The needs of the few.

Posted on Sun Oct 12th, 2014 @ 11:43pm by Lieutenant Commander Aryll LeStrat

If anyone in the briefing room had thought Aryll had been shaken by being scolded by her altercation with the Commanding Officer, they would be mistaken. Aryll had taken everything she needed to know from the briefing, and her meetings with various officers, since.

Expected casualties. Current operational assets. Semantics. The details she needed to design her combat team. That's how she treated planet medical problems. Not as a triage situation. That was too minimal in scope. She treated them as a theater of battle.

She idly reviewed the incoming staff, and sorted them in to piles of "People who would remain as Skeleton crews for Starbase Medical" and "Poor bastards who were going to have a really, really, rough few weeks."

She tapped a button on her desk, that opened a comm link to the nurses station. "Has Lieutenant Junior Grade Jeanette Moshida reported in yet?"

"Just now, ma'am." The nurse at the station noted. "She's headed to your office, actually."

The door opened, just before the woman pressed the chime.

"Oh. Sorry, ma'am." She said, looking shocked at the open door. "I wasn't quite-"

"The door is not locked." Aryll clarified. "I don't lock it, as a custom. This is not a place for secrecy. It is a place of healing. Come on in. I need to talk with you."

"With... ma'am, I'm just reporting in." Moshida said, quietly.

Aryll nodded. "I'm aware." She said, reviewing a PADD. "There will be an away mission. It's going to be a great deal of long days."

Moshida looked worried. "Uh, well. Ma'am, that is-"

Aryll shook her head. "I know. You're not a standard practitioner. You're supposed to be here as a medical examiner." She signed a PADD. "I want you to pick two officers to remain here, and pack everyone else up from your department. Plague containment starts with corpse control."

"Plague control, ma'am?" Moshida asked.

"We don't know. I'm putting in requests to load everything. We're expecting a temporary assignment of about 200 doctors, civilian, marine, and Fleet. Two convicts, too." She handed Moshida a PADD. "We're going to set up combat hospitals wherever the local facilities isn't set up for. They'll be in the backs of several trailers that are currently in cargo hold. These trailers, and the supplies will be air-dropped in by shuttlecraft. Then an overwatch shuttle, or hopefully a runnabout, if I can get one allotted, will act as a transporter buffer. We're all going in personnel shuttles. We beam to the runnabout. The runnabout beams us to wherever we need to go, and shuttles will relay relief crew as needed. Overwatch will also provide transport to, and from the barracks trucks, which will be remote, and guarded. Another, smaller shuttle will be flying combat ambulance duty. Any patient not safe for transporters goes by that shuttle. Any ideas regarding corpse disposal in the event of plague outbreak?"

Moshida nodded. "The Japanese method. Set up a transporter relay above a volcano. Have it materialize anything deceased above the Volcano, and let gravity take it's course. You can also Jerry rig an IMPulse engine from a shuttle, in to a corpse incinerator, but I still suggest remote locations for that."

"Draw up the plans for that. Requisition it from Operations. And consider having it done in a trailer. Some religious groups don't take kindly to corpse incineration. If you need to move it, design it to move. I'll also request a fighter squadron to overwatch the area with life form scanners." Aryll said, nodding. "You'll be in charge of Omega team. That's going to be the mobile command hospital with forensic and medical examiner capacity. Let me make this clear. You stay remote. You stay mobile. You'll have sensor and transport scatter technology running. The only transporter beams that come near that location, come through the overwatch shuttle. I'm requisitioning armed guards, for all of the MCH teams."

"Will you be running overwatch, ma'am?" Moshida asked.

Aryll shook her head. "I'm a combat medic in charge of a medical disaster. I'm leading Alpha team. That'll be the largest MCH team. Three trucks, total. I'm going to try and get holoprojectors, portable generators, and tents sent with that team. Preferably about twenty. Then a security team can just drive through the largest metropolitan area, set up a tent, start the generator, and run an EMH Mark one off it, and leave it with an armed guard. If I can swing the requisition forms, all the teams will be likewise equipped."

"Why risk the technology getting stolen?" Moshida asked. "If you're combat dropping it, just have a security team go to the intended site, and just combat drop a crate with the equipment."

"Officer thinking, young lady." Aryll said, with a nod. "Report to Operations for phaser certificate retraining."

"Ma'am? I don't weild guns, I don't date musicians, and I don't weild guns." Moshida said, slightly uncomfortable by this new order.

"This is a combat medical situation until proven otherwise. All medical staff will be equipped, and dressed, in public, as security, or marine officers. Under no circumstances are you, or any other medical staff, to appear as potential hostages. Either you take up arms, or you report to the brig, pending insubordination charges. You will be escorted to Starbase sickbay for 10 hours per day, to provide supervised relief to active medical staff. Those are your choices, Lieutenant." Aryll said, in a sharp drill inspector tone. She tossed Moshida a phaser rifle. "Buck up, princess. We've got lives to save, but not at the cost of our own."

Moshida looked down at the rifle, uncertain, for a moment.

"This doesn't sound like the Jeanette Moshida, feared Maquis warrior, who defended her colony, during the Dominion war, that I read about." Aryll said.

"Ma'am, that was different. I was defending my home. This-" Moshida was sharply cut off, as Aryll brought herself up to a standing position, balancing her weight on her desk.

"THIS IS NO DIFFERENT. NONE OF IT. Every officer you serve with is family. Every single one. You grieve their passing. You live your life with them. You pick up that weapon, Ms. Moshida, because you have to defend this family. Starbase 80." Aryll's voice nearly escaped the sound proof doors. She was that loud. "This isn't just for you, or the Starbase crew. It's hard for our medical staff to save lives, if they're dead, or captured."

Moshida looked down at the rifle. She had an uncertain look on her face.

"Jeanette. Listen." Aryll said, quietly. "I lost my Captain. My husband. Because a Starfleet Officer wasn't prepared to do her duty, to protect her ship, and crew. She has not forgiven herself, and I probably never will."

Moshida looked up, confused. "Ma'am?"

"I hand picked you for reassignment to my department because I need someone I can completely rely upon, to get the job done in the name of the uniform. Even as a Maquis resistence fighter, you had lines you wouldn't cross. I read the reports. I'm not asking you to kill anyone."

Moshida looked down at the rifle, then slung it over her shoulder, with a nod. "Lock and load, then, ma'am. Let's get this equipment requisitioned, and packed up."

"Ooh-rah, Lieutenant." Aryll said, with a smile. Her first real smile since arriving.

Moshida left, heading straight for operations.

Aryll picked up the next PADD with reassignment orders. An Ensign Grayson Hardy.

Her smile did not falter.

---------

Lieutenant Aryll LeStrat
Chief Medical Officer
Starbase 80

And introducing

Lieutenant Junior Grade Jeanette Moshida
Medical Examiner
Starbase 80