Chapter 3: An Earth First Medical Emergency

When I arrived on the other side I realized why there was someone to latch on to my hand and make sure I kept walking. When I went through the “portal” I was startled by the change of everything around me. The natural reaction was to stop in my tracks. If you stopped the pad wouldn’t activate for the next person. The marine kept me moving.

The marine on the other side was very friendly and my women were in a group out of the way. The Marine led my group to the back of the compartment. They handed me something that looked like a PDA. Using the device the marine introduced me to the ship’s AI which spoke through the PDA. It told me to take it to each dependent and sponsor to record any medical needs and/or dependents needing to be picked up.

Then they handed each of us a laminated card about the size of an 11x14 sheet of paper. It outlined the basic ship information and had a map of the ship’s passenger decks. The ship was the Taurus Clipper a Star Class Transport, commonly referred to as a Kilo class. Our destination was the star system, Bedfordat, which would take us four weeks to get to.

The marine said, “Someone came up with this card idea, since the concubines kept asking questions. AI was not answering them. Sponsors were getting upset. We want to give the ‘families’ time to adjust and bond, and not be PO’d at each other’s throats to start.”

It was at this point I found out that in addition to Helen having children to be picked up, it had slipped Joan’s mind to bring up her younger children.

Helen wrote down the address of her mother’s house where her children were. Joan then said, “My children Ken and Kelly are at my mother’s house.” She gave me the address, and I wrote their names and address down.

Then I gave her a puzzled look and said, “First don’t worry, they are coming with us, but why didn’t you tell me about them?”

“You didn’t know?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“I thought Helen told you. I’m sorry.”

“Like I said, they are of course coming, but I don’t like surprises.”

Then she mischievously smiled and said, “It looks like I’ve stumbled into a good reason for a spanking. I’ve been a bad girl, Sir. Please spank me, Sir!”

Helen grinned and said, “I’m sorry, I should have told you. I’ve been a bad girl too, Sir. Please spank me, too!”

I smiled; they were both looking for a reason to be punished, probably just to make sure the teenagers would know it was not the end of the world to be punished. I smiled and said, “Sounds like a just solution. Both of you will be spanked tonight.”

Suddenly all hell broke loose. Bloody people started coming through the portal, screaming. First were two naked ladies, then it was a guy. Then people were coming though so fast that the path was being obstructed. A Marine and I ran over and started pulling people though the portal and out of the way. The private saw that he had help and said, “Thank you Sir! Keep on doing what you are doing.”

It was not long before my concubines had started helping the people, too. Soon my concubines were pulling their dresses out of their purses and making makeshift bandages out of them. By the time the medical people began to show up about three minutes later we had twenty-five bleeding humans laid out on the floor and more coming in rapidly. I could see the medical people were grateful for the help. Within five minutes there were sixty people on the deck, with some of the conscious ones screaming for help. There were not enough medical people and certainly not enough medical supplies, in the reception areas.

I didn’t know what was happening, so I just saw to it that the portal was clear. The Marine and I did what we could and other Marines from the ship were behind me pulling victims further away.

The private kept saying “Damn!” Most of the other people in the compartment who were from the ship were taking instructions from my concubines. I kept hearing the teenagers saying things like, “Hold this, and keep pressure on it.” There were a bunch of people with no shirts on looking after people as my concubines were making bandages from those shirts. One thing I noticed is that none of the Naval or Marine personnel questioned my concubines actions or pulled rank. They did what the girls said. I had no way of knowing it but the ship AI was telling them to do what the concubines said, and not to question it. I did not realize at the time but Marines on ships did what the AIs suggested unless the order was obviously a really bad idea. Their lives depended on it. In an emergency, the AIs knew what to do.

The number of injured people with bullet holes in them kept growing. Soon the sergeant who was running the gate came though, with three bullet holes in him. I grabbed him and pulled him off to the side. I took off my shirt and started plugging his holes. The soldiers were wearing light armor but it did not cover their legs or arms. When sergeant started cursing up a storm, I told him to settle down. His femoral artery had been hit and even with the help of the nannies he was bleeding all over the deck. Susan came over unbuckled my belt and pulled it off me. She made it into a tourniquet in a few seconds. Someone broke one of the chairs in the room a made handles for the tourniquets that were being improvised. Soon more and more medical people were arriving and some of them had different ship designations on their shoulders. The flow of people suddenly stopped.

The captain came on the public address system and announced that the portal had been shifted to another ship. No more casualties would be coming in. We were to take care of the ones we had. Who was sponsor, who was concubine and who should or should not be on the ship would be sorted out later.

The medical people had things under control about twenty minutes later. The private who I had been helping came over to me and said, “We are going to be sorting this out for a while. Please come with me, bring you concubines. I would not be surprised if no one thanked you or your concubines for help. You should be proud of your service and your concubines’ service to the injured. You may have saved my sergeants life. I thank you.

“Do you still have your data pad?”

I reflexively had put the pad in my front pants pocket. “Yes.”

“Good let’s get you registered and quartered.”

We went over to the table. My concubines were watching the medical people work on the people they had helped. There were tears in their eyes and some open weeping as some of the people had sheets pulled over their heads. Some of the victims never stood a chance.

I was still a little in shocked at what I had witnessed from my concubines. Even though they were naked they ran to the people in trouble and started helping. It was obvious to me they had strong first-aid knowledge. I was impressed.

We were the first group of people to be extracted for this run of the Taurus Clipper. A kilo class vessel had at least one medical bay on every passenger deck. Unfortunately, a lot of the ship’s medical people were either off duty or still on leave.

I called my concubines over and followed the private over to the registration table. We were assigned to pods A-1 and A-2. When we arrived at our pods my concubines received their first lesson in how the little power they have in the Confederacy. They could not open the door to the pod without my permission. Of course, I gave them all permission. The second lesson was that they could not operate anything, including the replicator without my permission. The third lesson was that they could not get in the door to the bathroom without my permission. The final rule of the hour was that they could not wear clothes without my permission. I was beginning to become exasperated when I asked the AI if there was a standard set of permissions sponsors gave their concubines. After an “affirmative” answer, I checked what they were and gave my concubines and dependents those permissions. The women were allowed to wear standard shifts outside the Pods.