Canterra - Operation: Winter Haven -Sanctuary found

Posted on 03 Sep 2019 @ 7:48am by Captain Edward Bolingbroke (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Amiri Aldana 365, D.V.M., M.D. & Lieutenant Commander T'Lara & Lieutenant Perrin Arc & Lieutenant Junior Grade Artemis Ward, M.D. (Jan 2389 - TRSNFR After Gorn War) & Hospital Apprentice Quinn McCoy (Jan 2389 - KIA Gorn War)

Mission: Hahai i na pilikua nui - Hunting Monsters
Location: The Xore Strike Mine
Timeline: T+3 19.15hrs Zulu

[ON]

[The Xore Strike Mine]

Bolinbroke was waiting on the landing pad when the shuttles carrying medical personnel from the battlegroup began to arrive. He had changed out of the Frog Suit but even in his cold weather gear he shivered in the cold.

Once the leading physicians had been brought into the mine out of the bitter arctic night, he had them shown into where T'Lara was waiting and gave them a quick briefing on the situation.

“Ok we have just about completed the liberation of the mine. We still have a group of Gorn down on one of the lower levels, holding some colonist’s hostage and trying to flood the mine but we are working on a plan to deal with those,” He began.

“We are now starting Operation Winter Haven, for the humanitarian aid, assistance and protection of the Canterra population. The mine will become the safe zone for all colonists we liberate on Canterra.

They will be housed here until we have completely removed the Gorn from the planet. The power is back on, the shield will be up shortly, and we are parking a starship in orbit right over the top. We can defend this place from anything the Gorn on the planet can throw at us!”

He continued “So far we have found about three thousand seven hundred colonists. There are still some levels to search and clear, so expect those numbers to rise. They were being used as slave labor to dig ore. They are in pretty rough shape, malnourished, beaten, ill-treated, no medical care… you get the picture.

Of that number about six hundred have been implanted, they were better treated but they are still pretty thin. They were kept separate from the rest and the other colonists are pretty hostile towards them. Since we removed the Gorn control of them they are starting to become aware again, before they were pretty much mindless automatons.

The colonists were held on one of the upper levels, in a huge cavern, they have bunks, sanitation and so forth but not much else.

I understand they are bringing down a couple of replicators, so you’ll be able to get them some decent food soon enough; plus, clothing and so forth” He looked around “Doctor T'Lara was part of the infiltration team, she can provide more information. Please address any questions you have to her.”

He gave them a nod, “I have to be going now. I will see you all later.” He ducked out and jogged down the corridor to where the rest of his Marines were waiting.

Xore Mine Plan

[Xore Mine – Former Colonist Workforce Pens]

After a short descent the team stepped off the mine shaft elevator and following the tunnel came into the vast underground cavern where the Colonists had been held.

Meanwhile, nearby the medical staff from the other ships in the battle group who had beamed down earlier were working diligently setting up their own emergency medical facilities and triage centers across the compound.

Doctor Aldana hadn’t liked leashing Sombra earlier when s/he had readied him in his full disability service animal tac, but s/he told hirself it was for his safety. S/he stepped off the elevator and found an out-of-the-way place to confer with him. ~How ya doin bi’guy? Help me keep tabs on us okay? I don’t know what to expect down here. Mines aren’t usually a pleasant environment, and Gorn are cold-blooded, so I’m not sure what to expect down here. It could get really hot down here really fast with all these people and heavy equipment down here, or it could stay nice and cool. Then again, if there really is a hostage situation, then who knows if they might try and bake us out; Gorn can withstand substantially higher temperatures than most other humanoids can. Ya got yer hydration fluid just in case, right?~

Sombra was already panting. He gave a soft whimper as response to Alpha’s question.

