Arlene was frowning. She was trying to take it all in while dealing with the driving, and the hurry they were in.
“What did it say?”
Molly frowned back, turning her eyes to the landscape out of the window.
“It said, ‘behind you’.”
Arlene stole a glance at Molly, concern written on her face.
Molly shrugged. “Probably nothing,” she suggested.
But between Arlene’s silence and Molly’s own gut, she knew it was a warning. From who, or what, about who, or what, she wasn’t sure.
Molly remembered something.
“Hey, can I turn Oz back on, now?”
Arlene nodded. “Yeah. I don’t see why not, at this point.”
Molly felt a little guilty for cutting the Vision Quest short, and for messing with Arlene in the beginning. But this was life-and-death. And it was Crash – she had to be sure that he was okay.
She fiddled with her holo a moment, and then looked off into the distance so that Arlene couldn’t see the tears welling up in her eyes.
Did you miss me?
Of course I did, you dickhead.
Nice to see you haven’t changed your language just because you’re feeling sentimental.
She could feel him chuckling in her brain.
I must admit it’s good to have you back, Oz. That was not something I want to repeat.
Good to know Mollster. So, what did I miss?
I’ll fill you in on that later. Right now, I’m worried about what might be happening back at base. Are you able to get a signal, and get in touch with someone there?
Let me try.
Oz was silent for a moment.
I’m not able to get them. I suspect we’re too far from a connection, at the moment. What’s the hurry?
Okay, don’t laugh, but I think I had a premonition that something awful is about to happen. Or has happened. It’s Crash. I saw him lying on the ground on the hangar deck, and there was blood, like he’d fallen or something.
Andskotinn!
Right.
Lemme keep trying.
Gaitune-67, Hangar deck
“Yeah, well, it’s probably going to take a few more trips to turn it all around; but you know what they say about every journey…”
Joel’s voice faded into the back of Maya’s consciousness as she glanced down at her holo and saw an urgent message from Emma.
“Hang on,” she replied to him, as their two pods swung down into the hangar deck and parked in the bank of other pods.
“What is it?” Joel asked before noticing he, too, had received a message.
CRASH FALLEN FROM SHIP. URGENT MEDICAL CARE REQUIRED. COME TO HANGAR DECK BY THE EMPRESS. EMMA.
As soon as the door to the pod opened, Maya flew out, followed immediately by Joel.
“Crash? Crash?” she yelled, knowing full well she shouldn’t be running through the hangar, but doing it anyway.
She rounded the tail of The Empress, and saw Crash spread-eagled on his back. She prayed he was joking. Or just stunned. As she closed the distance between them, she saw the pool of blood around his head.
“Shit, Crash. No!” she was out of breath, anxiety stealing the oxygen from her lungs as she fell by his motionless body, not knowing if she should touch him or not. Her hands hovered above him, not daring to make the wrong move, but not able to process, either.
Joel had jogged up and crouched down beside her. He brought up his holo and connected with the ship. “Emma, how long has he been down?”
“Not long,” she replied through his audio implant. “50 seconds now… 51.”
Joel ushered Maya out of the way, and he put his fingers to his friend’s neck. “He has a pulse. It’s weak, but…” he paused, estimating the rate under his fingertips. “It seems fast enough for now.”
A second later, his ear was by Crash’s mouth.
“He’s breathing.”
He reached up to his eyes, and gently pulled open his eyelids. “Pupils responding to the light…”
Maya had placed her hands on the floor around his head, careful not to put her hands in the blood. “So why isn’t he moving, then?” she asked, still horrified.
Joel straightened up. “He’s just knocked himself out. He should be okay. Lemme just…” He reached up and felt under Crash’s spine, checking each vertebra up and down his back. Then he gently felt around his skull, especially where it met the ground.
He looked up at Maya. “Okay, we need some kit before we move him,” he told her. “Go to the workshop. On one of the shelves to the left of the holoscreen, you’ll see an emergency case; bring it.”
