"Stay with me, Nivryn," Julian urged, his voice remarkably steady given the gravity of the situation.
Her dark, nearly black blood seeped into his uniform, but the stains were the last thing on his mind. The wound was a gaping, oozing crater. Forget phaser burns, this looked like a grenade had gone off right on top of her.
She gasped in sucking breaths, trying to say something, but it all came out incoherent. He tilted her head forward and lifted her eyelids. The pupils were dilated and glossy, but she seemed to be conscious enough to keep trying to look around.
Dax hurried over to Julian's side, her eyes wide with concern but her voice steady. "Julian, Worf and Odo managed to get a stasis field around the Alar. O'Brien has enhanced it. They're contained for now."
Julian barely looked up. "Good, good," he murmured.
Dax didn't hesitate to kneel beside him, offering her assistance. "Tell me what you need."
"Can you beam us to the infirmary?"
"No," she answered regrettably. "The explosions took transporters and comms down."
Julian nodded, swiftly moving to the next best option. "Then help me lift her. We have to get her into surgery before she loses any more blood.
The process was awkward and difficult between the two of them, but soon Julian's nurses arrived and added their assistance to the mix.
As soon as N'ivryn was securely on the table, Julian launched into his rapid fire of orders and directions. "I'll need a vascular regenerator and dermal synthesizer ready," he instructed one of the Bajoran nurses. "And make sure the anesthetics compatible with her biology are prepped."
His eyes never leaving his patient, he continued to direct the team around him. "Prepare to administer 20cc's of inaprovaline and have the blood-gas infuser ready in case of circulatory collapse. Also, have the cortical stimulator on standby."
Dax quietly slipped out, leaving the medical team to the challenging task ahead of them. She startled at the quiet whimpers coming from one of the biobeds, encased in its containment field. In all the chaos, she'd nearly forgotten they'd left Kallim there where they hoped he'd be a bit safer. Putting on her bravest, friendliest, parenting smile, she rounded the corner and phased the containment field so she could join the young boy on the other side.
The operating room soon filled with the sounds of medical instruments, the beeping of monitors, and the focused concentration of a team working in perfect unison.
"Prepare the dermal synthesizer. We need to repair the lacerations in her chest and abdomen. Keep monitoring her vitals. Alert me to any change in her blood pressure or heart rate."
Every decision, every movement was critical, and Julian's expertise guided the team through the intricate dance of surgery. His hands moved with practiced efficiency, repairing the damage, stitching together what had been torn apart.
"We're going to need to stabilize the internal bleeding in the liver," he said, his eyes never leaving his work. "Prepare the blood-gas infuser. And have the cortical stimulator ready, her neural responses are dampening."
The hours wore on, but for everyone in the room it felt like only minutes. The only incessant reminder of the passage of time was the ache forming in Julian's lower back. At long last he finally allowed himself to say the last, ritual words.
"Final sutures here." He took a step back and allowed himself a moment to breathe. "Prepare to close. Nurse, administer postoperative meds and begin monitoring her recovery."
All that was left now was to wait.