Trouble On The Way

Posted on Fri Apr 17th, 2026 @ 2:38am by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Lieutenant Commander Ryuuji Takasu & Lieutenant JG Mikko Ishigami & Lieutenant Commander Nyxala Valentine

1,852 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Flight Of The Valkyries
Location: Runabout Kitakami
Timeline: March 16th 2397 - 03:30

The Runabout Kitakami powered up its engines and lifted off the deck of the shuttlebay. Then with a whoosh, it zoomed out of the doors causing the blue forecefield to flicker as it passed into the void of space. Within only a few seconds of clearing the Tokyo, the small craft jumped to warp.

[Cockpit]

Ensign Mikko Ishigami sat at the helm controls. She looked over at the other console where Lieutenant Commander Ryuuji Takasu sat. "Sir, I can take it from here." she said with a smile. "You should be in the rear compartment."

Ryuuji nodded and turned in his chair. "Keep her as fast as you can Ensign."

"I will sir. I'll get us there." Mikko replied as Ryuuji made his way towards the doors leading to the aft compartment. "Oh and sir. Congratulations... I know that Captain Aisaka will pull through this. She's far too stubborn not to."

Ryuuji looked back, giving her a small but nervous smile. "Thank you Ensign. And yes, she is."

[After Compartment]

The Aft Compartment of the runabout had been hastily turned into an emergency medical bay. Where the table had once sat was now one of the Tokyo's spare biobeds. Some of the spare medical monitoring equipment was pushed up to against the walls, and it seems that the crew had turned this runabout into a makeshift ambulance.

Ryuuji emerged through the door to the cockpit area. His eyes were drawn to the small incubator in which his newborn daughter laid sleeping. Then, straight to Taiga. "How's she doing doc?"

"That all depends on which 'she' you're talking about." Nyx gave Taiga a worried glance, "Your daughter is doing just fine, there won't be any effects from the difficult birth with her: All cognitive and reactive tests show smack dab in the middle of where they ought to be as a newborn." She forced a smile, "As for Taiga? How fast did the pilot say it would be to get there?"

Ryuuji looked at Taiga then to the doctor. "At maximum speed, we're looking at close to four hours." He said grimly.

"Four hours." Nyx repeated, glancing at the readouts on the biobed and wanting to grimace, "I'll be honest with you, I have no idea what is actually happening with your wife. Well, okay, not no idea, but the symptoms don't match any one thing. I'm not surprised that she had, has internal bleeding, because she's in a high-stress job and being final term has caused ulcers, but it doesn't explain the spontaneous bleed points. If that were standalone, I'd expect it to be from a bite from something venomous with those properties, but the tests I ran for those appeared to be negative." Nyx took her stethoscope from around her neck and inserted the earpieces before moving the disk around Taiga's chest under the gown, adding that additional data point, "Her heart is racing still and I don't want to give her another sedative, because her breathing is too shallow for my liking."

"Do you think the doctors will be able to help at the starbase?" Ryuuji asked simply. He knew that Starbase Forty Three had an extensive medical hospital.

"Much better than I can, that's for sure." Nyx said confidently, "Plus, their setup is at least a step ahead of what we have on Tokyo. I'm more a trauma specialist, though I can absolutely cover for most anything, but the Starbase will have epidemiologists, diagnosticians and they're going to be able to put the pieces together easier than me. I know I don't dare try to do anything fancy like an artificial coma or stasis, it's too dangerous."

Ryuuji walked over to the incubator and looked down at his newborn daughter. She seemed so tiny, so fragile and so very delicate. Soft tufts of brown hair twirled on her head and she seemed so peaceful. "I hope they can help. These two are my whole world. I can't bear to imagine a life without either of them in it." It was obvious that he was holding back tears. "Is she able to be held?"

Nyx took one more glance at Taiga and wrapped her stethoscope around her neck, stepping back and looking to where the infant was, "She is, there's nothing really wrong with her, it's more paranoia that I've got her in the incubator, plus it's keeping her vitals monitored for me." She gave Ryuuji a soft smile, "Just make sure you wrap her up in a blanket if you do, she's always able to use the additional warmth."

Gently, Ryuuji reached into the incubator and lifted out the newborn. He ensured that she was well wrapped up in the soft blankets as he held her in his arms. He snuggled her close to his chest and gazed down at her face. Slowly her eyes fluttered open. They were bright and the same beautiful hazel as Taiga's. She seemed to stare up at him, as if studying him.

"Hello." He said to her softly. "I'm your father little one. Your mum isn't doing too good right now. But, I promise to always protect both of you." He told her in a hushed soft voice as tears ran down his cheeks. "Welcome to the family."

