Retreat (Part 2 of 5)

Posted on 31 Aug 2019 @ 12:05pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kala Gorvel & Senior Chief Petty Officer Goldie Brown & Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hollenday & Crewman Draia Thero & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley"
Edited on on 31 Aug 2019 @ 12:11pm

2,977 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari System, USS Galileo-A
Timeline: MD 01, 0624 hrs

Previously, on Retreat (Part 1)...

A call came in from Allyndra indicating that the holodecks were up and running and set up as emergency sickbays and that patients could be routed there.

Shirley cocked her chin up and folded her arms under her breasts. She breathed out a puff of air through her nose, or at least, that was how her personality subroutine kicked in to demonstrate her mental exertion as she considered Allyndra's orders. "Understood, Doctor," replied the Emergency Medical Hologram. "Shirley out." Spinning back in Laeon's direction, she took hold of his arm with a gentle and ginger grip. "We'd better patch you up," she affirmed; "I'm gonna need a nurse."

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Main Engineering

John felt like a fire roasted marshmallow that had been put to the flames a bit too much. There was not hardly a few centimeters of his clothing that was not scorched and that included his face and hair. He stood back from the main plasma conduit that was now flowing again and patted the metal side. "Well bless your heart, darlin', your lookin' fresh as a daisy in the morning sun. Hey! How is that warp matrix now?" he yelled.

Kala herself had been on the receiving end of flying sparks and venting atmosphere pipes, craned her neck back from the console, (one of few that still was a console and not a pile of junk) "We're finally within stabilization limits, we should finish with the plasma conduits and maybe we'll make it back" She said trying to flash a toothy smile the whites of her teeth in contrast to her burnt and blackened face making her appear like an old earth Coal miner.

Well behind the reaction chamber, Draia Thero was straddling the starboard plasma transfer conduit. The young Cardassian clung to the conduit with her thighs, as if she were riding a mechanical bull in the sort of bar that would be just as smoky as the main engineering compartment. Blessedly, she had missed out on the shower of sparks. Perhaps next time, she would be more lucky.

Leaning forty-five degrees to the right, Draia reached for the next port with her double-pronged flux coupler. Toggling the coupler active, she touched the prongs to the type-one EPS tap. On the small display, she watched for the capacity flow reading to reach an acceptable level before she withdrew the coupler and moved on to the next port farther down the plasma conduit. "I always heard there was no such thing as maybe in Starfleet," Draia called back. "Only Victory! And ice cream! And trips to Risa!"

Kala couldn't contain her laugh any more, at a time like this perhaps a counsellor would class her as crazy but the engineering crew of the Galileo always had a bit of a crazy streak even in times such as dire as these. "To victory, ice cream and trips to Risa" She shouted as a shower of sparks erupted again across engineering.

Startled by the blast of shooting stars overhead, Draia lost her balance atop the plasma transfer conduit. Straddling the wide cylinder as she was, her upper body went flailing sideways, but she maintained her grip on the conduit with her thighs. Falling head over heels, her left shoulder crashed into the deck first and then the rest of her hit the deck too.

Allyndra arrived and waved her hands as her nose burned from the smell of ozone from the electrical sparks. She looked over the group with one of the engineers laughing a bit hysterically and shook her head. "By the Twins!" She exclaimed, "what...never mind, alright who is first." She pulled out the portable scanner. The group looked like they had been a crew on one of those old Earth steam ships working in the coal bunkers.

"Check the others ma'am," John called out as he spotted the commander. "I am but a nut buster third class. We NEED the other ones more than me."

"Come on, let's have a look," she waved to Kala and ducked narrowly avoiding a shower of sparks herself which John made haste to try to patch up.

Kala wasn't going to make it easy on the medical officer she continued her work finishing to repair the plasma conduits and grunted impatiently indicating to him to work on her whilst she work.

Allyndra just shrugged as the engineers pretty much ignored their burns and injuries. She finally put her kit away and pitched in. "Alright, may not be an engineer but pretty decent surgeon. Tell me what needs to be bound to what and get this mess patched up so I can patch you guys up."

John just chuckled at the doctor and then felt a little chagrined as he was chuckling to a way senior officer. "Alright, ma'am, see those lines there and there. You need one of these," he said handing her a coupling probe. "Then you put them together like so." he demonstrated. "Careful you don't touch the other lines or your going to get a shock."

Allyndra nodded and then went to work. It was like doing surgery. Surgery on a living patient that would spit hot plasma or electricity at you if you made a mistake.

It took a bit but finally it seemed that things were back to working. A bit patched up but working and that meant the holodecks would be back online and emergency sickbays could e set up.

She pushed an errant strand of blue streaked black hair out of the way and called the medical teams. "Medical personnel, Allyndra here, holodecks are up and running and set up as emergency sickbays. You can start routing patients there. Shirley can you 'split' to cover the areas?"

