All Things Inherit – One – DizzyDrea

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Part One

Doctor Eleanor McCoy was sitting in the closet affectionately known as her office, making notes on case files as her shift wound down. It hadn’t been a particularly difficult shift, thankfully. Just some minor injuries and a training accident that a few cadets were probably never going to live down.

She reached for her coffee cup and took a sip, wrinkling her nose at the stone-cold brew. Glancing at the chronometer in the corner of her terminal, she frowned. She’d been working on her notes for an hour—unusual for a shift in the ER—and hadn’t really noticed the time passing. Her supervisor was a pedantic asshole who insisted that she take the breaks owed to her and keep her paperwork up to date, so it was possible he’d just ordered everyone to leave her alone so she could work.

Thankfully, someone had thought to install a replicator in this dreadfully tiny office, so she got up and took her cup to the slot, ordering the machine to recycle it before giving her a fresh cup. It wasn’t Phil Boyce’s beloved freshly-ground coffee, but it would do to get her through what remained of her shift and the walk back to her quarters.

She was just savoring the first sip of hot coffee when her office door slid open without chiming. Nurse Christine Chapel stuck her head in, a serious look on her face.

“Oh, good, you’re not unconscious,” she said. “We have incoming.”

Len set her mug on the desk and followed the nurse out of the office. “What have we got?”

“Captain Christopher Pike,” Christine said as they moved through the ER. “All we know is that he was on board the USS Lucas when there was an accident. They’ll be transferring him to us shortly.”

“And we have no idea what happened beyond that?” Len asked as she gathered diagnostic tools and watched Christine prepare the bio bed they’d use to treat him.

“No clue,” Christine said. “‘Fleet Ops said their comms were a bit spotty. All they got was that the Captain was injured and in need of treatment he couldn’t get aboard the Lucas.”

“That sounds… ominous,” Len muttered.

She took a deep breath and glanced around her. The ER was a hive of activity, but most of it looked like more routine bangs and bruises. She saw her supervisor heading her way and frowned. The man was a pain in her ass, but he had his uses.

“Doctor McCoy, you’ve heard about the incoming emergency?” Doctor Robards asked. When she nodded, he nodded in return. “Good. I’ll redirect all other cases to other doctors and NPs on shift. Your only patient will be the captain. I expect regular updates to his chart so I can track your progress.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, rather than the flippant and utterly unprofessional retort that was burning a hole through her tongue. She knew her responsibilities in an emergency such as the one about to land on her. She didn’t need this twit treating her like a second-year med student.

He nodded and left her to her preparations, thankfully. She took a moment to center herself, fortifying her shields so she could block out distractions as much as possible. Even the smallest shift in her focus could spell disaster for her patient, and she prided herself on her dedication to her work.

Len joined Christine and the two other nurses she’d pulled onto her team at the medical transporter as it activated. When the transporter effect dissipated, there were two people in front of her, one standing beside the gurney and her patient, unconscious and badly burned.

She looked at the person standing beside the captain. A cadet, based on her uniform, which made sense considering the accident happened aboard a training vessel. She raised an eyebrow even as she started her first scans.

“And you are… Cadet…?”

“Cadet Swender, ma’am,” the young woman said. “I was with the captain in Engineering when it all went to shit.” She winced. “Pardon me. When the accident occurred.”

“Your first answer was fine, Cadet,” Len said. She turned to her team. “He’s got extensive burns, partial thickness on most of them. Let’s get him on a bio bed. I don’t like what I’m seeing.” She turned to the cadet. “I want you seen ASAP, but don’t leave Medical. I’ll need to talk to you.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the cadet said.

“I’ll take her to Clancey,” one of the other nurses said. “He’s waving me over anyway. I’ll be right back.”

Len nodded as they wheeled the captain over to the bio bed they’d prepared. “Let’s move him. Gently. These burns are bad, and I don’t want to lose any body parts in the transfer.”

They wheeled the gurney beside the bed, and she and Christine grabbed the sheet under their patient at the same moment the other nurse returned and joined Nurse Evans on the other side. They carefully lifted him and moved him to the bio bed, then Nurse Rodriguez shoved the gurney away as they started cutting his clothing off.

