Into Whatsoever Houses I Enter

Posted on Tue Mar 12th, 2024 @ 2:35pm by Captain Malcom Llwyedd & Lieutenant Commander Kataxes & Lieutenant Phoebe Baxter & Ensign Jillian Mox & Petty Officer 3rd Class Keith Potter
Edited on on Sun May 19th, 2024 @ 8:21pm

3,007 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Long Hard Road Ahead
Location: DS 18, Sickbay
Timeline: 23 August, 2396 - 2100 Hours

[ON]

Keith watched Baxter saunter down the hallway and sighed. She was exactly the type of officer he tried to avoid. She had confidence that everything was going to work out. He'd seen first hand that confidence got people killed. The fluttering lights, faint smell of burnt ozone and that sick feeling in his stomach leeched his confidence away and replaced it with fear. He kept looking over his shoulder, expecting to see some five mouthed alien. But so far nothing.

Jillian's hand was getting a little sweaty so she transferred the phaser to her other hand and wiped the sweaty one on her leg. "Lieutenant," she whispered. "What exactly do you expect to find in the sickbay?"

"I'm hoping we find it intact and full of injured crew receiving care," Phoebe answered. "Along with our new CMO, who I'd imagine would have made their way there..." if they'd survived the attack she thought silently. "We need to be prepared for the worst case scenario, though, which would be that the medical staff is incapacitated and we'll need to set up a triage. If we're lucky, the EMH will be functional at least."

"Sorry but I bet everyone is already dead, except for the hostiles," Potter said, turning around and walking backwards. He was sure that he'd seen something move out of the corner of his eye. "We should head for the Operations Center, where the XO and his team are. That's the smart play." Was that something he thought, straining his eyes as he looked down the passage.

Jillian snorted and was immediately appalled. "Uh... I don't think having a fatalistic attitude is helpful, Potter," she said, unknowingly using what Emily called her mom voice. "We'll get there and see."

Despite the direness of the situation, Phoebe had to bite her lip to keep from giggling at Jillian's reprimand. Potter really was a child - she still hadn't forgotten his fake ballroom dancing invitation that had ended up with her and Jackson almost getting killed. Well, maybe not killed, but chased. At least Jackson's cover hadn't been...

There was a swift blur of movement to her left, but before she could turn to look more closely, her left forearm tore open in a flash of searing pain. Baxter saw spots and didn't even hear her own scream as she dropped to the deck.

Jillian was a veteran nurse, even if she was new to being a member of Starfleet. She moved close to where Lieutenant Baxter had fallen, taking the spray of blood on the floor. Her eyes searched for something, anything that would explain what had just happened but she saw nothing. She was nearly standing on the fallen officer but didn't want to expose herself. She carefully crouched down and grabbed the Lieutenant by the foot and began dragging her to the side of the corridor.

"Potter! The Lieutenant is down. Cover me!" She yelled.

"Roger that, sir," Potter said. He moved in to stand where Baxter had fallen, trying to avoid getting blood on his feet. Once he was in front of the two officers, he began firing his phaser. Beams erupted at regular intervals, spraying the hallway, everywhere except behind him. He was gratified to see that the sixth shot connected solidly with something crouching on the side of the wall. When the phaser struck it, there was a loud squealing sound and Potter could see the thing. It was bipedal but it clung to the wall with huge feet covered in claws that were sunk into the metal. It had small white eyes in the middle of what had to be its face. He was not excited to see that it also had two mouths which opened vertically and showed some long, wicked looking teeth.

"I knew it!" Potter yelled and continued to rain phaser fire down the hallway.

Phoebe couldn't see or hear anything, but she could feel herself going down a slide. Not a smooth one - one of those older, worn slides were you would halt every few seconds, then slowly move again. But why was she on a playground? And why was it night?

"Scott? Grammy?" she mumbled, her head turning from side to side while her pupils darted frantically under closed lids. "I... I think I hurt my arm...."

Jillian had to trust Potter, which made her uncomfortable on more than a few levels. She slid her phaser into her holster and began a swift evaluation of the wound. Like medical professionals for hundreds of years, she couldn't help but talk through her process.

"Six inch laceration to the upper left arm. Appears to be deep. Inspection reveals some sort of substance. Slightly tacky. Dark green or brown in color," she said.

Reaching into her medkit that was strapped to her thigh, she pulled out an irrigation bottle and sprayed the wound. Next, she extracted a small packet from her kit and slapped it against the cut, completely covering it. The quickseal would stop the bleeding for now. She didn't have time to use a dermal regenerator.

Potter heard Mox but really wasn't paying attention. He'd slipped into what he thought of as his hyper mode. He could see better, hear better, and, thankfully, he shot better too. The alien he'd hit first was down. When it died, another creature appeared. It looked exactly like the first and it let out a long howling sound. He was surprised when his universal translator spat out the translation.

"Starfleet oppressors! You will pay for the death of my Secondary!"

