Posted by Lieutenant Commander Bethany Kovra Gadi (Chief of Security) in Nightmares Tell Us What to Pray Against

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Aasrel Izei (Chief Medical Officer) in Nightmares Tell Us What to Pray Against

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Bethany Kovra Gadi (Chief of Security) in Nightmares Tell Us What to Pray Against
Posted by… suppressed (40) by the Post Ghost! 👻
The ship rocked and shuttered. There was a groaning as the hull protested the bombardment. The klaxons lit up and the alerts blared loudly, almost drowning out the orders and updates being blared across the bridge.

The ship had survived, but there was a lot of damage. Smoke and sparks filled the corridors. Bethany was moving through the ship with the rescue crews. “Cmdr! We can’t get the injured to sickbay. There’s been damage.” Bethany’s heart raced painfully as she took off for the nearest jefferies tube access.

Bethany

The damage to sickbay was severe. The jefferies tubes did grant a way around the damage that blocked access, dumping Bethany out down the corridor from Sickbay. Smoke came from the open doors of the sickbay. Officers were working to carry the injured to sickbay.

The team with her moved towards the bulk heads and debris blocking the way. Some of it could be moved safely some could not. Emergency supports and reinforcements were necessary. Another team came in with more wounded. Bethany took one of the wounded, putting an arm around their waist, taking their weight. “Alright, once you help them into sickbay, go down and start working in clearing the other end if the corridor. People need to be able to get through. Kessik, Broj go down and get emergency supports to stabilize the bulkheads. Hurry.”

Inside, sickbay was busy. Many of the medical staff were injured, leaving less available staff to assist the injured. Those who could work, did. One of the medical officers, a Lieutenant and Aasrel’s backup, stopped when he saw Bethany. “Commander! I’m so glad you’re okay. We can’t find the CMO!” He said as he walked up to her. “Lieutenant Izei was injured in the first attacks but he kept working. But after the last round of attacks damaged sickbay, I haven’t seen him!”

~ Aasrel

Bethany scanned the room, but her hopes were crushed beneath the proverbial boot at the Lieutenant’s words. “Did he leave with an emergency team?” Please let that be it.

The Lieutenant shook his head. “No, he was working here.”

“I have to keep the teams moving and looking for crew, but what can we do right now to help? It’s pretty damaged in here. Do we need to set up a secondary triage in a cargo bay?”

“Yes, please. Secondary triage and anything you can spare to help with the damage to sickbay systems.” The Lieutenant said to her.

=/\=Gadi to Search team 4. I need you to go to the aft shuttle bay and prepare it for triage.=/\=

=/\=Aye Cmdr.=/\= Bethany looked at the Lt. “Can you spare a nurse to head down there and get things started?”

“Yes, ma’am. One moment.” The lieutenant said and comm’ed a nurse to head down there.

=/\=Computer. What is Lt. Izei’s location?=/\=

Bethany

=/\= Lt Izei’s last known location is sickbay. =/\= the computer responded. He was here somewhere, or somewhere the computer recognized as here.

~ Aasrel

Bethany looked around again. “We’ll find him.” She moved out of the way and began doing a full search of the medical bay and surrounding areas. Maybe he’d fallen and hit his head? =/\=Gadi to Izei. Respond please.=/\=

Bethany

The lieutenant nodded again, “Thank you.”

Sickbay was busy and full of injured patients. Parts of it were nonfunctional or covered in debris. There had been a fire, but it was put out. Things in the damaged area were still sparking. Medical officers were searching the debris, carrying injured medical staff towards the safer parts of sickbay. Bethany’s comm received no response.

~ Aasrel

Bethany took the place of one of the medical staff, sending them back to help with the injured. Bethany grabbed one of her officers that was totally cross trained in Ops to work at stopping the sparks and rerouting power to get different areas up and working and to coordinate with with engineering. Every so often she would call out looking for a response. It seemed to go on forever. The smoke and debris and injured. Eventually she started calling specifically for Aasrel. Each person they found made her heart stop painfully when it wasn’t him. The further into the damage they got, the more severe the injuries. No one had seen Dr Izei. “Aasrel!” She looked at her tricorder, searching for the next most likely place to search.

Bethany

There were still biosigns among the debris but not many. A faint set of betazoid biosigns registered deeper in the wreckage, but they were quickly fading. Others kept searching around her, trying to find and account for everyone. There was a voice, somewhere in there, calling for help, but it wasn’t Aasrel’s.

