#48 Friends in Low Places

Posted on Sun Mar 31st, 2024 @ 2:42am by Lieutenant JG Sheyla {Meji}

Mission: Hijacked
Location: Planet Danvers
Timeline: Current

ON:

Coming around from her hard slumber, Doctor Sheyla began to open her eyes, blinking rapidly at first as they adjusted to the overhead lights. She was on her side in the fetal position with legs stretched out, her face towards the open side of the couch. With a groan she sat up, using her fingers to comb out her hair and keep it from looking a fright from just waking up. It was not bad, and the hair settled decently. Her antennae waved around of their own volition as her senses took in the chamber and the lobby in the medical building on planet Danvers. Seeing her mug she reached out and took it up bringing it to her mouth as she noticed it was now dark outside. Taking a sip she made a face and almost spit it out, the fluid within now cold. Swallowing quickly she then got up and went to the replicator for another. Tossing the old mug into the refuse she then ordered another and took to sipping as soon as it was available and she picked it up.

"Doctor." Blake's voice came from behind her so she turned to face him. "You might consider a shower. You're starting to stink." He motioned up and down at the front of her body, covered in smeared and spattered blood from patients she had worked on. "That, and it doesn't help a patient's peace of mind to see a doctor covered in the blood from those before them."

After another sip and swallowing, nodding along as she did so, Sheyla responded. "Locker room?"

He thumbed to his left. "That way. Hot water and sonic showers and all the facilites."

"Thank you," she said. "That was going to be my first priority. Are there replicators inside?" Sheyla asked.

"Yep. Get yourself some clean clothes." Blake chuckled. "Sorry for the stink comment. It's not you, personally, but the clothing."

"I'm on it, Doctor." With that said Sheyla carried her mug with her and went the way he had said. Without a problem she found the locker room and went inside, setting her coffee down and stripping down. Everything she had been wearing went into the trash chute, to be reintegrated into particles for the replicator tanks to use to create fresh clothing. Ordering all new clothes, from skivvies up to a tunic style modern uniform. She still went with the bloused fatigue style pants that were tucked into combat boots. Gathering the items she went and placed them on a shelf near to the sinks before going into the wide open shower with the multiple heads. She turned them all on, creating a steamy, moist environment that was all around her. No one else was in here so why not utilize the entire thing, so that no matter where she walked within she would end up under spray. Once she decided on the shower head to begin she scrubbed her body clean of all the filth that had accumulated on it, washed her hair, and then just stood under the hot spray, letting her muscles relax and her mind to calm even more than the nap had done for her. It was bliss.

Forty minutes later she came out of the locker room, fully dressed in her uniform of the day with the Science blue mock-neck shirt and her zip up tunic. Her badge was then placed before she added her rank pips. Checking herself in the mirror, seeing that she was once again a squeaky clean Andorian with hair that obeyed commands. Upon arriving back in the triage area she made her way over to what was now a nurses station, having been converted from the main greeting desk for the facility. Blake was sitting down and dunking a pastry into a cup of coffee. His smock had some blood on it but not enough to be unpresentable.

"Ah," He said with a smile as he looked up at her, his donut now held in a holding pattern over his cup. "You look one hundred percent better, Doctor." He then proceeded with his dunk and bite operation.

"I feel that way, too." Sheyla said, returning the smile. She noted that the triage had now calmed down considerably since her nap and shower. Injured were still being brought in, but a good portion of those were now personnel suffering wounds due to the recovery efforts, not from the initial attack. "Looks like the tide is receding."

Blake held a hand up, with one finger, telling her to hold on as he chewed and swallowed a mouthful of donut. He cleared his throat and spoke. "That it is. It seems the attack is over and we can now deal with all the wounded and treat them correctly and get them to biobeds upstairs."

"Any marines come in?" Sheyla asked. She had been fighting with Sergeant Cristina Scabbia, or Scabby as she was known, and wondered how she had fared.

"Yes, as a matter of fact," Blake said around another bite of donut. He chewed and swallowed, wiping his mouth with a napkin before motioning off to another section of the lobby. "Around that support wall. The marines are over there. Some didn't make it, but there are survivors."

Her face became serious, instantly anxious to see if anyone she knew from the marines had been counted among the dead. "Thank you."

Blake noticed the change in expression. "You okay? I can come with you if need be."

"No, no." Sheyla waved that off politely. "I'll be fine. I just know a few marines from my ship were down here fighting and one of them is a friend. Just had a moment of anxiety of walking around that corner and seeing her corpse, not her smiling face."

Blake tossed his balled up napkin on the desk top, standing and coming around the station. "Hey, it is never easy for us to see what we see. No one in Starfleet can compare their horrors to what we see every day, all across the fleet. It takes a special sort to do this job. Whether she is dead or alive you will recover. You will move on. And, that sacrifice can, and does, often times turn a mediocre doctor into a dedicated healer who spends their life perfecting what they know so they never lose anyone else. Even when we know people will die under our care we still push forward, determined to make that death count for something. Exhausting every avenue in the pursuit of life." He then did something she did not expect. Blake stepped in and grabbed her in an embrace, hugging her like any concerned comrade would. He then stepped back.

Sheyla did not know what to say, so she accepted the hug and hugged back. When he broke the embrace she gave him a nod and thanked him before turning away. Walking with a steady gate, pushing herself to not slow down and to not hesitate, she turned the corner around the support wall. There were roughly thirty beds wheeled into this area. Eight of them had bodied covered in sheets over their faces, with stasis fields activated over their bodies. She closed her eyes briefly, saddened for those who lost their lives. But, as the eyes came open again, and before her eyes could scan over all those who were alive, a woman's voice caught her attention.