“Ohh… I know you don’t like it buddy, but it’s what we have, and it’s better under the circumstances than water. At least it’s supposed to be flavorless.” ~Stay close now, I know you don’t like to be tethered to me like this, but it’ll be crowded down here.~ S/he ventured out, looking for where s/he was needed. “Were do we have to work? I think we should get started on setting up a mobile triage center and start getting these colonists some nutrition either intravenously, or start off with small rations, high carbs, but not more than they can handle medically. Likely a few wafers here and there, and some water.”

“Nutritional support will be key, but we are still waiting for replicators and supplies to arrive, until then the Gorn prisoner rations should be semi-adequate, particularly since we won’t be trying to stretch the supply.” Dr. Ward weighed in; his tone somewhat detached as he surveyed the cavern. “Until we have better logistical support, I agree that sorting the patients will be the most effective use of our time.”

Doctor Aldana took a deep breath as s/he tried to think. “Maybe someone should inventory the prison rations? We should know what we’re dealing with. Does anyone have an ETA on those replicators?” S/he went to T'Lara, “well the good news is, I brought some basic supplies,” s/he hefted hir large backpack, large shoulder bag, and the full-sized medkit in hir other hand for emphasis.

“I can take a few assistants and oversee that,” Dr. Ward offered, “I can make sure that they get passed out carefully as well, to make sure none of the patents becomes overwhelmed.”

Aldana responded to Doctor Ward’s suggestions. S/he had some discussions with him on some thoughts and suggestions s/he had for him. Then the pair went about cataloguing the few remaining prison rations left, and carefully distributing what little there was and only what their training suggested the emaciated prisoners could handle. With Ward’s help they also divided the few blankets they had and distributed them. They may not have been whole, but they were better than nothing.

T'Lara, now with a bit more equipment and supplies, was doing her rounds around the colonist. After having treated the colonists in the worst conditions, she was checking to see what else was needed. She could use a little back up with all the injured colonists coming in.

Most of them were just malnourished, while others had minor or old injuries. that were never treated. This was her first away mission since her return to Starfleet. As a pirate you didn’t do much of this in the field. people were usually treated when they came home.

T'Lara had ordered to hand out any of the leftover food that the Gorn were given the colonists. This would be until the supplies and replicators would arrive.

After assisting with the more immediate concerns Aldana continued working with Doctor Ward to figure out what to do next to prepare the colonists for evacuation. When the hybrid-hermaphrodite doctor pulled out hir medkit as s/he found a colonist who looked a little worse for wear. The colonist seemed to still be an adolescent. “Hello. I’m Doctor Aldana.” S/he allowed the medkit to droop off hir shoulder. “May I take a look at you?” The rags she wore were hardly adequate, and she had red and purple spots that caused the doctor concern. The female adolescent was small in stature and seemed to have no one with her.

The girl nodded.

Aldana brought out a medical tricorder and began taking some scans.

Seeing Doctor Ward and Doctor Aldana, T'Lara walked to them. “Doctor Ward, Doctor Aldana, you are here.” She signaled to them. “Ok here is the situation. I have some minor injured set aside. Could you two go over to the people over there.” She pointed to the group huddled together on the other side. “They are the most severe injured. I have set up some stops to keep them stable with whatever I have here. They need immediate attention; please see to it they get on the ship and the right assistance.” She ordered them.

Aldana was transfixed on hir medical tricorder. “Yeah, okay…” s/he muttered as s/he retook the scans of the girl and double checked the readings, hiding hir concern from her and the rest of the colonists. The last thing they needed was a panic.

“Right away Sir,” Dr. Ward assented, gathering his tools back into his medkit. He set his shoulders as he turned toward the red-tagged group, letting out a breath and preparing for what promised to be a long day of work, with more yet to come. “Does anyone have an exact ETA for the transports?” He asked, Looking back to his superior officer.

Somehow the makeup was a bit running on her face because what they have been through. “I have been handing out the food that the Gorn had for us. I think are in need of a bit more nutritional food. There are also some colonists up ahead that need surgery. It is my believe we can safely remove the implants.”

