Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: The Infiltrator

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: The Infiltrator

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: The Infiltrator

(snip)

Grat looked around, “Anyone else hurt?” At the negative he moved over to Alden, waving Temple to take Randy’s place, “Randy you are good nurse, but move. The man is about to be your brother-in-law, let me look at him. Get a stretcher.” Grat started taking vitals and running scans. Randy got up and took Franks with him out of the way. His voice was low and gone was the sassy-go-luck cross dressing Scott. “No one, I mean no one touches anything.” Franks nodded looking really concerned. He knew Randy well enough to understand he was concerned about something. His first thought was that it was another practical joke gone wrong. His next thought was for Rand.

Randy left and pulled out his comm, =c=Randy to Morgan. I need you to come to deck 9 immediately.=c=

A somewhat tired voice came back over the comm saying she’d be right there. Tracy and Randy had been dating casually for awhile and Randy was a good judge of character. He didn’t know who had been cleared and verified yet, but he knew Tracy and trusted her. She met him in the corridor on his way back with the stretcher and he explained very quickly what was going on and what had happened. “Give me your tricorder, Randy. I want to take readings on the machine.” Morgan took it and scanned the machine for traces of biological evidence. Finger prints, skin or hair samples, anything that would tell her who had recently touched the machine. She called an engineering officer to the lab to run a full diagnostic on the machine and waited for the results.

The fingerprints on the machine were Alden’s and an engineer’s. No others were found. Skin and hair samples from the exterior of the machine turned up nothing. The Engineer’s diagnostic tool a few hours to come back and revealed that the machine had been repaired the night before. There was a work ticket, and there was nothing off about the ticket. The engineer who did the work had made a mistake resulting in the overload. It was a rookie mistake but it wasn’t inherently foul play, anyone who wasn’t paying attention could have done it. Alden was lucky though, the machine hadn’t pulled enough amperage to kill. If it had been higher, he’d be dead. If the ship hadn’t cut the power to the machine and he’d been shocked for longer, the damage to his body would have been worse than it was.

Morgan asked to see a copy of the ticket. To see who put in the request, who answered it, and if the DNA trace matched the engineering officer who worked on the machine.

The ticket looked legitimate. It was for random shutdowns of the machine, signed by Alden. The signature looked like Alden’s. It was answered by an Ensign LaCroix, whose DNA signature matched that found on the machine. It was still worth having a talk with him. If it was truly a mistake, he’d need to be reprimanded for making such a dangerous mistake anyway.

Randy was thinking about Rand, the fact she wasn’t there on the edge panicking meant no one had told her. He wasn’t going to tell her until he knew if Roman was okay or not. She’d be upset with him, he didn’t care.

Randy

Grat’s scans showed the path the electrical current took through Alden’s body. Electricity always took the path of least resistance, using the body to complete a circuit. Alden had touched the machine with both hands, so it had travelled through his arms and chest, damaging everything it touched along the way. Unfortunately, hearts and electric currents didn’t mix, while his vitals were within a good range, his heart was beating erratically, an arrhythmia caused by the electric current interfering with the heart’s natural impulses. The scans showed damaged muscles along his arms, chest, and in his heart. More detailed scans in Sickbay would show the extent of it better. There were electrical burns on his palms, where the electricity had entered and then exited his body.

~ Roman

Grat barked out, “Lt Franks!”

Franks hurried over, “Yes Sir?”

“NO ONE touches that machine. I don’t want anyone else in my medbay.” Franks nodded and looked at the engineer, “Can you disconnect it from ship’s power without hurting yourself or causing another charge?”

“If I take the right safety measures, shouldn’t be a problem to disconnect it,” the engineer answered. “Should be an easy fix once it’s disconnected, too.”

Franks nodded. He started to tell Scott but changed his mind. He didn’t need the ship’s gossip talking. “Xander, go tell Carpenter the machine malfunctioned and his results will be late.”

