Posted by Lieutenant Miriam Cross (Chief Medical Officer) in Main Sim -Sickbay

Posted by Crewman Faith Hopkins (Captain’s Yeoman) in Main Sim -Sickbay
[snip]

Kate was sitting at the edge of the bed,she knew something was not right and with the dim emergency light sickbay looked so eerie . It was quiet not even the soft humming sound of the engines ,the nursing officer wished Cross would come maybe she could shed some light on what was going on.

Suddenly D’Nesh ran inside sickbay ,she looked around and on seeing Kate went to sit next to her .The ex Orion slave was clearly distraught so Kate put a reassuring hand on D’Nesh’s shoulder …it was the only thing she could offer.

Faith arrived at Sickbay. Sickbay was her emergency post as she was a partly trained nurse. While the Red Alert hadn’t been sounded, the ship had gone dark, the engines could no longer be heard, and comms and turbolifts weren’t working. So, she assumed that some crisis was upon them.

“Hello!” called Faith, “Anyone here?”

Kate raised her hand ‘’Over here Faith ‘’ she called out , as D’Nesh tightly held at her arm clearly terrified ‘’Are they coming for us ? ‘’ the ex Orion slave asked worryingly.

Faith walked over to them sitting in the dark. “What’s she mean? Who’s coming here?” Faith asked them. She didn’t give them time to reply before adding, “Aren’t their any patients here? We need to get some temporary lighting in here otherwise they’ll all get anxious about the dark too!” She looked around for something that could run on battery power. At this point, even an ancient DC electric hand torch would be fabulous.

‘’Calm down Faith ‘’ she pointed to were Dr Kim with a hand torch was scribbling God knows what ‘’ The last patient has been discharged and D’Nesh is frightened, not knowing what is happening with the blaring and the dim emergency light maybe it reminds her perhaps of some past memory ‘’ the N.O shrugged .
‘’ I wonder where he managed to find that torch?’’ she asked while noticing that the Orion girl had laid down on the bed.

“What is he writing down?” Faith asked. The last time she had seen anyone write with a pen, she was probably still back with the Sons of the New Earth in the hippy commune. “Is it his last will and testament?” she asked, with a smile on her face.

Then she seemed to buck up. “Listen, it’s only a power cut! D’Nesh, I’m sure that Orions aren’t afraid of the dark and that was just some Tellarite slander!”

Sickbay doors were fortunately stuck open with the power outage and the sound of crewman coming down the corridor was heard. A pair of Ensigns eventually shouldered through the doors with another slung between them.
“Doc? You here?” One of them called. “Turner hit his head on a console when the ship went dark. The two able bodied Ensigns dragged the unconscious one to a biobed.

After taking some wrong turns Cross finally made it to sickbay just in time to see the unconscious crew member being laid on the biobed ‘’ What happened ? ‘’ the CMO asked.

“Turner hit his head on a console when the ship went dark ‘’

Cross nodded ,took a deep breath and replied ‘’ Okay I’ll take it from here on ‘’.

Doctor Kim came shuffling by ‘’ Cross my shift ended three hours ago ! ‘’ he exclaimed in weak and muffled tone ‘’ I’m hungry and tired ‘’ and with that he turned around to leave ‘’ Of course doctor ‘’ the CMO replied as she snatched the torch from his hand ‘’ Have a goodnight sleep in the corridor ‘’.

Kate was now next to Cross ‘’What are we going to do ?’’ she asked her ‘’Well go and open the show case where the good old fashion doctor’s tools are kept on display and bring them to me ‘’ the N.O nodded and was off, meanwhile the female doctor checked the patient’s pupils ,they reacted to the light of the torch though the left was a bit sluggish .

Through observation she noticed that his breathing was normal though he had an open wound on his forehead that was slightly bleeding. When Kate came back Cross took the stethoscope ,she fiddled with it not sure which went where but Kate took over and put it in place as it was suppose to be ‘’Oh thanks silly me ‘’ Cross muttered while Kate tried her best not to laugh.

While she was listening to his heart which was normal Kate took his blood pressure which was slightly low. After the assessment and evaluation came the implementation.

