Talosian Chronicles 5: Raptor Squadron (35 page)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Breckenridge Ski Resort

Colorado, Earth

Sol System, Sol Sector

Beth and the man who identified himself as Doctor John Corman got the seal somewhat stable as the medical helicopter arrived and sat down on a small flat area several hundred feet away. When the chopper had landed. The flight crew ran uphill to check the status of the patient.

"How did you find that bleeder so quickly, Beth?" Doctor Corman asked.

"One of the functions of the medical scanners we have is to look for things like that. Let's get his intestine closed up, and I'll explain a little more," Beth replied.

"How are you going to handle the infection? He's already septic and if his temperature gets any higher, he's not going to make it," John asked.

"Part of the function of the sterile field is to counter the spread of infection. Do you see that almost invisible light that passes over the wound every few seconds?" Beth asked.

"Yeah," John replied.

"It has a lot of functions, but one of them is the removal of the fecal matter in this instance. It prevents infection. It cleaned and sterilized our hands when we reached through it, as well as prevents any foreign materiel from entering the protected area. Even the man's skin has been sterilized," Beth replied. "His temperature should begin dropping shortly."

John sighed. "You know what they’re going to do to him, don't you? They'll take him to some hidden laboratory and try to figure out what you did to heal him. Even if we save him, they'll kill him with the tests."

Beth nodded to the crowd of civilians. "I'm counting on them and you to make sure that doesn't happen. It'll end his career, but that'll have to be better than some butcher cutting him up because some drug company wants to know how we did it."

John snorted. "I've been assisting you, watching everything you've done, and I still don't know how you did it!"

Beth grinned while she began mending the small intestine. "Our medical technology is about a thousand years ahead of where Earth tech is. We used micro force fields to maintain the integrity of the blood vessel until a tissue stimulator could repair the damage. Look here, I'm doing much the same thing with the small intestine, see?" Beth explained and held back some of the surrounding tissue so the man could see what she was doing.

"I have no idea what a tissue stimulator is or how it works, Doctor," John replied. "I can see what you’re doing, but I couldn't tell you how you did it. It just looks like magic to me!"

Beth chuckled. "I suppose it does. But there is a scientific explanation Doctor. Now, the mended areas will be weaker than normal for the time being, but not all that much. If he were to remain my patient, I would most likely release him from the hospital in a couple of days."

"Won’t the trauma from the bullet take longer than that to heal?" John asked.

Beth nodded. "Yes, he'll be stiff and sore for a few days while the bruising heals, but it will heal. By getting him back on his feet as quickly as possible, it will reduce the overall trauma to his system, and he can get back to normal much faster. Before I learned all of this, we would have had our hands full with him. The infection alone could have killed him even after surgery."

John could only nod. "So when will this tech be getting to the rest of us?"

"I'm afraid that's going to be awhile, Doctor. A lot of this stuff shares technology with stuff that could easily be made into pretty horrible weapons. It's very much part of the tech we can't release to the planet yet," Beth explained.

"That's really a shame. There are a lot of people we could help with this stuff," John replied. "What about things like Alzheimer's or HIV?"

Beth nodded. "We can cure HIV, and treat Alzheimer's much more effectively than here. We can also cure cancer and prevent it from recurring. But again, the treatments, or knowledge of how they are made or work could easily be perverted and warped into something far more evil than the disease ever was."

"So you were a doctor here before you joined the Terrans then?" John asked.

"Yes, I was. I still have my license as well. Although I'm sure eventually someone will call it into question because I won't allow the treatments I know of to be passed on to other medical professionals here. Our oaths say above all else, do no harm. I feel I've chosen the lesser of the two evils," Beth replied sadly.

John nodded. "I can understand that. Its simple triage; the greatest good for the greatest number."

Before they could continue talking, the flight crew arrived to check on the patient. "What the hell?" the big male nurse asked when he saw what was going on. "You're operating on him out here?"

