JL Cin Sha'mer & Indi Hawk | "Eve of Destruction" (Part 2)

Posted on 241708.27 @ 9:29am by Rear Admiral Indi Hawk

Mission: Non-Plot Log

"Who do we have here?"

"Rear Admiral Hawk. Somebody called in a medical emergency through her combadge."

"Who did?"

"We don't know, the call wasn't logged."

"What happened?"
"Unclear. All we know is that she was beamed up from one of the parks on the Starfleet campus. She was right next to a tree that had been struck by lightning hours before. As far as we know, she wasn't near that tree, so the two events aren't related."

"How is she doing?"

"We're not too sure. There was trauma to her head and brain. We managed to stop the brain bleed, that was a minor issue. As far as we can tell, there was no reason for her to drop unconscious like this. We suspect telepath involvement, but we can't ask her until she wakes up. *If* she wakes up."

"If?"

"For all our Medical knowledge, she should be up and about again. There's no physical reason for her to not be up and about, and yet she won't regain consciousness. It's mistery we're unable to solve for now."

"OK. Thank you."

--

With a sigh, the hospital administrator sagged down behind his desk ten minutes later. His chief doctor had just informed him that the head of Quadrant Security was laying unconscious in his hospital, and that they weren't sure what was wrong. Just great.

With regret and some trepidation, he wrote two messages. One to SF HQ. Very brief and to the point, informing them one of their officers had been injured and now resided here.

For the other one, he looked up who was listed as her next of kin. Great. Another Admiral. He called up a new message, and started typing.

Admiral Sha'mer, It is my duty to inform you to your wife, Admiral Indira Hawk, has been injured and is now a patient in this hospital. Her condition is quite serious. If you could come in at your earliest convenience, I will go over what we know with you. You can find me in my officer. Her room number is 503. -Hospital Admin

With a sigh, he reread the message once, and then hit the send button.

It was the insistent beeping of an incoming call which roused Sha'mer from… what? Sleep? Unconsciousness? No, something else, something between those states, akin to them, but neither. She lifted her head, surprised to find herself in another anonymous room, maybe the same one in which she woke up (a few days ago? Time…) maybe another one. No longer in the park, no longer near that poor destroyed tree, no longer next to the spot where Indi had lain.

How had she gotten here? Feeling the aches all over her body, Sha'mer sure hadn't walked. Some other way, then? Probably. Likely. Beyond any awareness or memory. Black hole stuff.

The beeping continued, on and on and on-

Sha'mer tried to roll over to hit the button. Managed after a few tries. Her whole chest and shoulder region throbbed. What the hell? She carefully moved both shoulders, alert for any movement which didn't belong there, or sudden pains. No broken bones, she concluded after her slow evaluations. Well, thank the stars for small blessings.

She finally could reach the button and did so. A small screen came to life: text message only. Another small blessing. Life was just full of 'em today.

Sha'mer read the message. Read it again. Blinked, slowly, as some memories began to resurface. She sat up (which took another few tries) and ran a hand through her short hair. Then, sighing, wincing, she touched the old comconsole and opened a channel to the hospital. "Sha'mer to hospital administrator. I understood you were trying to reach me."

The incoming call startled him out of his reveries. He'd just sent a few more messages to family. Read a few more personnel reports. Tried to clear a desk that would never be empty. At the incoming call, voice only, he eyed his console wearily. As soon as he heard the identification, he considered not picking up at all. Admirals were strange creatures. Even more so when their family was involved. In the end though, he remembered the professional being he was supposed to be and hit the acknowledge button.

"This is him. Admiral, I'm sorry to have bothered you. I take it you have read my message?"

"I have." Sha'mer looked at the weary-looking man on the other end of her viewscreen. "Unfortunately, I am rather tied up at the moment and am unable to come to the hospital myself. Is there anyone who can tell me more about my wife's condition?"

As the viewscreen came alive after Sha'mers acknowledgement, he did a double take as he saw how bad the woman looked. This appeared to be quite the Admirals' family. He resisted from asking if she was doing alright, instead scrolled through a list on his other screen. "Doctor Danya Jennor is still on call. I'll transfer you to her immediately," he spoke and with a nod faded the screen. Damn, he was glad he could pull out of this conversation so quickly. Relaying the call to the involved doctor, he went back to work.

Getting through patient charts, Jennor was glad for the incoming call. She hated paperwork and it was a welcome distraction. Until she saw who the call was from. Of course. Her shift was almost over, and now she would have to explain why a woman wasn't waking up hours after she should have been dismissed. "Admiral Sha'mer, I'm glad you could get in touch," she started with more bravado then she was feeling.

"Doctor Danya," Sha'mer said, with a slight nod at the Bajoran doctor. "Unfortunately, not in person at the moment, as I already explained to your administrator." She had noticed the man's slight frown at her call, but had no idea if that was because he had expected her to drop everything and rush for the hospital or for some other reason. "What can you tell me?"

"Not a lot, I'm afraid," Danya sighed carefully. There was something to be said about breaking news such as this over a comm line. It made things more distant, less personal. On the other hand, it could make things a lot more painful for the people at the receiving end. They were less understanding. Less room for empathy. "Admiral Hawk was brought in almost eight hours ago. She had suffered neurological trauma which caused a brain bleed. I must warn you that it's one of the worst bleeds I've seen in my career. We managed to stabilize her though. The bleeding has stopped and she's not resting," she spoke, unsure whether or not to push on. Then again, she had little choice. "Unfortunately, she should have waken up within the hour after the completion of the procedure. She hasn't. Which suggests..." now, she did trail off.

Eight hours. That gave her a time frame at least. Sha'mer raised an eyebrow. "Which suggests what, doctor?" Her dislike of doctors had not changed over the past years, she noted with little surprise. She was not in the mood this time, though, to hold any of that in. "I prefer you tell things to me straight. Cut the dramatic pauses. This is not acting school."

Danya decided she didn't like the woman. It wasn't up to her to like her though. It was up to her to tell what she knew. No more. No less. "I understand your question, ma'am," she spoke softly, carefully, but with purpose. "Unfortunately, it doesn't suggest anything yet. We can't see any damage and yet she's not awake. The brain is a strange thing, we still don't understand it. She should be up and about, and yet she isn't. It's as if it shut down, but there wasn't a reason for it. The brain bleed was serious, yes, but it shouldn't have caused a comatose state. Right now, I can't tell you when or even if she'll wake up."

So, first it suggested… something, then not anything yet. Maybe the woman was a capable doctor, she probably was, but her communications skills were sorely lacking. Then again, Sha'mer thought wryly, so were her own.

"Get a doctor specialised in telepathy," Sha'mer told her curtly. "A telepath, Betazoid, Ullian, whatever. They will be able to tell you if she is there or not. If there is any damage which the tests can't reveal, they can tell you about it. Maybe even help." They would have to. Sha'mer sure as hell wouldn't be able to do anything. Except for more harm.

"Of co-" Danya started, reconsidered and took a deep breath. The sooner she could end this conversation, the better. "Doctor Alyn has been informed that she needs to see the Admiral as soon as her shift starts," she carefully replied. Her colleague was probably about entering the building as she spoke, but she wasn't about to tell that.

Sha'mer closed her eyes and sighed. She was weary to the bone. "Please ask her to contact me as soon as she has more information," she said, opening her eyes again. "I'll be here for awhile."

--

To be continued

--

assorted characters by Cin Sha'mer & Indi Hawk