Five Six pick up sticks, seven eight no time to wait.

Posted on Mon Jan 30th, 2023 @ 6:32pm by Lieutenant Myne Redal & Lieutenant Tate Sullivan Ph.D. & Cadet Senior Grade Octavia Raain
Edited on on Mon Jan 30th, 2023 @ 6:35pm

Mission: Season 6 : Episode 1: Circinus
Location: Deck 14, Coridoor
Timeline: 03h26
2571 words - 5.1 OF Standard Post Measure

//ON///

Waking Tai could see she'd managed to splint her ankle securely before passing out, it was crude but at least it wouldn't get knocked or damaged any further. She couldn't see anything to use as a crutch so instead, she put all her weight against the wall and hopped along the corridor trying to find someone, anyone who might be able to help her.

Her journey was not the most pleasant, the groans of the ship sounded as if they were mocking her and the lack of people, alive that was scared her. She wondered if the ship had been abandoned and that any second the hull would give and she would die. "You can't feel like that!" She sobbed to herself the pain reaching her tolerance threshold again, another break was imminent but her desire to survive was greater.

She'd made it another few meters before one of the ship's coolant systems ruptured propelling a piece of the bulkhead in her direction, she had thrown caution to the wind when she threw her own body out the way and ended up in a crumbled mess on the floor once again. Her head wound had reopened, and her knee sported a fresh gash. "FUDGE SAKE!" She shouted and began hitting anything within her arms reaching out of frustration causing a metallic banging noise to echo through her immediate surroundings. "JUST KILL ME ALREADY!" She added now arguing with the ship, her head spinning, leg numb and probably infected and her life expectancy slowly diminishing.

After being patched up, Myne managed to get up and started making her way to the nearest escape pod, guiding Tate and leaning on her from time to time. The pain was no longer actively making her bend or numb her brain, but the fact that she still had a piece of shrapnel sticking out of her side did not help her mobility. "I think I heard someone scream far ahead." She looked at Tate with a worried expression as she thought she heard something following quite a loud metallic banging noise.

Heading in that direction and rounding the corner she came upon a wounded cadet apparently. The cadet's scream did manage to carry her last words well enough for Myne to have picked up on them. Enough to allow her a remark hoping to alleviate the situation. "Hey there cadet, I don't think the ship was intent on killing you. It's just trying to play the Human tag game." Leaning against the wall and looking down at Octavia she couldn't help ask. "You're a cadet right? Any chance you were in my operations class?" As Myne tried to keep the cadet talking she looked over at Tate worried, seeing the blood on the cadet's head and leg.

Octavia studied the blood plan and swore she could see spots on her face, but she couldn’t make out if they were actually there or if she was just seeing them due to blood loss or a bang to the head or both. “No” she said, “And it sure as hell seems like it is! What happened?” She asked not really trying to move a little exhausted from her previous attempts and blood loss.

Tate was ashamed to admit to herself that for a split second after she heard the scream, she hesitated. It wasn't because she didn't want to help. It was because she was afraid she was simply going to realize it was already too late. She followed anyway, not wanting to risk Myne's well being any further.

As soon as she took in the scene before her, however, all hesitation was gone. The young woman appeared to be in a much worse way, but she was alive, and it was up to Tate to make sure she stayed that way. After making sure her first patient, so to speak, was stable and comfortable, Sullivan dropped to her knees and once again opened her medical kit. The counselor looked toward Myne, encouraging her to keep the young woman talking.

Fighting a sense of déjà vu as she immediately began scanning, Tate offered, "My name is Tate Sullivan. I am a counselor here but have medically treated many people during emergency situations during my tenure, and I'm going to take care of you. You're with us now and we aren't going to leave you until we're sure you're in good hands. Will you tell me your name?" In the meantime, scans revealed several different types of injuries - everything from relatively minor scrapes and bruises to more serious gashes and burns. The more troubling injuries also appeared to be a more serious concussion, which Tate could identify but couldn't entirely treat with what she had on hand. Still, she was going to do whatever she could to stabilize the situation, starting with stopping the obvious bleeding she observed, providing replacement fluids to raise blood pressure, and covering any burns to protect against infection.