"Excuse me Nurse. Yes, they are operating on him out here. They had to or you would have been picking up a dead body," Lissa said. "The patient had a perforated small intestine, as well as a lacerated artery from a bullet wound. Both issues are currently repaired and the patient is stabilizing. You will be able to move him shortly."

"Who are you?" the nurse demanded.

"Officer Lissa Dancer of the Terran defense forces Raptor
Damocles
. Among my other duties, I am the team's combat medic. This is Doctor Elizabeth Williams, Chief Medical Officer of the Terran Defense Forces Battle Cruiser
Star Dancer.
The other man is Doctor John Corman, from St. Joseph's Hospital in Denver."

The nurse took a deep breath. "Okay, I guess that explains things somewhat. I'm still going to have to report this, I hope you both understand that, Doctors."

They both nodded. "We did what we felt was necessary to save the patient's life. If that cost's me my license, then so be it."

"I'll give you an audio recording of my notes during the treatment to take with you, Nurse. Perhaps that will help with your report. Please make sure the other doctors have access to it as they might need to contact me for further treatment," Beth said.

"Thank you, Doctor," the nurse replied.

Beth glanced at Lissa. "Lissa, prepare to record please."

"Ready, Doctor," Lissa replied after touching some buttons on the equipment she had brought.

Beth began speaking, explaining the incident, the wound as she had found it, her diagnosis, and actions taken. She explained the operation in detail, making sure to include all the relevant data. She finished with explaining who she was and how to reach her. She also mentioned that she had been assisted in the treatment of the patient by Doctor John Corman and Officer Lissa Dancer. When she nodded to Lissa, the young woman stopped the recording and pressed another button. A small SD card dropped into a cubicle on the side of the device. Lissa handed the chip to the nurse as Beth closed up the incision she'd had to make in the man's abdomen.

"There you go, he's closed up, stable, and ready for transport, Nurse," Beth said as she stood letting the sterile generator clean her hands. John followed suit.

"That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen," Jed, the ski patrol EMT said as he helped get the man on the gurney.

Around them, the crowd began applauding and cheering. Both John and Beth blushed but bowed to them.

With the arrival of the helicopter, the Sheriff had also arrived. She led the flight nurse up the hills by only a few steps. Instead of trying to stop the emergency surgery, she quietly began interviewing the people involved and had her men taking statements from the witnesses. She began with Ian.

She walked up to where Deputy Stiles was standing with a young man. She extended her hand. "Admiral Williams I presume?"

Ian smiled at her. "Sorry to ruin your day, Sheriff. Thanks for coming."

"While I appreciate the sentiment Admiral, I'm getting the impression this wasn't your fault. What happened here?" the Sheriff asked.

"My family and I have recently returned from a mission in another star system, and we decided to take a vacation. We worked it out with the Government and booked a ski lodge here. Everything was going fine until we got out here to the lifts. The wounded gentleman came up behind me, pressed a weapon to my back and ordered me to go with him as I was under arrest. When I looked over at my companions, they also had men standing very close to them," Ian began. He went on to explain the situation as he saw it.

The Sheriff nodded. "So basically, the spooks sent two SEAL teams out here to do whatever they needed to do to get your tech. They ignored your warnings and got hurt. You do have diplomatic immunity, so their attempt to arrest you was illegal."

"Pretty much, yeah. But I don't blame the SEALs, they were just following orders, I'd bet they have no idea we're diplomatically protected. No, they were being used," Ian replied.

"You're being pretty generous considering they just tried to kill you," she replied.

"Soldiers following orders are just being good soldiers. If I knew who was using them in this way, I doubt I would be as forgiving to them," Ian admitted.

The Sheriff looked at him. "You mean you don't know?"

"We have some pretty good ideas, but there's not a whole lot we can do about it. It has to be left to the US Government to deal with issues of this type," Ian replied. "The problem is that it's not good for one's career to arrest the people that put you in office."

The woman snorted. "I do it all the damn time! But I do know what you mean. Hard to fight this type of corruption at such a high level. Hell, everyone knows about it, but no one knows how to get rid of it. I think if it weren’t for the fact that they'd have to leave the planet, you'd find yourselves flooded with applications for citizenship!"

