The Dangers of Surgery

Posted on Sun Apr 9th, 2017 @ 3:42pm by Commander Isabella dei`Silvisi & Lieutenant JG Fe'cia Niatra & Ensign Matt Connor & Lieutenant Élan Val & Lieutenant Isha t'Veralan & Lieutenant JG Zoe Ellija & Ensign Sarleya D'Nal'khiy

1,338 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Kingdom of Shadows

Isabella set the gear she had been carrying down before she knelt down beside the wounded Niatra and opened the two medical kits they had recovered from the Nighthawk. Digging through the supplies, she found a single dermal regenerator among the equipment as well painfully few medications. Turning towards Lieutenant Niatra, Isabella offered a small nod as she loaded a hypospray with a mixture of Rexalin and Phetetalin.

"Fe'cia, I'm giving you a shot of painkillers and antibiotics. I don't have anything to use as a local, so I'm afraid you're going to feel everything I'm about to do," she said. Without further warning, mostly due to the fact that she was afraid that the Caitian might tense up and make it more difficult, Isabella grabbed the scalpel from the surgical kit and started operating.

Fe’cia whimpered a little as the painkillers started working, easing some, but not all, of the pain. She knew that the commander would have to operate, and that the pain would only get worse. But there were no other choices. “Do it,” the Caitian whispered.

Isabella nodded and loaded the hypospray with a painkiller mixture again, this time filling it to capacity and setting it aside. She had to dig through the combined kits before she finally found a suitable surgical set. She muttered under her breath as she found the items she needed in the emergency field kit rather than the medical kits. Picking out the items she needed, she paused as she picked up a scalpel and carefully considered her options. She finally looked up. “I’m going to need some help,” she said.

Isha glanced towards the camp area at the sound of the executive officer’s voice, but as she had been ordered to stand watch, she took note of what was going on before she winced and turned back to guard duty.

Élan stepped forward, eyeing the wounded Caitian carefully. She knew from a few of Val’s memories that Caitians, like any other species, could get unpredictably violent when wounded. Unlike most other species, Caitians came equipped with naturally emplaced weapons. “What do you need me to do?” the Trill officer asked.

Sarleya wasn’t sure what help she could provide, but she followed Lieutenant Val over to the makeshift area where the first officer was preparing to operate on Lieutenant Niatra. The Orion female was somewhat curious as to why the Endeavour’s first officer was operating, but the tiny human seemed to know what she was doing and none of the older Endeavour crew were concerned, so she stood nearby and waited for instructions.

Zoe finished setting up the camp, sparing a moment to give the asshole security officer a not so friendly glare before she headed over to assist the first officer. “What do you need, Ma’am?” she asked, trying to keep a cheerful tone to her voice.

Matt watched the females of the team all stand around the wounded Caitian officer and remained seated on the rock. He couldn’t see any reason why he should offer his help, too many people could be a bad thing as not enough. He turned away, knowing that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to watch the first officer operate or not. He wasn’t sure how well this was even going to turn out.

“I need two of you to hold her down while I operate, and a third person to keep the wound area as clean as possible. Zoe, you take a canteen and wash any excess blood out of the way and help keep everything as clean and sterile as possible. Élan, Sarleya, I’ll need both of you to hold her down,” Isabella said. Wondering why the security officer, Ensign Connor, wasn’t helping, she glanced over her shoulder towards where the ensign was sitting down and sighed. The security officer’s attitude would have to be dealt with, but later. Turning back to the matter at hand, Isabella took several deep breathes to steady herself before she took the scalpel and made an incision into Niatra’s side on both sides of the shrapnel that was embedded.

Fe’cia felt a fresh wave of pain from the cuts and even though she was partially drugged and she yowled and hissed at the two science officers holding her down as her mind ran solely on instinct. Her claws extended as she started fighting against the people holding her down. Her claws slashed and her fangs snapped at everyone as her mind kicked into survival mode.

Élan struggled with the writhing Caitian, thankful that she had taken the back feet. It wasn’t exactly easy trying to hold the back feet and dodge Niatra’s tail, but she knew that it was the safer job.

Sarleya struggled to hold Niatra’s hand/paws, not an easy feat on its own but made even more difficult by the fact that Niatra was a Caitian and her paws had claws. Claws that were out and slashing every which way. Despite her best efforts, Sarleya couldn’t keep her grip on one of Niatra’s paws and it slipped free, the razor sharp claws slashing across and into Crewman Zoe Ellija’s face.

Zoe screamed as the sharp claws slashed across her face. Fortune was with her, in a way, as only two of the claws managed to rake through her skin, slashing from above her left eyebrow down across her eye and cheek. Trying to back away, Zoe exposed her neck to the claws and hissed as one of the claws snagged her neck, slicing it open as well. Zoe fell backwards, trying to make sure she fell away from the group altogether so that her injury didn’t make things worse.

In her pain based haze of anger, Fe’cia heard the scream and tried to pull her paw back, but she felt her claws rake into someone else.

Isabella felt Fe’cia’s claws grab her side and she hissed in pain. Knowing that she was out of time, she grabbed the shrapnel and violently wrenched it free of Niatra’s side, falling back as she did so. Tossing the scalpel and shrapnel away, Isabella grabbed an anabolic protoplaser from one of the medical kits and quickly turned it towards Niatra’s wound, closing it as quickly as she could. The device wouldn’t fully heal the wound completely, but it would help. With the science officer’s condition stabilized, Isabella grabbed the hypospray and injected Niatra with a generous amount of painkillers before giving herself and Crewman Ellija a quick dose as well. Ripping off her uniform jacket and pulling the shredded side of her undershirt up, Isabella healed the claw marks on her side before she turned and healed Zoe’s face as well.

As she finished, Isabella sighed and took a deep breath, releasing it as she felt as if she would collapse. The anabolic protoplaser wouldn’t do anything about healing scars, but the wounds would at least be closed. She knew that there wouldn’t be any additional pieces of metal in Niatra from the shrapnel, so Niatra would be fine as long as she didn’t get an infection. Sitting up, she nodded towards the science officers. “Thank you for your assistance. Lieutenant Niatra should be fine, we’ll just have to keep an eye on her until she recovers,” she said.

“I’d like to volunteer to keep an eye on her,” Sarleya offered.

“We’ll take turns, but thank you. If you don’t mind, you can have first watch,” Isabella said as she returned the tools she had used for the operation back to their places. Turning her attention towards Ensign Connor, she sighed. “Zoe, take a break for now. You’ve done enough. Lieutenant Val, check on the camp site and make sure everything is set up.”

Standing, Isabella started walking towards where Ensign Connor was sitting.

To be continued...

 

RSS Feed