Breckinridge One: Breaking waters -Part 1
Posted on 03 Aug 2022 @ 12:48pm by Master Chief Petty Officer Callan McNeil CallSign: FishSmoke & Lieutenant JG Hannah Wagner & Senior Chief Petty Officer Lex Navine
Edited on on 15 Jun 2023 @ 6:03pm
Mission:
Ongoing Mission - Planet Obsidian
Location: Tribal Village Obsidian
Timeline: M3 D03 15:20hrs
2976 words - 6 OF Standard Post Measure
“Ok on three! One Two Three… Shadoof!”
In unison some fifty tribal voices all called out “Shaa-Dooffff!”
The stick-thin Tribal Headman pulled down on the end of the top pole lever and the bucket of clean fresh water rose up from the hole. He swung the pole, swinging the bucket left over the newly constructed wall and emptied it into the new animal trough.
There was a round of cheers, the old man gave a wide toothless grin and raised his hands in glory.
Master Chief Petty Officer Callan McNeil and his Breckinridge One crew clapped and cheered with the rest.
Their Arrow Class Runabout was parked some twenty feet up on the top of the rocky walls of the wadi that surrounded the village’s only water source.
Lead craft in a Flight of four, named for the Nineteenth Century Western Frontier Nursing pioneer Mary Breckinridge. The four Arrows of the Flight were configured for Search Rescue and Casi-Vac operations.
McNeil was senior pilot, Callsign Fish-Smoke a throwback to his hometown of Arbroath, Scotland, famous for its Smokie herring kippers. His crew consisted of copilot Chief Petty Officer Heather Jingles Bell; and two Petty Officer Class One Rescue Paramedics, Shelia Stevens and Bajoran Lonj Refta.
The four of them had been working at the village for the last week as part of a new mission to build rapport and interaction with some of the Obsidian tribes living further out in the desert than the main settlement and larger oases.
These villagers were part of the Katha-Yunathi Tribe, situated on the western edges of the Taragi-Shar mountain range.
They had started with some basic healthcare screenings and discovered many in the village were suffering a mild form of dysentery caused by drinking water contaminated with feces from the village Chuckaki herd.
The village’s sole water source was a spring which rose in a shallow rocky pool in one of the wadies. It was used by the villages, their domestic animals and any local fauna.
A quick fix would have been to medicate the villagers and sanitize the spring, but that would not work long term since the Chuckaki would tread dung back into the water. The villagers did not have enough firewood to boil all their water, they did not want to take medications long-term and neither were they inclined to accept the technological solution of a solar powered water-purifier.
After some negotiation with the Headman, J’Beth, and his Elders council, it had been agreed, the flight crew would sanitize the spring, then using a phaser cutter, designed to remove debris during a rescue, they would expand the basin, then build a wall to keep the Chuckaki out.
Again, a solar powered pump had been rejected. But the Elders had agreed to an ancient Shadoof style water crane, with which to move water to an adjacent pool for their herd and the local wildlife to use.
It had taken a couple of days to expand the spring and cut out the new basin, then build a surrounding rock wall. McNeil and Lonj had rolled up their sleeves and helped mix mortar and lay stones. Bell and Stevens had been prohibited from joining in “mans-work”, although Stevens had run the phaser cutter much to the surprise of the warriors.
McNeil had arranged for a Shadoof to be fabricated on the Station and today they had installed it. Now, most of the village had turned out to watch J’Beth have the honor of being the first to use it.
Afterwards a small feast had been arranged and the crew joined the villagers as large trays of grilled meat, fresh dates, vegetables and unleavened bread were brought round. Following local custom they scooped up the food with fingers and torn pieces of the bread.
Stevens was presented with particularly large chunk of roast Chuckaki by a couple of young warriors in admiration of her prowess with the phaser-cutter, even though it was sky-devils lightening. They stood by watching her intently while she bit into it and clapped loudly at every mouthful.
