Med Alert
Posted on Sun Aug 12, 2018 @ 10:45pm by Commodore Michael Aravan & Captain Madelina Weisz & Lieutenant Commander Kelani Tetanal
Edited on on Fri May 3, 2019 @ 9:25pm
Mission:
Falling Star
Location: Cassandara, Dakaiba - Makeshift Clinic
Timeline: MD 34
Maddy stood in the center of the makeshift clinic and took a moment to look around. It hadn't taken long for the area to be set up to receive patients, and now the hustle and bustle of personnel moving around the area showed they were ready to begin the first steps of getting people treated. Still, she couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy. Things had gone far too smoothly so far, and that had the redhead on edge. When would the other shoe drop?
"Lieutenants Tetanal and Giovanni... I trust things are nearly ready to begin receiving patients?" she found herself asking. "Time isn't on our side right now. All prep work and briefings should have been done by now. If not, then you're going to have to do it while we work." Just like them, she planned to take an active role in delivering the cure to the ill, and that was because she was knowledgeable in the basics of medical thanks to spending a few semesters training in the field as part of her Security studies.
"They are." Antonio spoke not stopping in his action to answer but to continue unpacking and setting up for the no doubt daunting influx of patients they were about to have.
“Just finished my setup and briefing of my staff,” Kelani replied, continuing, “Hopefully this will go quickly...I feel—exposed—here.”
"I think we all do, but let's try to focus on helping those that need it," the redhead said as she began to suit up in preparation for those who would be coming in infected. Cure or not, she didn't want to be exposed no more than she had to be.
A Romulan female wearing a medical smock that had more than a little green blood on it approached. She had greying hair, but her eyes were sharp and shining with intelligence as she looked at the Federation personnel one at a time until her eyes lit on the collar of the redheaded woman in the red uniform. She approached her.
"I am Doctor Bomela," she said. "Are you Captain Weisz?"
"I'm Captain Weisz," Maddy said, looking toward the Romulan woman. The sight of the green blood all over her didn't turn the redhead's stomach, but she had to wonder if all of that belonged to one poor unfortunate soul, or to many. "What can I do for you, Doctor Bomela?"
"Tell me you have a working cure for my people," Bomela said. "We are desperate. Thousands have already died from the attack and more are dying every hour."
"That's why we're here, Doctor," Maddy stated in way of an answer to the Romulan woman.
"Follow me," the Romulan woman said and turned to stride off at rapid pace. It was clear she wasn't long on conversation or she was just that desperate to help her people, but she wasn't waiting for the Federation people
She entered a large white building that looked prefabricated that had several uncomfortable looking Romulans standing outside the door with disruptors in holsters, but they made no move to draw them when they saw the Federation personnel.
The tension she felt didn't ease as Maddy moved to follow the Doctor, hoping that her people were falling in line as well. "How long has this been going on?"
Kelani followed Maddy closely, her senses stretched to the utmost. She sensed pain, fear, and worry....little else. Somewhat reassured, she stopped her mental search.
At Maddy's question, she looked to Dr. Bromela, wondering what the answer would be.
The Romulan stopped but the moans and cries of dying Romulans, accompanied by the stench of death, filled the air around her. "Since before Ambassador Caenale contacted the Federation, not that it matters. My people are dying. Are you going to help or talk?"
"We wouldn't be here if we weren't here to help," Maddy stated, gesturing for her people to come forward and get things underway. Too many people had died already, and they had the means to keep it from going any further. "Let's get going. We don't have any time to waste helping these people."
Antonio studied, observed, took in everything he could see and hear as he worked. From the information he pulled in several informative factors, if he was to save as many as he could then he'd have to start with the worst off and work forward, at least then he'd have a sickness progression timeline to work with. Triage rooms, observation wards, even teams to put the infected into treatment groups. He doubted many of the ill would understand or even care for the method but lives were fragile and as a Doctor he was tasked with saving as many as he could.
Doctor Bomela looked at the human Starfleet officer in the tea l uniform. "You. Are you a doctor?" she asked with very little patience.
Kelani moved forward, struggling to control the impressions she was getting from the many patients. As she made initial scans, she became aware of Dr. Bromela's remark. She raised an eyebrow, but said nothing--Dr. Giovanni could speak for himself. She continued her scans, unconsciously humming a lullaby from her childhood.
"Dr Antonio Giovanni, at your service." His voice thick with his Italian accent as he replied to the seemingly strained for mood individual. He knew the situation was tense hence why he was prepared for some short tempers and backlash from it.
Bomela grabbed a Romulan PADD and thrust it at the man. "Here's everything on the progression of the chemical attacks on my people. I was informed you have a cure, so cure them," she said before she activated a panel and opened a door.
