Shockball (5 page)

“That’s only because you’re as conceited and arrogant as I am.” I didn’t want to admit it, but I was hurt. What had I ever done to Vlaav, other than give him the finest training a surgeon could ask for? “Is it because of the simulator runs?”

“He did not cite objections to a specific task.”

“I only made him do two per shift, you know.” I started to pace the deck. “My resident trainer used to make me do four. And I didn’t yell at Vlaav when
he
messed up.” Squilyp’s expression of disbelief put me on the defensive. “Okay, so I yelled at him, but not very often.”

Squilyp folded his membranes. “Cherijo, I’ve served beside you for more than a year. You are, without a doubt, the most gifted and competent surgeon I’ve ever worked with.”

I arched a brow. “High praise.”

“You are also short-tempered, demanding, and extremely hard to measure up to. That I can also attest to from personal exposure.”

I scowled. “It isn’t a competition. As for you, you know
exactly
how good you are, so don’t hand me that ‘I-don’t-measure-up’ waste.”

“I measure up. Vlaav doesn’t think he will,” Squilyp said. “As far as skill goes, it’s always a competition. You’ve simply never been in a position to worry about your own competency. You were the best surgeon in your training facility on Terra, correct?”

“Yes.”

“And you became the best surgeon on K-2 as well?”

I glared. “Yes.”

“I can tell you, you were the best surgeon on the
Sunlace
. You’ve always known you’d be the best, wherever you go. You’re the epitome of confidence.”

I threw up my hands. “But that’s part of the job! How else are we going to have the nerve to cut people open and rearrange their insides on a daily basis?”

“Perhaps you’re right. I don’t know how else one can be a surgeon. I’ll tell you what I do know: That young Saksonan will never be half the surgeon you are.”

“Of course he won’t!” I yelled. “He won’t train with me!”

“If there’s ever a chance of him coming close, he
can’t
train with you. Did you know he’s gone without adequate sleep intervals for weeks, studying your methods, trying to emulate your techniques?”

I
had
noticed how tired Vlaav had been acting lately. Residency demanded a lot. Still, I would never have guessed he was losing sleep, trying to please me. Trying to imitate me. “Okay, maybe I’ve been a little too hard on him.”

“A little?”

“I’ve praised him, too. A few times.” I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling sheepish. “Not enough, apparently.”

“He is losing confidence in himself, Cherijo. I think he’s afraid of going back on the simulator. He puts it off, says he can’t clear his thoughts. He must be constantly second-guessing himself.”

A luxury a surgeon never had time to indulge. “Squilyp, I honestly didn’t know it was that bad.” And all my fault. Like everything else.

Squilyp accurately read my expression. “It’s not your fault. He didn’t air his concerns, and I know how busy you are. Vlaav admitted he couldn’t bring himself to ask you about the transfer. The boy idolizes you.”

Or was scared to death of me. That didn’t make me feel better. It made me feel like Joseph Grey Veil. “Not much of a role model for him, am I?”

“Let me work with him for now. When he’s got his focus and confidence back—”

“No. You take over his residency from here on out. It’s for the best.” I felt like banging my head against the nearest hull panel. “You can use the extra hands, anyway.”

“Have you talked to Reever yet?”

“No.” I picked up my sojourn pack. “Don’t go behind my back and tell him, either.”

“I may not have to. The man is a telepath, Cherijo.”

“I’m not telling him now.” I held up a hand when he would have argued the point. “Stay out of this, Squilyp. It’s personal.”

The ship suddenly lurched, and shuddered. We grabbed each other to keep from falling on our faces. The ship slowly restabilized, and the Omorr hopped over to the room console and signaled the helm.

“Are we under attack?”

“No, Senior Healer. We passed through a small meteor swarm, but sustained no significant damage. Jorenian alloys are impervious to such bombardment.” The ship’s Operational Officer glanced at me. “We were able to shield the
Truman
, but I regret to report the
Perpetua
was not as fortunate.”

I shuttled over to the now-crippled
Perpetua
, which looked like it had been put through a molecular sieve. I went directly to Medical, and walked into total chaos. Patients were yelling, nurses were shouting, and orderlies were running back and forth fetching supplies.

