On The Hunt

Posted on 05 May 2024 @ 8:22am by Story Teller & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant T’Mari Rael

2,832 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Return to Razmena
Location: USS Gaittithe || Sickbay
Timeline: June 17, 2390 || 0900 hours

Joey made her way into Intel and made quick work getting to her office. She would be leading an away team, and in their current situation, things could get a bit sketchy. Not only did that mean she needed to keep herself safe, but also those that would be going with her. That meant the need for her tactical belt. Her belt was beyond standard, because not only did it contain the usual Security issue items, but it also contained quite a few Intelligence gadgets as well. Thankfully, she wouldn't be alone in providing security as she called for backup before arriving at Intel.

She got her belt secured around her waist, then pulled on a pair of stun gloves. With luck, she wouldn't need to use them, but if the need arose, the Intelligence Chief wouldn't need to waste time getting them on.

After checking over her gear, specifically the charge of her phaser, Joey walked out of her office, letting her second in command know they would be in charge for the time being. With that done, she made her way to transporter room one to await the others.

Ensign Thi Ng, a Brikar from Security entered the transporter room. He always wondered why he had to wear one of the oddly textured Starfleet uniforms when he had no external gender to show. Yet, he wore one that exposed almost every crevasse in his rocky exterior and wore a modified, extra large Tactical Belt with larger gear tailored for his three fingered huge hands. He arrived after Joey and gave her a nod. "Commander," he rolled the words like a growling rock.

T’Mari arrived in the transporter room, having grabbed her phaser and a tricorder along with a small shoulder bag containing medical supplies incase they were needed. She wasn’t a doctor or nurse but all Counsellor’s were trained in emergency medicine at the Academy, enough to triage and handle minor wounds. “Ready to go Commander.” She offered Joey a polite smile.

"There's no telling what's waiting for us when we get to the other side. Keep your eyes and ears open," Joey said, making sure everyone was in position on the transporter pad. She stepped up onto it and turned her attention to the individual manning the controls. "Whenever you're ready."

"Stand by, Commander," said the Saurian transporter chief. "I’m supposed to let you know of a last minute change. The Chief Engineer has been recalled for a different assignment. I’m also still waiting on the bridge for transport coordinates."

Then, as if it were some telepathy at work, the comm system chimed and Captain Geisler's voice boomed in the room. "Bridge to Transporter Room. We have several groups of survivors aboard the Gaittithe. Reading survivors in sickbay, the port catamaran, and all throughout deck five. Armed pirates are located in each area. Your discretion on the destination, Commander."

"Sickbay. If we can get it secured, we can gather supplies and treat anyone we come across along the way," Joey answered.

"Sickbay it is," the transporter chief said. "The ship is moving a little closer to account for the radiation. Transport in ten seconds."

"Understood, we're ready when you are," the Intelligence Chief said.

A couple more console taps as the chief moved his scaly fingers over the actuators. "Energizing." He slowly pushed them upwards, glancing once at the away team and then refocusing on his various readouts.

Moments later, the team of four materialized, but not in the main sickbay. They were still on Deck Thirteen, and in the medical complex. Instead, they were in the recovery ward. The room was lit only by emergency lights and the flickering display from what seemed to be the only active biobed. Connected to the room, however, was the main sickbay from which voices could be heard.

T'Mari looked at the others. "You don't need me to tell you there's someone in there." she offered a wry smile.

"We didn't need you to tell us that, either," Joey said loud enough for only her party to hear. She placed a finger to her lips in an effort to keep everyone quiet until their situation was assessed. If they could hear those outside, then it was clear it would work both ways. She glanced to Ensign Thi Ng, gestured to her eyes with two fingers, then turned them toward a window.

Hugging the wall, she took to one side and made her way toward the window she gestured to seconds ago and waited for the Security officer to join her on the other side. Once they knew who was out there, they could come up with a plan.

Ensign Ng couldn't fault the Intel Chief's logic or her comment. He nodded and moved to the other side of the window and drew his modified phaser.

"Just a second," Joey said as quietly as she could where her party could still hear her. She took a moment to glance out of the window to try to assess what, or who, they would be dealing with outside the recovery ward.

Outside the ward was a large group of Starfleet officers and enlisted. Many of them were wounded, with several doctors doing their best to triage while guards stood over them. A total of three guards were present, all Selubassari. One of them was speaking various tones into a communicator, while someone was shouting back at them. Since Selubassari could not talk and hear at the same time, a stalemate had settled.