“Alright, I’ll make that a priority, sir.” Dr. Ward gave a sharp nod and strode toward his new charges at a brisk pace.

Aldana looked up from hir medical tricorder. S/he looked between T'Lara and Ward and smiled as if nothing was wrong. “Getting right on it, ‘bawss,’ s/he headed for the area the other Lieutenant had indicated.

Once Dr. Ward found himself in the thick of the high-priority area, he quickly took stock of the situation. Medical staff scurried around the prone forms of the patients; some had a mint-collared physician at their side or working over them. Others waited or were being carefully moved by attendants. All looked very poorly, an expected consequence of their urgent status. “Transport is incoming,” Dr. Ward declared. “Have we sorted out any patients stable enough for medevac?”

Doctor Aldana had been rendering aid readily to several patients. S/he had found several who were close to permanent starvation and had to administer intravenous solution via hypo-injector drips. One of hir patients had already lost consciousness and needed immediate – if not sooner – evac. All the while, s/he couldn’t get the scans she’d taken of that girl out of hir mind. “Good, I’ve got a few here who should have top priority. Did we hear anything on those replicators?”

All the while Sombra was keeping watch and tabs on Alpha, being sure to keep close, yet not under paw.

Aldana looked down at hir companion; ~I don’t know buddy, I just don’t know…~ S/he had saved both sets of readings in the medical tricorder’s storage, and tucked it away for safe-keeping. Maybe s/he would have to get a consultation as soon as s/he could.

T'Lara walked to Aldana. “I could be wrong doctor,” she started saying with an expressionless face, “I went on this mission, because I thought you should take lead of the k-nine division for the search and rescue. You are Sombra’s handler, so I could be wrong, but as my assistant chief, you should be aware of the supplies that are on the way, should you not?”

Aldana looked to Doctor T'Lara, then to Doctor Ward, then back to Doctor T'Lara. “I’m sorry Doctor, I received very little briefing. I did receive a list of the supplies we’d be getting, I sent in the requisition, but you know how Ops. can be when they get busy; you ask for an ETA, and they give you some vague answer. ‘soon’, or ‘we’ll get to it when we can.’” S/he looked to both doctors again. “I’m sorry to both of you. I only have the information they’ve given me. I know this whole situation has been a stress to us all. I’m sorry.”

Amiri replayed T'Lara’s statements in hir mind to make sure s/he covered everything. “Did you say something about a search and rescue?”

“I’m not sure, did she? You would be the person to speak to about that, my specialty comes after the victims have been recovered.” Dr. Ward commented dryly, one bloody-gloved hand extending to to drop a handful of deactivated Gorn implants clattering into a waiting biohazard receptacle. A nurse came up and spoke directly into his ear for a moment, and then Dr. Ward raised his voice to address the scurrying medical staff. “Stand by for emergency transport!” Off to one side unnecessary personnel cleared the designated medevac area, and a host of transporter shimmers appeared atop the gathered cots and gurneys, whisking the patients away to shipboard facilities.

Perrin Arc, a middle-aged dark-skinned trill, had not been in battle-rattle for fifteen years. It was at once, comforting and frustrating that he did not have to wear it. He had almost opted to take a rifle with him, but instead took a type-I phaser in his wrist sleeve and a type-II on his hip. He would only shoot anyone if the Marines and other combatants had failed to clear the mine: at keeping himself and his patients safe. He felt the fabric of his med bag to ground him in the reality, that he was a healer here and didn’t have to kill anyone at all.

Quinn followed the rest of the medical teams from the elevator it hadn’t had the reassuring feel of a turbolift but when she considered it was for a mining facility it kinda helped. She had an armful of warmed blankets and she started passing them out to the wraith thin colonists.


[Bunk bed - An hour twenty minutes ago]

After being hit with two stun shots from Gorn Disruptors, Stevens had been lifted from the floor and placed on one of the bunk beds to recover. About an hour and twenty minutes earlier.

