Calculated Risks

Posted on Sun Mar 6th, 2011 @ 8:41pm by Lieutenant Lianna Vanders & EMH Mark IX "Nina" & Lieutenant JG Nessa Jenarian

Mission: Bug-Eyed Bogies
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: After "The Darkened Bridge", concurrently with follow-up post

As the hatch sealed behind her, Nessa was a bit nervous. After all, she was way out of her usual comfort zone on a mission where she'd be surrounded by hostiles. Still, she trusted the lieutenant to be a capable Tactical officer and as such, there was really no-one she'd rather be with in this situation. "Okay, down to sickbay then we'll reassess the situation. Hopefully R'cher and Kitonuh would have worked sensors in engineering out by then," she murmured as she did her best to keep up with Lianna along the tubes.

Li continued to move quickly through the tubes. "Get your &** in motion Ensign, we don't want to be lunch for the bug-squad."

"Going as fast as I can, Lieutenant," came the answer from the science officer, and she certainly looked like she was giving it her all. As they moved, she reached into the holster on the other side, pulling out a tricorder to scan for life signs. Strangely enough, looking at the device didn't seem to slow her down any if at all. "So far we're in the clear, I'm not detecting any of them in the vicinity," she decided to chime in, then realized that Lianna would probably be picking up on the bugs using her telepathic abilities, "Just not incredibly used to crawling around enclosed spaces, not to mention the direction we're headed, that's all."

"Yeah well, I can think of a million places I'd rather be than in this situation." Li mentioned. "I'm running on four hours of sleep right now, including stims. These bugs don't give you a rest."

"I can certainly understand that, lieutenant. Believe me, I sure could use a stim myself right about now. Or at least a pain-killer," Nessa responded, doing her best to not show any outward signs of distress. The last thing either of them needed right now was for her to start groaning in pain with every step she took.

The silence was deafening as they moved on, actually making pretty good progress along the way to sickbay. Nessa would check her tricorder every now and then just in case. Right after another check, she looked up to the betazoid leading the way and her brows creased in a slight frown before she spoke, "Lieutenant, I... I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. About my outburst on the bridge, I mean. I was certainly out of line, tensions were high and possibly the worst thing I could have done was snap at you." The science officer's expectations weren't exactly high as to the success of their task. She knew it was a gamble for her to join in the first place. After all, the situation relied on her being ignored by the bugs and that was a long shot. She only hoped she wouldn't be exposing the senior officer to any extra trouble. "I just wanted you to know that... in case... you know," she added, letting her voice trail off.

Li then spoke, "And I'm sorry that I was an a** Lieutenant. Last fourty-eight hours have been pure hell trying to stay alive, and there's nothing I'd want more than to take a little extra strength pesticide to these bugs." Li finally came across the access hatch to sickbay. "Ensign, we've made it to Sickbay." She opened the hatch and climbed out with her phaser rifle drawn. "Alright lets secure the area, I'm going to do a sweep. Get holonurse ready for our plan."

Nessa just shook her head slightly, a small grin forming on her features. "I doubt we'll need to. Nina was aware to expect us and should have everything ready," the science officer answered as she climbed out, noting the EMH standing in the room. She approached 'Nina' and smiled, "Good to see you, Nina. I trust all is ready for the procedure?"

"Affirmative, Ensign," the hologram replied, looking round at the Lieutenant as she began checking the sickbay facilities. "I have already checked that the medical facilities are free of hostiles, Lieutenant," she said, though her brief experience as a holographic doctor taught her that it would be unlikely that the security officer would listen.

Li went through room by room, checking the entire sickbay, when she was done, she got an emergency repair kit out and used a welder to weld the secondary doors to sickbay shut so that the insects would have a hard time getting in. "Alright Holonurse, I've secured sickbay. There's only one way in or out." Li then whispered in Nina's ear, "Take a look at Jenarian's legs, she's pushed them quite hard getting here."

The science officer was swaying back and forth in her spot, looking quite flushed and tired, so she moved to sit on top of one of the medical beds, just resting there as her eyes switched between the lieutenant and the EMH, waiting to see how things would progress. "Something for the fever and a pain-killer would be nice, Nina... I'm going to accompany the lieutenant to Engineering to deal with our... bug problem. After that, I'm all yours for... larval extraction or whatever," she said, sounding a bit hoarse as she was quite dehydrated as well.

"Do not worry, Lieutenant. I had not intended to allow Ensign Jenarian to leave sickbay before administering treatment." She looked over towards Nessa. "But I must strongly recommend against that course of action. The longer the larvae reside within your wound, the more danger they pose to you. The must be extracted as soon as possible."

