Picard to House

Two

*Doctor Crusher*
Mid 2357

Screams of pain kept coming past me. Burns, lacerations and blood littered the floor of my medical bay. Some had passed out from agony and others thrashed violently against the small staff I had that wasn't somewhere else onboard. It'd been going for mere minutes, but it had felt like hours.
Of course the Romulans had to show up. We were simply delivering some vaccines to an outpost near the Neutral Zone; from what I could tell, no one on the bridge saw the first attack coming either.
"Picard to sickbay!"
"Sickbay here!" I held onto one of the beds while the ship rocked.
"What's your status? We're attempting to get the warp drive online-"
"We've got wounded coming in from decks five, six and nine. No casualties yet," I dashed over to a wounded ensign and injected some painkillers. "But if we don't get out of here quick enough I won't have any patients left to treat!"
"Understood. Keep me informed."
Another blast of torpedoes struck the ship, sending the tricorder in my pocket flying across the room. Nurse Ogowa huddled with another ensign underneath the desk in my office, delivering Lieutenant Dakoter's baby six weeks early. Her screams outmatched the others by a wide margin.
At Starfleet Medical they trained us to deal with high pressure situations, but that was one of those times where it was becoming too much. I was understaffed, overworked and had very little sleep the night before.
"Damned Romulans," I cursed. We were almost out of hyposprays and had more injured people than supplies we had left. "Get some more pain relievers!"
"Powers' been diverted to the engines, sir! Replicators are offline!" A voice shrilled back.
I swore quietly. An ensign nearby continued screaming, writhing from the pain her burns were giving her. The most I could do was apply a dressing and let her squeeze my hand.
Just as I thought I would have a breakdown, the shaking stopped. We'd either destroyed the Romulans or-
"Picard to sickbay. We've jumped to warp eight, heading for Starbase five two five. You're free to use replicators now."
"Thank you sir," I breathed in relief. Other officers had heard the conversation and were handing me multiple hyposprays. I bent over and injected my current patient, who relaxed immediately.
I turned to face my staff. "Inject every patient with relievers! We need to last until we get to Starbase."
As soon as I finished speaking, the ship suddenly thrust us forward; I fell into a couple of my staff, dropping their hyposprays in the process. I must've hit something on the way down; ringing appeared in my ears, escalating quickly. Patients kept screaming and wailing in misery - it was painful to listen to.
"Why'd I leave Starfleet Medical again?" I grumbled.
The doors opened and three officers stumbled in, carrying an injured lieutenant in their arms. His muscles spasimed violently, with boils distorting his face and a nick in his uniform producing a trickle of blood in his yellow shirt.
"Get him on a bed!" I leapt from the floor, grabbing a few hyposprays. The patient seemed unconscious, but I administered painkillers anyway. It seemed ethical. "What happened?"
"Found him on deck five," One officer panted. "I think there was some sort of intruder and they must've done something to him. No explosions or anything."
It took me a minute to analyse the state this man was in. A nurse provided me with a respirator, as he was struggling to breathe. His bulged cheeks indicated a swollen tongue and there were pus-filled boils breaking out all over his face. Looking at his eyes revealed another problem as well.
"His livers failing!" I shouted.
A hypospray was pushed into my hand. I injected into his neck, expecting to see instant results. "Need another dose!"
Another hypospray, another injection. He wasn't responding to anything.
Nurse Ogowa appeared at my side. "We're going to need to operate - the baby isn't moving."
"Get me another dose," I instructed.
Ogowa hesitated. "If we push him too far-"
"He should've responded by now to the stimulant. Get me another."
It was only when he crashed after another injection that I realised who my patient was.

******
"His liver almost shut down, he lost half of his blood and I can't find any drugs in his system that would explain what's happening to him!" I almost slammed the table in frustration. "He's not going to make it if we don't get to a Starbase in - I'd say - twenty four hours!"
Jean-Luc peered at me from the head of the briefing room with concern. "But as Geordi already explained, the Romulans knocked out our warp engines with a delayed explosion. We aren't going anywhere for at least two days."
"He needs attention. Surely we can get a ship to drop by and take him-"
"Already tried," Riker said grimly. "The nearest ship is the USS Delta and she won't be here for a day at the most."
"He'll be dead by then!" I pleaded. "Data, isn't there anything you can think of?"
The android thought for a moment. "There is one possibility, but it would require Starfleet's permission."
"To hell with that; we don't have time," Jean-Luc stated. "What do you have in mind?"
"Starfleet has a recorded account of James Kirk's crew performing a time warp to the twentieth century nearly eighty years ago in order to obtain a humpback whale needed to disable a probe that was threatening Earth's oceans."
A silence fell across the room. Data looked puzzled. "Am I confusing you?"
"Let me get this straight," Riker shifted in his chair. "You want us to attempt a time warp in a Galaxy class starship to find a doctor that can help Worf?"
"Precisely, Commander."
"But Data, that time warp took place in a Klingon bird of prey, not a Federation ship." Jean-Luc pointed out.
"It would be near impossible to attempt it with a ship of our size," Geordi added. "Plus, it was never fully investigated or studied by Starfleet."
"Well, I think you face a choice, Captain," Counsellor Troi spoke for the first time since we'd gathered. "Either we find a way to get Worf to someone who can treat him and possibly interact with the past, or we stay where we are and your security chief dies an agonising death."
Jean-Luc jumped out of his chair and began pacing, staring outside at the stars.
I grew impatient. "Captain, we need to do something!"
It was a long time before he spoke again. "Call the Klingon high council. It's time I redeemed a favour."