I put two fingers in my mouth and whistled to get everyone’s attention. The room fell silent. “Triage nurses, report.”

Three of my nurses came over and delivered the stats on the injured. Most of the crew members had reported in with only minor assorted lacerations and fractures, but at least a dozen were going to require surgery.

I got on the console and signaled the
Sunlace
. “Squilyp, I’m going to need a full med-support team over here. You and Vlaav, too, if you can be spared.”

“We will shuttle over and be there in a few minutes.”

A nurse appeared at my side. “Doctor, we’ve got a complicated spinal injury over here you’d better look at.”

“On my way.” I pulled on some gloves. “Surgical team, prep and ready! Two minutes!”

My spinal injury case turned out to be three broken vertebra compressing the patient’s convoluted spinal cord, according to my first scan.

“Fifty cc’s of prednisyone,” I said, and performed a second pass. “Looks like we’ve got three fractures between C-eighteen to T-fourteen in the cervical.”

The patient was unconscious, so I had to rouse her. She was one of the Tingaleans we’d rescued from Catopsa, and strongly resembled a large snake with six pairs of stunted limblets.

“Can you hear me?” I glanced at the nurse. “What’s her name?”

“GySikk.”

“GySikk,” I said, and patted her leathery cheek. Slowly her triple-lidded eyes opened. “You’ve had an injury to your spine. I’m going to probe your abdomen and lower body now. I want you to tell me if you can feel it touching you.”

“Yes.” She was slurring her words, but that was normal for a Tingalean.

By probing, I determined that GySikk’s legs and a third of her trunk were paralyzed. She had trouble keeping her second eyelids from drooping, too.

“Upper ten limblets reactive, lower two nonreactive. All webbing nonreactive to probe.” Another scan showed the tissue around the fractured vertebra was swelling, despite the corticosteroid drugs we’d administered. “Set her up and wheel her into room one. She’ll be my first.” I leaned over and put a hand on the Tingalean’s triangular brow ridge. “GySikk, I’m going to operate on your spine, to relieve the pressure and repair the broken vertebra.”

GySikk tried to look down at her body, but the restraints strapping her to the spinal support board didn’t allow her to lift her head. “Will I… be paralyzed?”

“No. Your spinal cord is intact.” I smiled down at her. “Just relax and let us take care of you now.” I waited and watched her vitals until the sedation kicked in, then went to the cleanser to scrub.

The assisting nurse popped up beside me. “Doctor, what about her blood?”

I thrust my hands into fresh gloves. “What about it?”

“It’s extremely poisonous. Lethal upon skin contact.”

I nodded and put on another pair of gloves over the first. “Analyze a sample and set up the whole blood synthesizer to duplicate it. And don’t spill any on yourself.”

Squilyp came in with Vlaav and a team of Jorenians just as I headed for surgical suite one.

“I’ve got a spinal cord compression I’ve got to work first,” I called over to him. “I’ll be an hour, maybe two.”

He nodded. “I’ll take the next one. Vlaav and Adaola will cover triage. Go.”

I kept my hands up and backed into the surgical suite. The team had the Tingalean rolled over and her back prepped and sterilized.

“Everyone in double gloves and full face visors? Good, let’s get moving.” I powered up the laser rig and positioned it over the upper half of the snake-woman’s body. “Okay, GySikk. Let’s see if we can’t get you back up on your belly.”

The spinal procedure went smoothly, and I was able to repair the fractures and relieve the pressure on the patient’s cord. If all went well with her post-op recovery, GySikk would be slithering around the ship again in no time.

When I finally got a chance to access a console, I tracked my husband down in Engineering. He was too busy to talk, though. Once we finished treating the injured and performed post-op rounds, I went down there to find out how bad the situation was.

Reever was working three consoles, accessing ship schematics on one, consulting with the Senior Engineer on the second, and receiving updates from work crews on the third.

When there was a brief lull in the madness, I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Captain. You’re earning your paycheck today.”

“I do not receive compensation for my position.” He glanced at me. “You should be in Medical on the
Sunlace
.”

