Martha was getting toward the frantic stage of coordination. She still worked well but there were too many things to put in place and there had not been any pre-warning of the alert. Of course they had plenty of contingencies for base wide alerts and having to deal with a rapid influx of patients requiring a range of treatments including life-saving emergency treatments where mere minutes made the difference between someone making a full recovery in the long run, living but with life limiting issues, or not making it. She thrived on the kind of pressure that created and she put her heart and soul into every arterial bypass graft just as she did the minor stitches or cleansing of a small abrasion.
They had plenty of plans to call on, but none of them were written for them working in their makeshift hospital facilities and they certainly weren't written for working while the front line, fall-back position, and an uncontained hostile threat were all inhabiting the medical wing. None of that was factored into the base contingencies and so everything was being adapted on the run. At least she could count on her team to do the very best with what they had available and in all cases more than would be expected.
The East Wing was self-contained and capable of housing four patients in normal circumstances and had four separate rooms. One of them was occupied by the Doctor. There were three other spaces for long term patients in there, and the common room had been quickly turned into a makeshift ward. Seven cots had been put in there along with the treatment couches dragged out of neighbouring medical areas and some chairs that had been found.
Major Starkey came into the East Wing. She had been put in command as the current number 2 on the base. She had worked in UNIT for a long time, but had only taken the command position since the dalek invasion. She was brilliant at what she did, and what she did was engineering, not command and not emergency situations with hostile aliens loose in the medical wing. She felt like she had been plonked down in the middle of a crisis and she wasn't sure what to do.
A Private walking past her with a heavily bleeding wound on his arm. The wound was not checked and blood was running down underneath his uniform sleeve and dripping quite steadily from his fingers as his arm hung limply down at his side. She looked at him and the blood trail he was leaving as he didn't seem quite with it or sure where he was supposed to be going.
"What are you doing wandering around out here like that?" Major Starkey asked him. "What is your name, Private?" She demanded of him, but he just looked at her. His expression was quite glassy as he was totally focused on getting into the safe zone he just didn't know where it was. He had known where it was, but it had moved, and now he didn't know and he needed to find out.
Captain Jack came hurrying back in to deliver supplies to the Doctor and Wilfred to try and work out how to create a weapon to take down the Harlequin Ghost. He needed to report to Major Starkey about where the Harlequin Ghost had holed himself up, but when he came across her she was seemed to be trying to interrogate a young Private who looked like he had seen a ghost and was about to pass out. If they were brutally honest judging by the way he was bleeding it looked like he had more than seen the Ghost and had probably also seen some very ugly action.
"Wilfred?" Jack called him out of the Doctor's room briefly and bundled the supplies for the Time Lord into his arms. "I'll be back shortly," he advised and the older man nodded and went back in to where they were trying to keep the Doctor calm enough that he didn't cause himself so much pain he could not provide the assistance they needed.
Once he had been relieved of the items he had retrieved Jack went back to the Private rather than the Major. "Come on, Private, let's go and get you sorted out," Jack insisted. He didn't give the Private any choice in the matter as he hooked his arm through his uninjured one to lead him. He wanted to get him through to the medics before he simply collapsed. "How about we lift that other arm of yours up there a bit as well, see if we can stop all that bleeding?" Jack lifted the soldier's arm up for him. The pain sparked some life back into his eyes and he looked at Jack a little panicked. "It's okay. You're safe now. Come with me," he led the young soldier away from the Major and further into the East Wing than the initial foyer.
"Gerald!" Jack waved the doctor responsible for the triage post over. "Got one for you here. Currently making his own way under his own stream but not sure how long he's going to stay that way with the trail of blood he has left on route," Jack commented.
"Thanks Jack, can you get him onto the trolley?" Gerald asked and Jack directed him over onto a treatment gurney at the side of the room. Gerald immediately changed his gloves and then got a pair of scissors and started to cut through the sleeve on his uniform.
