The Surgeries

Posted on Wed Aug 18th, 2021 @ 5:17am by Lieutenant Kennedy Ryan Walsh & Lieutenant Commander Emni t'Nai & Maje Jaha Veeth & Lieutenant Nir Giorgiou & Lieutenant Chaali & Lieutenant Miriam Lal & Lieutenant JG Glum Dogrov

Mission: The Place of Skulls
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Mission Day 4 at 1300

Lieutenant Kennedy Ryan Walsh rematerialized with the rest of the Away Team. He was grateful that he was back on the Sojourner. He realized that Nir had joined them. His body laid before he sprawled out on the platform. He pulled out his tricorder to get a reading while he tried to multitask, an eye peered upwards over to the Transporter controls, "Is there any way, we could beam him directly to Sickbay?"

Transporter Specialist Lieutenant Lydia Ursa, an older woman instantly gasped at the horrible sight which materialized on her transporter pad. Her hand lifted to cover her wrinkled parted lips, “Oh my Prophets…” she whispered under her breath. She cocked her to the side as she looked toward the man in response to his inquiry, her nose wrinkled, dramatized by her Bajoran nose ridges, “Our transporter systems are a little touchy, I am not exactly sure what is going on up on the bridge. If you think the man is stable enough I could certainly attempt a second transport…” Ursa really wished there was more that she could do.

Doctor Ryan Walsh nodded his head, "He's not in any condition to walk to Sickbay. If you are able to just manage to get him safely there, I'll walk." He turned to Security Officer Joval, "Report to Sickbay and someone there will attend to you as you get there but I'll give you something for the pain and stop the bleeding on your forehead."

"Yes, Doctor." Ryan Walsh quickly moved over to Joval. He gave him something for the pain and stopped the bleeding. Joval was on his way to Sickbay to get his arm reset. "Any update, Specialist?"

"I'm trying sir, I'm trying!" The elderly woman lowered herself to the floor panel, whatever had hit the ship had not only drained their power; but, had done something wanky to the transporters. She in haste removed the covering and tinkered here and there, "Thank the Prophets! I think I have it... but..."

The Chief Engineer, meanwhile, was ashen and unconscious, a far cry from his normal olive complexion. He was clearly near death as his breathing was shallow and random.

"Sorry Specialist but I can't sit here idly as my patient is here dying," Doctor Ryan Walsh tapped his commbadge, "Doctor Ryan Walsh to Lieutenant Chaali."

"Chaali here," the Bolian stated over the comm. It was exceptionally gravelly and distorted. "What is your situation?"

"I have an understanding that power is being allocated elsewhere but I have an urgent medical emergency that I require Lieutenant Giorgiou to be beamed to Sickbay immediately, I can run but I need him there now."

"Standby," Chaali's voice had urgency. "You have full power allocated, Doctor. Good luck."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. Doctor Ryan Walsh out," Kennedy tapped his commbadge. "Now can we please get my patient to Sickbay?"

"Absolutely sir! We have the power we need and my patch appears to be holding! Executing now!" She gave them a solemn nod, as she wished that both Lady Luck and the Prophets were on their side.

"Energize," Doctor Ryan Walsh said for the very first time which brought a smile to his face.

Ursa watched as the dematerialization process kicked in and consumed the party, their faces faded as they were reduced to energy. Before long the party rematerialized in the sickbay. Once they were gone, the Bajoran rolled up her sleeves and began a diagnostic. Whatever had been wrong with the transport plagued her, she would get to the bottom of it.

[ Sickbay ]
[ Moments Later ]

Lieutenant Nir Giorgiou and Doctor Ryan Walsh rematerialized in Sickbay. Nurse Lal and a medical technician came over quickly to help Walsh with Nir to get him onto a gurney, "Disruptor wound to the chest, losing blood. Nurse Lal, let's get him to Surgery Two."

"Yes, Doctor." Nurse Lal nodded her head and the three of them raised Nir onto the gurney to bring him over to the bio-bed marked for surgery.

"Any update on the Commander?" Kennedy inquired.

"He's in with the LMH and Dogrov, he's stable but there's quite a lot of work to be done still," Lal reported.

---

The emotional turmoil that was Sickbay upon Emni's approach was loud and for a brief moment as she made her way down the corridor she was returned to the Adelphi's Sickbay as Commander Lenek, Commander Karim, then Cadet Gonzalez, and others were all being treated on the disabled Adelphi as she began the long limping trek back to Barzan wormhole. Her steps faltered, but only for a moment as she erected mental walls, brick by brick. A breath in through her nose and out through her mouth and the noise had quieted considerably.

