Painful awakening

Posted on Thu Nov 24th, 2022 @ 6:22am by Lieutenant Colonel Azhul Naxea & Commander Sthilg & Lieutenant Commander S'hib

Mission: Season 6 : Episode 1: Circinus
Location: Shib's/Naxea's Quarters
Timeline: MD3 - 02h00 Hours
3324 words - 6.6 OF Standard Post Measure

The shuddering of the ship caused Naxea to wake up as she felt S'hib wake next to her. "S'hib," she called as she got up. "Something is wro--" she never finished her sentence as the ship lurched hard sending her stumbling hard back to the deck, hitting a nearby nightstand as she did so. Red Alert klaxons blared as she laid on the deck. She was conscious as she moaned in pain. She could feel the wet stickiness of blood against her head and there was a sharp pain in her abdomen that caused her immediate concern. "S'hib," she moaned through the blinding pain as she placed one arm around her large belly.

"Nax?" He called out limping over to her, his panicked heart racing as he saw her blood and then her arm cradled around their soon-to-be child. "We need to get you to sickbay..." He said painfully as he struggled to kneel down. "Ok?"

Naxea only nodded as she struggled to get up off the deck.

"Just stay still..." He said in a hushed tone, trying to stay calm as he stroked her hair only for his cloven digits to turn a dark crimson. "I need to make sure it's safe outside first." He added, trying to hide his hand from her view as he painfully got back up, his concern now focused on the fact no alarms were sounding, nor had either of them been contacted.

"Be careful," she managed to say, grimacing through the pain.

A mere ten or so steps to the front door felt agonizingly slow, and not just because he couldn't put weight on his left leg. He thought, what in the dunes had happened? leaning against the door frame as he pressed the controls to the door to no avail.

"Manual override it is then..." He sighed to himself as his cloven fingers clattered against the seam of the two halves of their door, pulling at either half as he tried to push his fingers further into the gap.

That's when he smelt the smoke, and the faint echo of alert klaxons sounding off in distant hallways where emergency power had kicked in.

"Power is completely out in this section," He grunted as he shoved the door completely open. "And there's a fire somewhere..." S'hib added as he limped back over and knelt down.

Naxea hated feeling this helpless as she looked at S'hib. She had noticed the limp in S'hib's walking. Her mind was racing with thoughts of her Marines, the ship, her baby and S''hib--and she was powerless in the face of it all. "Dammit," she cursed.

"I'm gonna pick you up now ok?" He said, his voice teetering on a tremble as he swallowed the lump in his throat.

"S'hib, you're hurt. You aren't in any shape to carry me through a damaged ship and up three decks," she replied, fighting back the pain as she got up onto her knees. "Just...help me to my feet," she said.

He simply snorted in response as he stubbornly hooked an arm under her legs, propping his right hand against her back before lifting even as she protested.

Groaning loudly, rising on both legs even as one trembled, forced to bare the weight of them both for a few more moments.

Gods it burned he thought, whatever was wrong with his leg it felt like laying on the hot dunes of Sequella at midday. "You're carrying her... I'm going to carry you." He squeaked out through sharp breaths, taking a moment to compose himself as he leaned desperately off his left hoof.

Then, blinking tears away he stepped forward, a small step but a step nonetheless, then another... each brief moment of contact burning up his thigh and into his hip.

"Stubborn ass," she hissed through the pain

"Love you too." He growled, frowning deeply as he limped into the dark corridor.

It was oddly quiet despite the situation, no emergency klaxons and very few running lights; and the ones that were on seemed to flicker with failing power.

"Thats not good," he coughed, walking into smoke as he carried Naxea down the corridor to a nearby deck access hatch that would lead directly to the deck above or below. Closing her eyes as another stab of pain hit her midsection, she fought the urge to cough.

"Air scrubbers aren't online... doubt much is." He wheezes through gritted teeth, straining from the pain while also trying not to cough. "And I'm gonna need to put you down." He added before finally coughing again, breathing in what little clean air was nearer to the floor.

