Star Bound Liberty (Complete)

Chapter Five

It didn't take long at all to adjust back to being the lowly Private, which was a huge relief. I think I managed to find the galley in time for the evening meal then crashed on an empty bunk bed in a low ranking, all female bunk room. I was so tired after everything that happened that I fell asleep quickly. I awoke the next morning to the sounds of the other women moving around in the room. When I realised I was on my back, squishing Ayms and panicked a bit, jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom to check on him in the mirror. He was perfectly fine. His Mossie texture bounced back into shape quickly and I could see he'd grown a little in size overnight. I didn't think that was normal though, how fast he might be growing. It might be something I could talk to Doc about.

Then I looked at my wrist comm for the time and realised I was going to be late on my first day of deployment. I showered and dressed quickly and ran through the corridor to the nearest transfer tube and booted it up a ladder and into the medic bay just before the shipboard clock hit 0800. I lamented my lack of coffee and breakfast.

I arrived into a scene out of my famous medical practitioner mother's worst nightmare. Shipments of medical supplies, boxes and crates of new equipment and updated medicine, it was stacked haphazardly throughout the triage bay in a chaotic nightmare. I couldn't even see chief Medical Officer Brandson in the mess, just medical technicians wandering about, putting things away in the complete wrong places and mixing new medicine with old, and opening crates and boxes without checking the contents against a manifest. I'm pretty sure I squeaked a little bit for a moment there.

The clinic had pale blue walls and white nuplex floors and was divided up into a series of wards. Accident and emergency was placed front and centre with triage taking up most of the space. Over to the left were what I could only describe as officer's wards, with a few general wards further into the department and over to the right held access to operating theatres, with another corridor leading towards a staff break room and offices beyond. Antiquated medibeds lined every wall in each room with a few patients being ignored in the mix. I couldn't see any senior staff, nor was anyone in possession of a hand-held scanner. It was a nightmare.

Without the Chief to direct my day, I decided to just get stuck right in. I ignored the supplies and started with the sick. Two women laid side by side in the ward next the empty closed off officer's ward. The older dark-haired one had her shoulder wrapped with in bandages that needed changing and she looked uncomfortable. The lady in the medibed next to her was younger and was holding a bowl under her head. My guess she had eaten something unsavoury while on leave.

I scrubbed my hands in a sink just inside the room, grabbed a disposable smock and sprayed on a pair of gloves while I made my way over to the two. The system on the older woman's bed was showing the patient's heart rate and blood pressure was elevated. My guess she was in pain, but I needed to see what she had been charted before I could give her anything. The computer system wouldn't recognise my fleet ID number so in the end I couldn't chart her any pain relief, but I knew of other ways to make her comfortable without needing to give her anything.

'Good morning, Ma'am. My name is Libby, I'll be your Medic for the day. How was your night?' I looked at the colour of her skin around her mouth and eyes, a little grey, and noticed that it took her a little while to focus on my face.

'Wasn't Daila or Dondle supposed to be on this morning? Who are you?' Her voice was pinched.

'My name is Private Libby Moss. Have you have had a meal this morning, Ma'am?' I moved around the medibed to check on her shoulder. According to her records, she got too close to a bar fight and ended up with a glass bottle slashing her shoulder. She'd had it cleaned out and glued back together, but the wound shouldn't be weeping as much as it was, which meant that she'd probably been moving it too much or someone didn't conduct the procedure correctly.