Fancy Titles And Medical Magic.

Posted on Sun Nov 25th, 2018 @ 6:02pm by Captain Benjamin Ingram Dr

Mission: S1E1: Welcome Home, Now Go Away
Location: Stardock Infirmary (Not Main Sickaby)
Timeline: MD1 10.45AM

Benjamin Ingram was pretty sure the Infirmary was smaller than his first off-campus apartment at Starfleet Academy. But then again it was little more than an emergency aid station, and one of a dozen scattered around the dome of the station. They seemed a little redundant given transporter technology, but given the main medical complex was housed in the Support Module and was...for now...missing in action.

Well, thank god idiots hurt themselves on a regular basis.

"Excuse me?" he said, trying to raise his voice over the general malaise of voices that were packed into the space. Crewmen, officers, and the teal collar's of Meditech's almost made the line outside seem plausible. A nurse ambled past him, and Benjie wave. "Excuse, nurse? I'm-"

"Scan in at the door," she said bluntly, eyes not tracking up from the chunky ruggedised PaDD in her eyes. "Name, rank, station ID tag and a short list of your symptoms. And before you ask everyone has a headache and a rumbly tum, so whining about it won't get you seen faster."

"Ah, no you misunderstand me-" you terribly irritating woman about to receive the 'I want to talk to the manager' dressing down you deserve. "I'm here to see Doctor Kiiz. Station business."

"Its all station business today a-" the nurse looked up, and either recognised the high cheekbones and regal nose of his lineage or saw the commander's pips on his collar. "Sir!"

"Indeed," Benjie said coldly, his eyes looking deeper into the infirmary. "The doctor's location, in two words or less."

She pointed.

A tall Trill with dark hard stepped back from a biobed, and quickly moved on to the next. He was barking orders to the other doctors and nurses as everyone was running around the cramped and full medbay. He pulled a hypospray from an Andorian's neck and looked up and locked eyes with the Commander. In the Trills deep brown eyes, the eyes of a young man shown, but behind then was centuries of knowledge. Quickly, the CMO made his way to the Commander, "Sir. I can give you something for the pain, but if you require more, I will need to do a full exam." He said without introducing himself, even though he had never met the CO before.

"What? No." Benjie said, pulling down the collar of his uniform and gesturing to the dermal patch on the side of his throat. "I availed myself of the medical supplies in Ops. I came down here to see if there was anything Station Command can do to speed things up. We are on something of a dead line."

Pausing for a second the Trill thought. "Anyone with basic medical training to distribute patches and give basic first aid. Maybe turn the mess hall into a staging area for those who don't need immediate attention." Vereyn shifted his way around the Commander to give a hypospray to a young ensign who was about ready to hurl all over the small med bay.

"Have we had any reports of serious injury?" Benjamin asked, looking around the infirmary. "Given the station didn't move in the literal Newtonian sense, I'd be of a mind to label the lot here malingers and be away with it. I can't very well do what needs to be done if half the conscious crew are in here with a headache."

He took the CMO's shoulder and gently turned him aside for a moment.

"We've...not had any cases of Capsule Syndrome, have we? The physical shielding on the outer hull is sound, but given this is the test flight of the stuff..."

"Nurse! Send anyone who has been treated back to their stations. It's getting to crowded in here!" Vereyn ordered. "Not yet..." The Trill doctor said reluctantly. "I have those two on close observation." He gestured to biobeds one and two, "They have signs of cough that were not there before the jump. Some motor skill loss, but nothing unheard of when something like this happens."

"Two out of twenty thousand..." Benjie said. He kept the joy out of his voice, given that wasn't even a rounding error for the crew total. "I'd call that fortunate. But there was another reason I came down here."

He looked over his shoulder.

"I know this isn't your main facility, but is there an office or a space we could talk privately?" he said in a subdued voice.

Vereyn nodded his head towards a small office that was there for the medical officer on duty. He lead the CO to it and shut the door, "What can I do for you sir?" Vereyn said as he took the opportunity to get a cup of coffee.

"Stop treating the walking wounded."

He held up a hand to forstall further comment.

"This will become common knowledge soon enough, but for now it's need to know. We've misjumped. The rest of our departure flotilla didn't jump out at the same time we did. I have the Op's team working on fine-tuning our short ranged sensors to see if the Support and Engineering Modules are nearby, but we need to prepare for the worst: that we won't have them at all. WIthout the Engineering module, we're down to the backup fusion plants and our stored deuterium, not to mention long-range comm's back to the Milky Way. And without the Support Module, nor Medical Complex, nor the replicator feedstock tanks needed to replicate more supplies," he nodded to the coffee. "We're not at rationing levels yet, but we're weeks away from that point if we can't find the other two modules."

The Trill could feel the blood rush from his head, "What? I heard that they spent years on these calculations." He picked up a PADD that had the current list of personnel in sickbay. He started touching names, "Dismissing anyone not showing any form of sign for the syndrome. So far only the two. Will have all department heads on the lookout." Vereyn said sending the orders to the head nurse and other doctors out in the main room. "We need to make sure this bay has power at all times. Making this our temporary main sickbay."

"I won't tell you how to run your department, but we have a crew of 15'000 here with us now. We can stand to run a handful of the aid stations around the dock," Benjamin said. "I would just begin planning ahead. There might be a moment we have to think about transferring a portion of the crew planetside to the colony."

"We will need them. I have several nurses and doctors that I can post there." Vereyn said as he filled his coffee mug again. "Aye sir. Once I get things cleaned up here, I will have a list to you." He sat down in the chair, he knew something went wrong, but didn't know to this extent. "At least the Engineering module has the sickbay and some medical staff in case the others needed medical attention."

"Well, yes there is that indeed," Benjie said. It was nice to see someone have a positive outlook on the whole disaster. Yes the Modules were missing, but at least the caretaker crews on them would have luxurious living spaces and the very best of treatment. "But like I said, we need to think in the long term. I want you to quietly run the numbers, on many people we could stand to lose on the station given our current supply and logistical needs. If the Colony is in good shape, we might be able to transfer the surplus down there. At least on a planet, the air isn't likely to run out, or the enviromentals go offline."

With a nod, he made a note to do so, "Yes sir. I will get on it once things clear up out there." Vereyn said standing back up, "I will have a full list to you by end of duty shift tomorrow. As well as a report of any more personnel with Capsule Syndrome."

"Good, good..." Benjamin said, turning on his heel as he kept talking. "Keep me apprised of any needs you might have. My door is open to you."