Guardians

Posted on 26 Mar 2023 @ 5:24pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & Petty Officer 1st Class Ember Locksley & Petty Officer 2nd Class Leon Inaros & Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hollenday

2,859 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 3, Sickbay
Timeline: MD 10, 2048 hrs

[ON]

Nurse Leon Inaros let out a breath, shifting on the spot for a moment. When there had been a call of potential medical assistance needed in the lounge, he had gathered the medkit and stood ready. And nothing further had happened.

Until, of course, before his eyes, three forms materialised. Doctor Wylde, a Klingon male, and a Nekomi female that he knew as Ensign Mimi. His brows knit for a moment in confusion before he rushed over, kneeling beside Wylde and taking his medical tricorder out. He recognised old fashioned fighting trauma when he saw it. Multiple lacerations, stab wound, claw marks... "What happened?" he asked, already triaging to see who was in the worst state. The knife in Ensign Mimi kept the blood loss at a minimal, but would need to be seen too soon. Luckily there were two doctors, and at worst an EMH, although if it was anything like the sarcastic miscreant he had seen on during training, best left shut off.

"Bloodwine happened," Alexion murmured, shaking his as he moved to get Mimi positioned on a biobed, bringing the arch up to get a more detailed scan going. He moved back to help Leon with Kehg, a significantly heavier patient than the Nekomi officer. "Next time, you get to go to the diplomatic dinner," he glanced to Leon as he brought the arch up around him, a much snugger fit for the Klingon.

Leon looked at him before he nodded, frowning as he looked at the injuries coming up. "Once we pull the dagger from her, she will start bleeding out," he observed, but quietly, as he considered their options. And then he stopped, looking with embarrassment at the actual doctor who was there.

Alexion watched him, expectantly, not sure why he had stopped mid thought. "So...?" he pushed, reaching to bring their records up to check for any flags before loading up hyposprays. He tossed one over to Leon to help stabilise Mimi before pressing his own to the Klingon's neck.

"So we need to make sure we replace the blood, and heal her as quickly as we can," Leon said, taking a deeper breath as he leant over Mimi and pressed the hypo to her neck. "We're lucky the knife stayed in her, if it hadn't she would have bled out before getting here," he noted as he looked at the readings. "Even so, her heart might stop when we do this, so I suggest we have everything ready to start it again." With all the equipment, he had to think about what would work.

"Damned right..." Alexion grabbed the resuscitation rack, pulling it to the side of the bed. "Never keep it to yourself, it might save someone's life," he murmured to Leon, motioning him to get the transfusion unit ready.

"Gentlemen," Dr. Ember Locksley moved in, still pinning her red hair out of the way as she moved to the unattended bed. She cast an eye over the bulky patient, and then the readings on the arch, shaking her head at the trauma on display. "What on earth has been going on around here?" she glanced across to get a look at Mimi as she cut the clothing away from the chest wounds.

The rumors had made it down to engineering that a fight had ensued and that Mimi might have been injured. John had dropped everything and ran to sickbay. He burst through the sickbay door, barely waiting for the thing to open. "Mimi!" he shouted. "Where is she?"

Leon pulled back from Mimi when John entered, frowning as he walked over. "Sir, I need you to stay back. We're working at the moment. Are you any relation to Ensign Mimi?" he met his eyes, but blocked his path...and his line of sight the best he could.

"Call me sir, I'll put a wrench over your head. She's my goddamn fiancee, that's who she is!" John was flexing his hands. He was about to go ballistic and wasn't thinking on anything but her.

Leon's eyes narrowed and he stepped close, into John's space. "Threatening violence is not appreciated in sickbay," he said, his voice firm but level. Not shouting. "Ensign Mimi is currently being treated, I need you to step back and give us the space to do what we need to do. And to calm down. You're helping no one like this." Whether or not the man and the Nekomi were engaged was another matter, but one he would ignore for the moment. There were two people who needed treatment, he didn't have time to worry about who was doing what with whom off duty.

Alexion glanced across to them, barely holding back his sigh. Bloody loved ones. They were always bothersome. "Nurse, I need you over here," he motioned for Leon before pulling his jacket off and rolling his sleeves up. "We are going to transport the knife out so we don't cause more damage. We need to be ready with the autosuture, micro-sutures and vascular regenerator to stem the bleeding." He knew he didn't need to tell the ex-marine that they had one chance at this.

