Black on Blue

Posted on Sun Dec 1, 2019 @ 10:02pm by Ensign Athyle sh'Paveress & Captain Madelina Weisz & Lieutenant Vel Oss Arap Tor

Mission: The Nanjing
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: MD 1 || 1130 Hours

With the transport from the bridge now complete, Maddy stayed crouched down next to sh'Paveress to monitor her for signs of shock or anything else that could be potential fatal, though, she felt much better now that they were in sickbay again. She looked around quickly and spotted a nurse. "You," she snapped. "Get us a doctor, and do it now."

The nurse, an older woman who looked as though she was full of much attitude looked toward Maddy and the Andorian with her. She'd planned to be a bit snippy back, but given the burns to the face of the blue skinned woman, she opted not to. Time was ticking, and she found herself running back to the CMO's office to let him know there was an emergency waiting for him in main sickbay. She planned to assist, so would be following him as she made her way out.

Doc Tor came out of his office when the nurse informed him that a badly burned patient had came in, moving at a long limbed gate that was nearly four times what the nurse could keep up with. "What happened?" He asked as he grabbed a tricorder in his manus and started to scan the Andorian.

"Her console blew, and she was on the floor with burns to her face. I think everything else is okay," Maddy replied.

"I need a hypo of anesthetic and a dermal regenerator," Vel said as he examined his tricorder.

Athyle moaned, starting to come back to consciousness. Her eyelids opened only as slits, but the light was still enough to blind her and amplify her already splitting headache.

The nurse that followed the doctor rushed off to get the medication and regenerator he asked for, then quickly returned with them. "Here you go, Doctor," she said, holding them out.

Maddy took Athyle's hand in her own and gave it a very gentle squeeze. She'd been to sickbay as a patient before, but not because of a console exploding in her face. She couldn't imagine what the Andorian woman was going through right now, or what kind of pain she was enduring. "Try to stay still," she said softly. "You're with a doctor now, and he's going to fix you up."

"Fix...?" Athyle choked, still stirring on the biobed. "Me...? What... What happened?"

"Just relax, Ensign," Vel told her as he applied a hypospray to her neck. "You were hurt on the bridge. Close your eyes and we'll get you better ssssoon."

While the doctor did his thing, Maddy focused on the woman. "Your console exploded and knocked you back a bit. You took some burns to your face, but everything else seems to be good to go. Doc Tor, here, is going to fix you up and have you on your feet in no time. You have to relax, though. Or try to."

Athyle tried to lay still, even as the muscle relaxer began to circulate throughout her blood stream. "The ship...?" she mumbled. "My... head..."

"Nurssee Riggssss, pleasssse get me an ampule of zolmitriptan," Vel asked politely. "The sssship is fine."

Maddy watched the nurse run, then looked to the doctor. "Is she going to be okay?" She asked, looking back down at Alythe as Nurse Riggs returned to give him the medicine he required.

The Andorian stopped her struggling as the medication finally took hold. "How... how bad is it... Doc?"

Vel loaded the zolmitriptan in the hypospray and pressed it to the Andorian shen's neck. "That ssshould help with the headache," he assured her as he looked at the worst of the damage and ran his tricorder over her left antenna and would have frowned if his facial structure would have allowed it. "Your left antenna hasss sssuffered third degree burnsss, but I'm sssure we can sssave it," he told her and hoped he was telling the truth.

He set the tricorder down and took up the dermal regenerator and began to run it over her face and antenna.

"Will she need to be monitored?" the redheaded Captain asked. "I have a Borg cube to investigate, but I'd like to know if Ensign sh'Paveress will be here, or in another location, so that I might check in on her when I get back."

"Yesss," the reptiloid Doctor replied. "I'll sssend updatesss," he promised Maddy before he turned back to his patient.

"I appreciate that," Maddy said.

"Do you have any mobility in your left antenna?" He asked Athyle gently.

