A Very Long Day

[ElaineDelgado 0]

It seemed to me only moments before I had been talking to Ensign Chen about his ears and to Dr. Zion about her critical patient. We went to red alert. Were we under attack? What was happening? I felt afraid, but ready. I sat my cup of coffee down, and began collecting Med Kits.

 

We were going to be receiving wounded. I had finished setting up the triage when Dr. Zion’s words finally sunk in. Five nurses and I would be heading to a Cargo Bay to take care of less seriously injured personnel. My chest tightened.

 

I would be alone. Alright, not completely alone, as the nurses would be there. But, I would be in charge. That place right between my stomach and my lungs began to burn.

 

You can do this.

 

My father’s voice.

 

You can do this. Trust in Him. He’ll get you through this.

 

I took a deep breath, whispered a silent prayer, and rounded up my crew to head to the Cargo Bay.

 

We had little to no time to set up a makeshift sickbay before people started coming in. I tried to move quickly, wondering what major injuries looked like if these were minor.

 

One Ensign had taken a pretty bad fall, and had a dislocated shoulder. I did a maneuver I never wanted to perform. I grabbed his arm, put my foot on his shoulder, and quickly jerked. His cry of pain, and the “sthloop” sound, told me that he was fixed. It still made me cringe. That is not a noise anyone wants to be the cause of.

 

Then I had to move to the next patient. Nurse Ormudo was there, ready to take orders or bark them at the other nurses when I was too quiet. I smiled, grateful for the help.

 

After the last person had been treated, I gave Ormudo the order to set up beds for those not able to leave just yet, and I walked back to the main Sick Bay.

 

Dr. Zion was there, and I helped her finish up. It seemed as though days had passed since this had all started; my body felt quite fatigued, having never experienced such a work load at such a pace. We began to speak.

 

I moved past the conversation and to the patient she had told me about, so long ago, yet only a few hours had passed perhaps? Dr. Zion informed me that the situation was the same.

 

Reading over the data I had been working on before talking to Chen that day, I tried to push out the thoughts of death that seemed so near right now. The woman’s face was so pale. I took Dr. Zion’s offer of coffee, and wondered silently how late I would be up from the caffeine.

 

Then alarms began going off. We were losing the patient. Dr. Zion dropped her coffee, and went over. She was anxious, knowing that there was nothing more to be done.

 

God give me wisdom, I prayed silently.

 

I went to the replicator, and began punching in the matrix of the herb that I needed. Three years ago I had read about it, yet I was able to remember it perfectly, or so I hoped. If I got it wrong, if it didn’t work on humans… I tried not to think about that.

 

Trust in Him.

 

Dr. Zion put it under the woman’s tongue, and then asked about it. I quickly told her what it was, but was not even sure if I got the planet’s name right. I just stared at the woman, hoping the blue splotches would appear.

 

God, let it work. Please, let it work, I felt the fear coming back. What if it didn’t work? What if it killed her? Why had I administered something that might have never been tested on human physiology? I began feeling very, very stupid.

 

Dr. Zion looked up, pointing to the blue splotches beginning to appear. “Is that supposed to be happening?”

 

I nodded. Relief flooded over me.