Dr. Alexander Hilbert (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tarakan) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
lastvoyageslogs2022-11-17 09:42 pm
tarakan) wrote in lastvoyageslogs2022-11-17 09:42 pm
and everybody thought that they'd breathed their last
Who: anyone!
When: Cowboy Bebreach
Where: some rinky-dink little mining colony
Warnings: injury, body horror, eventual amputation
There are plenty of mining outposts circling the planet. Small little moons and asteroids, things with rich mineral deposits that, much to everybody's annoyance, are still used for fuel, computer chips, things of the sort. So naturally, there are plenty of mining opportunities for companies ready to put in the money...such as the Wittebane Mining Corporation.
And of course, since there are mines, there are mining accidents. It's one day when one drill strikes the wrong post, a rumble goes through the mineshaft, as hundreds of pounds of rocks start to slowly fall down on the poor miners below.
Time to quickly call in the diggers and the medical team and hope that as many lives as possible can be spared.
When: Cowboy Bebreach
Where: some rinky-dink little mining colony
Warnings: injury, body horror, eventual amputation
There are plenty of mining outposts circling the planet. Small little moons and asteroids, things with rich mineral deposits that, much to everybody's annoyance, are still used for fuel, computer chips, things of the sort. So naturally, there are plenty of mining opportunities for companies ready to put in the money...such as the Wittebane Mining Corporation.
And of course, since there are mines, there are mining accidents. It's one day when one drill strikes the wrong post, a rumble goes through the mineshaft, as hundreds of pounds of rocks start to slowly fall down on the poor miners below.
Time to quickly call in the diggers and the medical team and hope that as many lives as possible can be spared.
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Today, it saved his life. When the shaft started to groan, he started trying to scramble backwards out of the seam. "Get me out, get me out!" he shouted, and Jacks grabbed his ankle, pulling to help him out.
Sam couldn't see anything. He didn't see the slab big as a coal cart that came down on Jacks and Rimer and Kendy. He just heard the unnatural, screaming roar of falling stone, and something struck his foot like a hammer on an anvil while a shriek of dust-filled air blasted him deeper into the jagged seam, into the crack in the rock. It should have snapped shut on him like a mouth, with all the weight of the world on it. But it didn't. The roar went on and on and on, so loud Samwise couldn't hear himself screaming.
When it was silent, his throat was raw and his leg was nothing but a bludgeon of pain. Sam tried, tried hard to scoot backwards again, but there was stone in every direction. Nothing but stone. He could feel a draft from behind him, acrid with the ugly taste of stone dust, but he couldn't find his way out.
"Help! Help!" he shouted, throat already ragged, clawing at the stone.
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There's a moment when he looks over at Sam and relief just floods his face. They've got someone alive. Finally. But then he spots Sam's leg and the relief fades as Hilbert immediately gets himself back to work.
"Here," he says, as he moves to help lay Sam down on a makeshift stretcher. "Tell me your name, where you were born, and where you currently are." Step number one: check for head trauma, which might impact cognitive processes.
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"Samwise... Samwise Gamgee," he gets out when he can get a deep enough breath. "M'from Shire- s'an asteroid outways."
But where he is now? He's not sure. He's been moved a few times lately.
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Hilbert really didn't want to have to make this decision this morning.
"Go to my office," he murmurs to one of the men helping with the rescue mission. "There is device in drawer, small, looks like bone saw without blades. High-powered laser cutter and cauterizer." The man nods before Hilbert turns his attention back to Sam.
"Gamgee, stay with me. We are moving you to safe environment for surgery. Try not to move too much, I will give you something for pain when we arrive."
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He presses the device into Hilbert's hand before he rounds the stretcher to stay on Sam's other side, ready to help.
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“My team, who’s made it out?” he rasps, trying to look around while obeying the injunction not to move too much.
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He flicks on the laser cutter which starts to hum to life. The anesthetic starts to spread through Sam's leg, numbing the area. Unfortunately, it does not numb it entirely, which is why Hilbert quickly strips off his belt.
"Bite down on this," he says, offering it to Sam. "There will be pain. So better you bite down on leather instead of biting through your own tongue. Harry will help hold you down to keep you from thrashing." It's at that point he realizes Harry's there. Christ, he doesn't want the kid to see this. But he knows that if he asks Harry to leave, he won't. He just wants to be of help. Hilbert looks to Sam and then over to Harry. "Are you ready?"
He's asking both of them. This is going to suck.
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cw medical trauma, amputation, gross sci-fi stuff!
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It's exhausting work, in a purely physical sense. He runs back and forth, helping to gather information on the bigger picture, in between offering what first aid he can to what seems like an endless stream of injuries, though that at least allows a goal to work towards. There's nothing to be done about the dead.
