A tale of two survivors

Posted on Saturday 22 June 2019 @ 22:39 by Lieutenant Michael Ki MD & Captain Melody Jones

Mission: The New Collective
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: After Groundfall
1593 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Lieutenant Rachel Adams was lying on a bio bed unconscious after being beamed up from the colony. Her eyes fluttered and suddenly they snapped open and she shot upright and screamed.

Michael had been tending to his patients, all of which were pretty straight forward nothing life threatening. He had identified them from data within LCARS. He was looking forward to heading to his office to take a load off when one of the patients sat up and screamed. Michael jogged over to her bed and spoke softly. "Lieutenant Adams my name is Dr Michael Ki and you are in Sick Bay aboard the USS Merlin. Please calm down everything will be okay. Tell me what happened if you can please." When he finished speaking Michael got a hypospray of sedative ready as a preventative measure.

Taking a moment to look around before answering, Adams took some deep breaths to try and calm herself. Seeing the hypospray in his hand "The sedative won't be necessary Doctor, it was just disorientating to wake up here when I expected to be dead." She rubbed her arms and gingerly touched both legs as if momentarily confused by them before shaking her head "Sorry, I'm still suffering from mild shock. I'm one of the colony's medical staff. It.... It all happened so fast. One minute I was working an the next, I felt a blow from behind...... I'm sorry i Don't remember anything else." She looked up at Ki with big blue eyes from under her blond hair "Am I going to make it?" She asked, trying to lighten the mood.

The look on her face when she touched her arms and legs threw the Doctor off for a moment. However, Michael chalked it up to her nerves. "You are indeed Lieutenant. The hematoma to the back of the head is going to take time to heal. What's more is that you have a concussion, so I would like you to remain here in Sick Bay for at least twenty four hours for observation. I would also like to run a few more tests to make sure that you are okay. What were you working on? Did you see your attacker?"

She shook her head. "No, I was busy uploading the colony's medial files to the Federations main database when I just blacked out. I never saw who hit me." She looked over at the other biobed "I know him. He runs the cafe on the shopping promenade." She looked him up and down with a critical eye. "He looks worse than me. Possible broken ribs and his legs don't look too good."

Just then Melody walked into sickbay. She approached the young woman on the biobed. “I’m Commander Jones. You’re aboard the USS Merlin. How are you feeling?

“Lieutenant Rachel Adams. Feeling a lot better for being here. I’m just glad you showed up when you did.”

Melody acknowledged before turning to Ki. “What’s the prognosis Doctor?”

Ki had a slightly stern look on his face as he evaluated the data. Everything looked right, but things did not add up. "Lieutenant Adams here will be fine. She has a slight concussion, and a hemotoma to the head..." his voice trailed off as he squinted for a moment at Adams. Her diagnosis of her friend just registering in his head, and it was exactly right. "As for Mr Nunez here he is suffering from three broken ribs, and broken femurs bilaterally. He also has a pnemothorax and will have surgery within the hour." Michael pulled the Commander aside for the moment so the next part of their conversation could not be overheard. "Ma'am these injuries are pretty extensive. However, nothing that can't be healed. What has got the hair on my arms standing up is that all of these injuries were caused by hand. Something broke these bones with bare hands."

Melody lowered her voice to all to Ki "Lieutenant Rangel mentioned Species 8472. They do posses the strength to do that kind of damage. The question is what are they doing in our galaxy? And what were they doing on a colony that was suppose to have been attacked by the Borg? Did she offer any information?"

Michael stroked his chin. "I am going to concur with Lieutenant Rangel. While on the planet Adams gave a description of her attackers. The description fits what I have read in The Doctor's logs from Voyager. As to your other questions I do not know. However, I agree those are some big questions. One could speculate that 8472 is still at war with the Borg. The Drones in an effort to increase their numbers came here to assimilate the colony. Species 8472 stopped the assimilation and killed the colonists to make sure that they could not become Borg. She has not offered any pertinent information as of yet, she states that she cannot remember. I think some memory may come back in time."

"Do you think it's ok to release her to quarters?" Melody interjected.

"At this time no. I would like to keep her here for the next 24 hours for observation. She has a major hemotoma and concussion. It is my hope that in that twenty four hours we can get a little more information. However, if she shows improvement in her condition by tomorrow then I would release her to quarters. As for Mr Nunez he is here for the foreseeable future." Michael replied still stroking his chin. Something just did not feel right, and he could not put his finger on it.

"Very well Doctor." As Melody turn to leave, Lieutenant Adams called out "Is there any chance of me getting out of here yet?"

Melody turned back to her "I'm afraid not just yet. You've been seriously injured and our Doctor wants to keep a close eye on you for the next 24 hours."

Adams slumped back down slightly deflated "Oh...... Well is there any chance of getting some food, I'm starving" she asked hopefully.

Melody reassured her "I'm sure that can be arranged." She turned back to Ki "Please keep me informed Doctor." and with a nod Melody left.

Michael nodded as Melody left. "Well Lieutenant it looks like it is just you and me. I can't be a bad host, so what will it be? What would you like to eat?" He smiled at the woman in the bed. Perhaps you can catch more flies with honey. Ki thought.

She took a deep breath "I'm so hungry right now I could eat anything. She seemed to think for a moment as if trying to remember something. Soup?"

Michael cocked an eyebrow, now that was interesting. Most people when they were exceptionally starving had cravings. They knew exactly what they wanted to eat, yet here this woman was simply asking for soup. He decided to push the issue. "Very well Lieutenant the replicators are programmed for thousands of varieties of soup. Is there a particular one that you would like?"

Again it looked like she had to think for a moment before cautiously answering “.....Vegetable....” in such a way that it could almost have been a question as much a statement.

Michael nodded as he went to the replicator. With a slight of hand movement he triggered the bio bed to actively scan until further notice. He wanted to see how this woman's system reacted to the food. There was a mystery here and the diagnastician would figure it out. To further his experiment he ordered a bowl of beef barley soup. He wanted to see if the Lieutenant would know the difference. When the soup was ready Michael placed the food tray across her lap. "Careful it may be hot." he said with a smile.

For a moment she just looked at the soup with curiosity then slowly picked up the spoon as if it were a foreign object. She lower it into the soup and sniffed it then took a mouthful. Suddenly her eyes lit up and her expression changed to one of surprise. “That’s really good”. She said as she took another spoonful and this time savoured it. “Soooo good and the textures.”

The equipment simply said she was a human eating soup. But it was her reaction, like she had never had it before that piqued his curiosity. That combined with the fact that she said nothing about the change that he made to her order. Michael took a step toward the biobed. "Tell me have you never had that before?" Michael cocked any eyebrow.

Rachel kept eating but she looked slightly embarrassed, as if she realised she had done something she shouldn't have. She looked up at him "Oh, it's just that I haven't had this in such a long time and I must have been so hungry." In no time at all she had finished off the whole bowl.

She looked back at the bio bed "Thank you Doctor, you've been very kind. I think I'll get some rest."

Michael took the tray away and still looked at her sideways. "Yes you will need some rest. If you need anything give a holler." He did not buy her excuse. She also did not notice that there was meat in that soup. Something was definitely amiss here.

OFF:

●●● Commander Melody Jones
Executive Officer
USS Merlin

●● Lieutenant Michael Ki
Chief Medical Officer
USS Merlin