Where Am I?

Posted on 05 Aug 2019 @ 10:24am by Lieutenant JG Damian Akorem & Commander Jayla Kij & Senior Chief Petty Officer Alexander Rylan

1,615 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Truth and Justice
Location: USS Black Hawk; Sickbay, Intensive Care Unit
Timeline: MD 2 || 1100 hours

My body is aching. He thought to himself. He was feeling the ache. That was a new sensation. He had been hurting since he arrived on the surface of Finnea Prime. Then... his memory was fuzzy. Did he slip in some mud? No, he didn't remember slipping. His chest was hurting. No, something hit him. From behind, and he was on the floor. Now he was lying here aching. Meaning the Selubassari will likely put him back to work soon. He was behind by... how long was he behind by? It can't have been more than a few days. There were so many questions running through his head right now. Why couldn't he move? Did the Selubassari even have isotropic restraints? And the smell was different. Everything smelt... cleaner. He heard a noise. He didn't want to open his eyes. If he woke up, then he was good enough to go back to work. This was a peaceful moment. He was going to make it last. A few moments more...

Though the alarm was a faint and even pleasing tone, it startled Jayla out of her concentration. This was the second interruption from daily reports- not that she was unhappy about that really. Glancing at the console on her desk, she realized that a coma patient was stirring. In fact, not only was he out of the coma, he was awake! She must have been with Camila when the previous alarms went off. She hurried over to the ICU, pulling out her tricorder as she went.

She found the biobed in question as well as the man with several drip lines still running into his arms- they would be able to remove those if he was doing well. “Good evening,” she said softly as she began running scans. “How are you feeling?”

His eyes opened slowly. Who was she? She couldn't have been a Doctor on the Vasco da Gama, he knew most of the medical staff. She had dark hair and spots down the sides of her face. She was Trill, though it took him a few seconds to realised. He was still quite disoriented. He tried to move his head to look around and felt the gentle telltale tightness of an isotropic restraint holding him in place. What he could see above him, he didn't recognise.

But then he did. It was Starfleet. Looked nothing like Selubassari architecture. But it wasn't the Vasco da Gama. "Where am I?" He asked the Trill staring at him. "Who are you?" he asked, perhaps more acerbically than he intended. But his mind was beginning to clear up, and he couldn't rule out the possibility that this was some kind of subterfuge.

“You’re on the USS Black Hawk,” Jayla replied with one of her signature grins. “And I am Doctor Kij. We picked you up from the infirmary on Finea Prime. You’ve been in a coma for quite some time. But, you were steadily improving so opted to let your body do its thing. How are you feeling?”

"Everything aches, and I can't move. And I feel quite disoriented." If he was on the Black Hawk, that meant everyone on Finnea Prime made it off. There were so many injuries every day though. Maybe some of his shipmates were still on the Black Hawk. So many questions. "How many of us are on the Black Hawk Doctor? And can someone please remove the isotropic restraints, unless I am being held stationary because something is really bad. Or unless there is no restraint and I have nerve damage or something." His mind was racing. And he had a tendency to babble when he didn't know what was going on.

"You're restrained," Jayla reassured him, reaching over to deactivate them. "We didn't want you rolling off the bed or anything. Yes, that has happened. As for how many are here, only a handful. Most of them were transferred to another ship before we... well, we entered the convergence zone. We were concerned about moving you and a few others, so we opted to keep you on board. On the plus side," she added, closing her tricorder, "you seem to have more or less recovered. Do you want to try sitting up?"

"Yes please, Doctor Kij. He sat up, knowing the field was deactivated. "Wait," panic flashed through his mind. "Did you say when we entered the zone? How did this ship, any ship, make it through the barrier? We spent months sending probes through, and got nothing back."

"Our engineering team spent a long time studying the barrier and we found a way to pass through safely," she replied. "We lost our memories and we're still not sure how to stop that from happening on the way out, but we made it through in one piece."

