Posted by Lieutenant Commander Theodore Knox (Chief Medical Officer) in Surgery Time

Posted by Lieutenant Casela Synthi-er (Counsellor / RTF) in Surgery Time

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Theodore Knox (Chief Medical Officer) in Surgery Time

(snip)

Daddy? Her father used to say something similar to her when he put her to bed every night as a child. But her father was far away, dying probably, maybe dead. She missed him, and her mother. Was her mother all alone now? Who helped her? Who would take care of her? She had an odd stabbing of intense sadness. She wanted her father, right then, in that moment. Not just his memory, no a dream, she was dreaming. A nice deep breath to push the sadness away. Another deep breath, the gas moving through her system, she was out, far away floating, no idea what was going on around her.
Lt Synthi-er, CNS

Theo watched his patient as she succumbed to the gas and drifted into unconsciousness. He looked around the room. NE Starling was assisting, NE Nurse Mildred and NE Goodguy were also present.

“Good morning, .” He began. “The patient is a 34 year old Betazoid female.” They knew her of course, but as the counsellor not at their patient. It was important for a level of detachment to form…just in case. “The patient underwent an experimental surgery to replace damaged ribs. This has had some unforeseen consequences and we are here to correct that today. This will be a replacement procedure with mid-line entry and excision of the early model unit. Genetically compatible biosynthetic replacements are ready at stations two and three for replacement. I anticipate no complications, as the patient has had positive primary results and exhibits extraordinary physical condition. “ he smiled around at each of the present staff. “ Activate Sterile Field and note the patients vitals and surgical start time.” As this came on and the readings were double checked Theodore watched the Hyper-encephalogram readings.

Interesting.. he purred internally.

Theo considered the thought process to its logical conclusion. certainly, but no way to explore that just this moment. Too many eyes and too far for the surgical site. It would be difficult to account from moving from chest to brain I without due cause. It was true and he did not wish to raise any sorts of suspicion especially with a beloved crew member and him so new. This was a conundrum. Someone kindly put his music on and the sounds of Clair de lune filled the surgical suite.

He smiled and flexed his fingers “Shall we then.” He said with a smirk. Holding a gloved hand out to the assistant at his side. “If you please, Tissue mitigator.” He got to work. Carefully, meticulously moving from one instrument to the next.

It was some twenty minutes later before Theo was carefully removing part of the metal ribs when his internal counterpart had a solution.

A slight chemical imbalance as the surgical site is closed however would give plenty of opportunity for further investigation.

He considered as the rib went off with NE Goodguy and he moved to the next one. chemically induced would require a hypo switch or an alteration to a dosage. he cautioned his internal self.

not if an accidental tissue repair was left undone. The medication would be justified and then the defect corrected.

Theo pondered this as another rib went and his assistant replaced some damaged cell membranes. purposely? Certainly not. I detest shoddy workmanship, shame on you. he found himself frowning.

Some more minutes passed and he was now repairing the last of the site for the new ribs to be placed. His gaze found the readings he had been fixated on at the beginning wondering what had caught his attention, they were slowly climbing. Too slow to be of any note to anyone who wasn’t watching it and who would be. It wasn’t standard more a precautionary reading some more cautious surgeons activated because of the species of their patient.

Hmm we may not need to act at all. It appears the good counsellor is doing this work for us. Perhaps from duress… Theodore thought Perhaps that device Mister Hampton used which caused her injuries has irritated whatever the readings we picked up on we’re. It would suggest an injury of some kind. What a happy coincidence.

Her mind was drifting hearing things, working them into dreams. Thoughts of the medical staff mixed with old nightmares. No not nightmares it was real! Out in the main bay a Vulcan nurse stumbled as the words hit like a wrecking ball and then righted himself. She listened, what were they doing? Another breathe, the gas moving deeply through her system and she dreamed, maybe?

He moved to begin placement of the first rib. if we slow down just a little the alarm will sound for us.