The thing jumped. Before Potter could move, it had landed on him. Its skin felt and looked like obsidian, something Potter thought in the brief second before his head slammed into the floor. Two mouths full of razor teeth dove for his face. Potter grunted and heaved, moving the beast off of him enough to let him squirm to the side. The mouths hit the floor with a loud thud. Potter angled his arm and shot the alien in the head. At full power, it should have killed the thing instantly but instead, it left a deep wound that weeped a purple liquid. Potter felt the thing's muscles tense and once again it jumped. As it flew, Potter rolled over on his stomach and tried to get another shot off but the thing was... gone.

Mox saw none of the combat, she was too focused on her patient.

"Lieutenant Baxter? Can you hear me ok?" The nurse said and then gave the fallen science officer a dose of medicine from her hypospray that would help keep the pain away for a while and give her some energy.

"Juh...juh... Jillian?" Phoebe managed, her eyes open but her head wobbling, adrift in a raging ocean of vertigo. "Did I fall off the slide? Is Grammy mad?" She couldn't remember why Grammy was on the away team, but it was probably to fuss out Potter for being such a jerkface. "I'm on the floor," she added as an observation.

Jillian smiled and nodded. "You are. But not for long. Potter! Get up off the floor and pick her up. Sickbay is just around the corner and she needs more care than I can give her here."

Potter groaned and stood up and moved over to the two officers. He put his phaser away and knelt down to pick up Lieutenant Baxter. Even he could see she'd turned gray and there was a lot of blood on the ground. Nurse Mox put a hand on his arm.

"Be gentle, Keith," she said.

Keith was startled by someone using his first name. "Uh, ok," he said and then gentle lifted Baxter up.

With Ensign Mox leading the way they moved quickly through the half-lit corridors. The saw the massive entrance to the sickbay. The door was open and Jillian saw a lot of people. Hurt people. As soon as they were inside, Jillian yelled.

"I have a severely injured human patient here with extreme blood loss. Can I get a doctor please!"

As Jillian entered the busy sickbay, it thankfully appeared to be a full triage already. Eight medical personnel in total were moving from bed to bed, though some of them were themselves injured, and not even clearly all nurses. The Emergency Medical Hologram was accompanied by the doctor of equal countenance and professional hurry.

Performing an impromptu surgery to close a deep gouge in an ensign's chest was a towering thing of dark, shiny metal and a clear window to the red crystal within. Small arms encased in metal worked quickly and professionally at the wound, taking only moments to grip the apparently manual suture as their other hand dragged various implements along the line, one after the other with intense precision.

Despite the creature's incredibly alien appearance, especially after the encounter with other non-humanoids, its clunky suit had a strip of shiny light blue just under the viewing window, like a Starfleet medical uniform. It was the Tholian doctor, and there was only one that it could be.

Kataxes's gaze was impossible to know completely, but the being tilted up a bit, their glowing eyes on Jillian. Without looking, they set aside the last tool, a dermal regenerator, and picked up a hypospray to press to the officer's torso. Through a speaker on their suit, a warbly simulated feminine voice spoke calmly yet loudly through the busy triage.

"Support their head, take them to that bed."

They gestured to one of the beds closer to the door with the same three-clawed hand they'd used to hold the now healing wound shut moments earlier. Hastily they attached the tools to their suit and grabbed a medical tricorder set by the officer's head, giving one more quick scan to the wound. Six thin, insectile legs covered in the suit's metal moved the tower of crystal over to the new bed, but they stopped halfway to stop a rushing, panicked nurse-draftee. The barest of muffled hisses and clicks came from somewhere within their suit, but the loud voice that spoke was as calm as ever.

"Vascular regenerator. Over bed seven, silver cylinder with the red light and red button on top. Tell EMH to increase the queue on the plasma infusion unit by four."

They pushed the nurse in the right direction, hissing and shaking their hand, then wobbling their central body for a moment like a dog shedding water. Kataxes removed the hand scanner from their medical tricorder as they clanked rapidly over to meet the new injured and immediately begin scans.

“Mr. Sun!” Phoebe squealed with delight when her delirious gaze landed on the Tholian. “Hi, Mr. Sun. I can’t believe you made it to the wine tasting.” Suddenly her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. “Watch out for the tadpoles, they want you to tell them the answer to number nine, but they didn’t do the reading so don’t you tell them it wouldn’t be fair.”

Jillian considered herself to be a hardened professional but the sight of Commander Kataxes, she'd read his file days ago, moving to the biobed was disturbing. Not that she would ever let her professionalism slip. She motioned for Potter to put Phoebe onto the bed.

"I didn't know scientists ate so much," Potter said with a grunt as he gently lowered her to the bed and stepped back. He glanced towards the door and the, reluctantly decided that since nobody was actually watching for hostiles, he better.

Jillian spoke as the doctor arrived. "Vital signs are stable but marginal. Blood loss was approximately one and half pints. I administered quickseal to staunch the bleeding. Blood pressure is 100 over 70. What are you orders, sir," Jillian said, feeling happy with her delivery. She unconsciously began stroking Commander Baxter's hair with her non-bloody hand.

