Chapter 4 – Triage

In the vast, empty coldness of space, two ships floated without power as the race continued over which would be the first to be repaired enough to destroy the other. The debris of their brief battle floated in the sun, where day never ended in the ceaseless light.

Dr Sarah Jenkins had calmly organised her medical team in the torch light of the metal bulkhead enclosed Daedalus infirmary. With no power, it was impossible for them to use all of their equipment. She had distributed people to where there had been radio calls for help and had assigned others to respond if more calls were received.

She was currently pushing herself off the walls as she floated along a corridor towards main engineering.

Her portable radio activated, "Caldwell to all hands. Please be aware that there are Wraith intruders onboard. Arm yourselves and remember to keep calm. I'll be in engineering to see whether we can get some power back."

Jenkins nodded to the marine accompanying her and her colleague, Dr Harwell. He took point as they continued along the corridor and dodged debris and shattered bulkheads as they slowly drifted their way towards the highest concentration of emergency calls.

They soon came across the first body.

It was a man motionlessly floating in the middle of the corridor. Dr Jenkins and her companions quickly approached and drew up masks and goggles when they saw a cloud of blood hanging in the air around the unfortunate crewman.

Jenkins checked for a pulse, but there was nothing. He had been dead for a while and the doctor, with the assistance of her colleague, rapidly sealed his body in a bag and tagged it for transport to the morgue when the transporter came back online. She frowned as she checked his injuries. He would have to wait until the rest of the crew had been triaged and the living were helped until a proper autopsy could be carried out, but a cursory examination revealed something disturbing.

Pulling off her gloves, she exchanged a glance with her colleague and was relieved to see the same concern in her eyes too.

The man's injuries were inconsistent with blunt trauma associated with the jolting impact from the explosion without any inertial dampeners. There were also no fire burns despite the black scorch marks along the nearby walls.

She said under her breath, "We need to speak with the Colonel."

The other woman nodded and then they continued on their way to engineering.

The marine ahead of them suddenly held up his hand and Jenkins and Harwell both grabbed the nearest jutting bulkhead to stop. He raised his gun and tensed up in the darkened passageway.

Suddenly he fired. The noise was deafening in the narrow corridor and Dr Jenkins flinched. The marine soon stopped shooting and called out, "Clear!"

They continued to float around obstacles, including several dead Wraith who had just been killed by the marine.

They came across more human bodies where the Wraith boarding party had fed on the unsuspecting and the injured. They soon ran out of bags and could only tag them before moving on.

Dr Jenkins could not help noticing the growing sounds of people in distress as they entered the final corridor on the way to engineering. The air was thick with smoke and the section was more damaged than anything she had seen so far.

The screaming and shouting got louder as she approached the engineering section. It may have scared lesser people than her, but she was not daunted at all and kept moving at the same speed in her urgency to reach the agonised noises and help those in desperate need.

There were still some signs of life where crewmen were trying to revive or aid those who had been injured. Jenkins helped where she could and prioritised the worst cases.

There were sporadic sounds of muffled gunfire as marines protected the engineering section from the boarding parties.

She reached the main engineering room after a scared looking man wearing a short sleeved shirt beckoned her over. He said, "Please, you have to help her!" Jenkins frowned when his voice broke at the end and she felt her brow creasing even further when he coughed wetly and winced.

He wrapped his arms around his chest and remained completely still as he floated in the corridor. Dr Jenkins had left her colleague behind with one of the more seriously injured and she said to the man, "I'm Dr Jenkins."

"Dr Rodney McKay," he said weakly.

"Who needs my help?"

The man pointed into the room behind him at a bulkhead which had collapsed down from the ceiling. He said, "She's under there."

Jenkins grabbed the ceiling when she nearly hit her head and pulled herself past him. She was surprised to see Colonel Caldwell in the room speaking with another man she recognised as Crewman Thompson. They both acknowledged her and then went back to speaking in a low whisper so that she could not hear any of their words.

McKay drifted with her and indicated the bottom of the metal support where it was buried in the deck. Jenkins narrowed her eyes and adjusted the medkit on her shoulder. She had seen many things in her life of military service and her day so far had already taxed her to the limit helping the injured and comforting the dying. She was still internally shocked at what she found, but was professional enough not to let any of her emotions show through and reach her surface.

McKay gestured down at the woman pinned under the support and he said sadly, "I tried… I used my jacket… but I couldn't…"

Jenkins used her hands on the beam and was careful to avoid the sharp edges of metal as she positioned herself by the woman. She was unrecognisable at first, but as Jenkins moved closer she finally saw who it was through the blood streaked face, "Chief Engineer Joanna Levitt."

