Bridging The Gap Part III
Posted on Tue Nov 16th, 2021 @ 1:49am by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke & Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles & Lieutenant Paul Michael & Lieutenant Elen Diari & Lieutenant Commander Hermia O'Rourke
Edited on on Tue Nov 16th, 2021 @ 4:58am
2,295 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Episode 11 - Family Matters
Location: Various
Timeline: MD005 1230 hrs
He checked her vitals with the tricorder. He frowned when he looked at the readings. "No need to apoglize....it's part of the job." He picked up a water container and rubbed some water over her lips.
"Right so how long do you think it will take for your ship to receive the message and mount a rescue?" Lisae was curious how long she had. She also wondered exactly how quick Starfleet could respond.
"If the beacon reached orbit, they should be on their way here now.
[USS Pioneer-Bridge]
"Commander Myles, prepare an away team." Quinn called out, with a slight concerned look on his face. The Serenity had sent out an automated distress signal, and he wanted to rescue his people as soon as possible. He wondered, how and why this happened. He watched the runabout go down on sensors, but the question of why, still bothered him.
Larim nodded. He tapped his commbadge. "Sickbay. Have a medtech meet me in transporter room three." He then motioned to one of his guys. "Martinez, you're with me as well."
"Dr. O'Rourke here, I'll go myself. On my way, Commander." Hermia said, grabbing a medkit from under her her desk, she headed for the door.
"Acknowledged Doctor. Welcome to the team." Larim said.
Lunara stood up from her chair, facing Larim. "Sir, permission to come along. You could use a counselor on this." Her tone of voice made it sound more like a suggestion than a request - she still hadn't completely moved on from being the respected elder in her past life. Taking the part of the young buck - and showing the appropriate respect - was still something she struggled with.
"Granted. Grab a phaser, counselor. " he smiled.
Lunara nodded, a smile on her face. "Thank you, sir." She hurried out the door on the way to get kitted up - donning some abdomen armor to porter her symbiont, worn discreetly under her uniform, a combat belt with plenty of extra pouches and medical kit slung across her chest. She completed her loadout by checking a phaser out from the armory, and hurried to join the team in the transporter room.
"Good luck Number One." Quinn said, wishing he was going instead of Larim. He knew his place was on the bridge. Deep down though, he wanted to know personally if Lieutenant Michael was okay. He also wondered how Captain Malbrooke's team was doing. Her had not heard anything recently.
Lunara arrived in the transporter room in good time, quickly looking around before saluting and walking over to Larim. "What's the situation, sir?"
"We've received a distress call from the runabout serenity. We are going to investigate and provide assistance." The betazoid replied.
Lunara pursed her lips. "I see. No more details, hm?" The downing of a shuttle craft in what was supposed to be friendly territory worried her. These things rarely happened accidentally.
"Sorry. But that's all I really know myself. " larim replied
Hermia too was worried about the lack of intell, but said nothing. Unlike most Starfleet medical personnel, she wore Marine boots, and a K'bar strapped to the ankle of her uniform, and her personal phaser was a Marine design. This displayed her dual nature as a warrior and a healer.
Lisae pushed herself into a meditative type state and slowed her own vital signs. Her hypothesis is that medical care can make someone fall in love. She knew that humans called it the Nightingale Effect. In order to test this theory to the fullest she had to make Paul believe that she was dying.
The tricorder told Paul that Lisae's life signs were starting to drop. He pulled out a hypo that contained a stimulant, and ejected her with it. "Come on...live!"
Lisae could hear and was aware of everything that was going on around her. She wanted to see what he would do next before returning herself to normal. She still felt like she had learned nothing as of yet. For the woman knew that anyone would go to great lengths to save another's life. And yet she seemed to be learning a great deal about how humans handle stress.
Paul had given her one injection of the stimulant, and she didn't show any signs of improvement. He had the basic medical training that all cadets get, so he wasn't positive if she would survive another injection.
Lisae could sense that Paul was on the verge of giving up. So they rely on their training for the most part. She thought. The doctor decided to explore a different tack. She allowed her vitals to elevate slowly and fluttered her eyes opened. "I am not sure how much longer I can hold out." She whispered.
He looked at her, sorry he wasn't able to do more........then he suddenly stood up. "I'll be right back." He left the command cockpit and ran towards the back of the runabout. About 5 minutes later, he returned and went directly to the controls, and started inputting orders.
Now this had piqued Lisae's curiosity. She was not entirely sure but it seemed that this human was about to risk everything to save her. This was contrary to everything she had read about humans, and this man had a mate waiting for his return, to risk himself like this would be unheard of in her culture. "What... what... what are you doing?" She rasped disguising the fact that she is uninjured.
"Rerouting emergency power." He kept tapping buttons. "There's a stasis chamber in the cargo hold. So I'm rerouting power to activate the chamber. Once it's up and running, I'll place you in the chamber, seal it, and when help gets here, they'll transport the chamber to the ship, and the doctor can save you." He stopped tapping. "Done." He turned to her, knelt down. "I'm going to pick you up now, and take you to the chamber. This will probably hurt. Ready?"
Well that certainly is an ambitious plan. Lisae thought. But she had to stall even if for another small moment. "But won't doing that take power from life support and can lead to your death sooner. Is it not better to allow me the sick and injured to perish. Even a Vulcan would agree with my logic."
