From: Shawn X and Kim Toussaint (kimtoussaint_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Dec 11 2007 - 10:15:12 PST
"Fresh Air"
( Continued from Ran's Medical help )
_______________________________________________
LOCATION: GATEWAY Station
SCENE: Operations
STARDATE: 2.71211.1011
_________________________________________________
Now that the reinforcements had arrived, Jake Crichton finally felt like he could take a
minute and relax. Not "relax" in the conventional sense of the word, of course- but any
chance to take a breather, to just lean up against something and rest, to not have the
threat of death hanging over your head all the time- that was something Crichton needed.
In the moments after the battle had ended- after those last few blows dealt by the
Dominion had struck Operations with catastrophic effect- a strange, almost giddy
feeling had filled Crichton's body, one that had been only slightly hampered when he
discovered that Commander Learna Teague had died.
Of course, Crichton had great respect for the women. He had hardly known her, but
she had stepped up to the responsibility of command without fear or hesitation,
and she had bravely led GATEWAY through the battle, even though she had not survived
it herself. And in the end, her death had been quick and clean- one final mercy from
the universe in exchange for her great service. Crichton wouldn't soon forget Learna
Teague- her example had taught him, in only a short period of time, more about
command than he had learned in his entire time at the Academy and ACT Program.
Crichton felt like he should feel... worse, somehow. He had learned about "survivor's
guilt", about the trauma of battle and how it effects those who live through it.
He didn't feel any of that- or, at least, he didn't *think* he did. The only thing
Crichton was sure that he felt was an overwhelming, all-consuming, undeniably *joy*
to still be alive. It was so distinct, it was almost like a drug coursing through
his veins- he was alive. He had made it through.
"You."
Crichton opened his eyes. The marine CO- Maverick, if Crichton remembered- was
pointing a finger at him. Crichton raised his head a little off the railing he'd been
leaning it against.
"Hmm?"
"You're the Chief Engineer?" Maverick asked.
"Not technically," Crichton said.
"Acting Chief Engineer, then?"
"I guess you could say that," Crichton nodded.
"Good," Maverick said. "We've got power outages throughout 48% of the station.
They're going to need your help getting it back. Are you hurt?"
"I think my ribs are broken," Crichton said, pulling himself to his feet by the
railing.
"Get him to one of the medical units," Maverick ordered one of his marines. "Then
get him back up here."
The marine offered Crichton a shoulder and helped him to the turbolift.
_______________________________________________________
SCENE: Medical Unit Alpha, formerly Science Lab 1
________________________________________________________
What used to be one of GATEWAY's many science labs had been converted- very
rapidly, by the looks of it- into a sort of field hospital. Medical cots lined the
lab, civilians and Starfleet officers lying on each one of them. Crichton looked
around as they brought him in- each patient seemed to have a more grievous injury
than the last. Worst of all, many of them were children.
The doctors- a mixture of GATEWAY's surviving medical staff and the medical teams
from the Federation fleet- worked diligently, treating each patient as best they
could. They did their work well, but sometimes, all they could do was make the
patient comfortable and wait for the inevitable. When a patient died, marines moved
in, loaded the corpse into a body-bag, and carted it out quickly. Crichton overheard
one of them mention that another Science Lab had been converted into a kind of
make-shift morgue.
The marine gently lowered Crichton onto a cot, then moved towards a tall, attractive
blonde woman dressed in the blue-uniform of a Starfleet MD. She was busy treating a
frightened young child, speaking soothing words to him while closing a gash on the
child's knee with that dermal-rejuvinator thing that doctors always used
had never been Crichton's thing). The woman actually shushed the marine as he
approached, and finished tending to the child before turning to give the soldier
her attention.
The marine said something to her, pointed in Crichton's direction, then moved off.
The woman moved towards Crichton, giving him a genuine, friendly smile as she approached.
"Daisy Davidson," she said. "What seems to be the trouble, Ensign?"
"Feels like broken ribs," Crichton said. Daisy took out a medical tricorder and quickly
scanned Crichton's torso, then nodded.
