The Bell Toll For Saa

Posted on Thu Aug 12th, 2021 @ 9:32am by Leiddem Kea (*) & Dixoho Saa (*) & Isaac Nicoli Dr. & Micheal Robertson & Beya & Laurier Cami & Oliver Lucas

Mission: Mission 13: Stowaway
Location: Deck 7 - Sickabay
Timeline: MD10 12:00
2480 words - 5 OF Standard Post Measure

Dixoho leant against the bulkhead outside the destroyed door to medical and tried to take in deep breaths. The bad guys were gone there was no need to be worrying but her heart was going ten to the dozen and she felt like she could not catch her breath. She did not hurt at all despite the coughs racking her body earlier thanks to the hypospray of palliative care medicine that she had been given. She could not focus at all and it was unnerving. She knew she needed to get inside sickbay but did not have the energy to move.

“So this is where I am going to die.” She half snorted, half-whispered to herself before feeling a hand on her shoulder. She glanced up and saw Leiddem stood there looking concerned as he had heard her words.

“Come on. We will go inside together.” He offered taking in how pale she looked. Dixoho looked at him relieved, he was like an angel coming to her rescue at the right time again. She nodded, having no energy to try and argue or throw a snide comment at him. The pair walked inside hoping that they would be able to fix what was going wrong in Dixoho’s already failing body.

“I found someone outside… struggling,” Leiddem announced, hoping the new doctor was aware of Dixoho and the facts around her.

Beya rushed over and ran a scanner over Dixoho. "Your blood oxygen is under 82%," she said, alarmed and reached for a hypo. "I'm giving you a dose of triox to get O2 into your blood before there's organ damage, but that's only a stopgap." Looking at Leiddam she pointed to the nearest bed. "Get her lying down. I'll get a mask and oxygen. Oliver, find the doctor."

Leiddem easily moved and stopped to pick the woman up marvelling that he got no protest as he lay her down. "You are going to be okay," The man said taking a step back to allow his better-trained colleagues to get to her.

Hurrying back, Beya put a mask on Dixoho and turned on the oxygen. "Breath in as best you can," she said, squeezing her arm gently. "Don't worry. We're going to find a way to get you through this."

Issac was gathering as much of the supplies he had brought with him for the coming surge of injured. The door of the storeroom was open so he heard the exchange. He turned and looked the two officers over. He spotted a young redhead who he knew, well he knew her by her medical record but had yet to have the pleasure of meeting the young navigator.

"Miss Saa," he said joining the small crowd around the biobed. "I assume you have lightheaded and feeling faint?" he pulled the tricorder from his hip and made an indication with it, silent requesting permission to conduct a scan of her. He put on his best smile and bedside manner.

The redhead nodded sleepily as she felt her eyes close under the mask that was trying to help her. "Just rest," Leiddem called overlooking over all the scans and monitors grimly. He hated how the woman was fading far too quickly, she was one of the pillars of the ship. It had always been, him, her and Gregnol since the beginning.

"Consistent with what we expected, Doctor," Oliver explained, passing Isaac a PADD he had been dreading having to use. "Maybe a little sooner than projected, but it does seem to be the final stages," he said softly, trying to ease the blow for Dixoho. "Should we be calling in next of kin?"

Issac read the scans, If he had had more time he might have been able to save the poor girl. However, she had suffered for most of her life and the best he could do was to make sure she didn't suffer in pain until the end came. Glancing over at Oliver and nodded. Issac pulled a hyper from his lab coat pocket and entered a few commands. Then to Saa, he said "This is a mix that should help you breath better" "for a while" he added in his head. She wouldn't last much longer.

Oliver nodded once at the instruction, going to the comm unit and quietly paging Cami to come to the infirmary.

Issac had left the main medical bay and retreated to his office. He didn't want to intrude but neither was he ready to give up. There was still time to solve this! He was going through the ship's database, surprisingly complete, and with a lot of information going back to the ships time in the fleet. He came across a crew report that spoke of a statis tube.