T’Mari kept her voice low as she looked towards Joey. “What do you see?”

"Many wounded," Joey replied just loud enough for the others to hear. "I see three visible guards... Selubassari by the looks of it. Perhaps, we can get them to split up."

Outside the ward, the Selubassari continued to argue, trying to get the attention of the one who was shouting at their contact on the flight deck.

Ensign Ng gave the Commander a smile and nodded towards the two Selubassari on the left and held his modified phaser up.

Joey nodded toward Ng. "We stun them, then secure them. They're so distracted by whatever is going on they won't notice us."

Suddenly, in the other room, the talking stopped. There was an awkward silence, followed by several gasps and then some screams. The Selubassari had raised their weapons. Two had turned back to the prisoners while one cautiously began to move to the recovery ward.

“Something’s changed, What’s happening?” T’Mari looked towards Joey.

"It's stunnin' time!" Ng bellowed as he saw what was happening and blasted through the door. He brought his modified Type II phaser up and fired at the closest Selubassari.

The closest Selubassari, which happened to be the one walking towards the recovery ward, fell to the ground with a rather loud tumble thanks to a pile of crates beside him. His companions spun around and opened fire in the direction of the recovery ward.

"Now it's a party," Joey said with a slow smile. She shoved T'Mari safely behind her with one arm and unholstered her phaser with the other. It took a matter of seconds before she aimed just between the two Selubassari and thumbed the setting to a wider beam that would take them both out at once, then fired.

Both Selubassari crumpled to the ground. One of the bodies twitched for a second or two as the stun beam took affect. Instantly, the sickbay was filled with chatter. The surviving medics picked up the severe cases and hauled them over to biobeds for further treatment. The officer in charge, a woman with fiery red hair, directed one particular case up onto the surgical frame.

"I don't know who the hell you are," the woman said to the new arrivals, "but we wish you were here hours ago."

T’Mari offered a wry smile. “Trust us if we could have been, we would have.”

Ensign Thi Ng stepped forward. "Are there any more of them?"

"Not in here," shouted the red-headed doctor, still hovering over her patient. "We've got pirates all over the fucking ship. There's reports of wounded all over, and I dare not think of those who have died because we were prevented from administering medical care. Not to mention they damn near cleared out our supplies."

An alarm sounded from the surgical suite as the patient slipped into cardiac arrest. "I need 20ccs lectrazine and a cardiac stimulator, stat!

A nurse ran over to a nearby cart, but could not find any vials for a hypospray, much less a cardiac stimulator.

The red-headed doctor looked up at the away team. Her worn expression bounced between the team from the Black Hawk, hoping that someone had brought a medical kit with them.

T’Mari was quick to grab the emergency med Kit she’d carried with her. “Here...use what you need.” She opened the kit hoping they weren’t too late to save the patient.

"We're going to get you all transferred over to the Black Hawk so the injured can be treated properly," Joey said, taking the medkit from T'Mari. She crouched down and got it open, then dug through until she got the lectrazine, loaded it into the hypo and administered it to the patient.

The Intelligence Chief looked up to the others while she passed the doctor the cardiac stimulator. She was just a bit disappointed that no one stepped in to render aid. Even basic first aid was something they should all have been taught. Joey tapped her combadge. "Geisler to Black Hawk. We have a dire situation here. Many wounded, some critical, and in need of immediate medical attention. Supplies are gone, and our medkits will only get us so far."

"It's worse than that," Harvey replied over the comm. "The radiation is so intense that we have the purge the buffers after every thirty persons to keep the radiation from distorting patterns. When we do that, transporters will be down for an hour. I've authorized Ensign Karn to proceed with SAR via the flight deck, and that's still pirate infested."

"And if radiation's a problem," said the doctor, "then transporting via shuttle is the best option for some of these cases." She checked her patient with the tricorder, then handed the cardical stimulator to T'Mari. "Place this just above his heart and stand by setting three."

“Setting three, got it” T’Mari nodded.

"Then we need to do our parts to help secure the flight deck," Joey said as she looked around to those rendering and receiving aid. She really didn't want to split up, but it seemed like that was probably the best course of action. "Lieutenant Rael... stay here and help render aid to those that need it. Ensign Ng, you stay as well. Help treat the wounded, but be prepared to defend them if necessary. Some of the pirates could come back here if they think it's safe, and many of these people aren't capable of defending themselves." With that, she rose to her feet and prepared herself. "I'm going to the flight deck."