"I..." Athyle said, her already strained eyes squeezing shut. "I can't... can't feel it." Her right antennae twitched, proving that she could at least manipulate that one.

The Captain gave Athyle's hand a final squeeze. "I'll be back by to check on you when I get back to the ship," she said before turning her attention back to the doctor. "Take good care of her." With that, she turned to make her way out of sickbay. There was still much that needed to be done.

"I will," Vel promised her. "Nurssse Riggsss, pleassse prepare Sssurgical Sssuite Five," he requested. "We'll get you back to like new in sssshort order, Ensssign."

Athyle was in no position to resist or complain. The medication had set in, leaving her rather numb to what had happened to her head. She simply closed her eyes and prepared for the doctor to work his scaly wizardry.

"On it, Doc Tor," the nurse said, placing a hand on Athyle's arm. "You are in great hands." Or in this case... claws. Riggs thought as she turned around and began to make her way back toward the surgical suites. Number five was the one she walked into and began to prep, getting everything she thought the doctor would need in order for this to be successful.

Once the Surgery Suite was setup and ready, Vel had the Shen transferred to it and after sterilizing his manus and equipment thoroughly, he went and began an in depth examination of her antenna. The Andorians used them for many things and his research indicated that she would be worse than a half blind human without it, and would be lesser for it.

He began with a holographic medical scan of it and brought it up before him and started to explore the problem. Nerve damage was obvious but the anterior scapus was heavily damaged and without that, her planes of movement with it would be limited. The pedicel contained the organ which is a collection of sensory cells which had also been damaged and without that, she wouldn't be able to effectively use it the way it had been meant to be used.

Vel explored the options available to him, then got down to work. He'd have to do it the old fashioned way, which meant going over each and every aspect of the damage and repairing it to the best of his ability. He just hoped it was enough to give her full functionality of it again.

He knew that with electrical stimulation and cranial massage, she would grow a new one back in about three and a half months, but she would have to lose it entirely for that to happen and he wasn't about to mutilate her for that.

With a raspy sigh, the Pahkwa-thanh began to operate but made a note to contact the Andorian Medical Board with her permission when she regained consciousness. It took an hour of delicate work even though he wasn't entirely certain of how effective his treatment would be in the end until he examined her later, but it was the best he had to offer.

Vel applied a hypospray to her neck to speed up the healing process, then waited for her to regain consciousness.

Darkness yielded to light from the overhead spotlights. The pain wasn't as searing as it was before, but Athyle certainly felt a difference. A labored exhale vacated her lungs as she came to, and as she did, she felt more of that difference.

In an instant, her eyes shot open. Athyle felt as if the biobed had tipped over, threatening to throw her onto the floor as a baby would a doll. Her small hands gripped the side of the bed in order to keep herself still, gasping as she did.

Vel laid a gentle claw on her arm. "Take it easssy, Ensssign," he told her gently. "I've jusssst repaired damage to your right antenna and you may be a little off balance until your body can heal the damage. Do you feel any pain or as if anything is misssssing?"

"A little?" Athyle snapped. She tried to let go of the biobed, but it was clear to her that vertigo had set in. "This... uh... this happened to my brother once... when we were children. It took him a week or two to find a balance. This is... not a good time for that."

"I'm afraid you won't have much choice," Vel told her. "However, with electrical ssstimulation and brisssk cranial masssage, any remaining damage ssshould clear up within three monthsss. The alternative to that isss to remove it entirely and allow a new one to grow back, and I'll give up my medical career before I do that."

"Three months!" Athyle exclaimed, her dark eyes meeting those of the the Pahkwa-thanh. She couldn't wait that long, and she knew she certainly couldn't wait a full nine months to grow a replacement antenna. "What... what about now? I've still got duties to perform." Please. Please don't say I have to take a couple days off to get used to this. Not while the ship's in danger.