A few more painful steps later and he put his back against the wall, leaning into it as he crouched on his one good leg while the other sprawled out ahead of him; content on remaining straight.

Then he slowly turned and propped Naxea up against the wall beside him, his fingers trailing off her not wanting to let go as he dragged himself across the floor. "We need to get off this deck..." He coughed, staring briefly at the flickers of flames in the distance lashing light down the corridor, it's glow illuminating the thick smoke rolling along the ceiling towards them.

"Stay awake Nax." He snorted through a cough as he glanced back, seeing her listing to one side as he grappled at a panel on the floor, its release locks fighting him every step of the way.

Then the panel gave in, latches bending and tearing free from their locks with a clatter of broken parts before being discarded down the corridor, he would get Nax off this deck and no door or hatch would stop him.

Another quick look back at Nax and he was turning the manual release on the hatch, the sudden rush of fresh air and the sound of emergency klaxons filled his heart and ears with relief as it opened. "Dunes bless us..." S'hib muttered as he crawled back over to Naxea. "Nax..." He coughed "we gotta drop-down, I'm going to go first... and then I'll catch you ok?" He asked, pointing at the exposed hole to deck seventeen before moving to drop himself down, the running lights glowing brightly over him as the deck around them dimmed further, the power in this section finally dying.

Naxea nodded as she made her way towards the hold and sat on the edge. The pain was at least tolerable at the moment as she dropped her legs over and decided to grab onto a rung nearby to help lower herself down as to not put too much stress on S'hib as he felt his hands grab her. The strain caused her pain to flare again, causing her to lose her grip and fall the rest of the way.

S'hib meanwhile had barely recovered from landing himself awkwardly when he was forced to bare her weight with both legs, catching her in his arms with a pained roar that sent a painful wave up his side and threatening to send his muscles into a spasm.

"You ok?" He asked while breathing quickly threw gritted teeth.

"I... I'll be ok," she replied, breathing heavily through the pain as she fought back tears. "I... could ask you...the same."

He forced a smile onto his face in response before looking around, seeing some crew off in the distance helping one another. "This deck seems to have faired a bit better, but I still want to head inwards, try and get deeper into the hull before we climb up..."

"Whatever...is fastest to Sickbay," she grunted as she cradled her stomach.

By now every step sent a wave of pain up his left side, his nerves and muscles protesting as he limped heavily. But he carried on anyway, walking as fast as his legs would let him as he cradled the two most important people in his life.

"Here..." He groaned, once more putting his back against the wall to lower her down gently. "This one doesn't connect too much but it does go to every deck above and below us... I remember," He gasped, gently placing her on the floor before hobbling over to the Jefferies tube access hatch.

"Because it was the one I climbed when I was trying to impress you all those years ago." He smirked, looking back at her.

"I remember," she managed to smile despite the pain.

--Arriving at Sickbay--

Naxea and S'hib entered Sickbay as Naxea closed her eyes, breathing heavily through the pain she was experiencing all the while hating being helpless.as swat beaded across her skin. "Sthilg! she cried out weakly. "Shib's hurt."

"You dare come anywhere near me with a tricorder Sthilg..." He hissed, limping the last few steps faster, pain burning up his entire side as he placed her on a biobed, leaning on it for support. "You see to her first!" He neighed angrily.

Sthilg emerged looking like a doctor our of the old holo vids. He'd been at work ever since he arrived in sickbay and with most of the machines running on backup power he was beyond worried His uniform was stained and he was scrubbing his hands clean with disinfectant gel.. His look got worse as he saw the two of them. " You sssit down keep your leg asss straight asss possible. " He said to Shib as his hand changed into it's scanning mode. The look on his eyes somehow got worse at the results. With a yell the lizard doctor got to work. " I need painkillersss and a sssurgical kit ssstate." he yelled over the din of sickbay as he looked at Naxea. " Just lay back I have to work fassst."

"What's wrong," she demanded through clenched teeth as the pain had been increasing in intensity since she fell.

