Posted by Lieutenant Commander Alexis Kane (Assistant Chief Medical Officer) in Side-sim: When Disappointments Intersect

Posted by Lieutenant Solal Segal (Oncology and Immunology) in Side-sim: When Disappointments Intersect

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Dr. Solomon Kane (Research & Development) in Side-sim: When Disappointments Intersect
Posted by… suppressed (31) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
The medical scanner would show that Achilleas had a skull fracture on the back of his head, a hematoma and brain swelling, as well as a ruptured C3 vertebrae. He wasn’t in good condition at all.

CSO Petrakos

Solal dropped the scanner, reached around, and stabilized Achilleas’ neck with his hands. “Computer… Forget the… Medical team… Transport… Two to… Sickbay.” He managed, his breathing getting worse. He’d hurt Achilleas. This was bad. Achilleas could die of this. He was sorry. He was sorry! He was sorry! The words kept repeating themselves in his mind.

He wanted to punch the wall again, he wanted to leave, get himself away from Achilleas, but he needed to keep Achilleas’ neck still. The ship’s system transported them both to sickbay. Once they had materialised there, he began weakly calling for a doctor.

~ Solal

Frigga had just finished her last appointment of the day and was thrilled to find her mom and the steak keeper coming through the door to get her. She ran over weaving circles around their legs, nudging their hands with her nose and then sitting down quietly.

That was until there was a shimmer if lights and the smell in the bay changed drastically informing her that something was very wrong. She barked sharply three times in warning.

Frigga

Alexis’ head snapped around as the lights shimmered and she moved into the center of the bay, snatching a tricorder off a table and knelt down next to them. “Solal, what happened?” She read the scans, “Get me a neck brace!” she called out to which ever nurse, doctor, or medical was nearby. “Prep the surgical frame. He has a fracture of the occipital and parietal bones. With a hematoma and brain swelling. Ruptured C3.”

“I didn’t… didn’t mean to,” Solal huffed, crying, having difficulty pulling in full breaths. “He was… helping me. His… skull..” he started to report, but Alexis had already done the scan herself.

Alexis took the neck brace and went to use it to stabilize Petrakos. “Solal, remove your hands.” She tried to pry Solal’s hands away. “Lt! Let go so I can stabilize him.”

Kane, AMO

Solal was still holding on, keeping Achilleas’ neck stable. He didn’t hear Alexis the first time. Touching his right hand caused him to wince lightly as she attempted to pry his hands away. The hand was discoloured and bruised. When she called him by rank he seemed to snap out of it enough to pull his hands away, sitting on the floor with a guilty, miserable expression on his face. What had he done?

~ Solal

He didn’t mean to? Solal had done this? She was reaching for her combadge when she heard Solomin call for security and then begin to question Solal.
Kane looked from the probe figure of the CSO to the figure kneeling beside him. He had to get him away from the patient and Alexis… immediately. He tapped his commbadge and said =/\= Security to my location. Combative crew member. =/\= He took a breath and looked at Solal. “Didn’t mean to?” His tone was argumentative and entirely pointed. As he spoke he moved slightly away, trying to draw Solal away from the unconcious CSO and Alexis. “Seriously? You don’t cave somebody’s skull in by accident. What’s the matter? Can’t control your temper? He made a crack about your mom, huh?” Kane’s voice dripped with condescension and sarcasm even as his body shifted ever so slightly, waiting for the Vulcan’s attention to be drawn to him and away from the pair on the floor.

Kane, R&D

Alexis muttered subvocally, the sound only picked up by the ear pieces. “Fathers,” she corrected absently even as she worked to stabilize Petrakos.

Solal was out of it, overwhelmed by emotion, his illness affecting his mind. “No… I can’t.” The sick Vulcan looked up at Kane, the ‘your mom’ comment having little effect on him. “I didn’t hit… him, if that’s what you think.” Some part of him knew Kane was simply distracting him using antagonistic methods, that logical part of him currently wasn’t in control of his actions. “I was upset… He was trying to stop me.” His words were separated by labored breaths.

