Counselor Jenovia spent a great deal of time at the largest hospital in the city on Draloos IV.  She started there because she at least had some basic medical training that could be useful.  Lieutenant Commander Thorn was busy overlooking the city’s security forces.  It was quite a task for both of them.  It was a city of two million, and the city was largely chaotic.  Both of them had very little to work with.  It was a wonder that these people had survived for so long on their own.

Humanitarian work was one of Jenovia’s greatest pleasures; she never considered it work.  Prior to joining the Starfleet Academy over ten years ago, she spent three years on a humanitarian relief mission on New Romulus to help re-build their school system.  She was only fifteen, and it wasn’t exactly her intention at the time, but it was a major turning point in her life.  The Romulans essentially had to build from scratch after their homeworld was destroyed.  She worked tirelessly to teach the young children basic reading and mathematical skills, something that had become somewhat of a luxury on the broken world.  Jenovia understood full well what the people of Draloos IV were going through, because she saw it first hand on New Romulus.  She may not have the telepathic or even empathic abilities that other species have, but she didn’t need them to know when an individual, or an entire civilization, was in pain.

The hospital didn’t look like a hospital at all.  In fact, all of the windows were blocked off and further protected by force fields.  It looked more like an abandoned administrative building that they just used as a hospital.  It was low on rooms, so there was a large hallway that was used where they squeezed nearly a hundred beds.  Nearly all of them were occupied with injured patients.  It looked more like an emergency room.  Jenovia decided that this was a good place to start.

Hours had passed as Jenovia continued to perform basic medical procedures, like taking care of small open flesh wounds, cuts and lacerations, ankle sprains, dislocated joints, and sometimes broken bones.  Most of these conditions didn’t necessarily require the full attention of a medical doctor, many of which were busy doing major surgeries.  Jenovia took a Federation tissue regenerator and was working on her twelfth patient.  It was a young girl who had suffered a deep laceration in her forearm.  The tissue regenerator started blipping on and off, and soon just died in her hand.  “Damn, that’s the third one today,” she blurted in frustration. “Doesn’t anything work around here?”  The little girl just stared at her in confusion.  “Hold on, OK?  I’m going to get another tissue regenerator.”

When she came back, she tried to make conversation with the girl.  “So what happened to you?”

“Nothing…”

“Come on, you can tell me.”

“Well…I was playing in the yard, when I tripped onto some rocks.  One of them was really sharp.”

“That sounds like it must have hurt.”

“You have really pretty eyes,” the girl said to her.  “How come they are so yellow?”

“That’s just the way I come,” Jenovia replied.  “Just like you come with your eyes brown.”

“I wish I had yellow eyes…” she replied.  Jenovia smiled.  It was little comments like that made her enjoy her work so much.

“Do you think I could explore the stars, just like you?” the little girl asked.

“I don’t see why not.  You can do anything you want.”

“Wow…a Starfleet officer…I’m going to make sure I study hard to get into Starfleet!”

“I’m sure your parents would be very proud of you to hear you say that.”

“My parents are dead,” she said, with chilling candor that only a child could pull off.

Jenovia looked at her and stopped what she was doing, almost reflexively.  “I’m sorry to hear that.  Do you live with guardians?  In an orphanage, maybe?”

“I live in an orphanage…”

“I see…And do they educate you?  And take care of you?”

“Oh yeah, I’m learning something called algebra…”

“You’re just learning algebra now?  But you’re already seven years old!”  The little girl had a confused look on her face, as if wondering if she had done something wrong.  “Look, I’m sorry.  You’re all fixed up now.  How are you feeling?”

She giggled.  “I feel fine.  Thanks, green lady!”

Jenovia moved over to try and help some of the other patients.  She needed to set up several I.V. drips for the near hundred patients that occupied the room.  Jenovia went to help a woman who had lost her leg during an attack in her neighborhood.  She also had a patch on her eye.  She was severely dehydrated and was suffering from malnutrition.

“We’ve healed the wound on her leg with standard Federation medical tools,” a nurse said, muffled as she talked through her mask.  “But I’m afraid we are not able to give her a new leg.  Limb regeneration is just not possible here.  We can’t even give her an artificial one.  All we have are simple, archaic devices.”  The nurse showed Jenovia what looked like basic, mechanical sticks.  Far from what anyone would call a leg.

“Maybe we can have our ship’s doctor take a look.  In the meantime, that should suffice for now.  But it looks like it still requires some basic surgery for it to be…um, installed.”

“We don’t want to trouble your doctor.  This is not an isolated incident.  He would have to work around the clock to help thousands in this hospital alone.”

“Why don’t you let me worry about that.  I will contact him as soon as the Dragonfly returns from their visit to Draloos V.  It may take some time, but most everyone here is in stable condition, at least for now.”

“We are so appreciative,” the nurse said.  “Thank you.”

Jenovia could see that even the nurse was not all well.  “How about you?  Are you OK?”

“Yes, why do you ask?”

“I can see that you have a slight fever,” Jenovia said.  Her species’ field of vision included part of the infrared spectrum, so Jenovia could detect a slight change in body temperature in others.  In fact, she noticed this among several individuals around the hospital.  Her temperature was just slightly above normal.

“It’s just a mild flu,” she said.  “I think something’s going around.  It’s why I’m wearing this mask, so I don’t infect the others.”

“You shouldn’t be here then.  You should be at home resting.”

“Maybe after my shift.”  The nurse smiled.  She spent most of her day taking care of everyone else; it was rare to have someone ask about her.

“I understand,” Jenovia replied.  It was important that the nurses were taken care of as well, otherwise they would be useless in being able to help out the patients.  Jenovia took incredible pride in being sensitive to others.  But just when she was feeling good about herself, the ground of the hospital shook beneath her feet.

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