"I understand that and I have a sssuggestion for that because I can sssee how ssstubborn you're going to be. The firssst option is for you to do the sssensssible thing and take a few daysss off your ssschedule. The sssecond is that I can ressstrict you to Sssickbay."

"What!?" she exclaimed again, sitting up quickly. Athyle was immediately met with a wave of nausea and vertigo, forcing her to lay back and grip the edges of the bed again. "I... I..."

"You, you, you need ressst," Vel told her. "There are two hundred persssonel in your department. You can be ssspared, or you can be confined. Which will it be?"

Athyle moaned. She didn't like any of her options, nor did she cherish the idea of being stuck on her own couch or bed unable to move for the next day or two. "If it's not too much trouble, Doctor, I think I should stay here. I'm not ready to be left on my own."

"I do have good newsss," Doc Tor told her. "The patient care roomsss are alssso functional holossuites, and equipped with an EMH."

"That is good news," Athyle said, mustering a small smile. At least she could regain control of her senses and balance both in private and in familiar settings. "I didn't realize sickbay was so advanced these days."

"The Triumphant is the flagssship of the fleet for a reassson. We're one of five put on the front linesss, so I've read. Thissss ssship is equipped to handle thosse sssituationsss asss well asss ssstubborn Andoriansss." He gave her a toothy smile as he cocked his reptilian head to the side and winked at her.

"Have you ever met an Andorian who wasn't stubborn, Doctor?" Athyle said, beginning to relax her grip but still refusing to move. "Or a Bolian who was not friendly?"

"No, and no," Vel told her. "Now let'sss get you moved." He reached out with a very sharp talon at the end of his manus and delicately touched the surface of the biobed's control unit. It hummed and lifted a few inches slowly off the frame and he moved to the end of it so she could see him and still talk. "Jusst so you don't fall off," he activated another control and foot high railing came up on either side of the bed.

Athyle's grip resumed it's hold. Her balance was off enough already and she couldn't see this making her more ill. Still, she closed her eyes so that the extra stimuli wouldn't overpower her. "Thank you, Doctor."

"Pleassse, call me Doc Tor," he quipped as he began to slowly walk out of the room and down another corridor.

To that, Athyle could only grunt. "I never knew Pahkwa-thanh had such a sense of humor. Tell me, Doc Tor, did you decide your profession early on?"

"Well, I had to do ssssomething to counter the name my parentsss gave me, didn't I?" Vel retorted. "Go look up ancient Earth dinosaursss. There'ss one called a Velociraptor."

"Velociraptor?" Athyle asked, suddenly feeling more movement. Her grip tightened and her eyelids closed. "What does that mean for you?"

"My full name, Ensssign," he began. "Isss Vel Ossss Arap Tor. Ssstring it together." He continued up the hall to the patient care rooms, taking his time so she didn't get sick.

And string it together she did, but quietly in her head. "So, your parents were just unnaturally cruel then. Or had a decent sense of humor, however you want to view it. I guess it could have been worse."

Vel gave a hissing laugh as he led her into her room. "And you wondered at my humor," he said with a toothy grin. "Here we are, your home away from home for a few daysss."

Athyle slowly opened her eyes and tried to sit up again. This time, she didn't seem as nauseous, but she could only guess at how long it would last. "Thank you, Doc Tor." The room, for now, was sterile, but those holoprojectors would soon come into use. "If it's all the same, I think I'm just gonna close my eyes for a bit, let the room stop spinning before I try anything."

"You are mosst welcome," he said politely. "If you need anything, the nurssssesss ssstation isss jussst around the corner, or activate the EMH by calling for it. There'ssss a replicator in the corner and the refressssher isss through that door." He pointed one talon at an unobtrusive door off to the side.

"Thank you," she said softly. Her mind knew that her body and bed were no longer in motion. If only she convince her equilibrium that was the case, then she could be all set. Athyle sighed, hoping that she would not have to be here for very long.