"Your body'sss putting endorphin leavlesss out as sssuch a level if I don't act immediately your baby will die. I need to do an emergency c-sssection." The gorn said as just as tired medical nurse arrived with his gear.

'Shit,' Naxea thought before looking up at Sthilg. "Do whatever you have to in order to save the baby. Her life is more important."

"Where is that surgical kit!?" S'hib bellowed as he glanced around, not immediately seeing anyone heading in their direction.

" It'sss coming..." Sthilg said as a very stressed-out nurse arrived with the kit." Nexea I'm going to give you a numbing agent to dull the pain. You ssshould feel like everything a dream. Sss'hib pleassse hold her hand and keep her occupied." The doctor said as he gave her a hypospray shot and prepared his tools.

Naxea nodded just as the effects of the hypospray took hold. She was thankful to not be in anymore pain as she felt S'hib's hand grab hers as she closed her eyes.

Sthilg nodded as he got to work. With half the systems down or not barely working he was having to do it by hand. Thankfully he had over two hundred years of experience doing it by hand in conditions that made this look good. He carefully made a small incision with his cyber hand. Bajorians were hard to do a c section due to the number of umbilical cords the infants had combined with the mothers putting out so many painkillers. Slowly he began to cut the cords carefully sealing them off as he did so. Keeping the incision as small as possible with his arm he opened it wide enough to extract the small hybrid. She wasn't moving a caul still around her head. The doctor removed it at once and started emergency CPR.

By now the pain in S'hibs leg had all been replaced by the pain in his heart as he stood there, watching her tiny chest being compressed by a desperate man, his friend and Doctor.

" Come on." Sthilg hissed to himself as he firmly rubbed her chest and carefully blew into her nose. In his mind, he was screaming the prayer to the all-mother. He wasn't going to let the dark one take her. Not now in this dark place on a dying ship. With a twitch he saw her leg begin to move as her body jumped into life. " Not.." he began before a kick from the freshly born hybrid shot out and smashed into his mouth sending one of his teeth flying and whizzing past S'hib head before clattering against the wall. The gorn winched slightly as the hybrid began screaming as life filled her body. Looking at the parents he wrapped her in a foil blanket before handing her to her father. A smile on his face even as blood dripped from his new removed tooth. Not today he thought as he turned and began fixing up the marine chief.

"Thank you..." S'hib stuttered, suddenly remembering to breathe himself as he clutched her precious body, she was nearly entirely legs as all Sequus were when born. "May you always find cool sand." He uttered before limping backwards, suddenly remembering he was hurt, though it didn't seem to bother him as much as he stared down at his daughter, humming to her in his native tongue.

"Keep talking to her S'sshib." Sthilg said as he began fixing up Naxea. " I'll sssee to you asss ssson asss I can."

Naxea mumbled incoherently as she could hear voices, but they seemed far away. What was going on? Where was S'hib? Wait...the baby...was the baby ok?

“I’m here,” S’hib said softly as he pressed his lips against the side of her head. “And so is she…” He added, readjusting his grip on his daughter before leaning down, gently raising Naxea’s hand until her fingers touched the soft and pink nose of her daughter.

Naxea's fingers gently moved, feeling the soft tissue of her daughter's nose. The warmness caused Naxea to calm as she could feel a slight sensation at her abdomen as she forced her eyes open. Looking around, the room was spinning and blurry. She saw Sthilg at her mid-section. She moved her head to the side, blinking several times at where her hand laid. Was that her daughter? Was she real or was this a dream? Her fingers felt the ridges of the nose. It couldn't be a dream as she closed her eyes, allowing tears to escape them and flow down to drip onto the bio bed.

"Ssshe'sss truly your daughter Naxea. Already inflicted her first wound on an enemy." the lizard chuckled as he worked.

"Enemy?" she croaked softly, looking at Sthilg, trying to focus but everything was still a bit blurry and spinning. She laid her head back onto the bed, closing her eyes to stop the spinning. "Being boarded?" she asked.

