Pulaski Reverts Sickbay to Low‑Tech Triage
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Pulaski berates her medical staff and catalogues the scale of the crisis as biobed readouts spin out of control, turning Sickbay into a pressured hub of triage while a single doctor scrambles between patients.
A harried doctor flags a failed medical knitter on a broken arm; Pulaski rejects reliance on failing technology, orders an old-fashioned splint, lectures on using 'head and heart and hands,' and forces immediate low-tech improvisation— the doctor protests, then jumps to do it.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Surface anger and impatience masking deep responsibility and fear; determined to protect patients by any means necessary.
Pulaski storms through Sickbay, berates staff about failing systems, assesses the useless knitter/shell, and issues an immediate order to abandon automation in favor of a manual splint, taking command of triage priorities.
- • Stabilize as many patients as possible despite failing systems
- • Force staff to abandon unreliable automation and use low‑tech methods
- • Prioritize scarce medical resources and coordinate triage workload
- • Reassert control in a chaotic clinical environment
- • Technical systems can and will fail under crisis
- • Human skill and improvisation are the ultimate backstop for patient care
- • Immediate, decisive leadership prevents further casualties
- • Protocol must bend when equipment is unreliable
Embarrassed and stressed, anxious about making mistakes under supervision yet compelled to keep working.
A nurse is publicly chastised, pushed aside as Pulaski moves past, and remains in the chaotic sickbay assisting where directed—visibly embarrassed but continuing hands‑on support.
- • Complete assigned triage tasks without further reprimand
- • Support the doctor and senior clinician under pressure
- • Maintain basic standards of care despite failing systems
- • Following established procedures reduces errors
- • Automation should assist, so its failure complicates care
- • Senior clinicians' directives must be followed to keep things under control
Frustrated and unsettled; initially incredulous at returning to primitive methods, then resigned and hurriedly compliant.
The lone remaining doctor juggles three patients, attempts to use the failing medical knitter on a broken arm, calls for Pulaski when it fails, and then, after Pulaski's order, reluctantly drops reliance on the device and begins applying a splint.
- • Stabilize the broken‑arm patient quickly
- • Use available tools to provide viable care
- • Follow senior medical direction to restore order
- • Manage multiple urgent cases with limited personnel
- • Automated medical devices are the standard and should be trusted
- • Low‑tech measures are inferior but may be necessary
- • Following senior clinicians' orders will best serve patient outcomes
- • Time and resources are critically scarce
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Pulaski orders a traditional two‑piece splint and directs staff to construct and apply it, converting abstract instruction into immediate hands‑on treatment and symbolically restoring human skill as the primary therapeutic agent.
Emergency bandage is invoked as part of the splinting technique Pulaski prescribes; it functions as the securing material that makes the low‑tech splint clinically effective in lieu of the knitter's supportive dressings.
The knitter's faulty shell/shell component is explicitly noted as 'not doing its job' — a visible sign of malfunctioning hardware that reinforces the narrative shift away from automated care and toward improvisation.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Sickbay is the crucible for this event: a fluorescent clinical space that flips from routine care to improvised triage. It concentrates exhausted personnel, failed machines, and the immediate human consequences of the shipwide systems failure, becoming a microcosm of the larger crisis.
The ship's twelve decks are referenced to quantify the scope of emergency calls; this vertical, distributed architecture explains resource strain and why Pulaski must triage broadly rather than fix singular technology.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Key Dialogue
"PULASKI: "The biobeds aren't working. The ship's falling apart and you're wasting my time about biobeds? I've got thirty-five emergency calls scattered across twelve decks and my trauma teams are being run ragged trying to respond. Biobeds!""
"DOCTOR: "The knitter isn't working.""
"PULASKI: "Use a splint.""
"PULASKI: "Splint. It's a very ancient concept -- two flat pieces of wood or plastic, a bandage. The broken limb is kept immobile.""
"DOCTOR: "That's crazy, that's not practicing medicine.""
"PULASKI: "Oh yes it is. A time-honored way of practicing medicine -- by using your head and your heart and your hands. So jump to it.""