Listening to Jillian as well as half-heartedly to Phoebe, the towering crystal set aside their scanner as the hurried nurse brought over the tool they asked for. Quickly and smoothly their left hand, a long set of three many-jointed fingers like the claws of a machine, began reopening the wound for the tool in their other hand to begin repairing the major veins.

"I am not a mister, firstly," came their tinny manufactured voice, "Quickclot. Federation term for a thrombic modulator... set to increase coagulation rate. Good. Blood pressure is consistent. Tell me what caused this wound, then retrieve a universal human donor bag from the bank, ask the Hologram."

As the oddly calm feminine voice came from their suit, the Tholian deftly closed much of the active bleeding before setting the tool aside and bringing out a dermal regenerator. As they worked, the alien leaned forwards slightly, glowing yellow eyes peering through the shiny transparent aluminum of their suit window down at Phoebe. They quickly dried their other hand of blood, activating a small light on one of the three metal-encased fingers. Their arms had a disturbing number of joints, two more than a human, which let them easily lean their central tower down while continuing to work.

Two of their fingers held one of Phoebe's eyes gently open while the third dragged the small light back and forth over her pupil, checking for a head injury even as the dermal regenerator began healing her wound.

Baxter's pupils contracted and reflexively attempted to avoid focusing on the light. "Huh?" she asked groggily, her mind starting to clear from both shock and the initial high of the pain medication. "What's a mister firstly? Sorry... huh?" Her mind registered she was looking at a Tholian, but before she could ask why, she remembered this was who they had come looking for.

"Dr. K.... Kataxes?" she managed, attempting to turn towards them. "What's going on, are you okay? Where..." She registered a burning itch on her left arm and began to put the pieces together. She must have been injured, but couldn't remember any details. She could remember materializing with Jillian and Potter, but in the wrong place? "What... um, what happened?"

"Commander you have sustained a traumatic injury to your arm. However, Dr. Kataxes has repaired the wound and you should be feeling much better once we get this plasma back into you," Jillian said, handing the requested plasma to the Tholian. "The wound was caused by an unknown alien species. They have two mouths, some natural camouflage and move very quickly. They didn't attempt to communicate."

"I do not recognize the description," Kataxes replied blankly, despite the horrifying news. They began supplying the plasma to Baxter, tinny feminine voice enunciating every syllable like only a generated voice could. "There are no detected foreign substances, such as venom, in the officer-" Their crystalline body glows inside the suit for a moment, pausing, "-the Commander's bloodstream, but I will continue scanning to be thorough."

They leaned down over Baxter again just slightly, running the tricorder over them with one hand. "You are correct, I am Kataxes. You are safe, and healing. Can you tell me your name and rank, as well as your last memory?" This close, their strange hisses and clicks were audible even through the noise of the triage, a strange squeaky screeching like glass rubbed against glass, deeply muffled by their suit. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, now that you are no longer bleeding."

"A pleasure to meet you, too, Kataxes," Phoebe beamed despite her physical discomfort. "Thanks for your help. I'm Phoebe, um, Lieutenant Phoebe Baxter, Chief Science Officer." She shook her head, her mind finally clear. "I remember... something interfered with our beam in, we didn't end up here as planned. We were making our way to sick bay, and I remember thinking Potter was being paranoid..." she blushed with embarrassment and looked over at her arm. "Guess he wasn't. I don't remember being attacked, but I do remember... talking? But not what I was talking about. Then, I was talking to you."

"We were attacked. Unfortunately, you took the brunt of the damage," Jillian said. "I was able to stabilize you and Potter carried you the rest of the way." She gestured toward Commander Kataxes. "And while your injury proved to be a test, our new Chief Medical Officer handled things well."

Movement out of the corner of her eye made Jillian turn her head.

Keith had ushered two more wounded people inside and was contemplating the amount of blood that Lieutenant Baxter had left on his uniform. It was beginning to feel... gross. A thumping sound made him turn back around.

"I knew it!" He yelled. Coming down the hallway were four bulky, armored shapes carrying square looking rifles. The second after he saw them, they all fired. Four purple ropes of fire flashed past him. He heard a grunt from behind him and then a thud. Keith had no idea how he hadn't been hit by any of the shots.

He scurried to his right and slapped the control console to close the door. More shots flashed through, striking biobeds and other pieces of equipment.

"Computer! Enact emergency forcefield, level 5. Authorization Security Override delta delta one one!" Keith yelled and, miraculously, the force field appeared. He didn't know where the command had been hidden in his brain but he was glad he'd found it.

"We're going to have company," Keith yelled to the cluster of medical personnel.

[OFF]
Lieutenant Phoebe Baxter
Chief Science Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

Lieutenant Commander Kataxes
Chief Medical Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

Ensign Jillian Mox (NPC by Llwyedd)
Nurse
USS Firebird NCC-88298

Petty Officer Third Class Keith Potter (NPC by Llwyedd)
Transporter Specialist
USS Firebird NCC-88298

 

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