One Good Turn

Posted on Sun Mar 10th, 2019 @ 4:27am by Lieutenant Commander Aurelia Taylor
Edited on on Sun Mar 10th, 2019 @ 4:33am

Mission: Season 2: Episode 3: Determination is not always a good thing
Location: Planetside/Elysium
Timeline: after Miscarriage
2192 words - 4.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Liorga was sleeping peacefully when her communicator started buzzing. She moved quietly to get it and walk outside, not wishing to wake Estelle, who was probably getting her first good night's sleep since she got abducted. She opened the channel and said through a yawn, =^=Go for Liorga...=^=

=^=Uh, Chief, it's Ramsey.=^= Petty Officer Third Class Barrett Ramsey began, =^=Is Doc Hertz with you by any chance?=^=

=^=Where else would she be, Ramsey?=^= Liorga sighed; good kid, Ramsey, just came up with some dumb questions sometimes, the kind that made her want to ask if a targ's ass was pork...

=^=Uh, we kinda need her here, Chief. Pronto.=^= Ramsey continued, =^=It's bad....=^=

=^=Ramsey, what's going on?=^= Liorga pressed, the kid needed to come out with it, =^=What's bad?=^=

=^=I was in sickbay working on the biobed like you and Doc told me to when they brought in Cdr. Holmes, Chief... She looks like she's about to bleed to death...=^= Ramsey informed, his distress obvious.

=^=Okay, tell them to get their shit together, we're on our way up.=^= Liorga replied, =^=Liorga out.=^=

Her next moves were swift, she ran in and shook Estelle, firmly, but not aggressively, "Baby, I need you to wake up, we've got to get back to Elysium and we have to do it in a hurry."

Estelle opened her eyes slowly. Getting out of bed was always the hardest part of every day for her, even after having had enough sleep. "You're still here, good. What could be bad?"

"It's Cdr. Holmes, they don't know what's happened but they think she's about to bleed to death." Liorga answered, "Stelle, I might not have made if it wasn't for her...."

That definitely woke Estelle up. She stood, threw on her lab coat and said, "That is bad, I admit. Lead the way, love." She hoped the EMH would keep things from escalating until she could get there.

Leading her outside, Liorga tapped her commbadge, =^=Liorga to Elysium, two to beam directly to sickbay.=^= They vanished in a shimmer of blue light, reappearing back home on Elysium. Liorga immediately found Ramsey and another enlisted man, Crewman Fleihr, "You two, get over here, get ready to do whatever Dr. Hertz tells you to. MOVE IT!"

Not wanting to risk annoying the fired up Chief, they did as commanded, standing to the left of the Senior NCO and awaiting orders from the Doc or the Chief; not caring who they came from and definitely planning to obey.

It didn't take but a second for the veteran Chief to see a huge mistake; those idiots put her on the wrong bed! She thought, looking in abject horror at an open panel and exposed wiring; she'd kick Ramsey's ass for that later, "Alright, you two grab her feet, I've got her upper body, let's move her." She ordered, and when they didn't have it in gear the very second she finished bellowed, "TODAY, LADIES!" Yep, that lit the fire under their butts, and they had her moved to a functioning biobed in seconds. Liorga looked down on Lia nervously, this woman had done so much for her, "Hey, you hold on, sweetheart. Estelle's the very best, she's going to fix you. You just stay with us..."

Estelle ran the scans and looked at the data. "Get some A negative, she's going to need it", were the first words out of her mouth. She wouldn't make it without help but Estelle figured that the situation wasn't immediately critical, so she could take the time to examine properly. "At least this one isn't self-inflicted..." Kara was still on Estelle's shitlist for that stunt. She checked the blood pressure. It was low, which was good. It meant the bleeding was slower, too. "Liorga, can you set a transporter beam to remove a miscarried foetus?"

"I can." Liorga nodded, then noticed they weren't moving again, "Fleihr, A minus, NOW! Ramsey, get the transporter set up for a skeletal lock transport!"

"Ye... yes, Chief." Fleihr stuttered, practically falling over his feet to get the Chief's demanded blood.

"Chief, I've never done a skeletal..." Ramsey began to protest, stopped by Liorga's steely gaze.

"Then get over here and put your learning glasses on, school's in." Liorga said, moving to the wall panel to activate the transporter, "Awaiting coordinates, Doctor."

Estelle used a holographic image of the injury, displayed above the bed and in 3D, to poke around in and circle what she wanted removed. "It's not a complete one, only partial remains", she concluded upon closer analysis. "But this will save Lia a lot of poking around." Where was the rest? Someone would need to do a lot of cleaning up. Estelle was glad that wasn't part of her duties.

Liorga saw two things: Estelle's chosen destination for her beam and that Fleihr still wasn't back with the damned blood, "Fleihr, move it! Do I really need to put a foot in your ass, Junior?" She then turned her attention back to Ramsey, "Okay, now we're going to lock onto the minerals that compose the child's skeleton, it's going to be tough since it's not fully formed, but this has been done for a couple decades now, so we're not in uncharted territory."

"Yes, Chief." Ramsey nodded, working to get the lock. The skeleton was barely forming, so attaining the lock was hard like the Chief said it would be, but a few seconds later he had it, "I've got a lock, Chief!"

"Good work, kid." Liorga smiled, Ramsey had potential, "Now engage the transporter and let's beam this poor little angel out of there."

"Yes, Chief." Ramsey complied, then asked, "But to where, Chief?"

That gave Liorga pause, where did she want to send this tragic loss? "Biolab, Ramsey, into stasis." She decided, then turned back down the hallway, "Damn it, Fleihr, if you don't move it, I swear to every god and goddess humanoids have ever believed in you are going to lose it!"