"Have you got any other injuries, Brendon?" Gerald asked him, knowing him because he was on the officer program and was staying in the college accommodation with him. He didn't really get an answer, just a kind of shake of the head and a grunt. Gerald revealed the wound on his arm. It was right through the centre of his bicep and had gone through the full thickness of the skin, the layer of yellow fat beneath, and right into the dark red muscle. All of which was clearly visible in the wound. Gerald checked how close it was to the brachial artery but that had not been damaged. A large vein had been and that was causing the heavy bleeding.
Gerald put a pressure dressing on. He wrapped a tight bandage around his arm and then put it all in an elevating sling, getting Brendon to lie flat. He put a drip into his other arm and got him some pain killers. He called Anita over and ensured that he was put on five minute observations not necessarily because of the injury but because he was showing the classic signs of emotional and physical shock. He didn't want him deteriorating, but he had provided the required initial aid to the injury.
The next team of medics would then take Brendon and reassess and begin treatment in a conveyor type process. He would skip over some of the less serious injuries and leap frog up the conveyor depending on priority, but he would then go to a team with more time to evaluate, scan, and decide on whether surgery was going to be needed. Gerald suspected that it would be to repair tendons and put in internal stitches, but he could not spend too much of the triage time on any one patient because the next person in might be critical. It was the only way they could cope with this initial stage.
Jack went back to check in with the intention of checking in with the Doctor and letting him know that the Harlequin Ghost was up in the roof space of the autopsy lab having been hit with a bullet that had damaged its head wound further. He was intercepted on the way back by the Major who was waiting for him. "I thought I told you to remain within the East Wing," Major Starkey accused Jack. "I am receiving reports that you went beyond the hold and into the unsecured area against orders."
"I went behind the hold on the medical authority of Medical Director Doctor Martha Jones in order to retrieve items that we believe will be integral in stopping the attack by the Harlequin Ghost," Jack advised without any formality. He would recognise the authority of UNIT to a limit, but he was not bound by them, and he certainly wasn't going to follow their orders when they were plainly idiotic.
"Get Doctor Jones here to report on the matter," Major Starkey ordered Jack. "And, to deal with this? People are bleeding all over the place."
"Are you serious?" Jack checked. "You want me to go and get Martha back here to abandon her duties in the field where she is dealing with your injured troops in order to report to you about me breeching the hold successfully and on men bleeding on the floor, when in fact, you stood there and questioned that young man without guiding him to the appropriate medical triage station where he needed to be. That young man was in shock and needed help not orders," Jack told the Major. "I am not going to tell Martha to come back here to report. If you're worried about the blood on the floor then…" Jack looked around him. He then went to the side and returned with a mop. "…here, stop standing round getting in the way and do something about it."
"Excuse me?"
"In case you have not noticed it is all hands to the deck," Jack told her. Jack looked back into the East Wing when it seemed to fall quieter than it had been with the cacophony of injured men in various stages of treatment and states of agony. There were people standing or sitting or lying watching him hand their commander and chief a mop. Major Starkey saw the same thing and was now faced with a dilemma. Should she take the mop and show she was not beneath getting her hands dirty, or, did she refuse and maintain her authority?
"Nancy?" Gerald got one of the facility staff's attention and indicated toward the Major. She was a cleaner and was dealing with spilled body fluids as quickly as she could. People just seemed to be spilling them all over the place. She had a bucket of crystals designed for dealing with body spills and she rushed over with it.
"You cannot use a yellow mop for blood," she admonished them both and took the mop away. "I will deal with this."
"Thank you, Nance," Jack commented when she took the mop away and then started to the sprinkle the crystals on the blood on the floor as far as the East Wing entrance. She was not military staff so would not go beyond the fall-back position until the alert was cleared and then she would be involved in the major clean-up as well. She was not looking forward to that, but she had worked with the police as well and had dealt with several very difficult situations following road traffic accidents, serious assaults, and murders. She had also worked on the underground for a while picking body parts up following suicides on the tracks, a bit of blood was not going to bother her, but they had to use the right coloured mops and yellow was not right. No one ever understood the importance of it all.