~ Aasrel

Bethany moved through the debrisshe felt like she was running through quicksand. No matter how fast or hard she ran she couldn’t get anywhere. The smoke blacked out the emergency lights, the red klaxons giving an eerie sinisterness to the swirling fog. She moved toward the Betazoid life sign, finding other injured and leaving them in the care of the people behind her. “AASREL!” She coughed as the smoke choked her. “AASREL!”

Through the swirling smoke she spotted a gloved hand on the other side of the room. Between them were piles of debris and sparking hanging wires and consoles. She tossed loose pieces out of the way as she climbed, slipped and stumbled over what was in her way.

Bethany

Aasrel’s normally white gloves were brown and grey from dust and debris. More alarming still was the blood stain on the visible one. The rest of his body was obscured by debris or smoke. He must have been near the blast that caused this.

As she unburied him, it was clear his injuries had been severe. There was blood, it wasn’t immediately clear where it was coming from. His arm was obviously broken. His face was badly bruised from flying or falling debris. There was blood on his shirt, a lot of it. Judging by how he looked there were likely other serious injuries, maybe internal ones. His eyes were closed. By the time she had him unburied enough to move, his breathing, shallow and labored before, had stopped completely.

~ Aasrel

“I Found Him!” Bethany’s throat ached and closed on the inhaled smoke. She screamed again, but her voice wouldn’t carry. She felt for his pulse against his neck. She bent down and breathed into him. “Rel. Rel breathe.” She breathed again, watching for his lungs to move. She fumbled with the medical tricorder on his belt. She needed to figure out what was wrong. His shirt was sticky with blood, but one spot felt warmer. She ripped the sleeves off her shirt, folding them unto make shift bandages and pressed on the wound. “Help!” She coughed again. The smoke was getting thicker and it was hard to breathe. Why was no one coming? “Rel breathe, come on.” She leaned over him again, breathing for him.

Bethany

His chest wasn’t moving. His pulse was weak and thready, and then gone. Soot around his nose and mouth indicated along with whatever else was wrong in his body, he’d inhaled smoke as well, a lot of it. No one was coming to her shouts and calls for help. When she got the tricorder off his belt, the screen cracked but the unit still functional, if she used it, it would register a concussion, the broken arm, several broken ribs, internal injuries including internal bleeding, a wound to his abdomen that had damaged his internal organs, and numerous other smaller injuries. His leg was injured as well. It registered no respiration and confirmed that his pulse had stopped.

~ Aasrel

“No! You survived the Borg. You don’t get to give up now.” She wiped the soot from his nose and mouth and then breathed into him again. Using one hand over the wound to stanch the bleeding, the other began chest compressions. She knew it would hurt. She yelled again.

=/\=Gadi to transporter room. Emergency transport to main medical bay.=/\=

There was no answer and no shimmering lights. She continued to breathe and pump his heart. In between she looked for a vial of adrenaline on his belt, or any stimulant. She spotted it and worked it out of the loop. The vial and hypo slipping and dropping in her bloody hands. She finally managed to slam the vial in and pressed the hypo into his neck. “Rel? Don’t give up, you promised.” Her voice broke and not from the smoke this time.

She breathed into him, pumped his heart, for an eternity. Covered in soot and his blood, tears creating streaks through the dirt on her face. Then suddenly she was flying backwards, being pulled away. As Aasrel’s body got smaller in her view, the lieutenant stared at her and shook his head and then covered Rel’s body with a sheet.

---

“NO!” Bethany sat straight up in bed, her heart was beating wildly out of control, and she couldn’t breathe. It hurt to breathe. She began to sob uncontrollably.

Bethany

Aasrel woke to her voice. Her sobbing woke him further. “Bethany? You okay?” He asked, sounding tired. He was looking at her with concern. “What’s wrong?” He asked after another moment of her sobbing. Then he sat up and hugged her. “I’m here, Bethany.” He said, trying to calm her.

~ Aasrel

Bethany wasn’t quite awake enough to register his voice as real and not part of the lingering effects of the nightmare. Rather than calming the feel of his arms made her sob harder. She turned into him, her face pressed between his neck and shoulder. She hugged him in a vice like grip even though she was trembling violently. She couldn’t catch her breath and sounded like she might hyperventilate.

Bethany

By now Aasrel had guessed she’d had a nightmare, but he assumed it was about her evil, abusive father or maybe her past work or something. Not him. He hugged her tighter, pulling her into him and letting her cry. She was trembling and hyperventilating and he just wanted her to calm down so he started rubbing her back gently. “Bethany… Was it a dream? If it was, it’s okay. You’re awake now. Whatever it was, it’s gone, okay? I’m right here with you.”