Maya nodded and got up quickly, scuttling away. She passed Pieter and Paige, who had presumably received the same message.
They started to ask how he was, and Joel immediately reassured them.
“He’s going to be fine. Pieter, go grab a stretcher from the supply cupboard in the workshop. Paige, clean towels and warm water, please. He’s going to be okay.”
The two turned immediately to carry out the instructions.
Joel looked down. “You dummy, eh. I’ll bet you were pushing too hard,” he muttered under his breath to his unconscious friend.
“Emma, was there anything that happened before this that might give us a clue?”
Emma’s voice routed through his holo and his audio implant. “He was tired. He argued with me about not letting him run another simulation. I told him he needed to rest, and he was going for a break. My footage shows that he lost his footing, and fell. There weren’t any indications of symptoms other than fatigue before he fell, though.”
Joel nodded. “Okay, that’s something, then.” He looked up at the height he had fallen from, trying to convince himself it wasn’t that high. Then he looked back down at Crash, and put his hand on his friend’s forearm. “You’re going to be okay, buddy. Just hang in there. It’s all going to be fine.”
Maya arrived back with the med kit, and handed it straight to Joel. Joel put it on the floor and snapped it open, grabbing for the scanner. He ran the little tube with a guiding laser up and down Crash’s spine from above, and then circled his cranium. He looked at the reading on his holo.
“Slight swelling in the brain, but no bleeds,” he reported. Maya exhaled, relief flooding her body.
“How’s his neck?” she asked.
Joel flicked to another screen. “Nothing broken. Some of the tendons look inflamed, though. He’s probably going to feel sore, and have a headache for a while.”
Maya nodded. “Okay. So we can move him, at least?”
Joel shuffled back and nodded as he put the gear away. “Yeah, should be okay. Pieter is bringing a stretcher; I think we should get him to his quarters where he can rest comfortably.”
Maya agreed, and took the med kit from Joel. “I’ll take this back up, then,” she said striding off, trying to be useful. Joel didn’t notice the tear of relief that escaped her eye when she turned her back and scuttled away.
Chapter 13
Gaitune-67, Safe house, Crash’s quarters
Joel moved the party of concerned teammates into the living room so they could talk quietly away from Crash, who they had lain out on his bed. Brock remained at Crash’s side, sitting down gently next to the bed, in order to keep an eye on him.
“He’s going to be fine, guys,” Joel assured them as they gathered in the little lounge area in the suite. “Relax,” he insisted.
Pieter still looked concerned, and Jack stood silently with her arms folded.
Paige glanced back in Crash’s direction before looking back at the group. “I guess with what happened to Molly, we’re all a little sensitive, still.”
Joel bobbed his head, and touched her upper arm gently. “I know,” he empathized.
Just then, Neechie walked in, followed by Maya and Sean. Neechie headed straight for the bed; he hopped up and laid himself along Crash’s side. M
aya couldn’t help but smile. She and Sean headed over to the little lounge area to join the rest of the group.
Joel put his hands on his hips. “It raises the question, though,” he started, not sure if he shouldn’t be having the conversation with Molly first.
He took a breath and aired it with the group, anyway.
“I know Sean, Crash, and I have combat medical training; but shouldn’t we have a real doctor here on base, too?”
Paige and Maya started nodding vigorously. Joel wasn’t sure if it was from a perspective of feeling safer if anything were to happen, or the fantasy of having a hot doctor join the team. He noticed them exchange a little smile, and promptly decided it was the latter.
Sean interrupted. “Well, there are a few options in that department,” he began.
Pieter’s face lit up. “You’re going to suggest one of those holoprograms, aren’t you?” His face practically beamed with enthusiasm.
Sean chuckled lightly. “Yeah, that’s one option. I mean, we’re relying on Oz for this kind of thing at the moment, but when Molly isn’t here, it becomes a point of failure — ”
There was a sudden awkward silence as Sean stopped in his tracks, remembering only too well how stranded and helpless they had felt when Molly went down, taking Oz with her.
