The First Rule of Triage

Posted on Wed Nov 20th, 2013 @ 9:26pm by Captain Liarra Von & Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax & Lieutenant Commander Miranda Keller MD, MBBS & Lieutenant Commander Melissa Daniels M.D.

Mission: Picking Up the Pieces
Location: Main Infirmary

[ON]

The main entrance to the infirmary was locked open, presumably to increase the flow rate of incoming patients, or at least that's what Liarra mused. It just as well could have been stuck open for some other reason. It was hard for the commander to really get a sense of what was going on. Bodies and injured patients were spread throughout the room. Medical staff and volunteers weaved in and out of the rows and rows of makeshift beds, tending to the needs of the injured, and in many cases, Liarra assumed, determining if they had a chance to live.

Commander Von had only one reason to be here. Her officers had already been scouring the station, but no one had any knowledge of the captain's whereabouts. Her only hope was that he was amongst the living still in the temporary triage ward.

Melissa continued to move from patient to patient. "Nurse Weland, All severe trauma gets sent into the medical deck for treatment, non-serious injuries get sent to Archa IV." She stated. "Dr. Keller, once patents are stabilized, we send them down to Archa IV for treatment. We may get a attacked again, and from what I've seen of the Sojourners. This will be the first place they attack." She operated in a warzone before. "The Sojourners are just the cowards who would attack a hospital." Melissa handed Keller a hand phaser. "Take this, and hope you don't have to use it."

Miranda took the Phaser and strapped it to her hip, "don't worry, if I have to use this, most of the station will be lost" she said as she moved to her next patient and started scanning his injuries

Melissa continued to work. "Nurse Staton." She had an even more upsetting job for her. "I need you to check the patients coming in with the tricorder. Any life signs, and those we can resuscitate, admit and mark with the red marker. Zero life signs, black marker. Get Carlton and V'Tal to help." She then noticed Liarra. "Commander?" She got her attention.

Liarra knew that she was out of her element. Seeing the nurses and doctors move from patient to patient, concentrating on the job at hand, at least told her that the right people were on the job. She was shaken from her wide eyed gazing when she noticed Dr. Daniels approaching. "Doctor, how are we doing?"

"Come with me Liarra." She noted as she lead into a more private area. "I need more medical supplies, Liarra. I'm not equipped here to fight a war."

"I know that, Melissa, but there is only so much I can do. Long range comms are still down, but the Carthage has already contacted Starfleet. A state of emergency has been declared and relief ships are on the way. I will give you anything I have, but if it's not on the station and we can't get it from the planet, there isn't much I can do. At the very least, give me a list of what we need and I will put every available crew member to finding it on the surface. I'm not opposed to calling in the marines." Liarra sighed. She wished she could do more, but the burden of this attack was weighing heavily on her, and they still hadn't found Captain Gunning, much less figured out how this attack could have happened. "Tell me this, Melissa. Have you seen Captain Gunning anywhere? No one seems to know where he is."

Melissa spoke, "Over here Liarra." She noted as she made her way to the base's ICU. "She's hurt badly Liarra, and I don't have the facilities to treat her. If she's going to survive, we'll have to get her to a facility that can treat Joined Trill, or will loose both of them. That means I'll need a ship that can do better than Warp Five."

As the small group moved over to her biobed, Nilani ignored the searing headache to turn her head to face her fellow Trill. She had long since given up trying to move - even Starfleet painkillers could only do so much - and judging by how things and people around her suddenly changed or moved, she guessed she'd been in and out of consciousness for some time. "Liarra," she managed to say, before coughing slightly at the effect speaking had on her throat, left try by the ash of a burning station. "How many... ?" she couldn't bring herself to finish the question, but knew Liarra would understand what she was asking.

Liarra took her friend's hand. She wiped her eyes with her other hand and shook her head. "We're still counting. We won't know until we can get a proper headcount, but we have nearly twenty thousand unaccounted for, included everyone in all of the infirmaries." It pained her to even think about the number of people who were dead. "Have you seen Alex?"

"There... there was an explosion," Nilani said, trying to recount the last few moments before she had lost consciousness and woken up in the care of the medics. "The EPS conduits along the corridor we were in. We were.... trying to get as many people away from the damaged sections of the station as we could; a lot doors were sealed or broken. Alex knew it was coming first, and shouted to run. I only just made it - the blast hit me but through me into a side passage. I... I don't know what happened to him. I couldn't see him anywhere... I..." Her sentence trailed off and she was clearly overcome with emotion, mixed in with the shock she was still suffering from.

Liarra was quiet for a moment, but she feared the worst. "Doctor, was anyone else found near Nilani?"

The doctor paused to think for a moment. "I remember someone telling me that there was, but the body was too badly burned to be identified. Honestly, our attention right now is more towards helping the wounded than identifying the dead. If we do a good enough job on the first one, then the second one might be a little easier."

Commander Von tried to stay strong, trying to fight tears from her eyes. "We need to know, Doctor. Please see if we can identify that body. We need to find Captain Gunning. We have to hope that he's still alive."

[OFF]

Commander Liarra Von
Executive Officer
Starbase 332

Lt. Commander Nilani Prax [P-Ratchford]
Chief Science Officer
Starbase 332

Lt. Commander Melissa Daniels
Chief Medical Officer
Starbase 332

Lieutenant Miranda Keller
Chief Surgeon
Starbase 332