Day 01 [2330 hrs.] A Lost Voice
Day 01 [2330 hrs.] A Lost Voice
Medical Log. Supplemental. After the Captain gathered the new crew, it has become apparent that the repairs of the Theurgy is our top priority. Indeed, the Commanding Officer asked me - through Commander Trent - to rearrange the cue for those awaiting medical attention in our stasis units, and this, in regard to a specific crew member. I will be submitting my formal protest to have been ordered to preform this surgery, since it went against my recommendation. Yet again - with the Phoenix Project in mind - Ives has not respected medical ethics, only having the mission in mind.
When the Theurgy first encountered the Calamity, its A.I. beamed aboard the ship and killed half the bridge crew. One of them threw herself in the way between the armed hologram and Captain Ives. She took several narrow phaser beams to the centre of her chest, through her heart, and it was only her spine that kept one beam from continuing through her and hitting the Captain. When the fighting was over, she was beamed to Sickbay, where she was put in stasis in order to preserve her life. It wasn't until lately that we acquired medical supplies at the Black Opal depot, and among them, a replacement heart for her. As for new vertebrae, we were only able to obtain individual units, and not an entire new artificial spine, which would have been required in order to ensure recovery without any complications.
Now, with the Captain's orders - and against my better knowledge of the patient's needs - I have attempted to repair the damage to the patient's spine with the individual vertebrae that we had available. The replacement of the patient's heart was successful, however, but given the time it took before she was put into stasis on the day she was shot, I worry about the temporal loss of oxygen to her brain. Scans are a bit inconclusive, but the prognosis is - at least - acceptable.
So, here I am, in the dead of night, after having finished the surgery of Nicole Howard.
After this long... long day, I will finally retire. My staff is tired, both Battle Sickbays are full, and more crew with minor injuries will be lining the corridors on the morrow. It certainly doesn't help that Doctor D... Doctor Rez has yet to awake, but I will take solace in the fact that the surgery of this patient might be successful. She might even come to before I head back to my quarters, and I will be able to verify the outcome of the surgery.
- Doctor Lucan cin Nicander, Chief Medical Officer, USS Theurgy
[ Dr. Nicander | Main Sickbay | Surgical Suite 01 | Deck 11 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Absinthe
Having finished his log, Lucan sat on a chair next to the biobed.
Lucan hadn't showered after the surgical team left, and his chin showed an evening shade. He ran a tattooed hand over the stubble, thinking that while his hair was always unkempt - as if touched by a storm - he imagined his pale grey eyes where a shade of red around his irises. The surgical scrubs he'd worn had been discarded, and the lab coat he wore was rumpled and showed signs of two long shifts. He had taken meds to last the entirety of the day, even after having used his powers in the Temporal Observatory Lab. Something not advisable to do unless knowing exactly what you were doing, but if he hadn't, Rez, Varder and Howard wouldn't have been treated.
But as he sat there, he wanted to see this achievement. He supposed he wanted redemption, ultimately, even if the relatively small feat of restoring the human engineer to health in no way could begin to compare to the things he'd done. The things it made him do before he regained his sanity. He wanted to apologise - aloud - to someone, but he couldn't tell anyone what he'd been. What he still was... below the surface. All he could do was to try and prove to himself that he had done something good too. Something to - by any minor degree - mitigate his atrocities.
After he raised his hand to his eyes, to pinch the bridge of his nose in weariness, he found his fingers wet when he looked at them. He frowned at his tears, hardly remembering the last time he'd seen them.
The patient moved, and Lucan raised his lined eyes to the old acquaintance, and he stood up from his chair - waiting for Nicole Howard to regain consciousness. As if dressing himself in a corpse, he let himself smile - showing the face they all had come to know. A face familiar to Nicole too... even if a lot had happened since they last spoke.
A lost voice, Lucan thought, heard once more. He supposed it was one of those classic reasons why someone would enter the medical field. So remote from his own.