Rescue Branch (Kinsella Universe)

by Gina Marie Wylie

  “Doctor, I’m Lieutenant Cooper of the Space Service Rescue Branch.” Becky remembered what Anna had said about the fate of the Rescue Branch, and went on without a pause.

  “Can you perform an emergency amputation?”

  “Not here, not in vacuum. This injury would be difficult to work on on the ground.”

  “I’ll provide an atmosphere. Yes or no?”

  “Yes, Lieutenant.”

  “Please check your kit; you will need the wherewithal to perform an amputation. Before that, you will have to cut Miss Sanchez’s vacuum suit away. Verify that you have everything you need. Once I make the seal, I can’t break it until Miss Sanchez has been operated on.”

  The doctor did a righteous check of his equipment. “I’m short a hemostat. I’ll send my assistant for it, although I don’t think we’ll be needing it.”

  “Forget that. You won’t be needing it,” Anna said. “At first, my toes felt cold; my leg felt cold. Then those sensations faded. Now, I can’t feel anything beneath my knee. My knee wasn’t crushed. Moreover, my core temperature was stable until a few minutes ago, now it’s slowly declining. I’ve lost contact with my bottom.” She grinned. “I have a feeling I’m going to be the first person in history with a frostbit butt.”

  Becky steadied herself. “Anna, others have already been there. However, you are on track to be the first lady whose backside was vacuum welded to your suit.”

  “I was prepared to deal with frost bite marks on my ass. I’m not so sure I want to be that intimate with my pressure suit.”

  “Just a second, Anna and I’ll have you out of there in a jiffy. How are you doing on O2?”

  “I came out here for a few minutes, still I started with a full pack -- twelve hours. At a guess, the emergency hip seal has failed. I’m down to less than two hours. At the current loss rate, I’ve got about a half hour.”

  “Doctor, stand astraddle Anna’s hips, facing the injury. Bend forward, not touching Anna, assume a four-point stance -- I’ll be doing that same thing by her head. We’ll keep the sticky tent off her. Doctor, please move into position.”

  “The two of us? I’d rather have my assistant, Lieutenant.”

  “I rather you did too, but the official Rescue Branch policy is that we’d rather have a person qualified with sticky tents inside, even one with only first aid training, then a second skilled medical professional. Please move; we’re running out of time.”

  Becky stood next to Anna’s head, while the doctor moved into position. Lieutenant Rhymer didn’t need to be told; he started to deploy the sticky tent. It didn’t take long. “I’m ready, Lieutenant Cooper.”

  Before Becky could speak, Anna spoke up. “I realize that a last supper is out of the question, but how about a last favor?”

  “Don’t take long, Anna,” Becky told her friend.

  “Just long enough for you to turn around, my friend. Face the other way.” Becky moved, and almost at once, she felt the back of Anna’s gauntlet brush the back of her suit.

  “Are you crazy?” the doctor said, outraged. “You can’t move! God know what’s sealing the breach!”

  Anna laughed. “Raspberry jelly, doc! We both know my left leg is crushed. The jelly makes a good seal.”

  She cursed softly. “The problem with damned experts! They know what they are talking about! I’m losing more pressure.”

  Becky turned around, and said, “Hold still now! Lieutenant Rhymer, initiate the seal!”

  “How on Earth can you seal this?” the doctor asked... but at least he maintained his position.

  “As you many have noted, doctor,” Anna observed, “this isn’t Earth.

  “Doctor,” Becky continued, “a sticky tent adapts itself to the surfaces it confronts. Even if there is a gap, up to a third of a meter, it will form a seal. It takes about ten minutes. Be prepared to start operating, when I give the word.”

  Anna spoke up. “Becky, my hand is waving there in the air in front of you. I’d be ever so grateful if you held it.”

  “No problem, Anna.”

  Sooner than Becky anticipated, Lieutenant Rhymer reported, “Seal complete Lieutenant. No gaps.”

  “Seal confirmed,” she reported. “Doctor, start removing Anna’s suit.”

  He did so, at the hip joint. “I’m going to sedate you now, Miss Sanchez.”