"May I provide you with my report now?" Jack checked with the Major. "Or, do you remain more concerned about my whereabouts?"
"You are not UNIT personnel. I have to be concerned about your whereabouts."
"It was under Colonel Mace's instruction that I have been kitted out in UNIT attire, Ma'am. I have been granted authority to act on your behalf as liaison from Torchwood in this matter," Jack confirmed. "Has Colonel Mace been brought back from the field yet?"
"No, not yet."
"That is good then," Jack commented wistfully. If he was too badly injured then he would have been rushed back. He had to be a priority two patient. "Have you received your report from him yet?"
"No, not yet."
"I thought you were going to do that as soon as you arrived on site?" Jack commented surprised that the Major had not done so. "Do you want me to escort you? I can tell you what I need to on route and then let the Colonel and Doctor Jones know about it all at the same time."
"I am not sure."
"Why not?"
"That thing is down there still."
"The Harlequin Ghost?"
"I believe that is what they are calling it," Major Starkey nodded.
"It is still down there, but it is not currently active. I believe I have discovered where it is hiding and have ordered a unit to guard the entry point for any activity," Jack advised.
"You gave orders to one of the units?"
"Yes, to Foxtrot Alpha."
"Without confirmation from UNIT?"
"It was the right order to give with the information that I had at the time and whether that order comes from UNIT or from a Torchwood Liaison or from the moon, it was the right order to give. Forgive me, Ma'am, but you do not seem to have a handle on this situation at the current time."
"What do you expect? I am an engineer and a mechanic!"
"You are the current commander and chief," Jack paid that no heed. She had to act or to surrender the position so that she could keep the situation as under control as it could be, not let it all pass her by. "You need to act it or relinquish that command to someone who can."
"I have no experience in dealing with things like this. I mean that thing is not even from Earth."
"Neither am I," Jack told her plainly and then winked at her when she looked shocked by the fact. "Neither is the Doctor."
"You're not human?"
"I am human, I was just not born on Earth. Things are not always what they seem. You just have to take things on face value right now, but you need to do something. Your men are looking up to you," Jack warned him. "If you fall apart it will not be long before they do."
"I don't know what to do," Major Starkey admitted quietly. "Like I said, I'm an engineer. If you've got a tank that needs fixing then I can do that, but I don't see any of them around."
"Actually, as an engineer you may be able to provide us more assistance than you think," Jack commented. "The Doctor is working on a way to deliver a liquid nitrogen shot to freeze the alien if it attacks again. You can get everything in order and then help with that and show your expertise to your men."
"They aren't my men, they are Colonel Mace's."
"He is out of commission, Major. They are yours and unless you start to believe that and you start to act like that then this is going to be lost." Jack warned her. "Being in command does not mean you have to do it all yourself, it means you let the experts in their field deal with the things they are dealing with or that you pick up a mop or you take a wounded soldier to a medic or you give the orders depending on what is needed. What you cannot do is stand and do nothing because those around you are all looking to you and take their confidence from your actions as much as their own."
"I have to give the orders."
"The men will do that for themselves. They will tell you what orders you need to give if you let them and you listen to them. It does not all have to come from you. It just has to be directed by you," Jack advised. "Now, you cannot assume command without first finding out what is going on so the first thing you need to do is take a report from Colonel Mace, assuming that he is able to give a report. If you do not make him your first point of contact then you will not be in full control and he will not be able to relinquish control and concentrate on being wounded. Martha said that he was not fatally wounded but he is seriously injured, that means he will be a second wave patient."
"What does that mean?"
