18 - The Ending of the Beginning
Posted on Thu Nov 7th, 2024 @ 3:49pm by Commander Jenna Ramthorne & Remal Kajun & Patin & Captain Rhenora Kaylen
Mission:
The Beginning of the End
Location: Bajor
Timeline: Evening
Cabin - Evening
The battle outside in the forest began to dwindle as the Brotherhood floundered without their leaders and under the onslaught of the villagers. Soon enough they had turned tail and fled, leaving the villagers to make their way to the cottage. They had seen the energy flashing in the sky, a potent reminder that this was bigger than all of them, exactly as Kira had said.
The building was still mostly intact, the front windows and door had shattered during the Reckoning, but was still structurally sound.
Within it's wall's however, the world was crumbling.
Rhenora drifted in another realm, as though watching the goings on from outside her body. She could hear the labored breathing, the cries of distress from her husband and closest friends, and the alerts from the medical tricorder that were anything but encouraging.
The Prophets appeared around her, peering on with curiosity.
"The Rhenora's path is ending."
"Allow my child to be born." she turned and challenged them. "You showed me this before, I die yes, but the child lives."
"We did not foresee The Rhenora's weakness, the future is uncertain"
"There has to be a way" Rhenora retorted angrily "You're the Prophets, you can make it happen. Allow my body to deliver the child, I don't care what happens after that"
They vanished as if to confer, leaving her alone as her friends tried desperately to save her life.
A normal man would have broken down, would have lost focus, would have felt pain from his wounds and pain within, not Remal, not yet. From the moment he laid her out upon that bed, he had set to work trying to save not only her life, but the life of their child trapped within.
A man on a mission, he barked orders to whomever would take them, and take them Zio and Jenna did. Patin watched from the doorway, remaining small and out of the way. For Patin knew something they did not. She knew Rhenora would die and there was little she could do to stop it. At least, in this moment.
"Come on baby, hold on to the sound of my voice." Remal pleaded, his voice cracking as he held onto Rhenora's hand, while running the tricorder over the child with the other. "Stay with me." The baby was once more visible on the tricorder, the Prophet's energy no longer clouding the image.
Something that Remal had done had some semblance of success, Rhenora felt connected to her body again, within it even. She cracked open an eyelid "Everything hurts" she whispered, feeling the urge to do her final duty whilst on the planet. Stuff the Prophets and their conferring and non interference, she would be damned if she let the child die, no matter the cost to herself.
A tear fell from his eye, sadness and happiness all in the same droplet. She was alive and he was grateful for that, but it wasn't over. He could tell by the look of pain in her face something was still wrong. The tricorder had confirmed this along with her dilatation which was approaching the correct size.
Jenna handed Remal some replicated towels and stepped aside for Zio who was carrying a tub of warm water. "tell me where you need me." Jenna asked, calmly, as she tried to maintain her own decorum at seeing her friend hurting. She wasn't prepared to cry just yet.
"Oxytocin, and help me sit up" Rhenora asked, finding a little more strength in her voice and leaning heavily on her convictions. The potent drug would stimulate the muscles needed to deliver the baby whether she was conscious or not. Jenna and Zio rearranged the pillows to provide some back support and helped prop her up, before injecting her with the requested hypo filled with Oxytocin.
Wincing through another blessed yet painful contraction Rhenora seethed, the Prophet's called her weak for not defeating the Wraith, and we're willing to let both her and her child die from the trauma. There was no way she was going to let that happen. The Oxytocin hit her bloodstream with the force of a thousand horses, forcing a strong squeeze through her belly that pushed their child firmly into the birth canal. She channeled the indignation, and the injustice of the entire situation into delivering the baby.
Remal squeezed her hand, then let go and moved in to a catchers position. There were a number of things he had learned about birthing over the years and he intended to do everything in his power to help ease Rhen's pain. The baby was early, but everything was in place and ready.
It was brutal the time that followed, the drug forcing her body to squeeze and stretch when she had little power to do it herself. She rode through each one, trying to breath, putting every fiber of whatever she had left into it. Deep down she knew this was her end and if the child was born alive she was happy with that and would go to her grave feeling as though she had accomplished her destiny.
For the next several minutes they worked. The breathing was as heavy as the tension in the air. Remal gently coached his wife through her breathing and pushing, though the pushing was a strain and mostly controlled by the drugs at this point. If he had a transporter he could have transported the baby from the womb and only had to do clean up, but like any field medic, that wasn't possible at the moment.
"He-he haaa." He coached. "He-hee haaa." Minutes later the head began to breach. "Almost there now. I can see the head. He-hee haaa." His hands were firm but gentle as he cradled the emerging head while adjusting for the shoulders. "One last push, okay, hang in there hun. Jenna, I'm going to need a cord cut. Zio..."
"I'm on blanket and cleanup." She replied, already right there and ready. Having had multiple children of her own while fighting in the occupation, she was familiar with the practice.
Patin continued to watch from the doorway, captivated by a scene of an event she would never experience on her own. Her hand covered her side and the wound that still was festering unnoticed. She didn't care, there was no pain other than what lay before her.
Kira was in the living room, pacing. She had noticed a dead Dominion soldier on the lawn, out in the snow and her duties as a Starfleet officer had her worried on another level.
Rhenora channeled every iota of energy and life left in her body into bearing down and pushing, her vision swam with the effort and had she had more energy a series of profanities would have echoed off the walls. Rather than expend energy swearing, she forced it inward and downwards, and then blessedly, there was relief. She slumped backwards against the mountain of pillows, utterly exhausted and completely spent. She felt strangely complete, having accomplished this final task, and closed her eyes, initially just for a few moments to rest.
Her last push had the baby in Remal's large, firm hands. He cleaned the air passage and wiped the eyes before letting Jenna cut the cord where he directed. "She has blonde hair like her Ma." He said, directing his words to Rhen. He gave the child the traditional butt smack just to make certain it's lungs worked as they should, hearing it cry out loud before handing the baby off to Zio to finish the cleanup.
A baby's first cry is an odd sound, sounding something akin to a baby goats bleating but with a humanoid twist. Blessed relief washed over Rhenora, the child was alive and more or less well.
Zio did her best to wash, dry and bundle the small baby before returning to present her to her momma.
She moved closer to Remal who was back to holding Rhenora's hand. "She's going to need a name." Zio said as she started to hand the babe to Rhenora.
The tricorder, sitting open and scanning Rhen's life signs started an alert tone. Tension now turned once more to panic.
TBC
Captain Rhenora Kaylen
Commanding Officer, USS Sunfire
Commander Jenna Ramthorne
Chief Flight Control Officer & Mission Advisor, USS Sunfire
Remal Kajun
Counselor Aide, USS Sunfire
Husband of the Captain
Played By Commander Jenna Ramthorne
Patin
Friend of the Captain, USS Sunfire
Played By Commander Jenna Ramthorne
