The Rescue - USS Grissom - Recovery

Posted on Wednesday 20 June 2018 @ 14:33 by Commander Save'ena (Sav) Tillatix & Captain John "Apollo" Barstow, M.D. & Major David Scarlet & Lieutenant Michael Ki MD & 1st Lieutenant Cara O'Reilly MD & Lieutenant Colonel Kachiko Bayushi
Edited on on Saturday 23 June 2018 @ 20:18

Mission: Lost Souls
Location: USS Grissom
Timeline: MD1 SD70255.01 January 7th, 2395
3990 words - 8 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Sparkles appeared on the transporter platform as 2nd Lieutenant Cara O'Reilly and a single Cryostasis chamber appeared. The transporter chief smiled to Cara and asked, "Where to now, Sir? Stasis Room, sickbay surgical suite, or sickbay quarantine chamber?"

Cara looked around, questioningly. "I ordered transport directly to the Isolation Unit of Sickbay. Why was my order countermanded?" she asked

The hatch from the corridor opened in the midst of the Transporter Chief's question, Staff Sergeant Hernandez stepping inside before speaking, "The quarantine, Chief."

The Latina Marine looked to the Doctor, "Sorry, Lieutenant. Standing orders for such occurrences. We don't know why they're in stasis, so we're expected to take all possible precautions."

"The Isolation Unit is quarantined," Cara said taking hold of the bar at the head of the pod. She tapped her combadges and said, "O'Reilly to Transporter Operator. Beam me and the pod directly to Sickbay Isolation and get it right this time," then she glared at the Marine. "You're welcome to join us but outside the unit." She and her pod disappeared and materialized inside the Iso Unit as ordered.

Rita looked at the Chief, an eyebrow arched with amusement, "Who peed in her raktajino this morning?"

The slender Latina then shrugged, turned about and stepped back out.

-SICKBAY, ISOLATION-

Rita finally arrived at the window looking into Isolation. Two additional Marines entered the outside observation room, which served as a buffer between Sickbay and Isolation. Rita gestured silently and the two rifle-bearing Marines took up posts on each side of the hatch into the Isolation chamber. Now the Marine watched to see what the pretty young Second Lieutenant discovered.

With the pod containing the only two living inhabitants now hooked up to the Grissom's Iso Unit's monitors, Cara began more complex scans. She looked at the results and said, "we need to begin decompression. Set the unit to 5% per hour."

"5%. Copy," the tech said and began entering the command into the unit's built in computer.

"I want a temp taken every 20 minutes," Cara said. "Make it 10." While the nurse made a note of her orders, Cara worked at the small built in terminal on the opposite side of the pod. She accessed the file stored in the pod's computer's memory and got the original blood work on both inhabitants. She downloaded the information onto the Grissom's computer to compare later.

An hour later the tech called out, "Doc....better get over here. Something's happening. The pod is doing something," he said.

Cara got up from her perch on the empty spare biobed and tossed the chart she was making notations in on the mattress. "What's going on?" she asked as she rushed over to the Tech's side of the pod.

"I swear. I didn't touch anything," he said, defensively.

Cara watched as an automated arm extended out of the side of the pod's interior and used an infrared light to scan the two inhabitants. The light stopped at the side of the adult's neck and a hemo-extraction needle appeared at the end of the arm and punctured the adult's skin at the point of the light. It extracted a small amount of blood then retracted. A few seconds later the arm returned into sight and targeted the neck of the child. It repeated its extraction and retracted out of site. "I'll be dammed," Cara mumbled. "Automated blood draw."

"Fascinating," the tech said, in awe. "Maybe...." He opened the keyboard and typed in some commands and a few seconds later a display appeared on the small screen on the side of the pod. He uploaded it to their computer and it appeared on their larger monitors.

Cara walked over and, carefully, studied the information. "It's an analysis. It did a complete CBC and Lytes," she said, scrolling through the results.

"It appears," the tech said, reading through the coding, "that it is programmed to run one every thirty days."

