"Treating the wounded"

Dr. Seth
Medical Officer
USS Sulu


Seth raised a Vulcan brow when the USS Sulu 
pitched once again.  The anti-proton beam the 
device commonly referred to as `the planet killer' 
was using against the ship was giving everyone on 
board a rough ride.  All of the jostling and tousling 
about of the noble starship had left many of the crew 
injured and in the need of medical attention.  
Sickbay was quickly filling up.  Wounded officers 
were being brought in from every section of the ship. 

Doctor Peter Kobichev, the Sulu's Chief Medical 
Officer, was directing the triage of patients.  He 
quickly motioned toward two empty biobeds, and 
ordered the med teams to "Put the Lieutenant over 
there."   Once the injured crewman was lying prone, 
Dr. Kobichev whipped out a tricorder and scanned 
the engineer.

"He looks bad, but that's the fractured nose.  Always 
leaves a mess..." Kobichev commented before 
glancing right at Seth.  "Doctor Seth, take care of 
this one. I'll see to the Lieutenant."

Seth nodded and carefully moved to the patient, 
being careful of her unsteady footing when the USS 
Sulu rocked yet again.  The injured officer was an 
Ensign, like Doctor Seth.  But being human, he was 
probably less than half of her age.  It was difficult to 
estimate, since his lacerated nose had left blood 
over most of his face and hands.

"Do you have any other wounds other than your 
nasal injury Ensign?"  Doctor Seth asked while 
gently pulling the officer's hands away from his face 
so she could have a better look.

The officer had blue eyes, shook his head and 
winced slightly as Seth probed the extent of the 
fracture to his nose.  "Jus ny nos."  He squeaked.

Reaching for a hypo spray Seth informed her patient 
what she was about to do.  "I will give you a local 
anesthetic to deaden the pain."  Twisting the silver 
instrument, she dialed in the proper settings while 
she spoke, "I must realign the cartilage before using 
the dermal-regenerator to mend your tissue.  Do you 
understand Ensign?. . ."

The officer blinked his eyes, not wanting to move 
any more than necessary.  "Burton. I under-sand 
doc-dor" he replied in the same, broken-nose lisp.

Seth pressed the hypo against Ensign Burton's face 
and soon began her work of straightening out the 
fracture.   Once it was aligned as best as she was 
going to get it, Seth picked up the dermal 
regenerator to mend the injury.  The last step was to 
clean off the blood that had stained Burton's face 
and hands.

"You will notice increased sensitivity in the facial 
area around your nose Ensign.  You will want to go 
easy on rubbing or otherwise subjecting the repaired 
areas to trauma for the next several days.   If the 
pain persists, let me know and I can prescribe 
medication to help."  Doctor Seth explained.

"Thank you Doctor,. . ."

Seth continued wiping up the blood from the 
Ensign's face when she glanced at him.  She held 
his chin in one of her hands while she wiped with the 
opposite hand. "Seth.  You are welcome Ensign 
Burton."  She nodded curtly.

"You are new on board the Sulu, aren't you Doctor?  
I,. . . I can't remember seeing you around before."  
Burton smiled.

It didn't take a genius, or even a half Betazoid, half 
Vulcan to figure out that Burton was attracted to 
Seth.  His body language and tone made his inquiry 
rather obvious.  Seth was glancing around and could 
see how much work there was to do in sickbay at 
the moment.  She didn't really have the time to sit 
and socialize with her newest acquaintance.

"Yes I am Ensign."  Seth replied with a warm smile.  
"However, this isn't really the greatest of times to talk 
about that right now.  I have other patients to attend 
to."

Burton looked a bit dejected.   He was speaking 
worlds better now that his nose had been fixed.  "Oh 
yeah.  Sorry I wasn't thinking . . ."

Seth paused a moment and placed her hands on her 
hips.  "Maybe we can talk about it after all this 
craziness passes?  Say in the lounge sometime?"

Burton's spirits picked up again with a smile.  "Sure 
thing Doc, that sounds like fun."

"Well if you'll excuse me, I still have work to do."  
Seth smiled.

"Well I will let you get to it then.  Thanks for fixing me 
up Doc.  See you later when this is all over."  Ensign 
Burton said his good-byes.

Seth just smiled and then moved to treat the next 
patient on the triage list.