The baby girl seemed to be soothed by Ryuuji's voice and then was soon back to sleeping in his arms, content with being held close.

Nyx watched the two of them for a few seconds before she turned away from the heartwarming scene and to one of the seats where Gigi was snuggled up in a blanket of her own, the drakeling content at least for the time being. For a moment, everything was going well. For a moment, Nyx didn't even hear the keening wail of the heart monitor as Taiga's heart stopped.

It was only a handful of seconds before the tone cut through the haze of her thoughts and Nyx was already in instinctive motion back to the biobed with a timer already going in her head. She appeared unhurried as she approached the biobed, keying it to lower while she moved to her Captain's side. Her eyes went to the readings as she placed her hands precisely on her chest and began compressions, internally cursing about never a nurse being around when one was needed. She could feel the sternum and ribs flexing nearly to the point of breaking as she manually stimulated the heart to pump blood.

"Ryuuji, I'm going to need your help over here." Her voice was calm and collected, "In the medical bag I brought, I want you to pull out the folded pouch. It has four hyposprays in it, each clearly labelled. I want the one labelled Epinephrine, please."

Ryuuji hesitated. Still holding his daughter he wasn't sure what to do. Carefully he placed her back down in the incubator. "I'll be right back. Your mum needs my help."

He rushed over to the bag and instead of routing around inside, simply tipped the contents out onto the floor. "Got it!" He said as he grabbed the hypospray pouch and rushed over holding out the loaded Epinephrine.

Tearing her eyes away from the readings, Nyx spotted where the hypospray was being held out and after one final pump, plucked it from his hand and lined it up with the jugular vein and depressed the button before putting it down and continuing the chest compressions for another handful, eyes back on the readings as the line jumped around at random rather than flat. "Clear." She stated sharply, stepping away herself, one hand up to signal that she was clear before tapping a key which sent a calculated jolt that arched Taiga's back before she fell limply to the bed again.

"Atenalol." She demanded from Ryuuji as she continued the compressions until that hypospray was reached out to her and she took it before pressing it into the carotid artery this time, once again restarting compressions for a handful, "Clear." Once again she stepped back and hit the key to cause Taiga's back to arch with the shock once more. This time there was a rhythmic beep in the silence afterword and Nyx stepped up again to key for a full scan and sagged in relief, despite being tense in consternation.

She considered her choices and took a couple steps over to the replicator to create a syringe with a long, thick needle before heading back to the bedside and hitting another setting in the visual, "The trick to this is to not penetrate too deep, but avoid hitting a rib. She has blood in her pericardial sac, I need to evacuate it." She carefully lined up the needle and slowly pushed it through the skin, then muscle as the needle kept going in. Finally she stopped the needle and pulled back on the plunger, the syringe filled with bright red blood until it was full and Nyx, apparently satisfied, withdrew it and set it aside as she picked up a tricorder and regenerator, sealing the hold she'd made, "There's a leak in her left ventricle, causing the bleeding there. We can control this."

"Can we repair it?" Ryuuji asked as he passed her the Athenalol. He looked down at Taiga, her face seemed to quiet and she was far from the hotheaded and vibrant woman he loved. "Come on Taiga, you're not allowed to die on us here..."

“If it gets worse?” Nyx opened a subscreen of the heart monitor, which gave further detail into the various aspects of the heart functions, “Then I’ll crack her open for a closer look. If she can hold out until we arrive at the Starbase, I’d feel much better. More sterile environment, better equipment. I may be very, very good in field conditions, but safety first.” She reached over and selected the sedative hypospray that was in the pouch before fiddling with a setting and hesitating before pressing it to Taiga’s neck with a hiss, the heart rate decreasing even more as her body functions were depressed even more. “I’ll get her there alive, I promise you that.”

Ryuuji nodded, the look of concern plastered across his face was mixed with his fatigue. "I'm going to go up front to the cockpit doctor. I might be able to help push some more speed out of the engines." He said.

“You do that, Lieutenant, anything you can.” Nyx didn’t bother to look up from Taiga, already considering what she could do as she picked up the large syringe of blood and making some vials for future testing, “Anything helps.”

Ryuuji nodded and disappeared through the hatch heading back to the cockpit. As he left the baby girl seened to stir as if sensing his departure. It was almost as if she somehow knew something was very wrong.

Posting by:

Captain Taiga Aisaka
Commanding Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Commander Nyxala Valentine
Chief Medical Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Commander Ryuuji Takasu
Chirf Strategic Operations Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant JG Mikko Ishigami
Flight Control Officer
USS Tokyo

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