BACKPOST Patch up Job

Posted on Wed Jan 20th, 2021 @ 3:50am by Lieutenant JG Sarah Wilson & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Lieutenant Aurora Vali & Lieutenant Anna S. Thesia M.D.

Mission: Healing of Minds
Location: Liberty

The Bajoran ship's orbit continued to degrade - its pull toward the planet ever increasing by the minute. The Liberty crew had scrambled to get the majority of the crew off and safely in medical care and there were only a handful left - those still trying valiantly to save their ship.

Savar watched as the Bajoran's ship continued it's death plunge through the atmosphere. There was no saving it,it was time to remove the rest of the crew. "Savar to transporter room, beam the rest of the Bajoran crew off...now."



Meanwhile in the Cargobay, Dr Wilson and her team had triaged the majority of the patients they had beamed in. Most were in an average condition, all would require radiation treatment which had already begun, as well as several other injuries that occurred during the ship's plight.

Aurora was triaging as best as she could, she was a counsellor not a doctor she only had basic medical training. Arranging people to different areas depending on how serious they’re injuries were she did her best to reassure as she went along.

Aurora and those with her who’d volunteered to help all had radiation badges to protect against exposure to high levels of radiation in exposed patients, Aurora checked hers at intervals until she lost track not noticing the shade on her badge was slowly turning colour.

The last of the crew were beamed into the cargobay, the Captain, First officer or whatever the Bajoran equivalent was, along with the engineer and helmsman. They didn't seem too happy to have wound up on the Liberty rather than saving their dying ship.

"Send us back NOW! We could have saved her!" The Captain shouted, giving Sarah an earful. The doctor held up a placating hand.

"If I send you back, you'll die" She started, before copping another serve from the ship's Captain.

"Wilson to Captain Savar - would you mind coming down here when you have a moment?" Sarah paged the ships acting CO.

"I will be right there Doctor." Savar replied with no emotion. A few minutes later he was entering the cargobay, He sought out Wilson and found her fairly quickly. "I am here Doctor. Why have you summoned me?"

The Bajoran ship's captain did wait to switch targets.

"I demand you return me to my ship! We could have saved her. Now our precious cargo will be lost, years of work gone. I must go back!" He came up to Savar's shoulders but didn't let that deter him.

"You err in two areas." Savar replied unruffled. "The first is your illogical statement to be returned to your ship. Your ship is gone. You also proceed from the false assumption that your demand means something. I assure you it does not. If we had not replied to your distress call, you and your entire crew would have suffered the same fate as your ship. However if you still desire to be with your ship, I can send you and whatever members of your crew wish to commit suicide out into open space without spacesuits."

The Bajoran Captain sputtered in shock. "She's gone?" His voice almost quivered. He had been willing to die for his cause, but knowing that his ship had been crushed in the atmosphere had taken the wind out of his sails.

"Regrettably yes. Your ship and the cargo it contained are gone." Savar replied coolly.

The Bajoran Captain hung his head, tears threatening to fall. "We were the first team to be setting up a remote colony, we hoped to start our new lives away from the Celestial Temple and the Prophets. There are those of us who do not believe as the rest of our people do. They have cast us out and made us unwelcome. We were fleeing" he explained, realising that his dream away from an oppressive religion was no longer.

"I see." Savar answered, "And the cargo you lost? Building supplies? Food stores?"

"And so much more - our lives were on that ship. Everything we had, everything we could take with us was there. Everything we needed. It took us years to gather it all together." He lamented, realising he didn't even know this guys name. "Who are you again?"

"I am Savar. Acting Captain of the Liberty. We can and will replenish the cargo you lost. If you would like that. Remember Captain you lost material things which can be replaced and not people who cannot. You have your memories and you will make new ones with your colony."

"You would do that? For us?" His eyes wide with disbelief. "Just like that?" He couldn't believe his ears. He remembered his manners a moment later. "I am Captain Rojosh. Forgive my outburst early - please."

"Yes Captain, just like that. By your own admission. You and your crew are religious outcasts, we would be more than happy to get your colony off on as the humans say the right foot."

"Such a blessing has never been bestowed upon my group like this - we have fought hard for what we have and to think it was lost was almost too much to bear. With your help we can begin again" Rojosh was humbled by the offer and the generous aid of this ship and crew. Not only were they healing the injuries and but now replacing their colony supplied.

"Make a list of what you need and we will make sure you have it Captain. There is no reason to make your beginning any more difficult then it has to be." Savar replied. "This is a time for a new beginning, let it be one of hope and not despair."

"We are indebted to you and your crew" Rojosh bowed towards the tall Vulcan and scurried off to find something to compile a list on. The Cargobay was a scene of controlled chaos. There were people suffering from radiation sickness and other injuries on every bed, a sea of medics and anyone with medical training administering anti-radiation medication and treating the wounded.

For a moment. Savar watched as the Bajoran captain disappeared into the crowd to make his supply list. Then he turned on his heel to return to the bridge and await the return of the Liberty's rightful captain.

"Whew... that was close" Sarah whistled as both Captain's amicably went about their various ways. She was sure someone was going to end up on the deck at one point. They had many hours of work ahead of them and she considered the option that they may have to return to pick up the Captain and thus return to Bajor before returning with these people to the colony they had been trying to set up. Best not to cross bridges before one came to them.

===== Meanwhile in Sickbay =====

Anna got the more severe cases of immediate injuries, as was befitting a surgeon, and went to work with her staff. Radiation warnings weren't going off yet, as being exposed to radiation didn't mean one was radioactive themselves.

