Counting

Posted on Mon Nov 23rd, 2020 @ 10:51am by Commodore Keiben Haistro & Lieutenant Commander Melanie D’BrooNi- Haistro

2,092 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 1 - Phoenix From The Ashes
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Prologue Mission Day -3 @ 1234 Hours

Keiben had crawled through a number of jefferies tubes before finally arriving on Deck 4, his own levels of exhaustion and disbelief still more than he could easily handle, add to that the constant abuse his Betazoid senses were receiving from the crew and he was practically down and out. He slipped out of the tube less than gracefully as he had to navigate around a fallen beam yet somehow, despite his frame, managed it with ease and grace. It had already given him an idea Deck four was in and it was significantly worse than Deck 7, but it was only one other deck below the hull breach that had ripped its way through decks 1 and 2.

He rounded a corner, ducking under a torn and twisted bulkhead, the EPS conduit behind it torn open like a small can. The plasma that had been churning through it now redirected so as not to incinerate anyone else... The remains of a crewman lay not far away, he couldn't look, his stomach turning at the sight.

Moments later he found himself at Sickbay, the doors pulled partly open and a cacophony of noise and pained screams from beyond. How many were in their, what was the damage... how many had Doctor D'BrooNi lost? Questions he needed the answer to but dreaded the answer too in equal measure.

He pushed his way through the open door, using his own muscular bulk to force the doors open more to allow easier access. What he saw caught his breath. The Doctor's office had become a makeshift morgue, piles of bodies wrapped in white sheets, at least fifteen of them and the main sickbay floor was scattered with injured, a few with no outward signs of life. He spotted one medical officer, her name eluded him and just behind her was the Chief Medical Officer.
"Report".

Melanie D'BrooNi stepping forward handing the tool she had been reknitting a Vulcans wounds with to the other doctor. "Take over here," she said leading the newcomer in the direction of her office stopping in the doorway. "The Captains dead Commander," she said seriously. "There was a plasma explosion on the main bridge. It took out most of the senior crew. We tried to resuscitate but ..." she lead him into her office sadly. "As you can see,"

The familiar faces of several key Copernicus crew were dull and life less staring back at them. Several had 4th degree plasma burns. The smell assaulted your senses as you drew nearer.

"I'm not sure who is in charge right now," she said honestly. "We have been so busy. I haven't even been able to get the bodies moved properly and seen too yet. Do we know what happened?"

"Just that we were attacked... Sensors may have recorded the information but computer access is spotty... The first officer is gone. He was on Deck two when the plasma conduits ruptured... So far you and I and the only senior officers left..."

Keiben was speaking but his words seemed hollow, empty. He knew he was in shock, as was the Doctor but his own senses could tell she was beginning to focus, that focus being driven by a pain. His Betazoid senses picking it all up and his own eyes providing the rest of the information.

"Sit down... Your shoulder... Your bleeding!"

He gently lead her to the nearby chair before grabbing a dermal regenerator from the tool table just outside the office and started running the equipment over the damage. "Internal sensors show that out of the eighty crew only sixteen have survived!"

"No," Melanie said gently taking the regenerator out of his hand. "Its my job to heal the crews bodies. And your a little to far to the right to be helping there," she gave him the smallest hint of a smile. It was a kind gesture but not a required one right now. She wasn't that badly hurt. Blood always looked worse off to people not medical.

"Look Commander, from what your saying, you are now the acting CO. You need to make an announcement so everyone knows what's happening and to formally assume command. The injured and dead you leave to me and my team. The getting the ship patched up, rescued .... whatever is the next move I trust to you."

"I'm not sure I'm up to this job Mel!" he said in earnest still moving the medical tool over her shoulder. "I was learning from the Captain but I still had so much to learn... I'm struggling to keep the crew out as well".

He offered trying to make it sound more like fact than a pleading cry for help that his Betazoid senses were on the verge of being overwhelmed despite there only being sixteen left alive. What should have been something similar to a slightly crowded elevator full of chatter was more like a full orchestra of noise tuning and testing their instruments before the full concerto started.

She nodded. "I can give you something to numb your abilities for a bit if it will help with the shock," she said gently. She couldn't imagine sensing everyone's emotions and thoughts. At least she only had her prior hosts in her head. Sometimes that got difficult.

He shook his head at the offer knowing it would weaken his appearance to the crew and right now they needed someone of authority and strength to lead them, even if he felt as far from that as Starfleet was from the Copernicus right now.

"You can do this. Yes you can learn a lot from someone but you also have to trust your heart and your gut," she said seriously looking him right in the eyes. "And you can do that. That's life in general. And you do that every day. You have more than enough experience.

Lets break it down into steps. What do we need to do? Headcount, get all the sick to me, stock take all the problems, prioritise what we can get fixed, liaise with Starfleet ..." she started to reel off.

