Star Trek: Lineage Ch. 04

"Yeah, I see it," Sahar agreed. The undershirt stuck tightly to Morgan's body, drenched in sweat, but a small area on the left side of her stomach was stained by a small amount of blood. Sahar gently peeled the fabric from Morgan's body. "Okay, let's see what we have here... oh, fuck!" she cried. As soon as the darkened part of the shirt was removed, a long, deep cut opened up and dark red blood poured out. "I need the field surgical kit!"

Zula and Casana looked up from what they were doing and saw the blood. Zula reached into the medkit and retrieved a small red box, tossing it to Casana as she passed her. Casana opened it as she reached Sahar and Suvak. "I need room!" she said, and Suvak stood and backed away.

"Holy shit, that's a lot of blood," Sahar said worriedly.

"The dark color means it's not oxygenated. It's been in the wound for a while, coagulating. As far as circulation is concerned, it's already gone." Casana knelt across from Sahar, next to the Ensign, digging in the surgical kit as Zula and Suvak looked on. Sahar reached down and used her hands to place pressure of the gash, trying to stop the bleeding. "No! Not yet," Casana yelled, pulling Sahar's hands away, "We need to let it clear. It will carry away any pathogens, cleaning the wound, and make room for oxygenated blood to reach the tissue."

"Since when do you have medical training?" Sahar scowled, but Casana didn't respond. Instead, she pulled a stack of bandages from the surgical kit and set them on Ensign Morgan's chest.

"I need a bio-waste bag and light," she said calmly. Suvak picked up a light and knelt behind Casana as Zula dug a small resealable bag out of the medkit and handed it to Sahar. "Hold it here," Casana said as she maneuvered the light in Suvak's hand to illuminate the injury. Casana dropped a piece of gauze on a small puddle of blood that was starting to form in the sand, and used another to wipe the area around the wound dry. "Bag," she said, and dropped the blood-soaked gauze into the bag as Sahar held it open.

"Shit," muttered Zula as Casana gently pressed a gauze pad against the injury and the white material immediately turned dark red. She quickly replaced the gauze, dropping the used one into the bag. Casana went through several gauzes, each one taking up less and less blood. Finally, she pulled the gauze away from the wound, and bright crimson blood slowly seeped from the cut.

"Okay, it's cleared. Sahar, I need you to hold a gauze pad in place to absorb blood while I look for the source of the bleeding."

"Okay," she said. Casana carefully placed a small piece of gauze in the wound and brought Sahar's hand to it.

"Hold it here," Casana ordered as she peered into the injury. Using her small fingers, she moved the tissue around, trying to find the source of the bleeding, occasionally moving Sahar's hand to better absorb the blood. At last, she spotted a small tear in the muscle layer, slowly leaking blood. "Tell me the laser scalpel isn't broken," Casana said to Zula.

"It is," she answered gravely.

"Fuck."

"We can build a substitute," Suvak said. "Chief Zula, find a small piece of metal, long and narrow."

"Okay," Zula said, digging around in the equipment before finding a small shard. "Got it."

"Now, place several small rocks together away from the equipment."

Zula quickly gathered a few stones and piled them in the middle of sandy area. "Now what?"

"Using your sidearm, heat the rocks to over 500 Kelvin."

"I see where this is going," Zula said as she drew her phaser. She adjusted the power setting, aimed the weapon at the rocks, and fired, maintaining the beam until the rocks glowed bright orange. Zula picked up the shard of metal and wrapped one end in cloth from the lining of the survival kit and stuck the exposed end into the rocks, quickly turning it red hot. "Here she," she said, handing it to Casana.

"Okay, let's see." Casana carefully maneuvered the metal so as not to touch any undamaged flesh. She delicately drew it across the torn muscle tissue, cauterizing it shut. "Got it. Now I need something to stich the laceration closed with..."

******

Cave Campsite, 2000 hours equivalent local

Having finished working on Ensign Morgan, Casana washed her hands in the water while Zula and Suvak picked through the salvaged equipment. The storm still raged outside, sending bursts of light through a small hole in the wall of the cave. Emergency lights had been set up to provide maximum illumination of the chamber, reflecting off the water to form shimmering, shifting patterns on the ceiling of the cave.

Sahar was sitting on a rock next to Ensign Morgan, staring down at the young woman.Did that just happen?she asked herself.It's impossible. But I saw it.Casana had no medical training, but she worked on Morgan like a skilled surgeon. She couldn't explain it, and that bothered her. Sahar tried to shake the thoughts, and walked over to Zula and Suvak. "What do we have?" she asked.