Octavia leaned back and allowed the counsellor to conduct her scan, “I’m Octavia Raain.” she explained though found it far more difficult to remember her own name as the words come out almost as a question. “I think my leg is broken.” she added almost as if she just remembered why she was hurting so much. “The garden caught fire.” she added pointing back towards the way she had crawled.

"Hey there Octavia. My name is Myne, I'm with ops, so unless you want me to reprogram your head, all I can do is say that damn you look hot girl!" Myne chuckling, trying to distract Octavia and keep her talking with horrible jokes. "Sorry, I am a bit of a stick in the side with my jokes, but I think the ship is borked. We need to get to a escape pod or a shuttle bay. If we can reach the shuttle bay we can board Lethe. I've programmed a EMH into it that can help tend to us." Myne explained, pulling out her trusty PaDD to look over the layout of the ship, to see what were their chances to reach first.

"Also you're going to be fine. Tate here is like a wizardress with medicine. She's just to humble to admit she's awesome." Myne smiled at the both of them and kept checking. "Would really love to reach a shuttle if we can. Damn, sensors are down, coms are down, everything is down. We're on our own until either the ship blows up or we get off of it."

“We’re going to blow up?” Octavia said her eyes wide and then solemn again. She was unsure if the other older Trill woman needed medical attention or not but her thoughts kept being interrupted by a mind shattering headache, and if that wasn’t enough her whole lower body throbbed and ached. Tai looked to the woman and wondered who they were, she couldn’t really remember their names or infact why she was where she was.

Tate kept her focus on Octavia, but managed to offer some side eye to her companion from operations. Up until this point, Sullivan would've thought she was an optimist, but she had to agree, if this was a joke, it left something to be desired. Still, under the circumstances, Tate couldn't expect anyone to be at their best. They were all scared, and while Sullivan didn't want to think of either possibility coming true, she also couldn't deny the reality of the situation.

"We've made it this far. I'd like to think someone in the universe might want us to get further. Myne," Sullivan asked, "Do you think you could help us find something to secure the splint and something Octavia could use for a crutch? This med kit doesn't have an osteoregenerator, but even if it did, I would rather have a doctor reset it for you before the bone is knit back together. What I can do is get this bleeding under control, rehydrate you, and give you something for the pain along with an antibiotic. This place isn't exactly germ-free right now, so we need to protect you. I can give you something for your concussion symptoms, but I agree, getting somewhere with an EMH to give you a proper neural scan."

Tai in another lapse of blood loss and shock-induced memory loss nodded “I’m sure we can find something to splint her leg” she agreed in perfect clarity before attempting to stand up. Octavia let out a blood-curdling scream as her shattered leg bore the entirety of her weight as she stood, crumpling into a heap she sobbed and reached for her leg in agony.

Myne sighed and shook her head. "You two are not fun at all. Fine, ship might not blow off, but given the chaos, damage, loss of gravity at one point and the quality of air decreasing, I still strongly suggest we make our way to a shuttle or escape pod either way." Then she nodded at Tate. "Yes, I'll look around for something that can be used as a crutch then we'll try to go reach the shuttle bay to get some help aboard the Lethe shuttle."

With that Myne was gone for a few minutes as she used her codes to open any door she could find, hoping to stumble upon something useful. She couldn't move too fast sadly, not with the piece of metal sticking out of her side, but with the painkillers numbing the pain, she could use the wall to walk and limp at least. It took her a bit, but Myne returned in the end with what looked like a hokey stick. "I found this... I think Human tribal club from their ancient history or something. Try to use this Octavia."

