SD 241511.01 Joint Log: Executive and Chief Medical Officers

Posted on Sun Nov 1st, 2015 @ 4:55pm by Commander Isabella dei`Silvisi & Ensign Corrigan Landon

1,465 words; about a 7 minute read

The signs of the recent battle were too painfully apparent as Isabella stepped out of the turbo lift and onto deck five. The corridor from the turbo lift door to sickbay was filled with wounded officers and crew as well as the crewmen who had helped the wounded get to sickbay for treatment. She instantly started sorting the injured into categories based on their injuries as she walked towards sickbay, with the more seriously wounded being closer to sickbay. Several nurses were walking through the corridors, treating the wounded as best they could, and Isabella mentally nodded at that. As she arrived at sickbay, Isabella found the doors had been locked open. As she entered, her eyes scanned the main room until she noticed Lieutenant Landon. Walking over to the chief medical officer, Isabella waited until he had finished treating his patient before she spoke.

“Lieutenant, do you have a moment?” Isabella asked.

Though the battle had calmed down outside of the Endeavour, it hadn't ended in sickbay. The chaos had been ordered, but there were still many who needed to be treated. Thankfully, so far, he had only lost one person. He was damned he'd lose another. At the mention of his rank - which was odd - he spun around to find he was face to face with the XO. He had yet to meet her, but he only had recognized her from her personnel file. However, at the moment her name escaped him. He pondered the question for a moment, and immediately his mind had said no, but that wasn't what came from his lips. "Sure," Corrigan replied.

He lifted his arm toward his office, it was really the only private place they could talk at the moment. Once in the office, he caught his reflection in the transparent aluminum that formed part of the bulkhead of his office. He looked horrible. He was dripping with sweat, his face, hands, uniform jacket, and tunic were covered in blood and soot. His sleeves were pushed to his elbow, his uniform jacket was open, and the collar of his uniform tunic was splayed open. He desperately needed a shower. But, that didn't matter at the moment. "What can I do for you, Lieutenant?" Corrigan asked.

Isabella had paused to glance through the transparent bulkhead that allowed viewing of the main room of sickbay from the office and she realized that she had partially zoned out. Shaking herself, she turned away from the window and faced the chief medical officer. She had never met him face to face before other than briefly during a briefing, only viewed his service file, and mentally she scolded herself for that. She really hadn’t intended to meet one of the senior officers in this manner, but this was situation they found themselves in.

“Commander McKeon wanted to know if you could give a rough preliminary after action report for medical,” Isabella said.

Corrigan nodded. He knew this moment was coming, he just didn't think it would be so soon. "There were multiple casualties, most of them were minor. There were a couple of more serious cases that required sedation, and surgery. I have one patient in critical condition, and one..." he paused, "Ensign Kalahai didn't make it."

Isabella frowned as she thought over the crew roster manifest for a moment. After a moment, she nodded. “He was in engineering, wasn’t he?” she asked.

Corrigan nodded. "It was plasma burns," he finally said after a few moments slipped by. His own gaze found itself looking out the transparent aluminum to the bio bed that he lost the young ensign. "He no longer has parents, but," he turned back to the XO, "he has a brother who is on the Ghandi." When things had settled, he was sure that he had delved into Kalahai's personnel file. "So senseless," he said softly shaking his head.

Isabella nodded silently. Plasma burns were one of the top leading causes of casualties from the engineering department, and more often than not those casualties ended up as fatalities, especially during a battle. She followed the chief medical officer’s gaze and stared at the biobeds where the nurses and the few medical officers were still treating the wounded. After a moment, she took a step towards Corrigan and reached up to place a hand on his shoulder. It was a small comfort, but it was better than nothing.

“Most of the time, conflict is senseless,” she said. “I’ll see to Ensign Kalahai’s personal effects and notify his brother.”

The hand on his shoulder was unexpected, but a nice gesture. It wasn't like he hadn't lost people before, it didn't happen often, but it did happen. Each death still was tough on him, and the moment it stopped being tough was the moment he stopped being a doctor. He reached up and covered her hand with his own. He wasn't sure why he did it, out of habit maybe. "I'll have everything in order for you within the hour," which meant the body would be prepared and the death certificate written out.

“There’s no need to rush, Doctor,” Isabella said, her voice steady but somber. It was hard for her to keep her own emotions in check over what the Endeavour had suffered during the battle. “You have other patients to see to, and it’s the living that we must give our attention to right now. There will be time to mourn those who have fallen later.”

It was a speech he had heard before, it was nothing new. Any doctor would say that you moved on from things like this, but you never forgot. In fact, Corrigan at that moment, recalled all those he had lost since he began his career. He made it a point to commit their names to memory. He just wondered if there would be a point that one day, those names would just slip a way. As he thought about that, he gave a slight nod to the XO. "Once everything has calmed down, I'll be sure to write a full report and forward it to you."

“Thank you,” Isabella said. “If you need to talk to someone, please let me know. I know it’s never easy to be a medical officer or a doctor on a starship that has been in a battle, especially when there have been fatalities.”

Corrigan again nodded, what the other lieutenant said was definitely true. It never got easy, it just got... manageable. "Thank you for the offer, my door is always open to you as well. This can't be easy on Command officers either."

“It’s not,” Isabella said. “In fact, I’m not sure which would be the worse out of the two. Commanding people in battle and having fatalities, or being the medical officer who has to treat those officers and crewmen who are lost because of the conflict. Both are difficult situations.”

Corrigan was glad that he wasn't the one who had to be the one to command people in battle. It was much easier, in his opinion, to handle a sickbay. However, in hindsight, during situations like these nothing was ever easy. "Well, I suppose no one ever said any of this would be easy. However, it'd be nice to be on a long haul of exploring, though I know that is naive thinking."

“One can hope, Doctor,” Isabella said with a faint smile. “One can always hope. I for one wouldn’t mind a survey mission to a nice deserted planet that has a beach somewhere.”

Corrigan couldn't help but smile the smallest of smilles. "You know, a beach doesn't sound half bad." Then, an idea popped into his head. "Would you settle for dinner instead?" he queried, "you know, after everything has settled?"

“Dinner sounds like an excellent idea, as long as it’s informal and not work related,” Isabella said. “I’ve had too many ‘working lunches’ lately to last me an entire year.”

Chuckling at that, Corrigan shook his head. "Definitely informal," he said, "not work related at all, I promise."

“Then I accept,” Isabella said with a smile.

"Great," Corrigan said mirroring the smile, "I look forward to it." The moment passed, then a deep sigh followed. "I guess I should get back in there. If anything else comes up, I'll be sure to let you know right away."

“Thank you, Doctor,” Isabella said, her expression growing somber. “I’ll let the commander know, and I’ll check in with you later once things calm down some more. Your department has been doing an excellent job, please give your staff my compliments.” Giving Landon a nod of her head, she turned and started out of sickbay.

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