Critical Decisions
Posted on Mon May 12th, 2025 @ 7:33am by Captain Daegan Baas & Commander Jerome Hunt Jr. & Lieutenant Urushi Yaotome & Lieutenant Erin Cussen & Lieutenant Zane D'Sai
1,671 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Sole Survivor
Location: Medical
Timeline: MD 14 - 1358
[USS Valkyrie Medical Lab]
The medical lab was suddenly filled with the sound of the transporter as the stasis pod containing the alien, along with Lieutenant Yaotome and Doctor Cussen were beamed in. Also to one were the pods that they had confirmed contained thousands of fertilized Embryo's, held in cold stasis.
Urushi immediately pulled the helmet off her head, brushing her hair back as a couple of science and medical staff arrived. "Get the pod hooked up to power now." Urushi ordered as she began to take off her EVA suit. The bulkiness of it made it difficult to do anything.
Once Erin discarded her helmet and hastily got out of the suit, and into scrubs a nurse had ready for her, she tuned her attention to the pod.
After taking off the EVA suit, and ignoring the fact that she had left her uniform in the transporters changing room; Urushi started to look over the Embryo's. If she could believe that this was nothing but simple biology and nothing to do with medical, her hemophobia wouldn't start. Plus, the cool air from the life support system was comforting, much better than being stuck in a cramped EVA suit, even if she was working in her cropped undershirt and shorts.
"I think I can save most of these before they thaw out." She called over to Erin. "But I'm going to have to build a new pod for them, this one isn't fully compatible with our power systems."
"Try to stabilize them first," Erin said. "if you can get them to the temperature they were before they started to thaw, that would help. I would guess it was about 20 - 25 degrees colder than they are now. You can move them into the one of the surgical bays. You can adjust the temperature there," she said pointing to the surgical bay on the left.
Erin then directed the Alien's pod to the next surgical bay. She activated the bio scanner trying to establish a base line based on the aliens biology.
Got it," Urushi responded. She grabbed the pods and ran them one by one across the lab towards a large freezer unit built into the wall. Usually it would be used to freeze medicines and keep perishable samples cold. She pulled open the large metal door and was greeted by a wave of intense chill, especially on her bare arms, legs and stomach.
One by one she slotted the embryo pods onto the shelves. She then pushed the door shut and sealed it. "Computer. Adjust temperature of sample freezer A to minus one hundred and ninety six centigrade. Liquid Nitrogen infused." She said. "Display embryo container status on monitor three beta," she added.
The computer beeped. "Lowering temperature." The female voice responded as the display on the nearby station began displaying the status of the embryo containers and their contents.
Once that was done the Trill Science Officer shivered. She wrapped her arms around her exposed midriff. "Brrr, that was cold! I could do with my uniform back!"
A medical tech was already was already getting Lieutenant something to wear. It wasn't a uniform but would cover her. "This should help ma'am."
[Transporter Room 5]
Baas arrived as Jerome materialized.
When the beam cleared, Jerome stepped down off the transporter pad and crossed to where the Captain waited. "Thirty minutes till the ship shuts down," he said quietly, his expression serious, "not a lot of time."
"Well let's go see what got beamed over."
Hunt nodded as he proceeded to lead their way to the medical center. This would have to be quick, strategic and directly to the point.
[Medical Center]
Urushi was already working on an analysis if the embryo's. Luckily her quick actions had managed to save them. She was wrapped in a lab coat as her uniform had yet to be brought up from the transporter room. However her mind was set on the task of how to maintain the embryos, so she didn't really notice as she concentrated.
Erin was in the surgical bay while Urushi was scanning the man before her. "The lowered temperature seems to stabilize his heart rate," she said to the doctor assisting her. Erin had extrapolated the alien's bio signs to what it could have been before the pod started to lose power. "This seems to be the heart rate, this, I think the nutrient levels and this the oxygen," she briefed him as she pointed to indicators on the panel on the top of the pod. "Try to adjust the temperature until we get to one beat every 78 seconds. The blood oxygen level is my biggest concern. It is still dropping slowly. We must figure out which of these control it. Make that your highest priority," she said as she left the surgical bay to check up on the embryos.
