deltan would say no.

"I think I -" Veri let out a yelp as she banged her head again. "I got it, really."

She did not. Zero-G and she never got along. And it had been far too long since basic since she used those skills. Come to think of it, she was a bit green behind the gills now. But at least she finally found a shelf to hold on to... for the moment.

Finding his bearings, it was obvious Naois was used to having no gravity, having trained as a pilot and having lived on starbases for most of his life. "Anything I can do to help?" the half Vulcan asked. "Be it medical, or psychological?" He pushed off away from the door and 'swam' through sickbay, coming to an awkward halt before the CMO. "What do you want me to do?"

Allyndra paused with that flick of the wings. "Come with me Naois. I fear we will have more people coming to us shortly than can be handled here. The cargo bay on this deck has emergency medical supplies to set up as a Triage. I do not trust with the power problems to use a holodeck right now."

"I would have to agree ma'am," the Vulcan replied, "can we distribute gravity gear towards our medical personnel? No gravity makes functioning extremely difficult. Do we have EV suits available?" Not that he minded Zero-G, he found it oddly pleasant.

"We will have to get grav gear and make sure the beds are all tied down. There should be stores in the Cargo Bay. As far a EV there are a few there but let us hope there is no breeches there...." Allyndra trailed off remembering the attack that had occurred with the Borg and depressurizing the bay. It had been a nightmare that still haunted her periodically. "Sorry, I was remembering the last time there was a depressurization in the bay." She cocked her head at Naois, "Well while we have the chance come fly with me, we will float down to Bay Two." She turned and headed out the door and down the hallway making little flicks of her wings.

"You do have an advantage here," Naois mused as he pushed after her, carrying whatever he could carry. "Wings would be useful now."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

LTJG Tuula Voutilainen
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LT Olsam Mott
Asst. Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Drusilla McCarthy
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

CIV Jonah Chaparral
Epidemiologist
USS Galileo
[PNPC Nicholas]

PO1 Eric Anderson
Nurse
USS Galileo
[PNPC McCarthy]

CIV Alethea Coleman
Ecologist
USS Galileo
[PNPC Beaumont]

CA Sigrid Thelin
Scientist's Mate
USS Galileo
[PNPC Beaumont]

PO3 Veri
Nurse
USS Galileo
[PNPC Mott]

LTJG Naois Mercy
Counselor
USS Galileo
[PNPC Murray]

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