"Yes, Doctor Wylde, let me get you ready," Leon said, his eyes on John. "You should leave," he told him, but didn't have the time to see that through as he went to get the surgical scrubs for Alexion. He sterilised his own hands first before helping the Doctor into it, before following suit. He always wondered why red had been chosen for this, but did not really care. Truth was, it was more to protect the uniform than anything else. With the technological advancements, keeping things sterile was a breeze. He was pretty sure you could operate in the cargo bay and no infection would take hold. He readied everything they needed, getting himself into that state where everything was calm. Where he could focus on the vitals and what was ahead of him. He gave a nod to Alexion, to show he was ready. "Want me to pull it out?" he asked, a genuine question.

John had backed off but he continued to glare at the people there. After his impulse to murder anything and anybody, he finally knew to let the people there do their damn jobs.

Alexion nodded sharply to Leon, taking the hand held instrument to apply micro-sutures and trusting Leon to use the auto-suture. "Initiate the transport of the knife," he leant in close, pulling the vascular regenerator close as the screen switched to a highly magnified view of the area.

"Energizing," Leon said, transporting the knife out of Mimi to the container on the bench. The result was bleeding, which was to be expected. There was also a fluctuation in her vitals with it. "Blood pressure dropping, I'm going to compensate," he said, so that Alexion knew what was going on, without distracting him from what he needed to do. Surgery was...difficult, even with the medical technology available. It was his job to make sure Alexion could focus on the job.

As expected, the blood flow was intense and they were working against the clock on getting her back under control. Alexion relied on Leon to keep the suction under control, the only thing that was stopping the area becoming a complete mess. He kept the auto-suture working steadily in the wound as he went through the painstaking task of stitching the surrounding damage by hand with the micro-sutures. He shook his head instinctively as it started to destabilise. "Try 20 ccs of inaprovaline," he murmured to Leon, not willing to risk much more.

Leon did as instructed, his eyes going onto the vitals. "Stabilising..." he said, quietly, looking at him for a moment before back to them. "There's some arrythmia, but currently minor." And a side effect from the blood loss, he assumed. Right now within acceptable parameters for her species, so no alarms were going off.

"Keep an eye on it..." Alexis replied, his way of telling him that he wasn't. He had to resist the urge to pull his hands back and shake them off with the mess that was the operating site. "For pity's sake..." the surgeon grabbed the vascular regenerator, switching approach now that a tapestry of sutures was supporting her.

John wanted answers but he kept his mouth shut, however his eyes kept drifting over the big Klingon. He knew how his fiancee felt about them. If he had anything to do with any of this John decided he would put a spanner right through his cranium.

Nurse Inaros reached to clear the site a little, to give the doctor better visibility of the surgical field before he looked at the readings. "Pressure is more stable, you've taken care of the larger leaks," he said, quietly, although he wasn't sure for whose benefit.

Wylde nodded carefully as he carried on with the regenerator, sparing a glance to Leon. He could sense the turn of the tide. "There is enough repaired to start stimulating blood replenishment," he tilted his head towards the hypo laid out ready.

Leon reached for it, injecting Mimi and looking at her readings. "Numbers are steadily climbing..." he looked down into the wound, glad to see the lack of gushing. "Field looks good."

John didn't move but he couldn't help call out, "Is she going to be all right? Please say something!"

"Looks like it!" Alexion called back, taking a moment to look at her readouts, nodding slowly as they clearly showed a better picture than when the young officer had been beamed in. Yes, she was going to be all right now. "I have this, Inaros, check to see if Locksley needs some hands."

"Yes, Doctor," Nurse Inaros pulled back and went to clean his hands, quickly changing to a fresh set of scrubs before he went to Doctor Locksley. "Doctor Locksley," he smiled and gave her a small nod. "Where do you want to start?" Because there was a lot to do on the heavily sedated Klingon.

Ember glanced up to him with a slight frown, catching a breath. Her hand was steady as it regenerated tissue of one of the stab wounds, even as she flicked her head neatly towards the Klingon's cheek. "See how bad his face is, I'm still working on the torso here..."

Inaros nodded before he looked at the results. "Deep lacerations," he said before he nodded. "It would be quicker with the regenerators, but knowing Klingon culture we would be dishonouring him by removing the scars. I suggest we use auto-suture on the subcutaneous tissue and then use...something a bit more primitive for the dermis and epidermis. So that it will scar."

Ember looked across to him with an arched eyebrow, shaking her head slowly with a slight sigh. "Why do I have the horrible feeling you're right?" she tsked, her head motioning to the auto-suture at the side of the blood stained bed. "Although I am in the profession of healing, not fashion..."