Shirley coalesced in engineering --three paces away from Allyndra-- through a visual distortion that looked like heat haze. Shirley crossed her arms under her breasts and cocked her chin up. "Understood, Doctor," Shirley said at the same time that the original Shirley replied over the comms, "Understood, Doctor." Turning to Allyndra, the present Shirley said, "I'm triaging patients in the observation lounge, re-routing patients to Holodeck one, and I am"--her visual image froze for a moment, and the LCARS error sound came out of her mouth, but then she reinitialized-- "carrying a patient to Holodeck two. ...Are the engineers cooperating?"

"I will make sure they comply with medical orders, thank you. Where is everyone, well medical personnel currently?"

In consideration of Allyndra's question, Shirley cocked her head left and then right. Her photonic eyes appeared to glaze over as she accessed Galileo's internal sensors as well as the eyes of the duplicate Emergency Medical Holograms throughout the ship. "Counselor Lovegood is treating patients in Sickbay with the EBH Raven and rerouting the more serious cases to the Observation Lounge, where I am tending to patients with Chaplain Thorne and Master Wylde. Chief Wylde is responding to a request from the Bridge for medical assistance and I'm performing solo surgery in holodeck one." --She looked up, surprise in her eyes-- "Lieutenant ir-Llantrisant has exited Sickbay too..."

Allyndra was nodding as Shirley gave her report. She was invaluable in these situations as long the emitters were working. However, when she mentioned Lake she looked up sharply. "Exited sickbay? He is injured, where did he go?" She did not wait for Shirley's reply but asked the computer which was still on online.

=^= Lieutenant Ir-Llantrisant is currently on the bridge =^=

"The bridge?" Allyndra asked the question out loud and the computer simply confirmed it again.

She fumed for a moment and then got her attention back to Shirley. "Very good, carry on and thank you doctor. We are good here."

As a relatively-young hologram, Shirley was unable to detect Allyndra's fuming energy for that moment. She only took notice of Allyndra's kind words; by Shirley's recollection, they were some of the first kind words that Allyndra had lobbed in her direction. Shirley was overcome with... with... something. With some... manner... of emotion. It caused her to sway backwards, just slightly, and she never lost her footing. "Thank you, Doctor," Shirley said in return and then she winked out of existence to exert greater focus on the surgeries she was performing.

Allyndra just did a quick scan of the engineering personnel and determined that though they had several burns and scrapes nothing that was that threatening. She needed to find out what Lake was up to especially dealing with a probable concussion. "I will be back," she said to the group and turned and left.

John just shook his head, "Sounds like line from a movie I think I saw once."


Deck 1 - Bridge

Stepping off the turbolift, Lake ir-Llantrisant scanned the bridge with his eyes from the moment the doors had started to part for him. Perhaps it was a quirk of how Lake ir-Llantrisant's had trained his mind --or it was the emergency treatment for his concussion-- but Lake felt no curiosity for the Tholian shenanigans appearing on the forward viewscreen. The vivid colours held no attraction to him; all he could see was the blood smeared on Starfleet uniforms. All he could see was the way certain bridge officers were clutching or guarding parts of their own bodies rather than operating their LCARS panels with ease.

Certainly, the physical state of Captain Saalm drew his eyes before any other. When he could ascertain no immediate injuries --and he heard no crewmembers directing him towards her-- Lake prioritized Petty Officer Goldie Brown next. He pounced towards the aft mission ops station, as Brown was the only bridge officer who was fully crashed out on the floor --her blond hair dramatically haloing around her head-- rather than clinging to her station with some vestige of remaining strength.

Palming his medical tricorder in one hand with its detachable, cylindrical scanner in the other, Lake crouched by Brown's side. His eyes flicked between the vital signs appearing on the tricorder's screen and studying Brown's physiological reactions with his own senses. He could see her chest was rising and falling; the tricorder confirmed she was breathing. She had a pulse; the tricorder confirmed her heart was beating strong. Lake brightened the light on the hand scanner and used it to conduct a neurological exam of her eyes. "Did you lose consciousness at all before I arrived?" Lake asked Goldie herself, but also the observers nearby.

Goldie groaned. The light hurt. "Yes." At least, she thought she lost consciousness.

"Alkysine," Lake muttered to himself. The same pharmaceutical that had treated his brain trauma for long enough to keep him on his feet was about to be Goldie Brown's saviour as well. He opened his medikit and loaded the hypospray with the requisite cartridge. After he pressed the hypospray to her neck and administered the drug, he asked, "How are you feeling now? Does it hurt anywhere else?"

"Feeling better, but still a little dizzy," Goldie admitted.

"Do you think you can stand?" Lake asked, although his eyes were on the down. Via the medical tricorder in his palm, Lake watched the changes in Goldie's vitals as the medication flowed through Goldie's system, correcting the neurological damage in a quick and dirty manner. "The dizziness may be from the medication, as much as the initial injury itself," Lake admitted. "We've got to avoid any unintended drug interactions for the next half hour. Can you tough it out here or can I help you to a holodeck sickbay?"

