No One Dies on Our Watch
Posted on Mon Oct 26th, 2026 @ 9:53pm by Lieutenant Soyo Hamada & Ensign Lynette Miyafuji 'Highlander' & Lieutenant Commander Nyxala Valentine & Lieutenant Amu Hinamori M.D. & Lieutenant Ralen Trellis & Petty Officer 1st Class Yoshika Miyafuji
1,927 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Kintsugi
Location: USS Fleming (NCC-55025)- Auditorium
Timeline: April 2, 2397, 0857 hours
A briefing was scheduled in the Auditorium at 0900 the following morning, to provide the volunteers with an overview of the facilities and what would be expected of them during their time there. Food was provided, though given wartime circumstances it was pretty much limited to a single serving of nutritional supplement (Which, in and of itself, had become par for the course), though it was arguably better than going on an empty stomach. Then again, it could be argued that eating one's own fecal matter was slightly better than eating nothing at all, but that was far beyond the point.
Doctor Deneer was already present, along with most of the administrative staff who would be coordinating this effort. In addition, the Flemming's Captain- a tall, surly man by the name of David Laurie- was on hand to oversee the presentation.
Amu stood amongst the crowd with Yoshika. She was ready to get to work, she just needed to be pointed in the right direction.
Lieutenant Ralen Trellis found a position near the back of the auditorium where he could see both the front of the room and the crowd itself, which was a habit he'd developed early in his counseling career and never lost.
He counted heads without meaning to. Then stopped counting because the number was still climbing and the math it implied was not something he needed to do before the briefing had even started.
This many medical providers. The Counselor had worked mass casualty events before — the Tokyo's sickbay in the worst hours after the battle being the most recent, and Jaret's memories supplying several others he'd rather not dwell on before breakfast. But the scale of what this assembled room represented wasn't a sickbay overwhelmed by one ship's casualties. This was a deliberate mobilization. The kind that got called together when the number was too large for any other approach.
Cora gave a nod to the Captain and stepped up to the podium and cleared her throat for the microphones to pick up. While she could absolutely make herself heard throughout the auditorium without them, the amplification would make it much easier for the rest of the people in the audience to hear. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the USS Fleming. While you have all met me over the last couple of days, this is the first time I've gotten you all together. I would like to say welcome to members of the USS Tokyo, USS Roosevelt and USS Wallington and thank you all for volunteering to assist us while your own ships are in the tender care of the engineers of Starbase Forty-Three."
She gestured to the man standing off to the side, "This is Captain David Laurie, CO of the Fleming, but don't worry, he's mostly harmless to us medical personnel." There was an echo of chuckling in the auditorium, accompanied by an amused smile from the Captain who wagged a finger at Cora's own grin, "While we have refreshments, which include a helping of our favorite nutritional supplement number thirteen along with all the water you can drink, I must apologize for that. However, as we are a medical ship, we have made the decision to prioritize all medical facilities and systems rather than spend the energy on fripperies. We do have pizza on Fridays, however, so there's always something to look forward to." She gave a slight smile.
"So all of you are wondering, 'What are we doing here and how can we help?', am I right?" Cora asked rhetorically, "The good news is that we're going to be keeping crew groups together. The crew from Roosevelt are going to be assisting in the Intensive Care Unit, those from Wallington will be with the burn unit and the personnel from Tokyo will be with me in the Emergency Ward. After this briefing, Doctor Camembert will be waiting in the ICU and Doctor Zither will be waiting in the burn unit."
She glanced over the twenty-five-odd people in the auditorium and nodded, "Unlike your own ships, we have far more medical capacity and capability, so whatever you have enacted on your own ships, forget it while you're with us. While you won't be working in the triage area, we have a policy here on board Fleming: 'No one is dead until they've been certified dead by a doctor.' We don't give up on anybody, period. I have been in your shoes out there on one of those starships and I know the demons many of you face, those who couldn't be saved or who would have taken too much time and effort to do so and would have cost the lives of more than just one. We have a sufficiency of personnel on board that we don't have to make that judgement call."
"Secondly," Cora added, "For those doctors among you: You are responsible for your actions regarding patients. The nursing staff will follow your directions and will only intervene if an action is directly against the patient's health interests. Every doctor has their own quirks and ways of doing things and we realize this. Your nurses will be reviewing patient files as they come in, in fact, as someone comes through triage, there will be a nurse assigned to them that will remain with them until relieved by a replacement. That nurse is responsible for knowing the patient file inside and out: Allergies, past medical history, everything that is known about them. If you potentially prescribe something harmful, they will catch it. The exception is for minor injuries that won't be processed through past the Emergency Room."
