Hi, my ears don't work.

Posted on Tue Feb 5th, 2019 @ 4:23am by Gunnery Sergeant Roderik Kos & Lieutenant Commander Kiril Nevin

900 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: S1E3: Barbarians at the Gates

Rodi was carried into sickbay by a big burly Vulcan marine sergeant. They already stripped out of their combat gear, seeing as it was all covered in Eighty-goop and arachnid gunk. With a bit of sadness Rodi saw his favourite pair of combat boots being dematerialized in the transporter. Now wearing exercise gear, Rodi was helped onto the biobed by Kel.

"What happened?" came the concerned voice of Nevin as he walked out of his office and into the Sickbay room. He grabbed a medical tricorder on his way to the biobed and flipped it open, passing it over Rodi's body.

Kel explained that Rodi's ankle was broken and that he was exposed to a rather loud explosion. Rodi, for his part, looked confused at the vague sounds he heard. Then, deciding his condition wasn't being spoken about, "I can't hear." he said, far louder than he probably intended because he was shouting it.

Nevin recoiled from the sound, not expecting the man to shout like he did. Doing his best to suppress a smile, he shooed the Vulcan away before placing a gentle hand on the man's shoulder.

"You're going to be fine," he said, slowly. While he knew he couldn't hear him, the positive disposition would hopefully calm him.

"What?" Rodi shouted. "I can't hear you, doc."

Despite his best attempt, Nevin smiled, letting out a slight chuckle. "I know you can't," he said outloud, but to himself. Really he was the only one who could hear in the room.

Turning around, he pulled out a hypospray, loading a vial of green liquid, that he pressed to the man's neck. "This should take away the pain first. I'm sure this doesn't feel pleasant." Forgetting, for a moment, he looked at Rodi for a response but sighed to himself when he didn't get one. "Perhaps I should focus on your ears?"

Nevin walked away for a moment, grabbing a few things from the other side of the room before he returned with a device that looked like it would inflict more torture than healing. He placed another hand on the man's shoulder, hoping this would keep him calm before he motioned for the man to roll onto his side.

With a grunt, Rodi lifted his broken ankle onto the bed, and placed his head on the small pillow. "How bad is it?" Rodi asked.

Placing the device on the man's shoulder, Nevin pulled the filigreed arm towards Rodi's head, aligning the spindle directly into his ear. "It's not too bad, actually," he said, quietly, knowing Rodi couldn't hear him. He pulled out the tricorder again, scanning both the man's head and the instrument. "This is a very delicate process actually. Your tympanic membrane was ripped open, seemingly from a loud burst. But I don't see any damage to the ossicles within. I'm hoping that if I stimulate the healing of the membrane itself, you should regain your hearing. That is if there isn't any damage to the cochlea."

Nevin began to hum as he continued the instrument's alignment. Walking around to the other side, he smiled at Rodi, scanning him once again. "I know it's taking a while, that's why I gave you a pain injection first. But this is very delicate and I can't just shoot beams of energy into your ear improperly. That could damage your hearing permanently."

The tingling sensation in his ear was annoying, as was the faint sound of Nevin's voice. Not that Nevin himself was annoying, but the fact he couldn't hear the words was. So Rodi made an acknowledging grunt, hoping that that would be the correct response.

As the alignment continued the tingling transformed into a buzzing sensation. This reminded Rodi of his ankle, and wondered what the doctor would think of it. So he decided to speak up, "I broke my left ankle, from feeling around I think it's a broken tibia" In contrast to the shouting he did earlier, Rodi was now pitching his voice so he was sure he didn't hear himself. To make sure he didn't speak jibberish he spoke slowly and ennunciated very carefully.

"Very good," Nevin said quietly from the side of his mouth as he focused on the instrument. "Ah, there we go." With a flick of his finger, the servo activated, sending out a thin silver beam into the man's ear. "Shouldn't take long now."

Rodi sighed softly as the buzzing sensation slowly transformed into the background noise of the regrowing eardrum. Sound started coming back to him.

"Let me know when you can start to hear me," Nevin said in a soft voice, almost a whisper.

A minute or two passed by, and the soft conversation from other areas returned to his ear, but only the one. "Hey doc." Rodi called to Nevin.

Nevin smiled, "Hey there Rodi. Glad to see you can hear me," he said, still in a hushed voice. "A few more moments and I can do the other side. Then I'll patch up your ankle. How's that sound?"

"The end of a hard day's work," Rodi said with a hint of appreciation.

With a nod of his head, Nevin continued to scan the Marine as he healed. It certainly was a good day's work. A great way to end his time here on Theta, taking care of a crewmember, doing what he was made to do: heal people.

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