The smell of death and rot filled the air as well as moans and cries of pain. Every inch of floor space was taken up by a Romulan victim and harried looking nurses and doctors as well as civilians recruited to help moved from one to another, offering a word of encouragement, a sip of liquid, a cold compress or a hypospray for the pain.
Antonio reviewed the new information on the progression of the symptoms. Rapid, assertive and brutally degenerative if left untreated in the later stages. The medication that was brought with them would help but for the more worse off would take much longer to recover, they would be lucky if they didn't have lasting issues as a result.
While the Doctor and Scientist went off with the Romulan Doctor, a Romulan male that had been laying on one of the beds pushed himself up to a sitting position and glared at Maddy. "Haven't your people done enough?" he snarled.
Maddy looked toward the Romulan on the bed and cocked her head to the side, taking in what she saw and heard. Was he really going to be that much of an ass to someone who was simply trying to help him and his people? Short answer... yes. Which meant, she'd deal with him accordingly. Nicely at first, given his current state. "My people are only here to help you all," she said. "There's no reason for you to take that tone."
"I am Commander Buluth, and I will speak in whatever tone I please," the Romulan said as he stood up on shaky legs. "I have fought the Federation for years and now you expect me to lay down and simply let you help me out of some misguided pity or the weakness of our Governor?"
"It doesn't matter who you are, or why you think we're here. The fact is, we're here," she snapped, losing her patience with the man faster than she wanted to, though it wasn't entirely her fault. He was antagonizing her when all they were there for was to help. "If you don't wish to be treated, say so. That way, we can move on to others who will appreciate it because they don't wish to die."
A little female Romulan coughed and looked over at the older male and sighed. "Oh, shut up Buluth," she said. "You aren't a Commander anymore and you don't have a ship. Let them help us or just die already."
Buluth sputtered, glared at Maddy as if she had said it, then laid back again.
Maddy blinked. Wasn't that basically what she said? She thought it was, but maybe it was because of who she represented that it didn't mean much. That wasn't her problem, either. Shaking her head, the redhead made her way toward some patients who needed to be treated, and found herself doing just that with the aid of one of the Romulan doctors.
Antonio and the medical staff he brought with him were already treating casualties and the atmosphere was tense. For generations there had always been a cold understanding between the Federation and the Romulans. That would not be put aside over night nor a chemical attack and thankfully his teams were warned to avoid provoking a situation if at all possible.
He began treating a little girl, couldn't have been any older that 5 or 6. The hawk like gaze of the mother as he ran his scans and his nurses gathered supplies to treat. It made the situation all the more delicate but Antonio knew that treatment would go faster and far smoother if it was seen that Starfleet was here to help.
The little girl looked up at the human treating her and slowly held up a stuffed Romulan toy animal of some kind. "Can you treat Kamine, too?" she asked in a shy voice.
"Of course." Antonio turned to the equipment trolley and grabbed an empty hypospray, he inserted an empty vial but to help be convincing he held a cure vial with his little finger to appear it was inserted. Pressing the hypo and with a hiss of air. "All done." He smiled, sometimes the simple things had the biggest impacts and watched the happier young girl leave again.
"Excuse me." Antonio spoke to a Romulan medic. "I'd like to see patients with initial infection, mid term and late stage illness." No doubt there were people out there in such positions. He had an idea but wanted to make sure that in the various stages of the illness that respiratory issues wouldn't complicate matters.
"I have an idea that I'd like to try, instead of treating one patient at a time, we consider administering the cure in a gaseous form. We could gather the patients in a shelter and treat 20-30 people at one time with a controlled release of the cure." Antonio explained, hoping the Romulan would see the wisdom in it, but on the flip side wondered if the Romulan Doctor would consider it a quick and easy method of elimination bundling up everyone like that. Decades of icy hostility was not something that could be overlooked easily.
The Romulan Doctor paused in his treatment of a patient and looked up, his mouth open for a moment before he spoke. "Come on," he said. "The faster we do this, the faster they get cured." He turned his hypospray over to an assistant and headed off at fast walk towards a room at the back of the large area where all the patients were laying and moaning.
Seeing that the idea was more readily accepted than he anticipated Antonio leapt into action making calculations, studying various medical factors, parts per million, exposure duration, release speed. Curing 30 or so people at once was one thing, making sure that the cure had dissipated through the entire shelter was another. He thought about having the cure already in the air as the patients entered but that ran the risk of it being weakened as they walked in, 30 people were not quick upon entering by any means.
His mind turned to a smaller scale, 4 smaller canisters spaced about the shelter would cure the entire shelter equally and quicker. As he left his team working on calculations, he began to prepare the canisters that would aerosolise the cure.
"Can we replicate more of this to distribute to other centers?" the Doctor asked as he studied the cure on the screen.