"Patients come down to the fall-back position in all critical situations in waves. Usually three depending on how ongoing the situation is. The first wave of patients are the critically injured that need immediate treatment to preserve their lives and the dangers of moving them from the field are outweighed by their need for urgent emergency treatment. The first wave of patients also includes the walking wounded. They are the ones who can make their own way, which is why the triage is set up initially as well as all the emergency treatment so that they can be assisted and then got to sit and wait," Jack commented.
"That is what is happening in there."
"Yes, the second wave should be coming soon enough now. They are patients that are injured too severely to make their own way to the fall-back position, but they are not so seriously injured that they need immediate intervention. They can be afforded a bit more time for first aid treatment and protection in the field prior to transport back to the fall-back position where they will be given further treatment. They are usually conscious but can have some pretty nasty injuries. They are usually not going to die within the next hour if they are left, though the intention is never to leave them that long."
"How do you know all of this?"
"I have been trained as a field medic," Jack commented. "I'm not sure how badly or where the Colonel has been injured, but I know he has been communicating with Martha so he has been conscious. He has not been sent down here yet which means he is not going to be easily moved. As he is commander in chief he would be one of the first taken off the field if he could be moved. He probably has something that needs to be stabilised and then he will be moved. Because he needs time spent on him he can't be a priority over those that are going to die without the time, but, he will be the first second phase patient brought down and he will probably be dealt with by Martha. It is protocol."
"He's not been brought down yet."
"I've not seen anyone rushed through by the medics for a while, so it shouldn't be too long now," Jack commented. "The medics will have all of this under control. While you're out fixing your tanks this is what they do."
"What do I need to do now?"
"Get as much information as you can to get a full picture of what is happening across all the different points that are going on. Get a report from each station and then look at all of it together to determine what the next course of action is going to be. We are in a lull at the moment, but it is not over by a long shot. You need to make sure the resource is available to ensure you can move on when all the shit hits the fan again," Jack advised. "Who is your number 2?" Jack asked her but she looked at him a little blankly. "You should have a number 2? If you're Colonel Mace's then who is yours?"
"I am not Colonel Mace's number 2."
"No? Then why have you taken command when he is down?"
"His number 2 is on leave and out of the country."
"Do you not have a number 2 then?"
"No, like I said, I'm an engineer."
"But you carry the rank of Major?"
"Before the dalek attack I was a Corporal."
"Okay," Jack understood more fully what was going on. No one was working in their comfort zone. From Corporal to Major in four months was an impossible leap. UNIT was rebuilding and they did not have the correct personnel in the correct positions yet. The daleks had deliberately taken out all the military bases and now a single Harlequin Ghost was crippling the remnants.
"Here?" Major Starkey went to remove the red arm band from her uniform which indicated that she was the current base commander. She went to pass it to Jack. "Torchwood or not, you know what you're doing."
"No." Jack couldn't take it. "That is really not the right thing to do. It is not just about experience and knowledge. These men do not know me. They won't have any trust in me. They do know you and they know your rank and that you are their commander and chief. I will advise you as a number 2 but I cannot take command and expect the kind of response from the men that you would. They will do what I say because they have to if you give that to me, but not because they want to do it, because they have to do it. That is not the way to run right now," Jack commented.
"You're the current number 2 then?"
"Okay, good, then should we collate the information we need?" Jack prompted.
"Who do we need to go and see?" Major Starkey asked and Jack realised just how difficult it was going to be and just what Colonel Mace had been doing to keep it all together as well as he had under a single handed command.
"I will call someone over, then you tell them to pass the message that all area leads need to provide a current report to me as your number two. It is then my job to collate and pass that information back to you as you need it," Jack advised the Major. "Make sense?"
"Yes, Sir," the Major nodded.
"No, you're the number one, I'm the number two. I only carry the rank of Captain and that was kind of from the Americans," he commented without elaborating about how he had stolen it from a WWII flight commander. He didn't think that would assist with building trust.
"Ah, Private Coates, just the man!" Captain Jack called him over when he appeared in the East Wing to check they had all the provisions they needed.
