Pillow Talk

Posted on Sun Jun 6th, 2021 @ 5:21am by Captain Luzol Targaryen & Willian Targaryen

1,218 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: The Messenger
Location: Saucer Sickbay, Starfleet One
Timeline: 0000-00-31, 23:30

Within the Federation every hospital - regardless of whether it was on a planet, ship, or starbase - was classified based upon the capabilities of the facility to treat the sick and injured. There were five levels of capability in a Sickbay. As expected Level One facilities were small, spartan places capable of providing basic care and stabilization until a patient could get to a better equipped facility. Level Two centers were a bit more capable, including limited surgical capabilities, and a lab compartment. Level Three compartments were middle of the road and the most commonly encountered in Starfleet, having resources for emergency resuscitation, surgery, and care of most patients encountered. Class Four compounds were capable of comprehensive trauma care and had 24-hour availability of all essential specialties, personnel, and equipment including pediatric medicine.

Then there were Class Five facilities. Class Five Sickbays were the cream of the crop when it came to patient care. These centers had a full range of specialists and equipment available to patients 24 hours a day - including specialists and a variety of surgeons. They were also used for training new medical officers through partnerships with Starfleet Academy. Per studies a critical patient being treated in a Class 5 facility has his or her chances of survival increased by an estimated 20 to 25 percent. Very few Starfleet installations had a Class 5 center available, even some medical vessels featured only a Class Four system.

Starfleet One had two Class Five Sickbays available to its passengers and crew. The Primary Sickbay was located in the Stardrive Center adjacent to the Main Shuttlebay and near to Main Engineering. It featured 24 private exam rooms, a 20 bed emergency room, 8 surgical bays, 2 isolation wards, 2 recovery wards, a quick care clinic, and even a dental clinic. Not to mention it also featured counseling rooms, laboratories, and several offices and waiting areas. It was a doctor's dream - the problem was it was still in pieces. The transition to this future had been a hard one and they had written it off for now at least due to the significant drains upon the ship.

Fortunately, the Secondary Sickbay had proven a bit more accommodating to repairs. To call it Secondary was a disservice to it. Located in the Saucer Module on Deck Five, the Saucer Sickbay was something that any Doctor would fawn over. The Compound featured a 10 bed emergency room, 2 surgical bays, a recovery ward, and a quick care clinic. With the ship in its current state and having barely a skeleton crew aboard, Willian had personally worked on converting one of the surgical bays to support stasis pods for those most in need and at risk. Sadly, only his wife was in need of one.

He sat next to her, watching the readouts of the display carefully. He had grown up the son of a Doctor and had learned a great deal about medicine, but he knew he was out of his depth. Fortunately Doctor Marner seemed to be an exceptional doctor and worthy of the role that had been thrust upon him. He had been particularly choosey of those who served aboard his ship and he was glad that Marner was among them. He had a feeling Elle would have been too.

"It looks like we're in the Beta Quadrant," he said to his wife as she slept in the pod before him. "Bishop was finally able to get the navicomputer back online. It only took us about a month to do it. At least with the Coaxial Drive we don't have to worry about hitting something," he smiled at her as he said the last part. "Remember that time I nearly crashed the Cochrane into the Bradbury?"

He knew she did. The Bradbury was Elle's first command - an old California Class ship that had been assigned to diplomatic support functions in the Maelstrom. During one of their missions - while he was still aboard the Cochrane - he'd almost crashed his ship into the Bradbury. Fortunately, neither ship was damaged and no one was hurt. He did have some ego bruising in the process though and it was the one time that he appreciated his father's meddling.

"If we can trust our own systems it's looking like we're in the Beta Quadrant - not far from the Briar Patch," he momentarily wondered if entering the patch would be helpful instead of a hindrance. The metaphasics had healing properties. Could it bring her back to him? He looked at her, studied her, but knew what she would say. It was too great a risk to take the ship into the Patch. It wasn't modified for transit through it first off. The entire cloud was too unstable to safely traverse, plus who knew what its condition was. With their luck it probably had done a 180 and now killed people instead of healed them.

"You're probably right," he answered her as he pecked at the charts. Still, they needed to get out of here and back into open space. There was a huge galaxy out there - they had places they could go and people that they could see to perhaps find out where the Federation had gone. Surely the Burn couldn't have destroyed the entire Federation. Biss had told him there were over 300 member worlds when the Burn happened - somehow that seemed understated - surely something of that number remained.

Looking at the data they were in the Kassae Sector, but data was still pretty limited. More like fragmented as he scrolled through the listing of available planets in the region. He remembered some information about the Sector from the past. It had been pretty important during the Federation/Klingon Conflicts of yesteryear due to the presence of Pahvo in the Sector, other than that the only other location of note he could remember was that Facility 4028 was there. 4028 had been a hidden prison compound where some of the galaxy's most wanted were sent to live out the last of their days. Probably not a good place to visit.

He sighed and looked at his wife, "You know if you'd wake up and help me this would go a lot faster."

No such luck. She remained there as peaceful as ever. It was probably the most peaceful he had ever seen her in his entire lifetime. He smiled as he thought back to their mission to Risa and the excitement of that trip. While it had been Hellish and led to the Enterprise nearly being destroyed, seeing her in the moonlight during the Lohlunat Festival, an annual summer event during where Risians celebrate their culture’s welcoming diversity. She had been so happy, so incredibly relaxed.

"Risa!" He exclaimed as if it were a EUREKA moment. While not where he planned to go, he remembered that the Risan Sector had a hidden Federation outpost that was setup for emergencies. Cold Station 12 was originally and joint United Earth and Denobulan Outpost that researched the most dangerous maladies that the galaxy had ever seen. Over time the station had been built up and augmented, becoming a Federation depot and emergency operations site. It was highly likely that if any aspect of Starfleet or the Federation survived that would be where to look.

Willian smiled at her, "Lynz you've done it again!"

 

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