Nicole sat on the ramp to her shuttle when the whoop of the alarms began and she could see security and a detachment from the Marine Corps, in full gear, moving thorough. After a few minutes one of the Marines approached her. "What's your departure time?" he barked at Nicole.
"I am between runs. What do you care?" She asked, as she finished her cup of tea.
"We have several freighters with refuges boarding," he paused and listened on him commline, "in fourteen minutes. All secondary bays and all ships must be locked down before then." Just then over head the dockmaster came on the intercom. [By order of station command: secure all ships and bays, non essential personnel return to quarters. That is all.] Nicole nodded and started to get her stuff from the cockpit...but before she could get up the ramp a hand clamped onto her arm in a grip that was sure to leave bruises. "Hey! Hands off!" she yelled as she broke his grip on her arm.
"Leave everything and lock this shuttle up, NOW!" he yelled in her face.
Nicole scowled at the Marine. Just another reason to get retrained and off the docks, she thoug to herself She set her cup just inside the door and punched the series of buttons that would close the hatch. To her relief the marine moved off at almost a run. Nice backside she noted. With the hatch closed and locked she headed for the bay exit.
The Marines were scattered all over the main deck and the doors to the rest of the ship including the ones to deck crews were locked. "Damn!" she thought to herself as the hatch opened and about one hundred beings dived through the opening and more surged up behind those. The Marines were yelling, physically trying to establish order, and waving weapons. Some of those who exited were human, and a few were G'kar, but nearly all were Nausicaans. Nicole looked up and saw some scaffolding. She decided that was would be better then just hanging around on the deck waiting to be trampled. From the loft she could see everything.
Nicole saw everything from her perch. Several refugees with projectile weapons opened fire on the teams that were trying to help. A Marine from the top of a storage container with three precision shots took out the armed group. Unfortunately one Security officer went down and two Marines took hits--they'd been pushed back by their own teammates and one was being tended by what looked to be a corpsman. The Security group was trying to wade though the refugees to get to their downed officer but they were meeting resistance. Nicole was actually closer to the wounded officer and climbed down. Staying low, she managed to get along the wall, where she found a medkit and cut through to the wounded. The officer had a shoulder and chest wound that was bleeding profusely. The round went through his tactical vest and she couldn't get it off to see. She grabbed several packs of gauze and applied pressure-practically kneeling on the guys chest with her knee so she could keep watch. She grabbed his phaser and held onto it as she shielded him from the teaming masses.
Things seemed to be calming down, then suddenly there was a hand on her shoulder. She was startled, then realized it was two women in Marine uniforms. They arrived and one started working immediately on the downed Security officer while the other gently eased Nicole's knee off the wound. The wound started spurting blood across everyone. Nicole stood over the three with the phaser hidden at her side. Unable to contain the bleeding, one of the corpsmen pulled Nicole back as the other ordered, "Two for emergency beam out to sick bay." There was a shimmer and they were gone.
Just then the lock on the door to the main station was overridden by one of the Nausicaans and everyone rushed out. As the second ship hemorrhaged refuges, several Marines worked to lock out the door controls. The bay was at capacity and there wasn't much room to move around. Several Marines and Security teams started sorting out the refuges by race into the four smaller sub-bays, then the last one for the wounded.
The Marine grabbed Nicole by the sleeve of her flight suit and steered her toward the bay with the wounded. "Since you're stuck in here you can help us," the Marine told her. As they arrived two other corspmen were setting up and several large containers were beamed into the bay. "I'm Sergeant Rashan, that's Carter, and that's Corporal Dayrne," she said as she pointed out the other two. As they set up three more Marines beamed into the bay. Nicole saw the names stenciled on their jackets: Hasek, Tayge, and Esteva. They moved with a purpose and they were immediately involved. Rashan gave Nicole the job of moving through the wounded and establishing identities. Nicole frowned, took a PADD, and started systematically worked her way through the injured. With the first one she learned the program and after that she was quicker.
In the main corridor, a second Marine detachment had been placed in case some of the refugees broke though and they were being identified and sorted there. The wounded were being transferred directly to Sickbay for treatment and the rest were diverted down an empty service corridor where they were lined up and ID's generated for them.
Soon Colonel Tarik and the G'kar ambassador arrived and saw the group. The G'kar were aware of the situation and in twelve hours the ship 'Dark Fury' would arrive and take the G'kar and any others who wished off the station to a colony world. Both men turned and talked to the Lieutenant in charge of the detail. "Any problems?"
"No, sir," he said, then added, "Looked like hell had erupted inside the main bay, sir."