"Micheal" Called Issac, going to the door, "Could you come in here for a moment?"

"Oh-" Oliver piped up a little. "I'm sorry Doctor, but he isn't her listed next of kin. She asked specifically for Cami Laurier, from the engineering crew. I hope that...doesn't make things awkward?"

"No it's fine, but I have an idea." he twisted the screen on his computer "Do you know anything about this?" he indicated the stasis tube mentioned in the log "It is still on board?"

"I...don't think I remember being part of the crew looking at that thing," Oliver replied. "Beya was the one who was on call. I can give her a shout?"

Hearing her name, Beya came over. "Yeah, I saw that stasis box. It was broken though, and I think the engineers were going to make it into a bomb or something..."

He nodded "We have about 12 hours before young Miss Saa's condition becomes fatal. Can we turn it back into a stasis tube?"

"They did make it a bomb and then unbombed it." Leiddem piped up quickly connecting the dots of the conversation that he had butted into. "I am sure Burnie can make it whatever the hell we need but we need her next of kin to agree to it. Dix's is out of it." There was no way the woman would come out of her slumber enough to give permission or agree.

Isaac nodded. The sooner he could get her into Stasis the better the chance he could help her when he was ready.

Micheal was busy working on their runabout. He was determined to get it finished before Di...no...he wouldn't think about that! She would live...she had to!!

Suddenly, Isaac's voice came over the intercom. Hearing the man's tone, Micheal's heart stopped. She...she couldn't be!! Without replying, he burst out of the runabout and sprinted to sickbay, nearly bowling over a few crewmembers as he did so.

Finally, he reached the closed door to the one-room he was dreading to enter. He stopped and as he was catching his breath, Cami approached. She had the same look in her eyes that he did. He gave her a look of silent pleading, praying to who-, or whatever was upstairs, to make things right.

Cami wasn't sure exactly what to say. She hadn't really prepared for this - at least not in a thought out and considered way. Her heart was breaking, not only for the woman in the next room but for all of her friends too. "She..." A tear almost emerged from her eye. She forced it back down. "I'm sorry. She's not got much longer."

Micheal said nothing, at first. Then, with a look of regret in his eyes, he started to shake his head. "N-no..." he whispered. "She....no...!" He suddenly looked away, trying desperately to keep his emotions in check. He inhaled a ragged breath, and slowly let it out. Then, feeling as stable as he could be, he turned back. "Can...can I be with her?"

Issac approached the pair, "Yes you can, but before you do I would like to get your permission to place Miss Saa into a stasis tube. It is a short term measure but it might give me enough time to find a treatment. I must stress that a viable treatment might not be available in time." lowering his voice he continued "And one will not be in time to save her if she doesn't go into stasis." He shouldn't have added that last part, emotional blackmail wasn't something that any doctor should use.

Micheal was severely conflicted. On one hand, he wanted to scream yes! But, on the other, he knew that Di didn't want to go onto stasis. She had told him as much when he brought up the transporter storage idea.

However, his rational mind answered, keeping his heart locked up. "Who...who is listed as her next of kin. Only he or she can legally, and ethically, make that call, Doc."

Issac frowned, "I had assumed it was you both" he didn't understand what was happening, he must have been mistaken.

Micheal shook his head. "She never told me, if I was. Check her file. Don't get me wrong, I want to be on that list, more than you know. However, I love her enough, to respect her wishes, if I'm not." His eyes filled with tears as he spoke about her. Swallowing hard, he repeated himself. "Please double-check her file."

Leiddem stood in the doorway to the office looking at Oliver. The man was the one who knew and would keep them legally right despite how much any of them could insist that they wanted to do the right thing. “Tell them.” He hissed allowing the man to step through.

