Death's Door

Posted on Mon Jun 11th, 2018 @ 5:01pm by Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant Marci Ulfred & Ensign Shavni & Chief Petty Officer R'Tor

Mission: Curing the Black Blood
Location: USS Hera, Deck 12, Sickbay
Timeline: 2395

When the frosted transparent aluminum doors of sickbay opened, no one expected the tableau that awaited them. A sweaty lieutenant commander from the era of Kirk and the Enterprise stumbling in, her arms full of a very bloodied and bandaged Andorian. Behind her an Orion officer half-dragged, half-carried a Caitan in petty officer's chevrons who was barely conscious and dragging a very obviously broken leg awkwardly behind him.

"Little help..." the walking anachronism croaked, carrying her comrade to a biobed, only to set her down none too gently, splaying across the unconscious form herself. The gold velour uniform was smeared and spattered with blue blood, and darkened by long bands of soaked-in perspiration. The old officer pushed herself upright and worked to steady herself enough to go lend aid to the two security officers limping in.

Shavni, with Rita's help set R'Tor on a nearby bio bed. "Thank you, ma'am."

R'Tor let out a groan. "Did you get the registry number of that shuttle that hit me?" he mumbled.

"Yeah, NCC- you got knocked the hell out," Shavni joked with a grin.

"Your chief throws a hell of a punch," Paris admitted, her head still ringing and her vision a bit blurry. "You two fought like wildcats back there. You saved our lives- thank you both. Knowing the full situation and taking her on anyway... I'm putting you in for a commendation."

A small team of nurses rushed over to check on the four incoming officers. Taking one look at Thex, one of them looked back over her shoulder. "Marci! We need you!" Getting some scans, she added to Rita and Shavni, "You might have to give her a minute. She was banged up a bit in an altercation with some black blood animals. Looks like you lot were too."

It was easier to move on four legs than two at the moment, so Marci trotted over in her furry form. She moved a bit stiffly, but she was quick enough... and if you didn't look too closely, you didn't see her face twitch as she assumed her humanoid shape. Grabbing the nearest tricorder, she went immediately to Thex to get her stabilized. "What happened?"

"GYAH!" Paris stepped back, eyes wide, clearly startled by the appearance of a canine in Sickbay, which was compounded and magnified by said lifeform's sudden transformation into humanoid form. Frowning and regaining her composure, Paris reported.

"The security chief was possessed by the black blood and came after Lieutenant sh'Zoarhi and I on deck 8. We entered the Jeffries tubes to get away from her, and she used the emergency forcefields to cut us off. Thex improvised an escape but got herself pretty bloodied in the process. Then she tackled a shadow sehlat and got thrown against a wall after she was already barely conscious from blood loss. Chief R'Tor over there likely has a concussion and a compound fracture of the left lower leg, and Ensign Shavni likely has a concussion from when they intervened to save us from the possessed Chief T'Pral." Paris leaned a bit unsteadily on the edge of the biobed where Thex was currently being worked on.

"And what about you?" Rita's outburst hadn't bothered Marci a bit. She knew shapeshifting could be a bit... off-putting, especially when one's animal form was a predator. As she talked, she continued her scans, surprised to find that Thex didn't seem to be infected... despite tangling with a shadow sehlat. "Thex looks bad, but her treatment is simple enough. We'll close these wounds and get her on a transfuser. While that works, we can set up a full body bone knitter, and by the time she wakes up she should be almost ready to get out of here." The team of nurses moved to follow Marci's instructions, setting up the requested equipment and starting the process.

“Great... and the security team seems to be in good hands. As for me, i’ll be fine, just a headache and a little blurry vision from when the sec chief got in a good punch. I’m fine,” Paris lied fluidly, grasping for the edge of the bed to steady herself. “Just a little dizzy is all, probably from the hike down here carrying the wounded down the Jeffries tubes.”