The overlarge doors of Sickbay swished open, revealing her team--each moving in sync the way well trained medical staff did in the event of significant emergencies. Taking the lighting, and flashing red of red alert though the klaxon had been turned off she strode into the space.

---

Dr. Ryan Walsh was already in the second surgical unit, Nurse Lal with him as they began work on Nir Giorgiou. In the first surgical unit she could see the familiar form of the LMH--a half Romulan reflection of an officer on the USS Enterprise from long years prior. She drew in a breath and then made her way into the fray.

"Nurse Lal, could you please pull up Lieutenant Giorgiou's last full body scan," Doctor Ryan Walsh ordered. He took in a deep breathe.

"Body scan is available, Doctor." Lal looked up from the other side of the bio-bed.

Doctor Ryan Walsh pressed the button to bring up the holographic imagery of Nir's body above his, "Now bring up his current body scan."

The hologram changed over while the Doctor studied, "He's suffered significant damage to several key organs that we're going to need to replace. See if we can get the process of being replicated.

"Yes sir," Doctor Ryan Walsh, "Keep me posted."

---

As Emni approach the Dogrov and the LMH where they were working on Commander Takomi, she felt a spike of anxiety. She hadn't spoken with the hologram since their last encounter months ago when Cadet Balsam had removed his program ceiling, giving him the ability to determine how he wanted to proceed and to prevent being deactivated.

She slipped around the side of the two men, stopping opposite of the LMH who looked up brieflly from his work.

"Dr. t'Nai, it is good to see you," the LMH remarked simply.

Emni felt a slight unknotting in her chest at the simple greeting. "Status?" she inquired.

Hands still moving over equipment and patient the LMH recounted Takomi's state, detailing the breaks in his legs, their setting, and the difficulty addressing some bleeding that was a result of a particularly nasty crack on the head when he fell. Emni nodded as she listened, but was quickly aware that the situation was under control.

"How can I help?" she inquired, giving the LMH reign to decide the next step.

"If you could check these readings, doctor," the LMH replied, handing her a tricorder. "The basic repairs are done, but he should be coming out of it by now. It's almost as if he doesn't want to wake up."

A slightly quizzical look appeared on the hologram's face as if the concept was entirely foreign and yet the best explanation he could come up with.

The Romulan nodded, "I concur. It may just be necessary to give him time to rest."

---

Lal looked up from her side of the bio-bed, "Doctor."

Kennedy was doing his best to do the remedial work to keep Nir stabilised, "Yes Nurse Lal?"

"With auxilitary power, they're saying they can't replicate the body parts."

A few tears slowly begun to slide down his face. He looked down at Nir's still face with sadness, "Okay." He tried not to get emotional but it seemed to be a very long day. He used his sleeve to wipe the tears away, "Let's do our best to stabilize him. Can you please check to see if we have enough power to keep him in stasis? If so, let's let Lieutenant Chaali know that we will need power rerouted."

"Doctor," Nurse Lal spoke calmly, "you're doing a great job. Medistasis is on another system. It'll be fine."

"I know, I would just like some assurances. Please." Kennedy looked over Nir to her while he did the last few pieces to hold the man together.

"Of course," Nurse Lal ran her fingers across the console to open the two-way commlink between Surgical Bay to the Ops station, "Sickbay to Lieutenant Chaali."

The Bolian sounded edgy, "Chaali here..."

"I'll be quick, Dr. Ryan Walsh just wants assurances that the medi-stasis will have sufficient power and are on another system?"

There was an uncomfortable lengthy pause over the comm. "We've bypassed normal energy flow like the Lights of a Jo'ri Ancestors Festival, Sickbay. You've got it- but that is maxxing out your allotment right now. We need power for rescue operations."

"Thank you," Nurse Lal looked over to Doctor Ryan Kennedy to see if he was satisfied with Lieutenant Chaali's reassurances.

"Thank you," Kennedy added. "Sickbay out."

Lal pressed the button to close the commlink. Kennedy did a few more minutes to make sure that Lieutenant Nir will be fine in stasis, "Activate medical stasis field. Authorization code Kennedy-Epilson-Eight-Delta-Twenty-Four."

"Medical stasis authorization code accepted," Kennedy nodded, "Thank you, Lieutenant Lal."

"Not a problem, Doctor. Could you please attend to Security Officer Joval. "Let him know that I'll be with him shortly. I just want to check with Doctor t'Nai to see if she needs assistance with the Commander.