"Very little," Suvak answered. "Much of the equipment is damaged or destroyed, including my modified tricorder, the medical tricorder, the emergency beacon, and most of the medical equipment."

"Can you repair any of it?"

"Yes, but not all of it."

"Which ones?"

"Any of them."

"What?" Sahar said, confused. "You just said you couldn't!"

"I said I couldn't repair all of them, but any of them can be repaired."

"What the hell does that mean?" Sahar cried in frustration.

"If I use parts from other pieces of equipment, I can repair any of them, but there are not enough parts to repair them all," Suvak explained.

"Why the hell didn't you say that in the first place?"

"I did," Suvak responded. Sahar threw her hands up, turning around and walking back towards Ensign Morgan. As she sat back down, she noticed the Ensign twitch slightly. Sahar knelt over her, and Morgan slowly turned her head to one side.

"Bloody hell," she murmured, wincing.

"Stay still. You're injured," Sahar said softly.

"I noticed," she said, moving a hand to her side. Her eyes opened, revealing dark emerald-green irises.

"Good, you aren't paralyzed then!" Sahar teased, causing Ensign Morgan to chuckle and wince in pain.

"God, no jokes! It hurts to laugh," she smiled.

"Fine, fine. Hey, Casana, she's awake!" Casana finished washing the blood from her hands and came to kneel next to Ensign Morgan.

"Can you hear me?" she asked calmly.

"Yes."

"Good. Do you remember your name?"

"Ensign Kara Morgan."

"Where were you born?"

"Swansea, British Isles, Earth," Kara said.

"I think she's okay," Sahar said.

Casana ignored her. "Do you know where you are?"

"Oh, come on, Casana," Sahar said, crossing her arms.

"I need to make sure short term memory is intact," Casana snapped at Sahar.

"What, do you think she guessed where she was from? Who would guess that?"

"Hey!" Kara said with a scowl.

"That's long term."

"And by the way, when did you become a doctor?"

"I'm not," Casana replied, still examining Kara. Sahar grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her around. She was furious, more so than seemed appropriate even to her.

"Bullshit! You just performed emergency surgery with a flashlight and a hot piece of metal!"

"Wait, what?" Kara asked, but was completely ignored.

"I performed a simple procedure on someone who was going to bleed to death if I didn't. It didn't take any more knowledge than basic anatomy," Casana explained, trying to remain calm.

"I'm not talking about knowledge," she snapped. "I'm talking about skills. The way you moved her flesh around, the way you positioned the gauze, the way you cauterized the muscle. You did all of it like it was routine." Sahar paused, staring at Casana. Then, in a low, accusatory voice, "Like you had done it a thousand times." Casana stared back at her coldly.

"Uh-oh," whispered Zula, who had just noticed the confrontation, as she tapped Suvak's shoulder. They both stood, but remained near the small pile of equipment in the center of the camp.

"Stay out of my affairs," Casana growled, turning back towards Kara.

"Stay off the torpedo loading controls," Sahar sneered. The cave was still for a moment, with only the sound of distant thunder occasionally breaking the silence.

"What the hell does that mean?" Kara asked, but was again ignored.

"What did you say?" Casana whispered, her back still to Sahar.

"I said, stay off-" she was cut off as Casana whirled around, striking her in the jaw with the back of her first. Sahar was taken off guard and stumbled backwards, nearly falling to the ground. As she regained her footing, Casana hit again, this time to the stomach, dropping Sahar to her knees. She quickly recovered, and charged forward from her knees, catching Casana in the stomach and driving her backwards.

"Gah! Holy fuck!" cried Kara as they tripped over her legs, sending them both tumbling to the ground next to her. Sahar ended up on top of Casana, straddling her stomach, and punched her in side of the head. As Sahar drew back her hand for another strike, Casana reached up and grabbed the back her head, pulling it forward into a powerful head-butt. Sahar was dazed for a moment, but recovered quickly and clasped her hands together over her head.

Before she could bring it down, something seized her arm, and Sahar was hurled backwards through the air, striking a boulder and knocking the wind out of her. As she struggled to get to her feet, still on her hands and knees, she looked up to see a large, black boot swinging towards her. It stuck her in the face, sending her to the ground, landing on her back, unconscious.

Casana tried to stand but was stopped by a searing pain shooting through her arm and shoulder, and slumped to the ground.

******

Cave Campsite, 2030 hours equivalent local

Kara groaned as she laid her head back against the rock. She was seated against a small boulder a few meters from the "campfire", a large pile of phaser-heated rocks. "It's a bit hard," she said to Zula, who had helped her into this position. Zula reached into the survival kit and removed a sleeping roll.