Thex groaned slightly as she opened her eyes. She had no idea where she was as her blue eyes struggled to focus. She felt like she was very drunk and her limbs seemed very heavy. " Did we win? " She said groggily. " Oh yes " The giant jellyfish that was now hovering next to her said as one of the nurses walked right through it.

" Oh high Vash. Cound't you have shown up a little sooner?" She said weakly getting a few odd looks from the nurses.

"Go back to sleep, Thex," Marci said brightly, familiar with how groggy people could be after such blood loss. The other nurses gave Thex the same sort of look you might give someone who was eating mayonnaise with a spoon. After a few moments, all of the necessary treatment equipment was set up and functioning, and Marci turned her attention to Rita.

"I know when a patient is lying to me. Sit down." She nudged the other woman to a nearby biobed, practically forcing her to sit on it. "Tell the truth."

"I'm fine," Paris protested as she practically fell onto the biobed. The pounding in her head that was keeping pace with her pulse picked up the tempo a bit, and her vision swam as she struggled to hold on to the bed. "Okay, maybe not... it was just one punch, what am I, getting old...?"

"May have been one punch, ma'am, but it was a punch from a black blood infected pissed off Vulcan," Shavni stated with a grin. "If it hadn't been for Lieutenant Sh'Zoarhi's quick thinking on taking out the Sehlat, we would likely not be here."

Thex scoffed slightly as the jellyfish floated over the bed. One of it's tentacles reached out allowing the andorian to grip it. The warm texture brought a smile on her face. " The children of Yog-Sothoth are forbidden from interfering in this matter, child. Besides, I have been occupied."

" You always say that when I'm getting my ass kicked. " she jokingly said as one of the nurses began injecting replacement andorian blood.

"Hey, she's hallucinating... is that a bad sign?" Paris asked, watching the paler-blue-than-normal Andorian talking to thin air. "Is she gonna be okay?"

"Quite normal after what she's been through," Marci replied in a reassuring tone.

" I am not hallucinating," Thex yelled from across the med bay. " Tell them Vash" she said to the jellyfish who was now hovering above the doctors head obviously trying to read the scanner. " I'm staying out this one sweetheart."

" You are unbailable," Thex replied to the jellyfish only she could see before lying back against the bed. It was only a second before she shot up again. " Are any of us infected?" She asked with a panic.

"That's... a very good question," Paris admitted from on her back in a biobed. "How does this black blood stuff transmit?"

"Relax. None of you are infected. I'd have spotted it by now, and Thex's blood would be black." Pausing in her evaluation and treatment of Rita's injuries, Marci looked over her shoulder. "Give Thex a milligram of lorazepam, please. And five of haloperidol."

"Yes, ma'am." While Marci wasn't a physician, she was the closest thing they had at the moment. As such, the responding nurse immediately moved to get the requested medications.

A moment later, two security guards carried T'Pal into Sickbay. "Where do you want her, doc?" asked the security ensign.

"Any chance of as far away from us as possible?" Thex said looking over at the security chief being carried in.

"In isolation!" Almost as quick as Marci said it, T'Pral vanished into thin air, just as Nexi's hounds and the strange ocelots had. Marci blinked but was otherwise not surprised. "Okay, we won't worry about that then." As she finished speaking, the other nurse used some ninja-like skill to give Thex the lorazepam and haloperidol injections while the Andorian woman was distracted.

" I don't need......." the engineer said as she felt her eyelids go heavy and sleep overcame her. She feel back against the bed as the nurse got to work treating her.

The nurse placed a few hexagonal pads on the lost navigator's forehead, and at the moment Paris wasn't sure who was a doctor and who was a nurse. It was then she realized that she didn't really care, so long as they were helping their shipmates. Her eyelids grew heavy, and Paris idly wondered if she'd dream of the past as she slipped from consciousness.

Shavni turned to leave Sickbay to continue her patrol.

With all of her patients now sleeping, Marci quietly slipped away to attend to other matters. Everyone was stable, and there were alarms to sound if anything changed.