Triage

Posted on Mar 20, 2016 @ 10:56pm by Lieutenant Eve Dalziel
Edited on on Mar 20, 2016 @ 11:12pm

Mission: Fortress: Earth

“Triage”
(Continued from “On The Mend”)

=/\=

Location: USS PHOENIX
SD: 2.160315.2000
Scene: Sickbay
Time Index: Like, 11 hours before Shawn’s post

Eve’s eyes fluttered open and she was assaulted by bright lights and the smell of antiseptic and blood. The danger of being torn apart by an apoplectic Thomas Varn had passed, but her body hadn’t gotten the memo yet. She sat up quickly on the biobed, the ‘fight or flight’ response in full force, and instantly regretted that decision as her pounding head made her field of vision swim.

“Whoa.” Kass was right there, bracing the Counsellor with her good hand before she took a dive right off the side of the bed. “You ain’t been checked out yet.”

“I... don’t care,” Eve protested, but as she flung herself to her feet she swayed, her legs buckled, and she flopped back down. “Uh,” she groaned, closing her eyes in a squint of avoidance. “Who’s flying this thing?”

“Yer worse’n me, yanno that? Least I ain’t a dumbass who don’t know when she’s out fer the count. Between Wingnut and the control station, you got your bell rung pretty good.”

She gently touched her head, trying to feel for a lump. “I remember. I wish I didn’t.”

“Don’t you fret now, he’s been taken care of.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Dalziel laid back down, hoping for a time very soon when gravity was no longer the enemy.

The Major allowed herself to laugh. “Hey- I’m not a heathen or nuthin’. I just knocked him out. Didn’t figure on him havin’ a jaw like a steel girder though.” Kassandra held up her bruised and swollen hand.

Eve blinked, still bleary-eyed. “Thank you.”

“For what? Not killin’ him, or for cold cockin’ him?”

“Both.” Her eyes were closed and she was trying to be perfectly still. “What about Jake and Barton?”

“It’s too soon,” Kass huffed. “They got the place all in a ruckus though. I’ve seen less spit and polish over an Ambassador’s visit.”

Eve’s brow furrowed. “That’s as it should be. I challenge any Ambassador to spend five minutes down there.”

“There won’t be any concern regarding that, Lieutenant. It’s blown to kingdom come.” The authoritative voice of the CO cut through the clamor.

“What brings ya down here, Cap’n? Slummin’?”

“And thank you Major, for the warm welcome,” Kane responded. At least one of his crew was fair-to-middling.

Eve, in her desire and moral imperative to report, sat up again, and this time both Kane and Thytos had to keep her from hitting the deck.

“Easy now,” the Captain said crisply, bringing the Cns upright before turning to the MCO. “Status?”

Kass grumbled. “I ain’t no Medic, but seein’ as they’re busy… Spook here has a concussion and she’s bein’ stubborn about it, I was thinkin’ about givin’ her the night-night-”

Eve tossed her head to the side from where she had laid back down. “I get called that once, and now it’s all over the ship?”

“Shut up an’ rest, or I’ll come up with somethin’ worse.” Kass curtly replied, continuing. “Perfect Husband was cut up like a bottom feeder by his evil twin, he’d lost a lotta blood but the Commander was workin’ on him the whole time we were tryin’ to get the Lament away from that freak show.”

“Crichton has a doppleganger?”

Kass didn’t second guess the passive query. Kane wasn’t one to let anything get in the way of business. “Yeah, go figure, he was the engineer of his ship. He and the Ferengi pilot got away.”

“What about the data?”

Dalziel piped up from her repose on the biobed. “It was destroyed when the Promethean device was. Doctor Saul Conniston, the station’s keeper, died when we tried to bring him back.”

Kass nodded at Eve’s assessment, shuddering a little at the image of what used to be a man, but had quickly become a monster. “Jebediah’s frostbitten, and his lungs took in too much of that Lavenzan air. Russ has a broken arm. Jos sprained a feeler. I banged up my hand punching a batshit crazy Wingboy.”

While she filled him in, Kane scanned the room with his heterochromic gaze, taking in each part of the room and the operating theatre that he could see as each crewman was accounted for. At about the same time Kass mentioned Varn by nickname, he saw the prone form of the former Science Officer turned civilian turned deceased now alive sprawled on another bed, still wearing the comically small thermal pants Kass had given to him. The Irishman walked a few feet closer, processing what he was seeing. Michael Turlough Kane was not one to search for words, but it took a short pause before he came out with, “That’s impossible.”