"Captain?" Private Coates saluted him.
"Which of the uninjured officers will be best placed as a temporary communications and intelligence officer?"
"Sir? I can take that role. Corporal O'Neil can do the rest of the fall-back stuff now. It is all set up. Can I be the communications and intelligence officer?"
"Excellent." Jack nodded. He'd already known that he'd be good at it and want to do it. "But, what you need to do is that when not actively seeking report information that you remain with the Doctor. He trusts you, and you will need to report all information to him as well," Jack offered. "And, he will be sorting out some vital information that will be needed to be relayed quickly to command once it is established," Jack advised.
"Yes, Sir."
"Good, now, report to Major Starkey. She has a task for you."
"Ma'am?"
"Captain Harkness is my new number 2. I need you to liaise with all leads to provide a current report to him."
"Yes ma'am, right away ma'am." Private Coates saluted the Major and she returned the gesture. He then hurried off to take care of the task of gathering as much information as possible to report to Jack.
"There you go, see?" Jack commented to the Major. "You don't need to know how to carry out the order. You just need to know which orders to give and who to give them to. If we were in any other situation and an order was given to you to fix a tank then you would carry that out, but you would not necessarily expect the person giving the order to be able to do it would you?"
"No, course not, I am the engineer."
"Then the same applies now," Jack assured her. "We will get the information back from Private Coates and he will do a thorough job because he wants to impress the Doctor." Jack chuckled. "Then we are going to go through all the information he comes back with and decide collectively what the next action is seeking advice from Martha on medical, from security details if necessary, from the staff officer, and from the Doctor. All of that combines and then we will know how to proceed."
"Thank you, Captain."
"You're welcome, now, let's go and seek Colonel Mace and Martha Jones," Jack suggested and the Major agreed, but then smiled.
"Isn't it me supposed to be ordering you?" she asked Jack.
"Yes ma'am," Jack confirmed.
"Then, let's go and find Colonel Mace and Doctor Jones," Major Starkey instructed.
"Yes ma'am," Jack agreed and then laughed. "I think they should be up this way."
They passed Martha on the way to the previous muster point at clinic 3. She was rushing to the fall-back position with another soldier on a stretcher being carried by two men in soldier's uniform while Martha and two other medics worked on him in transit, not able to afford to leave him the short amount of time it would take to transfer him from one side of the medical building to the other. The soldier didn't seem to grasp the idea that Martha was attempting to hold a wad of absorbent padding into the man's gaping abdomen. She saw Jack as they passed but she could not stop to talk to him or to Major Starkey who she was surprised to see venture out of the fall-back point. Jack didn't expect her to stop when it was so clear that she was busy and she hoped she didn't lose too many patients, not those that were barely living when she got to them. She always took that harder than those that had already died before she did, that even if they were on the cusp it was her failure that she'd failed to save them. It didn't matter that the soldier on the stretcher's intestines were likely to trip him over if he did was he wanted in his shocked state and stood from the stretched, if she did not save him, she felt she failed.
As Jack and Major Starkey walked up the corridor that stretched from the East Wing to the clinic it was about a hundred yards of corridor with doors on either side of it. Many of them had been raided for supplies and beds to be taken into the East Wing. Luckily they had not been breached, but they were not in use to provide a buffer area between the muster point and the fall-back point. Until the medical building was secured they would not be using those rooms for anything but equipment. Jack was wary of the amount of blood that was on the floor of the corridor. There had been no fighting in this area so all the blood had come from the wounded being transported, or making their own way, from the seat of the battle to the East Wing. Some of it was just droplets, but in a couple of places there were heavy spots or pools of blood and that had then been walked through and spread. It seemed like an awful lot of blood. Jack knew from his own experience that blood could go a long way before death was imminent, but, it still looked like a lot as splotched the corridor.
