(After some great advice, I am going to repost this in three parts. Any medical characters or the Councilor are welcome to jump in. All I ask is that we maintain the flow. I will be posting part one and two today. Part three will post tomorrow.)

Standing just before the wide twin doors of the Saracen’s Sick Bay, Eghimea drew in a deep breath as she stood. Her mind flooded with mixed emotions and lost in a state of confusion. The walk here had been easy enough. Though with each passing step, she felt her heart starting to race. The moment she turned to enter; she just couldn’t take her remaining steps.

Her blue and green medical data card held tightly in her hand. Such transfers of documents weren’t necessarily required, but among the StarGuard it had been considered tradition. It was a way for new Guardsmen to get familiar with their medical officers. This simple task had been such an easy thing in the past, however not this time. Today, she felt her heart race as a discomforting level of panic ran through her. Already she could sense the sweat slowly building on her brow. And for the life of her, she couldn’t understand why. It wasn’t like she hadn’t been to a medical facility before.

After all, she had logged nearly thirty non-scheduled visits to her local medical facility even before going on to the Academy. In fact, her Academy Medical Officer had once joked that he didn’t need to see her file to know what region of Bajor she was from. That all he had to see was the repeated reconstructions of her bones and joints. He had claimed that for her and those honored few, it was a badge of honor. She had logged nearly as many visits during her standard five-year Academy cycle.

So why now did she suddenly feel panic and fear. Eghimea wondered if it was more that this was a Federation facility. That they simply wouldn’t understand who she was, or why she did things the way she did. Then again, it wasn’t the first time she had visited a Federation facility either.

There was a short non-scheduled visit to the medical facility on Deep Space Nine after her Cadet Squadron dusted up with a group of FedBoys stationed there. Of course, the big two-meter-tall ape got the better of her. After all, his fists were nearly as big as her face. Or at least that was how it looked during the fight. Still, she was proud to spit a large part of the FedBoy’s ear out while the doctor was rebuilding her eye socket. Then again, regardless of what the politicians want to claim, Deep Space Nine was Bajoran, not Federation. So, did it really count, she wondered.

Her mind slipped to a much darker point in her life. That darker place was the only other time she had been aboard a Federation warship, and worse inside a real Federation medical facility. A wave of cold washed over her as she continued to just stand there in the corridor. She couldn’t help it. The trimers started with her right hand and then up her arm. She felt as if she was frozen by fear. It was if the hand of death itself grabbed hold of her heart and started to squeeze it. A thick lump formed in her throat as she tried to breathe. Doing everything possible to shake off the feeling, she tried to force her foot forward. Yet the rebellious foot simply wouldn’t move.

Eghimea could feel the pounding in her chest, as if something was beating rapidly against her rib cage as it tried to escape. Echoes of her mind filled her ears as she heard the Chief Medical Officer of the Thunderchild yell out, “everyone on your toes, the first one has arrived!”

Eghimea blinked hard as she heard someone screaming in pain. Her heart ached with sorrow for the poor woman screaming in agony and anguish.

The broken voice shriek with suffering. Another voice spoke calmly, “where’s her arm.”

“I have it right here.”

Slowly turning her head to the side and downward, she gazed down at her right hand as she opened and closed it. ‘Such a strange thing’, she thought as her mind tried to make sense of the broken memories. Her vision blurred as cool wet trails worked their way down her face.

Eghimea’s eyes stung, and she reflexively reached up and wiped the sweat from her forehead. Her wrist mounted pad started to beep. Lost in the moment, she gazed at the device and the heart shaped symbol flashing as it displayed some triple digit number in red.

That same strong and calm voice echoed again, “Doctor Surin, Bridge, how many more casualties should we expect?”

A distant voice replied, “sorry Doc, but it appears the one you have is the sole survivor.”

Just under the painful screaming, Eghimea could hear someone speaking in alarm, “didn’t they say to expect closer to a hundred or so?”

The Doctor’s voice broke into the conversation, “focus on the one we have, ladies and gentlemen. Not the ones we didn’t have a chance to save.”

There was a pause in the speaking. A shadow seemed to eclipse the memory. She could barely make out the man’s image, as she heard him speaking to her. “You’ve survived the worse. You’re in excellent hands,” his calming voice said. It continued but didn’t seem to be speaking to her, “lets get her sedated.”

2nd Lt Laju Eghimea