He hadn’t yet moved from his spot on the floor next to Achilleas and Alexis. “That is what meditation is for… Not that you would understand that.” Solal said with his own frustrated disdain. “I can’t meditate. We knew my control… was failing. That something like… this, was possible.”

~ Solal

Solal was in the way and obviously unstable. She would have to call psychiatry after this. They couldn’t get Petrakos on the stretcher to move him to the surgical suite. “Yes, we did. And you were also told to report to psychiatry or myself if it became worse. We can not mediate symptoms of you do not report them.” Her tone was clipped, logical, calm. Everything Solal was not at the moment. “Now move so we can help him. You are not helping by just sitting there.” Alexis placed her hands on either side of Petrakos’ neck to stabilize it when they rolled him to slide the strtcher beneath him. They couldn’t do that though until Solal moved.

Kane, AMO

Kane moved to openly mocking him. He rubbed his eyes with his knuckles and made an exaggerated sad face. “Oh no, I can’t meditate, I can’t handle this, boo hoo I’m so sorry I probably killed my friend for trying to help me.” The last words were condescending and acidic coupled with a look of absolute disgusting. “No no, I get it. You Vulcans are all alike. ‘Logic is all-encompassing and the ultimate determination of action’… until you get just upset enough and then it’s fine if you lose control. Who cares that you probably killed him. Who cares that your little temper tantrum caused all this. God’s know you surely don’t. Caring is an emotion, and you aren’t allowed those.” He shook his head at Solal and crossed his arms on his chest. “Pathetic. I’m just sorry Petrakos there isn’t awake to see how much his friendship meant to you… which is nothing, judging by how you treated him. Again… pathetic. Might as well let him die so he doesn’t have to deal with you again.” and he took a small step back.

Kane, R&D

Solal’s look was one of pure horror. “Killed him?” He looked back at Alexis. “He’s not going… to die? He can’t!” He was about to reach out for Achilleas, not jostle him because even as confused as Solal was he knew that was bad, but set a hand on him, when Kane finished his tirade.

“Let him die? Let him die? No! His friendship…” Solal couldn’t admit it meant something because that would be unVulcanly of him. But it did mean something and the suggestion that it didn’t was rather inflammatory. The struggle between his desperate grip on logic, and his tendency towards emotion, was frustrating, deeply so. As if his two halves were trying to extricate themselves from each other.

It was this frustration that bubbled over and caused Solal to push himself up from the ground at last - having to take a step back to balance himself - and then swung the already bruised and swollen fist towards Kane, stepping into the swing.

~ Solal

=/\=Kane to Marshall. Report to surgical suite 2-A. Head trauma. Patient being prepped.=/\=

As soon as Solal was out of the way the two medical officers standing by knelt and together they rolled Petrakos and slipped the stretcher under him. “Get him into surgical suite 2-A. Jet’nal get images and scans and load them to the screen in the surgical scrub room.”

The medical staff looked at Alexis, “Doctor?” Ans waved toward the other Kane and Dr Solal. Alexis glanced over, “Code Purple protocol.” Which meant aggressive patient - stay out of the way, and secure the other patients. She barely managed not to roll her eyes as they all moved to do just that.

Kane was ready. He leaned back let the bruised hand whiff by his face and laughed at Solal. “HA! Missed me! Too bad you didn’t miss him!” and he danced back, just out reach. “Come on, you gotta do better than that! Treat me like your buddy there!” and he wiggled his hips, careful to keep his center of balance and ready to dodge the enraged Vulcan’s next attack.

Kane, R&D

Solal stepped in again. His breathing wasn’t steady. It made everything harder. He was feeling lightheaded and dizzy. “I. Didn’t. Hit. Him!” He swung the other fist. “I pushed him! Harder than I meant to! I just wanted him off me!”

~ Solal

Kane dodged again, or at least tried to. He caught a glancing blow that bloodied his lip, but he laughed again. “Ha! Waste of space, that’s what you are! *Mee meet mee mee mee! I didn’t hit him I shoved him!’ WHINER! C’mon! Just hit me already! Or are ya gonna screw that up too, Pointy-Ear?!” he yelled, using the well-known racial slur to draw him further and further away from Alexis and the CSO.