"Dixoho specifically requested Cami Laurier at her last appointment," Oliver explained, the awkwardness of it all creeping into his voice as he nervously glanced between them.

The young Bajoran woman wrung her hands together, uncharacteristically struggling to express herself. Her normally bubbly and flighty aura had been replaced by something akin to guilt.

"We...can put her in stasis?" she wondered. Having worked on the pod herself, she knew it worked. For the moment, at least. Thanks to the modifications she'd installed with Burnie, they were sure it would last a few months at the very minimum. So it could work. But...would that be what Dixoho would have wanted? Surely she would have wanted a peaceful passing? "Prophets...what do we do?"

Micheal was crestfallen. Hearing that Di had chosen someone else as next of kin hurt. However, he knew that, after his disappearance, he had no right to expect anything. feeling torn. "She...she told me that..." he struggled to say, his voice a hoarse whisper. "She told me that she did not want to go into stasis." Tears started to flow freely down his cheeks. "I had brought up the transporter storage, and she said she did not wNt to live like that." As he spoke her words to him, his heart was shattering. He wanted her to live! However, to do something against her wishes, even out of love for her, would be selfish on his part. He loved her too mu h to be selfish.

”Stasis and what happened to Cassie, Eden and the others are two completely different things.” Leiddem snapped. He knew Cassie sometimes suffered trauma from remembering the time in the transporter when they kept filtering through the buffers.

Hearing Leiddem's sudden tone, Micheal growled menacingly. "Careful who you snap at, Boy." His thick Texas accent coming over more, due to his growing anger. "Di told me, herself, that she DID NOT WANT stasis!'

Leiddem opened his mouth but just rolled his eyes and went back to where he had been by Dixoho. Everything kept turning into a fight with the man and it was not worth it anymore. Cami would make the choice and do the right thing he was sure of that.

Beya frowned listening to the exchange. Why did humans make everything so complicated? "Would she want everyone she loved to be left in pain from a preventable loss?" she asked, a bit pointedly though she tried to temper her tone to be gentle. "People in stasis have no conscious awareness of being in it, so at worst putting her in now gives us some time to debate this instead of making a snap emotional decision. Worst case: we can't find a cure and let her go, and she never knows she was even in stasis. Best case: we find a cure and you have to apologize for saving her life." She widened her eyes at them. "Even if for some ridiculous reason she's angry about that, which would you prefer, her dead or her angry with you?"

Michael looked at Beya, his anger softening some. In a calmer voice, he replied. "We could all do what we wanted and hope for the best in the end, Beya. However, ethically, if she didn't put down how she wanted things to go then, again, ethically, the only person who can make the decision is her listed next of kin. Which, is Cami. So, before we ask her, did Di make any medical requests, does she have a DNR?"

Issac held a hand up. "Please. Micheal, you are not her next of kin and in this case that is a good thing. Cami is the only one who can decide. My advice my dear would be to allow me to do my job. I only need to work out how to use what we have to treat her. The treatment is the easy part. However." he stopped talking and frowned at himself. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly he continued "We don't have time for debate. She is worsening by the minute."

Micheal was about to respond to what Issac just said, but decided to keep quiet. He could see that Cami was upset as well, he wished he could take the burden from her shoulders.

Seeing everyone else arguing with one another made Cami want to weep. It wasn't what Dixoho would want them to do. Then again, laying in stasis wouldn't have been either. She looked between Isaac and Micheal, utterly torn.

"I...I'm not a doctor..." she said hoarsely. "If there's a treatment - if there's a chance she could be saved, then we should save her, right?" If only this was an engineering problem. Something she could take apart and repair. That was easy. This was all too confusing for her. "I want to save her, not watch her die."

Issac nodded. He reached out a hand and brushed her shoulder. "You are welcome to stay, but we are going to be busy right now. If you would rather I will call you when she is safely in stasis." He glanced around at the others. "As for everyone not employed to work in this room, you are crowding me. Please leave"