"Afraid I got to know too much about what was acceptable for a Klingon warrior and what was not," Inaros admitted and met her eyes for a moment before he moved to get the auto-suture. "The scars might protect him when he gets out of here. A battle well fought, even against someone so small...he might still be able to grab his honour. Or he'll curse us for letting him live."

If she hadn't of been in the middle of treatment, she *may* have rolled her eyes. "I'm afraid I find it hard to care when people treat the life and health of themselves and others with such little respect."

"Different cultures...part of what makes the galaxy interesting," Leon said as he worked, with a smile to himself. "But I share your frustration. I've...had struggles in my time, with treating Klingons who did not appreciate the care."

"I suppose it keeps us in a job," Ember replied dryly across to him, shaking her head ever so slightly as she moved on to another stab wound. "What in the galaxy happened here?" she asked Leon in barely more than a whisper.

He looked at her before he gave a small shake of his head. "Honestly? I am not sure...dinner with the Klingons clearly didn't go well, but if it was a proper...fight, we'd have a lot more wounded," he whispered back as he worked. "It looks like an honour fight to me, except...well, he's been clawed up, she'd been stabbed. If it was a proper fight for honour, they'd have the same weapons. But Doctor Wylde was there...once this is done, we should talk to him."

"I'm not sure that will help. He'll probably just grunt and wave a hand before walking off muttering to himself," Ember chuckled softly, but somehow manage to keep her face mostly straight. She pressed a hypo to the Klingon, to make sure he fought off any infection. "It's such a waste," she sighed softly.

Alexion made his way over, his hands clean as he looked to the readouts of the Klingon, nodding slowly. Mimi would be okay, but in need of some recovery time. The transporter had saved her. He tapped his commbadge, rolling a stiff shoulder. "Doctor Wylde to Lieutenant Rice. Ensign Mimi will be fine and is still sedated," he made sure to say it loud enough for John to hear. He wasn't completely heartless. In fact, he had two. "KehG is also stable, they're just finishing up with him."

John had remained passive but he had listened and finally it made it through that there had been a fight between his fiancee and the Klingon. He had heard enough. He moved and pushed a person out of the way. "Screw it, honour is it? I'll show him what a pissed guy who stabbed his girl can do!"

Leon watched with shock as John pushed Locksley out of the way. He put down the micro-suture, taking a hold of the hypo with sedatives. He stepped away from the patient to get in John's way, his free hand tapping his combadge. "Inaros to Security, we need some assistance in Sickbay," he said, before he looked at John. "Go back over there, this is a sterile area. Locksley, are you alright?"

Ember grimaced as she rolled her shoulder, looking to John with anger flashing in her blue eyes at being assaulted by a fellow crew member. "What the hell do you think you're doing? How dare you! This is a Sickbay, not the gutter, get away from my patient! Now!"

John stopped his forward momentum. He glared at the Klingon his fists bunching and relaxing. "Ever been in love doc? If you had you'd know what I'm a feelin' right now!"

"Fighting fire with fire only makes for more wounds," Ember replied emphatically, believing it with every fibre of her being as she kept herself between him and the biobed.

"Everything okay here?" Gabriel Stark asked from the open doorway, his phaser held out and ready to fire if needed, but he kept his distance for the time being, to maintain what calm there might be now. There didn't seem to be an immediate threat...but if he'd learnt anything during his time in security it was that assumptions rarely ended well.

John turned around. "Yeah all good for now. I got a ship to help put back together. Y'all can file charges if'n you want later." He moved past Stark.

Gabriel lowered the phaser as he let out a soft breath, taking his cue from a shake of the head from the doctor, letting John leave. After everything that had happened, the paperwork was piling up, he was all too relieved to let a crewmember calm down of their own accord.

Leon let out a breath before he shook his head, going back to his work. He looked at Locksley, giving her a weak smile. "I can...take it from here, Doctor, if you want." In truth, he wanted to go and punch John in the face, but it wasn't a place for a brawl. And he wasn't sure it would be appreciated either.

Wylde nodded in agreement, pulling the rest of the red scrubs off. "I will stay for a while as well, you should go back to your down time, Dr. Locksley," besides it was a small Sickbay and too many people could become problematic.

Ember nodded, looking between them to make sure they meant it. She moved away, starting to pull her own scrubs free, letting out a long, tired breath. "Ever wonder why we do it?" she asked wryly, but didn't mean it. She'd be the last doctor to give it up.

[OFF]

--

CWO3 Alexion Wylde
Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

PO1 Ember Locksley
Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

PO2 Leon Inaros
Nurse
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Rice]

PO3 John Hollenday
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Warraquim]

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

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