Tarik frowned and then said, "I've been in touch with those detachments and they are finally establishing order. Stay alert--they might get out of control and hack the overrides on the doors again." With that he turned and left to check on his trooper and the two wounded Security officers in sickbay.
In sickbay. All five physicians, five EMH's, and eight physician assistants, plus every other member of the medical team were on duty trying to triage and treat the influx and the regular traffic that Medical dealt with. Minor stuff was triaged to the substations on various levels, the military was diverted to the Marine Infirmary, who had even loaned some of their staff to Sickbay and had teams deployed in the bay.
Dr. Fletcher worked for an hour treating the chest wound received by one of the Marines from the bay. This was beyond the scope of the infirmary and since it was a surgical case the Marine became his patient. He finished up and the patient was taken to a recovery area for several hours' observation, when he would then be transferred to the infirmary for twenty-four hours. If he was doing well, then he would be released to barracks. He was waiting for the next patient to be prepped when he noticed the Colonel standing in the doorway. "Colonel."
"How is he?" Tarik asked hands on his hips.
"He'll be fine in a couple of days." A nurse handed him a PADD with information on his next patient and shook his head, and said, "Have to go--duty calls." With that he headed back into the surgical area.
Dr. Cherrin had been doing triage and directing traffic for the most part until he was relieved by the advanced corpsmen from the Corps. With that he moved off and started treating patients. As fast as he treated one, five more would arrive. He pushed himself and those around him to work carefully but quickly. Occasionally an emergency case that couldn't behandled by the corpsmen in the cargo bay would arrive without warning, and priorities would shift as they would work to stabilize the patient for surgery or advanced therapies.
He glanced at the clock and noted that it was late evening. He over heard one of the Marine corpsmen that a G'kar transport had shown up and was taking all G'kar off and would be back for all the able-bodied Nausicaans who wanted to go. He also heard that New Canada had just finished treating over a hundred refugees. His mind wandered for a moment as he wondered how Jayme was doing...then another wounded destabilized and he was back to concentrating on those around him.
Dr. Fletcher lost track of the patients he'd treated for everything from crushed extremities, projectile weapons fire, and head injuries to ruptured internal organs. He kept at it until everything was just a blur. After six hours he went and splashed cold water on his face, grabbed a glass of vegetable juice and leaned against the wall for a few minutes. This wasn't his first brush with combat medicine or refugees. He blocked the images that came to mind from his childhood, returned to the table, and nodded to the staff that the break was over. He continued until the head nurse working with him indicated that there only remained five minor injuries. He went out to the main ward, grabbed a medical tricorder, and worked with one of the minors waiting to be seen. He looked around and saw every possible space in the treatment bays had patients on temporary mats on the floors. The minors who were stable and dischargeable were escorted by security to an empty gymnasium for holding.
Twelve hours later the medical staff slowly trickled into the lounge that also served as a conference room-some rested on the floor or against the walls or the chairs. Some saint had replicated trays of sandwiches and other finger foods and beverages, but many of the staff were too tired or stressed by what they'd seen and done to have much appetite. Dr. Cherrin entered and surveyed the room, and announced to the crews, "If what you've seen or experienced today gets to you...call the station counseling services for and appointment, please." He looked at the food and asked, "Who thought of this?"
"It was here when I entered. The room was empty except for the food, when I arrived about twenty minutes ago, Doc," one of the head nurses answered.
Nicole was about finished with the patients in the bay when a Marine walked through the door carrying a lost G'kar toddler. The infant squalled, squirmed and wanted down, so the Marine set the kid on the ground and watched him beeline straight for a woman sitting against the wall with her arm in a sling. Nicole smiled and finished her task while listening to the Marine talk to Kama Rashan. "The transport ship is here and will be loaded over the next few hours and then will return in 8 hours for more who want to go to the colony."
Twelve hours later the bay was down to a hundred who were waiting for the next transport. Only a handful of peacekeepers were being kept on hand and the rest was relieved...only Nicole found herself still locked out. "Damn!"
Marki turned and saw that the codes the woman entered wouldn't work, so she moved over and inputted hers--still no joy. "Okay, come along withus--can't guarantee anything fancy but a shower, some scrubs, and a hot meal since you slaved with us all day and most of the night."
Nicole swallowed hard but decided it beat sitting dirty on the promenade deck and the meal would be nice. "Okay. No one's going to push to recruit me, are they?"
Not until war is declared do we conscript civilians into the Corps...without proper training and brainwashing," the other woman smiled as Nicole fell into step.