Hiding

Tanner rushed in when he heard the call to quarters and tactical alert. Riaan grabbed his arm and placed him squarely where she stood and she left the bay quickly, needing to catch her breath before she could continue. Doctors should never treat family; the closeness of the relationship prohibited the most efficient treatment every time. Standing outside the sick bay doors, Ariannaa ran towards her up the corridor.

            “Mama, what wrong?” she shouted. “Why come people running?”

            “Where’s your big brother, Pet?” Ariannaa shook her head. Riaan drew a deep breath and tapped the intercom outside the sick bay. “Riaan to Brannigaan, report to sick bay,” she called, hoping he heard. She didn’t want to go back inside with Ariannaa hanging on her leg. If the girl saw her father looking dead in sick bay she’d come apart at the seams.

            “Doctor Mom!”Brannigaan’s voice came on the intercom. “I can’t find Ariannaa,” she heard.

            “She’s here with me; I’m outside sick bay. I need you to come get her so I can go back in!”

            Brannigaan arrived within a minute; tactical alert was cancelled.

            “We just went to warp,” Brannigaan told her. “Do you know what’s going on? I thought we were going down to the planet.”

            “Please just take Annaa and I’ll talk to you later, please?” He looked worried, reflecting his mother’s expression. He took his sister by the hand and nodding took her away from sick bay. The tiny one didn’t protest, but didn’t skip down the aisle either. Riaan tried to hide her heart from the children but it wasn’t an easy task for her.

            Her composure intact, she returned to the sick bay and put a clean lab coat over her soiled scrubs. The admiral had been transferred off the scanner, changed out of the stained and ripped clothes and put on the heated bio bed. Tanner was untying the makeshift bandage from Archer’s head. Riaan stared at the scan readings, not liking what she saw. Although he had stabilized, away from hypovolemic shock, with heat, a blood infusion, and intravenous saline, the scan also showed three broken ribs, intracranial hemorrhage, and evidence of a concussion.
           Lieutenant Tanner moved aside; Riaan took over attending to Jonathan’s head wound. She dropped the tie on the floor, poured some clear bubbling liquid over the area that dissolved the thick blood in his hair, down his neck. It was all Riaan could do to focus on the task so she wouldn’t fall apart. She felt nauseous, lightheaded, as if she might faint on top of Jonathan and cry. Instead, she steeled herself and finished cleaning the wound, then debrided it, silently, while the staff went about their business pretending not to notice their doctor’s demeanor. Captain Mitchell entered the sick bay.

            “We’re headed back to Earth at warp six-seven. Dr Phlox is coming on a Vulcan transport at warp seven. We should meet up in three days. Saves time if we meet in the middle.” Riaan briefly looked up from her patient at Captain Mitchell’s solemn face.

            “I’m not a surgeon.”

            “I know, doctor.”

            “The artery needs to be repaired. Occipital lobe,” she said, nodding at the view screen.

            “What can you do until then?” Mitchell asked quietly. The rest of the medical crew had politely disappeared. “Whatever you need—“