Exiles

by Richard Alonzo

  Chapter 29 Unresolved Questions

  Themis and Sultan were on station on the approach to the former Raider base in the Scorpion Nebula. They had dispatched teams from their own ships repair efforts to recommission the base, pending the arrival of the Amastra. Her cargo of civilians, refugees and alyssum seekers, outcast and exiles, eager to settle down and start a new life free from repression and persecution.

  Ford had just overseen the burial of the dead from the battle for Nova-7 and the Raiders corpses they'd left in cold storage after the fight for the Scorpion Nebula. He'd lost count as they fired the coffins out of the missiles tubes at the nearest sun.

  “Let the stars takes their bodies, let their memories live on in our hearts and deeds.”

  He hoped it would be a long time before he or anyone else had to utter those words again. Still, he was hardly looking forward to where he was going next, the Themis med bay, as he weaved between the repair crews and service droids.

  He stopped and pressed his hand against the side of the corridor. He could sense the semi-organic ships pain, its wounds still raw from battle. Alaster the organic AI had suffered too, remnants of Jasper virus still haunted his systems, taking up valuable run time and resources, as he hunted it down ,chasing it from system to system across the ship. Inevitably this lead to localised system failures and slowed down the repair effort. The sooner they could get the main Raider base up and running, the sooner they could return to the Scorponoid System. Bask in the healing glow of its twin stars and allow the ship to heal and regenerate naturally.

  Sultan had fared better on that front. Faiz, aware of the virus’s deployment on his home world Dracon, had gone dark, isolating and firewalling Sultan's systems to protect her. Although it would take longer, perhaps several months in a dry dock, to repair the physical damage to his ancient ship. Yet it had become too valuable to decommission now, a beacon of hope, a symbol of defiance, to the Dracon people and beyond. President in Exile Tasha had already rescinded the order and promised Faiz a refit to whatever specification he desired, once the Federation peace mission had re-established their independence. He hoped things worked out for them.

  A small service droid scuttled across his hand starling him back into the present and he pulled his hand away, resuming his journey. Turning the corner found himself standing in front of the Med bay doors. He took a deep breath, straightened his uniform and stepped forward, as they parted before him and granted him entry.

  The beds were full, only the most serious injuries were being treated here. The walking wounded had been discharged and sent back to their quarters to recover. He couldn’t help feeling that some of the crew would have second thoughts and elect to stay in the Scorpion Nebula, assist in rebuilding the mining operations there. Who could blame them? he thought. It was not as if they had enlisted on a regular tour of duty with the military. They were volunteers, not conscripts, after all and he wouldn’t force them to follow him.

  He weaved between the beds and the med staff, who seemed to be coping well enough without Anna to lead them, if a little frayed around the edges, till he found the bed he was looking for. He took a deep breath and sat on the bed beside Carol. She looked to be in a very peaceful deep sleep. He stoked the hair back out of her eyes and waited for her to wake up.

  A young male nurse noticed him sitting there and stopped. “Sir.”

  “Yes.”

  “I thought you might like to know she came out of the regeneration chamber a short while ago, as good as new, she should make a full recovery, unlike...” his voice trailed away.

  “Thank you.” said Ford. “Any idea when she’ll wake up?”

  He pulled up her details on the tablet he was carrying. “She should be coming round in a short while. I can give her a stim to speed the process up if you like?”

  He shook his head. “That won’t be necessary we’ll let nature take its course for once. I can come back later when she’s awake.”

  He watched him disappear to resume tending to his allotted caseload and was just about to stand up and leave when he felt a hand grip his arm.

  “Going somewhere?” Carol smiled weakly at him, as the sedatives gradually wore off.

  “Hello stranger.” he gripped her hand firmly looking down at her. “It’s good to have you back.”

  She pulled herself up onto her shoulders and looked around the Med Bay. He knew who she was looking for and dreaded having to answer the question that was coming.

  “Kind of busy in here isn’t it?” she craned her neck trying to see who was in all the beds.

  “Victims of the Anterian attack for the most part. We have to put them through a decontamination process, check they've not been infected with anything unpleasant and, even with Gaia’s tech, the wounds don’t heal quickly.” he was stalling and she knew it.

  “So where are they hiding Anna then?” she notice that the medical crew made a point of looking the other way when she asked. That couldn’t be good she thought.

  He gripped her hand even tighter and saw the tears beginning to form at the corner of her eyes. “That Cyborg beat her up pretty good.”

  “But what about the suit? Even those civvies suits we were wearing having built in medical protocols and short term stasis. Look at my legs for Christ sake.” she threw the blanket back to reveal her newly restored leg. “Tell me you can fix her!” she didn’t realise how loud her voice was, until she saw everyone had stopped and was looking in their direction.

  Ford waved them away, waited for them to resume what they had been doing, before speaking softly to her. “We did, we’re doing, all we can. She administered emergency first aid to you on site, that’s why you made such a swift recovery, but her suit was damaged in the attack. We got her into a stasis pod as quickly as we could, but even the tech on this ship has its limits.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t believe it, won’t believe it, are you trying to tell me she’s dead, that, that thing killed her?”

  “No, she’s still in the stasis pod, we’re assessing the damage.”

  “Assessing the damage? This is Anna we’re talking about not a machine!” she pulled her hand away from his.

  “Her damaged organs, the broken bones, can be repaired or replaced, just as soon as we can get her in the regenerator chambers, but her spinal column and brain, that’s another matter. Her neck was badly damaged and her brain may have been starved of oxygen for some time”

  She swung her legs around and stood unsteadily on the floor. “Take me too her now.”

  She pushed him away when he offered to help her. Gestured to the medics to stay back. As they weaved their way to a private room at the back of the Med Bay. He gestured to the staff to leave them with a silent flick of the head and waited till the door shut behind them. They were alone in a dimly lit room with five stasis pods hooked up to any array of machines. The two on the right were empty, the three left most ones were occupied. He rubbed the mist of the glass panel of the pod nearest them. Anna looked as if she were resting in a deep peaceful sleep. The medical restraining collar around her neck, it LED’s flashing rhythmically, was the only visible indication anything was wrong with her.

  Carol broke down and sobbed, pushing him away when he tried to comfort her. “It’s not fair, after all we’ve been through. After what she suffered in that prison, the rebellion, everything, that it should end like this. You have to save her. She doesn’t deserve this.”

  “And if I can’t.”

  “Then you have to let her go, she wouldn’t want to live like this.”

  He nodded. “But not until all the possibilities are exhausted, there may be tech out there that can save her, we just have to find it.”

  “More ark technology?”

  “Perhaps, we’re exploring all the possibilities.”

  “Ok, but you’re on the clock, you’re not keeping her here like this indefinitely.”

  “Do you really think you have the right to make that decision?”

&
nbsp; “She’s alone, this crew, us, we’re the closest thing she has to a family, we’re her next of kin.”

  “We could always ask Anna what she thinks, herself.”

  “How is that possible?”

  He picked up a small microphone attached to the side of the stasis pod “She’s heavily sedated at the moment, but once her body is repaired and we have established the level of brain activity, we can bring her round and communicate with her consciousness. It’s not a particularly pleasant experience for the person in stasis, but at least it will resolve the issue.”

  “So we explore all the options, put them on the table and let Anna choose?”

  He nodded. “That’s the deal.”

  She smiled weakly and saluted him. “In that case captain your intelligence office is requesting permission to return to duty and start working on all available options.”

  He saluted her back. “Permission granted. It’s good to have you back and good luck.”