Late Night Wake Up Call
Posted on 12 Mar 2023 @ 8:15pm by Commander Kasra Turan, MD & Lieutenant Commander Ethan Walker, MD, Ph.D & Major Minka Mazur, MD (*) & Ptolemy Cumberland & Lieutenant Commander Alwyn Llwyd (*)
Mission:
M3 - Into the Deep
Location: Infirmary - Obsidian Command
Timeline: MD09 - 0241HRS
2127 words - 4.3 OF Standard Post Measure
The lift doors to the infirmary hissed open, the ubiquitous sound augmented by the low pealing moan of the occupant of the lift. When the doors were barely open long enough, it grew louder as the occupants headed out, a woman being carried in the arms of a man, both clearly in their pajama’s. The former was moaning loudly in pain, her head lolled back, semi-conscious as the man hurried through the doors and into the infirmary.
The duty-shift nurses had been playing cards on an unoccupied bio bed and all looked up in surprise as the pair of them came in, sending their stools clattering away in their hurry to get up.
“Doctor! Where’s the Doctor on call!?” Ptolemy cried out loudly enough to wake the dead as he hurried to the nearest bio-bed and set his wife down as gently as he could.
The nurses hurried forward, all three realizing at the same time who their patient was despite the fact that she wasn’t in her normal uniform. Doctor Mazur lolled her head to the right to look at Nurse Kelly and moaned a nearly incomprehensible, “Bolaz.”
“I’m sorry, Doctor Mazur, but the Exeter has left OC. Doctor Bolaz isn’t here,” Kelly responded, shaking her head which made her long golden curls wave about. She turned a friendly smile back as she pressed, “Doctor Panthal is on call tonight, he’ll be-,” she started to say in reassurance, but was interrupted as the Physician in question arrived.
“What do we have here?” Doctor Panthal asked loudly and brightly as he could manage, his thick accent coloring every word. Muhammad Panthal was the youngest of the OC’s Physician’s, just out of residency himself, which was why he was on the Gamma shift where very little tended to happen. He was an average man of average height with dark black hair, brown skin and deep brown eyes. As Kelly moved to answer, and he set eyes on Doctor Mazur, he turned a shade of white that matched the Nurses scrubs. “D-d-d-doctor Mazur. Oh… Uhm,” he stammered, pulling out his tricorder with a shaking hand.
Panthal managed to get his tricorder out and removed the node to start scanning, but immediately dropped the rest of the device. Hurriedly, he bent to grab it, thunking his head on the side of the bio bed and dropping the node which rolled away. He tried to scramble after it and then just stood up, trying to look nonchalant as Doctor Mazur looked over, moaning in pain and on the other side of the bed her husband glared in disbelief, mouth agape.
“N-nurse Kelly, can you get a s-scan for me. Let’s… we should see what’s going on,” Panthal ordered, trying to sound confident.
“Sure,” Kelly nodded, taking out her own device and making the scan. As she did, she drew closer to Panthal under the pretense of scanning Doctor Mazur’s abdomen and whispered to Panthal, “You should wake Doctor Llwyd.”
“Oh, I-I think I can h-,” Panthal started to say, but was cut off by a near scream of pain from Doctor Mazur. “I’ll… I’ll go call him now,” he nodded and hurried off.
“Oye, where’s he going!?” Ptolemy cried out, prevented from chasing after the man by the fact that he had Minka’s hand in his. “She needs a fooking Doctor!!”
“It’s going to be fine, sir,” Kelly smiled sweetly. “I’m getting the scans needed now,” she said, transmitting them to the larger diagnostic screen behind the bio bed. Unlike the Doctor, she was hard to shake up but even she had to admit what she was seeing pushed the envelope of her stoicism. They most certainly needed Doctor Llwyd. If Doctor Mazur had been conscious she might have been able to offer her advice too, but it made sense why she was requesting Doctor Bolaz. Even in her compromised state she knew something was very off and not something routine.
Nurse th’Kreen activated the arch over the bio bed and gently guided Ptolemy out of their way, whispering quickly, “You may have to stand back. We’ll let you stay close as we can long as you can,” she offered soothingly, her antennae spread wide and bend forward slightly, conveying her sincerity often more effectively than her words could. She stepped around him and began working at the controls at the head of the bed which activated the arch and brought up a different display over the back.
Hurried footsteps turned hers and Nurse Kelly’s attention back towards the lift hallway to a man in blue silk pajama’s running into the room. The dark-haired man shuffled to a stop beside the bed near to Ptolemy. He looked down at Minka, then the arch and then past it at the display on the screen over her head. “Excuse me,” he said, stepping around Ptolemy to stand at the head of the bed. Minka lolled her head over at him, still half-conscious and and seemed to breath a sigh of relief. He smiled gently back, then looked up at Nurse Kelly and reached across to pluck a device out of her scrub shirt pocket. He flicked the tiny light on and checked Minka’s eyes, frowning.
“I need the cardial stimulator and four cc’s of dimoprenelazole,” Llwyd ordered quickly, looking at Nurse Kelly.
“Right away,” she nodded crisply before hurrying off.
“Prep the surgical suite,” he ordered th’Kreen, noticing as she hurried away that Doctor Panthal had quietly approached the end of the bed. He didn’t address him immediately, instead turned to Ptolemy and offered a gentle smile. “I’m Doctor Llwyd, I’ve been assisting your wife here in the infirmary. I know you’re terribly worried, but I’m afraid but you’re not going to be able to be by her side for this. I need to get her into surgery.”
“What’s happened? Are they going to be alright?” Ptolemy demanded worriedly, desperation and fear evident in his voice.
