Star Trek: Theurgy

EPI S [Day 03 | 2330hrs.] Lay Your Weary Head To Rest

June 04, 2026, 04:26:16 AM

[Lieutenant Alistair Leavitt Intensive Care Unit | Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | USS Theurgy ]  @Ellen Fitz @RyeTanker

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As Alistair moved around the ship, dealing with various tasks, he couldn't help but notice an malaise. Everything had changed, and processing the events of the past few days was proving difficult for many. Some of the more recent members of the crew were cheerful, all smiles, while the older crew were more cautious, uncertain, as if they were just waiting for everything to go crazy all over again. Alistair, meanwhile, was tired. Just tired. It was a bone deep level of exhaustion. The body was fine, but the spirit was flagging. He just wanted rest, for it all to be done. He'd done enough, right? Couldn't it be enough? Would it ever be enough?

Thus occupied. Alistair was a tad out of it as he entered Sickbay, needing a moment to remember why he was here.  A nurse looked at him in askance, but he held up a hand with a polite smile. Right. He remembered now. Alistair walked over to the recovery ward, with many of the beds occupied, most of the lights dimmed to help the patients sleep. Fortunately, the light above one particular bed was still on as the patient, a middle-aged woman with long blonde hair, typed lazily on an LCARS board that wrapped around her. Standing at the threshold of the ward, Alistair hesitated. There was something wrong with that image...something...

A bloodcurdling scream came through the comns, followed by shouting, disagreement, more shouting, more screaming.
"It's Conway! She's been...damn, cover me! Medic! She's lost her-"

Alistair hadn't been there, hadn't had the time to check on Conway. Now, he finally knew what she had lost: much of her right arm. His stomach squirmed. Nevertheless, with a deep breath, he walked up to her, and she clocked him immediately.

"Hi," she said brightly. Too brightly.

"Hi," Alistair said awkwardly, careful to keep his voice low.. "So...uh... "

"You look great?" Yvette said with a grin. "It's alright, boss. You don't need to do the whole rigamorole, you aren't my first boss to check on me. I lost a foot on Betazed, during the war. This is nothing."

Alistair exhaled, smiling despite himself. "You did a great job at Hobus. The star is stable. You'll probably get a medal after I file my report. The President might even do it herself. It's not every day that someone saves the Romulan Empire."

"She's really here?" Yvette asked. "I heard, but it didn't feel real, you know?""

"Real," Alistair said with a shrug, "I saw the president myself. I don't know much else, sorry."

Yvette shifted a little, pulling back up. "I guess a lot's been happening, huh? Hey, have you seen Lieutenant Zark yet?"

That threw Alistair off, swiping his hand over his bald scalp. "What? You mean she's here?" At Yvette's nod, Alistair's eyes widened in alarm. "That can't...I saw the casualty reports from Hobus, she wasn't-"

"She was hurt afterwards," Yvettle explained gently. "I don't know when or how bad, but she's in the ICU right now, if you want to check on her."

"Right. Yeah," Alistair said, clearly still processing. He hesitated, feeling a moment of real shock and guilt. Why hadn't he checked? Why hadn't he confirmed-

"Lieutenant Leavitt?" Yvette interrupted quietly with a small smile. "Please get to the ICU before I ask Security to carry you there."

Alistair smiled back, nodded in gratitude, then promptly strode over to the ICU, immediately identifying Zark. Unlike Yvette's biobed, Zark's space was packed with innumerable sensors and other medical equipment, all monitoring the patient. Lying on her back, unconscious or worse, Zark looked smaller, more vulnerable than her usual aggressive charm. Her white hair was a mess, a gown and blanket protecting Zark's (non-existent) modesty. Alistair looked up at the monitors, but struggled to parse them, save that Zark was in bad shape.

He sighed, hating seeing the normally vivacious Andorian like this. It just felt...wrong. Completely wrong. Alistair crossed his arms, bitter sorrow rising up from his gut. He  liked Zark, as did pretty much everyone, but Enyd loved her, in her own unique way.

Enyd...

