Does This Look Serious?

Posted on 08 Feb 2011 @ 9:49am by Captain Derek Longwinter & Lieutenant JG Teresa Wendsar

3,168 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: M7: Shore Leave - Mercer Colony
Location: Mostly Sick Bay
Timeline: Shore Leave back post

"All Safety Protocols Disengaged, risk of injury and death, highly unadvised"

The computer chimed at him, letting him know that the safeties had been engaged. Derek Longwinter didn't believe in the safety protocols on the holo deck: some said it was because of arrogance, a thought that he could never be killed or some vain attempt to look tough. The simple truth was that in the real world, you don't get a second chance, so training with safety protocols were second rate training and that was just unacceptable to the Marine Commander: if he was going to walk the razor thing line of life or death, almost on a daily basis, there was no reason not to train like it.

The entire holo deck had been changed to one of the very few simulation programs that he used,a simple looking and authentic Japanese style dojo from the feudal era of that country: it was a place you would expect a samurai to train in. During that time of the simulation, it was late late at night on a deep overcast day, ominous gray clouds covered the sky like a think blanket and snuffed out the moon and all the stars: there was just darkness in the dojo, not a single candle lit. Standing in the very center of the dojo, a light summer's breeze blew across Derek's muscular and well defined upper body, shirtless and exposing each hardened muscle, Derek had dozens of scars across his back and his chest: each one a story, a story of failure.

Despite being shirtless, Derek was wearing loose fitting black pants traditional to the martial art known as Eskrima, an ancient filipino martial art sometime called Kali as well, the pants were loose fitting so they were not constricting but not to loose or baggy to cause a problem with movement, they were somehow the perfect balance. the crest was the traditional Doce Pares, or twelve house style that was a mix of twelve styles of Eskrima, was a white circle with a sword being crossed by one of the famous sticks over the old world Philipino flag. Derek was honored to have learned from one of the Doce Pares masters during his musha-shugyo, or Warrior Pilgrimage, and been accepted as a master in the Doce Pares, so he wore the traditional garb with pride. Gripped tightly in each of his powerful hands in a strong grip were a pair of Yantok or fighting sticks made of Raatan wood, Derek's set intracitely hand crafted two look like two dragons intertwined dueling each other: the pair known as the Four Dragons. Derek hands were down at his sides, holding the sticks pointing down, his body unmoving and in a neutral position as the marine commander kept his eyes closed, though it was kind of redundant because of the black blindfold wrapped around his head over his eyes, further blinding him.

Derek had barely heard them approaching, though that is why they were ninja. The rice paper doors of the dojo had already been opened on both sides so there was only the slightest patter of hurried steps as his opponents approached: Derek had programed two Shadow eyes ninja to assassinate, shadows eyes meaning they were the highest mastery of ninjitsu or the art of the ninja. Sound of a shuriken was unmistakable though as one of the ninja flung a couple at Derek as he entered the room, his partner taking the quick approach of leaping through the air, its Ninjato leading the way. Completely still and passive all the way up til the last second, Derek suddenly exploding into a flurry of motion as he reacted. Ducking under one shuriken and then batting the other out of the sky with his right stick, Derek smoothly side stepped one lightning quick slash from the assassin on his left and then snapped his right stick out to strike his opponent, the powerful strike hitting nothing but air as the quick ninja had already moved.

Completely blind but not letting any confusion or doubt show in his features, Derek smoothly moved into a defensive stance, bringing one stick up diagonally to roughly cover his upper body as he angled the other stick low, he had to be ready for any type of the attack. Not even having to coordinate with words, their moved honed to aid each other, the two ninja came at Derek with their swords, moving in for the kill on either side of the blinded Angosian. Relying on hearing alone and intuition alone, Derek met each and every one of their moves with one of his sticks, the sound of blades being battered aside by the tough wooden weapons Derek used reverberated through the entire dojo as it looked like a graceful dance, a veritable tempest of motion in the center of the dojo of attacks, parries and counters as Derek worked the four dragons with amazing speeds, blocking all of the ninja's lightning fast attacks and forcing them back, though it was at completely defensive fight.

As long as they remained close, Derek figured he could keep up with them. The two ninja must had figured that out because they slowed their numbers of attacks, they had realized Derek had been forcing them into attacks, leaving subtle openings that he knew the assassins would attack and then blocked them. As they suddenly broke off, leaving Derek striking air he thought would be ninja, suddenly the ninja were upon him with two quick strikes. White hot pain appeared first right across his right side as Derek swung out and hit nothing, the razor sharp edge of a ninjato slicing smoothly along his side, only a few inches is because Derek's quickly movement back, though another lance of pain suddenly seared across his back as the other ninja's weapon smoothly cleaved the flesh of his back, a powerful forward kick from the same ninja sending the marine commander stumbling blindly forward down to his knees, sticks slamming hard against the floor of the dojo as his knees hit. There was only pain: white hot,like an inferno burning in his chest and back, filling his vision with only red as streaks of blood the same color dripping down his bare skin, a feral grunt escaped Derek's lips, rage building as he smoothly shot back up to his feet.