  “About time! I’m freezing to death!”

  A second later Becky heard the doctor curse. “What’s the problem, doctor?” Anna asked.

  “No problem. Miss Sanchez, personal things aren’t my business. But about now, you would do well to stare into Lieutenant Cooper’s sky blue eyes, and drown.”

  Anna grinned. “At least you didn’t say it’ll be uncomfortable! I can look at Becky pretty much forever.”

  Becky grinned at her friend, and the doctor set to work. She was a little surprised when the doctor spoke to her over her Fleet private channel.

  “Lieutenant, I want to prepare you. This may very well not turn out good.”

  Becky kept smiling at Anna. “What do you mean?”

  “Miss Sanchez’s leg is frozen solid, far towards the hip. I don’t want go poking around just now to find out how far. If the bones of her hip are frozen, her prognosis is bad. More than that... they become very grim.”

  Becky didn’t think long. “Anna, I love you.”

  “Becky, I’m pretty sure I love you.”

  “Anna, I need to know your core temperature and where the probe is located.”

  There was a moment’s silence. “Oh. Ninety-five point three and in my armpit. According the docs, that’s a blood vessel coming to my heart from the lower extremities.”

  “Vein?”

  “I never asked. Is that important?”

  “Arteries carry blood to the extremities, veins bring it back. It’s the return temperature that’s important.”

  “Well, I’m starting to shiver pretty good. My butt hurts like the blazes. When is the doc going to start cutting?”

  “Anna, he’s done. Right now, he’s working on things. In a minute, I’m going to button the two of you up in a rescue bubble. That’s a two meter sphere, which, for some reason, I’m not planning to inflate in here.”

  “I can’t imagine why,” Anna said lightly.

  “Once I get you and the doctor in there, I’ll depressurize the tent. Then we’ll play a little beach ball, bopping you two back to the hospital.”

  “Becky, one reason I never wanted to go out -- I get motion sick. Be gentle.”

  “We will be.”

  Becky explained to the doctor. “You’ll find the fabric of the rescue bubble stiff, but don’t be afraid to use a little force to expand it to a size that will fit the two of you. Watch out for folds. While no one has been seriously injured by being pinched, they certainly have had their social lives rearranged.”

  “Yes, Lieutenant. Aren’t you concerned that I might tear the bubble fabric?”

  “To put it mildly, the fabric is a layer of tough mylar, then a layer of something way stronger -- a follow-on to kevlar, then more mylar. A pistol bullet won’t penetrate it.”

  She started unfolding the bubble above Anna and arranged it.

  Anna spoke up. “I’m not feeling so well, Beck. Hold my hand again, please.”

  Becky gripped it for a second and then went back to work. Anna laughed, “You always were a tease.” Then her head lolled back and she was unconscious.

  “Doctor, in the bubble. Pull your patient in after you.”

  The doctor moved quickly. Becky avoided looking at the ‘jam.’

  “Lieutenant Rhymer, I’m beginning the depressurization of the sticky tent,” she told him, the first moment she was sure the seal was secure on the bubble. A third of the tent’s atmosphere escaped and Becky carefully monitored the bubble. When she was sure it was holding, she spoke again, “Lieutenant Rhymer, pop the tent.”

  The tent’s seal was an epoxy mix, popping it was the release of an agent that killed it. It
happened in less than a second.

  Becky faced the habitat manager. “I hope you’ve cleared a path to your hospital.”

  “Long since,” he told her, not minding that she’d checked.

  “Do it!”

  Two men took the forward bubble straps, two more the aft straps, clearly briefed by Lieutenant Rhymer and started to make steady progress away from the accident scene.

  The manager draped his hand on Becky’s shoulder. “We’ll deal with the accident scene from here, Lieutenant. More often than not, we remove bodies. You will need to talk to our rescue crews, before you leave.”

  “No problem,” she said. It was part of the standard debriefing -- explain how they responded and thinking about ways to do better next time.

