*** Temporary Sickbay * USS Chimera *** One of the patients offered to decipher the morse coded messages and reported their contents to Rangi. He sat on the edge of his bed, working on a padd with his left hand, something that was difficult for a right handed person to do well, but he was soon able to pass on the messages including one that the XO was on his way to engineering. Rangi welcomed this news, reasoning that Shane must be uninjured to attempt such a journey. Word came from the Bridge too that Scott had arrived there and from various areas of the ship, came assorted snippets that proved the crew was dealing well with the current situation and even beginning to overcome some difficulties. One of the two patients who had made the site to site transport from main sickbay had died. Rangi knew that the transport had added to the cause of death though wasnt the sole reason and chafed at the bit to think that she was powerless to help them. The ageing process had not stopped and hour by hour the survivors grew weaker and more infirm. Without the equipment in sickbay,there was little that the CMOs team could do. {It's like living in the Dark Ages} Rangi thought, wishing again that she had access to the medical labs.{We can't even use a stasis unit....that would give us time if nothing else. We could get them back to Bragg, or to a medical ship...we could find a way to help them.} But her optimistic thoughts were wasted and one by one, the now elderly patients began to fail. She had logged every change in their condition, every treatment, every improvement however slight and every downturn. {Its really a case of palliative care.} she told herself feeling increasing exasperation at the situation and her thoughts turned to Lieutenant Commander Palmer. {She definately didnt tell us everything....} she thought darkly, straightening a tray of instruments. She lifted a hypospray at random and checked its power level. {Did she know what we were coming into?} The instrument was replaced in position and a protoplaser taken up and activated in 'safe' mode.Frowning at the result, Rangi switched it off and placed it back with the rest of the set. She took a small step to her left and picked up a similar protoplaser from another tray, repeating the process and wondering at the hidden agenda Samantha Palmer must have.She wondered too at the lack of communication from the woman, for as 2XO, Rangi had expected some form of update but put it down to the recent events. Occasionally her attention altered from checking the instruments to any movement near the entrance.She knew it was unlikely that Shane would appear there and in a way was glad...it meant he didnt need treatment but her concern remained. Morse coded messages from engineering had informed her that Nurse Fleming had treated injured crew there. Rangi longed to go herself but site to site transport was not an option and she couldnt leave the sickbay for as long as it would take to descend five decks, check the situation and return. She moved on to another tray, sighing her dissatisfaction. {If only we had working lifts...} *** End Log *** LtCmdr Rangi Summers CMO/2XO USS Chimera