Re: EPI S [Day 03 | 2330hrs.] Lay Your Weary Head To Rest

Reply #1 – June 13, 2026, 02:44:16 AM

[ Lt. Enyd Isolde Madsen | Intensive Care Unit | Sickbay | Deck 11 | USS Theurgy ] @RyeTanker @Griff

The corridor outside Sickbay had that particular quiet that meant the worst of it was over, and nobody had decided yet what came next. Enyd stood at the entrance a moment longer than she needed to. Her PADD was still in her hand — she'd been reading orders off it in the turbolift and hadn't put it away, which meant she'd been holding it for twenty minutes. She tucked it under her arm.

The nurse at the front station looked up. Enyd held up a hand. The nurse settled back. She moved into the ward slowly. Most of the lights were dimmed for the patients sleeping, which meant she had to read the name tags at the foot of each bed by the low glow of the biobed monitors. She'd already pulled the casualty reports. She knew most of what she'd find here. Knowing and seeing were different operations and she was doing both now, one bed at a time.

Callax. She stopped. Asleep, or close enough. Biobed steady. She stood there for a beat, filed him under alive and in the right place, and made her feet move. She did that four more times. Four more names she knew. By the time she reached the ICU threshold, her jaw ached, which meant she'd been holding it tight.

She saw Alistair before he heard her. The set of his shoulders told her enough. She crossed to him and put her arms around him from behind, pressed her face between his shoulder blades, pressing her face between his shoulder blades and held on. Then she looked up and saw Zark. Her arms tightened.

"She pushed me." Her voice came out wrong — too thin, too careful, the voice she used when she was managing something her face hadn't caught up to yet. "On Donatra's ship. There was a blast and she—" She stopped. The monitors cycled. Something beeped once and went quiet. "I didn't see it coming."

Zark lay on her back, smaller than she had any right to look, the white hair spread wrong against the pillow. Enyd had watched Zark laugh that morning. She was almost certain it had been that morning.

"The infiltration team got to the weapon. Just before Donatra triggered it." Her thumb moved against Alistair's arm without her deciding it would. "Which she did. Trigger it. And then when it didn't fire she—" A short exhale. "Ritual suicide. Rather than deal with losing." She thought about Donatra's face in those last seconds. She thought about the underground leader who had gone the same way. "Both of them. Their own hands." She wasn't sure if she was talking to Alistair or working it out. "I keep thinking about whether there was a version where I—"

She let it go. There wasn't, or if there was, she hadn't found it in time. She pressed her mouth to the base of his neck and stayed there for a moment, breathing. Then she moved to stand beside him, her shoulder against his arm, and looked at Zark's still face.

"How are you holding up?" The question was directed to Alistair, but she had an inner hope that Zark would miraculously wake up in that moment to answer her.

Re: EPI S [Day 03 | 2330hrs.] Lay Your Weary Head To Rest

Reply #2 – June 22, 2026, 07:54:52 PM

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Kalandra? | Delta 5-2?] @Ellen Fitz @Griff @Dumedion

Her eyes tried to open, but it was hard.  The incident flashed thorugh the mind's eye.  The jungle passing beneath them at high speed.  A sensor readout on the screen.  The stink of fear and sweat despite the best efforts of the shuttle's high efficiency air recyclers.  Lieutenant Eris saying they were almost at the pickup zone.   The shuttle bucked as a hail of purple energy slammed into the small craft.  A beam lanced against the shuttle's shield's.  Eris screaming they were going down, his call to brace cut off in a loud sickening crunch of alloy, shattering glass, bodies being crushed, and a scream that sounded very much like her own.

She awoke and immediately groaned in pain that caused her to collapse back on the upended wreckage of the shuttle floor. The blue eye lids closed and squeezed for a moment as the body dealt with the pain.  Painkiller! Her mind yelled, and the eyes opened once more as she breathed hard and looked around.  There!  A medical bag.  The Andorian groaned as she leaned over and reached for the bag.  She fell back once more with a groan as she took in a steadying breath.  Her eyes opened again as she focused on the medical bag.  She'd have to bite the proverbial bullet, and she yelped as she lunged for the bag and her hand managed to get a hold of it.  It was a small measure of triumph as she dragged the bag towards her while suppressing a groan of protest.

