240011.15.1322

Kr’Antren stepped into the main sick bay and was confronted with the aftermath of the encounter, the biobeds were all full and nurses were triaging the crew in the waiting area. Helping those they could and marking those that needed to be looked at by the medical officers. Kr’Antren felt a pinch in the back of his neck. on one side mainly, as he made his way on into sick bay.

“Take a seat Captain, We will be with you as soon as we can.” One of the nurses said as they were running a tricorder over a crewman. “Ok petty officer looks like some second and third-degree burns along your upper torso and neck area.”

“Nurse, I’m here to check on the crew and get a status report from the Chief medical officer that’s all.” Kr’Antren said as he looked around the main sick bay. 

“Well the Doc is in surgery right now, and” she reached towards the captain’s neck “you’re walking around trying to not move your neck from what I just witnessed when you came in. So, take a seat sir and we will get that looked at as soon as we can.”

“Nurse, I can’t just sit here. Can I at least go in and talk to my crewman? See how they are doing? Give them some encouragement. Let them know that the ship, their fellow crewmates and I are here for them and will help in any way we can.”

The nurse looked into the main sick bay and nodded. “Yaaa, You are the captain so I guess that would be the right thing to do.” She took a step closer and leaned in. “I would start with ward one, the first opening on the right after you go in. That is where we are putting the ones who are in critical condition. I’ll let the Doc know you are here when she comes out of surgery.”

“Thank you.” He nodded as he made his way into the main sickbay, stopped at the archway, took a deep breath, and entered.

A couple of hours later as he was talking to a young, fresh out of the academy, operations crewman he noticed doctor M’gok approach him from the corner of his eye. He finished his conversation and turned toward her.

“Still not able to turn your neck, Captain?”

“No, doc. But it’s not a bother, it’ll ease up on its own sooner or later.”

Doc M’gok shook her head. “Why?” she pointed at one of the empty biobeds.

Kr’Antren knew it was no use to try to argue with her so he went and took a seat on the bed.

The doc ran her tricorder over his upper torso, neck, and head. “Well, sir. You’ll be happy to hear that there is nothing broken, bleeding, or not where it isn’t supposed to be. What you do have is a pretty good case of what is commonly referred to as whiplash.” She walked over to a small table with several hypo sprays and a console on it and entered some information on the console.  

Kr’antren reached up with a hand and started to massage the area. “So, how much of a hit did we take doc?”

She turned towards him with her PADD in hand. “Could have been worse. The last count was twenty in situations much like your own, another five that will require a few days in here, seven serious enough that they will need to be kept in medical and will need to be moved either to a hospital ship or a starbase as soon as we find one.” she let out a deep breath. “And four dead. Mainly from the area that took those hull breaches.” The console beside her beeped as she absently mindedly reached down grabbed a hypospray and approached the captain. “Easy way or the hard way, sir.”

He looked up at the Doc and cracked a smile. “I’m not Skagath, give me the damn hypo. I have too much to do and not being able to move your neck sucks.”

She administers the hypo, “Smart choice. Now if you don’t mind I have patients to check on.” she grabbed her PADD and started to make her way towards the first room that he visited.

“So doc, have they told you yet?” as he continued to massage his neck feeling it ease up as the hypo started to take effect, making his way behind her and out of sickbay.

“Has who, told me what?” she turned to face him.  

“Oh, Ummm. Guess not. Never mind doc.” he holds his hands out in front of him.

“Ehhh ehhh sir, you don’t get to say something like that and then try to act like that. Out with it!”

He started to back out of the sick bay. “Doc, you have patients to look after and I have a ship. Besides I didn’t have anything to do with it, that I can guarantee.”

“This conversation is not over, sir. I’ll find out what you’re not telling me one way or another.” She turned back towards the room and entered it as Kr’antren made his way out of the sick bay.

He entered the bridge from the turbo lift slowly moving his head and neck. Making his way to the center chair he stood and looked around the bridge. “Lieutenant Darame, plot a course back to Coadunatio Prime. Lieutenant Tazzeth, plot the location of the ship’s remains so we can pass the information to the Markonian Outpost. Chief?”

“We have the nacelle and the warp conduits repaired and checked, diagnostic testing is currently being performed. Once we have that data back we can relook at warp, captain. Until then its impulse speed.”