“I think you’ve got to finish the whole thing Shelia” McNeil joked “Don’t want to cause offense now”
“Yeah right, must be two pounds of steak here!” She groaned
J’Beth came over with a leather drinking sack of the local booze; a fiery spirit distilled from some desert cactus and insisted everyone had a good swig from the stream of liquor he squeezed out of the bag into their open mouths.
“By the Prophets, that makes your eyes water” Lonj spluttered as J’Beth clapped him on the back
A moment later there was a shout, and an older woman came running over. McNeil recognized her as one of J’Beth’s wives. The woman whispered in the Headman’s ear and pointed to Bell and Stevens.
“My second daughter, is giving birth to my forth grandchild, her first” J’Beth explained “But baby not want to come! You can help?”
Stevens and Bell exchanged looks. “Been a while since Midwife classes but of course we’ll help”
The woman hustled the pair off to one of the huts
Ten minutes later Bell was back. “Sheila says it’s a breech and jammed up pretty well, probably needs a C-Section but mother too scared to come on to the ship or let us take her to the station. We’re gonna need a Doctor down here and fast!”
“On it!” McNeil acknowledged and moved out from the crowd. Tapping his commbadge he called up their Traffic Controller.
=^=Obsidian Traffic Control, this is Breckenridge One. We are skids down at " He gave the village coordinates “We have a medical emergency, Tribal Mother in labor, probable breech delivery, possible cesarean, patient refusing transport to the station. We need a Doctor, this location, ASAP =^=
The Tower communication staff routed the incoming external transmission on a local flight channel to the duty Flight Controller for Obsidian, Senior Chief Lex Navine and one of them made a call on an internal station channel to Medical for an available Doctor, getting hold of the new Assistant Chief.
=/\= Dr Wagner, acknowledged. Any significant blood loss for the mother or is it just a stubborn baby?=/\= Hannah wasted no time in gathering an obstetrics kit and a surgical kit. Checking the charges on the hypospray, she programmed it for standard OB medications and tucked it into her white coat. A size 5 laser scalpel and her personal tricorder went into two other pockets.
=^= Sorry Doctor, no other details at this time. Standby for transport! =^= Came the reply.
=/\= "This is Chief Lex-Navine." Came the gravelly voice of the enlisted man on duty in the Command Center. "From CiC, our readings of your coordinates show a high ionic-magnetic signal disturbance for transporters. But as there are currently good atmospheric conditions, we will be able to compensate using a low orbit probe and a personal wearable pattern enhancer. Transport will have to be from a station transporter room to the Breckinridge's transporter pad for safety. Direct site to site is ill advised." There was some chatter in the background as Lex's team scrambled to order the necessary probe, "We are launching the intermediary signal probe now." =/\=
=^=Aww damn! I’ll get the ship off the deck and clear of the worst of that field for transport. Give me four minutes! =^= McNeil and his crew had encountered several areas of ionic fields which played hell with instruments and transporters. Another side effect of Obsidian’s particular challenges from Loki’s sun-spots and radiation levels. Some were fixed to certain locations, other drifted around, creating sudden navigational hazards.
“Jingles, we’re lifting off to pick up the Doc. Ionic disturbance, they’re launching a probe to enhance the transport!” He called to Bell and started running for the cliffside, there was a narrow little track that ran up to where the Runabout was parked. He went up at a run, scrambling over the rocks. Bell on his heels.
They reached the Runabout and clambered aboard. “I’ve got the stick, you get the transporter up and link to that probe”
“On it!” Bell acknowledged as McNeil ran forward to the cockpit. He jumped into his chair, both hands flying over the panel with practiced ease. He shut the hatch, powered up the engines, sensors and initiated the flight control systems. He performed a quick safety check, all controls were responding and powered up the thrusters.
The engines whined up to speed, dust flew and McNeil lifted the Runabout into the air as he strapped himself into his seat.