She lay back once more and closed her eyes once more as a reward for not passing out from the pain.  The pain wasn't blinding, but it still somewhat debilitating and her body throbbed.  She had to wait for what seemed like far longer than what she wanted.  The throbbing finally reached a manageable level and she set about opening the medical bag.  It didn't take long to find the right vials and a hypospray.  The familiar suction noise followed by a soft click confirmed a good seal.  Her fingers moved to the head of the hypospray, but they seemed a little syrupy.  Zark shook her head to clear it, or at least get the blood flowing properly before focusing again.  Maybe the fingers were still slow, but they seemed to move with the right amount of accuracy as she adjusted the dosage.  The cold alloy touch against her skin was welcome as she pressed the hypospray to her neck and depressed the trigger.   A familiar hiss flooded her blood stream with the necessary chemical mixture and she sighed in relief as the pain lessened.

The medic took a brief second to revel in the distinct lack of pain before she began checking her own body.  Ah! Fractured ribs at the least!  She thought to herself as she winced and felt, more than heard the click inside her body. I can still move though. and she did as she gingerly lifted herself up and moved towards the first body she saw.  Lieutenant Eris was definitely dead.  Having a chunk of circuitry shoved through one's forehead would do that.  Zark turned away from body in disgust.  Zark went around checking the rest and it was grim findings, most of the medical team was dead, except for one, but he was unconscious.  It didn't matter, there was a chance at life and she began unpacking the bag, starting with the medical tricorder.  The lights of the device obediently came on, but before the medic had a chance to read the information, she snapped the tricorder shut and looked behind her.  Her antennae quickly pointed in the same direction as her head, then began to wave back and forth as if a search radar had been activated and her eyes narrowed.  Then she heard it, footfalls.  Heavy ones and many of them.  It was hard to say. 

The Andorian looked around for a weapons, but they were getting to close, and soft sound of metal being pulled from a scabbard felt almost deafening as she padded to the breach in the shuttle's hull.  At least they were on an angle, so the searchers would have to come in to see anything.  Zark pressed her body against the hull and brought the standard issue combat knife up.  She'd go for the jugular right away.  The boot steps were getting louder, closer!  Her heart began to race and she forced herself to breathe more quietly.  Closer.  Closer....Closer!  They were almost on top of her.

[In the real world]

Ensign Jurek Xevin was helping to make the rounds in the ICU.  She was tired, and so was everyone else.  At least they'd been able to send a half dozen more patients back to standard recovery.  The Cardassian sighed though at the Andorian in the bed with the human male and female standing next to her bed.  She could hear them speaking, but didn't really bother to register any of what they were saying.  It wasn't her business after all.  The nurse looked at her PADD and compared the current medical monitors against the previous data, then sighed.  She really hoped Zark would be fine and from a purely selfish standpoint, able to get up and help again soon.

There was some discussion on how Zark had ended up in the bed and how everyone was holding up which was very healthy when dealing with such a chaotic situation.  The nurse frowned as she checked the monitor.  Her brain and respiratory activity were showing odd readings.  Not really strange, but definitely not normal for someone in Zark's state.  She pressed her combadge "Doctor Leux to the ICU, Lieutenant zh’Ptrell is showing hyper activity in her frontal lobe and her cardiac...Urghhkk!!" the nurse finished as a blue banshee exploded on the bed in a wild war cry and the sickening crunching thump of fist smashing flesh and bone as the strike battered into her chest just below a fatal point, but high enough to disable just about anyone.  The nurse had no time to register this as a knee appeared out of nowhere and crashed into her head and sent her careening onto the floor, just missing the bulkhead.

Medical alarms blared and several people cried out in fear as the blue woman moved with speed that shouldn't have been possible as she swung over and sent a kick flying at the male voice she heard nearby no idea whether she scored any hit and didn't care.  There long stringy things attached to her. Perfect!  With a feral yell, she clocked the other woman across the head, then proceeded to wrap the chords around her neck as she brutally pulled the brunette in closer and tighter while grunting like cornered wild animal.