Emotionally, he does his best to focus just on what he can do. The rest of it - well, he's good at just thinking about the job at hand. Anything else can come later.
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But eventually, it slows down. The bodies start to be pulled from the mine at a slower pace and both men have the chance just to breathe. Hilbert is covered in dirt, dust, and blood. As he walks over towards Nate, he pulls a slightly dusty granola bar out from his pocket.
"Here. You haven't eaten in a while. Take this moment to regain strength."
Said granola bar was given to him by someone on the rescue team, ostensibly for him to regain his strength before he makes yet another judgement of 'dead at the scene.' But honestly? Hilbert thinks Nate needs it more than he does.
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He'd kept working. He hadn't forgot what Hilbert had taught him. Now that he can finally sit and breathe, he wonders if that means there's something wrong with him, if he'd been too able to ignore the suffering around him.
Nate looks up at Hilbert, before looking down at himself. He hadn't noticed the layers of dirt, dust and blood that he'd accumulated over the probably-not-eternity between the rumble of the collapse and now. He's too exhausted to think of his dad's reaction, or to refuse the granola bar. "Thank you, Doctor."
The first bite makes him realize he's starving, leaving the bar gone in moments.
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"I was about your age when I first saw something like that," Hilbert starts, looking out over the rubble as he talks. "My parents worked at a factory. One day there was a meltdown. I do not remember specifics, but it ended up with a large explosion. I went to the factory the moment I heard it happened to check and see if they were alright. I saw the bodies instead."
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"I'm sorry you saw that." He looks at the rubble, wondering if there will be any sort of report on the disaster beyond what might be circulated internally. "My mom died. Almost five years ago, now. Pilot. They didn't get a body." He doesn't know if that would have been better.
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"Sometimes seeing the body is useful. It is a sense of finality. Of knowing that this person is dead, they are not coming back, and you must simply accept and move on." He pauses before, "I am sorry your mother died."
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This? Is nothing like that.
He's not in the mine itself but he's on site, one of his usual little escapades, and he feels it when the mine rumbles, the cacophonous thunder of hundreds, thousands of tons of rock, and the screams in the air that get cut sharply off. But more pick up the call, and suddenly everything is bustling.
He gets absorbed into the diggers' team quickly, but when the first bodies start coming out he immediately switches tracks, and starts helping Hilbert out instead. He's good at keeping a straight, determined face, through all the shows of pain and horror, as his pale outfit succumbs quickly to the blood and filth.
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He's exhausted, but he can't let himself rest - couldn't make himself rest - without seeing him. He searches for his familiar form, needing to find him.
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When Nate approaches, it visibly takes him a moment to register, but eventually he does and a look of relief splits his hollow expression into doe-eyed relief. "Hey," he mumbles.
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It's not like either of their clothes can get any more filthy.
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Nate coming up and wrapping around him is so unexpected that he goes completely stiff, almost jerking upright in panic. It takes him a few seconds, but eventually he does ease off a bit.
And then all at once he's throwing his arms around Nate's shoulders and holding him tight in return, pressing his face into the side of Nate's hair and trying desperately to keep his breathing even.
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The fear - the knowledge, that people he loves can die in an unexpected instant is something he holds onto, proof that it's possible to go on. But as he'd searched for Harry, fearing the worst, he'd known that it wasn't true. He'd spent a long time trying not to get attached to anyone new, but Harry had slipped in so easily he'd barely noticed and he's not sure he would be able to bear the loss.
But Harry's here, and Nate isn't going to let go until he does.
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And not only that, it's the life that Nate truly wants. It's what he's chosen for himself.
He hasn't had a drop of alcohol in fifteen years, but he's seriously considering it as he sits in his cramped office in the spaceport.
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Besides, a part of Hilbert feels he needs to apologize for the whole matter.
He takes a few hours off of work to go find Crook at his office. Hilbert knocks on the door before letting himself in. "Frank Crook, I presume?" His clothes are clean but there's no use hiding the hints of the mine that always accompany Hilbert: slightly dirty fingernails, smelling like coal and dirt, all those little signals it's hard to wash away.
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"Can I help you?"
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"My name is Dr. Alexander Hilbert. I am currently doctor in residence for the Wittebane Mining Corporation. And I've been teaching your youngest child medicine for the past few months."
A pause before, "And I truly am sorry for what happened earlier this week. If you have any questions, I'm ready to answer."
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"He could have been killed!"
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"Do you think that I would have let that happen?" Hilbert snaps back, trying to keep his voice neutral but failing at hiding the brief moment of irritation. "I'd do anything to keep Nate safe!"
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