She felt for a pulse, but was already fairly certain of the answer. When she felt nothing beneath her fingers she tied a marker tag around the exposed hand and shook her head as she turned back to McKay who was floating behind her.

"I'm sorry."

McKay tightened his arms around his midsection and gritted his teeth as his dirty face crumpled in misery. Jenkins approached him and eyed him critically for injuries as she tried to use his body language to gauge where he was hurt.

She said, "Let me see."

She worked quickly, knowing that as he was conscious so he was not as badly injured as some of the people who still needed her help. She patted his arms away gently as he tried to cover his chest and prevent her examination. She frowned in annoyance that he was not letting her help him, but then his frightened eyes caught sight of the metal bulkhead again and he completely relaxed as he hung his head down and released a shaky sigh.

Jenkins took the opportunity to place a small flashlight in between her teeth and lifted his shirt to check his ribs. She carefully palpated his chest and then could do no more at the moment than conduct a visual examination. He hissed and tried to roll away from her, but she was already finished by the time he released an indignant huff and tugged his shirt back down.

She retrieved a couple of tablets out of her bag and passed them to him with a bottle of water. He took them and shivered.

She said quietly, "No broken ribs, but there's some bruising to your chest and abdomen. Those are painkillers, but you'll need a proper examination and care once everyone else is safe."

He grimaced and curled one of hands around his side as he asked, "Haven't you got anything else?"

Jenkins frowned and said, "No, that's the best I can do at the moment. There are people in worse conditions than you, Dr McKay, and I have to move onto the more critically injured."

He pressed on, "Haven't you got any of the good drugs?"

Jenkins raised her eyebrows at him and knew he meant the morphine in her bag, but she was saving that for those most in need. He had the nerve to continue anyway, "IV lines? Oxygen masks?"

She said flatly, "No, I don't."

McKay's face fell and he mumbled under his breath, "Jennifer would always help me and give me the good stuff." He looked away and grimaced as he wrapped his arms around his ribcage protectively. "She'd never just leave me behind."

"This isn't Atlantis, Doctor, and I'm not Jennifer."

She wanted to yell at him and tell him to stop feeling sorry for himself, but her internal control prevented her. She made a mental note to have a word with Dr Keller on Atlantis after they returned. That was, if they ever returned…

Her eyes suddenly locked with Rodney's and she noticed tracks going through the dirt on his face where he had shed tears before she had got to him. She furrowed her brow when she saw them and continued, "You look quite lively to me, so excuse me for moving on. The first rule of triage is to make sure your patient will live and then move onto the next. Or to deal with the worst cases first, i.e. the silent ones. And you, Dr McKay, are far from silent!"

He nodded and looked down at the bulkhead again in misery. He said softly, "I tried to push her out of the way… I even covered her, but it wasn't enough. Something hit me and I was forced out of the way and she… she…" He winced and closed his eyes.

Crewman Thompson on the other side of the room suddenly said, "So you admit that you killed her?"

McKay's eyes snapped open and Jenkins took the opportunity to drift away from him towards the Colonel. He said, "Of course I didn't kill her!"

Thompson's eyes flashed dangerously, but he kept quiet.

Jenkins reached Caldwell and he said, "Report, Doctor."

She steeled herself and said, "We're conducting triage at the moment, sir; handing out painkillers and showing the more able crewmembers how to aid those who can still be helped. There are some sections still sealed behind bulkheads, but they've got radios and emergency medical supplies so we're giving them instructions."

Caldwell nodded, "Good work."

Jenkins sighed and continued, "I don't know, sir. We've lost a lot of people today. Many of them are so very young."

Caldwell floated with her out into the corridor away from McKay and Thompson and his eyes were as cold and unreadable as ever as he said, "I know, Doctor. Do the best you can."

She then remembered the body they had found in the corridor and glanced around to make sure no-one was listening, "We found a man in the corridor who didn't die in the explosion, sir."

Caldwell frowned and leant in closer as she continued, "He had been stabbed. It was very clear that his injuries weren't caused by damaged bulkheads, but by a physical attack from another person."

Caldwell uncurled his limbs as he floated and straightened out. He spoke with a quiet intensity, "Are you saying that we have a murderer on board?"

"I don't know, sir. We came across some Wraith too, but as far as we know they feed on people rather than just killing them."

Caldwell nodded, "Does anyone else know about this?"

"Only Dr Harwell who was with me at the time."