Glancing at the sensors he groaned, the ionic distortion spread for at least thirty kilometers in all directions. However, it topped out at around seven thousand meters. There was no other traffic in the area and he could climb above it!
“Jingles, hold on, we’re going ballistic!” He called back.
“Roger!” Back in the transport area behind the cockpit Bell wedged herself between the transport control panel and the bulkhead. She had the transporter powered up and was searching for the probe to link their systems together and complete the transport. Moments later the deck fell away as McNeil lifted the nose, dropped the stern, gunned the engines and threw the Runabout straight up into the sky.
=^=Obsidian Traffic Control, Breckenridge One is airborne! We are going for rapid ascent above the distortion field. We will pick up the Doctor and drop back down =^= McNeil advised their controller on the plan
=/\= "Understood, Breckenridge One =/\= Chief Navine's display of the situation rotated automatically, demarcating the shuttle's inclination and altitude. Luckily conditions were free of sandstorms or the maneuver might have overloaded the intakes. He rotated back to the internal comm to sickbay. =/\= Doctor Wagner. We’re beaming you to Transporter Room Fourteen, ready for a relay to the responding SAR Craft, Breckenridge One =/\= He said as a Transporter beam engulfed her and moved her to the first destination.
Meanwhile, in transporter room fourteen, Dr Wagner resolved from the interior station emergency beam in on the tansporter pad. The first stop in her relay. “We got some local interference Doctor” A Transporter Tech informed Wagner, coming over to the pad to hand her the wearable pattern enhancer. “We’re setting up a transport relay via an orbital probe. Put that on and once we have a solid link, we’ll get you down there. Ok?”
"Life is an adventure" Hannah commented with a little chuckle. "I'm ready whenever you are. " Her fingers closed a little tighter on the kit she'd packed for the occasion."
“One thousand meters!” McNeil called out their altitude. “Two thousand… Three thousand… Four Thousand… Five thousand…” Radiation and magnetic field alerts beeped on his panel.
“Picking up the telemetry signal but it’s hash, no go for transport yet” Bell replied, holding herself in place as the Runabout screamed upwards
The glare filters engaged in the cockpit screens, tinting out the bright sunlight. It looked clear out there, barely a cloud, which made the planet even more dangerous, the radiation and ionic patches were practically invisible to the naked eye.
“Six thousand meters…. Six-Five…. Seven thousand…. Seven-three” McNeil called out, the warning beeps stopped “We’er in the clear” He cut back the power, leveled out and brought the Runabout to a stationary hover.
“Roger, I have a solid lock on the probe signal now, linking systems” Bell tapped in commands, slaving their transporter into the probe signal and thus to Obsidian’s transporter controls.
“Systems are linked! Running diagnostic!” The system carried out a quick self-diagnostic to ensure transport field strength and pattern buffer integrity. It was short delay but with such conditions it was a required safety protocol, nobody wanted to get chewed up by a bad transport signal. Her panel flashed all green. “It’s good, ready for transport!”
=^= Obsidian Traffic Control, Breckenridge One. Confirm we have a solid link, systems are synchronized, ready for transport! =^=
The usually casual Chief Navine was standing over his console with the stress of the moment and the life of Dr. Wagner in the balance. All of the safety signals were green and he gave the final word to the transporter room where it would be up to the skill of the technicians to see her across safely. "Transporter room fourteen, the window is clear. You may send the good doctor."
The twisting of her belly accompanied the fading out of the world, only to reappear around her in a different sequence. Normally it took only a few breaths but this transport seemed to drag on for a while. "Yikes." Hannah muttered as she took a breath.
The Runabout’s Transporter powered up and few seconds later the hazy shimmer appeared over the pad. It faded, depositing a five foot four, honey-blond, Human female Lieutenant Junior Grade, labcoat over her uniform, on one pad and an Emergency Medical Surgical Pack on another.
