Captain’s Awake!

Posted on Sat Sep 29th, 2018 @ 1:20pm by Commander Abigail Prescott & Captain Horatio Refelian & Lieutenant Calista Aereen MD & Lieutenant JG Leonardo 'Leo' Giordano
Edited on on Sun Sep 30th, 2018 @ 1:13pm

2,076 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: The Return to Faltan
Location: USS Minotaur, Sickbay
Timeline: MD07 - 0900

On:

While Horatio was placed under a medically induced coma, his brain activity had needed to be closely monitored. That had been Leo's job. And as Horatio's condition improved, the medications used to induce his coma through an IV had been gradually lessened. Now waiting for the Captain to wake, as it was best for him to wake up on his own, Leo pulled up a stool and started looking over the readings on a monitor near the head of the bed.

"How's he doing?" Calista asked entering sickbay. She had just finished touring the medical hub which was finally in more or less working order. Cleaned and sterilized they now had two functioning ORs, an ER, and a recovery ward, a few offices were ready and the labs and remaining facilities would be ready by the end of the week.

"He's doing great," Leo smiled up to her. "Here are his vitals, including his brain activity, for the past hour," he said, handing over to her a datapad.

"His neural activity is up substantially, that's a good sign." Calista replied reviewing the data.

Leo nodded, "Yeah, I expect him to be waking up anytime between now and the next three hours. But, as you know, it's basically up to him."

Refelian let out a low groan. His body felt weak and heavy and he struggled to open his eyes. He wanted to speak but his mouth was so dry. He finally managed to open his eyes, the bright light hurt the Captain’s eyes like he hadn’t seen daylight for days.

"Speak of the devil." Calista replied looking at the Captain. She poured water into a glass and put a straw in, holding it to Captain's mouth. "Try not to move to much, or speak." She said.

He wasn’t sure who was thrusting a straw into his mouth but the taste of cold water in his mouth felt delightful. “W...wh...what happened?” He asked after letting the water swill around his mouth for a few moments.

"You were shot when we were in the meeting with the Governor, you've been in a medically induced coma for the better part of a week." Calista said calmly. "There was damage to your spinal cord, we repaired the damage but you might have some difficulty with walking for a few days until your body get used to it again. Giordano do another round of blood work, I want to make sure everything is clear before talk about discharging the Captain here."

“S...sh...shot? Governor?” Refelian said still confused by what was going on.

Leo had been smiling, as it was good the Captain had been able to speak so quickly, so often was not the case. His confusion was normal too. But Leo's smile fell at the Captain's last question. At the doctor's orders, he replied with, "Yes, Sir," pulling away to configure a hypospray to draw blood.

“Faltan’s?” He asked, his voice croaky and hoarse.

Calista nodded, "We've been accused of the murder, they claim it was in retaliation for your shooting. The matter is being handled, but Captain, we have a concern that your life may still be under threat."

“Murder? Who?” Refelian asked still confused.

"I will let the Commander cover the rest of this for now we need to run a few more tests." Calista said. "Lieutenant please inform the XO that the Captain is awake."

Having just finished drawing blood, Leo nodded an affirmation before stepping away, tapping his commbadge, =/\=Medical to Commander Prescott.=/\=

=/\= Prescott here, what can I do for you?=/\=

=/\= Commander, you can come to the Minotaur's sickbay. The Captain's awake now.=/\=

=/\= I will be there momentarily. =/\=

And true to her word, a few moments later, Mint walked through the doors to the Minotaur's sickbay. "Captian, welcome back to reality," she said as she approached, giving him a smile. "I'm afraid it's not a lovely one, but it is good to see you awake."

“What’s going on, Commander?” Refelian asked hoarsely.

"To be honest, a lot," Mint shook her head, then turned to Aereen and Giordano. "Is he well enough for me to go through everything?"

Refelian nodded slowly, “I want to know everything, don’t make me order you to tell me.”

Mint laughed. "But I can ignore you until Doctor Aereen clears you," she teased. "Alright, I will tell you, but stop me if you have any questions." She leaned against the nearest biobed and sighed. "So, at the Governor's office, you were shot by a sniper. We were denied access to investigate or their records of the investigation.

That night, the Governor was assassinated. Whomever did it used a Starfleet phaser and left it at the scene attempting to frame us," her brow furrowed. "We are attempting to locate where the phaser came from." She paused here to let that information sink in.

Refelian sighed and frowned at the same time. “What about the administration team?” He asked as he allowed the other information to process.

"Greyfox found them, they have been sent back here, though they've not arrived yet," Mint rubbed the back of her neck. "Also, someone bombed the Romulan embassy and the Ambassador's wife is missing or dead. Other than that, our Chief Engineer finally arrived and a Tellarite shopkeep barged into your office and yelled at me because his precious goods couldn't get delivered as we have the planet essentially on lockdown."

“Sounds like getting shot has done me a favour.” Harry said with a chuckle which turned into a cough and pain through his shoulder.

Calista turned to Leo to check on the Captain's blood work. "How's it look?"