Corporal Lane had taken a position just before the corridor opened up into Clinic 3. He had a clipboard in his hand with several lists on it. He was point standing and was making sure that their live roll was current. Private Coates was with him and they were going through some logs as Coates did the job he had volunteered for and sourced as much current information as possible. He'd run all the way to the TARDIS and back and got the Doctor his coat. He'd not even paused to look what was so important and in his pockets. If Martha had confirmed it important then he knew it was. Now he was doing the role he planned to study for and was working as an intelligence officer and he was going to do the best job possible. Maybe then Major Starkey and Captain Harkness would put a good word in for him.
Jack did not interrupt Private Coates from his duties and he stopped Major Starkey from asking him for an early report. The Private knew the urgency and the value of current information, but it had to be a full report to be of true value. "Let him get all he thinks he needs before he comes back to us," Jack advised Major Starkey quietly as they continued past, acknowledging the two men working, but not interrupting either of them.
"He might have some information already."
"Yes, I expect he does, until he has a full report you don't want to hear what he knows."
"Why not?"
"Because the information he is going to give you is going to inform the decisions that you make and you need to know as much as possible before you start to give orders," Jack advised. "Think of it in engineering terms," Jack offered. "What if at this point he knows that you need, I don't know, a pneumatic pump to a tank raised to repair it on site," Jack commented. Major Starkey didn't bother correcting him about the type of tool that she might use for that. She certainly wouldn't use a pneumatic pump, the weight of a tank would create too much of a compressive force on the pump and likely cause a blowout. "If that is the only information that you have got at this point then you'd send someone to go and get it, but, in his next investigation Private Coates may discover that there is a bridge out and the pneumatic pump is on the other side of it, or that the pneumatic pump is broken. If that is the case then you need an alternative, but if you have already committed resources to sort out the tank to accept the pneumatic pump and have committed resources to go and fetch the pneumatic pump, then you're not going to have the right resource to get on top of the issue by avoiding the pump and seeking an alternative method of fixing the tank." Jack explained. "There comes a point where you have to draw a line and say that is enough, but if you don't have the basic full picture at the start then you have to countermand orders and bring people back or give them orders that they cannot carry out and it makes you look incompetent and it makes it difficult for the men to have faith in the orders you give," Jack explained as they continued to walk along the corridor and to the Muster point. Major Starkey nodded her understanding and decided that if they got through this then she would resign her commission as a Major and return to a Corporal in the engineering team and she would recommend that Captain Jack was put on a course about using appropriate tools for the job.
The double doors at the end of the corridor and into the Muster point were pinned back to the wall. The glass in one of them was smashed and over the floor. In the other door there was a bullet hole but the glass had held around it. The doors also had some bullet holes in them so it looked like they had been closed at the time of engagement. The clinic area muster point was formed where the corridor opened out into what was normally the clinic waiting room. Now it looked like carnage. They had seats that were bolted together in sets of three but they had been tossed out the way. There were three people remaining in the area. A female officer who had a Private holding a pressure pad that had a mark of blood on it to the side of her leg. He was also holding her hand and talking to her quietly. There was an older male, a Sergeant, who had a Private sitting by him, but was holding his own pad to his shoulder. He also had his leg bandaged roughly with a heavy looking dressing underneath the bandaging over the top of his uniform. His leg was elevated up on one of the broken chairs. The third person in the area was Colonel Mace. He also had a Private acting as a buddy with him.
"Colonel," Major Starkey saluted him. The Colonel's eyes looked heavy and his complexion was porcelain white. His attempt to return the salute was neither clear nor proper. He barely lifted his hand from his lap. When he did Jack could see that his palm was covered in drying blood. There was blood between all of his fingers that remained a redder colour as it remained sticky and wet rather than the burgundy brown of that drying into the lines of his palm.
"Excuse me a moment, Private," Jack knelt down to the Colonel. He was concerned that either getting a report from him or giving him was not going to be possible. "What is your name, soldier?" He asked the private.
"Private Moore, Sir."
