[USS Charon, Main Shuttlebay]
"The pilots look like they ate a good chunk of a console explosion!"
Sakarra heard the marine's familiar voice and tried to respond that no, she had in fact not ingested any part of the shuttle, but for some reason she seemed unable to do much beyond breathing. How extraordinarily inconvenient.
Attempting to ascertain not only her status but also the reason for this vexing inability to move, the young Vulcan noticed not only the human very close, but the strong scent of copper-based blood. Ah. Well, there was that of course. The excruciating pain in her chest finally overruled the mental barriers Sakarra had carefully put in place before their mad attempt to blow five fighters to pieces, and she inhaled sharply.
Judging from the commotion around them, the others were still alive. And they were obviously no longer floating in space. Good.
Perhaps that meant she could go to sleep now?
Some part of her brain insisted that this would be a rather bad course of action, but she was exceedingly tired, cold and exhausted.
Emerald life blood pouring from her chest, the young woman was content to let her cheek rest against the shattered remains of a console.
"When it rains it pours."
Indeed. He sounded so worried. Sakarra tried to struggle up, or simply moving would have done, actually. Alright, fine, no sleep. If she was going to go down, it would not be slumped in a chair, dwindling away without a fight. If only it didn't hurt so damn much. A colorful metaphor or two would truly be most satisfying to shout right now.
Heart hammering furiously in her side, the young Vulcan tried to steady her breathing when she noticed another familiar presence. Apparently, the surgeon had awoken from his nap.
Aehlen gingerly sat up, stretched, and then yawned- completely oblivious to the carnage tangled around him. He threw a wary glance at the Vulcan pilot and crawled through the wreckage to her side. His eyes quickly studied her new injuries "are you incapable of keeping this body in one piece?" He grunted and crawled back to his seat opening the medical kit. Several of the instruments spilled onto the floor- others he pulled out and examined, if it was something he determined he would not need he chucked it into the back of the shuttle. One of the first things he chucked away was the vial containing the severed thumb- he would get it later. With tricorder and hypospray in hand he crawled over to the Vulcan's side again "remain steady" he said nonplussed and not panicking about their current predicament "for a pilot you seem to lack awareness of a critical factor- not crashing." His lashes knitted in an almost Vulcan fashion as a small grin seemed to creep into his once rock hard expression. Sliding the tricorder away he carefully slid his hand across her abdomen and massaged- blood soaked it immediately. His expression hardened again "vr'aith" he said in rihannsu and slammed a vial into the hypospray injecting the Vulcan with it.
When he finished he slid his hands across the seat feeling around for anything that might be impaling the woman, finding nothing he pressed his commbadge "beam us to sickbay." He paused waiting to be dragged away by the uncomfortable tickling-energy of transporting, but nothing occurred. He pressed the device a second time but still there was no answer. With an agitated expression he visually examined the woman again and then scurried back to the medical kit pulling out a pile of gauze. When he returned Ahelen ripped open the Vulcan's uniform nonchalantly to the shocked gazes of gawking personnel and began stuffing the gauze into her wounds and securing it with medical tape. When he finished he dragged her from the pilot's chair and through the shuttle's wreckage. Outside, he picked her up and placed her over his shoulder, much like a farmer slinging a bag of manure over his back. "We must go to sickbay" he stated plainly and began marching out.
Indeed that might be advisable. The words died on her lips when the urge to cough up more blood required all of Sakarra's attention. Oh dear, what a mess. She was vaguely aware that he had been speaking to her, and that something was obviously dulling the truly quite bothersome pain. But precisely how she had ended up in this most undignified position, slumped over the rihannsu surgeon's shoulder, being carried away like the hunter would a dead tsh'in, remained somewhat of a haze.
As he sauntered down some corridor or other with an astonishing amount of swift elegance despite the minor matter of having to balance a Vulcan who was currently bleeding so profusely, it soaked through the impromptu bandages and onto his neck and shoulder, she noted some staring crewmen at the periphery of her slightly blurred vision.
What a sight indeed they had to make. Although she felt nearly as weak as a newborn Sehlat cub and the searing pain still throbbed underneath the slight relief of medication, Sakarra could not help herself, it was just too ridiculous. To hell with decorum, the way her body was feeling right now there was a 78.4 percent chance she would not be around to have to endure any funny looks later.
The chuckle started deep in her chest and finally turned into an all out, throaty laugh, interrupted only by a horrible cough that cost her more blood again. "Duh'kaya." she just so managed to say before choking on her own laughter again.
Aehlen entered sickbay after having taken the turbo lift- surprisingly everyone managed to keep out of his way allowing for a quick journey from the flight deck to the medical bay. When he entered he found a throng of people crowded into the facility. However, upon noticing his arrival several people scattered to one end of the room and a few even abandoned their biobeds. Making his way to one of the now empty beds he dropped the Lieutenant onto the bed's cushion with a slight 'thump.' He grabbed a nearby tray and rolled it over to him. One of the nurses rushed over "doctor- what did you do to her?!"
