A Helping Hand

Posted on 26 Jul 2016 @ 4:11am by Commodore Harvey Geisler

692 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Risky Business
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: MD 5 || 1000 hours

In this room, rank meant very little. No queue-jumping. Three onboarding physicals, a health records-adjustment, but right now there was an engineer with hand lacerations to deal with.

"If you'd have a seat, sir we'll be with you shortly"

The engineer, a Petty Officer, reluctantly glanced at the empty biobed. "I just need a regenerator," he pressed. "Rykov's got us all hopping getting the ship ready for combat. I was supposed to be done half an hour ago." Of course, the engineer didn't care that his hand was still bleeding, no matter how much was seeping through the soiled rag.

"I'll bet. If you engineers didn't rush so much, this type of thing wouldn't happen. There's always time to be safe."

"A friend of mine was in a perfect situation once," the Petty Officer argued. "All of the safeties were on, and he was taking his time. That didn't stop a defect in the relay from causing a power surge. Nearly took his leg off. Safe or not, it's an occupational hazard every hour."

"You might be right. Here is a something for the pain." Deborah pressed a hypo-spray to the engineer's neck, dispensing the medication. Deborah turned away, looking for the regenerator that had apparently gone on walk about. She found it on a nearby worktop

"That one is broken." Someone responded from across the room. Regardless, Deborah activated the unit and a delicate beam of cool blue light lanced out only to fizzle out seconds later.

"There's never an engineer around when you need one." Deborah said loudly grinning. "Can you fix it?" She asked her patient.

The engineer shrugged. With his good hand, he pried open the casing. "Do you have anything small and thin, like a bobby pin or something?" he asked as he looked around the inside of the unit.

Deborah pulled a pin out of her hair, which drooped slightly. Would this even work?

"Thanks," the engineer replied, accepting the small pin. "Seems like there's a short," he remarked. It could have been from overheating, or being dropped, but he at least hoped it was an easy fix. He used the pin to force what looked like a couple contacts back into place and closed the cover. "Give it a shot."

Deborah grasped his wrist and activated the tool. A bright blue beam shot from the tool and landed on the skin. There was no set way to move the tool to complete the procedure, each medic did it their own way, much like an artist with his own personal painting style. Slowly, the tool lapped the edges of dark red maw of the wound turning them pink.

"It's a deep wound, so it will take a little longer." she said.

The engineer nodded, unable to ignore the tingling sensation as the regenerator did its work. It was both a pleasant and surprising experience, as if lotion was being rubbed over pins and needles. He also had to resist the urge to flex his fingers and muscles as the Lieutenant worked. After all, he didn't want to mess up the healing process.

The pink tone of new skin rapidly changed color again as the cell growth was accelerated. In a matter of moments, the tool did what would have taken weeks, maybe months, of natural healing to accomplish. Deborah steadied the engineer's hand somewhat against the natural urge to pull it away. Deborah had heard that some people found the sensation arousing, but most just wanted it over. Soon enough, the pink had faded to match his natural skin tone. There was no trace of the original wound, except perhaps that the engineer's rough 'fix-it' hand was now a little softer.

The engineer carefully flexed his hand, putting the regenerated muscles to the test. He alternated between collapsing and extending his digits to be sure that the healing was complete. "Feels as good as new," he confirmed to the doctor.

"And they say only engineers are miracle workers, Right you're all set. And tell Rykov to stop breaking her engineers."

The engineer chuckled. "Wish me luck on that one," he called back just before leaving sickbay.

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