Len continued to scan him with her tricorder while Christine worked with the bio bed sensors to do a more complete scan. “Jesus,” she muttered.

“What?” Len looked up from her tricorder to find Christine had gone ashen. She looked at the bio bed readout, and her brain just stuttered to a halt. “Christ. Delta radiation. Looks like he’s been bombarded with it.”

She moved up to the head of the bed and cycled through a few different screens as she studied the readout. When she looked down at him, Pike’s eyes were open, but she knew he wasn’t really seeing anything. He wasn’t blind, but the trauma to his whole body was probably impacting his ability to process any sensory input at all.

She reached out and clasped his hand, getting a jolt as if she’d touched a live wire. She looked down at their joined hands, shock rolling through her as she processed the implications of what had just happened.

“You okay?” Christine asked, placing a hand on her arm, just above where her hand was still holding Pike’s.

“No, I don’t think I am,” she whispered. She looked at Christine, seeing the concern radiating out of her face. She was worried about Len—she was worried about them both, Len knew—but her reaction to touching Pike had spiked Christine’s worry. She took a deep breath but couldn’t force herself to let go of Pike’s hand, so she didn’t even try. “I think… He’s my Sentinel, Chris.”

“Oh boy,” Christine said. “That could be a problem.”

“No, it’s not,” Len said, pulling her professionalism around her like a cloak. She could do this. Had trained for this, as a matter of fact.

She took a deep breath and let go of his hand, even though it was the last thing she wanted to do. When she looked at Christine, she was fully in control, shields in place, though she could feel tendrils of something—interest, maybe, or just a Sentinel seeking out the comfort of a Guide—from Pike. As soon as she let go, he moaned and turned his body toward her, despite the immense pain he must have been in.

“That’s not good,” Christine said.

“Let’s get some sedatives and pain relief on board,” Len said, nodding at Nurse Rodriguez as she handed her a hypospray with the correct medication already loaded. She nodded at the woman. “Thanks.”

“No—I mean, yes, let’s get pain management in place, because he needs all the drugs,” Christine said as Len administered the meds. “I mean that.”

Len looked up to see Christine pointing at the bio bed readout. Pike’s vitals were all over the place, but it looked like the damage from the Delta radiation was advancing. There were more areas affected than when they’d first scanned him, and the damage was digging into his body deeper with every passing second.

“Shit, he must have taken a massive dose,” Len said. “Where’s that cadet? The one that came in with him.”

“Right here, ma’am,” the cadet said, stepping out from behind the other nurses as they continued to tend to their patient.

She still looked rough, and her arm was in a sling, but Len could sense that she was holding it together and that was all she could ask of her in that moment.

“You’ve been treated for your injuries?” she asked, because, despite the situation, she was still a doctor and couldn’t, in good conscience, leave a patient untreated, even if she already had an emergent case on her table.

“Yes, ma’am, I have been,” she said with a firm nod. “I have a broken arm and a separated shoulder, along with some burns from flying debris. All my injuries were treated by Doctor Clancey. He advised me to use the sling for the next 24 hours while the inflammation in my shoulder goes down. I’ve got pain meds on board, but I’m clear-headed and able to give you a report if you’re ready.”

“Thank you for your thorough report, Cadet Swender,” she said, admiring the girl’s strength in a situation that would have turned most cadets into a blubbering mess. “Now, explain to me what happened to the captain.”

“We were aboard the USS Lucas on a training mission,” she said after a brief pause, likely to gather her thoughts. “Captain Pike had taken us to a nearby nebula. He said it would be a nice, easy ride for our first time aboard ship. On the way back, Engineering reported a cascade failure in the warp core shielding. Captain Pike ordered a full stop and sent a message to ‘Fleet Ops, then headed straight for the Engine Room.”

Len could feel the distress rolling off the young cadet as she paused. “I wish I could tell you to take your time, but I really need to know what happened.”

“I know, ma’am,” she whispered. “I owe him so much. I owe him my life. I’ll get through it.”

Len nodded. “Go on.”

