In the back of sickbay, away from the commotion in majors, Charlie was on her own, steadily working through the less serious cases. As she moved on to her next patient, Charlie could feel the painkiller starting to wear off. Pushing it aside she quickly scanned the young security officer in front of her who had a minor concussion and fractured ankle. He was drifting in and out of consciousness but stable. As she had another quick probe of her abdomen, she briefly thought about asking the CMO to check her over but she knew that Janvier was busy with a patient. As she turned back and administered a hypo to her patient, the young man’s eyes suddenly snapped open and he instinctively thrashed out in defence, catching Charlie on her injured side, before passing out again. She cried out in shock as one of her fractured ribs dislodged and punctured her lung, nicking her spleen on the way, and sent a violent shockwave of pain through her body.

From around the corner in the main sickbay, Enj’s ears suddenly pricked up and he let out a little whimper as he sat up and looked towards the minor treatment area, his canine intuition and senses picking up that something was wrong.

With no one else around, Charlie frantically gripped onto the bed as it suddenly got harder to breathe. She could feel all the energy draining out of her body as her heart began to slow and after a few moments she collapsed to her knees, still holding onto the bed. With a trembling hand, she went to reach for her comm badge but her vision was already starting to blur as she began to lose consciousness. As the strength left her arms she lost her grip on the biobed and slumped silently to the floor.

In the main sickbay, Enj suddenly jumped up and barked loudly as he ran over to Janvier and pawed her leg urgently. Looking up at her he barked again and with his teeth began pulling forcefully at her trouser leg.

Dr Bailey