"Well, Private Moore, how is he doing?" He indicated toward the Colonel. "Does he seem as alert as he did when you first starting to buddy up with him? Is he as talkative?" Jack checked.
"I…?" the Private looked worried about answering the question. It was the base commander he was talking about.
"It is okay to answer," Jack assured him. "I am sure that the Colonel would rather you provided a full report than were worried about." Jack knew it had to feel awkward to be buddied with the Colonel, but it was important. "Wouldn't you, Sir?" Jack checked with him. "Colonel?"
"Report?" the Colonel asked him as if he'd only just remembered that they should be doing something and that was the first thing that came to mind. He needed to know what was happening.
"Ah, I don't think so, not at the moment," Jack offered. "All you need to know right now is that it is all under control, isn't it, Major?" Jack suggested and looked at the Major.
"Yes, Sir, I have made Captain Jack my number 2, Sir," Major Starkey commented. Jack wasn't entirely sure that she should have let him know that just now. The Colonel just looked at Jack through bleary eyes.
"Good," he acknowledged eventually and dipped his head in a shallow nod of confirmation. "UNIT… not Torchwood," he reminded Jack.
"Yes, Sir, and right now? Field medic, not Captain." Jack took the Colonel's wrist and felt for his pulse. "How are you feeling?"
"Not too good."
"Do you know how useless that is as an answer?" Jack checked. He took in the way the Colonel was sitting. He'd not been laid down by Martha which meant there was a reason why she had not want him flat, or to be moved. The Private was holding a thick dressing pad to his hip, but it was saturated and there looked to be a lot of fresh blood soaking into the Colonel's trousers and on the floor. He was still bleeding quite heavily despite the dressing.
"Major, would you mind getting me a new pad from that pack?" Jack indicated to the medic's bag that had been left in the Muster point. "As big as you can find. Two or three if they're not that big," Jack prompted. "Are you applying plenty of pressure there, Private?"
"It was hurting him too much," the Private commented and Jack sighed.
"Did Doctor Jones instruct you?"
"She had me pressing down hard. She said she thinks he might have a broken hip and pelvis, but this is pressing down onto it," the Private complained.
"To stop the bleeding," Jack confirmed.
"But he is still bleeding."
"Yes, that is because you've not been applying the required amount of pressure to stop it," Jack commented but without any accusation in his voice. "I know that sometimes it is horrible and it hurts, but it is better he is in pain than bleeding out." Major Starkey brought another pad over. "Move out the way for a moment." Jack took the dressing pad off the Colonel's hip. It was soaked through with blood so much so that it felt like he was lifting a sponge that had been fully submerged in the fluid. He tossed it to the side and it made a slapping sound as it hit the tiles and blood splattered away like some kind of crimson modern artistry. Jack could see that Martha had hacked away the cloth of the Colonel's trousers over his hip to reveal the wound that was immediately filling with blood again. It was literally pouring in a steady stream out of the wound and down the side of his thigh onto the floor. There was no pulsing which was a relief, but it was a lot of blood to be losing over any length of time.
Jack could also see why Martha suspected there was a bony injury associated with the wound. The position he was crying in with his leg rotated outward suggested his hip was not intact. There was a lot of bruising starting to show across his skin as well which he doubted Martha would have seen to begin with but was probably confirmation that his pelvis was injured too. The swelling in the tissues had expanded and were holding the wound open so that it was over an inch wide right through the middle of it. It curved down across his hip and then formed a jagged rip line through to his buttock and to the top of his leg.
"Private Moore," Jack addressed him as he opened the dressings that Major Starkey had brought over. "I want you to go to the East Wing. If you can get to Martha then you need to do so."
"Martha, Sir?"
"Medical Director Doctor Jones," Major Starkey confirmed.
"Yes Ma'am."