~ Aasrel

She only nodded her head against his shoulder when he asked if it was dream. Bethany cried for awhile. When he rubbed her back she seemed to try to press into him. Eventually, she didn’t stop crying, but it seemed to slow. “You can… you can’t… die. You can’t.” Then she started to cry harder again.

Bethany

Aasrel kept hugging her and rubbing her back, just letting her cry. It didn’t seem like anything else was helping, so he just kept on with that. He looked at her questioningly, moving away just enough to see her face. “What? I’m not dying any time soon. With any luck, anyway.” He said and smiled at her.

~ Aasrel

Bethany didn’t see why he was smiling. Of course she was too shaken by her nightmare to find anything worthy of smiling. She pressed her face back into his neck as she shook her head. “No… in my dream. You d… died. You can’t.” Her voice was muffled against him and her voice broke on ‘died.’

Bethany

Aasrel hugged her tightly again. So that was what happened. He let her stay against him and started rubbing her back again. “I promised I wouldn’t give up, remember? That means no dying if I can help it.” He said gently. He had a morbid curiosity to how he died in the dream, but he didn’t think asking that was going to help her, so he didn’t.

~ Aasrel

“It wasn’t your fault.” It was hers. She hadn’t fired fast enough, letting the ship get hit. She didn’t find him fast enough. She didn’t fight enough. Her voice sounded watery and she hated crying. It was something she never got over though. She just usually did it in private where no one was watching.

Bethany

Aasrel kept hugging her. “It doesn’t do any good to make guesses on who is responsible for a death.” He kissed her gently. “And it wasn’t real. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

~ Aasrel

He was right of course. It wasn’t real, but it still felt very real to her. She needed to let it go. She didn’t believe in premonition or other such non-sense. It was just a by product of irrational concerns. She couldn’t seem to slow her breathing and her heart continued to pound painfully. She couldn’t find the energy to tell him that though, so she simply held onto him.

Bethany

Aasrel kept holding onto her. “Count your breaths,” he said softly. “Focus on your breathing.” He said. He took steady breaths, knowing she could feel his chest move against her. “It’s okay.” He peeked at the clock. It was almost time to get up but not quite.

~ Aasrel

Eventually, she turned her head to draw in deeper breaths. The rhythmic rise and fall of his chest and the warmth of his hands eased the ache and trembling. It had been a couple of years since she’d had a nightmare that disturbed her that badly. Finally the adrenaline wore off and she slipped into a fitful sleep chased by images of his broken bloodied body.

Bethany

Aasrel lay next to her until it was time to get up. Unable to sleep himself anyway, he rubbed her back and tried to be comforting even though she was asleep. When it came time to get up, he silenced the alarm and carefully slipped out of the bed, wanting her to get a little more sleep.

Bethany was a light sleeper, but she barely moved, other than to make a sad sound of protest as he got up. Her lack of sleep from her illness combined with the nightmare made her sleep heavily.

He slipped into the bathroom with his change of clothes, and then stepped out several minutes later, changed into his new clothes. It was the roguish look Bethany had picked out for him, but instead of the biker half gloves, he wore his white medical gloves. It was exactly what he’d been wearing in her dream.

~ Aasrel

She woke slowly, her mind not wanting to give up the velvet comfort of oblivion. Her breath hitched as she inhaled deeply and her face felt dry and itchy from the tears and her eyes still ached. Bethany expected to feel Aasrel next to her, and when she didn’t, she sat up quickly scanning the dark room with tired eyes and a sleep muddled mind. “Aasrel?”

She threw the sheet off and turned, her bare feet dropping to the carpeted floor. Where was he? The light from the bathroom silhouetted him from behind, leaving him in a dark grey partial light. For a moment dream and reality swirled together, and his ghost stood before. Her breath stopped and the color left her. Her heart pounded and began to break. She felt the welling sharp sting of tears begin before reality snapped into place.

Bethany

Aasrel heard her call his name and stepped towards her, seeing her sitting up. “Bethany?” He asked. From his perspective, the light from the bathroom lit up her face, and he could see as the colour drained from her tearstained skin and her eyes welled as if new tears were coming. He moved next to her and sat down on the bed, wrapping an arm around her. “That nightmare really frightened you, didn’t it?” He asked, looking at her again with concern.

