A Full House

Posted on Wed May 14th, 2025 @ 8:45am by Ensign Carter Page & Lieutenant Commander Marc Kitchner M.D. & Lieutenant Antoinette Jenkins

676 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Mission 5: The Price of Paradise
Location: Deck 7: Medical Section
Timeline: M5 MD09 (2268.08.1) 1700

A swarm of "red shirts" descended upon the Convalescent Ward as Ensign Carter Page and his team were transferred from the gurneys to the beds. Each monitor came to life as soon as an engineer occupied the bed. Most were groggy and lightheaded thanks to the low pressure and partial asphyxiation due to the cargo bay's vented atmosphere.

Watching the scene unfold was Nurse Switalski. Danny stood, clipboard in hand glancing over the medical team's basic scans. "The team administered a single 15 cc dose of Tri-Ox to each patient," she reported to Dr. Kitchner.

Marc just nodded. He knew his people could handle the situation. "Oxygen masks, start at 50%. Up it if necessary." He looked around. He saw Carter messaging one of his hands. "Were you taking your temper out on the bulkheads again?" He joked as he picked up a hand scanner. "Two cracked fingers.', he passed the scanner lower ...'and three bruised ribs."

"That bulkhead punched back Doc," Carter responded shifting the oxygen mask into a more comfortable spot with his free hand.

Marc laughed a bit. "Rest easy. Once we figure what's what, I'll get that hand looked at." He looked around. "Tony, two ice packs here, left ribs, right hand." Tony Jenkins waved from across the room. "I'll be back in a bit."

Danni handed Marc a wedge clipboard, "Preliminary results from the scan, definitely inhaled something nasty. Pulmonary burns throughout both lungs. Engineering captured some of the gas and sent the sample to science lab 1."

"Tell those lab rats to do a full work up. Fast, but accurate. Get Quigley up here and have her start evaluating these guys. " Marc said signing the report and handed the clipboard back. Kaitlyn Quigley was the ship's pulmonary tech. "She'll probably tell me rest, monitoring, and regular pulse-ox checks, but I won't her input anyway."

"I already have." Danni Switalski said beaming. "She'll be here in a few minutes."

"Oh God," Carter groaned as he sat up on the diagnostic bed. His hazel eyes widened before he leaned over and threw up blood onto the floor.

Danni quickly ran over to the monitor, "Looks like there was more damage than we thought," she said.

The orders flew around the room. One by one each engineer started vomiting blood by the pint. The next hour flew before they were stable. "Tony, get somebody in here to clean up this mess." Marc said sweating heavily and short of breath." He stepped over to a sink built into the wall and just let the water run over his hands and forearms. "Christ that was close." He said to himself. It was a fight for every man, but they were all stable critical but stable.

Tony Jenkins stepped over and laid a towel on his shoulder. "Are you alright, you're breath any heavier and I'll be getting you an oxygen mask in a minute?" She said leaning against the wall.

"Oh stop it." He said shutting off the sink, a playfully gruff tone in his voice. "I'm getting too damned old for this sort of thing is all." Kitchener said drying his hands and then mopped his face. "I want them checked on every fifteen minutes until they are out of danger. Then every two hours after that."

"Of course Marc." Tony said under her breath. "I'll have fluids and a few pints of blood standing by just in case."

"Doc ..." One of the engineers said with a wave.

"What's wrong Dobkins?" Marc said leaning over the bed.

Dobkins half rolled on his side. "My sides killing me." Dobkins laid a hand on his left ribs

"After me having to beat on you with both fists for 15 minutes no wonder it hurts." Marc said picking up a scanner. "It's just some strained muscles. You're the bruises I left, just relax. I don't want to give you any pain medication just yet, it may suppress your breathing, Just take slow even breaths for a bit and it'll subside."

"Okay Doc." Dobkins said with a bit of a groan.

 

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