"Let's keep this between us for now. I'll keep an eye open if you could do the same. We're short staffed as it is, so let's not induce more panic by spreading any rumours."

Jenkins could understand his reasoning, but did not like the idea that there was a killer in their midst who may well kill again. Without any warning, the next victim would be powerless and oblivious to the attack. She just hoped that the high alert caused by the Wraith intruders would keep everyone on their toes to watch out for attacks from without and within.

Dr Jenkins gave some painkillers to the Colonel when she noticed a bruise on the side of his face. She also passed him some extra ones for Crewman Thompson before they parted ways. He went back into engineering as she floated past the door to engineering and continued on her harrowing rounds.


McKay was no longer holding himself so tightly, but Thompson had at least had the empathy to wince when he had finally seen the extent of the bruising to McKay's body in the dim lighting.

The debris and smoke from the fire still hung in the air, choking everything and making breathing difficult and painful as there was nowhere to vent it after the fire.

Thompson beckoned Caldwell over as soon as he entered engineering again. McKay was still hovering by the bulkhead with his face screwed up in pain. Now that Thompson knew that he had been lying about his injuries, any sympathy he had briefly felt towards the man had all but evaporated. Caldwell handed him some pills and he dry swallowed them.

Thompson had hardly known some of the people who had died. They worked the opposite shift rotation to him and had only been in engineering due to all hands being on deck during the battle situation.

Thompson's own grief and rage over Chief Engineer Levitt's demise was lessened by the danger that they were all about to join her in death, as there was no power.

Thompson would not let himself become overwhelmed by grief and horror. The survival of those who were still alive was more important. There would be plenty of time to count the dead and mourn the loss later. His main concern was over those who were left and needed to carry on breathing.

He glanced across at McKay as he floated alone and rubbed his forehead, smearing the dirt around a little more. Thompson could see that McKay had now been reduced to just an ordinary man as he no longer had any technology to manipulate or any achievements to brag about or hide behind. He had lost all his control over what was going on and his faltering ego made him reveal his insecurities now that all the technology was offline. He had been thoroughly stripped down and laid bare. Thompson finally saw who McKay actually was and found that he had revealed himself as a nervous and cowardly man who had been easily damaged in a dire situation.

Thompson fingered the gun he had strapped to his leg from the emergency kit and held a torch in the other hand. His dislike and mistrust of McKay had meant that he had not given a weapon to the other man. McKay's revelation about what had happened in the last moments of Levitt's life caused hatred to bubble beneath his surface and push away his own sadness and fear.

It seemed that McKay had actually shoved her under the falling bulkhead and had deliberately let himself be injured so that he seemed innocent. Thompson knew better though.

McKay stayed still as he tried to manage his pain and allowed Thompson to have a quiet conversation with Caldwell.

"What's the situation, Doctor?"

"As you can see, sir, Chief Levitt didn't make it. The main power relay was just on fire, but we stopped it. I've got damage control teams going through the conduits trying to route power, but it's not good news, sir."

Caldwell glared at him and Thompson flinched back a little. The Colonel asked, "Can you give us anything at all? We need to eliminate the Wraith cruiser and get out of here before reinforcements arrive."

Thompson shook his head, "We're concentrating on the basics at the moment; life support and gravity. We should have them up and running in some sections within the hour. There's limited power left though and I'm still estimating the time we can keep them operational."

Caldwell glanced across at Rodney and said, "Get McKay to help you."

Thompson muttered under his breath, "I don't trust him, sir. Too much of the data and of what's happened points the finger of blame at him. I don't want him touching our ship until we've found out the cause of the malfunction to the plasma beam."

Caldwell's reaction was predictable, but no less shocking, "You're out of line, Doctor. He's the best scientist here and he can help us. I trust Colonel Sheppard therefore I trust McKay."

Thompson felt his anger brimming over again and asked, "Can trust really be transferred like that? Personally would you say you trust Dr McKay?"

Caldwell glared at him, "Are you questioning my judgement, Doctor?"

"Not at all. I just don't want anyone else to die and he doesn't know the ship like we do, sir. I'd rather he worked in a less critical section."

Caldwell glanced across at McKay, who was now watching them curiously as he continued to float limply. He turned back to Thompson and asked, "You're absolutely sure the weapons are not operational?"

Thompson sighed, "Yes, sir."

Caldwell nodded, "Alright. Do what you can for the life support and then work on the other systems."

"And McKay?"

Caldwell muttered, "I have a special mission for him."

Thompson turned with Caldwell to look across at the forlorn man watching them and felt relief that McKay was about to be taken off his hands.


TBC