"Headcount is done... It the only thing the sensors have been able to do... As I said, only sixteen of us left. Stock take... everything needs repair, communications are down at the moment and the warp core is offline... Fren seems to think she can get impulse back online but shes only get a few green enlisted officers to help her... Between you and me Mel, I don't know how we will survive this one!"

He switched the device of that had been healing her shoulder, he was no medic and could see that there would be a scar, or at least until she could see a fully functional and well equipped medical team.

"Is the EMH still online? You may need him!"

"We are going to survive this because we have to," Mel told him firmly. "And the EMH is fritzy. I turned him off. He kept disappearing and dropping things. I will have to ask Engineering to have a look at some point but we are managing here. Its not top of the list of priorities right now. Lets get you sorted out," she said gently walking to a side container and picking out a vial of Erizitozelin and loaded it to her hypospray.

"Sit down. This might just make you a little unsteady for a first few minutes. Its just going to numb things down so your not so onslaughted with the emotions and thoughts flying around. You can still access them with a little effort if you want too," she told him pressing the dose to his neck. Once it hissed and she pulled her hand back she grabbed her tricoder and gave him a good once over.

"Thanks Mel" he reflexively rubbed the spot that she had pressed the hypospray to. He was about to ask the Doctor if she needed any other personnel in sickbay, he was sure he could round up a couple of extra officers for her but he was caught short by who he saw coming through the doors to sickbay.

"Oh good! Not everyone's dead!" a relieved exclamation coming from a rather disheveled individual who appeared at the door of medical. The tall woman was carrying a man like a backpack on her back. He was unconscious and terribly wounded. Her right eye was almost swollen shut, a cut across her left cheek. There was also the scent of burnt hair. She seemed oblivious to her own condition, being more intent on keeping the man from falling.

"Where would you like me to put him, doctor?" gesturing with her chin towards the man across her back.

Mel checked the bed situation. "Over here," she indicated the last one left. "What happened?"

"I found him under some wreckage, wasn't about to leave him there. Looked like some storage crates had taken a tumble and he was caught in between. Just glad it wasn't anything worse." Holt responded.

The Trill nodded and got straight to work.

"Lieutenant... We thought you had been on the bridge?" Keiben was more than relieved to see another senior officer alive. He helped Holt place the downed officer where the Doctor had indicated.

"I had been there. " Holt stated, " I wouldn't recommend being in a turbolift when the power cuts out."

When the injured man had been set down, it was revealed that the security chief had gotten some cuts on her back, part of her uniform torn. It seemed that she hadn't noticed, probably due to the adrenaline still coursing through her veins.

"I couldn't raise anyone on the bridge. Found him on Deck Five and brought him here. That was where I was able to get out of the lift tubes. I am really glad the emergency clamps decided to kick in." giving a quick smile.

"I've got him stablized," D'BrooNi said coming back in their direction. Her only nurse now was keeping vigil. "Luckily it looks worse that it is for him.

"We need to sort you both. Right now as far as the chain of command goes, you guys are it.

I scanned you before Commander. You have a a couple of cracked ribs. That's going to be sore for a few days. I'm giving you something for that pain," she stated. Her arms just reached into her kit robotically. She didn't even need to look now for certain things having treated and tried to treat so many in the last ... how many hours had it been?

"Lieutenant take a seat on my desk," she told Holt. "I want to check those cuts out next,"

"Cuts you say? I don't recall anything other than the one on here." pointing to the one on her cheek. Then the adrenaline wore off and she grimaced. "Okay I can feel them now." taking a seat where the doctor had told her too. "I didn't realize I had gotten others. "

The matter of fact statement from the Doctor about the chain of command was like a slap in the face to Keiben, a stark reminder that most of his friends and colleagues were dead and that he was now in command of his very own Kobayashi Maru, all be it this was no training simulation. He almost wanted to laugh, he had never been interested in command before Captain Davies had put the thought into his head so he had never completed the simulation... He wondered how he had faired so far against some of the great Captains of the past. Janeway, DeSoto, Kirk or Sulu to mention but a few.

"Well" he exclaimed, dragging himself for his introspection. "We have work to do. Lieutenant when you are healed make your way to Engineering, we've set up a temporary command post down there. Doctor, you say Myself and Holt are the command structure... well guess what, that includes you now. We have no external or internal communications so I need you to take command here. If anyone comes in keep them here put them to work... Just think of yourself as the ships Second Officer for now!"

He was almost calling that final sentence over his shoulder as he made his way from sickbay towards the jefferies tubes and the long journey through them back down to deck seven.

Holt blinked when Keiban had mentioned the current structure of command. She looked at the Doctor her eyes rather wide in astonishment and dumbfounded. "Okay, Sir." to Keiban's retreating back."Will be there shortly."

END

 

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