Chapter 7

Life went on. No one could figure out just why Bavag had decided to take me on and he wasn’t saying. He was simply demoted and moved to some remote base for cheating in a duel. Essentially, Ground Force put him out of the way until he retired. He avoided a Court Martial only because he didn’t manage to lay a finger on me. The Advanced Combat Training section were forced to put out an official apology to my team, but that was all. Ground Force went out of their way to make the incident disappear.

Training carried on for us, covering the more complex things that Ground Force in general expected Officers to know. Also my Healer training, either in real cases or on the medical dummies that perfectly mimicked a real human, went well as I learned to deal with a host of problems that might arise.

My friends kept a lid on my history as well, as in the case of Telli keeping me away from those friends of Bavag (not many, he was seriously disliked all over the base) as well as those of Binh. We all enjoyed the grav-ball matches and ended up finishing in the top four of our league.

My relationship with Limo developed to us dating, but that was all. We simply felt good around each other, though it did not develop into anything sexual as he took his religion seriously and, once advanced training ended, our careers would diverge, precluding us marrying. Still, he was the first man to make me feel really good about myself and the first whom I seriously considered being a lifetime partner. Such an event however would be in the future, if ever, so we simply enjoyed life.

The hulks drifted through space, not apparently drawing power and seemingly aimless in their course. To assume that though would be a terrible mistake as they had a definite objective and purpose.

It was Takhsas Hroon, the captain and only crewman of the independent trading vessel Gunnet of the Rigelli Alliance, who found them drifting in the gap between stars. He was a scrapper and generally picked over worlds whose civilisations had destroyed themselves, looking for technology or processed metals. It wasn’t a hard life, though few chose to do it and generally he had more coming in than going out.

In this case he’d been forced to do an essential repair to a faulty drive component that had managed to go out of tune while driving the Gunnet through XD space and he had emerged in normal space, close enough to the hulks for his ship to detect them.

“Kiria, you’re needed as medical assist for a training exercise,” Telli informed me. “You’ll be working under Healer Vass as the Troopers practice boarding the Training Ship Voslaa.”

“No problem. When do they need me?” I asked.

“Next working period; three-day exercise. Your task is Meditech control.”

“Simulated casualties, I assume?”

“Along with any other injuries they pick up en route,” she grinned as there were inevitably some injuries on these exercises as they were made as realistic as possible.

“Joy,” I chuckled, as I knew I’d be busy and some part of the exercise would definitely involve me with some sort of incident to add ‘reality’ to the training.

“You’ll be OK. Vass is pretty good and will monitor your progress.”

“Yeah, he was with me on the last one.”

“Tried to tap you up?”

“Always, but wasn’t bothered when I declined either.”

“Does it with any females he runs across,” Telli grinned. “Even me and he knows I have a husband.”

“He’s just a dirty old man, but funny too.”

“True. Now get some rest, you have a busy three days coming up.”

The following day I turned up at the appointed time to join Vass as we assembled with the Specialist Meditech Troopers doing a refresher course with their Battalion on boarding procedures in a hostile environment.

The exercise was not going well. It was the second day and casualties were piling up as the Officer in charge of the assault appeared to be utterly clueless as to how to take the ship, either that or blessed with total bad luck. Still, at least I knew how the wand could work through the armour now, though was also getting a bit frustrated by one of the meditechs who seemed unable to grasp how triage worked or how I wanted the patients sorted.

“Specialist Meditech Tokk, why am I looking at a patient who has simply been knocked unconscious and who needs a simple scan to ensure they haven’t got concussion? A scan that you are supposed to do before I see them.” I asked coolly as yet another non-critical patient was brought in.

“They were non-responsive, sir!” he replied nervously.

“This is why you have a wand, to tell if they need my attention when we’re busy. You do have a wand?” I questioned him.

“Yes, sir!”

“What does it tell you?”

“Err ... that the patient is unconscious, sir!”

“And?”

“Err...”

“Who taught you to use a wand, Specialist?”

“Monitor Yort at Frunio Station, sir!”

“I suspect she’ll be a tad disappointed in you,” I sighed. “AI, book Specialist Meditech Tokk in for a re-training refresher course on wand usage.”

“Done, Trainee Healer Kiria,” came the harsh, flat tones.

“Specialist Tokk, work with Specialist Alla and try to remember your training. Now, out of here and take this patient with you.”