Derek was like a Demon, a man possessed as he flew towards the first ninja, taken back by the unexpected ferocity of the marines attack, the ninja caught a crippling strike from Derek's left stick as the heavy wood slammed right on the inner part of the ninja's right leg, the amazing force behind the blow forcing the man's leg inward at a weird angle, the blow having already shattered the man's knee cap, the ninja uncoordinated down to his knees as he tried to flee or raise his weapon in defense but Derek's right stick slammed into the man's right hand, shattering the tiny and weak bones in his hand, forcing him to release the grip on his razor sharp head. Augmented speed propelling his left stick again, the powerful corded muscles of Derek's arm rippling as he swung, his left stick hit the defenseless ninja on the side of the head with such force that the hardened raatan stick broken in half, the impact concaving the side of the ninja's head, a scream escaping his lips in the pain that matched the defiant roar of Derek.

Suddenly it felt as if someone had just stuck a needle or a small knife into his back as Derek lurched forward, a ninja star sticking into his back, thrown by the other ninja as it sprung forward to attack the raging marine commander. Whipping around with blinding speed, Derek's right stick shot up to block the ninja's sword and using his strength and size, Derek pressed hard back against the Ninja and practically threw him back with his stick. Scrambling to get his footing, the ninja was trying to right his defense when Derek came on, faster than even the ninja could have moved, obviously because he wasn't genetically enhanced, Derek lead with the only full stick he had left, his right stick, and crashed it right down on the ninja's sword with such strength he batted it away easily, exposing the stunned ninja's upper body. Using the broken half of his left stick much like it was a dagger or a broken bottle, the sharp broken edge pierced very easily into the ninja's neck as Derek forced it in all the way til his hand hit flesh, he sharp,broken wood sticking up through and severing the man's currated and jugular vein and sticking into his wind pipe: the ninja master was choking on his own blood as he couldn't get air, it was over quick and Derek let him drop limply to the ground, releasing his hold on the broken stick.

Slightly hunched over, breathing heavily as his chest heaved, Derek ripped the blind fold off and looked at the two incapacitated ninja holograms in the darkness. His vision was swimming, there was just red and white hot pain coursing through his entire body. Derek didn't know what time it was but his survival instinct were kicking in as he dropped the other stick and he tried to hold the bleeding at his, trying to clamp pressure on the long thin cut to stop some of the bleeding as he stumbled out through the exit of the holo deck, the Dojo, the ninja's and the totally different world dematerializing behind him as he stepped slowly into the bright light of the well carpeted deck: the only thing that didn't dematerialize was his wounds, the bright red cuts and punctures real, as real as the thin red lines of blood running down his body as Derek pressed against the wall trying to brace himself as he walked, he was getting weak though he could never admit it: he was losing blood at a rapid rate.

Derek had gotten wounded a lot in training. Any time he did, he would usually have one of the marine corpsman patch him up and then ordered them not to say anything. Then again he would usually be training on the Marine Deck, well away from the rest of the star fleet officers on the ship, but the Deck was closed down for retrofit and routine mateinance, so all of Derek's marines were off ship on shore leave and he hadn't been in his own little part of the ship. Derek's only choice was to actually make it to sick bay, which would not be a far trip but one that Derek some what dreaded. Having slowly dragged himself to a turbo lift, Derek stepped in the turbo lift with two junior officers, one in ops, the other in flight control, both young and both very shocked to see him step shirtless, pale and bleeding into the turbo lift. Wide eyed with shock and about to say something Derek just gave them both a very intimidating, stone cold look that seemed to keep their mouths shut. Saying nothing during the now very awkward ride, the turbo lift felt like it took an eternity to get to the right deck but suddenly it slowed to a halt and the doors finely opened.

Without another word to the two ensigns, Derek stepped out of the turbo lift slowly, now seeing black dots on his vision along with the red and he knew he was getting pretty bad. Pure determination and will power to not bleed out in the middle of a deck, Derek probably could have wrapped his wounds but with all the adrenaline pumping his blood out rapidly, he hadn't thought about it as he finally found sick bay. The glass door to the sick bay emblazioned with the famous Caduceus symbol, the dual snake with wings looking thing, opened with a slight woosh as Derek staggered in. They were running on a ghost crew more than likely because of the shore leave but Derek had hoped someone would be there but on the other hand he didn't: Derek dreaded going to any sort of sick bay or meeting any doctors.....Derek never seemed to get along with doctors.