  “A minor scheduling conflict has arisen,” the habitat manager told her. “Israel has a private agreement with the Federation; a public membership would cause too many complications for all of the parties. I’m going to resolve it per my heritage as a general officer of the IDF.

  “I have an alert from a Captain of the Fleet, that he’s on his way here, as fast as practical. He’s asked that you not be informed. I have an alert from a Fleet admiral, who tells me she’s bringing her fiancé -- but not to alert you. I have a message from the admiral who commands the Fleet, who says to tell you that Anna’s friends are all coming, and that I should be prepared for a great deal of company.”

  Becky bowed her head. “I expect I know who all you mean. She has a lot of friends.”

  “Miss Sanchez is held in the highest regard by the government of Israel. She is held in the highest regard by the government of Taiwan. We have other partners who wish to remain unrecognized, but they too wish Miss Sanchez the best.”

  Two hours later the doctor came to where Becky and the habitat manager were waiting. “I seem to be stepping on diplomatic toes. Heads of state -- three, admirals -- four, and at least one captain. I’m at a loss to characterize the lesser officials.”

  “How’s Anna?” Becky asked,

  “She’s still unconscious. Was she serious about being happy to be the first one-legged project manager?”

  The habitat manager laughed. “Anna has a naked desire to be the first person do something significant in space... she hasn’t gotten there yet. Honestly, three to one I’m betting this will tickle her fancy.”

  “Her condition is stable, I don’t think she’s in further danger, although this sort of injury is outside of our experience. She has lost her left leg. The freezing reached a point a few centimeters from her hip joint. Hip replacement is a rather common surgery -- I opted to be safe and removed the ball joint, even though it did not appear to be damaged.

  “While we’d be able to fit an adequate prosthesis on Earth, no one knows what to do about such limb replacements in space. On the other hand, I’ve received dozens of inquiries from reputable labs more than willing to work with us.” He nodded at the habitat manager. “I’ve been told to spare no expense.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Miss Sanchez was right. The heating elements in the lower portion of her suit failed. Aside from the gallows humor she shared with Lieutenant Cooper, she neither suffered from vacuum-welded buttocks, nor for that matter, frostbite. Still, she’ll be on her tummy for a few days as that portion of her anatomy is going to be tender.”

  The silence that followed was deafening. “And that’s it?” Becky essayed.

  “She is going to fully recover,” the doctor told her. “Her future with a prosthesis is up in the air, but everyone, not just you, tells me that she’ll be able to deal with it. Lieutenant, a lot of time, problems sneak up on people. You’ll want to be careful.”

  “Me?”

  He nodded.

  “Doctor, are you blind?”

  “I’m not sure I understand. Seeing that kind of injury can be traumatic.”

  “Doctor, I’m a lieutenant in the Fleet Rescue Service. You’re new out here, right?”

  “Well, two months. I’ve just about got my space legs now.”

  “Doctor, I don’t know how long your tour is...”

  “A year.”

  “If you want to be alive at the end of it, assume you’ll never get your ‘space legs’ and that you’re ignorant of what life out here is like. Question every action you take -- or the next assumption you make could well kill you.”

  “I was a trauma surgeon in the ER of a Tel Aviv hospital.” He sounded a little huffy.

  “Have you ever seen a case of what we euphemistically call ‘traumatic abaryia?’”

  “Explosive decompression? I saw a video of a guy dying that way. They said he was spaced. I can’t imagine deliberately killing someone in that fashion.”

  “I wasn’t there, but I was closer than most,” Becky told him. “I know the woman who did it. She was ferrying five hundred French colonists to safety, one of two woman crewmembers of that shuttle. That guy came forward to rape her, and probably rape the other woman. Doctor, never go against someone at home out here -- and she is. She took his screwdriver away -- did you notice his eyes?”

  “She stabbed him in the eyes?”

  “She did. One thing you have to remember about that video -- it has been heavily edited. Lord knows, I saw the original enough times. She tied him up, dragged him to the airlock, cut his clothes off -- everything -- and cycled the lock. Then she let him sit for a half hour, cooling.