"Yes Doctor," Lal walked across Sickbay to greet Joval. Kennedy approached the second surgical bay, "Are you good with the Commander?"

Emni looked up as Kennedy approached, a tired look on her features. "As good as we can be," she remarked. "How is Mr. Giorgiou?"

"There's not much we can do for Mr. Giorgiou until the Sojo is running at full power. He's presently in a medically induced stasis but I took care of most of the hemorraghing and the internal damage that I can. He suffered a full on unidentifable disruptor blast to the chest." Kennedy looked defeated in this moment. He wished he could have done more for him so he needed a win, "How about the Commander? How's he doing?"

Emni nodded, an image of Commander Lenek, bleeding and barely alive, flashing across her mind's eye. Kennedy's own emotional state seemed to be tugging in several directions, waves of frustration crashing up against a feelings of insufficiency. Amidst those emotions a thread of fear made its way through chased by the familiar feel of someone who has just seen their first away team missing go awry.

"He'll be alright," Emni remarked, answering the question he had asked. "He's asleep now and we'll keep him out for the time being, but he's out of danger."

She set a hand on the younger man's shoulder, guiding him over into the office and pressing him into one of the chairs before taking the chair next to him.

"You've done the best you can in the moment with the resources we have Kennedy," she said gently, using his first name quite possibly for the first time since they had met. "And we've brought people through worse. You will bring people through worse. If you need to talk, you know where to find me."

He placed his hands into his face and looked up at her. The tears have had resurfaced. In that moment Kennedy's mouth opened as he frantically talked about what happened below, "As soon as he was shot. I froze, I was like a deer in the headlights. I never got that metaphor or euphemism until now, Dr. t'Nai." He closed his eyes as he vividly saw every detail unfold, "I just stood there. I soiled myself, I'm a Starfleet Doctor. And I froze. Then I came to my senses. There's nothing I could do until they left. Their weapons were trained on us, I asked if I could help him but then they beamed away due to the storm." Kennedy's cheeks reddened due to his embarrassment as he sat in his now dried pants.

The flurry of anxiety, embarrassment tinging its edges, was only outmatched by the rapidity with which Kennedy delivered his description. Emni felt for him. There was nothing that could prepare a person for the something like this, no matter how well prepared they were or how much they knew about medicine--witnessing a violet act changed it all.

She considered quietly a moment, giving him a second to himself. Finally, a very old memory making its way to the surface, she spoke.

"I was trained in medicine on Romulus," she began, "and had taken a job as a doctor at a small practice in an equally small town. Not two weeks into my time at that practice I downtown, buying groceries, when a man entered the store with a drawn phase pistol. A woman had entered moments before him at a half run, but she tripped. While I stood there, half way through placing my groceries in bags, he shot her at a close range, burning a hole in her torso. The weapon had been banned and it was a painful wound. He proceeded to scream that if any of us touched her he would kills us. She wasn't 5 feet from me and I watched as her blood started to pool around her, willing myself to go to her and help, but frozen to where I stood. My feet felt like lead an I remember counting my breaths as if I would be able to convince myself to move if I could just breathe."

She stared down at her hands. "Someone finally tackled the man, getting the weapon from him and when he was tackled it was as though the hold on my body broke and I made my way to her, shouting the whole way that I was a doctor. But by the time I got to her it was too late. She had lost too much blood and the wound was too extensive."

Kennedy watched his superior intently as she told him a story from her time before Starfleet. He tried rubbing the tears away from his face as they still trickled down but at a much slower pace. He was curious what her homeworld was like but was devastated by the crime that was committed on that day that she witnessed like he had today with the exception that Nir was in stasis but he knew the morale of the story that sometimes in their line of work they couldn't save everyone. It was the thing why he wasn't sure if he wanted to follow in his family's footsteps as a doctor when he first enlisted in Starfleet, "I'm sorry that happened to you but I think what I understand what you wanted to convey, and I appreciate that, Doctor."

The Romulan woman nodded at him, her own eyes seeming to come back into focus on the present. "We do what we can, Kennedy. To the best of our ability. And when we fail, we get back up and try again. And we will fail. But if we don't let the failing stop us, we'll succeed more often than not."

Kennedy wiped away his final tears before they dried onto his face. He collected himself before he looked over at her, "Permission to return to duty to oversee to Mister Joval's injuries?"

Emni nodded, feeling her ACMO's turmoil subside to within a manageable level. "Granted, Lieutenant."

Kennedy smiled, returning the nod, slowly stood to his feet and returned to the Sickbay floor to attend to Joval.