by Jerry Aubin
The Boss grilled Kalare for more details about the exact location of the civilians and then looked at the sergeant with a raised eyebrow. The Marine nodded in response, and the Omega called everyone else to gather round.
“We’ve only got two hostiles between us and the Marine garrison, so we’re going to make it. Here’s what I want us to do. We’ll hold our formation as we approach just in case they end up being on the move or we encounter anyone else. Once we are around the corner from them, the boy will step into their line of sight and get their attention. Once he does—“
“Excuse me, sir, did you just say that you’re going to use an eight-year-old as a diversion?”
Sergeant Bailee bristled at Imair’s interruption of the Boss and color flooded his cheeks. The Boss appraised the civilian for a moment with an expression that suggested amusement rather than anger. Nolly had continued to play his climb and jump game on the ladder and was missing out on all of the tension over his role in the mission. The Boss looked straight at Imair and spoke.
“The boy will step into their line of sight and get their attention. From Kalare’s description, these folks are bored and not primed to shoot the first thing that moves. Once it’s clear they’ve been distracted by the boy, Sergeant Bailee is going to pop around the corner and dispatch them. Let’s move.”
Zax watched Imair but the civilian was clearly smart enough to not press her luck. Her desire to protect the boy was admirable, but she had to have recognized how the Boss and Marine were barely tolerating the civilians’ presence. Bailee in particular did not need any reason to remove Imair as a potential threat. She gathered the boy and spoke quietly to him for a moment while everyone else made ready to head out.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I know where one is.
The group exited the tunnels and traversed the main passageways silently. Kalare eventually signaled a halt and gestured that the pair of civilians were around the next corner. Bailee crept to the edge of the passageway and pulled a shiny scrap of broken material out of his pocket. Its surface reflected back what was around the corner, and he confirmed with an OK sign that the civilians were present as expected.
The Boss sidled up to Nolly and got down on one knee to speak softly in the boy’s ear. Zax observed how the Omega was pulling out all of the stops to put the boy at ease—including giving the child a hug of all crazy things! The boy looked up at Imair for reassurance, and she hid the worry she surely felt and gave him a double thumbs up.
Nolly shuffled to where Sergeant Bailee continued to monitor the hostiles around the corner. The Marine held up his hand for the boy to stop for a moment and then signaled him forwards. The boy turned the corner and froze. A voice called out immediately from down the passageway and ordered Nolly to remain still. It was likely the easiest command the boy ever followed since he probably had zero ability to move.
In a flash, the Marine leapt around the corner and fired two blaster shots in quick succession. Nolly scampered back into Imair’s embrace and wailed into her chest as the sergeant gave the all clear. Zax regretted the need to get the boy involved, but, all things considered, it had been a pretty easy task.
Zax looked around the corner. The Marine stood at the far end of the passage and checked the next junction. He must have moved the two bodies out of the way because the civilians were piled atop one another against the bulkhead. There wasn’t any blood visible yet, and Zax hoped for Nolly’s sake they could make their way past the corpses before any seeped out from under them. The Marine brushed past Zax and whispered to the Boss. A moment later he rotated a finger in the air and pointed forwards. It was time to move down the passageway, and the formation turned the corner and moved past the dead civilians.
Zax breathed easier with every step which brought them closer to the Marine garrison. It was the right decision to rescue the Boss and Bailee a few hours back, but the non-stop stress of their journey since had worn his nerves raw and he suffered from an acute adrenalin hangover. All forward momentum depended on the waning excitement from the reward the Omega had dangled. Zax was relieved to reach the Marines primarily because it meant the professionals would inherit the task of protecting the Boss.
For the second time that day, the sudden appearance of armed civilians shocked Zax. At least half a dozen materialized, as if by magic, at the end of the passageway. They opened fire immediately and the air filled with the sound of blasters.
In all of the confusion, it sounded like more than one blaster was being discharged at the civilians. Zax knew that was impossible since only Bailee was armed. The Marine charged to the front of their formation and screamed for everyone else to fall back around the corner.
Zax spun and bolted back the way they had come. The Boss and Waste Systems officers, along with Aleron, were already gone. Imair, shielding Nolly with her body, was rounding the corner and Kalare followed a few steps behind.
The group paused once they were out of the line of fire while blasters raged in the passageway behind them. Zax was clueless about what they might do if Bailee was killed. He looked around for the Boss to see if the officer had any orders.
The Omega slumped against the bulkhead a short distance away from everyone else. He grimaced as a blood stain pooled on his shirt. He appeared to be talking to himself, which struck Zax as an extremely odd reaction to getting shot. The Boss noticed Zax’s attention and turned away. Just then Bailee charged around the corner and barked out a command.
“Zax—get everyone into the tunnels! I can hold them for a few mins longer and will be right behind you!”
They dashed back to the access port the group had exited a short while earlier. The Boss hobbled but managed to keep up with the rest of them. Zax used his biometrics to open the hatch and stepped aside and directed everyone else to enter.
“Hurry up and get in! I’m going to hold the hatch open for the sergeant, but if anyone other than him comes around that corner, I’m slamming it shut!”
