String Theory_ Cohesion (Book 1) - Jeffrey Lang [48]
Startled, Harry looked around the bridge to make sure that no one else was tumbling over, saw that no one was, then realized that no one else had seen Grench collapse. Knees rubbery and wobbling, Harry staggered the three steps across the deck to where Grench lay and began a cursory examination. “Grench?” he said, and tried to turn the Bolian over. “Can you hear me?”
Grench’s eyes were open and his lips were moving, but only incoherent sounds emerged. A moment later, his entire body began to jerk and spasm and a thin yellow foam oozed from the corners of his mouth, clashing garishly with the Bolian’s blue skin. Harry pulled away, inexplicably frightened that the Bolian might have a horrible new disease, but then his training caught up with his fear. “He’s having a seizure,” Harry said aloud, more to get his own brain started than to inform anyone on the bridge.
“Make sure he doesn’t swallow his tongue,” Knowles shouted over her shoulder. A lifetime of first-aid classes came flooding back, and he pried open Grench’s mouth to make sure his airway was clear. Satisfied that the Bolian was breathing, Harry leaped up, found a padd, and yanked the heavy stylus from the clip. Hoping that Bolians didn’t have extra-powerful jaw muscles, he inserted the stylus between Grench’s teeth and watched for several seconds to make sure he wouldn’t accidentally swallow it. Harry tapped his combadge and called sickbay, but was answered by the Doctor’s automated triage program.
“Please state the nature of the medical emergency. Give as much detail as necessary, your location, and steps being taken to treat the patient.”
“It’s Harry Kim, Doc, on the bridge. Ensign Grench is having a seizure. He’s breathing and I don’t think he’s in any immediate danger. I, uh, shoved a stylus between his jaws.”
When he stopped talking, the program parsed Harry’s report and replied, “Thank you, Ensign Kim. Your emergency has been assigned a B priority. Your treatment for Ensign Grench is acceptable. Please call again if Ensign Grench’s condition appears to grow worse. Someone from sickbay will contact you as soon as possible.”
Great, Harry thought as he rose. Sickbay must be swamped. Still, that triage program seems to be working. That was a good idea….
“How is he, Harry?” the captain asked.
Harry hadn’t seen her come onto the bridge, but his attention had been fixed on his patient. “He’s okay, I think. Are you all right, Captain?”
Captain Janeway instinctively touched her stomach, smiled wanly, and said, “Fine,” but then her expression became stern. “What happened? Where are we? Give me information, Harry.”
Kim looked up at the main viewscreen. Either something was wrong with the exterior cameras or they were being blocked by some kind of forcefield. Where only moments before there had been a field of stars and the burnt-umber arc of Monorha in the screen’s lower edge, now there was only a black field occasionally broken by pinprick flashes of white. “The planet’s gone,” he said, but felt inane as soon as the words were out of his mouth.
Without excusing himself, he stumbled to his station and began checking the sensor logs. Data flowing back to him was a confused jumble. Only minutes earlier, Harry had been cataloguing radiation from the Blue Eye, hoping he could send some useful information to B’Elanna about how to modify Monorha’s shield generators, but now there was virtually no radiation at all, but