Kane, R&D

Back in school, before he had been taught the ways of meditation, that particular slur had been a favorite of school-yard bullies. Though it did not sound as good in French, the meaning was the same. Insulting the appearance of his ears in order to shame him for his non-human heritage. One of the kids he’d once accidentally hurt back then, he had been angry because of the use of that term. He hadn’t meant to injure the boy, but he hadn’t known his own strength. Vulcans were so much stronger than humans.

Kane’s use of it now reminded him of the way it made him feel on the schoolyard, his emotional control completely shot. He took an unsteady, but larger, step towards the scientist, swinging again with his right fist. He didn’t bother to reply, or rather, lacked the breath to form words but he currently felt as though Kane were the worst sort of human, the sort that made him proud to be Vulcan, because then he would be less like humans. He detested his human side.

~ Solal

The blow was like he was swinging through wet cement. Slow, ponderous, and not even close to Kane. Kane’s eyes assessed the Vulcan, and his doctor’s mind began cataloging symptoms. The rest of his mind, though, knew he had to keep at him until he either passed out and collapsed… or he got his hands on Kane.

“Ooooo, big bad Vulcan. All high and mighty with your precious ‘logic’. Fat load of good it does you. You can’t even best weak little ‘ol me, can ya green-blood? Some superior being you are… no better than a human. Looks like you lost that genetic lottery, didn’t ya? More human than anything else. Just another human trying to play Vulcan. And failing.”

Kane, R&D

“Logic… doesn’t help… win fights,” Solal stated in between breaths, as if that were obvious. He was close to collapsing, that much was obvious. Another fist flew towards Kane, as unsteady as the last. Solal wanted nothing more than to be Vulcan. He had the strength, the overblown, intense emotions, the aggressive, paranoid nature. And yet, had this pesky human side that made everything harder.

~ Solal

Kane grinned at him and as the fist lumbered towards him he stepped to the side, grabbed Solal’s wrist, and yanked him forward as hard as he could using his momentum to send him straight at the bulkhead with as much force as he could.

Kane, R&D

Solal grunted as his wrist was grabbed and yanked, hard putting him off course and towards the bulkhead with momentum he was unable to stop. He collided with the bulkhead with an unpleasant thud and promptly collapsed into a heap on the floor, in need of medical attention himself. When he looked up at Kane, without moving from his new place on the floor, he looked dazed and confused.

~ Solal

Kane looked at him as he walked to med-chest and pulled a hypo out. “Logic might not win fights, but physics sure as hell does.” He dialed in a minor (for the Vulcan, anyone else would be out for hours) sedative and moved to the prone Solal and pressed the hypo to his neck. “You go sleepy-time now. We’ll take care of you and your boy there.” There was a pop and a hiss as the meds were delivered. Kane had made sure to use basezadine, a sedative that wouldn’t exacerbate any current symptoms or issues. He looked up as Security came in and he spit some blood on the floor. “Thanks for joining us.” he said sarcastically before saying “Get me a carrier so we can get this one on a biobed! And where the hell is the medical staff?!”

Kane, R&D

Alexis walked back in from the surgical prep room where Marshall had taken over. “Where they should be,” she answered as she knelt down next to the now asleep Vulcan. Two medics appeared with the requested carrier. Solal was lifted and transferred to a biobed. “I want images of his hand and his head. Draw a fresh vial for blood work. I want the scans from his dialysis session this morning.” Alexis walked over to the nearest table and grabbed a dermal regenerator. She set it and set it against Solomon’s lip.

“Ow.” Kane muttered. “And restrain him. I didn’t give him a lot of sedative, and in his state it may wear off faster than normal.” He shooed Alexis’s hand away with a scowl and took the regenerator himself. “It’s a busted lip. I’ll be fine.” he muttered.

He tried to take it, but she wasn’t letting go. “Of course you will. Now be still and don’t order me around my medbay,” she said through the ear piece. All professional and a hint of more.