The group piled through the hatch quickly except for the Boss. The Omega was the last to approach and he paused a few extra secs before finally ducking into the tunnel. Zax guessed the man must be in shock from his wound and blood loss.
Zax turned his attention back down the passage just as Sergeant Bailee sprinted around the corner. The Marine stopped for a moment to lay down a barrage of blaster fire behind him, and then made another mad dash towards the hatch. He screamed at Zax.
“They’re right behind me! Get that hatch secured as soon as I’m in!”
The Marine dove into the tunnel as the first civilians turned the corner firing wildly. Zax felt the heat from a shot within centimeters of his head as he slammed and secured the hatch. He collapsed against the bulkhead for a moment to catch his breath.
The Marine appeared amazingly unfazed, especially in light of the fact he had been running around all day with a broken collarbone. He jumped immediately to the Boss’s aid and gingerly pulled away the man’s shirt to check the wound.
“He’s got a bad bleeder. We might be able to stop it with pressure, but we could sure use a medkit.”
Zax thought for a moment but then shook his head.
“It’s almost exclusively civilians in Waste Systems, so we don’t keep any medkits around. I can’t even guess where we might find one nearby.”
Imair stood to speak.
“I know where one is.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
He will be awake in thirty mins.
The Boss propped himself against Sergeant Bailee as they both listened intently as Imair spoke.
“The civilian staff requested a medkit be kept in Waste Systems years ago because so many workers got injured working in the deep caverns. Open wounds and sewage aren’t a great combination, and it took too long for the injured to make their way back up for medical care. Major Westerick denied our request, but someone took it upon themselves to steal a kit from a different section. We’ve managed to appropriate enough supplies to keep it functi
onal ever since.”
“Where is it?” The Boss coughed out his question, but there was no blood coming out of his mouth.
“In the sewage treatment cavern.”
The Boss turned to Zax. “Can you get us there?”
Zax grimaced but realized they had no choice given the Boss’s condition. He nodded as he replied. “Yes, sir.”
Zax paused frequently during the group’s march back into the depths. He checked on the Boss to be sure the pace he was setting was feasible given the man’s injury. The officer’s shirt was thoroughly soaked with blood, but he continued to move as fast as Zax was leading them. The Omega had his faults, but Zax could never deny he was tough.
The air became thicker and thicker with the reek of human waste the deeper the group descended. More than once, someone behind Zax gagged on the stench. If folks were having an issue with the odor now, he couldn’t wait to see how they handled it once they reached the treatment cavern. The smells there were beyond horrific but even worse were the sights. What he saw with his eyes led him to vomit the one time he had visited.
Eventually, the group reached the bottom of their final ladder. By the looks of the Boss, they had reached their destination just in time. The officer was forced to lean on Sergeant Bailee for support as they walked the final one hundred meters to the cavern. Zax opened the final hatch and stood aside to allow everyone to enter.
When Zax followed the last person through, he couldn’t help but gawk at the size of the space even though he had visited previously. There were precious few spaces on board the Ship which were as large in volume as the treatment cavern, with only the Flight Hangar being bigger. Unlike the wide-open space of the hangar, the treatment cavern was jam-packed with the massive containers which were the heart of the sewage system.
Everything on board the Ship needed to be reused and recycled for maximum effectiveness and the waste output of ten million humans was no exception. The fifty-meter-tall vessels converted all of the feces and urine into a relatively benign sludge which was used to fertilize crops. Each was constructed of stainless steel. Legend held they had gleamed like mirrors generations ago, but that was hard to imagine given their current appearance. Innumerable accidental overflows during the most recent decades had caked the outsides of each egg-shaped container with a thick, oozing layer of biological sludge. The gasses associated with this ancient accumulation occasionally shifted from horrific to truly dangerous and required the use of secondary breathers until the methane concentrations abated.
As treacherous as the air sometimes became, it didn’t compare to the other dangers which lurked throughout the cavern. All of the machinery, in addition to being festooned with human waste, was designed such that it lacked almost all of the safety features found in other systems Zax had encountered around the Ship. One careless mistake on the part of the sewage treatment workers could easily lead to injuries, amputations, or worse.
Zax heard a retching noise and looked over just in time to watch Major Westerick bend over and puke between his feet. Salmea immediately followed his lead. Imair caught Zax’s eye and they shared a sly smile at the sight of the two officers getting a taste of what life in Waste Systems was like for everyone other than them.
The civilian woman turned and walked quickly away from the group. Sergeant Bailee was clearly agitated about her sudden and unannounced movement, but he held his tongue and followed from a few paces behind. The Marine was so focused on Imair that he missed seeing the Boss collapse to the deck. Aleron and Kalare jumped to the Omega’s aid in his place.
Imair moved to the far side of the cavern and pushed aside a workstation. Its back must have been hollowed out because she pulled a Crew medkit out from behind it. She wheeled the kit back and set it up next to the Boss. Imair turned and addressed Bailee who had remained a couple paces behind the civilian throughout.
“Sergeant—you’re doing an amazing job considering you’ve got a banged up arm, but with your permission I think it would be better if I treated the officer.”