A Marine Corpsman had checked on him.

“Vitals look O.K. He’s just out of it, leave him here, he’ll wake up eventually”

The Corpsman had then moved on to deal with colonists with more serious injuries.

[Bunk bed - The Present]

As Quinn walked around the room, she saw one of the members from the infiltration team on one of the beds apparently asleep. She checked him, she recognized the acting Chief of security, gently assessing his vitals, and after finding him in no danger, she turned to the next person who looked like they had half their shoulder torn off beneath the bandages around the wound.

The Security Officer lay still, breathing peacefully but still not conscious.


[Later…]

…Meanwhile Doctor Aldana flagged down McCoy to get her attention.

Quinn passed out another warm blanket and looked up at the fur covered Doctor Aldana who had apparently been trying to get her attention. “Aye Doctor, how can Ah be o’ help?”

“McCoy, see that girl… uh, could you see to it that she gets a decent set of cloths?” S/he then whispered really low, barely moving hir mouth, and speaking in pig latin. “nda-aye, eepk-aye erh-aye waya-aye romf-aye het-aye estr-aye fo-aye het-aye olonistsc-aye… Please.” (and, keep her away from the rest of the colonists, please.”)

Quinn frowned blinked at Doctor Aldana, she knew she had an accent because she’d grown up in a traditional Scottish home speaking Gaelic and English, but she had no idea that folks would make fun of her for it. At least that was how Aldana’s words sounds to her ears. “Wha’ are ye on abou’ there be no cause fo’ makin’ jokes.”

Quinn walked over to the girl the Doctor had pointed out, her face red with embarrassment and hurt pride. “Come wi’ me lass an’ we’ll get ye somethin’ wi’ fewer holes.”

Doctor Aldana saw the hurt look on McCoy’s face and went after her, distraught that s/he may have hurt the woman’s feelings. “McCoy, wait, I think I may have made and assumption, and I shouldn’t have. I was trying to speak in code so we could avoid a panic. Have you ever heard of an old Earth pseudo dialect called Pig-Latin, it’s sort of a way of turning regular Federation Standard around, so that it sounds like a different language;” s/he frowned hearing the name of it out loud for the first time, “now that I say it, even the name sounds insulting. I’m really sorry, that was insensitive of me. Please forgive me?” As best s/he could, s/he looked sincere.

Quinn nodded her head, “Water under bridge,” she was focusing on her job instead of the fact she was feeling hurt. Quinn looked at Aldana then turned slowly to give the girl her full attention.

Quinn guided the girl towards the replicator away from the rest of the colonists, she eyed the girl and requested a long-sleeved T-shirt and pants for the age she was guessing the girl was – around 16 or so. After the new clothes appeared Quinn held up the blanket to keep the others from seeing the girl change clothes. Then she coaxed the girl to walk with her to stand near the Trill counselor.

“Lass, this be Perrin he’s good a’ listenin’ and helpin’ out.”

Perrin had been using his medical tricorder to mend broken bones and abrasions. He had passed a ration bar to everyone he had helped and pointed them to area where the replicators would arrive after they came down the mine elevator. He turned as Quinn called his name. Then did his best to assess the girl by sight, passing another ration bar as he did. At the purple spots, he took a step back. He called a lost looking corpsman over and told him.

“This line is for broken bones and cuts. Heal the wounds, pass each a chow bar and send them to the replicators and the warmup area. Got it?”

The corpsman nodded and got to work. Perrin ran over to the girl. The spots could have been mistaken for bruises, but they were not. They peeked out from her shirt collar.

“Hello, dear,” Perrin started, “I’m Dr. Arc. Do you know how long you’ve had those spots?”

The girl shook her head, ‘no.’

“Okay, that’s alright. I’m going to look at your stomach, is that okay?”

She lifted the shirt, showing her shallow belly was covered with the purple blotches. Perrin told her and she put down her shirt.