"In the history of this hull of the USS Fleming, we have not been able to save everyone that makes it through those doors, but we have the best recovery rate of any ship in Starfleet." Cora's eyes blazed with pride, "We're going to be out on the front lines of the fight, well, not the front lines, but one system behind the Fleet so that we can accept the shuttles they start sending back as quickly as possible. We'll have an escort of two starships and a squadron of fighters, so we should be safe enough." She stood tall, "Does anyone have any questions so far?"
The crowd fell silent. This was a medical ship, and they were at war. As much as long fancy speeches raised morale, they had a job to do. No doubt that the ship would soon be filling up with wounded from the front lines. Amu looked over at Yoshika. Yoshika returned the look, it was the look of. 'We need to get on with it, not be standing around'. They were used to serving on a faster paced front line vessel, where every minute was precious.
Amu finally raised her hand. "Excuse me, I actually do have a question." she said. "I don't meant to be disrespectful, however shouldn't we be getting to work? I'm used to serving on a front line vessel, we should be preparing for incoming patients."
"Do you mean you're not ready right this minute, Doctor Hinamori?" Cora's voice cut through the instant chatter with the sharpness of a scalpel, silencing it, "You are used to knowing when the casualties are coming in, used to knowing who they are as they enter the door." She gestured around the entire room, "None of you are prepared for what is going to be coming at us. We have twenty-eight hours until we relieve Vesalius in the Shantren system, one star system back of the front lines. For twelve of those twenty-eight hours, you will be asleep, because after that time, there may or may not be time for mundane things like that."
A small smile crossed the older doctor's lips, "What about the other sixteen hours, you ask? Well, some of that will be stand-down time, but first: We have a drill. In your assigned departments there are 'patients' that are waiting to be treated already. Over the next twelve hours, you're going to get a short taste of what is to come. This is a graded exercise people, your goal is to help as many of your patients 'survive' as possible. Each one has a tag and a PADD that will give you hints as to what is happening, what surgical procedure they may have had for you in the ICU, severity and locations of burns for those in the burn unit and a vague description of what wounds the patient is showing for those in Emergency. If the heartbeat or brain activity monitor on the PADD goes flat? The patient is dead. Myself and Doctors Zither and Camembert are the officials in this exercise. Any disputes go to Captain Laurie for resolution."
Doctor Cora Deneer glanced over the group of medical personnel as they still stood there listening to her, "What are you waiting for? You have patients dying in your departments!" Her voice barked out roughly, "Move it, people, move it, move it, move it!"
Counselor Trellis was already on his feet with everyone else before the specific problem occurred to him.
He stopped just outside the auditorium doors as the crowd of medical personnel streamed past him in purposeful directions, PADDs in hand, already moving the focused energy of people who knew what a burn unit was and what to do when they got there.
Trellis stood in the corridor for a moment, running through the practical inventory of what he actually brought to a medical drill. Basic first aid — yes. Field triage at the most rudimentary level — possibly, if Jaret's memories were reliable and the situation was simple enough. Anything beyond that — genuinely not.
He caught up with Amu at the nearest junction, falling into step beside her. "Quick question," he said, matching her pace. "In a medical drill where the primary skill set required is clinical — where exactly does a counselor go?"
Amu pondered for a moment. "You have first aid training right? I suppose the answer to that is to help out where you can. Save their lives first, deal with their psychological problems later. We can't solve their problems if they're not alive." Amu replied. "I know it sounds bad, but it's true. My advice, find a ward that's over-run with patients and help where you can."
“Save their lives first.” Ralen nodded once. “Sound medical philosophy.” He glanced down the corridor at the stream of personnel still finding their departments. “I’ll find the most overrun ward and make myself useful at the margins.”
"I'll get to it." He said as he turned to leave.
As they approached the doors to the front of the main medical ward, Cora was standing there as if she had teleported ahead rather than weaved through the group on the way there and walked ahead at what seemed to be a casual pace, but was much faster, "Ladies and gentlemen? Good luck." She swung the doors open to a chorus of people on stretchers, shouting and screaming in apparent agony, nurses already present and with PADDs in their hands. Cora just stood there, smiling with her inner knowledge. This would be an interesting test.
Posting by:
Lieutenant Commander Cora Deneer
Chief Medical Officer, USS Fleming (NCC-55025)
Lieutenant Amu Hinamori
Chief Flight Deck Medic, USS Tokyo (NCC-91101)
Petty Officer, First Class Yoshika Miyafuji
Nurse, USS Tokyo (NCC-91101)
Lieutenant Ralen Trellis
Counselor, USS Tokyo (NCC-91101)
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