"I wonder if there's enough to run DNA?" Cara said as she walked back over to the tech's side. "Can you retrieve the vials without breaking the seal?"

"That is beyond my pay grade," he said. "But....maybe someone from....." He stopped as movement in the pod caught his eye.

At the same time the child's heart rate and respiration accelerated and her blood pressure began to rise. Cara looked down and watched as the little girl's fingers began to move. "Oh damn. It's too soon," she swore.

Meanwhile outside Isolation, Scarlet arrived and looked through the window as the doctor worked on the pod. Even with as little knowledge as he had about the medical field, he could tell when something was going on. He thought it best to not interrupt and simply continued to watch for the time being.

Cara looked at the tech and said, "turn up the heat in the pod and increase the decompression to 25% q 15."

"That's just under the maximum," the tech said as he pulled out the small keyboard and began making the adjustments.

Within their Dream, Sav and Sierra were playing hide and seek among the scrub trees. However, for some reason, Sierra was beginning to move faster than Sav, as though Sav was being slowed down by a thickening in the air, but that was not it. With Sierra giggling and running about, Sav realized that Sierra was no longer in the deep cyrostasis sleep and that her brainwaves were speeding up. Sav swallowed to herself, realizing that one of three things was happening, from best to worst. They were being rescued, the entity found them, or the cyrostasis pod was failing. 'Please be one of the first two... please be one of the first two..' ran through Sav's mind.

"I am aware, Ensign," Cara said as she focused her attention on the child's vitals...frequently glancing at the child in the pod. Her eyes were now moving back and forth behind her lids and her skin began to goosebump. She tapped her combadge and said, "O'Reilly to Ki.....the child is waking up and we are only at," she looked at the small pod's monitor, "45% decompressed. The adult is still comatose."

"Tawagoto!" (sh@#t) Michael exclaimed into the comm badge... "Right, Lieutenant you need to turn the surgical bay into a re-compression chamber for hyperbaric therapy. Erect the forcefield and begin to decompress the area until the pressure equates what is in her current stasis chamber. Doctor do not delay... I am OMW..." Michael headed for the transport site after turning command of the Merlin's Sick Bay over to one of the medical staff.

"You heard the boss," Cara called out as everyone in the Iso Unit began to scramble to turn it into a decompression chamber.

However, that comatose state was not to be long. The female mephetian now began showing signs of increased metabolism as she rose with the temperature and decompression of the chamber. Within Sav's mind, she gently let Sierra go free from within her embrace and began checking through the chamber through her touch at the inside control panel at the headboard. She could no longer feel the Merlin, only the chamber... and two small diag computers connected. That meant... rescue. Still, while now what was wrong, that something was wrong was evident by the error and warnings going through the cyrostasis chamber. She had to protect Sierra, at all cost. Her tail, which was up behind Sierra as she was within Sav's arms, began emitting a light healing field to keep the child safe. Her body doing its supportive tasks of another, Sav now worked on getting herself roused. She had to tell the rescuers that this was Apollo's child, see to her first, above all other considerations.

"The adult is coming around," the tech called out.

Cara saw the adult's tail spread like a shield over the child. "Oh Hell!" she muttered. "Computer...is there any way to communicate to those inside this pod?" she asked the ceiling.

"Starfleet no longer uses this model stasis pod," the LCARS voice responded. "The information on this particular unit is no longer in my database. I will need to access Starfleet's archival data...."

"Is she waiting for an engraved invitation?" Cara asked the tech, not really expecting and answer from the young man. She held her nose and blew to pop her ears. "Increase the O2 levels and warm them up," she said as she leaned over the pods glass so she would be the first face either one of the pod's inhabitants saw when they opened their eyes.

Michael came jogging into Sick Bay still wearing the cold weather gear from the Merlin. "Report!" his gently yet firm voice rang out.

"They're not letting anyone in," one of the nurses standing outside the Iso Unit reported.

As the adult slowly opened her eyes, Cara tapped the glass on the pod.