"Use this," she said as she tossed it to Kara.

"Thanks," she replied, slipping it behind her head. "So, what the hell was that all about? I mean, they weren't fighting over whether or not Lieutenant Shen is a doctor, were they?"

"Very observant," Zula answered dryly as she watched Suvak prop up Casana against a boulder on the other side of hot rocks, next to Sahar. They were both unconscious, with their hands restrained behind their backs. "They have a bit of a history."

"Yes, I gathered that, too. What kind of history?"

"Lieutenant Tehrani holds deep romantic feelings for Lieutenant Shen, but they are not mutual," Suvak explained. "Several years ago, Lieutenant Tehrani expressed those feelings to Lieutenant Shen, but was rejected. She has since repressed those emotions, which appear to have manifested as aggressive and antisocial tendencies." She finished with Casana and looked back at Kara. She was wide-eyed.

"Oh, that's bloody brilliant! So, we're stranded in a cave with two feuding non-lovers, very little food, and no equipment?"

"It gets worse," Zula said.

"Naturally," Ensign Morgan sighed.

"See, before Sahar told Casana how she felt, she caught Cass and her boyfriend, who was under Sahar's command, going at it on the Photon Torpedo Loading Console in the Main Torpedo Bay, which he was supposed to be guarding."

"Nice."

"At the time, Sahar outranked them both. She tore into them like a Klingon drill instructor."

"And they've been fighting ever since?" Kara guessed.

"No, they made up. Almost got into a relationship, too. Then Casana... changed."

"God, this is like a Greek Tragedy," she sighed.

"Incorrect. In most Greek tragedies, most or all of the principle protagonists die before the end of the story," Suvak corrected her, kneeling over the medkit.

"That's still a possibility," Kara pointed out dryly.

"We hope to avoid that. Hence this little intervention," Zula explained, getting to her feet. "Ready?" she asked Suvak, who retrieved two hyposprays from the medkit.

"Yes. Here is Sahar's dose," said the Vulcan, holding out one hypospray for Zula.

"I'm gonna do this manually," she smiled

Suvak pocketed the hypospray, and went over to Casana. She bent over and pressed the spray head against Casana's neck, and a sharp hiss signaled the delivery of the stimulant. Almost immediately, Casana breathed in sharply and stirred. "She is regaining consciousness," she said to Zula. "What do you mean by 'manually'?"

Zula just grunted and stood over Sahar. "Hey, you in there?" she said.

"I do not believe that is sufficient," Suvak said.

"Call it 'fair warning'," Zula scoffed. She nudged Sahar with her foot, at first gently, then harder. When this proved ineffective, she squatted down next to her. Zula looked at Sahar's face for a moment. "You've earned this one, sir," she sighed. Zula drew her hand back and slapped Sahar hard across the face. Sahar's eyes immediately opened. "Dipshit," Zula muttered, sitting back down next to Kara.

As they were joined by Suvak, Sahar began to struggle against her restraints, still not fully conscious. "May not want to do that," Zula called out. "We had to use some electrical cables to tie you up, and it has a tendency to bite into the flesh."

"What the fuck!" Sahar yelled when she realized where she was. She pulled hard against the restraints, trying to break free, but they cut into her wrists, and she cried out in pain.

"Told you."

"Chief Zula, I am ordering you to untie me," Sahar said in her most commanding voice.

"Nope."

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" she shrieked.

"We'll get to that," Zula said, noticing that Casana had opened her eyes. "You awake, Lieutenant?"

"Yes," Casana said weakly. "Wait, why are my hands tied behind my back?"

"We concluded that the two of you would most likely resume your confrontation when you awoke," Suvak said.

"They didn't want you two fighting anymore," Kara smiled. "I begged them not to."

"See, we are going to deal with this little spat you two are having. Right now," Zula added.

"She fucking hit me! Why am I tied up?" Sahar yelled, her face red with anger.

"What did you expect? You pushed and pushed until I responded!" Casana yelled back.

"Slut!"

"Bitch!"

"This is going swimmingly," remarked Kara.

"Clearly, there are deeper issue putting stress on your relationship," Suvak observed.

"What fucking relationship?" Sahar screamed back at her. Her eyes were beginning to puff up and turn red as she fought back tears.

"Our friendship," Casana said.

"We don't have one!" Sahar barked at her.

"And why is that?" Casana said angrily.

"You hurt me, then led me one, then hurt me again! What did you think was going to happen?"

"I thought you would be reasonable!"

"Reasonable? You fucking cried in my arms, begging me to be with you!"