She spoke to security while she worked. “Lt.s Solal and Petrakos arrived by emergency medical transporter. Lt Solal said he didn’t mean to hurt Petrakos. Said he pushed him and got hurt. Lt Solal was aggressive, volatile, and emotionally unstable. Lt Petrakos has sustained a severe skull fracture and ruptured vertebrae in his neck. He is in surgery now. Lt Solal has been sedated.”

Kane, AMO

Kane, R&D

A moment later the regenerator finished and she turned and walked over to the biobed where the staff was situating the sedated Solal.

Kane, AMO

The security team restrained Solal to the biobed. One officer was writing down what Alexis said, another went to Kane the scientist, “I need a statement from you about what happened between you and Lt Solal and what you saw when Lt Solal arrived.” Two of them were stationed to stay and watch Solal, one was another Vulcan.

“And I’m gonna need you to get the hell outta my way so I can see to a patient.” Kane said, shoving his way past the Security officers and grabbing a tricorder.

“Commander, I’m just doing my job,” sighed the security officer, annoyed with Kane’s.... particular sort of ‘charm’. “Your patient attacked two officers, one of which is currently in surgery. I need the statement.” Was not standing in the way, rather off to the side, PaDD in hand.

“And the pati3nt is a patient, so stuff your statement u til he is stable. Now get out*!. That’s an order.” Kane said and turned his back on them to attend to Solal.

Solal twitched lightly, mumbling in the light sleep the sedative had put him into. The biobed read a high heart rate, his heart was pounding. His breaths were shallow and labored, his O2 dropping. The scans from his dialysis session were brought for Alexis, the blood sample was still being processed, the images not yet taken. He needed to be situated and still for imaging.

The scans from that morning were based around his kidneys. The function of his kidneys was near zero, waste products accumulating more quickly in his system. But the dialysis was still doing its job, cleaning his blood, and when he left that morning, the scans looked similar to those from the last time he’d been in sickbay.

~ Solal

“Ok, let’s get him on full push of O2 and get me twenty-five milligrams of Corfedesterol.” Kane said. “And can someone tell me why he hasn’t been given renalzipane? If his kidneys are shutting down, why are we doing something as barbaric as dialysis?!” and then the subvocal earpiece of Alexis picked up him muttering “For f%<ks sake, we could grow a new kidney with a pill two hundred years ago.”

Kane, R&D

Everyone sort of paused as the male Kane issued orders for medications and medical treatments, except for Jt’nal who immediately fitted Solal with a breathing mask and popped the canister of Corfedesterol into it. They all looked at Alexis, who was aware of the cessation of movement as she read. “He’s a fully licensed and practicing physician. Do as he says.” She glanced at Solal’s heart rate, “Give him 10 ccs of Metoprolol.” Then she answered Solomon’ question. “The reason he has not been given Renalzipane is because he is suffering from an unknown type of Autoimmune Encephalitis and it is unresponsive to conventional treatments. It is also attacking his kidneys. The AIE would destroy the new kidney before it was fully grown. Renalzipane is contraindicated in a patient with untreated autoimmmune dysfunction. Dialysis is a stop gap measure, but keeping him alive until I can figure out the cause and a treatment for him.”

Kane, AMO

A young nurse brought the hypo of Metoprolol to the bedside, hesitating as if scared of Solal, as if he might suddenly wake up and go crazy again. When he twitched she flinched back, then hurried up and gave him the hypo, then backed off again.

The medicated O2 mask and the Metoprolol had quick effects on Solal’s vitals, his heart rate beginning to fall, his breathing evening out as the mask dispersed the medicine. As Kane had predicted, the sedative was not going to last very long. He was starting to wake up, though not all at once, more slowly, his eyes popping open but he seemed groggy.

The blood results came back, showing a slight anemia, the same poor kidney function, and nothing else Alexis didn’t already know. Nothing that explained his emotional instability. The images were also able to be taken and were quickly loaded to a PaDD. There was a fracture in the leftmost metacarpal bone of his right hand, not dissimilar to a boxing injury except judging by how it broke, it was likely from hitting something solid and upright, like a wall, maybe.

The imaging of his head showed no injuries or anything of that sort, but increased activity in the area controlling emotion and decreased in that for logical reasoning and thought. The AIE was causing some swelling in his brain, which explained the increased confusion.