Grat turned back, “Randy, come help. Temple get fluids, the burn kit, and the dermal regenerator, and prep the pulmonary support unit in the surgical suite.” Temple left in a hurry Together Grat and Randy lifted Alden onto the stretcher and rushed him out. Randy looked at Franks, “Rand.” and then was gone.

Franks nodded. He had no idea where Rand would be, but decided to check her office first. It was somewhere to start.

In the surgical suite Grat turned on the biobed and checked the K-3 Indicator to see how much pain Alden was in. First was an intense scan to make sure there wasn’t a residual electric current still in his system. Confirming there wasn’t Grat nodded to Randy and Temple to get started. Randy hooked up the pulmonary support unit to take some of the strain off of Alden’s damaged heart. Temple set up the plasma infusion unit and then started working on the burns on Alden’s hands with the dermal regenerator. Grat started a cortical stimulator to reset the rhythm of his heart. “Give him Terakine for the pain and Chloromide to help regulate his heart.”

His heart’s rhythm was speeding up in response to the electrical issues, becoming a tachycardic arrhythmia. As the medications started to take effect and the heart given rest by the support unit, the rhythm became a little more regular.

Great watched the readings and once the heart found a steady, if not normal rhythm he knew how much anesthesia to give.

Grat started the bio bed to the following procedures: CPK Levels, Deep Tissue Scan, and a Myocardial Enzyme Balance

The CPK levels showed his body registering enough pain to cause stress and likely significant discomfort if Alden were conscious for it. It was not, however, as bad as his pain had been after the surgery on his leg. The pain seemed to be going down in response to the Terakine Grat had ordered.

The deep tissue scan showed moderate damage to the muscles of his arms and mild damage to muscles in the chest that assisted with breathing and the voluntary muscles of the chest. The damaged heart tissue was mostly around the thick wall of the left ventricle, making it harder for the heart to pump blood to the body adequately.

Cardiac enzymes were elevated but all that meant was the heart was working harder than it should.

But Grat didn’t waste time. Alden would need surgery to correct the damage to his heart muscles and the nerves, and he started right away. The tissue migrator was put to immediate and prolonged use along with the dermal regenerators. Direct Reticular Stimulation was started to repair the nerves and restore his natural neuropathic rhythms.

Grat

The burns on the palms of Alden’s hand were second degree, not too bad but certainly painful. It should take a few sessions with the regenerator to fully heal them. With the treatments Grat used, the rhythm of Alden’s heart began to normalize as normal electrical impulses took back over.

~ Roman

The damaged muscle and nerves could be repaired without surgery, but the damage to his heart required immediate care and it would take the dermal reginerator too long to work the tissue from outside. It was a slow and delicate process, but not impossible. Great made the decision to keep Alden sedated until his heart could function at a normal rhythm with out the pulmonary support system.

Franks knocked on the door of the small yeoman’s office. Rand looked up at the clock. It was too early to be Roman or Randy. She quickly saved and logged out of her console and cleared her PaDD. She got up and opened the door. “Franks?”

“Rand.” He held his hands out helplessly and licked his lips, “Um,” and Rand suddenly felt icy all over. “There was an accident, in the lab.” Rand didn’t hear another word he said, she pushed her way past him and took off down the corridor for the lift. The office door closing and locking behind her. It was taking too long to arrive. She was heading for the access ladder when Franks grabbed her by the shoulders and steered her into the lift.

Rand walked into the medical bay and everyone stopped to look at her. It got really quiet and no one said anything, they just watched her. Then Franks was talking to her. Something about he had to get back to the lab and figure out what happened. Then everyone went back to what they were doing while trying not to be obvious about watching her. Her arms ached and felt like she was being pricked by thousands of needles. Where was Randy? She needed Randy. No one could tell her anything other than Dr Grot would be out to talk to her as soon as Cmdr Alden was stable. Rand sat in a chair out of the way and waited.

Meanwhile Morgan was interviewing Ensign LaCroix.

Rand