“I just need you to trust that I’m going to give your wife the best care possible, alright?” Llwyd offered as soothingly as he could without really answering his question. “It’s going to take us a few minutes to prepare the surgical suite. Right now I’m going to make her as comfortable as I can,” he said, touching his shoulder gently.
“Doctor,” Nurse Kelly announced herself, offering up the tray with the equipment he’d requested.
“Thank you,” Llwyd replied, taking the cordial stimulator first. He began to calibrate it as Nurse Kelly unbuttoned the first little bit of Minka’s own pajama’s so he could plant the device where it needed to go. “Doctor Panthal?” Alwyn said, still focused on the device in his hand, deftly manipulating the tiny controls.
“Yes, Doctor?” Panthal answered nervously.
“Will you check and see if the Alexander is within transporter range,” he asked patiently, flicking his eyes briefly over to see that he was still standing there, “If they are, wake Doctor Pembroke. I could use a second hand. If not, wake Doctor Turan here on the station.”
“Yes, sir,” Panthal nodded.
“Muhammed,” Alwyn called out when he was a few steps away. The man turned back. “Be quick about it.”
Panthal nodded and then ran from the suite to the medical office to make the calls.
“Why do you need so much help?” Ptolemy asked desperately. “Is it that bad?!”
“I would call an expert,” Doctor Llwyd answered, pausing to gently place the device and wait for it to chirp with activation. He then took the hypo, “But the expert’s here, so I’ll need another,” he gestured down and then pressed the hypo to Minka’s neck. It hissed in activation and the moment he was drawing it away, he moans subsided and her head turned to the side in relaxation. Now clearly unconscious.
Ptolemy clearly didn’t know if that was good or not and just stood there holding his unconscious wife’s hand, hoping that this man knew what he was doing. Minka had complained that he was here, ordered to be here since she was having such a hard time late in her pregnancy, but she’d never once denigrated his expertise or experience. She just hated the fact that she had to have his help. He suspected she’d change her tune after this bit.
“Abigail, stay with Doctor Mazur, her husband can remain until we take her into surgery. I need to get ready. Please prep her for surgery as well,” Llwyd ordered, turning to leave and patting Ptolemy again on the shoulder reassuringly.
Halfway across the deck towards the surgical suites, Doctor Panthal came skittering out and slid to a stop frantically in front of him. “Calm down, Muhammed,” Alwyn soothed him. “Take a deep breath.”
“Right… right,” the man breathed hurried. “Uhm…” he trailed off, now lost.
“Doctor Pembroke?” Alwyn offered.
“Right. Doctor Pembroke. The comm officer couldn’t raise the Alexander. They may be in slipstream. I left the message with her to find out quickly if Pembroke could get here. I also woke Doctor Turan. He’ll be here shortly.”
“Good,” Llwyd nodded. “Monitor Doctor Mazur’s vitals. th’Kreen is prepping the surgical suite and Kelly is prepping Doctor Mazur for the surgery,” he said calmly. He took Muhammed by the arm firmly, yet gently, “Move with confidence and with purpose. Her husband is already nervous. Seeing you nervous and shaky only make him worse. You’re a Physician - a healer. Not just for the sick, but for their family’s too. Take a deep breath, find your center, and be calm,” he coached him quietly. “Calm,” he repeated, then patted his shoulder as well and walked on, leaving Panthal to go on about his business so he could go on about his.
Muhammed took the ordered deep breaths as he walked back to the bio bed, trying to ignore the worried look on Nurse Kelly’s face. He stood by the arch, reading vitals there and on the larger screen, trying to bury the shaking nerves in his stomach that he always got around Doctor Mazur who was now snoring loudly on the bed.
He was there barely a few moments when there was more commotion of arriving people and two men came hurrying down the infirmary towards them; a gaunt, elder man and a younger, baby-faced man both of whom were in their sleeping clothes still.
“Doctor Turan. Doctor Pembroke,” Panthal greeted them eagerly, glad of the support.
“Doctor Pembroke is not here, I am Doctor Turan and this is Doctor Walker. You said you needed assistance, so I asked him to join us. What is your situation?” He asked, looking to Panthal expectantly.
“Oh, well, uhm…” he trailed off, gesturing lamely at the arch and the screen. “Well, uhm, what we have is… uh…”
“Are you her husband?” Doctor Walker interrupted Panthal’s stammering.
“Wha? Oh, yeah. I am. Ptolemy,” he nodded, wanting to hear what Panthal had to say but trying to answer the other Physician as well.
“Nice to meet you, Ptolemy, I’m Ethan,” he smiled brightly back. “That’s Doctor Turan, he’s the Chief Medical Officer aboard the Ardeshir. We’re being refit here on OC,” he continued as if they were having a conversation at a quiet dinner party. “We’ve both worked with your wife pretty extensively,” he smiled.
“Right,” Ptolemy nodded. “Right, yeah. She mentioned you lot. That hole mess with the XO and what not,” he said.
“Exactly,” Ethan replied, diverting Ptolemy away even more from Doctor Turan who had now moved Panthal aside and was consulting the charts and discussing it with Nurse Kelly who had far better information to share.
“Ethan,” he called out, turning him away from Ptolemy. “Alwyn is prepping for surgery. We should as well.”
“Ok,” Walker replied, turning back to Ptolemy. “Just stay here and hold her hand, Ptolemy. There’s plenty of research that indicates that, even unconscious, patients are aware of the presence of their loved ones,” he explained reassuringly. “Feel free to talk to her, and your child,” he said, touching his shoulder. “We’ll be back in a moment to take her into surgery. Have faith my friend. She’s in the best of hands,” he said, nodding to Turan who was waving for him to follow.
Ptolemy just nodded, choking briefly on his own emotions and then turned back to Minka to take her hand, smiling down at her despite it all.