"And you said 'No'!" Casana screamed, tears rolling down her face.

"Because I didn't want a comfort-fuck, I wanted you!" Sahar bawled, tears flowing down her cheeks. She cried silently for a few minutes, the whole cavern quiet.

"This is better than theater," Kara whispered to Zula, who shushed her.

"You said you wanted me," Sahar finally whispered.

"I did want you," Casana said, her own tears flowing.

"But then you left. And when you came back, you were a whole different person. And you wanted nothing to do with me."

"It's not that simple," Casana said softly.

"Yeah, actually, it is that simple," Sahar said, looking at Casana for the first time. "You came back, and you didn't want me."

"I couldn't."

"Why? Why couldn't you?"

"I can't tell you," Casana said, looking at the ground. "They made me swear not to tell anyone. And if we were together, you would find out eventually."

"What did they fucking do to you? It's like you were brainwashed!"

"It's not brainwashing!" Casana screamed, taking the others by surprise.

"Uh huh," Sahar said condescendingly. "Let's take a look at the facts, shall we?" Casana's face grew pale as Sahar said this. "Setting aside your little change of heart, you leave a carefree, smiling, bubbly, energetic little ball of cute. When you came back, you had the energy, but now you're concerned about everything, like your always looking over your shoulder. You don't use the transporter, you keep to yourself off-duty, and you don't even get your yearly physicals."

"I have a waiver," Casana explained.

"A waiver? I have never heard of anyone in Starfleet getting a waiver on their yearly physical. Hell, the Starfleet Chief of Staff has to get one!"

"I can't tell you!" Casana yelled.

"Why not?"

"Because, they'll kill me!" The cave was again silent, Casana's words echoing off the rock.

"What?" Sahar whispered.

"They will kill me," Casana repeated. "They would do anything to protect the secret. ANYTHING."

"Who? Who would kill you?" Sahar asked.

"The Commission. The ones who gave me... this."

"And what is 'this'?" Sahar demanded.

"Sir," Zula interrupted, getting to her feet. "She can't tell you."

"Maybe not. But you can," Sahar said, turning her head to look at Zula. "You told me so. Don't you remember? My first day aboard, you told me that Casana was special, that the Trill have a secret. What is it, Chief?"

"Sahar-" Zula began, but Sahar cut her off.

"Goddammit, Chief, you told me you know what it is!"

"I told you to keep her close, sir!" For the first time that Sahar knew of, Zula yelled. "I told you that you would see a new person, and that that person would be one of the most valuable friends you could possibly have! And what did you do? You pissed it away!"

"What was I supposed to do?" Sahar cried, staring to tear up again. "Someone I loved, really loved, was suffering, and I couldn't find out why, I couldn't stop it, and I couldn't understand it!" she yelled. Sahar struggled to her feet, her hands still bound, tears rolling down her face. "What was I supposed to do? Let it go? Stand there every day and watch as Casana suffered? Pretend it wasn't real? And then, in the turbolift?" She was screaming now, at the top of her lungs. Sahar turned to look down at Casana.

"You remember that? When we happened to end up on the same turbolift? You looked so miserable that it made me sick! I stopped the turbolift, and you just came apart! You slumped down on the ground and begged me not to hurt you! God, you were pleading like I was going to kill you! Do you remember what I did?" she screamed. Casana opened her mouth to respond, but didn't get the chance. "I held you in my arms. I held you, and I let you cry, and I tried to encourage you, and what did you do?"

"You kissed me," she whispered. "You leaned up and you kissed me. And it was glorious, like nothing I had ever experienced. I wanted you so badly, to lay you down and cover you with love. I wanted to push you down and rip your clothes off, to make you smile and laugh and scream in joy! But I didn't. I didn't because it would have been me taking you. It would have been me, coming in when you were hurt, and taking what I wanted. And I wouldn't do that. But I had to do something."

"Do you know what I did after that?" she asked. Sahar turned to look at Zula. "Do you, Chief? Suvak? I'll tell you what I did." She turned back to Casana and fell to her knees. Sahar stared into Casana's eyes, tears on both faces. "I'll tell you," she whispered. "The next morning, I escorted Curzon to the Exobiology Lab. I sent you ahead," she said, looking at Zula for a moment before turning back to Casana. "I needed to do it alone. When we were in the turbolift, I stopped it. And I let him have it."

"I tore into him with all the rage I had. I screamed in his face. I told him that I wasn't going to come to my ship, hurt my friend, and get away with it. I told him to be fair, or he'd answer to me. I threatened him." Sahar paused, letting the idea settle in. "I threatened a Federation Ambassador under my protection."