Cross first priority was to clean and stitch the wound , she then inserted a vein-flow ‘’ Kate please start a saline you have to open it by hand just calculate how many drops per second . At least the bleeding wound was on his forehead cause I would have been worried that there could be a bleeding in the brain and without the scanning there is no way of knowing . We’ll keep an eye on him,check his blood pressure every hour for now ..hopefully he’ll start regaining consciousness .
Cross understood that he had suffered a concussion.

Now that that patient was looked after a trickle of crew came in with various blunt trauma injuries from running into things, being thrown into hard surfaces from their sudden stop, etc.

‘’Seem we are about to get busy ‘’ Cross told Kate ‘’ The battery in this torch is not going to last forever ,so how are we suppose to work in the dark !’’ the CMO exclaimed ‘’I hate my life ‘’ she muttered.

‘’Don’t fret just yet ‘’ Kate responded ‘’ I have candles in my cabin and I know other nurses have them too .I’ll go and bring them, though could do with an extra pair of hands’‘.

‘’Candles? ‘’ Cross asked ‘’Why do you have them on a ship ? Besides how are you going to make your way there, the last thing I need is for you to get injured and.....’‘

The nursing officer put a finger next to her lips ‘’Sssh.. Cross I have been on the ship for years , way back as a junior nurse and know my way with my eyes closed. You have no idea what we use to get up too do you ? See you’ re not the only crazy one on the ship ‘’ Kate smiled while Cross was wondering what she meant, did they do rituals ? Or perhaps some where actually witches? She shook her head as if to get those thoughts out of her mind .

What the hell am I thinking * the female doctor thought * Maybe they use them for meditation which seem a more plausible answer . She saw Kate exciting sickbay accompanied by another nurse ‘’ Hey be careful ‘’ Cross called out after which she started treating the crew who had been injured.

Kate finally returned with a handful of candles ‘’Where have you been, its been hours since you left ‘’ Cross asked ‘’My dear lets consider ourselves lucky that most of the cabins were open, thanks to the blaring sound that made some of the crew go outside wondering what was happening or I would have returned empty handed ,anyway I headed to the bridge and left some of the candles there while the other nurse went down in the engineering dept , they at least have some light . We put some along the corridors as well ‘’ the N.O lit a few candles while speaking and just in time as the batteries of the torch died.

With the lights of the candles flickering Cross treated the injuries some of the crew had sustained. Most were minor injuries but still had to be treated ,then a young crew member came in ,the CMO noticed that she had wrapped her shirt between the elbow and wrist and was clearly in pain.

Cross helped her to sit on the biobed and started unwrapping the shirt and saw the radius bone broken and protruding from the skin.

Cross CMO.

Quite frankly, Faith was astonished at the number of injuries that had resulted simply from the lights going out. The Merrimack obviously needed a complete overhaul of it’s risk assessments and health and safety policies if it had so many obstructed walkways, damaged uneven surfaces, jagged edged corners, trailing cables and staircases without handrails. Faith would mention it to the Captain once this mission was over and he could get Ops. onto it.

The darkness and the use of candles reminded Faith very much of her time back on Terra Nova, in the brotherhood of the Sons of New Earth, but those were not great memories to re-live for her. Life there was very basic, harsh, and most of her problems had began there, so she dismissed those thoughts to the furthest reaches of her mind.

Faith made herself useful caring for the patients who had already been treated by the doctors. She hoped that the lights would come back on again soon, otherwise you couldn’t tell how many other injuries would result.

• Faith, Yeoman

By now the injured female crew was taken to theater ,since it was the only place clean of any pathogens, Kate brought some light and helped Cross put on sterile gloves .The CMO gave the patient anesthesia while the N.O used the ambu bag for oxygen ,the doctor worked relatively fast cleaning the wound and pressing the bone in place she then stitched the would .Finally the injured arm in a cast ,once set the cast may be trimmed or adjusted for comfort and fit.

Kate took her out of the theater ‘’Lets keep an eye on her and once she’s conscious give her some analgesia ‘’ she also ordered a prophylactic antibiotic given intravenously .

Cross CMO.

Cross with the help of the others was treating minor injuries ,most of them recounted what had happened or asking what was going on....the CMO could not offer any explanation due to the fact that she did not know herself .Some of the crew decided to stay in sickbay as there was enough light from the candles , while others left .The occasional candle in the corridors offered them some sense and perception of where they were going .

Cross CMO.