| Before the Swarm |
| Summary: | In the lull before the storm, Cameron and Ryder talk about work and woes. |
| Date: | 15 Feb 2042 AE |
| Related Logs: | None |
| Players: |
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| Sickbay - Deck 10 - Battlestar Cerberus |
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| Being able to accommodate combat casualties requires room, and the Sickbay has it. Beds line each side of the room with privacy curtains strung up and readily available. Large vaulted lockers hold access to the supplies at the far end of the area. Nearer the front, a Petty Officer sits ready to dispense simple items like ibuprofen and aspirin. Further to the rear is an area prepped twenty-four hours a day for emergency surgery. To the side are a set of double doors that lead to the Recovery Ward where patients can recuperate. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #354 |
At the moment, the Sickbay is relatively quiet, but all the doctors, nurses, and technicians know that that could change at the drop of a hat. Many of the staff have taken to bunking down in the Sickbay lately, to ensure they get the rest they need but are available at the drop of a hat, should another attack on the ship bring in a flood of wounded pilots. At the moment though? Things are relatively peaceful. Cameron is working with a patient, a young tech who had the misfortune of taking down some equipment that had not been properly stowed. As a result, she's nursing a broken left arm which Cameron has set and is currently setting into a cast. More and more they're starting to rely on simpler, old-school solutions for injuries, to protect their stock and inventory as much as possible.
Ryder walks into Sickbay at the start of his shift, looking fresh and collected. As usually goes at the start of his shift, he walks over to look at the white-board and examine who is where, and how things are going. Nurses and med techs come over to give him his lab coat and charts for the day, then he walks over to the main station to set up a rotation. Work work work. At least the klaxons haven't gone off yet today.
Glancing up as Ryder enters into Sickbay, Cameron smiles to himself a little, which prompts the technician he's working on to inquire, "What's so funny?" Blue eyes glance up, slightly startled as he offers her a sheepish smile and half-apologizes and half-explains, "Oh, oh, nothing is 'funny'. Sorry. Just noticed that Dr. Ryder has arrived for his shift. Which means that my shift is nearly over." She gives him a knowing smile in return and replies, "That's a good feeling. Okay, you can smile while fixing my broken arm then." Chuckling softly, Cameron replies, "Thanks…" and then glancing over his shoulder, he lifts one hand liberally covered in streaks of white, wet plaster, calling out in casual greeting, "Hey Joe, whaddya know?"
"That whoever is running the cafeteria is clearly a Cylon sympathiser attempting to kill us through low morale." Joe calls back, pouring himself a cup of coffee and walking over. "That, or something is seriously wrong in hydroponics. Otherwise, not much. How goes, Cam?"
Cameron's response is half-laughter, half-groan as he concurs, "Yeah, yeah the food here can be a little frightening. Though I've heard rumors that there might be an actual restaurant opening up over on the Elpis. Not sure exactly how that will work, but hopefully the food will be good?" His eyes remain upon his work throughout the conversation, his attention shifting to his patient as he smoothes down the last bit of plaster guaze and asks, "How does it feel?" The woman arches a brow and retorts, "Like it's broken," which causes Cam to chuckle sheepishly again and note, "Yeah, lets get you something for the pain." Pulling out a pad, he writes up a prescription, glancing up at Ryder as he draws close and taking in a deep breath, smelling the coffee in his hand with a faint longing sound escaping on his exhale. "Tired, but not bad. It goes," he offers in return, handing over the slip of paper to the tech and pointing her toward the pharmacy window. Rising up, he walks over to the nearest sink and starts rinsing off the plaster noting, "I'll be glad when my shift is over. Need to get back over on the Elpis so I can spend some time with Elpis." It gets confusing sometimes, his adopted daughter having the same name as the civilian ship. The little girl doesn't seem to care for it either, though she's never actually said so, seeing how she doesn't speak. But whenever someone says her name, refering to the ship instead of her, she stamps her foot angrily and tends to act out as well. It's not a good thing.
Ryder chuckles. "Have you considered a nickname for her, to make things less confusing?" He takes a sip of his coffee, and looks back over at the board. "We still have Demarcos, I see. I have to admit, that eltee from Aerion knows her shit. Head damage like that could easily have killed the pilot… she may be on course for full recovery. Any new pilots I've missed?"
"In her opinion, she had the name first, so she has proprietal rights…. or at least I think that's her feeling on the matter. I've tried suggesting a new name, but that makes her even more upset than hearing someone using Elpis to refer to the ship." Shoulders shrug in that 'what can you do?' sort of way as he notes, "She has a lot of fear and anger and issues to work through still. I think this is all just an excuse for some of that to start rising to the surface. But I don't have any experience with this sort of thing. I have no idea if I'm helping her or making matters worse…" Glancing over at the board, Cameron's head bobs and notes, "I'm hopeful for her. So far her tests are coming back fairly solid. We'll have to wait and see what the fallout might be." As for the rest? Shaking his head, Cameron reports, "No new pilots that I'm aware of, thank the Gods…"
Klaxons blare throughout the fleet, and Tillman announces over the loudspeakers: "ACTION STATIONS! ACTION STATIONS! Set Condition One throughout the fleet! All Air Wing personnel report to the deck for immediate launch. THIS IS NOT A DRILL!"
Drying off his hands, Cameron suddenly starts as the klaxon begins to blare and curses softly, "Frak it…. guess there will be….." he corrects dourly. He was going to go off shift, but now? Now Cameron heads over for his own cup of coffee as the Sickbay goes into a flurry of activity, getting things ready for the potential wave of wounded pilots.
"Dammit…" Ryder grumbles as the klaxons go off. He turns to one of the nurses. "Go give Lt. Demarcos a PRN dose. She needs rest, not to be in there stressing about not flying." He then turns to Cameron. "That's a tough row to hoe, but she's lucky she has you. If you'd like, I know a girl over there, Nataly Rassvet. Wrote a couple of articles, you might have heard her name. Anyway, if you need someone to keep an eye on Elpis when we're stuck over here, I'm sure she'd be willing to help." He sighs. "It's gotta be hard dealing with all these jumps when you're needed on both ships.
One brow lifts as Cameron nods, already moving to check on patients that are resting and making sure that beds and supplies are at the ready. "Nataly Rassvet? Sure, I'd like to meet her. Elpis is generally a well behaved child, but she's smart and she's been traumatized. She's chosen her own way of coping, but she can't hold out like this forever. At some point, she's going to break down, and it would be good to know that someone is there for her if I can't be." Blue eyes lift to Ryder, a quiet sort of pain and desperation swimming just beneath the surface as Cameron nods and lets out an uncertain breath. "It's hard," he concurs. "When it was just the two of us, things were harder in some ways, easier in others. But I made the mistake of letting her get overly dependant on me. She tries to be good, but the fact that she can't be with me a lot of the time, it's starting to really affect her. And me…" Taking a deep breath and glancing about, Cameron muses, "We should send a medical team down to the hangar bay, for when the vipers get back in…" Those that manage to return, that is.
Ryder nods. "Especially if they land like poor Hosedown did. Yeah, I'll take the pager, and I'll go. Why don't you come along? If we're lucky, and not needed, you'll be able to catch a Raptor straight to the Elpis from there."
Nodding in reply, Cameron notes, "Good plan." And turning he assembles a small team of medics, loading on his usual medical pack onto his back, the rest of the team gathering up medical kits, gurneys, and whatever else they might require in an emergency situation, heading down toward the hangar deck as Cameron catches up with Ryder. "Right, let's do this and hope that we're being overly efficient…"
With a nod, Ryder heads to the hangar.