SSV Cambrai, Silean Nebula

Day 1, 0430

"All hands, buckle up, this is gonna be close!"

Ria looked up from her desk, exchanging a worried glance with Alicia at the panicked yell coming over the intercom. The two medics had spent the mission pacing up and down as usual, in wait of a casualty, except this time, their nervous wait had been narrated by Akito, counting down the minutes to oblivion. They were currently at zero, if his estimate was to be believed.

Even as she braced herself, however, a commotion was echoing through the med bay's shut door, coming from the elevator and quickly spreading like wildfire to the mess hall, where most of the crew had been sheltering - the hangar, exposed to the cold, wasn't safe for them.

Rat-a-tat-tat.

"Doc!" a muffled voice a yelled. "Doc!"

Looking up, she saw Ethan Cash hammering on the med bay window, gesticulating wildly to the door with a rare look of panic on his face. The doctor froze for a moment, confused, but luckily for someone, Alicia was on the ball - she sprinted for the door, throwing it open just as a ragged collection of survivors came stumbling up to it.

Wheeling around in her chair, Ria's eyes shot over the group, taking them in in a matter of moments. Thorne was at the front, stumbling, and held up by a breathless Sam Vimes. Victor was in the background, moving on his own feet but swaying, and between them… shit. The captain, bloody and thrown over Alec Carter's shoulder.

"Get them in!" she cried, even as the ship lurched and shuddered, roaring upwards. In a snap decision, she picked out Vimes for a sensible reply, and asked: "What have we got?"

"Two exposed to the cold," the C-Sec man grunted, even as he slid Thorne down in a seat by the door. "No thermal shields. And the captain took a hit during evac. Torso - maybe chest, maybe shoulder, can't tell through the blood."

"Two with hypothermia, probably moderate," the doctor rattled off, "one ballistic trauma… Alec, get him on the bed, I'll treat him. Alicia, look after those two!"

The young biotic gave a nod, and immediately made for the chairs by the door - Victor had staggered down next to Thorne, head bowed and nodding slightly, eyes unfocused. Sam was stood nervously to one side, while Alec fought his way through the jumble to the nearest bed, setting Murphy down as Ria clambered out of her chair to join him.

"Sam, Alec, I'd like you to step outside…" she murmured, as calmly as she could. "I need sterile hands only."

"Gotcha," Sam nodded, giving Alec a quick nudge on the shoulder and making for the open door of the med bay. The marine shook his head slightly, and made to follow, shutting it behind him.

With the medics left to their own devices, the med bay became a whirl of activity. Ria found herself flitting between her station and the captain's bed, washing one hand while wrapping a blood pressure cuff around Murphy's arm with the other. Behind her back, she could hear the store cupboards rattling and tearing open noisily, as Alicia searched for blankets and heat packs.

Finally, she pulled on a pair of gloves from the dispenser next to her desk, and set to work, quite conscious that in her haste she had no ECG, no scans…

She shook her head, and grabbed a little torch from her belt, pulling open the captain's eyes to shine a light in them. Pupillary response. Still conscious, breathing… blood pressure falling - she hastily pressed one hand to the general area of the wound, stemming the bleeding as best she could as she continued her diagnosis.

Whoosh. The med bay shuddered from one end to the other, and the next bed almost came rolling into Murphy's, unsecured - Ria caught it with her boot at the last moment, and kicked it away roughly, bracing herself against Murphy's bed to keep her balance.

"What the hell was that?" Alicia swore, picking herself up from the floor.

"Evasives," Thorne mumbled, mutedly.

Ria just grimaced, and turned her gaze back to the captain. Lifting his shoulder slightly, she leant down to look at his back, searching for the exit wound… nothing doing. The shot was lodged, then. Stemming some of the bleeding, but complicating the injury too… bloody thing.

"Alicia, I need a blood pack," she called over one shoulder, slipping off her coat as she did. "Human, universal donor type."

"Catch!" a muffled voice replied.

She spun around just in time to see her assistant toss the little red bag with one hand - she had a heat pack in the other, and a second gripped between her teeth, in the process of activating them. The asari just caught the pack into her chest and went back to work, hanging it up on the drip stand beside the bed.

Swallowing hard to keep her calm, she set about removing the captain's armour, piece by piece - first gauntlets, then pauldrons, then chest and back plate. Sure enough, the back plate had nary so much as a dent, while the chest had a ragged hole punched clean through - high calibre, and jagged in impact.

Ria tossed the armour down on the next bed, ignoring the bloody stains it left, and reached for a sheet of gauze from the cart, quickly wiping away the worst of the blood even as more came trickling from the captain's chest, second by second. It was a slow stream, sure enough, but it just kept coming…

She abandoned the gauze, mind still doing about a million things at once - with one hand, she set the scanner above the bed going, reaching down for a canula from the crash cart. As the scanner started up, whirring away, she flitted round towards the headboard and grabbed the oxygen mask set into the wall, quickly applying it to the captain's jaw and setting it running.

"Doctor?" Alicia murmured, question unspoken.

"I've got it," Ria replied, shortly. "Just keep an eye on them."

The younger medic nodded and went back to her charges, as the asari leant down, turning Murphy's arm over to locate the radial… yeah, there it was. She slid the canula in as gently as she could - no anaesthetic yet, although the captain didn't stir - and brought up her omni-tool as the scanner's results finally came through. Shot lodged under the shoulder blade. Tricky to retrieve, and it would have messed up a fair amount of tissue on the way through, but at least it wasn't migrating to the heart or lungs.

Wait. Shit. Subclavian - the artery running through the captain's left shoulder had been torn, hence the bleeding. And she'd gone and put the canula in his left arm. Stupid, stupid Ria… she backed up, pulling the needle out none too gently and dragging the drip stand with her as she crossed to his right side, found the radial artery there, slid it in once more. A couple of deep breaths to slow the manic pace her mind was taking, and then she hooked up the IV, watching with some small satisfaction as a trickle of crimson descended into the captain's arm.

No chance to rest just yet, though. The wound in his chest was still bleeding, even as she pressed a hand to it, and he was still-

Wham. The ship bucked, and the beds rattled, for a moment threatening to rise off the ground…

"For fuck's sake!" Ria screamed, drawing a little gasp of surprise from Alicia. "Med bay to helm, if you don't stop pissing about up there, I'm sticking a scalpel in you two next!"

"Hey, at least I left the gravity on!" Akito snapped in reply, over the intercom. "We've got Reapers on our six, steady isn't exactly an option!"

"I don't want to hear it, Yurai!"

"Just hold on, damn it! Going to FTL in ten."

With a frustrated growl that surprised even herself, Ria leant over and unhooked the captain's bed from the wall, taking the drip stand with it and making for the door to the theatre.

"I need to get him into surgery!" she barked, not even bothering with the calm façade now. "Keep an eye on those two, don't let them pass out!"

"Got it," Alicia nodded, weakly.

Wham. Deep in the ship's bowels, something rumbled, and the hull shuddered once again…

"Jump! Now!" Erika Solov's voice cried, in panic - Akito had left the intercom open in his hurry.

"On it! Three, two, one…"

Whoosh.