[snip]

The Yellow Alert sirens were now sounding and flashing amber lights had begun throughout the ship. Faith should have headed to Sickbay to do her service as an auxiliary nurse, but was already there anyway, swotting for her Starfleet Medical examination. The situation on the Bridge must be extreme because her uncle, Captain Glen, never used the red and yellow alert systems unless he really, really had to. She saw Doctor Hunter run over to the medical lab and disappear inside.

Faith put her books away and walked over to where all the commotion had been taking place in Sickbay. She saw that the single patient who had been brought in earlier had the most terrible burns that she had ever seen before (although most of her medical experience had been in maternity and childbirth, so that didn’t see all that many burns.)

“Sirs! Reporting for duty! Where do you want me? How long have we got until the rest of his crew arrive?” Faith asked Nightingale or Kim, or whoever was making the decisions.

Doctor Kim was taking care of the burns aided by some nurses . He was not quiet comfortable with Faith helping out since she had little or no experience when dealing with burns ,it was the nursing officer who spoke ‘’Faith came over to my side and I’ll explain everything while you watch what we’re doing ‘’ .

‘’You have to pay him to speak cause he only does so when absolutely necessary ‘’ she whispered to Faith.

‘’How long have we got until the rest of his crew arrive?”

‘’I have no idea the Lt just materialized in sickbay, I’m not even sure there are more!’’ Kate responded in a sombre tone.

“Only one survivor!” Faith was shocked. “From an entire Starship! Oh!”

‘’Faith ‘’ Kate ‘s voice was sympathetic ‘’ First we don’t yet quiet know if there are other survivors somewhere , you have to be strong because sickbay is not for the faint heartened . I understand its not easy but don’t be deeply moved emotionally, stay calm and collected .Studying theory is achievable if you put your mind to it but actually working in sickbay during practice is harder and remember you have to excel in both to pass your exam ‘’.

Faith nodded. What she really felt had been surprise mostly, and she guessed, some fear - a fear of what could have annihilated another Starship - but she took the Nursing Officer’s advice in the way it was intended - as a teaching exercise. Faith knew that becoming too emotionally involved could lead on to other problems. Emotional burnout would cause a drain on a nurse’s energy that could manifest as emotional exhaustion, a lack of motivation, or feelings of frustration. She would try to remain more detached in future, but that was difficult; she wasn’t an unfeeling machine. “Yes, and thank you,” she replied.

Cross who was still staring at the patient’s vital signs and heard the ongoing conversion .The doctor knew Kate was giving Faith some advice on what to expect ‘’ Faith non of us are immune we just end up consoling each other .I cannot even begin to describe in words what I feel when I lose a patient during surgery ,I have observed Hunter walking away , wanting some time alone but don’t be dishearten ,demoralized for there were times when we cried with joy, elated when we had nearly lost all hope and then seeing the patient walk out of sickbay cured ‘’ her eyes fell on the burned man wondering what destiny awaited him .

‘’Oh Faith wanted to ask ,are you concentrating on a particular area of study ?’’ Cross asked.

“No, nothing in particular,” Faith replied, “because of my background, my knowledge is in paediatrics and gynaecology, so for Starfleet I need to concentrate more on combat casualty care, like this burns victim, and on immunology, for all the weird infections and viruses we discover out here, and xenobiology, as I know little about that. But do know what is expected of me. I’ve been to Starfleet Medical before, I just got kicked off the Triage Nursing course for various reasons I don’t want to discuss.”

Hunter was in the medical lab working on how to find the amount of gases in the patient’s blood, he inserted the slide with a drop of blood and waited for the computer which was attached to the equipment to show the results .
Knowing Helium was the second most common element in the universe as a graphical analysis of data would show, since different elements absorb different color of light a ‘Bar code’ for the different elements present would show up.

The doctor was expecting that the ‘Code bar ’ would show more Helium then Methane.

Samples of the NE patient showed high concentrations of CO2, helium and methane overall, mainly due to the near death status he had been in when they found him with the failing life support of his EVA suit. So it was expected all things considered and not odd really given what the man had likely gone through. For now the medical treatment was keeping him stable and alive, and at some point he could be brought back to consciousness but it would take some time yet, all they could do now was watch, keep him comfortable and wait.

He’s lucky to have survived

Hunter could only wait for the right time when the patient is stable enough to be brought out from the induced coma and hopefully give them some information of what happened .The doctor remembered the device which was given to the Captain by Cross …he wondered what information if any it contained .
Hunter reasoned that the man had held to it for dear life , considering the condition he had been in . The Captain should check it out immediately ..for their safety could be in jeopardy .

Hunter Dr.
- Faith, yeoman

The plastic surgeon for now was done with treating the burns and left the minor ones for the nurses to deal with then he turned to CMO ‘’I’m going to the science dept to make sure that the skin grafts shall be ready when needed. Advanced therapies for burned wounds involve application of bioengineered artificial skin substitutes to overcome graft rejection as well as topical delivery of mesenchymal stem cells to reduce inflammation and accelerate the healing process ‘’ and before Cross could put a word in he shuffled his way to the science dept .

‘’I think he said more words to me now then he did in a year! ‘’ the doctor exclaimed but she had other things on her mind ,approaching Faith and leading her away from the others Cross asked ‘’ Faith, my dear friend are you leaving us for good? If so why? ‘’ .

She had never forgotten that Faith was ready to take care of her baby since Cross had no family to call her own…she was ready to sacrifice her career for Miriam’s child.

“I’m only going to Starfleet Medical, and you encouraged me to do that, but I don’t have any plans to return to the Merrimack if I graduate. No! I need to begin a life of my own,” Faith replied. “I’ve told you before about how the Captain rescued my mother and I, so I have this great debt to him, but it’s a debt that I must have repaid several times over now. I hate this position of Yeoman. I’m his personal assistant, but I’m his dogsbody - I feed the cat and empty its litter tray - I’m a general household servant rather than a secretary. I spend a large part of the day just picking up PaDDs left behind. And I could have been… I could still be so much more. I could have been a Doctor like you! So, staying on the Merrimack just holds me back. But of course I’ll miss you all if I did leave permanently.”

• Faith, yeoman