"Stop your prattling nurse and bring me equipment." Aehlen smirked- for the first time he showed an expression in sickbay other than his usual empty demeanor. It clearly startled the nurse and everyone who noticed it. Not to mention the rivers of emerald blood soaking his neck, shoulder, and a large swath of his uniform added to the maniacal display. On the bed Sakarra continued her cycle of laughing and choking. It was like a gruesome carnival and Aehlen resembled an excited child watching the show. "It would be wise to stop Vulcan- you will not die today." He slid his hands across her abdomen and ripped the remainder of her uniform off to get to the wounds easier. Another nurse noticed his lack of discretion and rushed over with two towels draping them across the Lieutenant's sacred regions. Aehlen ignored the nurse and proceeded to remove the soaked gauze. "She has reopened an old wound and has generated more. Bring me more regenerators." Aehlen was careful, precise, and haphazardly treating each wound as fast as possible "she will require blood transfusion- bring me her backup stores."
"Most of them were destroyed in the fighting sir."
"Her blood type is T negative." Aehlen stated "prepare to conduct a direct transfusion from myself to her."
"Doctor!" One of the nurses said "what you're suggesting is-"
"She will go into shock if she does not receive a transfusion; she has lost too much blood or are you too blind to notice it now decorates my uniform?" Aehlen finished one gash and moved on to another "now draw my blood."
"Yes." The nurse sprinted to the replicator and replicated an old fashioned needle and transfusion bag. When she returned to Aehlen's side he held out his left arm and let her jab the device into it without flinching. Slowly the blood flowed from his vein into the bag as he kept working with his right arm and hand to close the wounds. The process took fifteen minutes until adequate blood had been drawn. When she finished the nurse pulled the needle out of the surgeon's arm and replaced it before beginning a direct transfusion into the injured Vulcan.
"Done." The nurse said "her vitals are slowly beginning to stabilize."
Aehlen said nothing. He completed treating the new wounds and finished by closing the reopened one. His left arm bled profusely as it had not been bandaged after the needle was removed, but he ignored it. When everything was said and done the biobed, carpet, and his uniform were a slick color of emerald. Crew personnel and sickbay staff alike were aghast at the morbid sight. Aehlen simply smirked at his fine craftsmanship.
"Oh,…" Sakarra exhaled, biting her soft lips in a fruitless effort to rein in the chuckle that had erupted anew at the sight of the horrified nurse and the way everyone seemed to try and put as much distance between the blood soaked surgeon and themselves
"It might be wise, osharushsu, yes. But difficult all the same." She let her head sink back against the pillow, her black curls spilling down over the side of the bed and almost down to the floor, and she was acutely aware that there was another pitch to the gazes resting on her, one that was not horrified or worried, but quite the opposite.
She should have been annoyed indeed with the good surgeon to leave her on display like this, seeing as even the nurse's attempts to spare the Vulcan the utmost humiliation of being splendidly naked in the middle of a brightly lit sickbay, had rendered as result only that some blood soaked, crumpled towels now graced the floor next to the biobed.
And yet, even as she started to feel curiously lightheaded and was too weak to even flinch from the pain of the doctor's usual direct way of treating her gruesome injuries, the little Vulcan's mind insisted on seeing the inherent humor of this absurd scenario.
"Utan'eshk, s'hauk'ahr, il yh'aut." she murmured softly, to exhausted to laugh, but there was the shadow of a smile playing across her face. The strange contraption pouring the man's lifeblood into her veins was as surreal as everything else in it's old-fashioned yet effective way, and still she felt every sensation as keenly as always, from the fast, self-assured way his hands moved across her injured body to the sounds and scents surrounding them. How very fascinating indeed.
When he stepped back to admire the admittedly satisfactory results of his efforts, Sakarra saw a smirk play across the surgeon's face and didn't bother to stop herself from answering in kind.
One could not argue with his success in beating the odds. And although there were numerous reasons why Sakarra would at this very moment have liked to throw him against a convenient bulkhead, she found to her own surprise and renewed amusement, that she would have at least broken his bones in a rather affectionate way.
Aehlen laughed- it was a strange haughty laugh. His following expression was less wild and unusually dignified. He reached over to the adjacent bed and pulled away an extra sheet and spread it across the Vulcan's exposed frame "rest." He said and casually made his way, unobstructed, to his office on the other side of sickbay.
[End]
Lieutenant Sakarra Tyrax
Chief Helmsman
USS Charon
&
Arrain Aehlen tr'Kethry
Surgeon
USS Charon
