Chapter Text
“Captain?” Uhura’s staticky voice sounded again through the jumbled picture on the screen mere minutes after relief had flooded the bridge.
Pike’s face tensed back up a little at the urgency in her voice.
“What is it, cadet? Is everything okay?” he asked.
There was a pause as static once again dominated before the cadet’s tinny voice cut through again.
“I don’t think Hemmer is doing so hot,” Uhura finally said.
In the cargo bay Uhura crouched next to the Aenar taking in the pained look on his face as his head seemed to loll a little bit after taking off the helmet when pressure had been restored after releasing the air purifier into space.
Both he and Uhura had taken quite a beating when the bay doors shut and their bodies pounded back to the floor. Uhura must’ve lost consciousness yet again when she had heard Captain Pike’s small voice. It had taken her a while to disentangle herself from the rig’s hook in her suit and respond. At the time she had shot a look to the chief and he had nodded to indicate he was alright. But now, after quickly removing her own environmental suit and finding he had not yet done so as he lay on the floor with his helmet off, she wasn’t sure of that assessment.
“Medical is on the way, cadet,” Pike’s voice cut through her thoughts. “Remember your field medical training. I’ll put Dr. M’Benga on alert. Call him if you need him. I trust your instincts, cadet.”
“Yes, sir,” Uhura responded, nervously.
It didn’t help that the monitor was so damaged she couldn’t see the captain’s reassuring expression. But she could hear the trust in his voice and she held onto that as she walked back to Hemmer’s form lying against a piece of debris.
At least neither one of them were pinned this time.
“How’re you doing?” the cadet asked, bending down and immediately noticing the blue blushing on his cheeks and forehead. She instinctively put a hand against his face and not surprisingly it felt like he had a fever.
Though he didn’t directly answer her when she asked the question his head did turn toward her hand and grunted.
“You were wrong…” he muttered, closing his eyes.
“Mm, no no. None of that. Stay awake. Just a little bit longer, okay?” Uhura said, holding his too warm cheek again, the ridges of his facial features brushing the inside of her palm. “What was I wrong about? I know you really want to tell me.”
Hemmer took a sharp breath as he forced his body in a less leaning position.
“You said,” he replied, “that I wasn’t doing so hot. I am, in fact unbearably warm.” He chuckled a little and turned toward her with a small lopsided smile. The blue fever-bright hue of his face caught the light dramatically.
“Your face is flushed,” Uhura said, suddenly. “Aenar live in frozen underground environments. It’s been hot in here this entire time. You must be miserable. And possibly minutes away from heatstroke. Shit. Sorry. Shit.”
“I am...ill-equipped for this environment, yes,” Hemmer confirmed, though not without a disgruntled impatience at his situation.
“I’m gonna help you get this suit off, okay?” Uhura said, going into a focused plan of helping Hemmer to cool down as much as possible.
Hemmer nodded though wasn’t too happy with having to be helped. At least he had the humility to allow her to do so, anyway .
Uhura pulled the hood that came with the environmental suit down watching his antennae slowly right themselves and couldn’t help but marvel. Though the cadet knew Andorians and Aenar often moved their antennae to convey non-verbal language cues in a similar way humans moved their hands she had never seen the chief engineer do so.
As she continued her work unbuckling the pressurized suit parts she noted, “Perhaps they should make a more inclusive design to environmental helmets for those with antennae.”
Hemmer snorted, “They aren’t as delicate as they look,” he said. “It’s easy enough to deal with. Not worth the fight.”
She paused briefly to catalog the statement before going back to pulling the suit bits off of the Aenar. Uhura specifically left Hemmer’s right hand for last, him already breathing hard from the effort and heat.
She recalled Hemmer having to pu sh that broken hand into the glove and the pained shout it had caused. When she had turned toward to him to check he had given an exhausted nod, leaning heavily against a wall. Taking it off would take some delicacy. As she was considering how she would do it she heard the scuttle of people outside.
“Hey, looks like the cavalry has arrived!” she said excitedly.
“Yes,” Hemmer confirmed, breathless and fighting for alertness, “they came a few minutes ago. There aren’t very many of them.”
That Aenar perception was definitely helpful.
“Crew is probably a little short right now,” Uhura offered.