"You just gonna stand there and stare, bitch, or do we get a hug?" Then laughter followed. It was Scabby with a hospital gown over the top of her body, with bandages on the upper right side of her chest, going up her neck, and along her jawline. But, despite all that, and through the pain she was feeling even with the meds she had in her body, Scabbia could not help but smile and laugh when she saw Sheyla. Of course, she was parked with a few others she was always seen with, the Major's little band of troublemakers. They had added their laughter to hers when she popped off at the Doctor.

Without hesitation Sheyla came in and hugged Scabby, which caused her to grunt and give a light yelp as her torso got compressed. Sheyla pulled back quickly. "Sorry." She then hugged all the others, whether she knew them or not. "So good to see you guys alive. All of you."

Scabbia had recovered from Sheyla mashing her wounded side. "Glad you made it too, girl. I was wondering if you had been killed, or had found a way off this rock."

Sheyla went and hitched a leg on the side of her bed. "I saw this place and decided to use these skills rather than fighting. Glad I did, the dead were piling up." A shadow crossed over her face as she felt that sorrow once more. "What happened to you?" She gave a weak grin, trying to change the subject from the dead to the living.

"Got in an argument with a grenade. It got the best of me despite my best effort to avoid dating the damn thing." Scabby laughed, winced, coughed, and then took a sip of water to wet her dry throat.

Corporal Kevin Jacobs gave a chuckle from his chair near the foot of Scabby's bed. "That'll teach ya, Sarge. Take it easy even when laughing, sister." He had been with Scabby and Barnes on the bug hunt a while back and as that mission progressed he and Cristina had developed a tight bond. Over time that had strengthened into an unbreakable friendship. They had even admitted that they were sexually attracted to each other but not wanting to take a chance of killing a deep friendship they had never crossed that line. However, anyone hearing the teasing and dirty comments made in jest to each other while working wiuld think that they were banging like rabbits. It was a myth they enjoyed perpetuating.

"Shut it, Kevin." Scabby said, grinning.

Jacobs got to his feet, his only injury appearing to be a bandage over his left bicep/shoulder. Sheyla could recognize a grazing particle hit when she saw one. But, he seemed none the worse for wear. "Hi," he said to Sheyla, all smiles. "I don't believe we've been introduced." He said this because he had watched the whole hugging thing between the Andorian and his friend. He had seen the blue face around the ship but never met her. "Corporal Kevin Jacobs, marine extraordinaire." Kevin shook her hand.

Sheyla shook hands, noting his masculine interest in her. Not that she minded as she was not spoken for, nor promised to anyone. "Doctor Sheyla. Lieutenant, if you prefer. Or, better yet, Sheyla."

"A pleasure, Sheyla." Jacobs said, then sat back down. His eyes kept looking Sheyla's way from time to time, in a way that he knew would show his interest. But, he had to be casual because he had seen her making eyes at the Major. If they were involved then he would like to avoid that headache.

"Same," Sheyla said, her eyes now going back and forth between Kevin and Cristina as they each spoke while they all sat talking. "The attack seems to be over but we are now caught up in recovery and repair. There is still no word from the orbital base or the Amandora."

"Figures," Jacobs said. "Can we blame Hurd?"

Scabby gave a sigh and looked up at Sheyla. "Pardon him, Shey. He has a hate on for Hurd. Kevin," her eyes moved to look at him. "Please, man, not now."

"The guy's a mushroom." Jacobs said, which got both gals giggling.

"A mushroom?" Sheyla had to ask. "Why a mushroom?" She was not overly certain she wanted to hear the answer at first, but then the other part of her said it might be pretty damn funny.

The Corporal, despite their grins and giggles, sounded off with a cynical tone. "The guy sits around alone in the dark stewing in his own shit. Ya know, like a mushroom. It makes me wonder if we surprised him by flipping on a light if he wouldn't go scurrying away like a fucking cockroach." At the end of that he started to laugh at his own antics, not really meaning any of it but just frustrated over a guy with a key position never being around. The two ladies were chuckling along with him, his cynical humor making them laugh and easing stress.

"As an officer, Corporal, please refrain from such comments while I'm supposed to give a damn," Sheyla said. "Rumor has it that Major Barnes will be assigned a department outside of marine country. I heard it from Resch before all this shit broke loose. Marcus got OPS Manager back, so he is privvy to that sort of news."

Jacobs gave a few nods of acceptance to that news. "I hope he remembers the little people after he receives his lands and title." Another chuckle.

Scabbia then added to the chat. "He will, Kevin. Jack picks a certain group of marines for every mission. Always the same. It's called familiarization. He knows how we will respond, we know how he will respond. A symbiotic relationship operating like a well-lubed machine. Hard to beat those who know without asking what their companions will do and how to go about it." She was starting to sound weak and tired.

Sheyla looked over at the I.V., seeing it dispersing more medication. The portable biobed had a full body scanner and when it detected discomfort it would then produce a dose of medication. She knew Scabby had to be hurting and with the visit she had been doing far more in the past half hour than she had been doing before Sheyla showed up. Both she and Kevin watched Scabby slip into sleep as the drugs numbed her enough to relax into it.

Jacobs stood up and stretched. "I need to stretch my legs. Wanna take a walk?"

"Sure," Sheyla responded, getting to her feet. The two of them left the medical building and went outside for some fresh, unfiltered air, and to get to know each other.

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