At first, Sav's eyes did not work. While the dream time to them had only been an hour, the real time was... six and half months. She waited for her sight to return and heard tapping. She quickly checked the pod and the tapping was not from it. As images swam into being, she noticed the tapping was from a... red head terran above her? She mouthed, "Melody?"

Cara smiled warmly and mouthed the words..."remain calm...you are safe," then she pulled the tech over by the shirt sleeve. "Keep smiling and keep her calm," she said then went over to the door of the Iso Unit.

Melody's face was replaced by another, a terran... male. Sav jerked in reaction as her eyes opened wide from fear of a male being above her. She got that under control and managed a wane smile back up to the.. meditech, she could see he was a meditech. She calmed some more as she felt Sierra held to her bosom, her tail still keeping behind the child and giving what little energy it could to her. Sav felt the incongruous zones within herself and realized neither would be back to normal for a bit yet as they thawed out, no damage done thanks to the fields of the chamber keeping their cellular structure intact. She managed to shift one hand to wave with curling fingers at the tech, letting him know she was okay, well, as okay as could be for where they were in the waking process. Meanwhile, her tail quit producing its scanner hiding field to protect her and Sierra.

Michael walked into the ISO Unit. "Dr O'Rielly report please."

Cara held her nose and popped her ears then toggled the intercom. "We are currently at 58% decompression. Vitals are normal but elevated and the adult is conscious. This series of pod is so old that our computer doesn't even have info on it so I don't know if we can figure out how to release the seals and open it. We have managed to jury rig our O2 to its vacuum so we are pumping O2 into the pod and we have figured out how to adjust the pod's environmental controls so we have raised the temperature inside the pod to 62 degrees Fahrenheit."

Michael listened to her inform him about the adult being awake and the child decompressing. The shock of the story for him was how they came out of stasis. However, that did not matter at the moment. What mattered at the moment was saving his two patients. As he listened he checked the status of the re-compression chamber, it was ready. He looked at his Assistant Chief and the amount of emotion behind his eyes was evident. "Cara we need someone to operate the emergency transporter. What we have to do is transport the child and the adult into the surgical bay. Placing them on the surgical bed. We can then regulate the decompression. If we do not do this we may lose both of them. However, the tricky part is transporting while half in stasis is dangerous in and of itself. We have about five minutes according to the latest readings to get someone here to operate the transporter. Suggestions?" Michael prepared an emergency crash cart as he spoke as a preventative measure.

"Excuse me." Scarlet spoke up. "What is the model of that status pod? The USS Kingston that brought me here just replaced their old status pods for the newer models. The engineer might still have the files or be able to help in person."

Cara looked over her shoulder at the tech who had heard the question and was looking at the model plate.

"XR7.607," the tech called out.

Cara repeated the model number to the Lieutenant standing next to Dr. Ki.

Scarlet nodded and tapped his comm badge.

=/\= Lieutenant Scarlet to the Kingston, please put me through to Ensign Getson.=/\=

There was a moment pause before the Ensign replied. =/\= Scarlet, that was fast. Don't have anyone over there who can set you up with a personal replicator?=/\=

A frown came across Scarlet's features at the jest. =/\= Type XR7.607 Stasis pods. Do you have any data on them? And before you ask, no. I am not telling you why.=/\=

=/\=We got rid of ours in the last refit but I kept the manuals. I'll transfer them to the Grissom now. I'll warn you, they're finicky.=/\=

Scarlet nodded and sighed slightly. =/\=Thank you Ensign. That should be all.=/\=

Looking first at the doctor next to him and then through the isolation window as Cara he nodded. "You should have the information shortly. Getson is very efficient." He didn't add that the Ensign was also a bit of an arrogant ass. He didn't think that was important information given the current situation.

"Are you coming in, Boss?" Cara asked Ki then headed to the nurse's desk to access the information being sent over.

"Dr O'Reilly, how are you with transporters? As I said before we need to transport the patients now. Everything else can wait for the moment. If we do not get them out of that pod they will die both of them. I need someone to operate the emergency medical transporter and Transport on my mark..." Michael replied in slow, even, measured tones.

"CPO Blaine is our TO," Cara said, looking through the window of the sealed Isolation Unit door.