“Fish, I got her!” She called forward
“Roger, get strapped in. We’re taking the helix express down!” McNeil replied and keyed his comms
=^= Obsidian Traffic Control, Breckenridge One. Transport complete. We’re heading back down =^=
=/\= "Understood. Godspeed and good luck with the delivery. Navine out." =/\=
Bell did not recognize the woman, but there had been lots of new personnel arriving recently. “Welcome to Obsidian Doc” She smiled stepping forward
“I’m Chief JinglesBell. Upfront is Master Chief Fish Smoke McNeil. We’re an Arrow Class, Breckinridge One configured for Search, Rescue and Casi-vac.“ She pointed to the rear cabin. “Back there, we’ve got a three biobeds, one set up for automated surgical procedures and drop-down racks for six other stretcher patients if needed.
Let’s get you strapped in, we are going straight back to the village and it’s going to a be a rapid descent.”
"I might need the surgical equipment " she acknowledged offering a smile, faint but still a smile as she dropped into a seat. Fastening the buckles was easy and she felt the security of the straps something in her belly stopped gnawing quite so hard. "No automation needed though, I think.".
“Good to meet you Doctor Wagner” Bell showed her to a seat and passed her the seat straps, then secured the surgical case so it did not move around. She took a seat next to Wagner and strapped in.
“We’re ready Fish!” She called forward
“Helix engaged!” McNeil called back. He tapped in commands to the flight system, set the landing location back to the village and initiated the automated descent.
Bell turned to Wagner “Hold on to your lunch Doc”
Suddenly the deck dropped away, the Runabout banked sharply to port and began a powered descent. Spiraling rapidly downwards in a tight helix pattern. Lateral G-Force shoving everyone into the right side of their seats despite the internial dampeners being on full. It was an automated flight pattern to land small craft in tight spaces, particularly useful in rescue operations and bad weather. The rate of descent and tightness of the helix could be adjusted. McNeil had set it to the fasted altitude drop and sharpest turn radius. The Runabout stormed back down like a demonic carnival ride.
“Ready for the patient brief Doc?” Bell asked calmly, barely effected by the G-force pushing her sideways.
Her hazel eyes were so dilated you could barely tell that there was any color to them and she was clutching her OB kit to her chest dispite the strap that he'd it secure to her. Her knuckles were white on the handle, but she was managing the gforces better than she'd anticipated. Hannah managed to make a noise of assent, she was ready as she was going to be.
"Ok, it helps if you try and relax Doc, it will be over soon" Bell offered "So, we have a Tribal Indigenous Female, eighteen to twenty years old, pregnant, first child, carried to full term, fully dilated, in labor approximately six hours.
Our ParaMedic reports suspected breech birth, child’s vitals were weak. Mother is very suspicious of outsiders, did not want to come aboard or be transported to the station. She’s also the Headman’s daughter...”
"Of course she is." Hannah's breath exploded out of her in a sigh of frustration. "Childs vitals were weak, did the medic happen to save them so I can see before I go in? Will I cause a diplomatic incident if the baby is stillborn?"
"Yeah it would not be good if something happens to the baby and they blame us" Bell replied
"Twenty two hundred meters. I'm slowing the helix. Should be skids down in two minutes" McNeil called back
"Once we get closer we should be able to get diagnostic data from the Paramadics tricorder to this " Bell handed Wagner a medical PaDD from her pocket
The rapid descent slowed as McNeil chnaged the flight control parameters, the lateral g-force fell away and they resumed normal flight.
Moments later the Arrow touched back down on the rocky ledge above the watering hole.
McNeil completed his shut down and came back from the cockpit. "Doctor" he noded to the woman he' did not recognise "I'm Master Chief McNeil. Thanks for coming, I take it Jingles gave you the sit-rep?""
"Yep. Just need to see the patient." Hannah nodded matter of factly, touching one finger to her eyebrow.
