*** Sickbay * USS Gott *** When the blue transporter haze faded, Ra'nar found himself on the deck of the Gott's sickbay just as he had planned, it was one of the only plans that had gone right in the last hour. Commander Summers and her team had gone on ahead while Ra'nar, electing to take the risk of site to site transport, went to his quarters to acquire his Kale'rian sword. The ironic thing was that Ra'nar was using it to hold himself up instead of using it as a weapon. A piece of wreckage from a wall had tried to crush him with limited success. He was alive but he had a hole the size of two knuckles in his left calf and a much smaller one in his stomach, which left a lot of mess on his uniform. After a glance around the room he spotted Doctor Summers and hobbled over as best he could. The sickbay was in a state of ordered chaos. The injured crew aboard the Gott were already in residence, tended by medics, when Rangi arrived. They had prepared as best they could for the imminent arrival of the Chimera crew needing attention. The pods were nearing the Gott and soon the age altered patients would be needing care. Rangi wondered how they would have fared in the short trip. {I wish Ra'nar would hurry up} she thought a little crossly as she completed a check of one patient and picked up a medpadd to make an addition {...we need him more than he needs a sword!} She glanced around and did a double take at the figure limping in her direction. Her eyes widened in suprise and she hurried to meet him. "What happened!" she asked "..here put your arm across my shoulder, I'll support you." Ra'nar placed some of his weight on her as they moved over to a vacant bed, "As I moved some rubble, the wall started coming down. I dived, missed most of it, but not all. I had no medical supplies, all the ones in my quarters were destroyed, but I don't think it is too bad," he said un-doing his shirt to expose the wound. "It's bad enough" Rangi told him and eased the fabric from the congealed blood surrounding the wound. "Can you lie down...I'll get a regenerator. Have you much pain?" Ra'nar almost laughed, {It's killing me,} he thought. "No not too much," he said trying to smile. "It missed everything important" "You're a bad liar" she replied shaking her head and gave a short smile in return. She took a hypospray, ready loaded with Asinolyathin Analgesic, from a prepared tray and pressed it against his neck. "There you go. Thirty seconds." Ra'nar winced, "I thought I was a good liar." Soon the pain started to fade and within thirty seconds it was completely gone. "You must think that I am a real idiot." Rangi carefully adjusted the settings of the tricorder and began to scan the wound. She set it aside and looked at him. "Well yes and no." she said then gave a pressed smile. She took up some sterile swabs to clean the wound and dabbing carefully at the raw flesh said.. "The sword is important to you...and you didnt ask to be in this state You're right that it could have been worse." Ra’nar nodded, It could have been a lot worse. Looking around the sickbay it seemed that there had been more wounded more combating the remaining X’chi. {They do not like to ‘go down’ without a fight,} thought Ra’nar as his wound was being treated too. When the autosutures were in place she turned her attention to the second wound. "Right..." she said. ".....Now lets look at this leg." Once again the wound was cleaned and treated. The hypospray was used again to administer a general antibiotic and topup painkiller. "You really should rest now." Rangi said as Ra'nar made an attempt to sit up. "...but we really do need your help. Do you think you can manage at least for a while?" Ra’nar stood up slowly, the pain rifled though him as soon as he put weight on his bad leg. The pain seemed to shot out in circles from the calf up to his stomach and down to his foot, starting off agonizingly and slowly turning into mild twitches as it went. “I will be fine, I have done worse shaving,” She looked back at him with a look of concern, {I am a bad liar} he thought. Ra’nar looked around again at all the injured. “There seems to be more than I remembered. The X’chi are very tough, we lost a lot of good people on the first assault. It’s ashame that we don’t know more about them.” " I found something interesting." Rangi said " I'll get it...hang on a moment." Quickly crossing to a work station, she collected a number of padds made he way back. Stopping to allow a stretcher case past, she returned to him and