Blinded by the Light

Posted on Fri Sep 27th, 2019 @ 2:06am by

643 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: What Stalks The Night
Location: Sickbay

The blue glow of the transporter filled the surgical suite with light, and flickered off the tray of tools sending motes of other shades of blue onto the walls. Once the blue light faded, the bay remained just as dim and lifeless as it had been.

Acacia frowned, when the power didn't come up automatically when the patient appeared, and her brow furrowed even further when it didn't come up when she herself entered the suite. The hell is wrong with this room?

"Computer, Activate surgical suite."

The computer did not respond to her request, and when the life support system on the biobed didn't engage she swore, blistering the air with curses. Stepping up to the side of the bed she pressed her fingers to the throat of the man that had been beamed in moments ago. He was unconscious, but a steady thump pressed back against her fingers. Even though his breathing was shallow there wasn't an emergency situation right this moment. Acacia winced however at the crackly feeling of subcutaneous emphysema in his throat. She'd have to get those lungs repaired right away, if air trapping was happening up so high.

Tapping the power button right below the screen, she muttered another curse under her breath and thumped the screen with a flat hand in frustration. The light flickered when she struck the screen and the sheer idiocy of her actions struck her. I cannot believe that was actually something I thought would work.

A flash of white light erupted from each screen bright enough that she had to shield her eyes from the intensity of it. The whole room was so brilliantly white that she felt vaguely nauseated at the brilliance of it. It left glitters in her field of view, and had her with a faint headache. Had that been a word on the screen before it flashed? Did it really say Die? Blinking away tears and rubbing her eyes to ease the flickers of blue/purple from the brightness Acacia wondered if she shouldn't take this patient to another bay. Checking the PADD she had in her pocket she saw all the other bays had patients pending. Shaking her head, she ignored what she'd thought she'd seen as just too much stress, but the uneasiness remained tight in her belly. The word 'die' was seared onto her retinas. Her eyes took a while to adjust to the dimness of the light, and the suddenness of the changes. The 'night vision' slowly came back and she focused now on the properly illuminated life support screens and bioinformatics on the PADD. Vaguely she hoped that the headache would ease before surgery started.

Raising her hand, she pressed two fingertips to her comm badge and spoke "Dr. Thomas to Engineering, can you run a complete diagnostic on Trauma suite 2, the power didn't engage when I entered and when it did....it was odd."

Intending to tap again she heard a voice respond...=/\= Define odd please Doctor?=/\=

"Well... The didn't come on automatically or at my command. When they did come on, first they flickered on and off a few times, then the screens flashed so brightly that it was painful. It was all of them at the same time, and I thought my blank screens had a word on them, when they flashed." Her voice sounded hesitant, before she engaged the total life support controls on this patient and fastened a mask to his face.

=/\= I'll send someone up =/\=

The commline went quiet, and she touched her badge again to break the open line. Who was I even talking to, they didn't identify themselves. That's...odd. Through pursed lips she made a sound of slight frustration "Yes, we can't afford a power loss now, people would die. Too many people would die. "

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