Medical Tent

Before Nagle can continue his inquiry, the tent flaps push open and a group of soldiers come hustling in, three carrying a limp and sweating Lieutenant Lockley in their arms and Bishop carrying the remains of a meter-long, winged, articulated insect. The insect's segmented tail stinger is lodged in Lockley's side, which has already started to swell and suppurate. Nagle draws in his breath sharply and looks to Morgan. "Doubt we have antivenom for prehistoric scorpions. Mag sulfate and epinephrine?"

Still seated, Sarah watches the group of soliders shamble into the tent. At the sight of the injury the normally level-headed nurse pales. She begins swearing under her breath as Nagle makes his assessment and pauses for a bit as she takes in what was said and begins to put the pieces together. There are few moments awkward silence as Nagle stare at her before she begins rapidly speaking, or rather thinking out loud. "Not so much. I don't think they were expecting arachnids in space when they equipped us. Epi, yeah. We got that. We didn't burn through all of it after the attack, but its in short supply. I'd consider something topical to start. And cold compresses. Want to keep whatever that thing had from getting any more into his system."

Turning to the assembled gate team she asks "How long ago did this happen? Is he conscious? Pulse? Respiration rate? Get him back to the OR. We need to get a better look at this debacle."

She then turns just as quickly back to Nagle "Mag sulf... maybe some. Not so sure how sterile. I'd hold off until we see what if anything this does, other than turn pretty shades of purple. Activated charcoal? Not sure if we have any of that kicking around. Antibiotics... as if any bacteria here would obey any of our rules. Goddammit seriously people, we aren't equipped to handle this stuff and we don't exactly have an airlift as an option. A little bit of caution," she fumes as she awkwardly gets to her feet and takes a few unsteady steps towards the back of the tent "Maybe there are some nice giant alien leaches we can use to bleed the wound, and maybe some nice thumb sized maggots to clean out the dead tissue as it heals."

Lt James Lockley, Captain Micheal Wantanabe

After his last order to pull out the stinger, Lockley passes out from the pain.

Forsythe speaks up holding the Stinger in one hand, and a field pressure dressing over the wound in another, "Not even 5 minutes ago. The allergic reaction started almost instantly. He passed out before we got him to the rings. His pulse was strong during first assessment, now it is thready and weak, roughly 55 BMP. There is some sepage coming from the wound, a mixture of Blood and an off white fluid. His breathing is shallow but stable."

Captain Wantanabe walks in just as Forsythe finishes. He stands to the side, out of the way of the moving medics.

She pauses and steadies herself against a tent post. "Fifty-five... not too bad, but get him to the back so we can see what we've got. Any chance we have one of those bugs more or less intact so we can see what we are dealing with? Any other wounded? Is everyone safely back down here. We really don't need more injuries like .... whatever this is." Not waiting for an answer to her stream of consciousness questions, Sarah deliberately makes her way to the back of the tent.

As she passes Captain Nagle he grabs her arm and pulls her aside, speaking quietly but firmly. "Captain Morgan, your wits might be mostly there, but you are clearly not at the top of your game. You are NOT going to treat him."

Sarah looks shocked at Nagle and glares at the man defiantly. Before she can speak he cuts her off, "There are plenty of other nurses that can help, who do you recommend."

Sarah scowls as her position on the medical totem pole is made abundantly clear. She says heatedly but almost in a whisper "Edelmann is good. But this is out of all of our leagues and you know it. We're going to be making this up as we go, and she isn't going to be able to think on her feet like that."

"And you aren't going to be able to stand on your feet in your state." The surgeon grumbles and then grudgingly admits, "You come back so I can pick what you have left of a brain, but you do not lay a finger on him. Now get back there and keep out of our way."

Red in the face and biting her lip, Sarah follows the surgeon into the back of the tent.

Sarah heads back to the make shift OR, following the processional led by the wounded Lockley and his team. She grabs a chair from the 'clinic' and brings it back into the or and places it in the far corner of the room and angrily takes a seat. She lowers her head into her hands as the surgical team quickly cuts of Lockley's shirt and begins to inspect his torso, leaving Bishop still standing there holding the carcass of the scorpionfly.

Elbows resting on her legs, Sarah looks up. After a few moments she says, "Get him a table to set that thing on until we decide what to do with it." Medics scurry about to bring a small table into the OR for Bishop to rest the carapace on. After he has set down the remains, Sarah asks, "Did you happen to

are they barbed, straight, or don't recall... we can work with any of the answers - I don't seem to recall seeing a detailed description other than something like "nasty" or "vicious"

get a look at the stingers on those things?" as the medical team starts an IV and places cold compresses around the wound site.

The hours draw on as the surgical team carefully extracts the barbed stinger from Lockley and meticulously patches up the young lieutenant. The strain and fatigue are evident on everyone's faces as they exit the operating room some time after midnight.

She had been hoping that the area would be deserted at this hour, but she is not at all surprised to see Captain Wantanabe pacing back and forth in the "waiting room." Sarah eyes the staff quarters sleepily, but crosses the room to her fellow Captain.

She rubs her face tiredly and begins, "He has got to be one of the luckiest bastards I've ever seen. That stinger is pretty awful looking, got a lot of nasty looking barbs. It could have penetrated a good three, four inches deeper, but it was pretty superficial."

Nagle continues, "I had to cut it out, since we didn't want to push the venom sack and who knows what else through his body. It looks like one of the barbs nicked his small intestines, though. Patched that up, but we've got him on a pretty aggressive course of antibiotics to prevent peritonitis or sepsis."

"He's hardly out of the woods," the red haired nurse cautions, "but we've got his physical condition as stable as we can for now. The next few days will show us what exactly this poison is capable of and if there are any injuries we didn't catch. We're going to keep him sedated for the next 24 hours as we wait and see. We'll start lifting the sedation then," Sarah looks sternly at Wantanabe, "IF you can keep him in that bed until he has healed up enough to be up and around."

"I want him here for at least five days," the surgeon adds, "so I can see the wounds are healing and there are no other side effects."

...and it's at this point that Major Thorsson steps into the room, pausing and listening, not interrupting, allowing Captian Morgan to finish her instructions. She does have quite the frown on her face, though.

Sarah nods to the Major as she enters the anteroom, acknowledging her presence but keeping her focus on Captain Wantanabe. After she and Captain Nagle finish their report to Wantanabe, Sarah turns her attention to Major Thorsson and silent cocks her head to the side and raises an eyebrow.

Captain Micheal Wantanabe

The Captain nodded his head in understanding.

"If you have to sedate him to make him stay, don't ask and just do it." The captain replied to the two, "Let me know when he wakes up."

As the Ranger walks out of the medical tent, he taps Sergeant Bishop on the shoulder and motions him to follow.

O.O.C. Will continue at the command tent tonight or tomorrow.

Sarah glances over at her fellow medical officer, then nods to Wantanabe. "Of course. I think we all remember him from the last time." she responds and watches the two men exit the tent.