offered the padds. "What do you think to this?" she asked and as he began to peruse them, she sat down on the edge of the bed beside him. "As you see...all five patients suffered lacerations by a X'Chi. All were treated in conventional way...those two by you." She pointed to the information displayed and continued "Although the wounds had an initial improvement...see here...and ...there... we have sepsis patients." Ra’nar thought back to Engineering, “Yes, I remember Greene.” Ra’nar noticed Rangi’s blank face. “Jennifer Greene, ODA Beta Medical specialist. She had a stomach wound and no matter what I tried it would not stop bleeding, eventually I burnt the wound shut.” Ra’nar rubbed his face gently remembering that punch after he had burnt the wound, {She had a good left hook.} Rangi nodded. "The Genericillin did little and neither did Corophizine...now that worries me. Infected wounds that wont respond to treatment? " They exchanged a look which said they were both thinking along the same lines.. "What do you think to the idea that its possible the X'Chi carry some kind of toxin...slow acting.. that will kill their victim over time even if it is fortunate enough to get away. Something is stopping these wounds healing... and we need to find out what." Ra’nar nodded, now things were falling into place, “I had a man die from what looked like poisoning. I could not understand it, his face swelled up and he started going blue. After twenty minutes there was so much blood in his lungs that he was spitting it up with every breath.” Ra’nar stopped for a moment, an enemy that only had to wound you to kill you was a very nasty thought. “Have you informed anyone from the science department? Perhaps they could help on this one?” "No, not yet" she replied." We have to keep a close watch on this...." she glanced around as she spoke " Over half of these people have wounds from the X'Chi....and our supplies are getting low...and the labs out of action." She looked back at Ra'nars face. This was not exactly the best of news and it showed on Ra'nar's downbeat face, "I understand. Treating poison is never easy, especially when you don't know that much about the creature you are dealing with." {Usually the best thing to do is find the creature that…} Ra'nar stopped thinking, a smile come over his face. "We need a X'chi." Rangi looked like she was going to section him. "If we can capture an X'chi, we may be able to find an antidote." "Capture a X'Chi! oh right...well that should be simple enough" She looked at him for a long moment and saw that he wasnt joking. "Look." she said seriously. " I agree thats the quickest way ..but capturing one? I wouldnt think it would be that simple..but..." Her expression turned thoughtful as she looked down at his injured leg. She raised her eyes, shook her head and spent a few more seconds considering his suggestion. Meeting his gaze again she said " Well...it would be up to the ODA to do that..." Ra'nar's smile grew, "Walsh is out of action and Scott is," Ra'nar stopped off a moment,"....not quite sure what Scott is up too, but Corporal Cortez is one of the best Fire team leaders I have ever seen and Lynch's technical knowledge is second to none. I am sure they could put a team together." Ra'nar knew that the General would want someone of officer status to join them, "Perhaps Lieutenant Foster could lend a hand too, he seems like a fine officer." Ra'nar had to stop himself from getting too excited. Rangi couldnt prevent a small smile at his enthusiasm. " I'll contact the General then...tell him that we need a X'Chi..preferably healthy but I suppose a dead one would be better than none." She pressed a clenched fist into her palm and tapped it. "We'd need a secure place ofcourse and hopefully some way of sedating it..perhaps stunning it will do.....problem might be if it was able to summon others if it was captured." She gave him a rueful glance. "Lets do it then....Good thinking " she added and smiled to him. Ra'nar looked at some of the medical supplies, "Perhaps we could load up Cortez's Bug zapper with a sedative. Failing that we still have some of those stun grenades, failing that," Ra'nar mockingly sighed, "failing that, I guess we will just blow it's limbs off." Ra'nar could not help but smile at his comment. "Quite" Rangi replied smiling back. "I'll contact the General now...the sooner he can organise it the better." *** End Log *** Private 1st Class Ra'nar Medical Specialist USS Chimera & LtCmdr Rangi Summers CMO/2XO USS Chimera