"Nope a strange lizard who ssstartled her. " Sthilg said as he finished patching her up. " There we go. Jussst lay back and ressst." He said reassuringly before looking at S'hib. Opening his scanner he ran it over the security officer's leg. " Sss'hib one of you major leg musssclessss have sssnapped. I can fix it, but there are people in worssse conditionsss that need priority. Can you hold on with jussst sssome painlkillersss. "The gorn asked calmly.

"I'll get the hypospray myself Sthilg, go help the others..." He grunted stubbornly, limping closer and leaning more of his weight on the biobed.

Naxea felt the spinning stop as she opened her eyes again. She knew she was going to be sore but at the moment, the pain killers were keeping it at bay as she was coming out of the heavy anesthesia. She looked over at S'hib holding their daughter. "That's no way to treat your Uncle Sthilg," she teased the infant, grinning whose crying had subsided as the infant looked curiously at Naxea with large dark eyes. "So, what are we calling her?" she asked.

He stared at Nax for a moment in silence before looking down at his daughter, her gaze still transfixed on Naxea even as a cloven finger trailed gently over the ridges between her eyes, the little tuffs of hair from each tapering down the ridge of her tiny white face.

"Sle'ana..." He said with an amused smile on his face. "It's the only place on Sequella we have mountains..." He added, looking back at Naxea.

Naxea looked at her daughter and then at S'hib. "Really? Mountains?" she asked, amused before looking back at their daughter. "Don't worry, I'll kick his butt for you later. Sle'ana....Sle'ana Azhul. I like it," she grinned as the baby began to whimper and cry. "Must be hungry," Naxea guessed and without power, there were no replicators to produce the needed milk. She let out a sigh. "Guess we're doing this the old-fashioned way." She felt around for the bio bed controls for a moment before finding one that raised the upper portion so she could sit up slightly.

"We can take her there one day... in the spring, it won't be too cold and things won't have started melting yet." He smiled, limping around the bed to hand Sle'ana over to her mother.

"Naxea took hold of her daughter as she pulled away a part of her gown top as Sle'ana, smelling the nearby food, instinctively placed her mouth on Naxea's right breast and began to feed, quieting down as she did so. "Sit down and relax," she told S'hib softly as she looked up at him.

S'hib sighed, wrestling between his own thoughts and knowing what she would say next. "I have to go Nax... and please, please don't try and stop me," He pleaded, his eyes filled with emotion. Knowing that if she even uttered the word stay he would do so.

"S'hib, you're still injured. What good can you possibly be?" she looked at him as if he was crazy. "You'll be more of a liability with your leg." She knew how he felt. She wanted to be with her Marines but right now, nobody's needs came above that of their daughter.

"I got you here didn't I?" He huffed, before hushing his tone so Sthilg didn't hear. "four decks we climbed, and you heard the banging and the screaming too..." He pleaded, brushing loose hair over her ears. "I know when you kept stopping you said you just needed to catch your breath, but I know you, you wanted to go help them."

"Yes, I wanted to help them but I also knew that I couldn't," she replied as the Sle'ana laid content against her chest still feeding.

"So let me go help them." He snorted in frustration.

Naxea let out a frustrated sigh. "Fine, you want to go and get yourself hurt even more or worse, be my guest."

“It's my job!” S’hib snorted loudly, forgetting for a moment he couldn’t put weight on both legs

The gorn returned having overheard the two of them yelling. " Will you two pleassse calm down. " He said with a look of annoyance on his face. " Sss'hib if you want to help we need sssomeone to replicate the emergency kit the ressscue team will need. The lasss thing we need isss you collapsssing out there."

He said nothing as he pushed off the bio bed and hobbled away, muttering sour words in native Sequus as he moved deeper into sickbay, intent on helping even if it meant staying here.

Naxea watched S'hib go. She knew how he felt, really. "Maybe you or someone can heal his leg so he's not at least a liability out there," she asked Sthilg.

" To properly heal hisss leg it will take time which we don't have. I have......" The gorn began before with a hurried sound about twelve crew entered carrying about four people on makeshift stretchers. " Got to go." He yelled as he hurried over to the new arrivals. He had work to do.

 

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