Saving Lives, One At A Time

Posted on Wed Aug 26th, 2026 @ 3:19pm by Lieutenant Commander Victoria Aries & Lieutenant JG Diana Sereno

1,624 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: The Hand That Rocks The Babe
Location: Sickbay 6

Diana had postponed the surgery for eight hours, as long as she could have reasonably done so. The news of the two babies surviving had meant that there was something that had changed, that maybe something could help in the treatment of Commander Aries.

Then the bad news had come four hours later: The babies had died after contracting the virus post-partum, their higher metabolism and smaller bodies and immature immune systems causing the virus to spread faster and overwhelm them over the course of a handful of hours. Again, zero survivors.

She'd swept her temporary desk clean of PADDs at that news and cried for ten minutes before slowly picking up the pieces and getting back to work trying to save who she could. Why would the infants survive birth from infected mothers? They shared blood supply, immune systems, everything. Diana looked at the mothers' cases and stopped. The disease had killed them faster than the standard had been. That was important. The mothers bodies had sacrificed themselves to protect the children. It was known that the immune system would go to great lengths to protect a fetus.

But that there was no placenta in Aries's case would be the complicating factor, but what if... She looked at the comm unit and shook her head. There was no time for Commander Beaulieu to have time to think over the ramifications of what she may have to do to save her life. All he'd cared about was that she would live. But would he care if... Would she?

Diana pressed a button on her comm as she reached for the hypospray she'd had to use far too often recently, "Nurse Bennett, prep Surgical One for immediate surgery on Commander Aries. I'll need three nurses, volunteer only." Confirmation came in rapidly and she pressed the hypo against her own neck, the stimulant rushing in, driving the sleep from her veins.

It was go time.

Preparation was routine and automatic, the biohazard suit long since an old friend, no, enemy. In her perfect world, she wouldn't need it, she'd be able to have the personal touch of healing with each and every patient. She wanted to strip off the suit for this operation, take the risk, but then she'd never be certain. As she walked into the surgical suite she noted four other suits, one more than requested, but the faces visible behind the faceplates had the same determination she knew was on hers, the patient laying in front of her, machines providing the only sound in the room.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you." Her voice was muffled by the suits, "This is a Level Five Biohazard surgery. No one out, no one in while the patient is open. One pair of hands in the surgical area at a time, we cannot risk cuts, we cannot risk contamination. The portable incinerator will be used for all biohazard material, which is everything. Who hasn't been in one of these surgeries before?" Three of four people raised their hands, "Imagine the worst scene you've ever seen as a medical professional. Now make it ten times worse. This is going to be worse than that."

She met each one of their eyes individually, confirming their determination, "I don't even know what we're going to be doing until I open her up and get a visual on what's inside, but what we WILL do is save her life. If I ask for something odd, don't question it, just do it. There's going to be a reason for everything. Any questions? Good, let's go. Larson, you're going to be on tissue sample recovery and replication, Sampson, you're my primary, Averis, waste disposal, Campo, backup."

They arranged themselves around the table and Diana spared one more look at Aries's face, mentally saying a prayer before she picked up a scalpel and made a large incision that cut through skin, muscle and the diminished fat layer from sternum to the pelvis. "Retract." She demanded, and the sound of retching from Campo followed the sight of black liquid that was exposed. It wasn't organs going into failure, it was death itself. Diana stifled her own gorge and nodded as she spoke while her hands reached in.

"We're starting with the removal of organs en masse that are diseased and dead. Campo, are you with me? You're going to identify them before Averis disposes of them." Thirty minutes later, they had cleared out a vast section of her abdominal cavity and her heart sunk. As expected, the entire intestinal tract was a loss, both small and large intestine had become necrotic and dead, the liver had gone the same way, one of the kidney had melted in her gentle hands, the pancreas had been hard as a rock.