Ian chuckled at her. "The last time I checked, we were anyway. How do you want to handle this, Sheriff?"

"Not really much to handle; You didn't commit a crime and I couldn't arrest you even if you had. The SEALs have already been covered, so about all we can do is take everyone's statements and file our reports." She sighed. "Before I took this job, I didn't mind paperwork all that much."

"Well, now we just need to get the rest of the SEAL teams out of here and maybe we can get back to our vacation," Ian replied.

"The rest?" the Sheriff asked.

Ian nodded. "We parked our ship in a clearing over by the lodge we rented. I'm not sure how, but they found it and are sitting around trying to figure out how to haul it away."

The Sheriff just shook her head. "What a mess. Do I need to get anyone over there?"

"I don't think so," Ian replied. "The ship's commander is over there right now talking to them. I've heard they've stopped shooting at her, at least."

"Well, if we don't get it under control pretty soon, we're going to have another crowd of folks gathered over there that could get shot; if that happens, I'm sure you'll get blamed for it," the Sheriff replied.

"We've got someone on the line with their commanders right now trying to figure this mess out," Ian replied. "At least no one died over this. I just hope they decide to leave that man alone and not try to dissect him to see what we did to help him."

"They don't really do that do they?" Deputy Stiles asked.

Ian gave the man a half-smile. "Deputy, it wouldn't surprise me if they hadn't already gotten the lab prepared. They can very easily say that he died from his wounds because of the poor treatment we gave him here."

"No, they can't." The doctor that had assisted Beth said as he came over to Ian and the Sheriff. "Sheriff, I am a surgeon at St. Joseph's in Denver, my name is John Corman. The procedure was amazing, but I saw everything she did and she explained it all in great detail. The only thing that man needs is time to heal. If anything happens to him, it will be because it was done to him after the fact. I would testify to that."

The Sheriff nodded. "Thank you, Doctor. We'll make sure your statement is in our report."

"Admiral, with your permission, I'll escort the other two SEALs back to their team," Sam replied. "The sooner we can clear this area, the sooner the folks gathered around will go back to skiing."

Ian nodded agreement. "Just remember, you'll probably get shot at, you don't have your armor on."

"I think these two at least have learned their lesson. But I'll be careful, Sir," Sam replied, turned and walked back over to the two waiting men.

"How much do you want to bet they're still going to try to arrest him?" Stiles asked.

Ian chuckled. "No bet. They'll do it as soon as they're out of earshot of this little group. I'd wager a steak dinner that they won't be any more successful than they were here."

"Now that's a sucker's bet! No thanks!" Stiles replied.

While they'd been talking the sound of a snowmobile could be heard approaching. When people began moving for it, the Sheriff frowned. "It looks like the old man has come to see what's going on for himself! I wish he wouldn't do that!"

"Old man?" Ian asked.

The Sheriff nodded. "Jason Montgomery. He owns the resort and most of the land around here. He's also older than Moses and in a wheelchair. He shouldn't be coming out in this cold like this. Come on, I'll introduce you."

The woman led Ian over to where the machine had stopped, but one of the red-suited ski patrol had beaten them there. As they approached, they overheard the conversation between the two men.

"Dammit, Granddad! What are you doing! If you catch cold, it could kill you!" The big ski patrol said.

"Relax Trevor, I'm bundled up so much I can barely breath! I had to see what was going on out here; I'd heard there had been gun shots." The old man replied after removing his helmet.

"I can understand you were curious, but this is risky, dammit! We're under a blizzard warning right now!" the other man replied.

The old man on the snowmobile pushed his grandson to one side as Ian and the Sheriff approached. "Ah Sheriff! I'd heard you been called. What's happening here?"

"Jason Montgomery, you cantankerous old bastard! You know damn good and well I would have stopped to see you before I left and filled you in. Trevor's right, this is too dangerous for you!" The Sheriff replied.