At Death’s Door

Posted on Sun Aug 21st, 2022 @ 8:41pm by Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov & Ensign Mika Petrova & Lieutenant JG Karen Lamont & Ensign Gretchen Rosen

Mission: S1 Episode 3: Phage
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Mission Day 10 at 0430
999 words - 2 OF Standard Post Measure

Sickbay
In the midst of a relatively calm sickbay at 0430, Mika and Andrei appeared on the floor of Sickbay. He was nude and incoherent, and covered in his own waste.

"Help!" Mika called out, staying with her older brother. "We need to get him to a bed right away! Nurse, prepare a sonic scrubber! You, grab some clothing!"

Gretchen ran over and bent down on the other side of Andrei from his sister. "Gently now," she said as she helped move the patient into a biobed. "What exactly happened?"

“The Kazon mutinied days ago and chained him on the floor of the Bridge. It seems he’s been stripped, starved, deprived of water, and left to….do his business where he was. They treated him worse than an animal. What’s worse is that their are lacerations all over his body from beatings he was given, many of which are enflamed, and his eyes look murky. I can only assume they blinded him.”

As she listened, Gretchen had started working the biobed console. "His condition is critical," she said grimly, sending out a quick notification to that effect to immediate family and the relevant chain of command. They might have already known. Mika obviously did. But Gretchen was all business. She was the most junior of the commissioned doctors on the medical staff but this was not her first emergency. "30 ccs of corophizine," she ordered a nurse.

Gretchen took the hypospray and injected Andrei. In theory, it should prevent the further spread of the infection and calm the patient somewhat, but it took a moment or two to work. She returned to the console as a nurse cleaned the patient with a sonic scrubber and another helped him to dress in the medical gown.

Mika stayed by him while he was being cleaned, hiding his private parts from her view. This was more of her brother than she had ever wanted to see, but this situation was too serious to really worry about that. One of the nurses looked very upset as she pulled on his hospital garments; she must have been one of his women. She placed a hand on her shoulder.

“He’ll pull through, don’t worry.” She said softly, and then turned to Gretchen again.

“What’s next, Doctor?” She asked, waiting for instructions. Gretchen was the senior officer in the room and she wanted to respect that.

Gretchen looked at Mika. For a moment, she considered gently reminding her never to make promises. With the cadet's brother on the table, though, she found she didn't have the heart. Besides, Mika was probably right. "10 ccs of neurozine," she ordered as she took a closer look at the eyes with medical tricorder and her own sight. "The infection and the superficial damage will probably be an easy fix," she said, "but we might need to operate on the eyes."

Mika understood it was time for surgery. She somehow managed to frown even deeper and walked over to do as instructed, grabbing a canister of nuerozine and a face last. Calibrating it to the right dosage, she placed the mask over Andrei’s face and depressed the button. His barely open eyes fluttered closed.

“I’ll call the surgeon; make sure he’s scrubbed up and ready.” Mika said, and then turned to leave the room quickly.

"Thank you, cadet," Gretchen said gently.

Two Hours Later
Andrei’s eyes fluttered open slowly. Following his procedure, he had been moved to one of the private rooms for five days of recovery. He looked around the room, deeply confused at first about where he was and even who he was, but then things came back to him. He reached up, realizing his right eye was covered.

“He- hello?” He asked, concern in his voice.

"Andrei," Karen said gently, sitting next to his bed. "You were very badly hurt." She reached for his hand, gently, softly, as she often was.

Andrei accepted her hand in his, not surprised that she was the first person next to him when he woke up. If he wasn’t so miserable and he didn’t feel so terribly, he would smile. But the images of what they had put him through came flooding back to him and the belief that he was going to die in those shackles, humiliated and brutalized before the Kazon Enclave distracted him from any joy he might be feeling.

“Sickbay…” he said, feeling the patch over his right eye. “My eye. Does it…?”

"They weren't...I'm sorry....but they weren't able to save the eye. We'll be able to fit you with a prosthetic. in every measurable sense, it'll be as good or better but..." She trailed off. She didn't want to say what she was sure he already knew. It wouldn't really be the same.

“Ultraviolet; infrared; heat.” He said, his visible eye downcast. “I hope those Kazon are suffering tremendously.”

"Yes," she said with a typical Terran viciousness that was, nonetheless, not that common from her. "You gave them a place and they betrayed you." She squeezed his hand.

"A place I'll never give again." he said with conviction. Between the Kazon and Eritrea, Andrei was done with the deceits of the slave races. "I never should have allowed them such freedoms. I never should have treated them so well."

"They betrayed that trust," she acknowledged and, without really even thinking about it, found herself bringing his hand up and gently pressing her lips to his knuckles. Then she lowered it softly, squeezing again. "What they did to you..." She shook her head.

“They are already paying. But even that is too good for them.” He said, then looked down, sad and slow.

"They are paying but it doesn't undo it," she said softly. Then she lapsed into silence. Everything that came immediately to mind seemed trite.

"I'll be alright." he said dismissively. A bit cold. And he knew it was true.

END