Awakening
Posted on Tue Apr 29th, 2025 @ 8:30pm by Lieutenant Bayre Negasi M.D.
Mission:
Outside the Box
Location: Near Barngueuil Deep, Meligue Ocean, Krakau III
There was darkness and there was pain. This much he knew. The water he breathed in had a metallic, coppery tang. Blood. His eyes snapped open and even in the dim light, he could see that he was in ... something ... the word struggled to make itself known against the pain in his head. He reached up with one hand and felt along his scalp, along the worst of the pain, while an assessment rose out of the darkness that was his mind Scalp lac. Possible hemorrhagic shock. Head scan required to rule out skull fracture, subdural hematomas and intraparenchymal hemorrhages. Check extremities..
The words sat there, in his mind, until the connection formed and made it possible for his body to respond to his mind. Sluggish. He made a cautious series of movements and thought limited range of motion. Given the level of pain, likely nothing broken. Able to breathe with minimal pain. Check pulse. The connection came a bit quicker this time and one hand obediently moved toward the opposite wrist. Pulse is regular. Differential diagnosis based on limited examination. Concussion. Scalp lac. Full body scan required to rule out neurological issues. Likely significant bruising though broken bones unlikely. Check the others.
Others?
He opened his eyes slowly, focusing on the surroundings, and saw four seats. The one next to him was empty, the two in front of him were occupied. He pushed up slightly and floated toward them. The pod had crashed nose first, shoving the front in, and pinning both of them into the wreckage. He checked for pulse and breath sounds, there were none. It took him a moment for his mind to process what his eyes were seeing. Eyes and mouth open. Water aspiration … air breathers? A list of symptoms paraded across his brain … fluid aspiration disrupts the alveolar-capillary membrane … noncardiogenic pulmonary edema and acute respiratory distress …
The pain grew, eclipsing his surroundings and even thought, and the world went dark again. He awoke ... later? ... and thought … the water is bad … unpleasant. And then he remembered. A fragment of thought shoving its way upward through the pain and confusion. Two deceased. Drowned.
Drowning? Unlikely then that the cabin should be filled with water. He rolled in the water, taking in the walls, and saw that the hatch and view ports were intact. He swam backward and found gashes in the sides and at the rear. Phaser fire. The words meant nothing other than a sensation of wrongness that was hard to pin down through the pain in his head. He floated toward the rear of the pod, toward the hatch, and saw that nothing on board seemed to be working. Air-breathers, he thought, would not make things that worked underwater. There was something behind that thought, something sinister, but it slid into the void before he could get to it. He knew though, he knew, without understanding exactly how he knew, that there would be a manual release and that the pressure outside would be equal to the pressure inside, making opening possible.
Escape. He couldn’t think. Couldn’t summon up memories or real thought and there was that sinister thing, the world ender, behind the idea of air-breathers and their technology. He needed to … escape. He pulled the hatch and swam out of the opening, moving until the darkness over took him again and he sank to the ocean floor.
Lt. Bayre Negasi, M.D.
(Formerly) Chief Medical Officer
USS Faraday