"Looks like you have two fractured ribs on your left side," she said. "But the
breaks are very small. This shouldn't take a minute."
She turned and grabbed another instrument off a nearby console that she was using
as a table, and began focusing its beam on Crichton's ribcage.
"Good thing you folks showed up when you did," Crichton said. "I'm not sure how much
longer we could have held out."
"We knew we'd probably be flying into a warzone," Daisy said as she worked. "But to be
honest, we had no idea it would be this bad. The Dominion must have sent half their
fleet against you."
"Unfortunately, I doubt it," Crichton said. "I doubt they even noticed the damage we
did to them."
"I'd say we got their attention," Daisy said, giving him a reassuring smile. "But I'd
be lying if I said I thought they wouldn't be back."
"So what's the plan?" Crichton asked. "Are we evacuating the station? How are we
getting home?"
"To be honest, they haven't told me anything," Daisy shrugged. "I'm only here by chance."
The older woman looked a bit careworn and disheveled from the many hours she'd been
on duty tending the injured. It didn't stop her from smiling, though - as she put
her hand on the younger man's shoulder and did a bit of what Mav teasingly called
"being a mother hen". She straightened his shirt lightly and touched her hand to
the area where she'd just repaired the fractures.
"Breathe for me again."
Crichton looked surprised. "You just scanned it, right?"
She gave him a look of warning and repeated her order. "Breathe..."
A bit confused, he complied and flinched slightly because there was still some pain.
Daisy adjusted the medical instrument one more time before reapplying it to his
side and chided him gently.
"Medicine is just as much of an art as it is a science, son. Never question
how I practise my art."
He managed a weak grin. "Yes, sir." It had been a long time since he'd been home
and heard one of his parents or anyone called him "Son".
Her tired face lit up with satisfaction as she made him breathe one more time
and saw there was no more pain.
"There." She nodded. "Now, try to avoid any jogging over the next few
hours, ok?"
A few beds away, Kate was confronted by a frantic Bajoran woman demanding,
"Where is my son?"
Patiently, the scottish woman tried to explain. "We had to evacuate him to
the USS MERCY...."
"I never gave anyone permission to take him to a Starfleet vessel." the Bajoran
woman scoffed.
"He needed surgery." Kate started to explain.
Daisy couldn't help overhearing and raised her hand to Crichton calmly.
"Excuse me, son..."
"It's Crichton, Doctor..." Jake smiled.
Daisy just gave a soft laugh and patted him on the shoulder before
walking past to assist Kate with the distraught Bajoran mother. Though Daisy
was clearly in her element, she carried herself with a definate but gentle
command presence - more like a Mother looking after her family than a "military
doctor" coordinating a make-shift hospital.
Jake rubbed his newly repaired ribs and watched for a moment as Daisy
carefully defended Dr. MacNeil's work while discreetly positioning herself
between the distraught woman and the younger, scottish doctor. Daisy kept
one hand on Kate's shoulder, indicating solidarity with her professional
colleague - and then waved for one of the Marine's to come and escort the
Bajoran woman to the transporter room to go join her child on the USS MERCY.
Another Marine approached him, "You're done here, right sir?"
Crichton blinked. "Right, yeah."
It was a strange feeling in that moment. He *WAS* done and fit to return
to duty - and yet it was hard to pull himself away.
Daisy glanced back at him and gave him one more warm, genuine smile. Then,
she waved and mouthed a simple "Bye".
He inhaled sharply and then let out a deep, relaxed sigh - feeling as if
he'd just experienced his first breath of fresh air in months. Heading
back to help Maverick, he found himself smiling...
______________________________________________________________________
NRPG:
Shawn - thanks for your help getting to know Crichton. :)
Peter - looking forward to that post you promised me. :P:P
Ken - glad to get that NRPG from you - I hope you are enjoying the way things are
going on GATE today. :)
Erik - I have an idea I want to ask you about.
Kat - up for a joint post to help me get to know your character a little better?
Kim Toussaint AKA Commander Daisy Byrne Davidson, M.D.
USS PATRIOT - soon to be in command of GATEWAY STATION
---------------------------------
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