Leo handed over to her the results on a datapad. "Everything looks great," he smiled before leaving, knowing his job was finished there.

The CMO reviewed the data and nodded, given the other officer a small smile she moved back to the Captain.

Mint wanted to reach out and touch Refelian, but she wasn't sure that would be appreciated. Concern was etched on her face, however. "That it definitely has, though I suspect you'd enjoy all this," she shook her head slightly. "I'm just glad we have the Chief Engineer now, the station's been a bit neglected during all of this."

“A Chief Engineer will definitely be beneficial to getting the Station up and running properly.” Harry said as he tried and failed to push himself up a little. “What has the stance been from the Faltan Government?”

"Barely concealed hostility and denial of everything," Mint crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. "They're very fast to point the blame for everything at us. The newly appointed Governor Taga is apparently also a conspiracy theorist, as she decided that we probably shot you to give an excuse to assassinate the previous Governor. We've been denied entry into the City and all requests for information on their investigation into your shooting have been denied."

“We’ll need to fight that in a different way. Did the JAG officer arrive? I know we were due to have one arrive on the day of the meeting with their government.” Harry said before reaching for his water again and taking a sip. “Who is Taga? The name sounds familiar.”

"JAG has arrived and is doing what he can," Mint nodded. "And it should sound familiar. She was the Deputy Governor that gave us attitude and snide remarks. The one that's completely anti-Federation."

Refelian rolled his eyes, “Doesn’t surprise me, how did she get elected so quickly?”

"That I don't know, but she had been elected before she even called to tell me of the assassination," Mint shrugged. "Everything's been happening pretty quickly around here. I just don't understand most of it."

"Sorry to interrupt but I thought you might like to know you're free to go." Calista said with a warm smile. "Now you'll need to see me daily for check ups until I'm satisfied that everything is okay but you can return to your quarters. I'm not going to try to tell you to not do any work but avoid any strenuous physical activity. If you have any sort of pain I want to know about it immediately because there was a substantial amount of damage around your spinal cord, you're lucky to be walking out of here."

After Dr. Aereen said Refelian could, Mint smiled. "Well, your quarters were finished just in time then! And yes, I'm going to insist that you take the time off. I can handle the situation, you need to get back to full strength, and dealing with everything isn't going to give you the time you need to do that. I'm not going to confine you to your quarters, but I am going to request that you don't jump back into things. Besides, as far as the Faltans know, you're still in critical condition...." she smiled innocently at him. "What? They want to play games with us and withhold information, I'm going to feed them half-truths and withhold updates!"

Refelian chuckled as he slowly moved his legs over the edge of the bed and finally sat up. “As your insisting on so much, you can get me something to wear so I can hobble to my quarters. I don’t really fancy walking around the station in a medical gown.” The Captain said with a small smile before turning to the Doctor. “Thank you, to you and your team. You’ve done a great job on getting me ship shape without the necessary resources. Hopefully the new Chief Engineer will get you into the medical hub ASAP.”

"It's actually already up and running, we're still utilizing the Minotaur as our main surgical ward for now, but lucky for you I make house calls. I'll come check on you this evening." Aereen said.

Mint rolled her eyes at Refelian. "No, I'm going to make you shuffle yourself through the station trying to keep your bum covered," she grinned mischievously. "But in all actuality. We can just transport you directly to your quarters, make it easier on you."

Harry huffed, “That seems lazy though and a waste of resources.” As he slowly lowered himself down onto his feet.

"Tell ya what, if you can walk to the door, I'll get you a uniform. If you struggle too much, we're wasting the resources," Mint crossed her arms over her chest and watched him.

“Fancy giving a man in my position a challenge like that.” He said as he slowly took a step forward then realised the only place he was going was to the floor. Thankfully he managed to put his arms out to cushion the fall. “Seems I have some muscle wastage.” He mumbled.

When Refelian started going down, Mint reached out and tried to help him down gently. "You know, this is the second time in a week I've had to catch you," she teased, now squatting in front of him. "Stop being stubborn, Captain, you need to ease yourself back into activity, you've been laying in a bed for a few days. The Minotaur's transporters can transport you back to your quarters. I'll give you a bit of time to get dressed, etc, then I'll come check on you and discuss the current situation more if you want."

The Captain glanced at Doctor Aereen, “I seem to have an irritating first officer, do you have something for it?” He said with a small smirk.

"Sorry I'm a Doctor not a miracle worker." The CMO replied.

Mint laughed and stood proud. "There's no cure for me," she grinned at Refelian. "I'm a unique disease all my own. Besides, you wouldn't want to cure yourself of me, you'd be too bored."

“More to the point I think Faltan Station would be lost without you.” Harry said in agreement. “You seem to be the glue that’s been holding everything together.

One of the nurses appeared with a loose pair of scrubs. "Here Captain, this will likely be more comfortable than a uniform at the moment. I will swing by this evening to check on you but you're free to go for now." Aereen said.

“Thank you, Doctor.” Harry said as he took the scrubs. “I’ll get changed then Commander Prescott can transport me home.” He said as he slowly moved towards a small changing area in the Minotaur’s sickbay.

 

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