But with the next patient that was beamed in, warnings went off. Anna read the screen. This woman was in bad shape, and would be getting worse before hopefully getting better. "My ship..?" she asked. From what she was wearing, Anna concluded that she was one of the engineers.

"Get her jumpsuit off", Anna said. "It's got some radioactive substance on it." She didn't bother to determine what that substance was, she just wanted it gone. Together with one of the nurses, she went to work, turning it inside out and then running themselves and their patient through the transporter to have the last bit of this filtered out. Transporter biofilters were great. Sadly, they didn't work so well in a highly irradiated environment, due to sensor limitations. The second path through the transporter buffer was a lot more effective in cleansing them.

"Sickbay to Wilson", Anna said while she gave the engineer a sedative so she could perform surgery on her. "I've just had one of the ship's engineers in here, with radioactive contamination on her clothes. Be sure to destroy everything they've got that's contaminated, and be careful."

===== Cargo Bay =====

Over in the cargo bay Sarah's head snapped up at the mention of radiation being detected.
"Everyone check your radiation levels, and on the patients" she ordered and recalibrated her tricorder accordingly.

"Thanks for the heads up Doc, we'll be careful" she replied to her direct senior officer.

Aurora checked her badge only to find it was registering the highest alert colour. “Lieutenant!” She looked towards Sarah. “I’ve got a problem ...”

"Aurora!" Sarah hurried over with tricorder in hand, running it up and down the length of the counsellor. "Over here" She guided her to a decontamination station where she could change into patient scrubs and out of the radioactive clothing.

"Here... pop this on... and when you're done we'll start treatment"

Aurora nodded and put on the scrubs, she’d never been exposed to radiation before which made her pretty nervous. “I’m sorry I should have been watching my badge. You have enough patients to deal with already.”

"Nothing to be ashamed of - the hard yards are done already" Sarah replied with a smile - guiding Aurora to a newly vacated stretcher.

"How are you feeling, any nausea? headaches or the like?" She asked, hypo in one hand, tricorder in the other.

“Headache yes, I’ve had that for a little while, a little queasy but that’s only just started. Either that or it’s nerves.” She shrugged her shoulders.

The tricorder confirmed the presence of radiation in the counsellors body. Sarah moved quickly to prevent permanent damage. Two hypos, and the promise of bedrest for the next day would hopefully do the trick.

" You did a good job - now rest. The most strenuous thing you can do is talk to people. Let your body heal." Sarah instructed.

“Yes ma’am” Aurora nodded and lay back. It was looking like she was a patient now too and she was feeling pretty angry with herself for being so careless too.

Further back in the cargo bay, the engineers were separated from the rest of the rescued crew as it became apparent that they were the ones who had not only been exposed to the radiation but also been contaminated with it. One of the med techs came up to Sarah and asked, "Doctor, what can we do? Many of them have inhaled the same radioactive dust that's on their clothes."

" Remove the clothes into the contaminated waste, there's plenty of scrubs to go round. As for the lungs - begin a tri-ox treatment and watch their sats - supplement oxygen if the lung function has been impaired. " Sarah advised, wondering how Anna was going in sickbay. "Cargobay to Sickbay - what's your status there Boss?"

===== Sickbay =====

"If you need to send me some more customers, go ahead, we can handle them", Anna responded. Several patients were already on their way out, and so far they hadn't lost anyone. However, with radiation exposure, the truly dramatic consequences would only make themselves feel some time after the exposure happened, and especially the engineers would have to be watched. "How many exposed engineers have you got?"

"About a dozen, and Aurora has been exposed as well - I'll send them over if you've got the space, otherwise we're a busy bunch of bees here." Sarah replied, already working on her next case of radiation exposure. Remove treat repeat, remove treat repeat.

"How many cases of critical exposure have you got?" Anna asked. Aurora's bad luck had struck again, she thought. That wasn't going to end well if she kept it up.

"3 critical, 9 serious but we can probably deal with the serious ones here if you like" Sarah replied, making the mental adjustments necessary. If she could move the 3 critical cases to sickbay that would free up a number of staff.

"Do it", Anna said. "I shall look for a hospital on Bajor that can take these cases, so we don't have to take them with us when we're travelling through half the galaxy on our next errand."

"From what I overheard from the Captain, they're on the way to a nearby colony. We can request supplies when we return to Bajor to pick up the Captain." Sarah shared from what she had recently learned. "The majority of the cases we have here aren't serious, it's more the lack of hands to administer the medication required."

"Feel free to request Starfleet command send us some Terellian personnel", Anna smirked. Terellians were mostly known for having four arms, and therefore four hands.

"I think they're in short supply at the moment" Sarah laughed "We'll be fine, we can get the additional medications from Bajor, when we get back to the colony most of the patients here will be well enough to resume their journey - with followup medication." She advised, seeing the critical cases get beamed over to sickbay. Slowly they were turning the tide.

"Good job", Anna said. "Maybe next time, between radiation burns and food poisonings, we'll actually get some shore leave."

" What is this madness you speak of?" Sarah snorted, sending off requisitions to DS9 as they made their way back to Bajor. Stores could be transferred when they picked up the Captain shortly. "I'll leave you with it Doc, give us a holler if you need anything else."

With that Sarah and her team went back to tending their patients. Most would make a rapid and complete recovery in time for the colonisation. Those that didn't would requite ongoing but simple treatments that could easily be handled with basic training by the colonists themselves. Just another day in the office.