Choices

[Shujinko 0]

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September 16, 2155

Doctor Shujinko Akia

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Shujinko Akia glanced briefly at the patient he was treating. Burn wounds to 65% of his body, three broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a shattered leg. He shook his head and gave the young officer an injection of pain medicine smiled slightly into his eyes, and moved on.

 

Triage, perhaps, more than any other medical duty, tried the soul. Shujinko couldn’t comprehend how any Doctor could decide that one patient needed healing more than any other. Shouldn’t they all be equal?

 

The elder man he moved onto was in worse shape. Third degree burns everywhere, cracked sternum, shattered jaw…amputated leg. A medtech vainly attempted to staunch the bleeding. Shujinko placed a firm hand on the medtechs shoulder and relieved him, sending him to care for another. The man’s eyes rolled back into his head, and he gave a soft sigh as slipped away. Shujinko bit his upper lip and looked towards the sky.

 

Losing a patient could never be easy, even if there was no way to save the patient.

 

He pulled the grey medical blanket over the man’s face, making sure to close the eyelids, and moved on. The next triage patient, a female officer, had only surface wounds. A few scratches, and a slight plasma burn on the top of her hand. Again, as much as Shujinko wanted to relieve her pain, others needed help first. He had a medtech move her to the hallway where less critical patients were being cared for, and moved onto an Engineer in the next bed.

 

The Cycle continued like this. For ever one patient that he could treat immediately, two were either to hurt to treat or not hurt enough. Eventually though, they worked their way through the injured, finally tending to the wounded and injured. When they’d finished, Shujinko was mentally and physically exhausted.

 

Morally, he’d faced such hard decisions. Who deserved his precious talent more? Who deserved to be relieved of pain and suffering, and who were to far gone to be worth effort. As a man who’d pledged an oath, something he took very seriously, such a dilemma truly confounded. No simple way existed to avoid the complicating matter.

 

Confused, lost, torn, and utterly exhausted Shujinko returned to the Challenger. He would have to meditate long on the choices he had made, the decisions he’d faced, and whether or not he’d taken the right path in choosing Starfleet. And so, he returned to his quarters to meditate in as much seclusion as possible until absolution came to him.