"I can tough it out here. If I start feeling better there's work to do," Goldie said. Although she wasn't sure if anyone would be communicating right now.

The doors opened to allow a second doctor into the battle scarred scene. Alexion caught sight of Lake, his jaw tensing slightly at seeing him back on his feet, a stab of concern coming to him. He headed for the wounded pilot though, quickly taking over from Mastrel. He ran his tricorder over him, letting out a tight breath as he pressed painkillers to his neck to make him more comfortable. "What happened?" he asked Mastrel quietly.

Lamar Darius was struggling to breathe, primarily from a visible neck wound where shrapnel had exploded from the helm console and lodged itself into his esophagus during the battle back at Latari. The hand pressure Callin had been applying had helped keep him stable, but he needed immediate evac for survival.

Tucking a dermal regenerator away in his medikit, Lake stepped forward from the aft of the Bridge. As he closed the distance between himself and Darius, Lake offered, "I have more hands." As if to prove his point, he folded his hands on Alexion's shoulder, offering his encouragement and support if Alexion was willing to take it from a doctor who had, technically, been relieved of duty not terribly long ago.

Alexion glanced up to Lake, holding his breath with his disapproval of his being on his feet at all....but then, he looked back to the struggling patient he was knelt next to, knowing they needed to move quickly or he wasn't going to make it. He nodded firmly to Lake, motioning for him to move down with him. "We need to get the shard out, but start healing him immediately," he stated the obvious, more to show he had accepted Lake's offer. He pressed a hypo to the man's neck to help slow his blood loss. "Be ready to regenerate..."

For all the brief tension and anxiety between them, Lake shared a fond smile with Alexion. He appreciated the trust Alexion was showing in him, despite what Alexion suspected of Lake's current mental capacity. With Darius' life hanging in the balance, Lake couldn't say anything to Alexion. There was only time for a smile. Even then, Lake knew his standard medikit well enough to move with muscle memory at the same time. He clutched his tricorder in one hand and a small vascular regenerator in the other.

With the medical tricorder, Lake identified the blood vessels that had been punctured by the data crystal shard in Darius' throat. With the vascular regenerator, Lake poised himself to stop the bleeders the very moment Alexion pulled the shard out.

Lake looked at Alexion. "Do it," Lake said.

The arrival of the blue-collared medical personnel was a welcome sight to the captain. However, as she remained focused on their next maneuver, she realized their starship hadn't changed course as she'd instructed.

"Commander Wyatt, heading two-zero-eight. Now!" Basic combat systems were still online and Galileo still had a small complement of torpedoes left.

Again Luke couldn't believe what he was hearing from the Orion captain, he took a step towards so that their conversation was kept mostly between them. "Lirha, think about what you're ordering, think about what you're asking us to do. You can not surely expect anything good to come out of this."

Saalm rose from her chair with her green irises trained on the security chief. "We don't have time for this, Luke," she retorted in a private volume. "The longer we delay, the more Starfleet crew will die. Turn this ship around or I will."

Luke shook his head "We don't have the ship, we don't have the weapons and we don't have the luxury of the Federation being able to help us. If you have us go back there you'll be condemning not one but two sets of crew" he said matching her tone but their body language said the words no one could hear, the XO was refusing to obey orders.

Once more Lirha glared at him and again her green eyes flared with anger. "This is not a debate, lieutenant commander," she yelled. "Execute my order!" She stepped closer to him with firm body posture and looked up to confront the taller Human.

Luke held his body posture firm, clearly indicating that she was not changing his view on the matter. "Captain." he started now loud enough over the ships bridge ambient noises for all to hear but with a voice of reason than anger. "You are correct this can not be up for debate.

"As Captain you're responsible for the welfare and safety of this crew and its civilian contingent, and under Regulation 3 Paragraph 12 you are only to take risk in the line of duty if otherwise unavoidable, which in this instance would be a suicidal act not just for one or two individuals but for an entire crew of which comprises of civilians and children alike.

"I deem this order avoidable and therefore in breach of this regulation, furthermore under Regulation 619, I state that I believe this action is a result of yourself being emotionally charged and therefore unable to act and make rational decisions. As your Executive Officer and your friend, I can not and will not act to your order or any resulting orders that directly puts the crew in an unavoidable situation where some if not all life and ship be lost. I recommend that under the aforementioned, you Captain Saalm temporarily relieve yourself of command." Luke now looked directly to Lirha pleading she stand down either in her role as captain or in the order she has given him.

Luke felt like he had just destroyed all ounce of trust and belief the Orion had in him and doubted he'd be remaining on the ship after their tour was over. That said he was not willing to risk the lives of everyone aboard the Galileo, and he wondered if that made him the bad person.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

All Crew
Various Positions
USS Galileo-A

RSS Feed

Comments (1)