Shards of Glass

Posted on Tue May 3rd, 2011 @ 4:10pm by Lieutenant JG Matthew April

Mission: Renegades
Location: Various
Timeline: Immediately Following "Carus Triumphus"

=Main Bridge, Deck One, U.S.S. Arizona=

The tension on the bridge subsided, momentarily. Matt looked down at the console in front of him. He tapped his fingers on a few places on the shiny black surface. He initiated a scan of the area, he wasn't entirely sure that the Romulans were no more. The console suddenly went black, sending a shower of sparks onto Matt. He flew out of his chair as the console exploded. "God damnit..." he cursed, as a nearby fire control officer sprayed him with fire extinguishing foam. The officer helped him to his feet, "Thanks..." Matt said. "Just doing my job," the officer said, "You better get down to sickbay..." He looked down at the burns on Matt's face, near his eyes. Matt nodded, his face felt like it was on fire.

=Main Sickbay, Deck Seven, U.S.S. Arizona=

The turbolift doors closed infront of him. He ran his finger into his eyes, rubbing the soot out of his iris. The turbolift doors opened on deck 7, revealing a gruesome scene. The corridor had been turned into a makeshift triage for the excess wounded. Matt walked out of the turbolift. A man walked past him who was missing a portion of his arm, others were sitting on the ground next to the wall. Some had been bandaged, others were still waiting for treatment. Matt walked over to a female nurse, who was next to the door to sickbay giving orders.

"Crewmen, get this man into the corridor and a place to lay down. Give that pain medication a minute to kick in Ensign you'll be fine it looks worse then it really is." The nurse said handing off her patient. "Now what can I do for you Lieutenant?"

"Well, if you're not too busy, a console exploded in my face on the bridge," Matt said, sucking up the pain, "I have some burns on my face, second degree since it hurts like hell." His face felt like molten lead.

"I can see that, have a seat and lets get those glass shards out of your face first. And you're not even close, the burns are first degree, its the glass in your face that your feeling, by the way." Matt set himself in a chair next to an instrument tray. "Just hold still Lieutenant, one of these is right next to your eye, and I don't want to loose it." The nurse sad picking up a set of tweezers. She held Matts' chin with he other hand. "Alright you can blink safely now." Another few minutes and one piece at a time she removed the shards.

"Alright Lieutenant, the messy part of this is finished. Crewmen, hand me that dermal re-generator on that other tray this ones dead." The crewmen swapped out instrument trays on her. "Thanks. Alright Lieutenant, is your good side the right or the left?"

"Well... Right I guess..." Matt said, "Why what's wrong?" A look of concern spread across the young man's face, his green eyes looked around.

"If I do this right, nothing at all. But you do have a rather deep gash on the left side that may scar over. Just try to hold still for a couple more minutes. Close your eyes for me, this may be a little bright." She said as sh passed the re-generator over the side of his face. A few minutes passed. "Okay Lieutenant, take a look and tell me how that looks."

"Fine I guess." Matt said, trying to get a good look, "I'm just glad it wasn't the leg for once..." He sighed.

"One last thing, go like this." She moved her jaw in a wide chewing motion, she watched him mimic what she did. "Some of those muscles will be sore for a day or two, but everything looks good. No offense, but I want you out of my sickbay you're talking up valuable real-estate."

"Alright..." Matt said getting up, "You seem to have plenty of work up here, and I'm sure engineering could use a hand. Thank you nurse." He turned around and walked through the crowd of wounded and out the door of sickbay.

Matt turned right and walked down the corridor, avoiding the wounded who were lining the walls as he went. He stepped back inside the turbolift, "Deck five." he said as the doors closed behind him. He lifted his left hand and ran it across the left side of his face. Besides from the light stubble, it was perfectly smooth. A sigh of relief rushed through Matt.

=Main Engineering, Deck Five, U.S.S. Arizona=

The doors of the turbolift opened, revealing the chaos. Dozens of engineers were rushing around in the corridor outside main engineering. Matt walked down the corridor, nearly tripping over an EPS conduit which was laying on the floor. He approached a tall Cardassian chief petty officer. "Chief." Matt said as he approached. "Lieutenant." Chief Corvak said, looking at the young officer. "Need any help down here?" The chief chuckled at the question, "Well, no shit... Pardon my French." he said, "Yeah, I need someone to help replaced the EPS conduits on deck four, and well... You broke your console on the bridge." Matt chuckled, "Well, it isn't my console, it's the commander's, but I know what you mean... I'll get on it." The Cardassian picked up a toolkit and threw it at him. Matt caught it, turned and walked back the way he came, this time avoiding the discarded EPS conduit.

The turbolift doors opened on deck four. Matt stepped onto the burnt carpet. The deck was deserted. He looked around, half of the lights were either not functioning or flickering. This section definitely took the brunt of the assault. He walked a few yards and knelt down infront of the panel on the bulk head. He put his hands to the panel and removed the cover, revealing the interior of the bulkhead. He removed the tricorder from his belt and scanned the conduit. Thankfully the conduit wasn't destroyed, but the impact of the battle had thrown it out of alignment. Matt proceeded to repair the conduit.

Once he was finished he returned to the turbolift, "Deck one, main bridge." he said as the doors closed. He stretched his shoulder as the lift came to a halt. The doors opened and he walked onto the bridge.

=Main Bridge, Deck One, U.S.S. Arizona=

The bridge was a flurry of activity, damage control crews were busy replacing consoles, putting out fires and gutting the burned interior. Matt walked across the bridge to the OPS console. The console was still the way he left it, inoperable. He knelt down beside the console, setting the toolkit down on the floor next to him. He opened the side of the panel and began to replace the burned out circuits. This came quit easily to Matt due to his engineering training, the job took less than five minutes. Matt packed up his tool kit and took at seat at the unmanned station. He tapped the panel and it suddenly came to life. With a sigh of relief, Matt began to run a diagnostic on the console.