As if on cue, the corpsman appeared, gave everyone a thumbs up and rushed to the Medical transporter. "The decompression is messing with the sensors," he announced.

"Bayushi to O'Reilly. Your patient in the pod, is it a female Mephetian?" came the Marine's voice over the communicator. "I just felt a presence that I haven't felt in a long long time."

"She is," Cara answered.

"That helps," Blaine said, his fingers flying over the controls. He found the file about the tail and its inhibiting fields and how to more accurately pinpoint the Mephetian within. "What about the child?"

"She looks like she has some Rigellian in her," Cara called out through the intercom.

After a few adjustments Blaine put his fingers on the controls and said, "I'm ready when you are, Doc."

Cara looked over her shoulder and saw the two biobeds ready and hooked up to monitors. The wall plate just inside the forcefield showed a match to the environment within the isolation chamber. "Do it," she called out.

"Energizing," Blaine said and moved the controls upward on the panel.

A few seconds later the two inhabitants of the stasis pod disappeared and materialized on the biobeds.

"Blankets," Cara ordered and headed over to her patients now that she could actually examine them.

The Merlin CO had left Cale in charge of the engineering teams and beamed back to Grissom after speaking with him. Unloading the worry he'd been trying to keep buried had helped, and Cale reminding him that he could trust the officers and he wasn't undercover anymore had helped John clear his thoughts. As he walked into the Grissom sickbay the flurry of activity and faces of some of the medical staff made his heart sink. He broke into a run towards the isolation rooms and nearly ran into the window that allowed the medical staff to observe, "what happened?" he asked, not directing the question to anyone specific, his voice and the expression he'd had when Ki first spoke with him very different now.

Now that her role in getting the Merlin was complete, Kachiko likewise returned to the Grissom. She had felt a familiar yet unexpected presence, a welcome and pleasant presence.

She entered the Isolation Room viewing compartment a minute after the Captain, at a dead sprint. Breathing a moment, she looked up at the others present, "Could someone tell me any further information about the female Mephetian in the pod?"

Michael was putting the final touches on the re-compression chamber, he heard the two Commanders enter. "Commanders all will be explained in a few moments. Please I must ask you to be patient and stay put." Michael checked his readings and saw that the settings were holding true.

"Colonel, Doctor," Kachiko corrected the physician. "I haven't been a Commander in eleven years."

The monitors began to beep as they recorded the two patient's vitals. Cara went over to the adult and tucked the blanket around her. She smiled down and said, "can you understand me?"

Sav swallowed dry spittle as her body felt like it had been ran over by a Zamboni, with a steamroller added in for good measure. She knew this was from being taken out of the fields before full cyrostasis was reversed, and could only trust that the docs would not have done it if permanent damage would result. She had just gotten her life back, she didn't want to lose parts of her body to internal frostbite now being out of the cell lock fields of the cyrostasis chamber.

Sav could now see that this redhead terran was NOT Melody. However, she had been asked a question. Sav nodded her head and wiggled her ears to answer 'Yes'. She now whispered, "Yessss... Kitling... Sierra.. Barstow.. must.. tell.. him. Sorry.. mouth..throat..dry."

"Get me some water," Cara said over her shoulder. She lifted the head of the biobed and, when the nurse handed her the cup of water, Cara held the straw to Sav's lips so she could take a couple sips. "Better?" she asked with a gentle smile.

Sav, having been through something similar just a few weeks.. well, to her, before, she gently took in a sip, then swished it around her mouth. She swallowed the little that was left, then took a smaller sip to swallow. Only after the doctors let her know her body was recovered she would take larger ships. She smiled to Dr. O'Reilly, and whispered with some of her lilting voice now, "Yes, better, thank you."

