Dana was able to get the female Marine, who said her name was Corporal Brock, settled with the hypospray. Sadly, the Corporal was not the only one suffering from the trauma of whatever battle they had been involved in.

Malo got the Tellarite Marine with the shattered rib cage into the surgical biobed immediately. The wounds were severe, with massive internal swelling, and the bone shards were getting closer to puncturing a vital organ with each breath.

What happened next became a bit of a blur for both doctors.

Dr. Anu went through Marine after Marine, calming them down, applying sedatives as necessary, and ushering the worst cases to Sickbay. From the shell-shocked comments of the injured or the quiet conversations between those less wounded, she got the impression that the boarding action had gone about as well as the ship-to-ship engagement had.

Dr. Astrel’s time was almost completely consumed by that one patient. It became a battle on multiple fronts, stabilizing one area just long enough for him to move on and deal with more pressing issues. At one point, he even had to induce paralysis in the man’s lungs to conduct the most critical tissue repairs.

Once the Marines and wounded survivors from the various escape pods were processed, Dana returned to Sickbay and let Nurse Molly and a Security officer handle the remaining triage and organization. There were still plenty of injured in Sickbay who needed to be processed, including one grizzled Sergeant missing a section of his abdomen.

When they received word that an evacuee in critical condition was being transported directly to Sickbay, both doctors worked diligently to save the young man’s life. A severe concussion and brain bleed had been compounded by hypothermia as the escape pod’s support systems failed.

Despite their best efforts, they couldn’t save him. Two of the Marines were also beyond saving, and there were now four bodies in the morgue across the hall.

The tempo in Sickbay finally slowed, and both doctors realized how tired they were. They had responded to casualties during the systems failure and had not let up since.

The recovery ward was full… all the beds were occupied, and multiple patients with lesser injuries were sitting on the floor. The tone was somber. A few Marines talked among themselves, but others stared off blankly.

The Caitian Sergeant started coughing, and the alerts on his biobed started beeping, drawing the two doctors’ attention.

Gamemaster Mal Fet