Kr’antren nodded slowly.”Timeline?”

“Another hour till the tests are completed, then however long it takes for us to go through the data, so let’s say two hours give or take a few minutes.”

Kr’antren took a seat. “Don’t rush it chief, take the time you need to make sure we are good.”

“Of course, sir.”

“Oh, Lieutenants Tazzeth and Shrybass you may want to start thinking of your story for the Doc. I might have accidentally said something when I was in the sickbay, and I don’t think she is going to let it go till she finds out the information.”

Skagath breaks out in a loud deep laugh. “Oh, this is going to be good. My money’s on the doc.”

The two lieutenants look at each other and let out a groan. 

“Don’t look at me, you two did this.” as he hit the internal comms button on his armrest.

“Osiris, First let me say that today we helped those that needed help not just on Coadunatio Prime but throughout the Gradin belt and the Delta Expanse. Today we put a probable end to possible use for nefarious means of blood dilithium. We have also let the Devore Imperium know that the federation will not stand for such acts to be conducted.” he took a deep breath and let it out. “Now for the hard part, We lost four members of our family today. We will hold a memorial service for them in forty-eight hours. We will be making our way back to Coadunatio Prime. We will hold a moment of remembrance when this ends.”

Over the next couple of minutes, everything goes silent as a bell tolled one time roughly every thirty seconds.

“Chief Kaha, nice touch with the ship’s bell. Very fitting.”

“Lieutenant Shrybass, you have the conn. I have some letters to write, I’ll be in my room ready if anything comes up.”

Kr’Antren stood and made his way to his ready room as Lieutenant Shrybass made his way to the center chair. “I have the conn.”

“Sir, diagnostics have come back and the data has been reviewed. We are ready to warp by the numbers. I would suggest starting at warp two for a short stint, looking at the data then goto warp three, etc. Just to make sure that the warp bubble holds and make sure that no serious damage was done to the system.”

“Sounds like a plan to me, chief. On my way. Looks like this will be a long night for some of us.” As he stood from behind his desk, looked at the handwritten letters on his desk, and nodded to himself.

Kr’antren exited his ready room and entered the bridge. “Lieutenant Shrybass, I have the conn. “

“Captain, you have the conn.” As he stood from the center chair.

“Ok ladies and gentlemen, the Chief tells me we are ready for warp. We are going to take this slow and make sure everything is working like it is supposed to be. Lieutenant Darame, take us to warp two for thirty minutes.”

“Yes, sir. Taking us to warp two.”

Kr’antren looked over at Lieutenant Mathison and received a nod. “Ok, Lieutenant take us to warp eight, we will stay in warp till the chief says otherwise.”

240011.16.1100

“Captain, we have arrived at Coadunatio Prime. Flight control is giving us the green light to enter the orbit of our choosing.”

“Let’s keep to the standard orbit that we have been using so far, no reason to change it up at this time. Chief Kaha, inform Lieutenant Talibah that we have arrived and let Counselor Sia know that we are going to need her services onboard. Lieutenant Tazzeth, let’s keep our eyes open, we don’t need any unexpected guests. The same goes with comms Chief Kaha. Lieutenant Skagath, If we do get some unwelcome guests I don’t want them catching us with our pants down.”

“Aye lad, I’m ahead of you. Been talking with Darame on some maneuvers and tactics that we could try that may help shift things more in our favor.”

Kr’Antren nodded. 

The turbo-lift doors opened with their characteristic whoosh. “Where are they, where are those two good for nothing each qo’ Hoch Dochvam ‘e’ vIwIvlaHbe, how dare you? How dare you set me up? Sir, do you know what those two have done? “

Kr’Antren looked around the bridge. “ So I’m guessing you two did not talk to her.” shaking his head “yes, they told me. We” he motioned around the bridge. “Told them to tell you.” he sat back in his chair and started to laugh as did several others. “This is on you two don’t look at me.”

A furious Doc looked from the captain to the two Lieutenants in question, “Sir with your permission could I take this discussion to your ready room?”

He looked between the three of them. “Do I need to come and make sure that nothing happens that you may regret later?” 

“You may need to,” she said as she turned and purposely walked towards his ready room door as bridge officers quickly moved out of her way.

“Well, gentleman. Time to face the music.” he followed her into his ready room.