Derek was practically banned from the sick bay on his old ship after almost coming to blows with the chief medic, Derek never really felt right in sick bay. It was full of healers, people helped the sick and the injured, people who saved lives: where on the other hand Derek just ended them. Sure he did it to protect the federation and all but take away all that and the simple fact was he was a killer: destruction and death given form and that didn't really go with the whole life saving thing. Derek was slowly and very unsteadily, using his free hand to brace himself, he kept a very grim and serious look on his face, showing no pain or fear on his handsome yet scarred face as he scanned the room looking for someone to help him, though he was very certain to cause them a pretty big headache: because Derek's very unique genetic make up, the angosian marine commander didn't show up on any sort of electronics: according to machines he had no pulse, no heat signature....nothing, even a corpse had more life than Derek appeared to have: if it wasn't for his comm badge he wore in uniform, the ship would never be able to find him since he essentially had no life signs.

"Is there anyone here?" Derek called out, his voice was steady and unchanged by his fast slipping strength, Derek's piercing emerald eyes scanning the room as he tried to make heads of tails of the very unfamiliar room, his vision getting blurrier and blurrier as time went on, all adrenaline that might had helped him fight the pain had faded fast and it was harder and harder to hold on.

Teresa walked into sickbay just after Derek entered. "What on Earth? Nurse! We need some assistance in here!" She called as she hurried to Derek's side. "Let's get you on a biobed. What's your blood type?"

Derek head was a blur, a mix of emotions, left over adrenaline and hazy that was as crimson red as the blood slowly dripping down the hardened muscles of his torso. Derek could register someone coming to his side and he could hear her voice as him something but it was kind of mute noise, muffled as if she had tried to talk to him underwater....underwater....it was like he swimming but in a lake of blood. Slowly his head turned to regard the woman with a blank look, though the wicked scar that marred his otherwise handsome face and the natural grim set to his face made even his blank face look somewhat grim and serious.

Bekah had rushed to the Marine Captain's side. She knew what happened as she had done it herself.

"Sir? you took the holodeck safety's off?" She asked.

"No pain.....no gain...." Derek had summoned whatever strength he had to regain a little bit of bravado. Derek had numerous scars from small to large tracing his entire body, he had been in pain before and yet the wounds were deeper than he had thought, he was losing blood faster than he had anticipated and little did he know or maybe he had just finally pieced it together, the ninja's he had faced were worth being called masters, they definitely knew how to use poison on their blades: it was making him worse and worse by the minute. As Derek lost whatever strength had thought he found, he slowly lost it as he became feverish and begun to mumble all sorts of things that made thing in his mind but he was sure would sound like gibberish to the two medics trying to help him.

Amongst all the gibberish though, as he got weaker, his voice become something of a whisper, he was trying to get something out, he wasn't sure if his mouth was moving as he spoke, he couldn't even hear himself as he spoke " can't.......read......me......" he was trying to warn them of his rare genetics but he had finally slipped into subconsciousness and quickly, it was as if someone had flipped the light off or someone had hit him in the face really hard,he was suddenly in just darkness.

Teresa felt her hackles raise when she heard this comment, but said nothing, as she assisted the Chief Medical officer with the injured Marine. To the other doctor, "I am Dr. Wendsar, by the way. I'll better introduce myself once we've cared for this injured marine." She grabbed the Marine as he started to collapse. "Doctor!"

"I think he mumbled something about is unique genetic make up. I'll go and access his medical files." Bekah turned to the Computer terminal.

Teresa moved the Marine to the nearest bio bed and had one of the medics assist her in placing him on the bed. "Hurry with that, medical file! I need to know what blood type he is, now!" She started cutting his uniform away from the cut, as she listened for the information.

"Aye Doctor. It seem to be an usual blood group due to his genetic make-up being Half Human/Half Angosian. So we should be able to replicate his blood directly from a sample of his own blood." Bekah said as she looked at the Lieutenant.

"Great, let's get that started and then I want to make certain he did not cut any muscles. Help me get him cleaned up. As he stated this scanner is of no use to me. I'll have to do a visual inspection."

Rebekah nodded and to a small Hypo of blood and set up and old fashioned drip to start receiving the blood once the replicactor had finshed.

Teresa pulled on old fashioned rubber gloves, and started visually inspecting the wounds. "All I see is some tearing of the muscle. Nothing serious looks to have been hit, thank goodness. We'll use the autosuture on him. Give him five ccs of improvoline to ease the pain. Let's also give him thirty cc's of corophizine, to fight off any possible infections. " Teresa picked up the autosuture and started working on his wounds.

Bekah began the transfusion of Blood and smiled "there we go."

"Thank you nurse, keep a close eye on him, make certain he doesn't get up when he comes to." Teresa said as she finished autosuturing the wounds. "I want to keep an eye on him for a little while longer. He may have some water, and give him only a liquid meal. I want to make certain he holds it down, before we give him anything solid."

-- this is a serious Back post

 

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