  “At the end of the time she chiseled off, as the report puts it, ‘the perp’s external male genitalia’ and afterwards hauled him back to the passenger compartment and parked him where everyone had a clear view. Instead of making the trip on High Fan, she took the scenic route -- a couple of days at one gravity.

  “There were no more disturbances among those colonists -- there had already been several -- and afterward everyone behaved nicely and we only lost the one. The French crew, however, died -- every last one. They made assumptions.

  “So, no, I’m not going to have problems with Anna’s injuries. Now I have a question -- how long is she going to be in the hospital?”

  “I admit to being curious about that myself,” a familiar voice said from behind Becky. She whirled and started to salute, but stopped. What had she said about assumptions and thinking before acting? She’d done a very effective twirl -- and kept spinning.

  Admiral Kinsella put a hand on the corridor wall and stopped her on the next time around. “You’re making the President dizzy, Lieutenant,” the admiral said with a straight face.

  “Sorry, Admiral Kinsella! I swear, I’ll never forget this!”

  “Better not!”

  The doctor knew a losing proposition when he saw one -- there would be no possibility of denying these visitors. Instead, he opted for a strategic retreat. Still, he defended the door.

  “The patient has suffered major physical and emotional trauma; she’s not had time to process it. Further, she will still be, to an extent, under the influence of the anesthetic. She may or may not be fully conscious. Please try to bear with her.”

  It was funny, sort of. Anna was sitting up in her bed, with what amounted to a tent covering her lower body, where a nurse was busy doing something they couldn’t see. Anna glanced up and grimaced at the crowd.

  “Admiral Kinsella, necessary medical treatment has resulted in adult diapers being applied. I’d just as soon be allowed to finish changing in private -- sooner rather than later,” Anna told them with aplomb.

  Becky had never seen that shade of chartreuse before on an adult’s face. Admiral Delgado coughed, and ushered people back.

  “Lieutenant Cooper, you stay,” Anna said.

  Becky stopped in place and faced Anna.

  “I don’t know what to say, Becky, or be able to thank you enough,” Anna said after the others were gone. The nurse finished up and bobbed her head in Becky’s direction, and then she too left.

  “This is my job, remember?” Becky said.

  “I don’t think I understood until just now. Wh
at are we going to do? I love you. You say you love me.”

  “I do, Anna.”

  “We are fire and ice. Water and oil. You’re going one way and I’m headed another. I can’t ask you to give up your dreams.” She sobbed. “Dear God, Becky! I love you, but my dreams... Giving up my dreams...” her voice trailed away.

  “Don’t give up anything on my account,” Becky told her. “I couldn’t live with myself knowing I’d clipped your wings.” She bit her tongue. “God, Anna, I should have said it better.”

  “Leave that for now. I want babies.”

  “So do I.”

  “Ah! Common ground at last! Can I assume that you don’t want to go catting around all over the place while you’re preggers?”

  “No.”

  “Neither do I. We can coordinate. I build a ship and you go gallivanting. That pretty much has to be next. Trips are going to be only a couple of months just now -- everyone wants to know the results sooner rather that later. We spend some time having babies. Together. Becky, come here.”

  Becky approached the bed. “I have a dirty secret. I’m sure Steph figured it out while I was still one of her grad students, but I don’t think anyone else has. What guy wants it known that he doesn’t measure up to a woman who’s obsessed with penis size? Becky, I’ve never been with anyone, man or woman. I’ve never even seen a male penis, standing up or standing down. Not in the flesh.”

  “Anna, I love you. The rest is gravy.”

  “We can work out priorities, right?”

  “Surely.”

  Anna started laughing; after a bit she stopped. “That doctor, he’s a nice fellow, but needs to be stepped on. Earlier, he was ‘checking sensitive areas.’ He was entirely too smug about that the fact I appear to have lost no sensitivity in my ‘reproductive areas.’

  “Test out his reproductive sensitivity.”

  “I don’t understand, Anna.”

  “Steph would be appalled at the empiricism involved. Kick him in the balls. Maybe a couple of times to make sure space hasn’t affected any of his sensitivity.”