“That’s the Promethean effect,” Aerdan Jos said softly as he approached the Captain. He was wearing scarlet scrubs, his injured antenna still unattended. “Conniston reached into the stolen information and ‘made’ him shortly before the shooting started.”

“Why did Major Thytos have to subdue him?”

“When he woke up, he was confused and disoriented. His last known memories were from before he died, as his genetic profile was taken in part from transporter records. Despite having to explain to him what had happened, and at the same time running to escape, for the most part he was handling it well. But in between fair stretches of lucidity and a semi-catatonic state, he had an outburst after we lifted off the planet’s surface in the Annabelle’s Lament. Not only did this cause the Counsellor’s injuries, it gave the remaining Lament crew the upper hand.”

“Then how did you end up back on the Lena?”

“The other Jake decided to beam us down. Maybe there was some good in him after all, or at the very least, guilt.”

“Ensign Perry... was Conniston’s doing as well?”

Aerdan flinched almost imperceptibly. “His creatures captured her, and later when we found him he… he killed her right in front of us.”

“I’m sure you did everything you could.”

The Andorian seemed to agree with Kane’s words, and the attempt at reassurance, but his eyes were still haunted by the ghosts of what he’d seen on Lavenza II. “I’m going back to assist,” he said, turning towards the injured.

Kane was left in the middle of the din. He regarded Thomas Varn with a curious and critical eye. If things had been different, there was a distinct possibility that the winged man would have been made a Science Officer once again. But it sounded like the slow process of bringing the man to full health had taken a macabre setback. His body was alive again, but his mind was surely broken due to how he came back to them. And was this even the real Varn? Could technology truly rebuild someone from files and patterns, and expect them to function as though nothing had happened? He had attacked his own crew, and until someone got to the bottom of things, the Commanding Officer knew he had a duty to protect them and the father-to-be from any more repercussions. “Kane to Silsby.”

[[Yes, Captain.]]

“Please send a security detail to Sickbay, immediately. We have a patient that requires a presence to prevent them from injuring themselves or others.”

[[How long do you need them for?]]

“I expect a report from each shift on watch for the next twenty-four hours. Then we’ll reevaluate.”

[[Aye, Sir.]]

Kane approached the operating teams, keeping a respectable distance but wanting to make his plan known. “I order a complete physical workup on the reappeared Thomas Varn. Doctor Foster, once everyone else is stable and on the mend, I expect this to be your priority.”

“I’m a little busy at the moment,*Captain*.” Cade’s voice stung with frustration and concern. Perry was dead, her talents wasted, and it was a little perilous with Crichton, and to a lesser extent with Barton. But the reincarnated man held his interest as well. “But when the dust settles, you got it,” he gruffly agreed.

“Thank you Doctor,” Kane said and went back to where the Counsellor and Kass were. “Miss Dalziel, I ask two things from you, once your condition is improved.”

She opened her eyes, shading them from the overhead lights with her hand. “Uh, sure... I mean yes, Captain.”

“First, a full psych eval on our friend Mister Varn. Second, you make sure Cade Foster does his job.”

“And how am I supposed to make old Cranky Pants do his job?” Eve said with an uncharacteristic level of sarcasm.

“Because I’m ordering Kass to be on your case for you to do your job. That all right, Major?”

Kassandra grinned. “It’ll be ma honor. But I kin do better. I’ll harass both of ‘em for ya.”

Captain Kane looked as though he had a scrap of relief mixed with his normal dutiful expression. “Thank you, Major. Now that I see everything is in capable hands, I’ll be at the Conn.”

After the Sickbay door swished shut, Eve gingerly turned her head again. “What? I thought you weren’t certain about him,” she said to Kass, gesturing to Varn as she remained flat on the biobed.

The copper-topped Marine stood and squeezed Eve’s right hand, leaning in. “I wanna know fer sure. Iff’n anyone’s gonna give him a clean bill o’ health, I’d believe it comin’ from the both o’ ya.”

***
Susan Ledbetter

Lieutenant Eve Dalziel
Cns
USS PHOENIX

With much needed help from

Alexandra Fowler

Major Kassandra Thytos
MCO
USS PHOENIX