The problem with crises, Christine decided, was that she couldn't do everything herself. Instead, she had to waste time making sure things were getting done the way they had to be done. Of course, there were still moments like this one where she was expected to do a little bit of everything. She spotted the Engineering ensign on the ladder just as one of her nurses handed her a PADD. "From the science department," was the official explanation.
Starting to look over the file, she approached the ensign at a crouch, greeting him by name and immediately classifying him as another one temporarily out for the count. Really, if this was caused by human error, that human was going to get an earful.
While the ensign reeled off his complaints -- they all fit -- she scanned the PADD document. Reports on the ship-wide contamination possibilities. They seemed far-fetched, considering how fast she thought the system worked and how fast everyone had responded. But then again, math had never been her strongest suit.
That was just the beginning of things getting hokey. A quick scan of the ensign revealed nothing. Stress, but nothing else. Not saying anything to him about it, instead she set him back to Sickbay with the last two members of her decon team as she moved to the nearest computer panel to do a little independent research.
And then she went from a little confused to more than a little suspicious. Moving to a com, now, she hoped whoever was closest to the general stationary communicator was someone she was fond of. "Chapel to Sickbay. I'll take whoever's got a moment."
It so happened that Nurse Connors was closest to the general stationary comm. Although she was a bit frazzled by the controlled chaos of Sickbay, she took a moment from raiding a supply cupboard to answer Christine's hail.
"Sickbay here, this is Connors. What do you need, Christine?"
"Oh, Louisa, glad it's you." Christine took a deep breath. If any of her nurses were going to notice reading discrepancies, it was her. "Tell me, have you been noticing anything weird when you lot scan patients up there?"
"Anything...?" she trailed off as a thought came to her. "Now that you mention it, I think you're right. It's been in the back of my head the whole time how quickly these patients recover to non-critical status. They come in with serious reports, and by the time I get back to them... they're out-patients. Is there something more going on here, Christine?"
Christine took a deep breath. "I'm not entirely sure yet, so keep this relatively quiet, alright? There are a lot if things not fitting down here. I'm no Engineer, but there's incongruent facts coming from the Bridge and the Enterprise's own monitoring system." She paused to look back to where the ensign had been. If something was going on here, she'd need evidence and support. "Lienze should be showing up soon with a young man from Engineering. Take samples to do an oxygen analysis. I'll be up shortly to do the test I need myself."
"Of course," Louisa quickly agreed. Christine was a competent, intuitive nurse, so she was honored to have the other woman taking her into confidence. "I'll get right on that. If I can get access to a biobed for a few seconds, I'll also do a download on the last set of vitals. A random sampling will help us establish a baseline for possible irregularities. Anything else?
"Always knew why I liked you," Christine said, meaning it. If Lousia said she would do something, it would get done. "Thanks, and if do your best to keep Doctor McCoy sticking around Sickbay. He's going to need to hear about this, regardless of what we can conclude."
"You've been an excellent role model." Louisa paused, hearing a raised voice that wasn't either Dr. McCoy's or Dr. Tyler's. If it wasn't one of those two boys, then it was certainly a problem. "I think that'll be easy enough. I better sign off and get those vitals while there's a distraction. Get here quickly, Chris. Connors out."
Louisa grabbed what she needed and rushed it back over to her doctor. Very soon, everyone was engrossed in what was going on. She wasn't immune to the morbid fascination, but not without getting those vitals first.
In Louisa's pause, there was shoutiness of the sort that wasn't familiar to Sickbay, which meant it wasn't one of hers. It did sound familiar, though. Which meant trouble if it was who she was thinking of.
Dropping the communication without a formal goodbye on her end, Christine brusquely did a tour of her assigned section of Engineering. Aside from the teams working to get the place safe and functional again, the area was clear. "Lieutenant," she said, getting the attention of a passing Engineer. "I'm going back to work in Sickbay. Page up if you have any reason to believe anything's gotten worse, alright?"
"Yes, ma'am," came the curt response. The two, both clad in biohazard suits, exchanged nods before Christine turned on her heel and left.
She was on her way to Sickbay and she full intended to figure out just what was going on here.
Starting to look over the file, she approached the ensign at a crouch, greeting him by name and immediately classifying him as another one temporarily out for the count. Really, if this was caused by human error, that human was going to get an earful.
While the ensign reeled off his complaints -- they all fit -- she scanned the PADD document. Reports on the ship-wide contamination possibilities. They seemed far-fetched, considering how fast she thought the system worked and how fast everyone had responded. But then again, math had never been her strongest suit.
That was just the beginning of things getting hokey. A quick scan of the ensign revealed nothing. Stress, but nothing else. Not saying anything to him about it, instead she set him back to Sickbay with the last two members of her decon team as she moved to the nearest computer panel to do a little independent research.
And then she went from a little confused to more than a little suspicious. Moving to a com, now, she hoped whoever was closest to the general stationary communicator was someone she was fond of. "Chapel to Sickbay. I'll take whoever's got a moment."
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"Sickbay here, this is Connors. What do you need, Christine?"
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Louisa grabbed what she needed and rushed it back over to her doctor. Very soon, everyone was engrossed in what was going on. She wasn't immune to the morbid fascination, but not without getting those vitals first.
Reply
Dropping the communication without a formal goodbye on her end, Christine brusquely did a tour of her assigned section of Engineering. Aside from the teams working to get the place safe and functional again, the area was clear. "Lieutenant," she said, getting the attention of a passing Engineer. "I'm going back to work in Sickbay. Page up if you have any reason to believe anything's gotten worse, alright?"
"Yes, ma'am," came the curt response. The two, both clad in biohazard suits, exchanged nods before Christine turned on her heel and left.
She was on her way to Sickbay and she full intended to figure out just what was going on here.
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