"I don't think I have forgotten anything. But that's fascinating. What's my physical state. I feel slightly achy, but nothing serious. It just feels like I played a bad game of parrises squares."

"That's from our friendly machine here pinging your muscles so they don't atrophy," she said, patting the machinery near the bio bed. "It has the side effect of making you achy for a few days after you wake up. But, at least your muscles still- oh! Rylan!" she called out, spotting her favorite (she was probably a little biased there) medical corpsman passing the door. "Could you get me a hypospray loaded with terakine, please?"

"For my favorite physician? Your wish, my command," Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Alex Rylan said. He quickly and proficiently prepared the hypospray as requested and placed it in Jayla's outstretched hand. "Here you go!"

“Thank you, Mister Rylan,” Jayla replied with a grin that was just a tiny bit more sparkly than her typical. “This will take care of the worst of the pain,” she explained to Akorem as she dialed in the dosage and pressed the hypo to his neck. “You’ll probably need more tomorrow morning, but I hope you won’t have to stay here the rest of the day and all night. Of course, I’d feel much better about sending you to some private quarters if you’ll consent to wear a personal health monitor.”

"I would prefer some privacy if I am honest," Akorem replied. "I haven't really had much privacy since I was on the Vasco da Gama. What time tomorrow?" He stood up, taking note of the smile still on this Mister Rylan's face, and the reciprocated smile on Doctor Kij. As he reached full height, he was overcome with a larger ache in his legs. He must really have been stationary for a long time. He leaned on the bed for some more support.

"You okay?" Jayla asked, reaching out instinctively to steady him.

"Yes, I think so. My legs just hurt more. Though that's probably from the weeks of lying down?" He asked the Doctor, hoping she would agree, and that it wasn't more serious.

"Quite probably," Jayla agreed. "If it doesn't improve when you walk around a bit, I'll run some tests. Think you can make a circuit of the room?"

"Yes, I think so." He slowly stood up straighter, moving carefully, before slowly putting his weight back on his feet. They were still aching, but he slowly removed his arms from the bed and stood unassisted. He gingerly moved to the end of the bed, before beginning his small walk of the room. One foot at a time, this isn't a competition he thought to himself. It took a minute or two, but doing it unaided was definitely a positive. He got back to his bed and looked to the Doctor. "What do you think Doctor?"

"Looks good," she allowed. "How does it feel, though? Less pain?"

"Yeh, actually. Achy, but after my little lap, feels less achy." He watched as the corpsman walked over.

Alex produced a Personal Health Monitor armband and patiently waited for Jayla to ask for it.

"Well, that's a good sign," said Jayla with another grin. "It means it's just down to not being used in a while. Rylan, could you- oh! Look at you, reading my mind already!" she said, seeing that Rylan had anticipated her request. She gave him an extra sparkly grin. "This is the personal health monitor," she told Akorem. "It will alert me if anything goes wrong. That way, it's like you're still in Sick Bay, but you're not in Sick Bay. You'll be able to rest better in private quarters, but we'll still be alerted if you need help."

"Are you foreseeing anything problems?" He hoped that her answer would be no.

"No, but one can never be too safe," answered Jayla, fixing the monitor to his upper arm. "It isn't uncommon for coma patients to slip back into a coma. This way, if this detects any signs of that happening, we can rush to your quarters and wake you up."

"Sounds like a plan Doctor." He replied. "Though I sincerely hope I don't. I quite like being awake again." He smiled gently.

"I can certainly understand that," she replied with a friendly grin. "Well, I'd better call security to set up some quarters for you. Shouldn't take long- five minutes? In the meantime, practice walking around a bit."

"I can. Thanks, Doctor, you have worked apparent miracles." He stretched out his hand to shake hers.

With a grin, Jayla shook his hand. "That's what I'm here for," she said. "Keep walking around. I'll get you some quarters." And with another sparkly grin, she set off to do just that.

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