"I can't see why not, the only difference would be space calculations, larger spaces would obviously need more canisters to equally disperse." Antonio replied as he looked at his working colleague briefly. "I would suggest we try and erect three such rooms or shelters, that way we can treat the various stages equally. We don't want any issues by singling out a treatment band when others are missing out." Last thing anyone needed was a fight over who gets treated next.
As the canisters came off the medical replicators, the Romulan doctor sent the formula for the cure to other locations. "Very smart," he said. "Shall we begin preparations for it?"
"Indeed. I think if we put the shelters just outside, it gives people a chance to see people coming and going quickly, that way they see the treatments taking place. It gives them hope of progress." The moment he finished speaking was when his calculations had completed. "We would need about 40 of these canisters. It would give us time to use some, refill others and still have a supply just in case."
Meanwhile, another Romulan doctor approached Kelani. "I need to see the cure that you've come up with," he more or less demanded.
Kelani straightened from the patient she had been caring for at the sound of the Romulan doctor’s voice.
“Of course, sir,” she said, pulling out her tricorder and accessing the formula for the cure, showing it to the doctor.
“We have tested it extensively, sir,” she told him respectfully. “The time it takes to be effective seems to be directly proportionate to the severity of the symptoms.” She paused for a moment, then said, more to herself than to the doctor, “I’d like to give these monsters a taste of this horror—to do this to those who have given no offense—“ she shook her head.
The Romulan took the tricorder over to a console and loaded the information into it. "Complex, but you are correct," he said after a moment as he made a few adjustments to the calculations the Federation personnel had put in. "There was a minor miscalculation in that," he said. "But it involved Romulan physiology and not your work."
"Thank you, sir," Kelani said, continuing, "Perhaps I should notify Dr. Giovanni...."
She looked at all the people affected by the attack and felt her stomach churn.
'Such horror!' She thought. 'What kind of monster would do such a thing?'
"I'm certain there is no need to have it checked," the Romulan doctor said in an offended tone. "Would I not know my own people the best?"
“Oh, no, sir, that isn’t what I meant!” Kelani exclaimed. “I meant to tell him so that he can make the same corrections you just did.” She looked at the Romulan doctor saying, “I truly meant no offense, sir....”
"None taken," the Romulan said. "I'll leave you to your work."
“Thank you,” Kelani said, re-opening her tricorder. Before she turned back to the patients, Kelani told the Romulan doctor, “We will do everything in our power to help your people, sir.”
Doctor Bomela motioned for Captain Weisz to follow her to a side office and went inside, leaving the door open.
Maddy noticed Doctor Bomela gesture for her to follow into the office and did just that, not bothering to close the door behind her once she entered. "What can I do for, Doctor?"
"I'm worried, Captain Weisz," Bomela told her. "Especially after seeing the reaction of Buluth. I noticed that you and your team don't have any Security personnel with you. Do you require some?"
"I'm former Security, and now how to handle myself in most situations," Maddy explained. "But, if you feel they can be trusted not to turn on my people, I would appreciate what you offer. Given the severity of what's going on here, we're a bit short staffed, though, that's no one's fault. Thank you, Doctor."
"I'll see who I can find that isn't already doing double or triple duty and doesn't harbor any antipathy towards the Federation," the Romulan Doctor told her. "I do wish that I knew who planted these bombs so I could strangle them with their own intestines."
"I know exactly what you mean, Doctor. Our own crew are pulling double and triple shifts," the redhead stated, hoping the Commodore would choose to give the crew a little break before taking on their next mission. Of course, she did have the option to speak with him about such things, and planned to once all of this was over. "We're going to find out who did this. It might not be an easy task, but we will find out. It will be up to your government to decide what happens at that point, though. We are neither jury, judge or executioner."
"Don't worry about that part of it, Captain," Bomela said grimly. "The Romulan people have mastered those aspects long ago."
"I can certainly believe that. I'm going to get back out there and help treat your people," the redhead said. "If you need me for anything else, don't hesitate to get me."
"I won't and even though I may never say it outside of this office, I can't thank you enough," Bomela said.
All Maddy could do was offer the Doctor a sincere smile. "This is what we do, Doctor, but you're welcome. Hopefully, there won't be anymore incidents like this once we've got everyone feeling better."
"We do, but it is my hope that one day we may work side by side with the Federation," Bomela told her.
The redheaded Captain smiled at the Doctor. She could appreciate her hope, but Maddy didn't have the heart to tell her it was unlikely to ever happen. Not when so many of the Romulans thought the exact opposite of what Bomela did. "Who knows, Doctor? In time, perhaps, it could happen."
The Romulan woman looked at the human woman for a moment, then nodded. "Perhaps in time, Captain. In time. Your people are certainly proving that they're willing to give their all to a people they were once at war with."
"We help where we're needed, Doctor," Maddy said. "If there's nothing else, I'll be on my way to helping others."
