Medical Prep

Posted on Mon Oct 9th, 2023 @ 8:45am by Lieutenant Avira zh'Kenarh M.D. & Ensign Isaac 'Zac' Hughes & Staff Sergeant Nathanial "Nate" Cusack & Petty Officer, 3rd Class Lottie Daglish

Mission: Contagion
Location: Medical Bay
Timeline: An hour before arrival at the Station
1280 words - 2.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Normally they rotated the crew versed in first aid through the duty shifts in the medical bay, but Avira wanted to make sure that all of them would be ready for whatever aid they were expected to render so last night she had sent everyone home and had stayed behind herself. Making sure it had been made clear to personnel that only medical emergencies should come calling. She had taken up residence on one of the beds had been able to sleep with only one interruption of an engineer nearly cutting one of his fingers off on a sharp object. The engineer had been a bit reluctant to divulge exactly what he had been working on, but it was an easy enough stitch for the Andorian, and not the worst cut she'd ever seen. She'd just woken back up from her second stint of sleep when the duty shirt of that morning started. Standing in front of all those medically capable she had considered giving a rousing speech.

"Thank you for your flexibility. We're not quite sure what we're walking into, but let's make sure all the supplies are prepared and accounted for as we come closer to our destination." That was all she had been able to come up with in her waking moments.

Lottie had been preparing bags since they had gotten the communication but the unease of any attempts communication attempts even now that they were at the base and able to see it they got nothing but silence. It was unnerving to the Nurse as they could be walking into anything. "I have prepared the bags as per normal protocols but I have not accounted for specialities so that will need to be done yourself." She was used to this type of work, it was just different that was now five instead of two.

Stood at the back, arms folded across his chest, Nate made no mention of the fact that part of that preparation had involved using him as a pack mule. The deep furrow on his brow better resembled a marine anticipating a call to arms than a medic preparing treatment protocols but that was hardly surprising. He'd never signed on with any promise to abandon his previous training and, in a situation where a distress call wasn't in a position to formally accept aid, proceed with caution became a mandatory response.

For entirely different reasons, Isaac's expression mirrored the ranged specialist's.

"Do we know anything about this place at all?" There wasn't a lot to glean about the situation from the transmission and normally, in that situation, extrapolation of potential likelihoods was derived from prior knowledge. In this instance, they had none, as far as he knew.

"The Captain is speaking to Hera but nothing stopping you or the doctor from asking for a consult." Lottie piped up keeping her head down so the blush would not be as noticeable that her very personal life was interacting with her professional life. She prided herself often on keeping things very separate but here she was offering her girlfriend as a solution.

Hughes offered a faint, kind smile at the offer. "I don't suppose she'd have an entire epidemiological archive of the region stashed in her luggage?" Winking at the blushing nurse, he turned back to Avira. "When was the last time the crew was briefed on BSL-4 protocols?" Inherent in his question was the offer to take care of aspects of retraining if required.

"Around the last time, the decon chamber was used," Daglish commented with a smirk. She hated the use of the decon chamber as it gave no privacy when you were in there.

"Best send out a reminder to everyone, make it a mandatory training bite." Avira looked over at Hughes to confirm that before turning her attention to Daglish. No thoughts of privacy intrusion entered her mind, there was a practicality to being able to see the people currently going through decon, in case something happened to them. Aside from that humans seemed a lot more prudish about their bodies around other people than Andorians were. At least one particular Andorian was. Then again she had been in charge of their bodily health and had seen all of the crew in different states of undress. "Let's hope we don't need it, but better check if the hazmat suits are all still up to spec."

Lottie nodded and took a note to remind everyone of Biosafety Level 4 procedures. “I will send out the notice but maybe need to liaise with Engineering on the hazmat suits.” She had not idea of who was looking after Engineering while Sloan was behind.

"Are we expecting any hostility?" It wasn't hard to predict where a marine's mind would drift and, though he'd made progress in embracing the additional string to his bow, Nate still viewed himself as a first-responder.

"There is no telling what to expect. After the initial call, there has been no additional information." Avira wondered if she should get her weapon as well, but she had been admonished for wanting to do so in the past. It was still difficult for her to accept she was no longer Imperial Guard, at least not in this corner of the universe. She was going to have to adhere to the Earth Starfleet way of handling things. To them, she was 'just' a doctor.

Lottie disappeared to the nearest communication console as the group discussed what they could be going into and had a quiet conversation with the communication Bridge Duty Officer. She frowned as she heard what the Ensign said but quickly returned to relay the information. "It is still silent other than the original message. O'Connery has just confirmed." Lottie commented backing up the doctor. "And she said we leave in the next 2 hours."

That would give them plenty of time to prepare. "I assume we'll be taking a small away team. I'm sure the Commander will want assign medical staff to that as well." She looked over the people in front of her, knowing that Leroux didn't particularly like sending her on away missions. "If there's one slot for medical, Nate will be the best equipped to handle that." She looked at the marine as she said that.

Lottie raised an eyebrow at the choice for the first away team but did not say it aloud. It was not that she doubted Cusack in the slightest as he was eager to learn but she was surprised he was going in untested into a potential medical situation.

Nate, on the other hand, wasn't daunted by the prospect. The initial responsibilities would be more in the realms of information gathering than directly rendering aid, and with so many unknown factors, a militant approach made more sense. At most, his role would likely be ascertaining whether the rest of them needed to follow, and that would be a security evaluation as much as a medical one. If Communications could arrange it, he'd have a direct audio feed back to Sickbay in any case. He dipped his head in agreement.

"Better get ready and wait for the call." The anticipation before a response to a call like this was almost always worse than the actual action they needed to take. Avira still itched to get a weapon on her as she went out on operations like this. She'd ask Nate if he could slip her a sidearm at least. She knew that as a Doctor she was supposed to do no harm, according to old Earth tradition, but in the Guard she was there to protect her squad mates, through whatever they were facing.