In the Thunderchief sickbay...
But then there was those that were near engineering when the second blast hit.
Repair crews and medics alike who were still aboard the Thunderhead
recovering. How about them.... How about Serana and Selara...
Despite the initial need for space, Selara had managed to keep one operating room for herself, mostly by weight of hard glares and reputation. It had been a tense several hours, and 90% of Serana's survival chance was still beyond Selara's capability.
Actually, the damage had not been as extensive as she initially thought. Serana had an artificial backbone - a result of a previous battle - which was made of a lightweight Venasian synthetic which could withstand tremendous oceanic pressures. Therefore, her backbone - and the delicate central nerves it housed - had remained relatively unscathed. Her vestigial lungs had been shredded in the blast, but a Venasian respiratory system had the advantage that so long as there was enough skin to allow molecular exchange, that person would remain alive. Selara might be able to replace the lung system later, but that wasn't crucial right now, nor something she wanted to undertake without a respiratory specialist present.
Serana had been pinned under another body; she had been shielded from the full brunt of the attack, but enough holes had torn through her that she had lost a lot of blood. Venasian blood was scarce. Selara had to synthesize some artificial plasma V-packs, which she wasn't sure would take for too long. Serana's system could reject the infusions, which would mean certain death for the doctor.
Otherwise, she had suffered severe burns to her face and limbs, but not her torso - again, a result of being shielded. She also had a concussion, and a broken leg. The leg had been the easiest thing to fix; Selara was still wrestling with the burn damage. She had raised the oxygen levels in the room to a high level (she and the staff now wore respirators) and begun fluid transfer. She had also started following the treatment protocol for burn victims, and assessing the probability of skin graft treatment. However, Serana had to pull through the next several hours before Selara could consider transplants.
"There's little more you can do here," she told her assistants, "The rest is up to her. Go and be useful somewhere else."
The assistants nodded - in relief, it seemed - and left the room. Selara opened a communication channel to Garibaldi. "Well, Serana's stable," she said without preamble,"but still very critical. The next few hours will tell whether she'll pull through, and if she does, she's in for a long recovery."
(response)
-S
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