“Hmph,” Hemmer groused back.
Uhura shook her head at it, assuming it was mostly an act to cover how terribl e he must be feeling.
“You ready for me to take this glove off?” she asked.
He gave a heaving sigh.
“Just...wake me up if I pass out?” he asked, not without some humor.
“...deal” Uhura replied softly, hoping she wouldn’t have to.
Slowly she removed the stiff arm and glove section from the engineer’s limb. Hemmer breathed through what must’ve felt like shards of glass inside his hand being rubbed against with every second of movement. When the appliance was finally removed Uhura grinned in success. She turned to Hemmer and smiled wider because he was still conscious.
“Got it! And you didn’t pass out!” she said, happily. But the concerning rusty red bruising that had swarmed on the back of the Aenar’s hand and swelling made her smile drop a little.
“Regretting that decision,” Hemmer mumbled and started to list.
“Hey-hey,” Uhura said, softly. The sounds were getting closer now but they weren’t through, yet. Despite the ruckus of the cargo bay releasing the air purifier to fool the Gorn there was still a lot of debris in front of the doors.
“Tell me something, chief,” she said, distracting him.
“Hm…” Hemmer replied, blinking slowly.
“Andorians and Aenar move their antennae as a way of conveying emotions and attuning themselves to their environment. I’ve never seen you move yours. If it’s a private reason please feel free to just forget I asked but…” she trailed off waiting expectantly for a reply.
Hemmer snorted again, frowning a little. Uhura couldn’t tell if it was because he was in pain or the question upset him. She silently pulled up his sleeves so his skin could get more air, being careful with the broken hand he had propped against his chest . Anything to cool him down. She didn’t exactly have a cold compress on her. For a moment she thought perhaps she had lost him to the delirium of heat sickness .
“It...made my human classmates...uncomfortable,” Hemmer finally said, struggling with breathing and perhaps emotion. He didn’t say it bitterly just with a finality that made Uhura doubtful to pry any further.
Fortunately for her there was a large screech and a swift pounding of footsteps. In a flash she felt someone beside her and looked across to Nurse Chapel.
“Hey, how’s he doing?” she said doing a quick visual assessment of Hemmer’s situation.
“Um,” Uhura said, coming back to the present from Hemmer’s revelation, “not great. I think...he might be suffering from heatstroke? I got him out of the environmental suit and tried to get him cooler…”
“Yeah, no, you’re definitely right. He’s flushed. Quick shallow breaths. Heart rate is way too fast,” Christine said quickly while looking at her readout. “Hey, I need a stretcher over here!”
“Is he going to be okay?” Uhura found herself saying, but for some reason she felt oddly separate from her words. Her voice sounded weird to her.
“Not so fun fact,” Chapel said brusquely, “Aenar don’t sweat enough to keep themselves cool when they’re hot. So definitely more prone to heatstroke than we are, but I think he’ll be fi—hey, you okay?”
“What?” Uhura said, “Oh, yeah. Just...a little light-headed.”
An instrument waved in front of the cadet’s face and she frowned at the sudden proximity of it.
“Hey, I want you to take some deep breaths, okay?” Christine said, but her voice was wavering to Uhura’s ears. Chapel said something off to her side about taking Hemmer to sickbay and acronyms that Uhura was sure meant something in the language of doctors and nurses but sounded foreign even with her larger knowledge of languages.
“You with me, Nyota?” Christine said and the cadet started.
“Yeah,” Uhura replied.
“Your adrenaline has been going pretty hard and you’re starting to crash a little,” Chapel was saying, “You have some evidence of concussion as well. Just keep taking some deep breaths. We’re a little short on supplies so I don’t have another stretcher right now. You think you can walk to sickbay with me?”
Uhura nodded, breathing had helped the disorienting feeling.
“Good,” Christine said helping the cadet up, “Hemmer was lucky to have you with him. You did a really good job taking care of him.”
“Thanks,” Uhura replied with a small smile as Christine steered her carefully toward medical.
“I know his brusque crustiness is a little difficult to deal with…” the nurse said conspiringly.
“I’m sure he has his reasons,” Uhura responded, softly.
“You’re probably right,” Chapel conceded, “We all do.”