How To Save A Life ("Luck & Disaster" Epilogue) - Part 2
Posted on Sat Aug 16th, 2025 @ 2:06pm by Captain Daegan Baas & Lieutenant JG V'Laros & Petty Officer 2nd Class Sizia Sh'velihr [Baas] & Aseek Tarnala & Commander Jerome Hunt Jr. & Lieutenant Liam O'Riley & Lieutenant Urushi Yaotome & Lieutenant Niami Troga & Lieutenant Ayumu Tanaka & Lieutenant JG Stevie Thomas [O'Riley]
Edited on on Sat Aug 16th, 2025 @ 2:08pm
1,729 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Sole Survivor
Location: USS Valkyrie - Medical Center, Deck 11
Timeline: MD 18 - 16000 - Immediately Following "Luck & Disaster"
Putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "Come you can take me to see how the rest of the away team is doing while we wait on Dr. Tanaka to finish with Lt. Yaotome." As they left the others, "I assume Tanaka has already placed a containment field around the operating suite?"
"Affirmative, Sir," the medtech nodded.
"If not already, increase to level ten. Just to be on the safe side."
"Aye, Sir," the medtech nodded before scurrying off.
"Do we really think a forcefield would be able to handle are contaminated crew?"
As the trio walked into other areas of the medical center Daegan replied. "I hope we never have to find out. However, from what Aseek reported and what we saw with Wallace's death and mutation if the Doctor or Lt. Yaotome were infected we'd know already."
[Operating Bay 1]
With Lieutenant Yatome now under sedative and hooked up to a blood transfusion, Ayumu could focus his attention of the more daunting aspect of this operation, and that was the process of reconnecting the Symbiont to its respective host.
Symbionts were delicate creatures, unable to survive out of certain environs for any prolonged period of time- maybe ten hours maximum, but without a steady supply of Isoboramine and other vital nutrients that it required for sustenance, it was near impossible for it to survive on its own; and what with Lieutenant Yaotome's Symbiont having gone into shock from her injury, some of the tendrils that were previously connected to Lieutenant Yaotome's spinal cord had subsequently become detached, meaning that it was no longer getting the nutrients needed to sustain itself, so Ayumu was going to have to go in there and reattach them manually.
Donned up in full surgical scrubs (it was no longer relevant to him whether or not he was contaminated) and flanked on either side by a team of assistants, he carefully peeled back Urushi's hypodermis to reveal the Symbiotic cavity, with her Symbiont resting motionless across her intestines. Being connected (even partially) to its host on a chemical level, the sedative had evidently been passed on to the Symbiont, meaning that Ayumu wasn't going to have to struggle with it when the time came to reattach it to Urushi.
"Forceps," he calmly requested, offering up his outstretched hand.
"Aye, Sir," One of the assistants replied, handing him a packet containing the requested item.
Tearing open the packet and pulling out the forceps, he proceeded to reach in and- taking great pains to cradle the Symbiont without disturbing Urushi's organs- carefully lifted it out and set it down a small operating tray balanced on the patient's lap. Given that the Tendrils were only so long, there was only so far he could move the Symbiont before accidentally disconnecting them, and he didn't need to make this situation worse than it already was.
"Vital Signs Monitor," he requested, setting the forceps aside.
Another assistant carted over a monitor, feeding a handful of cables into Ayumu's awaiting hand as he then proceeded to carefully hook them up to the Symbiont.
Once that was all said and done, Ayumu took a quick look at the monitor to get a better idea of what he was working with.
"Right, so... Isoboramine levels are fluctuating; brainwave patterns are fluctuating; temperature is low; pulse rate is high; and blood pressure is down," he reported. "All symptoms we'd expect from Hypovolemic shock..."
He pointed to the Doctor he had spoken with upon their arrival in sickbay. "Get me that blood bag; we're going to be hooking it up and feeding it directly into the Symbiont's circulation."
"Aye, Sir," the Doctor nodded as he fed Ayumu a packet of the prescribed JS+ blood.
Ayumu fell silent as he attached an IV and carefully inserted it into the Symbiont, so that blood would hopefully be pumped into an area where it could quickly be fed into the heart and get it pumping like normal. Seeing as Symbionts were considerably smaller than their hosts, it was likely that it would only be a few minutes before they began seeing signs of improvement.
With that out of the way, Ayumu shifted his attention to analyzing the Symbiont itself.
"Subject appears to have sustained a slight grazing wound to the Right Parecula," Ayumu observed as he carefully rotated the Symbiont so that it was resting on its side. "It's substantial, but nothing we can't patch up with a dermal regenerator..."
his voice trailed off as his gaze wandered up to a peculiar marking situated about an inch from the Symbiont's oral cavity. It was approximately 25 millimeters in length, and presence of scarring tissue indicated that was not made recently; and besides, compared to the grazing wound lower down on the body, this was a lot more... precise, almost as if it had been made by a surgical instrument.