“What can I say? I got bored.” I sat down beside him and studied the latest transmission of repair estimates. “Whoa. Looks like the ship got slammed pretty good.”

“The hull could be restored, if we had engines to get to a more advanced system. We don’t. Damage from the residual debris is our primary concern at the moment.” He accessed one console, and brought up an interior view of the stardrive section, which was deserted. “The drive initiators are offline, main fuel cells have ruptured, and radiation levels are climbing.”

Radiation was never a good thing. “Can you get anyone in there to purge the cells?”

“No, the exposure would kill them in a few minutes. It’s not coming from the cells, but from radioactive fragments lodged in that section of the ship. Even if we had propulsion and could land safely on Te Abanor, it would take weeks, possibly months to remove all the debris.”

I doubted the Meridae would want us to expose them to that much radiation. “Can the Lok-Teel help us out?”

“They would try. Unfortunately, the radiation would prove fatal to them as well.”

I gnawed at my lower lip. “So basically the ship is unfixable.”

“For want of a better word, yes.” Reever sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes.

“We can transport everyone over to the
Sunlace
temporarily.” I looked at the upper deck, mentally tallying the number of former slaves and crew members left on board. “It would be cramped for a while, but the Torins will be glad to help us out.”

“There is another possibility.” He steepled his fingers. “We can inspect the
Truman
, and see if it will serve our needs.”

“Bad idea. Knowing Joe, he’s got it rigged to send a signal beacon to the nearest mercenary base the minute we step on board.”

“You know we have already performed several scans, and found no weapons, beacons, or explosive devices on the ship. The computers remain offline and can be fully reinitialized. It appears harmless.”

“Yeah, that bowl of porridge is just right.” His expression didn’t change, and I rolled my eyes. “Another joke I’ll have to explain to you someday, Goldilocks.”

“Since the Meridae’s native resources were incompatible with the
Sunlace’s
power core and dietary needs, the Jorenians are presently running low on both fuel and supplies now. They can’t sustain the additional demand of extra passengers on their equipment for longer than a few days. The only other alternative would be to strand us on Te Abanor while the
Sunlace
replenishes their supplies at the nearest non-League planet. That would be BiTned, which is more than three weeks away.”

Three weeks marooned on a planet with little oxygen, animal flesh for food, and dwellings sculpted from fecal matter. “Okay, we take a look at Joe’s gift horse.”

“I think that would be best.”

“Just you and me, though,” I said. “There’s no reason to risk anyone else until we know it’s safe.”

“It will take several days to inspect the vessel.”

“So we’ll evacuate everyone to the
Sunlace
, then pack some clothes and take Jenner with us.”

While I assembled what we’d need for the trip in our quarters, Reever sent a signal to the
Sunlace
and made arrangements with Xonea for the evacuation, then notified the crew. Squilyp agreed to supervise the medevac and cover the patients while Reever and I took care of checking out the
Truman
.

I checked on Alunthri, who thankfully had been working on the
Sunlace
when the meteor swarm hit, and made sure it hadn’t been injured. “I am well, Cherijo.” After I told it what we were going to do, it added, “I hope you and Duncan will be careful. Your creator is a devious individual.”

“Don’t worry. If I see so much as a recording drone hovering around us, I’m setting the ship on self-destruct.”

I ended the signal and started to pack. Fifteen pounds of silver-furred Tibetan temple cat jumped up, then sprawled out beside my case on the sleeping platform. Indignant blue eyes inspected me with mild hostility. I could guess what he was thinking.

You left me again. Alone with that blond guy who never pets me and those disgusting blobs.

“Hey, pal.” I gave him a thorough scratching around both ears and under his chin. “Miss me?”

Please
. He yawned and closed his eyes.
I
have a full schedule of naps to take
.

“I’ll bet.” I finished folding my garments, then went to Reever’s side of the storage container. It still felt odd, handling his clothes, picking up his grooming items. The intimacies of married life. “How would you like to take a little trip?”

Jenner’s head lifted, and his whiskers twitched.

About as much as I like getting wet
. One of the Lok-Teel flowed past him, and he gave it a single, disdainful sniff.
And these things
.