Jack looked at the Colonel and then took a piece of paper from the small notebook Major Starkey seemed to be clinging onto. He took a pen from her breast pocket, winking at her as he did so. He wrote on the piece of paper: 'Mace is going into hypovolemic shock due to his blood loss. Need to get him back. Now P1.5. Effective pressure not applied due to pain in injury. Team required for mobilisation query #femur and #pelvis.' Jack wrote the note and then folded it in half twice. "I want you to give this to Doctor Jones. If you can't give it to Doctor Jones then you give it to Doctor Sutherland. Is that understood?" Jack checked with the Private.
"Yes Sir."
"Good, now go, urgently," Jack advised. Private Moore ran and almost skidded over in a pool of blood. It might have gone unnoticed except that the soles of his boots squeaked noisily as he managed to catch himself. He had a quick look behind him to see if anyone had noticed. They had. He blushed and then continued on quickly but with less haste. That was what the Colonel always said to them. More speed and less haste.
"I need to stop the bleeding, Colonel," Jack asked him. "You are starting to lose too much. The body can withstand and recover from quite significant blood loss but you're starting to lose a bit much," Jack put the pad over his hip. "Major? Why don't you take his hand?" Jack prompted. "Just think of him as a tank with a broken axle," Jack commented. The Colonel laughed quietly on hearing that. He realised that Jack must have got a measure of how out of place Major Starkey was going to be within the medical wing and dealing with people in a crisis. She was excellent at what she did, but that did not mean she was good at this. He was glad she had made Jack her number two and he was glad Jack knew enough to let her give the orders even if he gave the guidance. As the Colonel laughed Jack applied the required pressure to his wound to stop the blood pooling on the floor any more. The Colonel's humour quickly evaporated as his laughter morphed into a cry.
Jack could feel the eyes of the other injured soldiers and their peer support buddies burn into him as they heard their Colonel cry out in pain under his ministrations. They didn't even know who he was. What was he doing with their base commander to hurt him like that?
"I'm sorry." Jack did not release the pressure. The Colonel's holler died down into an exhausted moan. "Colonel?" Jack looked up at him. "Colonel? Look at me a moment?" Jack instructed as the Colonel's head was starting to loll forward and his eyes were closing. "Colonel? Now that is an order. You will look at me," Jack insisted.
"Colonel Mace?" Major Starkey squeezed his hand, but the Colonel's grip had faded and his clammy fingers were limp in hers. His head fell forward on a rubber neck that he didn't save as he lost consciousness.
"Damn it, Colonel?" Jack complained. "Major, hold his head up and back to keep his airway clear. We do not want him to start struggling to breathe now he is out. He should be lying down, but if that was possible Martha would have done it. While he's still breathing we leave him as he is. If he stops breathing then we'll just have to lie him down and risk it, but for now Martha has left him like this for a reason," Jack worried.
"What reason?"
"That cut is very close to his femoral artery and the position of his leg suggests that he has a hip injury. If there is broken bone in there then when they move him it will have to be in a very controlled manner to prevent the femoral artery being affected. If he lost that then he'd bleed to death in a matter of minutes," Jack advised Major Starkey. "If his pelvis has been broken there could be risk of internal injuries as well," Jack advised. Major Starkey wasn't quite sure how to lift the Colonel's head up and back as Jack had asked her to. She didn't know where to hold him. "Put your hands either side of his head, don't go to his throat or face, and try not to cover his ears," Jack commented. He could see the Colonel's chest rise and fall so he knew he was breathing. He checked his pulse. His radial pulse was very weak and rapid, it felt like a patter rather than a pulse beneath his fingers. He reached into his neck and felt his carotid pulse. It was stronger but clearly racing. He was suffering the physical effects of his injury and Jack knew that he could rapidly decline. It was unfortunate but in the field there was sometimes a higher mortality rate in the P2 patients than in the P1 ones. Medical battles were raging in the East Wing to save the most seriously hurt soldiers, meanwhile, the Colonel was having his own battle with his injury and Jack knew they needed to do something to support him better.