Sickbay Stories

Posted on Aug 21, 2014 @ 3:14pm by Lieutenant Commander Aerdan Jos
Edited on on Aug 22, 2014 @ 11:42am

Mission: http://thefrpg.com/sim/missions/id/7
Location: USS ARMSTRONG

"Sickbay Stories" (continued from "Letting Go")

Location: USS ARMSTRONG
Stardate: 2.140728.2222
Scene: Sickbay

~*~

An entire sickbay full of bodies and the one person who was alive yet in the biggest danger of dying was the only one trying to walk out of the door.

“Where in the hell do you think you’re going?” a wide bloCade Foster stood in the doorway, evenly staring down Lieutenant Phia.

“To the bridge.” She muttered darkly, ignoring the growing pain in her side.

“Like hell you are. You’re getting on a biobed before you collapse.” He growled back, secretly pleased that she hadn’t done so already. It meant he still had a chance to save her.

Phia took a step back, hand on her hips. “Get out of my way, Cade. I’m in no mood for your bullshittery.”

“This isn’t bullshit.” Blue eyes bore down on her. “That pain you’re feeling? That’s a necrotic virus.”

She opened her mouth to protest, and found her breath stuck in her throat as a sharp stab of pain flared out across her chest and her legs wavered, coming to an unsteady stop when she was on her knees. Whatever protest she had been ready to throw in Cade’s face was silenced and fell into muttered cursing.

“See?” Cade kept the smirk off his face, but it burrowed into his voice as he stooped down to life her.

“Get your damn hands off of me.” She muttered back.

With a huff, Cade let her go. “Well, then let’s see you walk to a biobed on your own, Missy.”

Phia closed her eyes and struggled, but her legs wouldn’t listen. They felt like molten pools of lava were slowly dissolving them from the inside. She swore.

“Thought so.” Cade gently scooped her up in a bridal carry, cradling her with unusual gentleness against his chest. “Don’t worry, I don’t mind being your knight in shining medical robes…”

“Go to hell…” she muttered, her eyes fluttering into a hazy semi-consciousness.

“Already been there and back.” Cade whispered in her ear. “Besides, sex with you is a perfect bridge between heaven and hell. We should do it against some time.”

Phia reserved just enough energy to peel one eye open and glare at him before she lapsed into unconsciousness.

~*~
Time Index: concurrent

On the other side of the room, Storm Bomba was slowly coming around as two orderlies were gathering the bloody pieces of the body of Captain Rose Harcourt and taking them to the ship’s morgue. The Risian’s long-lashed eyes fluttered open.

He screamed.

A high pitched, piercing scream of sheer terror, like an alarm had been shattered. Rose Harcourt’s lifeless eyes stared back at him, wide open, lids sliced away, dried blood spattered across her chin and chest from her mission torso and hanging entrails. The scream only stopped when Bomba ran out of breath and collapsed back on his biobed. He gasped for air like a fish out of water and was about to start a whole new wave of terror when a thin, older Vulcan doctor appeared with a hypospray, pressing it into Bomba’s neck before he could scream again.

As Bomba fell limp against Suvek’s arms, the Vulcan doctor sighed. “Get Captain Harcourt’s remains out of sickbay.” He ordered the orderlies and lay Bomba back against the cushions.

As Storm Bomba slipped into his second drug induced sleep in less than twelve hours, he started to wonder what had gone wrong. Things had never been this hard ever before. He always seemed protected from the worst that life could throw at him. He sailed into the academy despite only mediocre academic performance, on the strength of his parent’s political connections. He had met nice people along the way who had always helped him get by. Now everyone around him seemed cold and unfriendly and unwilling to help him.

If Storm Bomba had been a more self aware man, he might have realized that those who seemed to ‘help’ him for so many years were simply using him as a pawn. He had no clue how much the essentialists had used him, and had never told him about any of it. Storm Bomba had relations with – gullibly trusted and listen to a good number of up and coming members of that shadow organization – without ever once knowing about its plans or existence. They had keep Bomba blind, stupid and needy. For the first time he was among genuine people who would force him to stand on his own, to grown and learn instead of merely coasting along in life. He might realize that someday, but for the time being he could only dwell on the pain and loneliness he was feeling.