"Not happening. In Starfleet, we will gladly sacrifice ourselves for another." He picked her up, and started walking to the cargo section of the runabout.
Lisae allowed herself to be picked up as her mind raced. She could not allow him to place her into stasis. That would ruin the whole nature of the experiment. However, telling him about it would do the same. She decided that the only thing she could do was make a 'miraculous' recovery. Once Paul placed her down in the stasis chamber she allowed her vitals to return to normal. Color even began to return to her face. She gave a few coughs for good measure. Her eyes widened as she began to speak. "The pain has subsided. Not sure how that happened..." She hoped that her words would lead him to make another scan.
Paul pulled out his tricorder and scanned her. "You must have a fantastic recovery ability because I am detecting no internal bleeding. I think out chief medical officer would love to take a scan of you. Let's get you out of there." Paul helped her out. "Are you okay to walk?"
"I think so, and perhaps the recovery is due to the Vulcanoid blood..." Lisae went for the gusto in an attempt to cover her tracks. "...Vulcans, Romulans, and my people all share the same progenitor." Lisae began to wonder if this man was a sample of all humans, or if he was unique. She would have to ponder that as she though of her next move.
"I'm concerned...the Pioneer should have been here by now.....that is if they detected the beacon." Paul walked over to one of the cabinets, opened it, and took a visual survey of it's contents. "We should have enough to eat and drink to last you last you several weeks, that is if you can eat our rations."
"Oh yes indeed... I can eat the same as you. As I said Vulcans and I have the same progenitor." Lisae said and suddenly she was famished. "In fact I would love something to eat right now.
Michael looked at her. He was starting to feel like she was hiding something. "Are there foods you can't of won't eat? Like Vulcans don't eat meat."
"Our diet is a lot like yours in that we are omnivores. However, like in your race there are members of ours who choose to eat only vegetables. As for myself I enjoy some meat once in a while." Lisae spoke through a grimace. While the near death was faked, the pain and injury was real enough.
Lunara appeared with the rest of the landing party in a sparkle of blue energy. She looked around, quickly taking out her tricorder and scanning the surrounding area.
Hermia's hand went straight to her weapon on her hip. She then took out her tri-corder and approached the Lieutenant and the Jutrai.
Lisae looked up while munching on the food that Paul had gotten for her. Thus far her study had not produced any answers just more questions. Now she wondered if all males were caring such as this one. She noticed a group approaching from the south they wore the same uniforms as Paul so she smiled again. "It seems like your friends are here."
Paul smiled when he saw his shipmates. "I can't tell you how happy I'm am to see all of you."
Lucas was glad to see those from the Pioneer as they approached. He was more than ready to be back on the ship and among friendly faces again.
"Likewise " Larim replied. "Glad to see that you're in one piece"
"Anyone injured?" Hermia asked.
"We're fine. Lisae had been complaining of various injuries, but they seemed to heal themselves." Paul reported.
Suddenly realizing that she should be acting injured Lisae resumed her role that she was assigned by High Command. "Yes it seems that I have lost all movement below the waist."
Paul was surprised when Lisae said that. Just a few moments ago she was up and walking and not complaining.
Hermia having re-holstered her phaser, pulled out her medical tri-corder and began scanning the Vulcanoid.
Reviewing the results, she turned to the others and said. "Ladies and gentlemen may I have a moment alone with my patient?" It was an order, not a request.
"Sure thing, Doc' Larim said, nodding. He had a fair idea about why.
Once they were out of earshot, she turned her attention back to Lisae and asked. "Why are you lying about the severity of your injuries, we both know they're only superficial, though painful." She paused for a while. "Relax." She said. "As your physician, I can't tell anyone anything about your medical condition, without your permission, except if I deem you pose a threat to the Pioneer and her crew. So, what are you hiding?"
The events that currently transpired were beyond interesting to Lisae. It seemed that things went both too far and not far enough. However, with the idea that the Doctor could not tell anyone Lisae thought it best to speak frankly. "Yes Doctor of course I know that the injuries are not severe. Everything that transpires is our way, simply put it is how we learn about people. All would be revealed to your Captain and crew as soon as I would be returned..." She paused for a moment and did a great job as she feigned pain. "...Now I do not grant any permission to tell anyone, anything."
"Okay, I'll keep your secret." Hermia said not happy about it, but she took her Hippocratic oath seriously.
She took a deep breath. "Right, you have temporary paralysis due to swelling around the spine, caused by a fall. Once the swelling goes down, you'll regain feeling below the waist and suffer no side effects, understood?" The Doctor asked.
"Yes Dr thank you. I am just glad that you all were able to come so quickly." Lisae spoke with a soft smile, grateful for the time being that Hermia kept her story.
"The pleasure is all ours" Larim said, motioning for all to board the shuttle. "Martinez, can you help out? I'm going to prep the shutle for launch"
"Aye commander." Martinez said, moving to help the CMO
A Joint Post By
Captain Tyler Malbrooke
Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Paul Michael
Chief Flight Control Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Elen Diari
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Commander Hermia O'Rourke
Chief Medical Officer, USS Pioneer
Ensign Lucas Walker
Science Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Lunara Hol
Chief Counselor, USS Pioneer
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