“Sir!”

“You’re way too patient, Kiria,” Healer Vass, who had been watching, chuckled.

“I’m not. I just didn’t see the point of having a screaming fit in front of the lower ranks,” I grinned.

“He might just be a ringer to test your patience. I’ve dealt with meditechs from Frunio before, they’re normally competent,” he nodded.

“Take your word for it,” I shrugged. “Other than there being more casualties than expected, I think we’re doing OK.”

“Yep. Whoever’s in charge is certainly getting their arse handed to them in a sling.”

“Yes, appears that way,” I agreed. “And here comes another one.”

At least this time the wand was informing me the Trooper was missing a limb (he wasn’t but in the exercise the AIs could simulate wounds) and with a bit of ingenuity I had it temporarily re-attached (bone and blood supply only) for full nerve repair later. Then arranged for evac to the station which was acting as a medical carrier for us.

Vass was currently dealing with a crush injury and so I stuck my head out to check on the waiting station, finding it full and a queue stretching out of the door.

“What the hell’s going on?” I demanded of Specialist Alla.

“All non-critical, sir!” she replied.

“No evac?”

“Apparently the ship we’re boarding managed to get some of its hyperbeams up and running and is picking off shuttles, sir.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep, and the idiot in charge has got a team trying to take their engine room power plant rather than just stick a needle beam through it, sir.”

“Cut down the bulkheads here and here and move the least critical into the rooms beyond them and give us room here,” I ordered after checking with the AI that those bulkheads were non-structural and the rooms had air.

“Sir!”

My solution worked and the walls were removed by the AIs, allowing us to spread out a little and move some of the more critical patients up for examination, meaning Vass and I were busy for a while. It was only a couple of hundred rotations later that another officer from a fighting battalion came down to complain about us damaging the interior of the ship.

“We needed the space,” was all I told him, Vass being busy replacing an arm (in a sense).

“You damaged the internal structure of the ship!” he snarled on a separate Officer-only channel.

“No, I didn’t. Neither of the bulkheads taken out were load- or stress-bearing. The composite beams are still in place as well,” I replied.

“I order you to replace them. They are necessary to ensure the ship does not internally collapse!”

“No.” I stated flatly. “Whoever’s in charge has fucked up royally and we are becoming overwhelmed with casualties. We need the room. Now, go bother someone else or pick up a beam rifle and go and fight.”

“You are relieved of duty!”

“Fine. You fix these guys,” I replied and simply walked away to report to Vass.

Three days later I was in front of the official enquiry as to why the exercise itself had eventually collapsed when the Commander in charge utterly failed to make even one of his objectives and was now trying to shift blame. I was there answering questions, going over why I disobeyed an order from a superior officer, amongst my other actions during the exercise. I had been assured by Telli that I wasn’t in trouble and it was just one of the official things that happened after every exercise.

“What made you remove the bulkheads, Tribune Kiria?” Commander Tiruk, heading this part of the enquiry, asked mildly.

“We needed the space. Casualties were far higher than predicted and some critical patients couldn’t make it through to the triage station,” I replied.

“Why didn’t you ask sub-Commander Vass for permission?”

“He was busy dealing with a critical injury and I didn’t need his permission to remove a non-critical bulkhead.”

“You also walked away from your post?”

“No, sir. I was relieved of my duty by someone not in my chain of command but senior to me and I reported directly to sub-Commander Vass, who then placed me back on duty.”

“Yes, sub-Commander Wallak did not have the right to relieve you and had no real need to be in that part of the ship, that’s for certain,” sub-Commander Qul, who was also sitting in, interjected.

“Agreed,” Tiruk nodded with a sigh. “Why weren’t you more forthright with Specialist Tokk?”

“No real need. He wasn’t killing off the patients, just appeared to have difficulty in remembering his training. Hence I re-assigned him to assist another Meditech rather than have him sit around doing nothing.”

“Can’t fault you for that,” Qul agreed.

“Tribune Kiria, this enquiry commends you for your actions in Operation Voslaa. Medical Healing appears to be one of the few areas of this operation to actually go to plan, even if you were overwhelmed with patients at the end.”

“Sir!” I replied and slammed my fist across my chest as they called up Vass to give his impressions on how his part of the exercise went.

“All done?” Telli asked me when I reported back to Healer Training.

“Yes, but seriously, what a clusterfornication that exercise was.”