Joel tried lightening the mood. “Plus, Oz can’t perform surgery.”
Sean looked over at him, a glimmer of suspicion in his eye.
“No. No, he can’t…” he said slowly.
Joel suspected Sean was contemplating his enhancements, so he deliberately tried not to look guilty.
Okay, don’t react, and don’t overcompensate. He can smell fear… Just play it cool, Joel told himself. Let someone else move the conversation away…
Sean noticed Joel looking a little sheepish, but he forced himself to peel his attention - and suspicions - away from Joel, and return to the options he’d been laying out.
“I think having a pod doc, like the one Molly was saved in, is probably not going to happen,” he admitted.
Joel scratched his head. “Yeah, I’m not sure how safe those are… given that Molly is out there, going through ancestors-know-what to be able to deal.”
Pieter nodded in support. “Yeah, seems like anything can happen in those. I don’t want to go in for a splinter, and come out as the Incredible Grindle-Meister.”
Jack lifted her arm from its folded position, raising her hand. “Me neither!” she exclaimed, half joking, half serious.
Brock’s voice carried through from the other room. “Nuh uh. Me three-ther!” he added.
Paige sniggered. “I guess that’s not a popular option, then, anyway.”
Brock wasn’t done. “A medical dock that turns us into superhumans or crazy, world-jumping people? Nooooooo, thank you!” he added. He got up from Crash’s side, and ambled over to join them. He leaned against the doorframe as Sean protested.
“Dude, that doesn’t happen. Ever. Molly was an… anomaly. I’ve been in a pod doc a million times…”
Maya raised an eyebrow.
“Okay,” conceded Sean. “Not a million, but you know what I mean.”
Brock still looked skeptical, and waved his hand dramatically in Sean’s direction. “I’d sooner die than be put in one of those things. I don’t care what you say it will do for my abs!” He pointed first at Sean’s chest and then ran his hand down the length of his own torso, looking coy.
Both Paige and Maya giggled. Joel tried hard not to burst out laughing, and even Jack cracked a smile despite the situation.
Sean’s lip curled in humor. “You people…“ he began, looking at the whole group, then shook his head. “Anyway, I don’t think we’d get authorization for one. But there are other options we already have that you should know about…”
He suddenly found he had the group’s rapt attention.
“The first thing is nanite infusions,” he explained. “They’re kept on the ship, in case someone gets badly injured. Yes, they contain the nanocytes that you’re all wary of now… but trust me – those little buggers are sometimes the best chance you have of surviving. We have a limited supply of them,” he glanced at Pieter, “so we won’t be using them for splinters.”
Brock started to point at Crash, his face animated.
Sean held his hand up. “He doesn’t need one. He’s going to be just fine. However,” he turned back to the group, “there is something else I haven’t shown you, yet, simply because there hasn’t been time to walk you through everything. But…”
He started walking towards the door, out of Crash’s quarters. The others just watched him leaving. He turned back.
“Well?” he beckoned to them. “Don’t you wanna see?”
The group followed him out, and down to the hangar deck.
Gaitune-67, Hangar deck, On board The Empress
Sean led the team up into The Empress. Everyone was feeling somewhat puzzled as to why they were back here.
“You’ve been on this ship so many times before,” he told them as they gathered in the cabin area, “but you’ve probably only been in a fraction of the places there are on board.”
He stood in the little passageway between the cockpit and the cabin, and put his hand on a door panel that they’d each walked past a dozen times or more. He pushed, and the panel pressed in and then slid sideways, opening up a staircase.
Sean indicated to it. “I’ll go down first, because there isn’t much room, and I’ll need to open the access up. Just follow me,” he instructed.