She extended the incision upwards to the nape of her neck after the cavity had been cleaned up, the only things remaining being the uterus and ovaries, both scanning as clear of infection. "Sampson, crack the chest open." She stepped back, hearing the crack as the sternum parted and retractors put in. Above the diaphragm, there wasn't much more hope. She quickly excised one lung that was blackening, bathing the other in an antimicrobial saline concoction that was just this side of being toxic to the tissue, the heart... "I need to isolate the heart tissue. Sampson, I need you to get a sample of her brain tissue, the upper part of the parietal lobe. If there are any viral strands, even one, I need to know."

Diana lifted the heart and bent her head to get a look at it, feeling it beating weakly despite not being a part of the process of spreading the blood, instead flooded with an oxygenated fluid that cycled. "Laser scalpel." She whispered, hand out for the tool to be placed in her hand, "I've got some necrotic tissue that I'm excising, maybe if we can resect this, we can stop the spread. She spent ten minutes to literally cut off the black tissue, along with some healthy tissue to get ahead of it. "Larson, inspect the area below my hand, is it clear?"

"Clear, Doctor."

Diana lowered the heart back into place, "I want you to regenerate the heart tissue slowly, if there's any sign of degeneration as you are doing so, stop." She stepped back and glanced at the chrono. "Vitals?" It had been four hours since they had started.

"Steady, low, but steady. We're having a fluctuation in brain activity, reduction of five percent."

"Doctor, I can't regenerate the tissue safely." Larson announced, backing away, "It's causing a reaction. Tissue is inflamed and red."

"All right." Diana exhaled, "Test the blood recirculating, what is the viral level?"

A vial of blood was withdrawn from the recirculator and placed in the test chamber, "Minimal, concentrations are at one point five percent of the high."

"Begin another system flush." Diana's eyes went to the vitals. They had it on the run, the main reproduction area was gone, "Sampson?"

"No viral load in the brain, Doctor. We got lucky here, it didn't take hold."

"Larson, we have the Commander's genome on file, yes? Including samples from major organs?"

"Yes, Doctor."

"It'll take a week for all of them to be regrown, let's get them started next door." She exhaled. There was one more thing to do and her heart sank as she knew how difficult it would be, "Next, we're going to harvest her uterine tissue and use it wrap her heart, remaining lung and new organs for transplant. Averis." Diana closed her eyes, "Remove the left ovary and see if we can harvest enough progesterone from it to create a one to five solution with anti-viral Delta to layer as a medium between the organs and sheath we're creating. If it is not sufficient, repeat with the right."

There was clear hesitation from Nurse Averis, but in the end she nodded and began to do as commanded. Of the entirety of the body, the reproductive system was the most difficult to regenerate properly and the Commander's file showed that she resisted regeneration. Ovaries were unable to be regrown, the volatility of the tissue and gametes impossible to reproduce. If both were required... Even if she survived, the Commander would never be able to have children.

"Campo, we've got a lot of work to do." She beckoned the backup nurse over and set to work.

*** Six Hours Later ***

It was a temporary closure after they'd packed the cavity with the temporary replacement organs,, it had to be since the regrown organs were going to need to be inserted, then monitored for rejection, but Aries was still alive. The body had a way of forcing itself to shut down, despite all the machines in the galaxy, when it felt it was time to die. But now, the heart beat with blood flowing through it, wrapped in her own maternal protection. There was no guarantee this would work, but it was better than her already being dead.

Diana stepped back, "Sampson, let's move her back to her room, I want round the clock attendance, if anything happens, I mean anything, I'm to be summoned. Tell the duty nurse you have watching her."

She stayed out of the way as the nurses moved Victoria along with all of the accompanying machines and bags. Now, only time would tell.

But there was one person who had to know what was going on, before she could even try to get some sleep. "Commander Beaulieu, Is now a good time to see you?"

Post by:

Lieutenant (jg) Diana Sereno
Medical Officer
USS Dreadnought

and
Lieutenant Commander Victoria Aries
Chief Engineer (and only there in body)
USS Dreadnought

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