“Open your mouth please,” Perrin said. The girl did so, with obvious pain. Eyes leaking tears: her mouth was riddled with purple and red sores.

“Oh,” he said, “I know that hurts. I’m sorry, darling. Does it hurt to sit down?”

She brought up her thumb and index fingers to show ‘a little.’

“Let’s sit down, honey.” He said. She sat on a rock, bent slightly forward to keep her back from touching the wall. “This will keep it all from hurting so bad.” He pressed a hypospray into her neck, just underneath her swollen lymph nodes. She went out like a light. Perrin caught her and laid her on the floor. He took readings with his tricorder: she should not have gone to her sleep with that amount of sedative at her weight, but something was very wrong even though her life signs were stable. Perrin turned to Quinn so that she was the only one who could hear him.

“Quinn, I need some sliced lemons from the replicator, hot water and 20ccs of activated charcoal, please. This girl has a bad fungal infection. Have you noticed anyone else with these spots?”

Quinn shook her head firmly, “Nay, was Doctor Aldana who noticed, Ah’ve seen nothin’ on the res’.” She turned to get him the lemons water and activated charcoal.

Since the girl was unconscious, Perrin took tissue samples quickly from the sores and spots. He sent scans of them through the Starfleet database. The infection was known, and so was the cure. He made a quick record of the cause and shook his head. The evils that men do, he thought.

The concoction of hot lemon and activated charcoal was supposed to cleanse her system just by her drinking it, cleaning the sores, adding vitamins, and soaking up the spores of the fungus but she could not while asleep. He would have her drink it when she woke.

He synthesized the cure via hypospray and gave her the necessary dose. However, she would need more every day until the fungus was killed 100%. He would have to keep a close eye on her.

Meanwhile Doctor Aldana had been pulled away to work on more patients, but now s/he had a small break. S/he’d been unable to stop thinking of the girl, so s/he had decided to check on her. The doctor returned to where s/he’d last left her with Quinn, and with a cursory glance around he found Doctor Arc. S/he glanced at the girl; “what’s wrong, how is she?”

"A virulent strain of fungus, probably from the environment down here, malnutrition and exhaustion. We caught it in time, it will heal, but slowly"

In a relatively open part of the cavern there was a transporter shimmer and an Operations Officer appeared. She sized up the available space, moved a few colonists out of the way and spoke into her commbadge.

Moments later the area was blanketed in transport halos. Two large self-powered emergency replicators appeared, along with several dozen medical supply containers, plus stacks of blankets and clothes, along with hygiene and personal items.

These were followed by thirty Nurses and specialists and a couple more Operations crew who began setting up the replicators.

The Officer moved over to another open space, relayed the coordinates and within a couple of minutes several large portable structures appeared, these contained an Operating room, a Medical Lab, a pharmacy replicator and ten portable Bio Beds. Several more Operations crew arrived and began activating the units.

The Officer found TLara. “There you go Doctor, that’s the bulk of it.” She checked her chronometer “Right on schedule, as we told your Assistant. Let us know what else you need; you have access to supplies across the Battle Group”

She looked around at the poor beaten colonists “Heaven knows what the Gorn did to these people. You tell us what you need Doc and we’ll bring it in”

“Oh, this is adequate,” T'Lara said, “I have been waiting as I was unsure when they were arriving. My assistant said s/he didn’t know. Anyways, I am expecting more colonists from the lower levels in the mines. There were some explosions, so there could be more injured, probably caved in. I do not know what happened there, but we will soon find out.”

Dr. Ward walked over moving at a speed just short of rushing. He stripped his gloves and spoke loudly enough to be overheard by the assistants following him. “Get that OR prepped, I need universal donor blood and a supply of anti-traumatic stimulants!” He turned to T'lara while the assistants busied themselves. “The Gorn left a terrible mess for us to clean up.”

T'Lara nodded to Ward. "Indeed, doctor, indeed. We had best prepare ourselves for incoming injured."

To be continued...