As the doors opened Urushi turned to face the Captain and Exec. "Apologies for being 'out of uniform', technically." She said with a nervous smile. "I'm still waiting for my uniform to be brought down. As you can tell I was in a rush to get these embryos sorted."
Daegan smirked. "No need to apologize Lieutenant, though..." His sentence cut of as the CMO came into the area and he looked from his XO to the rest of the members of the away team. "Doctor, what are we looking at?"
"I wish I could give you a definite answer. It does not correspond with anything in our database. From what I can tell, they seem to have the same basic DNA structure as what we assume to be the adult, we can safely assume that these are in fact embryo's of the same species. Urushi worked hard to save them and at the moment they seem to be stable. If we want to know more, we will have to wake the adult assuming we can communicate effectively," she said.
Daegan looked from the Doctor to his XO and back, "So was this some kind of colony ship?
"I believe so, that is what the evidence points to. That could mean that they were heading somewhere, a place where they could survive. So we need to find out where they were headed, and or, if that is not possible, where they came from," Erin said
"Is there any sign the navigation and lifes support could be worked on then we could simply send this ship back off to its current destination," Commander Hunt questioned.
"It seems that most of their power reserves were diverted to keep the Embryo's alive." Urushi added. "It would seem as if they were adamant that the Embryos must get to the destination, no matter the cost."
Daegan walked over to the pod looking at the humanoid inside. There were definite prime directive issues but all of their answers were probably laying right in front of him. "And if we revive our guest here?"
"It's not like we can return him to his ship." Urushi said simply. She turned to the doctor. "Is he even stable enough to revive?"
Before the doctor could reply a call rang throughout medical. ==Doctor Cussen to Maturity Stat!== and the junior medical officer assisting her stepped from around the pod. "Go on Doc, i got this.
As she hurried of he looked the Captain, "She's correct sir, nor can we keep him in this pod. Whatever processes startednon that ship had intitate a shut down, had thawed to a point to where his own systems had restarted but without assistance he would have died. We have stabilized his condition but will have to be removed from the pod."
Looking down at the body, there were so many ways that this could go wrong, Jerome thought. Prime directive concerns and on the other end the ethical complications. The Captain had a decision to make and it wasn't an easy one.
Daegan weighed what little options he had, "We can't keep him on ice for ever. Who knows, his vessel may have been one of many sent out. Perhaps we can return him to his people." Looking to the officer, "Wake him."
Nodding, "Yes, sir. It will be some time sir. As I said we will need to get him out of the pods, hopefully without any complications, and bring him around. It would probably be best if he didn't have a crowd of strange alien hovering over him."
Urushi moved quietly over to the monitoring console. She wasn't very good at anything to do with medical, however she could at least monitor the pods energy and vital readings.
Daegan smirked and nodded, he recognized a medical dismissal when he heard it. "Very well, proceed. As soon as he is conscious and able, we will need to speak with him."
Looking to his he cocked is head towards n the exit. "Once you are out of that suit, contact the Astal 5 annex and see if they are interested in this vessels retrieval."
Looking back at the doctor, Jerome then proceeded after the Captain. Being new, he didn't quite know Daegan or how he operated quite yet. "So how do we want to treat or visitor?"
"Well, he's going to be waking in a completely alien environment, so kid gloves to start. He will probably figure out that the rest of his crewmates didn't make it. He'll be going through allot all at once so keep the "Scounselor in the loop. Assign him guest quarters and a security escort....for the time being."
"Do we know anything about his physiology?" Hunt questioned. "Possibly telepathic, strength or anything we should be concerned about?"
"Right now your guess is as good as mine. For right now all we can do is let the Doctors do what they can for him. Once he's functional, we can figure out what's going on and see what kinda mess we've gotten ourselves into."
Captain Daegan Baas
CO
Commander Jerome Hunt
Executive Officer
Lieutenant Urushi Yaotome
CSO
Lieutenant Erin Cussen
CMO
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