Checking Up and Checking In

Posted on Wed Oct 26th, 2011 @ 12:27am by Captain Vorn Krace & Commander Acle Walex & Lieutenant Elena Valdez

Mission: The Fate of the Swiftsure
Location: USS Iapetus - Sickbay
Timeline: MD09 0330hrs

As the two command officers entered sickbay, it was clear that it was a much more active start to the day than any of the ship's medical staff had hoped for. In their escape, their captives had caused quite a few firefights to break out amongst the decks.

"Doctor," the captain said, as he located the chief medical officer amongst the activity. "What's the situation like down here?"

"Not great, sir. We lost three people: Bigby, Evans, and Kozlowski." Elena's eyes barely flicked up from the wounded officer under her care, and only the captain and the XO could have captured even that much of her attention during the current influx of injured officers. The doctor's hair was tied back in a messy tail, evidence of the haste she had made to sickbay that night. There was a little blood smudged across her chin.

She continued while still intensely focused on the bubbled and blackened flesh under her instruments, the gruesome result of a phaser blast. "Besides Ensign Haus here, three others were injured. They'll be fine in a bit."

Acle sighed softly. He had just talked to the young Ensign Haus the day before, they had ate lunch together. "And Ensign Haus Doctor? How will he be?" Acle asked, slightly hesitant to ask as it might interrupt what the doctor was currently doing.

The concern in the commander's voice surprised a half-smile out of Elena. With a quick glace at the biobed's display to check the ensign's vitals, the doctor set aside her dermal subdermal scalpel for a moment. Haus was still unconscious, but his condition had stabilized, giving Elena a few minutes to spare. "It'll take more than a phaser blast to keep this one down, sir. He should be up and about in a day or so."

Acle didn't allow any sort of expression to cross his face, he did, after-all, have a reputation to maintain. "Outstanding work Doctor." Acle said, his voice the same deep tone as ever.

Krace had become quiet during the talk of their casualties. They hadn't lost anybody since the incident when Sub Commander Nevarn had destroyed the Ra'kholh, with both Iapetus and Romulan crew members still aboard. He had hoped that their mission in the Delta Quadrant would be one of exploration, not one that resulted in yet more deaths; yet more messages to the families of those who had lost somebody. And they had died so far away from their homes.

The captain nodded and grunted, gruffly. "Good work, Doctor. Keep me posted." After a momentary pause, he turned then and headed straight back out of the sickbay doors, turning left and heading down the corridor before slowing to a stop. To one side of the corridor, he was out of the way of any of the crewmen passing him by, though they had learnt by now to step around their captain when they saw him. Exhaling heavily, he looked up to the ceiling, and tried to think of just how many lives had been lost under his command since taking the Lincoln four or five years ago.

Acle nodded towards the doctor, and turned to follow his captain out. He made it a few steps before seeing his captain slow, then stop and turn to look at the ceiling. Acle knew what was going through the other man's mind at that moment. It had occurred a couple times to himself. He walked up to one side and put his hand on Vorn's shoulder for a moment, before withdrawing it. The gesture was meant to lend support, to let the captain know that he was not alone.

After the departure of Krace and Walex, Elena resumed her work on Ensign Haus. While the blistered and burnt skin of the ensign's chest looked morbid, the truly life-threatening damage lay beneath. In the case of many phaser wounds the internal tissue was quite literally cooked. Ensign Haus had taken a hit to the chest, and was therefore extremely lucky to still be alive. The phaser blast had either hit him at a very indirect angle or had been fired from far enough away that some of the energy had dissipated before striking him.

Either way, the outer layers of his heart and lungs had fried a bit. Before the arrival of the captain and first officer, Elena had programmed the arm-like attachment of Haus's surgical biobed to begin cellular repair of his pulmonary and respiratory systems. Checking the machine's progress, the doctor saw that the cells were regenerating as they should. She made a few minor adjustments to the program, confirmed that Haus would remain unconscious throughout the process, then turned her attention to preparing Bigby, Evans, and Kozlowski for the morgue.

The three dead officers lay side by side on the far side of sickbay, draped with sheets to hide the evidence of their mortality. As a small town doctor she had seen death before: a farm accident, a heart attack, an incurable disease. Elena could accept these deaths with the pragmatic nature of one who knows that every life stops in one way or another, and that while science could delay death for some it could never put off the inevitable end. This, however, was the first time she had encountered death by violence, and it disturbed the doctor greatly. The lives of these people had been snatched away before the date nature had dictated, and there was not much Elena could do about it.

Staring at the three shrouded forms, Elena realized that the work of a Starfleet physician was certain to include more deaths like these. With a heavy sigh, she slipped the sheets from the bodies before her and set to preparing them for the grave.

"Seventeen," the captain said simply, after trading a thankful glance at his friend. "Seventeen people, Acle, who have died under my command since assuming command of the Iapetus. All of them whose families I've had to write to explaining how they've lost a son, a daughter, a spouse, a parent. And that doesn't even include those who died on the Lincoln." He felt his arms start flailing around as he finished his sentence. "And now there's three more to add to that list."

The executive officer was silent for a moment. "All of those men had nothing, but, the utmost respect for you." Acle finally said. "Each of these men, would have gladly followed you to the gates of hell itself." Acle snorted quietly and offered a small wry smile. "Including myself."

Acle looked at Vorn in his eye's, meeting the other's gaze. "Vorn," Acle said quietly. "It was not your fault. These men were doing their jobs, as were all the others before this. They volunteered and knew the risks. It is up to us to make sure the bastards who made them make the ultimate sacrifice can never do it again." Acle finished, anger tinging his voice towards the end of his sentence.

"I just don't like to see lives wasted," the captain confessed. "Traditional military doctrine tells us that 20% is an acceptable limit of loss on any given mission. But at what point does the limit of loss breach that acceptable by the soul?" He left the question unanswered, as he began moving off again, leaving his XO in the corridor.

---------------------------
Captain Vorn Krace
Commanding Officer

Commander Acle Walex
First Officer

&

Lieutenant JG Elena Valdez
Chief Medical Officer
USS Iapetus