The Marine nodded his assent, but there remained an unspoken threat in the posture he adopted.
Before Imair got started, she took off her shirt and placed it under the Boss’s head balled up as a pillow. It struck Zax as an unnecessarily kind gesture considering the man appeared to finally be unconscious. She next started to remove the Boss’s shirt. She had undone the fasteners and was about to pull his arms out of the sleeves when Sergeant Bailee interrupted.
“No—leave the shirt on. Just pull it up on the side of the wound.”
Imair gave the Marine a look of confusion but, after a moment, shook her head and followed the man’s instructions. She pulled the shirt up, and Zax got a clear look at the damage. The energy bolt from the civilian blaster had hit the Omega in the side. The wound oozed blood and was clearly life-threatening, but the Boss was lucky it hadn’t hit a few centimeters more towards the center of his body where it would have shredded organs.
The civilian popped the latch on the medkit and it butterflied open. A vidscreen dominated the top portion of its left half, and a series of compartments and ports of varying sizes were distributed throughout the remainder. She removed a small disc and fastened it to the Boss’s temple and then a slightly larger one which she applied to his chest above the heart. The monitor came to life and displayed the Omega’s vital signs. Zax had been given introductory training on the use of a medkit and knew enough to recognize how the flashing yellow symbols showed the man to be in serious condition, albeit with a good chance of survival.
Imair next extracted a long wand from the kit. She slowly waved it over the site of the wound. As she did so, a 3D rendering appeared on the screen and detailed the extent of the damage. Once again, the display was dominated by the yellow symbols which showed the man’s condition to be serious, but not yet deadly. A red number flashed a countdown until the medkit would be ready to proceed.
While the medkit counted down the time, Imair prepped the Boss for treatment. She opened a compartment and removed a small, circular device with a transparent hose attached. She plugged the hose into one of the ports on the medkit and then attached the other end to the Boss’s forearm between his wrist and elbow. The next device Imair grabbed was much larger and rectangular shaped. It also had a transparent hose which the civilian plugged into yet another port before she placed the square end over the Omega’s wound. Suction formed a vacuum around the wound and Zax could see the indent the device caused where it pressed into the man’s body.
The countdown flashed a green 00:00:00, and Imair double-checked the placement of each device and which port they were plugged into. She looked up at Bailee for his approval and the Marine nodded. She pressed a flashing green button and then leaned back to watch.
The first thing Zax saw was bright green liquid ooze out of the medkit and down the tube into the circular device attached to the Boss’s arm. He recognized the plasma which would replace the man’s blood loss. It was filled with artificial red blood cells which would help oxygenate the officer. These were programmed to slowly die off and be flushed out of his system over the next hundred days as the man’s body recovered and replaced them with the real thing.
Shortly after the plasma flowed into the Boss’s arm, a dark blue liquid flowed out of the larger tube into the square device which covered the wound. Zax remembered from his training how this liquid had numerous properties. First, it was a broad spectrum antibiotic which would cleanse the wound, a critical activity given their current surroundings. Second, the liquid was filled with nanobots which would swarm through the wound and repair any and all damage at the cellular level. Finally, it contained a material which would form a matrix to close the wound and protect it during the healing process. This matrix would dissolve over days and weeks as the body regenerated tissue around it until eventually the patient would look down and see nothing but new, smooth skin.
After a few mins of working its magic, the medkit sounded a notification t
o signal completion. Imair removed the various devices and returned them to their compartments where they would be automatically cleaned and sterilized for the next patient. She looked up at the Marine and spoke.
“He’ll be awake in thirty mins. After that, he’ll need to rest for another forty-five to allow the protective matrix to complete formation. How about I take a quick look at that arm, Sergeant?”
The Marine hesitated for a moment but then nodded and sat down next to the medkit. Imair removed the diagnostic wand once more and waved it over Bailee’s shoulder. The screen revealed the man’s collarbone had not been broken but instead shattered. His ability to move his arm, much less tolerate the intense activity he had participated in over the past few hours was truly inhuman. Imair gave a low whistle of appreciation as she surveyed the damage.
“Well, there’s your problem right there, Sergeant. It looks like your arm is about to fall off. Let’s get a patch on you, and the medkit can take a genetic sample and brew up the right binding agent to repair that bone.”
The Marine shook his head. “I can’t afford to have my arm numbed right now while the binder sets. It will keep.” He stood up to indicate there would be no further discussion of the matter. “Zax—search all the workstations and storage lockers to see if you can find any food. I’m hoping maybe one of the workers kept something around in case they ever got hungry in these beautiful surroundings. Unless, of course, the female civilian already knows where any other supplies might be stashed away like the medkit was.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Why are you nice to me?
Imair assured Bailee she wasn’t aware of any hidden food. There would usually be serious trouble if something like a stolen medkit was discovered in a civilian area, but Zax had to hope the Omegas would look the other way this time. Revealing the civilians’ secret was a brave and selfless act, and Zax hoped Imair would get rewarded somehow when all of this was over. If she said she didn’t know where any food was located, then Zax believed her.