Ayumu, for whatever reason, was reminded of a comment that his Docent has made several years back:
"The results of your simulation are good. I can send these off to Starfleet. But remember, like in the simulation if you are operating on a Joined Trill, the symbiot is the most important but is also the most vulnerable." Captain Haruk Leon said with a smirk. "Why, my own symbiot was scarred a little due to the doctors being a tiny bit rough when we joined. But nothing that doesn't heal, most of those things take time..."
"Haruk..." Ayumu muttered under his breath.
"What was that, Doc?" one of the other doctors replied.
Ayumu was immediately snapped out of his ruminations.
"It's nothing," he insisted. "Now get me that dermal regenerator; we're going to patch the Symbiont up before we begin the process of reattaching it to the host..."
The doctor stared at him curiously, but nonetheless reached over and handed the dermal regenerator over to Ayumu.
"How are Miss Yaotome's vitals looking?" he asked as he began to run the device over the wound.
"Weak, but stable," another doctor reported.
"Keep monitoring her," Ayumu instructed. "If she begins to show any signs of distress, I'm going to put the Symbiont back in."
A few moments of silence passed as Ayumu continued to run the dermal regenerator back and forth over the wound. Once he was content that the wound was sufficiently healed, he next turned his attention to the tendrils.
"Gonna need another pair of forceps," he requested. "Looks as if a few of the tendrils have retreated into the oral cavity and I'm gonna need to pull them back out."
"Aye, Sir," one of the Doctors nodded as he handed Ayumu another packet of forceps.
Entering the isolation ward, with it's surgical suites they could look through the decon chamber into the suite contain both Yaotome and Tanaka. Pressing the commpanel next to the window, "What's the word Doctor?"
Ayumu glanced up at the monitor again, then over at Daegan. "Patient vitals signs are still weak, but beginning to stabilize," he reported. "Lieutenant Yaotome's Symbiotic Cavity has been cleared of foreign objects, and I just patched up a grazing wound on the Symbiont; all that's left is to reconnect the tendrils, close Lieutenant Yaotome up, and let the blood transfusion do its thing."
A bit of good news at last. "Excellent work Doc. When your done in there I will fill you in on what else has happened. But give what happened I don't think we have to worry about contamination with you or the others. But I'll still leave that call to you."
Jerome gave a sigh of relief. It was nice to know that the Lieutenant was now on the road to recovery. "Its good to hear some good news. To be honest, with how easily this has spread. I was seriously concerned."
"Better safe than sorry, Captain," Ayumu insisted as he reached into the Symbiont's oral cavity with the forceps and began to delicately pluck the tendrils out. "At the very least, I would like to have Lieutenant Yaotome- and myself- placed under 24 hours' supervision in the event that new or worsening symptoms begin to develop."
There was no need to debate the issue so he would follow the Doctor's recommendation and error on the side of caution as well. "Very well 24 hours. I'll have security post a watch just in case."
Turning to Jerome. "Speaking of security, that should probably be our next stop. Not only did they lose their friends but their department head."
Placing in his face in his hands, briefly taking in the fact once again that they lost their people in what was not a quick death. "Yes, better to handle that now."
As the pair moved to the leave Daegan saw O'Riley and gave him a nod. "She's over in the PCU."
"Thank you Captain, you must have read my mind" Liam replied as he continued to the PCU. Walking over to Stevie's bed he smiled "Hey you" he said in a soft voice so happy to see her in one piece.
Looking up "Liam!" she stated then sat up and gave him a big hug not really caring who was watching "I'm so glad you're ok, I was scared to death not knowing how you were."
"I'm fine but how are you doing" he inquired with a smile.
"A lot better now" as Stevie returned his smile.
Lambert lifted his head, eyes narrowing as Liam left the area where they were at. He hated that guy, and if looks could kill, O'Riley would be dead many times over.
Niami caught the strong emotions from Lambert, her lips narrowed, a furrow in her brow formed. She has a lot of work cut out for her.
TAG ??? Any more?
Captain Daegan Baas
CO
Commander Jerome Hunt
Executive Officer
Ltjg. V'Laros
Acting Chief Science Officer -NPC
P.O. Sizia Sh'velihr
Yeoman / Science Trainee - NPC
Aseek Tarnala
Sole Surviving Pricari - NPC
Lieutenant Liam O'Riley
CEO
Lieutenant JG Stevie Thomas [O'Riley]
Computer Systems Specialist
Lieutenant Ayumu Tanaka
Chief Medical Officer
Lieutenant Niami Troga
Chief Counselor
Ensign Lambert
Security
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