"I'm afraid we are past that," Tate replied, turning to make eye contact with Myne and to mouth a thank you. She hadn't expected Olivia to try and stand while she was searching for something to take the edge off the pain along with all of the other drugs she thought prudent. Now that she had, it was going to take a lot more than a crutch and a splint to keep her moving. Feeling bad for Olivia and frustrated at the same time that she would put her health more at risk, she reminded herself to focus on the present, knowing they couldn't afford to look back. "I don't think Olivia is going to be able to walk, even with a splint and a crutch. We may need to find something to fashion as a stretcher and carry her."

In the meantime, Tate turned her attention back to Olivia, her heartbreaking scream and collapse still fresh in Sullivan's memory and ears. "I'm going to give you something for the pain, Olivia, but I'm not going to give you anything too strong because I don't want to risk dropping your blood pressure any further. I know you're hurting and scared but I need to know if you have any medication allergies before I do this. Are you able to talk?" Sullivan prayed that she had not hit her head again when she collapsed. Replaying the sudden fall, or at least what she had seen, over and over, she tried to anticipate what damage she could be looking at now.

It also wasn't lost on Sullivan that she was putting her other patient's health at risk just by asking her to walk around with a piece of shrapnel inside her. All of that was out of her control, of course, but it didn't make it any easier.

Myne grimaced as Tate told her that the club she found wouldn't be of use. Well that wasn't good and she was too far away from her cabin to be able to get anything of use to them. Sighing for a brief moment, Myne smiled brightly once again and leaned against the wall for a moment. "Well a stretcher might be quite a stretch Tate. Hmmm, really have to think it over a bit, though I don't think I can be much help in the pulling department even if I do find the components for a stretcher."

The young looking Trill moved her left hand to the piece of metal sticking out of her and tried to tense her muscles. It did not go well, but she managed to keep the wince out of her face and not make a sound either. Instead, she kept smiling and let her arm drop to rest. Using that side of her body had to be out of the question for anything requiring strength. And if she had to pull, she doubted she could afford it, not when she had to use what strength she had to walk on her own without falling too far behind.

"Tate, does the Cadet have to be fully immobile? If I find another stil and grab some blankets, we could fashion something to drag her on. Sadly most of the hauling would be on you. Unless we can get her hopping on one foot." Myne proposed trying to look reassuring while conferring with Tate.

"That's a great idea," Tate replied, referring to using blankets to move Olivia around. She'd given her as strong a painkiller as Sullivan dared while her blood pressure was so fragile. "No worries about me doing the hauling. I don't want you getting any more injured. Speaking of, how are you?"

"I am well. The painkiller you gave me is working. At worse I am just feeling discomfort and cannot really tense my muscles on that side. So no need to worry about me Tate." Myne nodded at her trying to not give her fellow officer another reason to worry.

“Nobody is dragging me around” Olivia said once again, though more carefully pulling herself up from the floor using the debris that surrounded them, “Just give me a hand and I’ll hop” she explained, “Besides we’re either all gonna die here or make it to the shuttles so shall we go?” The painkillers made her head spin and her vision was blurry but she was able to stay coherent.

Approaching Olivia, Myne placed the hockey stick under her shoulder and tried to use her hand on her healthy side to keep her steady. "Are you sure you can handle this cadet?"

Olivia laughed with a little blood dripping down from the corner of her mouth, her following smile showed blood and soot covered teeth. “I have only a few months until I graduate I won’t let a broken leg or the destruction of this ship get in the way, let’s hurry before the later becomes time critical” she said, “besides us Trill are a resilient bunch!” She began to hop.

Tate wasn't satisfied with either of their conditions, but she couldn't argue with their logic. She couldn't let perfect be the enemy of good, particularly when their stability was rapidly diminishing. "So you are proving," Sullivan replied with a hint of a smile. Moving to Olivia's other side to serve as support, she offered, " One step at a time, everybody." Whatever came next, Sullivan took comfort they were together.

//OFF//

Lieutenant Myne Redal
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Elysium

&

Lieutenant Tate Sullivan Ph.D.
Assistant Chief of Counselor
USS Elysium

&

Cadet Senior Grade Octavia Raain
Science Cadet
USS Elysium