~ Aasrel

His voice helped dispel the illusion. A deep breath helped release the tension and make her lungs start working again. It also helped ease the building ache. Bethany leaned against him, reaching for his other hand. She wanted, more than anything right then to take the glove off. It was irrational and she knew it. “Yeah, it did.”

Bethany

Aasrel did it for her. Reaching around her, he pulled off his gloves and then took her hand with his free hand, resting his other one on her shoulder. “We’re both going to make it through this.”

~ Aasrel

“I know. Together.” Bethany held onto his hand tightly for a moment and then wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. After a long moment she took a fortifying breath and straightened. “Do you want coffee?” She had to get moving or she’d wallow. She needed to move past it. She still had work to do and needed her mind focused.

Bethany

Aasrel squeezed her hand, hugging her back when she hugged him. He rested his head gently against her until she pulled away. Aasrel answered her question with a quick kiss. “Please, if you’re making them. Decaf.” He said and smiled at her.

~ Aasrel

Bethany kissed him and squeezed his hand before getting up. She moved across the room, comfortable with him and her own skin. She took the pot and dilled it from the sunk in the bathroom and returned it to the pot. Her movements were fluid and steady as she poured the water and filled the filter full of the warm rich smelling grounds. She set both their mugs beside the machine after turning it on.

She turned to him, “If you weren’t already dressed, I’d ask if you want to join me in the shower.” She winked at him as she turned and headed back towards the shower.

Bethany

“Well. I did jump the gun on getting dressed, but I didn’t shower, and who would I be to break our habit?” Aasrel said, standing to follow her into the bathroom.

~ Aasrel

Bethany laughed softly. “I knew you’d have the right answer,” she said peeking back around the door frame at him.

---

Bethany stepped into her boots, as she brushed her hair back over her shoulder. She tossed him a grin as she walked over to the coffee pot. She lifted the pot and poured both mugs full. “What’s on your agenda today?”

Bethany

Aasrel redressed himself in the same clothes he’d worn before the shower. He pulled on his gloves with a groan. “Our resident hypochondriac has an appointment with me today. I’ll spend thirty minutes telling him that a chill is just a chill.” He moved over by the counter and picked up one of the mugs. “Thanks.” Then he leaned on the counter. “Other than that, routine stuff mostly. Paperwork, patients. Same old same old. You?”

~ Aasrel

“I did some research on the cruise ship and its systems. I’m going to run some simulations through the electronic warfare room. Then run checks to make sure the boarding party is familiar with all the marine gear we stole. Then a few hours of bridge duty.” Bethany picked up her mug and took a long gulp of the hot bitter delight. But alas even the placebo affect did nothing for her anymore. “I’ll be glad when this stage is over. Just sitting here waiting is starting to put everyone on edge. I had to break up a fight in the mess yesterday.” Bethany shook her head. It was bound to happen. The ship was small and they really didn’t know what was coming next. “Hmmm… I know it’s wrong, but have you ever been tempted to tell that patient he is wrong it is something much worse?”

Bethany

Aasrel shook his head. “It shouldn’t be much longer, I hope. The waiting is the worst part.” He looked at Bethany questioningly, “Tell him what?”

~ Aasrel

Bethany shrugged, “I don’t know. Something really awful or some made up disease.” She chuckled, “Or something completely benign but sounds bad when you use scientific terms.” Bethany could have a dark sense of humor.

Bethany

Aasrel chuckled and shook his head, “Then I’d never get rid of him. He’d want every possible treatment! And then he’d come in every day saying he thinks he’s getting worse.”

~ Aasrel

Bethany laughed, “Well I didn’t say it would be worth it to tell him that.” She sipped the coffee again. The aroma reminded her of cold early mornings on her uncles’ front porch. Things were simpler then, and she wasn’t alone fighting the monsters of the world. She had a sudden deep aching pang of homesickness for them. When this mission was over…

“I guess we should get going. Those simulations won’t analyze themselves.”

Bethany

Aasrel smiled and leaned over, hugging her and giving her a quick kiss. “I’ll see you after our shifts.” He said. Then he took his coffee and was out the door towards Sickbay.

~ Aasrel

Bethany sat on her small sofa for a few minutes after he left. After pulling herself together she left. Patrols appeared to be increased around sickbay that day, though Bethany was nowhere near by. On her way to the EWS she did appear in sickbay and knocked on his office door.

Bethany

He pressed the button to let the door open. “Come in.” Then he looked up and smiled. “Bethany. How is your day going?”

~ Aasrel