“I followed him from the Bridge,” she said after a deep breath. “Even though he ordered everyone to stay put, I wanted to help if I could. He wasn’t happy but made me promise to follow his orders without argument once we reached Engineering.” She paused again, eyes brimming with tears. “It was a mess down there. People running around, debris on the floor. I thought the worst had already happened. He turned to me and ordered me out into the corridor. He said he was going to send everyone my way and that once the last person was through the doors, I was to lower the blast shielding and send an update to ‘Fleet Ops.

“The Chief Engineer was the last one through the doors, so I hit the emergency button, and the blast shield lowered,” she said. “He immediately went to the small monitoring station just outside Engineering, but before he even got there, something blew inside Engineering. The ship rocked like it was going to fly apart. Engineering was nearly wrecked, and the corridor sustained heavy damage. Chief Engineer Parker scanned Engineering and found the captain still inside. He said a baffle plate had ruptured and poured Delta rays into the compartment.”

“He saved everyone in Engineering,” Len said, utterly baffled at the sacrifice the man was willing to make. “Why didn’t he try to leave with the last person out?”

“Commander Parker said the captain was attempting to halt the overload that was putting the baffle plate at risk,” Cadet Swender said. “We were able to vent the radiation from the compartment and pull him out, but—”

Len looked at Captain Pike. Yeah, he’d sacrificed himself to make sure that everyone in that compartment survived, and then he’d tried like hell to make sure the accident didn’t take out the rest of the ship.

“Just out of curiosity, Cadet,” Len said, looking back at the young woman. “How did you get back to Earth?”

“‘Fleet Ops had already dispatched the Dauntless to our last reported position,” Swender said. “They transported the wounded aboard and left a skeleton crew to make sure the ship didn’t blow up before ‘Fleet Ops could investigate what happened.”

“I talked to the Dauntless’ CMO right before I came to get you,” Christine said to her. “He told me it was bad and that he was sending someone who could give us more details.”

“Thank you, Cadet Swender,” Len said. “You’ve been a tremendous help. We’ll take good care of your captain.”

“I know you will, ma’am,” the cadet said. “If there’s anything any of us can do, please don’t hesitate to contact us. I’m not sure what we could do, but any one of us would be willing to help in any way we can.”

“I’ll bear that in mind,” Len said. “Now, let’s get you some rest. You look like you’re about out on your feet.”

“I could use a nap, ma’am,” the cadet said with a slight smile. “It’s been a helluva day.”

“Nurse Rodriguez, would you please show the cadet to a quiet corner?” Len said. “‘Fleet Ops will likely want to interview everyone on board, but it would be best if she rested before she talked to them, and I’d like to monitor her before I release her.”

“Of course, Doctor McCoy,” Alyssa said. She turned to the young woman and took her by her uninjured elbow. “Come on, there’s a quiet corner over here you can use. I’ll turn the bio bed to silent, so it won’t disturb you.”

Len watched her go, grateful that the young woman hadn’t been badly injured. If her story were to be believed, no one on that ship was injured beyond some cuts and bruises, and maybe the occasional broken bone. She looked back at Captain Pike, admiration and no small amount of fury mixing into a toxic brew that nearly choked her.

“You utter asshole,” she whispered. “What if we’d never met because of your stupid hero complex?”

Christine snorted. “He’s been like that his entire career. If you’re gonna bond with him, you need to know he won’t sit back and let others run into danger. That’s not how he’s wired.”

“You used to serve with him aboard Enterprise, right?” Len asked, glancing at her friend.

“Yeah, for a few years,” she said. “He’s the kind who won’t stay on the bridge where it’s safe. If his crew is going to be facing danger, he’d rather be right there beside them than tucked away where it’s safe.”

“Just great,” Len muttered. She took a deep breath and tucked her fury behind her shields to deal with later. “Let’s get the machine ready. We need to get started as soon as possible. He won’t last much longer.”

“Right,” Christine nodded. “One miracle, coming up.”

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Cast (from top left):
Anson Mount, David Strathairn, Adrian Holmes, Jess Bush, Zachary Quinto, Sam Neill, Sela Ward Jean Reno, Danian Lewis, Stana Katic