~ Solal

“Did anyone do a marrow functionality?” Kane asked and looked around, stopping when he got to Alexis with a quizzical expression on his face.

“If he is suffering from some kind of leukocytosis, it would explain a lot of the symptoms.”

Kane, R&D

Alexis looked back at him over the restrained Vulcan. “No. Initial symptoms didn’t warrant such a test. The anemia is new though. It would be worth doing.” Glances bounced around the medical staff. Had the male Kane really suggested something that the female Kane had not previously considered? It was the end of times as far as some of them were concerned. Alexis turned to the nurse, “Run the marrow functionality test.” The nurse looked at Solal starting to wake up and hesitated. “He is restrained Ensign. Physical restraints and a forcefield. He can’t hurt you right now.” The nurse nodded and approached timidly.

Kane, AMO

Kane glared at him and his tentativeness and said “Seriously? Just run the damn test already!” and physically moved the nurse to the side of the biobed. “If you are gonna be scared of every combative patient, you are in the wrong job.” Kane growled. He looked up at the readings and thought for a moment. “Have we done a genetic map and compared that to parents and grandparents? Hereditary autoimmune disorder not previously found or maybe a mutation?”

Kane, R&D

Solal glanced between the Kanes, looking quite confused and thankfully not as combative as before. There was no telling if something might set him off, though, so better to keep him restrained. His breathing was better, and his O2 proved that, at a more normal percentage than before, but he still felt out of breath. So when he tried to speak, something about his parents, his words muffled by the oxygen mask, he quickly gave up.

“Not every patient,” muttered the nurse, “just Vulcans who crack peoples’ heads open.” The nurse used a tray next to the biobed to prepare to take a bone marrow sample to test.

~ Solal

“And you’re done.” Kane snapped at the nurse and bodily moved them out of the way. “Get out of here. And don’t come back until I say so.” He picked up the osteoscanner and the collection wand. “You know, not so very long ago, I’d be getting you back for punching me in the face by driving a REALLY big drill-like needle in your femur to get a sample. So be nice or I will.” Kane said to Solal with a wicked grin.

The nurse scowled at scientist Kane and then turned to look at Doctor Kane to see if he really had to go.

Alexis met the nurses gaze, “There are plenty of non-combative patients you can be assisting right now. If he can provoke a Vulcan, you really don’t want to get in his way.” Then she spoke louder, “If any of the rest of you can’t perform your duties calmly and efficiently given the situation then go. Report to primary or another location. We need calm not chaos.”

Solal looked really guilty and shrugged. It was almost like he might start crying again. The threat seemed not to affect him besides making him guilty. The old way, with the giant needle, was painful but that didn’t bother Solal beyond being an objectively worse way to gather the sample.

Alexis shook her head. “Genetic study is in progress. Solal was adopted and has no data on his birth parents. By happenstance he has a half sister, suffering from an unknown autoimmune dysfunction as well. I had her transferred here for treatment when I found out she was sick as well. Though her symptoms are manifesting differently. I am comparing their DNA to each other and to known issues as well as regional DNA analysis. It is a longer process than comparing to parents.”

Kane, AMO

Kane nodded and soon, thanks to microtransporter technology, a marrow sample appeared in a sterile specimen container. Kane sent it to the Lab and marked it ‘Priority’ . Kane then looked over at the CSO and said “How’s he doing?”

Kane, R&D

Even as a priority, results would take at least an hour or so. The CSO was still in surgery, but if everything went well he shouldn’t be in surgery much longer. Doctor Marshall was doing the surgery.

~ Solal

Alexis checked the scans and tests, “Copper 8mg supplement, 9 mg Prednisone-V for the cerebral edema and Kayolane 250ml. We’re gonna put him under completely. He’s not been sleeping either. His cortisol is too high at 40 mcg/dL, even for a Vulcan. Jt’nal,” she called to the Vulcan nurse, “get the osteo regenerater and fix his hand. Document the injuries for security.”

Alexis looked up to the main readout and scanned the information from surgical. “His vital signs have stabilized, Marshall got the shunt placed successfully.”

Kane, AMO

Bump