At this point, Sav felt a very familiar sensation and heard in her head an unexpected voice, "~Sav, doll. I'm here for you. Work with the doctor and we'll get you well, hon. ~"

Sav's eyes blinked as she gently turned her head to look around. That felt like... Kachiko, from the Academy. Her whiskers and ears went into semi-repose at finding a familiar person nearby. She answered, ~Kachiko... wow, you're here? Glad to receive your thoughts. Boy, do I have some updates for you.. so much has happened.. and I am now fully me once more. Just, let me see if I kept everything in place... Sierra and I were taken out before the full process to thaw us was finished. Oh, the female kitling is Sierra Barstow.. I kept her safe.. please, get the word to Apollo.~

Sav could feel Kachiko's smile through their connection, "~Focus on your own health right now, sweetie. Apollo and I are both on the other side of the glass from you right now. He knows that you have been watching over his little girl. ~"

Kachiko turned her gaze to Barstow, "The Mephetian is Sav'ena Tillatix. I was her Academic Advisor at the Academy. I wasn't aware she was aboard the Merlin?"

"She has also been doing everything possible to protect your little girl, Boss," Kachiko's eyes remained on the two patients.

John looked over, "aye, she has been since Merlin launched," he replied, "and you don't know how much better that makes me feel," he added, knowing Sav had taken interest in Sierra and knowing she wouldn't let anything happen to his daughter, "you know, this kind of feels like Voyager sometimes, the crew treating the children aboard like they're theirs," he added with a smile as he watched through the glass.

Kachiko smiled, "Then this will be the right place to raise my daughter."

Not being able to hear what was being said on the outside of the Iso Unit, Cara asked Sav, "can you tell me who you are?"

Sav churred gently, the erotic and exotic sound muted due to not being fully recovered, but pleasing sounding just the same. She replied in a low voice, "Oh, sahrry, Dr. O'Reilly. CFCO Lieutenant Commander Save'ena A. Tillatix, USS Merlin, at yer service." She glanced past the forcefield towards where Kachiko and Bartsow were standing. She grinned, her ears motioning towards them, and whispered, "I'm in telepathic contact with Kachiko... ifin yah want more details, ask her to be interpreter. Talking is very tiring.. sahrry."

"Then you rest," Cara smiled. "The decompression process will be complete in about an hour and I'm sure that CDR Barstow will have more than a few questions. I will be right here to make sure he doesn't tire you out, though." She looked at the monitors and turned up the warming blanket. To the nurse she said, "start an infuser with warmed D5W." She looked back down at Sav and said, "I'll be right over there with the child who was in the pod with you if you need anything." With that she moved over to the other biobed and began doing a full examination of the child.

Sav nodded and replied gently, "Ah'l cancel the re-entry surfing outing, then... wake me ifin yah need me." She closed her eyes, relaxing, as she had heard 'complete in about an hour'. It had not registered 'decompression', or that out of the pod fields it would be another four hours before she and Sierra would be fully defrosted. ~Nappy time, Kachiko.. wake me ifin yah need me..~ Sav was now sleeping.

Kachiko frowned, glancing at Ki, "Should she be let to sleep right now, before she's completely stabilized?"

Michael wiped some sweat off of his forehead as watched the vital signs level off and the patients stabilize for now. He took a deep breath and turned to face those assembled. With a smile on his face he began to speak. "First and foremost the patients will be okay so long as they are watched. They will need about a week in the chamber and then they should be fine. We may need to convert more space in the Grissom to re-compression chambers, as we evaluate the rest of the patients in stasis. Next Colonel you are absolutely correct. The patients can be allowed to sleep just not too deeply. For intents and purposes they have The Benz."

John put a hand on Bayushi’s shoulder supportively. He understood the worry as he looked in the direction of his daughter. He caught the urge to push his way in, the only thing worse than a lawyer with themselves as a client was a doctor trying to treat their family, “Doctor, I don’t mean to sound pushy, but, when can we see them?” He asked and took a breath.

[TBC]


OFF:

Commander John "Apollo" Barstow
Commanding Officer
USS Merlin
Commander, Task Group 47-A "Musketeers
Task Force 47

Lt. Commander Save'ena Amilia Tillatix
Chief Flight Control Officer
Bridge Command Specialist
USS Merlin

Dr. Cara O'Reilly
ACMO
USS Merlin