He turned to NE Goodguy. “ Ensign, if you wouldn’t mind changing this osteoregenerator for another the beam seems slightly weaker than I would like. Ensign Starling, recalibrate the surgical support frame and increase scanning sensitivity by 6%. Nurse, enter the patient’s vitals at this point in the log and Mark the surgery half way to completion. Please also note that a minor mechanical fault in an instrument will add thirty minutes into the surgical time.” He smiled and offered the device up and as the man moved to the other side of the suite and the other two acted. As they did he picked up another hypo fiddled with its dosage and administered it silently before returning the device. NE Starling looked questioningly at him “Please also note 5ccs of triox administered during the recalibration, let’s support the lung function a little more.” He smiled and Starling returned it looking utterly at ease with his explanation. “We can never be too careful.” He chuckled mildly and then returned to work as it the interruption had not taken place.

let’s just help it on it’s way shall we. Theodore thought. After all it would be a pity to miss this opportunity and besides…we can never be too careful.

Dr Knox

In reality there was no pain, but she could feel pressure and movement, the ghost of a touch as Knox dug around inside her abdominal cavity. No…No it’s just a cut, it won’t hurt long, breathe. She waited, she listened, they would be back. Mad Man and his doctor always came back. Her breath became ragged, her heart rate went up, blood pressure, and adrenaline spikes. There! She lashed out, instinct, memory and dreams colliding. Juliet! They couldn’t have her too. Where did they take her?
She had to find her. The psilosynine in her paracortex spiked, alarms started going off, and one of the nurses stumbled, grabbing her head as if in pain. She let go, no she was on Leviathan, it was okay. Ryder? The pain in her head…GET OUT OF MY HEAD! STOP! Long burried memories, and nothing but intense pain, and the monitors began to alarm wildly.
Lt Synthi-er, CNS

As the alarms went off Theodore considered. Well that went quicker than either of us anticipated. Interesting. he carefully put down the tool he was using to complete the rib repair and turned to look at the monitors.

What went faster? What are you doing?!

“She’s spiking on all readouts Doctor.” NE Goodguy said loudly.

Theodore raised his eyebrows. “Yes, I can see that Ensign.” He responded cooly. He picked up a neural scanner and did a pass over the counsellors head. “Her levels are too high. Hypo compound 12 please, NE Starling, if you could finish the micro regeneration over the ribs I will endeavour to correct the issue.”

The fog was beginning to clear, and there was pain, so much pain. Medically there should not be. There was enough gas and sedative in her system to keep a normal person asleep for a week. But the survival instinct made people be able to do the unthinkable, the near impossible, and Casela had a stronger survival instinct than the average person. And pain, well pain could be a very motivating force. Unfortunately for NE Starling he suddenly had the very real knowledge that if he injected that hypo into the counselor he would kill her, and he was a doctor, he was not going to kill his patient. He dropped the hypo backing away quickly. And a short moment later he was shaking his head, as if confused wondering what was wrong with himself. He returned picked up the hypo and stared at it before administering it.

As NE Goodguy and the nurse hurried to stabilise the counsellors vitals Theodore brought up the display of her brain on the tricorder he felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. With that much damage he had no choice but to go tinker…repair the damage manually of course.

She listened…waiting…coiled....The Doctor had made a mistake, he forgot the psilosynine blockers, again. That’s how she got away the last time…no…wait…Leviathan, The Doctor was dead, this was someone else, she safe on Leviathan. She floated away from the pain. Ribs, her ribs were being fixed. She remembered now, vaguely. She could feel them mucking around deep inside her. There was no pain but the feeling of body parts that were eternally protected from touch being moved and man handled created a very intense and horrifying type of motion sickness. The knowledge of the doctors, hands deep into her abdominal cavity made her physically sick. Her hands twitched futilely at her sides in a desire to hold her stomach before she lost her breakfast she hadn’t eaten.

“Nurse, prepare the neurological surgical support frame. I’m going to try to correct this immediately.”

Dr Knox

Neurological? NO! Her mind uncoiled terrifyingly fast and latched onto Knox. You won’t do it again! Again? What had The Doctor done that was being repeated? She didn’t remember. Not again! She’d die in the effort but he’d go with her!

No The Doctor was dead. She was in sickbay, her ribs…

NOT AGAIN! and she had a hold of him, long suppressed memories mistaking Knox for The Doctor. She didn’t know his name nor had ever seen him until she woke up in his lab. But she froze as she made contact. This wasn’t The Doctor, but it wasn’t Knox…or it was, but there were TWO of him. He was trying to confuse her. She had a vague memory of tests…psychic tests and pain and…and…the memories would come and there was intense pain in the effort to recall them. But the fact that there were two Knox’s inside the one mind confused her in an already confused state. What are you doing to me?!
Lt Synthi-er, CNS