Suvek, on the other hand, was glad for the peace and quiet.

~*~
Time Index: minutes later

And in yet another part of sickbay, Thomas Varn slowly sputtered back to consciousness, stirring when he heard the scream.

“Sylvia!” He cried, gasping for air. That had to be her. She was in pain. Dying. Dead.

“Thomas! You’re awake!” Her joyous voice called out, stepping into view.

Lt. Commander Varn’s eyes flew open, staring at her as he jerked backwards. “GET AWAY FROM ME!” He yelled, loud enough to make the transparent aluminum around his bed quaver.

Lieutenant Sylvia Warren took two tentative steps backwards. “Thomas… are you all right? It’s me… Sylvia…”

Panic flooded Thomas’ expression. “No you’re not! Sylvia’s dead!”

Lt. Warren’s expression hovered somewhere between concern and annoyance. “No. I am quite alive. Phia and I came to rescue you, remember?”

“No.” He shook his head, getting down from the biobed to back away from her. “You were there, with me. That man, he dismembered you. Phia dragged me out of there before I could save you!” Rage and pain cut through his words, and his body shook. His eyes glanced around looking for a weapon he could use to free himself if it came to that.

Sylvia put her hands up in the air, open and visible. “Thomas. He lied to you. That was Captain Harcourt’s body you saw. I was flying the shuttlecraft while Phia went to retrieve you.”

“What?” The winged officer flexed his wings and looked around. It looked like the ARMSTRONG’s sickbay. Which didn’t matter a whole lot. He already had experience with drugs that could make you believe anything they wanted you to believe.

“He lied to you.” Warren repeated. “Come with me. You can see Harcourt’s body for yourself.”

Thomas stared at her, wanting to believe, and yet cautious. “Show me.”

The walk was short. Suvek was there… Thomas considered that a good thing. Suvek, the orderlies, the details were all in place. As Harcourts body was pulled out from the morgue Thomas gasped.

He staggered backwards, drawing in air as if he were drowning. “Oh God…” Reaching out his hands, he drew Sylvia to his chest and held her close. “I thought that was you.” Tears stung the sides of his eyes. “I would have done anything to save you. I didn’t realize…”

“Shh… Thomas… It’s OK.” She soothed. “We were too late to save Harcourt. But everyone else is here. We’re alive. We’re ok.”

He let the tears flow for a few long seconds before gathering himself. “What needs to be done yet?” He asked soberly.

“Phia’s in surgery, she was hit by something. The ACREMAN is here assisting us. The main push now is enacting repairs.” She murmured. “Are you sure you’re ok?”

Thomas nodded, gripping her arm, relief filling his voice. “Yeah. I’m OK. Now.”

~*~
Time index: much later

Phia’s eyes fluttered open. The room was dark, with just enough light to make out forms and figures. Her mouth was dry and it tasted like ass.

“What--?” She struggled to sit up and found she couldn’t lift her head from her pillow.

“Stay still.” Cade’s voice was smooth and unusually soft. “You’re lucky, you know?”

“Right.” She shot back as dryly and sarcastically as she could muster. “How long…?”

“Have you been out? Nearly two days.” He admitted. “We’re almost ready to make the transwarp jump back to Earth.”

Phia let that sink into her skull and offered a wordless murmur. Another pause. “Should I even ask?”

“How my genius saved your life?” Cade grinned. “You don’t have to ask, I’ll be happy to regale you with the story of how I concocted a high powered lymphocyte and injected it into your bloodstream, turning your body into the last battlefield stand of the necrotic virus? It was a stroke of medical genius.”

Phia groan. “You are so full of yourself.”

“Well, if you’re thankful, you could be full of me, too.” He waggled his brows.

Phia mustered enough strength to raise her hand and salute her middle finger towards Cade before slipped back into a much more restive and natural sleep than before.

~*~

NRPG: I promised a post tonight, so this one is short, but gets some important things done. The next one will center around Mav and Aerdan. In the meantime if’n you guys want to head to Earth or pick up at Earth, go right ahead~

~*~

Jamie LeBlanc
Lt. Commander Aerdan Jos
Acting Commanding Officer
USS ARMSTRONG

"Why do we fly? Because we have dreamt of it for so long that we must"


~Julian Beck