A Trip To Sickbay

[John Randall 0]

OFFICIAL LOG

LIEUTENANT JOHN RANDALL

USS CHALLENGER

 

(Personal Log Stardate 11310.20)

 

John made his way back to engineering. As he arrived, the headache that

had all but been removed in sickbay came back with a vengeance. He

knew he had to inform the chief that the radiation was stronger in the

upper decks of the ship than the lower ones. He entered engineering,

and went straight to the equipment room to put on a rad suit. He had a

nagging feeling in the back of his mind, however, that it was already

too late. Too late for what, he wasn't sure.

 

He made his way to the main console, and looked around for the chief;

as luck would have it, Freeman wasn't there. John sighed, and made

his way to his station. He sat down in his chair, and noticed suddenly

he felt very tired, and his strength seemed to be leaving him. He

activated his panel, and pulled up the reports that had accumulated at

his station since he had been gone.

 

Unknown to him, his friend, ensign Jeff Michaels, had watched him the

entire time since he had returned to engineering, and was watching him

now. Michaels was very worried about his friend, and he thought that

Randall wasn't acting like himself. He thought John was hiding the fact

that he himself was sick. As he continued to watch his friend, Lieutenant

Commander Eddie Freeman, the chief engineer, strode through the

doors. He went up to the main console, started to sit down, then, for

some reason unknown to him, turned and looked at Michaels, who was

opposite him at the main console. Michaels was intently staring at

something, and Freeman didn't like the look in the ensign's eyes.

 

"Ensign?" he said gently. Michaels' eyes flicked to him briefly, and then

returned to whatever had his attention so raptly. Freeman studied him for

a second, then sat down in his chair, and turned. He saw Randall at his

station, and his eyes narrowed at John's posture in his seat. The lieutenant

was hunched over at his station, and, to Freeman's eye, looked as if he

were in pain. The chief engineer swiveled back to Michaels, whose eyes

had never left his friend. "Ensign, what's going on?" he asked softly.

 

Michaels' eyes again found his for just a second, then flashed quickly back

to Randall. "Sir," he said, "I think the lieutenant is a very sick puppy."

Freeman's eyes narrowed. "What led you to think that, Michaels?" he

asked. "John never sits like that, sir," replied the ensign. "He also puts

a hand to the back of his head every so often." His eyes made full contact

with Freeman. "I think he's a very sick man, Chief," he said somberly, and

the engineering chief could hear the worry and concern in the ensign's

voice.

 

Suddenly, Michaels jumped out of his chair. "Damn!" he exclaimed, and

left his station in a hurry. Freeman swiveled in his chair just as a scream

came from a female engineer whose station was in close proxmity to Randall's.

The chief took one look, and was out of his chair in an instant as well. John

had fallen out of his chair, and was lying motionless on the deck. Michaels

got there first, and then drew back, horrified. Freeman arrived, and looked

at Michaels. "Ensign, what's wrong?" he asked. "Look at his face, sir,"

answered Michaels, and Freeman turned over his assistant chief. He, too,

stared in horror at the huge red splotches on Randall's face.

 

"Contact sickbay, stat!" he ordered Michaels. The ensign gulped, nodded,

and took out his communicator. "Engineering to sickbay, medical emergency!"

he barked. A few seconds later, the voice of the ship's chief medical officer,

Dr. Gretchen Hanson, answered. "Sickbay here, what is your emergency?"

"It's Lieutenant Randall, doctor," replied Michaels. Freeman silently mouthed

at him, "Possible radiation poisoning." Michaels' eyes widened, then he

relayed the information to the doctor.

 

"Transport him immediately via intraship!" barked Hanson. "Acknowledged,

Doctor," said the ensign. "Engineering out." Freeman indicated he had heard,

and the two men picked Randall's limp body up off the deck. They carried him

over to the transporter pad that was used for intraship beaming. They

placed John on the pad, and Michaels went to the control panel. He scanned

the panel briefly, entered a series of commands, then nodded at Freeman.

"Energize," snapped the chief engineer, and Randall's body shimmered out

of existence.

 

John's body rematerialized in sickbay. Hanson and two orderlies were waiting.

"Get him to the hazardous biobed, stat!" she ordered, and the two orderlies

quickly took Randall's body there. They assisted the doctor in taking off John's

rad suit, and Hanson stared in dismay at John's head. The red splotches had

just about covered his entire face, and the back of his neck was beet red as well.

Hanson then noticed there were also red patches of skin on John's forearms.

She gave the order to one of her medtechs who had joined them for the proper

medications to be used on the unconscious lieutenant. The medtech hurried off

to get them, and Hanson looked back down at the lieutenant, her friend.

 

"John, John," she whispered. "What were you doing to get a dose like this?"

She stared at Randall's body lying motionless on the biobed, and suddenly

felt a surge of empathy for her friend. "We'll get you better, John," she whispered

again as the medtech arrived with the medicines. The doctor quickly loaded

three hyposprays, which she then proceeded to inject into the lieutenant's body.

She stepped back, and nodded to the medtech. "Now, all we can do is wait,"

she said. The medtech nodded, then, seeing the look on the doctor's face,

discreetly withdrew.

 

Hanson stared at her friend for a few moments. She knew John was a risk-taker.

He wouldn't ask anyone to do what he couldn't do himself. Gretchen suddenly

felt a rush of anger toward her friend. She thought to herself, 'John, if you would

delegate some responsibility instead of doing everything yourself,' then she

stopped, and composed herself. She knew Randall would never do that, and there

wasn't any sense in wishing he did, or getting angry about it. She sighed, then

actually smiled to himself. "And you wouldn't think so much of him,' she admitted

to herself.

 

She took one last look, and noticed on the medical panel that John's vitals were

slowly strengthening. She whispered, "I'll be back later." She then turned to check

on her other patients in sickbay. John remained unconscious on the biobed.

 

END LOG