"I understand the risks, Nina, but I'd rather assist the lieutenant on her mission, and I'd be more of an impediment... at least if my suspicions are correct," the science officer replied, looking about the medical bay. She stepped closer to where the hypo sprays were and pulled out what she knew was a pain-killer, quickly inserting the small tube into one of the hypo sprays before injecting herself directly in the neck. She had received a bit of medical training during her course at the academy, so she knew how to operate those devices, even if she wasn't a fully qualified medic. She looked through the numerous liquids arrayed in front of her before picking out one vial she knew would help with her fever and injected herself with it as well.

"There, that takes care of that, you work on the lieutenant. Unless I spontaneously develop telepathic abilities, I'm afraid I will have to refuse treatment until this mission is complete," the science officer continued, focusing her gaze on the EMH with a determined look.

Li got an equipment locker out form sickbay's storage closet which contained an emergency armory. She began to change into the tactical body armor. She began to prepare a type III repeater Phaser Rifle. "Alright, I'm almost ready. You ready with your bug brain mimic device." Li asked as she picked up the repeater. She then put on a headset with a camera and a communication link. "Captain, you reading this signal?"

"Yes, Lieutenant," Nina responded, diverting her attention momentarily from the Ensign. "However, I will need a few minutes to calibrate it corretly to your brain activity. Please take a seat on biobed one." Biobed one was the one equipped with the extra sensor dome, usually for surguries, but in this case it would provide Nina with more detailed data on the Lieutenant's brainwaves.

"Affirmative, Lieutenant," Benjamin's voice responded over the comm. channel.

"You should have a visual from my headcam." Li put her hand in front of the camera. "How many fingers am I holding up?" She asked, testing the image calibration."

"Three," the captain said, as the Lieutenant's hand came into vision of the camera. Likely the whole bridge was focused on the viewscreen, as so far this was the only plan they had for solving the ship's problem.

"Good, Standby Bridge." Li stated. She then sat down on the operating table. "Alright lets get this over with." Li stated, trying to catch her breath. The idea of going into the bug's nest didn't do much for her nerves.

Moving over towards the Lieutenant, Nina picked up the device she had prepared from a tray on top of the primary console. It was a small, circular device, with a series of lights on its surface, only a few of which were blinking presently. Attaching it to her left temple, opposite the headset that the Lieutenant had donned, she began giving her instructions. "This device must remain attached to your temple and powered for its operation to be continuous. If it does become detached from your temple, you must re-attach and re-initialise it. As I calibrate it to your brain activity, you may experience a brief period of disorientation and nausia." She picked up a small, pen-like device, and began manipulating the tiny controls at the centre of the device.

Li held still for a moment, feeling the effects of the device. It was simular to the feeling of flying a Valkyrie Starfighter.

"Done," the EMH said, taking a step back from Lianna. "How do you feel, Lieutenant?"

Li spoke, "Ugh, like I've done ten barrel rolls in a Valkyrie." Li spoke as she calibrated her headset. "Are you getting a better image bridge?"

"Affirmative," came the response from the bridge, as the image became as clear as if they were watching through Lianna's own eyes. Thankfully, the main viewscreen was among the systems to be restored with emergency power.

Li then spoke, "Ensign, I agree with the Holonurse. You need to stay here and get those larvae removed. I can't have more bugs popping out of you Ensign. It would just be plain insulting to die from a bunch of insect larvae"

"I should have at least a few hours before I end up in that situation, lieutenant. Plus, you might need some backup," the science officer spoke, finally able to focus with the lack of pain and fever to get in the way. She knew that what she was doing was a bad idea, but she was not too used to coming up with ideas that might lead to someone else dying. Nessa took a deep breath, grinning slightly before adding, "I know I'm not the best shot in Starfleet, but at the moment I don't think we can afford to be picky, do we?"

Benjamin's voice filtered through their combadges, apparently having listened in on the conversation. "Lieutenant, take Jenarian with you. If her assumption is correct and the bugs ignore her due to the larvae, then we'll need her in engineering to recalibrate the warp core."

Nessa tapped her comm badge and gave a short, but simple reply, "Yes, Sir." She pulled her own type II phaser pistol from its holster, checking to make sure it had a full charge before heading for the jefferies tube entrance they had come in through. She took up position next to it, waiting for the lieutenant to go in first as they had done before.

Li began to lead the way in the Jefferies Tube, while muttering to herself. "Wonderfull, I have to walk into a nest of giant bugs, while babysitting a woman with bug larve in her, and I'm the camera woman for the whole bridge. Just wonderful."

-----------------------
Lieutenant Lianna Vanders
Chief Tactical & Security Officer

&

Ensign Nessa Jenarian
Chief Science Officer

with

EMH MkIX "Nina"
NPC Played by Capt. Byrne
USS Endeavour