“Commander...” T’Mari looked towards Joey. “Be careful, last thing we need is anything happening to you.”

"I will," Joey said, hoping she could make good on that.

"And what about transports?" asked the doctor. "I know of three patients that need to be immediately remanded to your medical staff. I'm not leaving this crew until we get all of our critically wounded off this ship."

"We have Search and Rescue teams on the way" Ensign Ng said as he passed out what medical equipment he could get his three fingered hands on to who needed it most.

"We could try, but I think the shuttles are our best bet. Radiation is still a serious risk, and your critical patients don't need to deal with that on top of everything else," Joey said. "Is there anywhere else on the ship there might be medical supplies... medkits... anything?" She looked thoughtful before realization dawned on her. "Security. There should be medkits available."

“I wouldn’t count on it,” the doctor said. “Despite the visible damage, I know pirates have been looting all over the ship. If they were as effective all around as they were here, it’s going to be difficult finding anything.”

"That makes this situation even more critical," Joey said before turning toward the doctor. "Would you be willing to allow us to move the three patients? Under your control, of course."

The doctor winced. "If the transporters aren't an option, then we certainly don't have much of a choice. Thankfully the flight deck is just a couple decks above our heads."

Ensign Ng looked over at the Doctor and the patients that remained. "It isn't convenient, but if you have a working grav sled, I can take the most critically injured up myself," he offered.

"I think we're out," said the doctor. "The pirates used several carts when they stole all our supplies."

Joey turned her attention to Ensign Ng. "Think you could get us something to use to pull the wounded on?" The Intelligence Chief asked. "We can do our best to get them stabilized enough to be moved, then head for the flight deck."

Ensign Ng looked around for a moment. "These bio beds could make a sled if we can rig up some support cables to it that I can pull," he said.

"We don't have much choice right now. Let's do it," Joey said, gesturing with her head for him to do his thing. While that was happening, she looked to some of the ship's uninjured crew and asked them to find cables or whatever else they could come across that would work for what they needed. Time was a factor, and there was more ship to search.

Ensign Ng gave a nod and went to what looked like a partially burned biobed that wasn't in use. He wrapped his three fingered hands around either side of it, then gave a massive growling sound as he wrenched it to the left, then to the right and finally up off of the connection holding it in place. With another growl, he set it on the floor. "Step one done. Load up some patients!"

They loaded the critical patients as quickly as they could. One patient was particularly difficult due to a couple of limbs that had been shredded by shrapnel. The lead medic tapped Joey on the shoulder as everyone worked and stated, "Please tell me that there are other survivors on this ship. If so, they're probably worse off than the ones here."

Joey nodded her head, directly addressing the doctor. "There are other survivors, but are unsure of their condition. We need to work on getting the rest of the ship secured once we get these three patients to the shuttle. Sit tight in the meantime, and know that you will not be left behind. We're going to get everyone off of the ship safely," she said, hoping to reassure her.

Ensign Ng finished getting the improvised straps around his broad shoulders before he headed for the door with his precious cargo behind him.

The doctor shook her head. It was obvious that she did not like this plan, though it was something she had little choice with. “All right then,” she told the woman in charge. “Nurse Nichols, go with them and keep these patients alive. As for you,” she said, pointing to T’Mari, I’ll need some help with our other patients.”

T’Mari nodded. “Then let’s get to it, just tell me what you need me to do.”

"We've got three patients with broken legs. Can you help me fashion some crutches?" The doctor gestured to a nearby cabinet. "The pirates took what we had, but we could probably break the cabinet down and make something rudimentary."

"We'll be back," Joey said, passing a phaser to the doctor. "Just in case it's needed. I'll have rescue announce themselves before coming inside. Lieutenant Rael, stay alert." And with that, she was following Ensign Ng.

T’Mari sighed she was going to need her senses more than ever, turning to look at the cabinet she gave it a considered look before setting about emptying what was left in it. They needed it broken down she’d get it broken down then she’d have to figure out how to make suitable crutches out of it. “Anybody here ever hear of the old Earth tv show MacGyver? We’re going to need to think like him today!”

As the day continued, they would all collectively realize how true T'Mari's words were. Dozens of crewmembers would be found trapped and injured. Nearly every situation would require some sort of ingenuity to rescue, treat, and then transport to the Flight Deck in order to get them to safety.

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