"By all means, Captain," Bomela said. "I have work to attend to as well."
Maddy offered the doctor a pleasant smile. The Captain wasn't all bad. She treated people the way they treated her. Unless, she was dealing with stupidity, then things often took a turn for the worse very quickly. However, that wasn't called for in this moment. Without another word, she made her way out of the office and got back to helping treat those that needed it.
Kelani moved slowly through the wards helping as needed, but searching as she did so. At last she saw Dr. Giovanni and moved quickly to him.
“Doctor, I need to speak with you for a moment,” she said
"Of course." Antonio replied as he turned his attention to Kelani.
“I showed the formula for the cure to one of the Romulan doctors and he made some changes in the formula to allow for Romulan physiology. I wanted you to know so that you could make the same adjustments.” She held out her tricorder for Antonio to examine.
Antonio looked at the readings, compared them to his own notes and information. He was in the business of treating people, anything that would help him do that he was ok with. "Thanks for this, I'll make the changes before we start treating, I have treatment shelters already being set up."
“Yes, sir,”. Kelani replied, continuing, “I hope this doesn’t delay the treatment much?”
Again she looked out at all the suffering people and her heart sank.
~They did this to their own people because they wanted to live a different way,~ she thought sadly.
"I try not to think about it, I focus on the job, leave the why's and what for's for other people to answer." Antonio replied as he made the final preps for the canisters and deployment.
“A good point, Doctor,” Kelani replied. “We each have our duties and tasks to perform—that has to be the focus.”
Several Romulans who had been going among the patients began to make their way towards the exit as if going out for some fresh air.
Antonio looked to where the Romulans were leaving, then something clicked and he remembered that the Chief of Science had said a Romulan doctor had made some changes to the cure. "Someone stop them!" he called out to the Security personnel who had beamed down.
The Romulans broke into a run but a squad of Triumphant Security personnel were blocking the exits and had their phasers drawn. "Stop or we will stun you," the lead Security man, a Brikar, said in a gravelly voice and even though the phaser was tiny in his hands, it was still quite effective.
"For the Romulan Republic!" One of the Romulans cried out and began to run forward.
That cry was more than enough for other Romulans, sick and laying on cots or not, to rise up all around them and dragged them down in a flurry of fists and feet.
Maddy looked toward the commotion and couldn't help but roll her eyes. Of course, this couldn't go smoothly. Why would they? Without hesitating, she pulled her phaser and aimed into the melee, then fired a single narrow beamed shot. It was a shot designed not to hit or injure anyone, or even damage anything inside the clinic, but to get the attention of everyone involved in the scuffle. "The next shot I have to fire, won't be so kind. Security, separate them and take the unsavory ones into custody. Doctor Bomela, Doctor Giovanni, you may want to get the sick and injured back in their beds," she ordered, and if to prove her point, she thumbed the probe that would fire a wide beam shot the next time. "If you think I'm kidding, try me."
Doctor Bomela came running at the shouting with a disruptor in her hand and immediately headed for the melee. In the middle of it, the huge Brikar was calmly plucking Romulan after Romulan out of it, all of them wearing medical scrubs and tossing them to the other waiting Security personnel where they were taken into custody.
Meanwhile, Antonio checked the formula and muttered an Italian curse that would curdle fresh milk and began to throw batches of canisters off the replicator. He scanned each one, then had them marked for destruction before he entered the correct formula in and started replicating new ones. After he finished, he headed to where Captain Weisz was.
"Captain, one of the ones posing as a Doctor poisoned the cure, but Lieutenant Tetanal caught it and reported it to me," he told her. "I have fresh batches being replicated now."
"I'd say that surprises me, but it doesn't," the Executive Officer said, returning her phaser to her hip. "When the new batch is done, make sure no one handles it but Doctor Bomela and those she knows she can trust. We don't need it being compromised a second time, and it seems we can't trust anyone."
Kelani’s lips thinned in anger as she thought of the possible damage that could have been done unknowingly by them, thanks to the imposter.
~I hate being duped!~ she thought furiously. ~I would very much like to offer suggestions as to their punishment!~
"Understood, Captain," Antonio said.
Maddy moved over to Doctor Bomela. "Doctor, I believe we've done our part in helping you and your people out," she said, extending a hand in the Romulan woman's direction. "I'm glad we were able to help you, and should you have need in the future, you know who you can trust. Good luck, and we wish you all the best."
"Thank you, Captain Weisz and thank the Commodore for me as well," Bomela said. "If I have any say in it, I'm going to make sure the Governor thanks you as well and adds his voice to the positives for the Federation. Go in peace."
The Romulan Doctor stepped back as the Federation away team dematerialized, then looked at her people. "One day, perhaps, we can have what they have as well."
