So....Small

Posted on Sat Feb 10th, 2018 @ 3:51pm by

654 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: The Emerald Road
Location: Sickbay

Xavier having parted from his Fiancee headed to Sickbay where it would be his new workplace for the time being until the Dreadnought had been repaired. He was not looking forward to arriving already knowing that his medical staff had been cut by more than half and when he arrived he saw just how....small it really was.

He walked into his office and put a few personal effects down upon the table, nothing too much just a picture of BJ, his Coffee cup and a few PADDs with information he was reading. Xavier tried to keep positive, this was only temporary after all but he already missed the larger sickbay that could rival some orbital bases. He looked at his roster since apparently the shifts had already been selected for him, a staff formerly of 106 was stripped down to 51 and while those still present covered all the critical fields with some backups, there were some familiar faces that were not listed, faces that formed part of his own team he'd moulded over the last few years.

There were some new faces though, most notably the unmistakable purple haired Lt. Acacia Thomas. She would certainly add some colour to the otherwise drab decor of the place. He walked to the replicator and fetched himself some hot water, some Coffee and a plunger. He blamed BJ for this one, she liked her Coffee and its her that got his ways changed to make it the proper way, not the replicated way. Something about the hands on approach gave it a better taste and smell.

As he made his Coffee one of the staff came to him with a report. Apparently one of the UP's techs had suffered an injury.

"Hi, what has happened?" He asked leaving the plunger to the side to sit for a moment, infuse.

"One of the engineering officers broke his wrist, the break itself is clean but scans reveal nerve damage."

Xavier thought for a moment, while a serious injury he wondered why this was given such importance. "How did he do that?"

The nurse explained, which also explained why it was brought to his attention. The officer had blacked out. While it could happen to anyone and the injury could have been worse the health and well being of everyone on board fell to him. So why did the officer black out. "Ok, I'll be right out."

Xavier walked to the officer in yellow, a Lt.Cmdr Bruce Fotte if he read the record in his hand right. "Commander Fotte, I'm Doctor Patrovski, Chief Medical Officer. My nurse tells me you suffered a Vasavagel attack. A black out, can you tell me what you were doing at the time?"

"I was doing a routine diagnostic on the EPS power grid on deck 8, we have been flat out since we started to get the ship ready for launch."

"Have you eaten or drank anything recently?" Xavier asked.

"A small bite to eat a few hours ago, not really much to drink." Fotte replied.

Xavier ran a scan of the man to reveal evidence of low blood pressure and low sugar. That would explain the blackout and while he knew engineers help a degree of pride in the work they did, it was not surprising people pushed themselves. "Ok, so my scans reveal low BP and sugar, I'm taking you off duty for 12 hours to get some rest, I'd suggest you head back to UP for a change of scenery. I'll give you something to help you stabilise until you get to the yards but 12 hours, not a minute less." Xavier pressed a hypo to the mans neck.

He watched the man leave but next came the difficult part. An officer that works himself too hard to the point of collapse is a risk to himself and others, not taking care of himself was a risk factor that had to be reported.

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