Fleihr finally made it back, he was an engineering crewman and not really used to looking for blood and all the medical people seemed occupied with the injured and sick on the planet, "Sorry, Chief...." He apologized, though he figured it wouldn't do much good. He reached the blood out to the Chief, a terrified smile on his face.

"Really?" Liorga groaned, pointing to Estelle, "Over there!"

"Sor.. sorry, Chief." He squeaked, getting the blood to Dr. Hertz as quickly as he could without falling on his face, an action he thought might result in the Chief killing him with her bare hands, "Here, Doc...."

Estelle took the blood with a nod, then stuck the container into the biobed's surgical frame, so it could be given to Aurelia while Estelle was working to stop the bleeding. She saw quite a bit of internal damage, badly healed and insufficiently treated, which was doubtlessly the cause of this. But hadn't she warned Lia about the dangers of sealed medical records? Maybe this served as an appropriate wake-up call? Estelle's fingers danced in the air, manipulating the hologram just as the biobed translated those movements into focused tissue-regenerating beams. The bleeding was stopped in no time, but it would take the blood pressure a while to recover.

Liorga stepped over and took Lia's hand, whispering in her ear, "You hold on, okay? We've gone through way too much to make it back here for you to tap out on me like this. You hold on, got it?"

"She should be coming to momentarily", Estelle said. "But her mind will be foggy at first." She injected her with a hypo, the contents of which meant to speed that recovery along.

Lia felt as if she had been hit by an ion storm, every part of her hurt. She could hear muffled voices, where the hell was she? Her abdomen burned with residual pain, and somehow deep within her mind she knew she had lost something precious. Her eyes flickered and slowly focused on a light above her, "If this is hell, can I ask for a update on how I got here?" She spoke to no one in particular, just to one of the voices she could hear. Keeping her head still and not turning it felt like a good idea, her fuzzy brain slowly regained more and more memory and as it did tears formed in Lia's eyes. Life, her life had once again come crashing down.

"This is sickbay", Estelle said. "A much less hellish place now that I've internalised that I'm supposed to say 'patients' instead of 'test subjects'. As to how you've got here, you tell me. My scanners told me you just miscarried, but your files are sealed as to the cause." Estelle seriously resented that. She couldn't imagine that anything medically relevant needed to be treated as a state secret.

Glancing to the side, Lia noticed the Doctor. "Miscarried? Oh right, guess that would happen". She returned to looking at the light above her bed, "The cause is quite simple Doctor, child abuse in early life. It isn't a state secret, I think you'll find it in the small public file attached to my main medical file". Tears flowed down her cheeks, "Being repeatedly kicked in the abdomen by one's Father, when carrying his child to prevent discovery, leads to permanent damage. I am now unable to carry a child past week three or four." Her breath came in short gulps, as she attempted to check the tears and regain her composure. "I might have to check my birth control dispenser, it's implanted under my left upper arm".

Estelle nodded. She figured she'd best not comment too much on the cause, she didn't want to re-open old wounds again, especially since didn't have the requisite skill set to close those again. "I can check that for you." She figured that medical technology was advanced enough to restore the full functionality of internal organs, but without access to Lia's files, there was no way of knowing whether there might be something that prevented such a treatment. So as not to give her false hope, she held her tongue.

"If you could please", replied Lia. She could see that Estelle wasn't happy, but even after two years she still couldn't get that level 10 removed. "I will contact my old S.F.I. boss, and see if I can get them to remove the block on my records". Pain travelled across her abdomen, and made her catch her breath. "Do I take it you have some sort of an idea Doc?"

"Was it that obvious?" Estelle wondered, looking at Liorga for confirmation. She didn't want her thoughts to be plain on her face. "Well, I may have. But without a look at your files, or either a thorough examination which will take a few hours, I should not say."

Lia lay and thought, "If you think you can do anything, go ahead and do your examination. Somehow I can't see me being able to much like this, thanks". Another shooting pain crossed her abdomen, she flinched and drew a deep breath. "Christ this is not fun anymore, any idea why I'm getting these shooting pains?"

=^=Chief Liorga, you're needed back at Cortic VI base camp.=^= A voice from communications crackled through Liorga's commbadge, =^=ASAP.=^=

"Shit." Liorga swore, tapping her badge, =^=Acknowledged, I'll be there in five.=^= She turned her attention back to Estelle and Lia, "Hey, they need me downstairs. I guess it's about to hit the fan. I'll be back. You two stay safe, huh?" She kissed Estelle quickly and squeezed Lia's hand before dashing out the door.

Smiling Lia looked at Estelle, "She's a nice girl, you picked a good one there Doc. Got her head on straight, should go far with a bit of luck". Her mind went back to when the pair were on the planet, and how Liorga had just suddenly shown up. "I hope her friends get out safe", she wanted Liorga to succeed, she'd earned that much.

"I'm just glad she's back", Estelle said. "I'm sure she can watch herself now. It's the being caught unawares that's dangerous." She checked the sensors on the biobed for more damage. "Now, the pain you're still feeling is residual from the miscarriage. I've repaired the immediate damage. A nurse will help you clean up, put on fresh clothes, and then I'll have a look and see if we can find a better, more permanent solution. How's that?"

"Yeah sound like a plan, how permanent a solution are we talking about?" The idea suddenly struck her, could Estelle be talking about repairing the damage from her early life? Would she be able to actually have kids?

"I'll tell you after the examination", Estelle said. "I can't give you options without knowing the details."

Sitting upright and instantly regretting it, Lia nodded. "Lets do it, the sooner you do the examination. The sooner I will have the answers, I hope".

"You don't want to clean up first?" Estelle wondered. "I strongly advise that you do."

TBC