Jayme sat at the desk in sickbay several PADDS at hand and a cold cup of coffee at her elbow. The EMH had been disappeared after pestering her for over an hour. Now as she studied Neuropathophysiology and Treatment she was developing yet another head ache. With her eyes closed she mentally went through the treatment protocol and the physiology associated.
The intercom on the desk beeped, and she answered. "Sickbay."
Mer'an frowned as he stood in the middle of CIC. [Jayme?]
"Yes, I'm here studying," she answered, rubbing her temples, then asked, "What's up?"
[We are allowing a damaged Nausicaan freighter whose life support is failing to dock with us. They have casualties and will need medical assistance,] he said, then added, [They are twelve minutes from hard dock.]
"Have two squads EVA suited to carry out the rescue and have them move the injured to the cargo bay." She thought about how many there could be and how to deploy her own corpsmen. "Please call up all medical teams to report in at sickbay and I will give them orders."
[Received.] A minute later she heard the overhead messages.
The EMH popped to life and shook his head at seeing her still behind the desk and saw the signs of her headache and the PADDS scattered on desk. "Did you get much done?" he asked.
"Yeah, I got a major headache from those...not much else," she said, standing and rolling her head on her shoulders as she moved out into the main sickbay.
"Well, headaches can be caused by many things, but unless you received some trauma from trying to beat the material into your brain literally then I would label this as a tension/eye strain headache."
Jayme took a seat on one of the exam tables and allowed him to run a scan and saw him load a hypospray. "Nothing that's sedating...we're on the clock in about 9 minutes."
"I heard Commandant Mer'an about the casualties. I will need you here and working as an advanced practitioner... I know you haven't tested on the chapters for the last six weeks, but I have monitored your answers and they were correct and here you will get the hands-on."
Jayme tilted her head and he injected the med into the common artery of her neck. She winced and exhaled...frack that burns! She felt his hands on her shoulders as he pressed her flat on the table.
He held her shoulder in place and ordered, "Rest for three minutes and allow this to work." He started to set up and had two dozen trauma kits out and ready. He watched Jayme rise and order a tall fruit drink and sip it as her corpsmen arrived.
"I want you guys to work in teams of two. Triage, triage and triage. Send have the troops bring the surgical and trauma patients to sickbay. Treat the rest...the cuts, exposure, and bone injuries as able." Get down there. Call if you need help but we are going to be busy here. Several of the G'kar physcians appeared and several of the nurses started pulling equipment out and setting up." Jayme watched the forty leave...she wished the other ten weren't spread between the 'Dark Fury and the Orion Star.' She downed the rest of her drink and ordered a cup of hot coffee and sipped it over the next couple of minutes.
The Klaxon sounded twice and it was announced, [Vessel is hard docked and the air lock is stable; troops are a go for op!]
Jayme looked over at the EMH and smiled, and finished her coffee as the first of the causalities rolled in.
Jayme took the table that was minus a physician, but had a nurse handy. It was only minutes before the sickbay had patients on the floor on stretchers and she'd overheard that they were lining the halls with several of the corpsmen monitoring and treating as they were able.
Jayme had worked to save several extremities and performed and emergency c-section to save both the mother and the infant. Just as she backed away from the table another patient was prepped. This one was in status seizures and she closed her eyes, called up the stats on Nausicaan physiology and neuropathology, started her scans and administered several medications. Nothing was working and she keep refocusing on her studies...she was about to call for help when she reached over and grabbed a cortical stimulator, placed it on her patient and prepared to shock her patient's brain into a more normal functional state and stop the seizures. She noticed the EMH was at her side and ready to give further instruction but smiled and moved on when she remember the cortical stimulator.
After a shock, more anti-seizure meds, and a second shock, normal waves appeared. His vital signs stabilized. She weaned off the cortical stimulator and the patient was moved. She checked the time...six hours and they were still backed up. The EMH touched her elbow and pointed her toward the office, "Take a break for ten minutes and then relieve one of the other physicians."
Jayme stood in the glassed-off enclosure and sat and did a few stretches and ordered another cup of coffee when she noticed her hands shaking. Getting up, she ordered from the replicator a high-protein ration bar and ate it. The EMH was talking to thin air...must be one of the corpsmen with a question, Jayme thought. She downed the rest of her coffee, headed back out, and sent another on break. He was working a patient that had cardiac arrested after being treated for exposure. She continue to code the patient, and then called the time of death after twenty minutes of resuscitation effort.
In CIC, Mer'an and the bridge team worked to bully and get two light cruisers whose allegiance was questionable out of the defensive zone five light-minutes from the base. It took several hours and a test shot from one of the two phaser cannons mounted on the asteroid. He put out a call and the two light combat ships posted to defend the base were ordered to close and provide support. When the two ships entered the system from different trajectories, the two who were making ggressive noises turned and backed out of the system. Mer'an hated having to bring in the ships like that when normally going dark would have been enough to hide, but with the rescue operation in progress he decided to save lives and leave the power on for the medical teams and troops.
A child was Jayme's next patient, and then an elderly female, followed by several of her own troopers with concussion injuries and burns who were injured by an explosion during the search and rescue. She could hear the groaning and yelling from the hallway. Her headache was back. After fourteen hours she backed away from the table as her last patient was moved off to a temporary treatment area. Standing with her back against the wall, her mind refused to see the mess. Her mind was numb. She looked at herself and noticed she was a mess, splattered with several different species' blood. Then she thought about how far out on a limb she'd gone in performing treatments that she hadn't yet been tested on or approved to do.
"Ms. Alcon, don't beat yourself up. You did well and I will send a complete record of this to Dr. Cherrin for your transcript," the EMH comforted her.
