*** Temporary Sickbay * USS Chimera *** At Rangis exclamation of his name, Scott raised a weary hand, gave a tired smile and said "Hi." He sat down on the crate, dumping his medcase beside it and exhaling a long sigh of relief, glad to be back where he started. "You ok?" Rangi asked coming to a standstill beside him. He looked up at her concerned expression and smiled feebly. "Yes...fine." he replied and reached to unclip a water bottle strapped to his waist. Rangi sat down beside him as he drained what was left of the contents in two gulps before pressing the top back onto the empty bottle and setting it aside. "What did you find?" she asked as he wiped the back of one hand across the side of his mouth. " We received your messages...and they've moved command to Engineering?" He looked at her, giving a nod and shifted his position slightly, knocking the medcase over as he did so. He glanced at it but left it alone. "Yes...Commander Guzman had left before I got there..to the Bridge I mean.." He broke off with a grimace of discomfort, pressing a hand to his lower back. "Slight argument with a hatch!" he said in answer to her questioning expression. "Show me." Rangi asked. "Oh its ok...." "Show me" Rangi demanded. With a resigned look, he leaned to his right and pulled his tunic up exposing an angry graze across his back and skin that already showed deep bruising. "Nasty" Rangi commented and reached down for his medcase. "Tricorders out." he said. "It needs recharging." Frowning at this news, Rangi stood up and hurried to find her own, stopping on the way back to collect a fresh bottle of water which he accepted thankfully. "Go steady with it." she warned him and switched on the hand scanner as he raised the bottle to his lips. He had taken only three or four swallows of the cool water before he spluttered on a mouthful, choked, coughed and twisted round painfully to see what she had done. "Sorry..was that tender?" she asked. He gave her a hopeless look. "Not so as you'd notice." he replied ironically. She laughed. "Dont be such a baby!..stay still please." The protoplaser hummed to action that was efficient and relatively painfree. Scott drank more water then sealed the bottle as Rangi said.. "There, that should do it." "Thanks" he replied, pulling his uniform straight and testing the treatment by careful movement left and right while she replaced the equipment in its case. " So..." she said sitting down beside him again. "What's the situation" Scott paused a second before replying. "Well..there was only that one serious burns case. I've done all I can for her but she needs sickbay." Rangi nodded, her lips pressed tight together. "I've left her with a medic and gave a supply of Asinolyathin and Kelotane. It would be impossible to get her here through the Jefferies tubes...but theres no chance of the turbolifts working...I checked with engineering." He paused, but when Rangi said nothing, continued in his explanation. "There are injured on each deck..ive made reports...and lots of 'walking wounded' ...dead too ofcourse. The damage is extensive and some of the Jefferies tubes are still blocked though the fires are out.You need to take long detours because most of five and six are destroyed. The counsellor was still on the Bridge when I left...but as you know...the command's in engineering." " Is Commander Palmer there too?" Rangi asked. "No...she's in the Brig" Scott replied."..you didn't know?" "No I didnt..in the Brig? why?" Rangi asked, confused totally by this revelation. Scott shrugged. "No idea." he said. "Havent seen the woman...heard mention of her that's all...the message to you must have got lost." "Mmmm....." Rangi said thoughtfully, not understanding any of it. But now was not the time to ponder over it. "You need to sleep." she told Scott, seeing the utter tiredness in his face and not surprised by it after his marathon trip around the ship. "Sounds appealing." he said with a glimmer of a smile "...but whats the state here?" "Not good." she answered and glanced back into the holodeck. "Our supplies are low...seriously so in some cases. Most of the injured were well enough to be discharged...there are only eight left now as you see." She looked back at him her grey eyes meeting his. " The..'aged' crew werent so lucky. They're dying Scott." she told him simply. A silence followed and when he made to speak, Rangi shook her head. "Its just a matter of time." she said quietly and then with more force added.. "The whole point of this God forsaken mission..time!" "Rangi.." he began, understanding what she was thinking. Once again she shook her head, sighed impatiently and then stood up. "I'm going to check the inventory." she said. "We must assume that there will be further casualties when...if...the ODA get back. Scott, still sitting on the crate looked up at her then, getting to his feet said "I'll help you with that." "No...no thankyou.You can help me by getting some sleep.We'll need you rested and restored." She forced a flicker of a smile and he responded to it with a more convincing one. "If you say so commander." "I do...and thankyou Scott...you've done a good job." He looked around and located the makeshift beds where he could rest. "I'll just take an hour then." he said and Rangi nodded agreement, knowing that he would sleep for far longer than that and being quite happy that he should. *** End Log *** LtCmdr Rangi Summers CMO/2XO USS Chimera & Ltjg Scott Fisher AMO USS Chimera (npc) Rangi