Paige was wide-eyed, excited by the new discovery. She glanced back at Maya, who nodded her on, and the two followed Sean down first. The others came after, and then, finally, Joel brought up the rear, shaking his head at the ever-unfolding mystery that was Sean Royale and the base of magical toys.
The passageway was lit with low blue light coming from the foot guides and handrails. As they spilled into the corridor that seemed to run the length of the ship, maybe one story down from the cabin, the lights automatically turned on.
Brock whistled, impressed.
There were doors coming off the corridors. The first one looked like a small situation room. Brock noticed the acoustic paneling, and figured it was probably soundproof — and goodness knows what else.
The next door along, Sean stopped and keyed something into the access panel.
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is the medical bay for The Empress.” The double doors slid open, allowing the party to pass into the room that was filled with hospital-like beds and docks, presumably to treat the wounded in.
There were access panels all around; panels for each dock, and panels that had various diagnostic screens on them.
Sean waved them all to come in, and Emma flicked up onto the screen. “Hello, Sean. How is Crash doing?” Her human-looking face showed genuine concern. Her hazel eyes even seemed tinged with empathy at his accident.
“He’s doing okay. Sleeping it off,” Sean told her. “Thanks, Emma.”
Emma frowned a little. “So why are you wanting to bring him in here for me to take care of?”
Sean grinned and indicated back at the group. “These guys didn’t know you had all these toys down here, which is why I’m showing them now.”
As if on cue, Emma lit up the different panels and the walkway between the docks, illustrating the tech they had at their disposal.
She smiled as a few gasps escaped the mouths of her teammates.
Sean bobbed his head, his hands on his hips. “All right. Stop showing off, and explain why these docks are different from the pod doc that Molly experienced on the ArchAngel.”
Emma smiled. “With pleasure,” she said to Sean, before turning her holo-representation to the group.
“What you have here, are docks that do everything the pod docs do – without the nanocyte technology. So they can heal, but they can’t enhance. They still use nanites – just not the special ones that cam
e from the Kurtherians. These nanites have been developed the old-fashioned way: by humans, over the decades. They are designed to heal any type of tissue, in any species for which we have mapped the genome. It cannot bring you back to life, though; so if you have a splinter, don’t let it put you on death’s door before you get treated.”
The group chuckled, and Pieter looked confused. “How did you hear that?”
Emma smiled knowingly. “Sean opened his connection to me, so I had a heads-up you were on your way down. Figured he couldn’t keep everything on this ship a secret forever,” she added, glancing at Sean and practically rolling her eyes at him.
Brock started wandering around and examining the docks, poking at the options on the panels. Joel had been taking it all in quietly.
“So, er, why don’t we test these babies out, and get our unconscious friend into one of them to recover?”
Sean turned his mouth down and stuck out his bottom lip. “Sure thing. I mean, he’ll be fine, but this will certainly accelerate his healing better than mother nature.” He winked at Emma’s holo-representation.
She smiled back. “Damn right, they will,” she told him.
Joel turned to the group. “Okay, Brock, Pieter – wanna help me bring Crash down here?”
He started to move toward the door. “Paige, Maya – see if you can contact Oz and find out when Molly is going to be back. I have a feeling she ought to know… even though everything is under control.”
Paige nodded, and the team filed out.
Gaitune- 67, Safe house, Crash’s quarters
“Okay, switch the antigrav on only once the stretcher is under him,” Joel instructed gently.
He and Brock hauled Crash’s sleeping body onto the stretcher, and Pieter shuffled around them to be as helpful as he could without getting in the way.
“Okay. Now,” he told Pieter, nodding at the tiny control panel woven into the fabric. Pieter fiddled with it, and the stretcher levitated.
Joel felt his holo buzz. It was Oz.
WHERE IS EVERYONE?
Joel tapped back. CRASH’S QUARTERS. HAS MOLLY HAD THE SIT REP FROM EMMA?
YES, Oz messaged back.
The Ascension Myth Box Set Page 101