"The hell with my transcript...I could have killed any number of these people..." Jayme shook her head violently and threw up in a nearby trash can. Her head pounded and the bile in the back of her throat threatened more vomiting.
"This is awful!" He yelled and several people turned to look at him. "This is what we can expect to see in this area as more people flee from or are attacked by the Mullurans." He looked at Jayme as she wiped her mouth on her sleeve. He shook his head and moved into the office, retrieved the hypospray he'd used earlier on the captain, wishing he could administer something stronger to help her get over the guilt. While she was leaning against the wall he used his knee to brace her as he injected the second dose.
"Go, sit in the office for ten minutes then head for the showers and make your reports to Commandant Mer'an and to your superior officer. I am ordering you to take a tranquilizer and get some sleep!"
Jayme sat in the office with her head down on folded arms, and waited for the medication to work before reporting in just as she was-well, minus the personal protective gear she was wearing over her fatigues.
She pulled off the treated surgical gown, grabbed a second glass of juice, and checked on all of the patients that had made it and were being treated. "I want all of you to set up shifts to help monitor and help treat these people." There were 68 critically injured, 150 serious to minor injured (three of those G'kar troopers) and forty-two dead. As she did her walk-through she noticed several of the corpsmen were treating each other for minor injuries and strains. She shook her head and headed up to CIC to report.
Mer'an paced his bridge of sorts. He saw her enter, and he took his seat and listened to her state the final totals of the casualties. "Issira was down on the dock and worked for twelve hours along side the troopers, and we have a video record and now we have the captains log and ships data core. The captain of the vessel died of injuries before he could be transferred to sickbay." He paused and then looked into her haunted eyes. "Do what ever it takes for you to get some sleep-- preferably dreamless. See the doctor if you have to, that's an order."
Jayme left CIC and noticed once again her hands were shaking and she was so cold. She knew combat shock-she'd had experienced it before-and knew that a tranquilizer was the only way she would get any sleep. She stopped by sickbay and noticed that the EMH was there and one of the G'kar physicians continued to monitor the fifty most critical via remote sensors. The Doc, saw her enter and watched as she accessed the pharmacy station and ordered up a heavy tranq dose. He moved over and took it from her hands and saw what she'd ordered and shook his head. "Are you trying to sleep or drop into a coma?" He looked into her eyes and noted the hands. He placed the vial in a hypospray, adjusted the dose to a third of what was available, and injected it into her deltoid muscle. He kept the rest of the dose behind his back as she massaged the site. She held out her hand for the hypospray.
"Sorry, Captain, but I will send a corpsaen down to your quarters in four or five hours to see if you need a second dose; if you need it then that corpsman will administer it. Mer'an called and said that the 'Dark Fury' is on its way and will evacuate the 150 minor injured and the dead to one of our colonies."
Jayme showered and pulled herself into her cubical and with the calming stone in her hand dropped off to sleep. Five hours later she felt someone run a thumb nail up her bare foot..."Damn!" she sat up and saw that Rae was the tormentor. "What are you doing here?"
"The Doc couldn't find anyone brave enough to come check to see if you were still breathing and if you were to be given the second dose." Rae laughed and as Jayme drew her knees up and relaxed against the wall, giving the CMO of the 'Dark Fury' room to sit facing her.
"You are going to have your hands full with the lot that we are sending out with you to the colonies."
She nodded and smiled. "And am I going to have trouble with one thin- skinned human?"
Jayme shrugged and then said, "No." She reached for the water bottle she kept at the head of her mattress, and then added, "Rae, I've never been seen anything like what I experienced today." She saw understanding in the G'kar physician.
"It's what most of us hope to never experience but my people have been dominated and enslaved for generations. So, it's not new to me. I hope the next generation will be able to live without knowing what we've experienced but...with the upcoming storm and Mullura trying to take everything they can..." After a few minutes Rae smiled, "So, how are you feeling?"
"Like crap, but since I'm awake now, I figure a good workout and cold shower I'll be ready to take on the Mullurans and kick ass." Jayme smiled and took another pull off of her water bottle.
Rae, pulled her scanner from her thigh pocket and slowly moved it over her friend. With a frown she took a lancet from a breast pocket, set her scanner down, put her hand out and reluctantly let the other medic puncture a finger and place a drop of blood on the analyzer and waited. It beeped and she looked at Jayme. "You still have a high blood level of 'dust' in your system. Did any of your patients today have any contamination?"
Jayme's eyes widened, "I never even thought about checking for 'dust'."
"It isn't a spike like a new exposure but ... your body isn't clearing it, Jayme and that worries me." Rae pulled from her bag one of Jayme's favorite ration bars and handed it to the other woman.
Jayme took the hint and pulled the wrapper off, slowly ate it, and drank more water. When she finished she put the wrapper in a bag she kept for garbage. "So, now what?"
Rae looked at the woman now that she was more awake, hydrated and had some nourishment on board. "Now, I am going to administer part of the tranq the EMH send down with me."
"I don't need it. I know my services are needed and I need to check in with Mer'an and Issira." Jayme started to turn and found her way blocked by the female G'kar.
"You have no business being on duty at the moment...and if need be I'll have you loaded up with the rest of the injured and I'll lock you in quarters tranq'd to the gills like I did on the way to SB901! That will be entered onto your record. Or I can dose you now and in a few hours you'll be better able to do your job. Your choice?"
Jayme leaned back against the wall with a sigh, "Frack!" Jayme reached out for the hypospray and wanted to punch something when the other woman shook her head 'no.' "Okay, fine! One favor, any site but the left deltoid--it's still sore from the first one from the EMH."
Rae administered the dose in the left thigh and when Jayme stretched out and was asleep, she secured the cubicle and headed back to sickbay to help organize the transfer.