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Hello, Now Bend Over!

Mayflower Post Attack

“Don’t panic Jan, just get me down there. It’s not as bad as it sounds.”

Jan Christopher gave me one disbelieving look then returned to her controls. “How could it get worse? Aliens plus Goonies, the Colonel and the Master Chief down; Aliens doing crap we don’t understand and Karl dead. Why should I not panic?”

As we waited for the Dancer to dock, I tried my best to do what Clan Stuart had done for me. “Jan, our two best are down for this damn Flu and you know we carry the cure for that.

“Karl, if Andy is to be believed is, sitting in Fiddlers Green with a drink in his hand watching his Honor Guard march into Hell and it ain’t no small one. Ash and JoAnn are clearly down there working on the Command Circuits for the Docks and Mayflowers Comms.

“The Aliens bugged out because Strike Force and Karl kicked them right square in whatever passes for their teeth and they don’t know what they bit off. Then while that was going on, Jai and her Reserve Force were bleeding them Dry on Mayflower. How they did it I don’t know, like you, I am not a Warrior.

“I am a Doctor who learned to be a Sheepdog. What those people do is beyond my comprehension but I know this much; The guy you and others call ‘The Boss’ has never asked anyone to do more than their Job. You are a Pilot and I am a Doctor, get me to where I can do my job.”

Jan just nodded and put the Bus down next to the Dancer. Before we could draw down to vacuum, the Dancer crew was out in the main Bay and by the time our door opened we were well behind on the short range comms.

Ash and Al were working like a well-oiled crew and Ash saw us. “Jan, you ought to stay up here and help us. Doc, please tell me you have a cure for this damn flu?” He kept moving till he could trip in the line-of-sight infrared’s, “Keep telling me about the flu on normal channels and listen. I am going to keep Jan up here for one reason after the other. I do not want that Young Girl going down there, I know how Andy was going in and it ain’t gonna be for a Sheep to see.”

I had learned, my voice never wavered as I told everyone that they were going to have to come to pressure to get their shots and turned to Jan. “You are going to be more help up here than down there Pilot. Hell, you might even learn something.”

I went into the elevator and stepped out into Hell. Jai had obviously blown up a bunch in Her fighting retreat, I climbed over the rubble and things changed. I was glad Ash had stopped Jan on the upper dock. I had spent the equivalent of two Earth years learning to be a Combat Medic, add that to my Shock / Trauma experience and this place read like a book.

I knew now in my bones why people were afraid of Angel and The Reaper. I could tell you fairly confidently who had gotten whom. I got to where the destruction and trail of bodies ended quite easily and it stopped suddenly. Just on the other side of the improvised barrier lay the two most dangerous men alive, floored out by a simple dammed bug! I saw Mariana hovering over them with two IV’s already going.

“What you have up?” I asked.

“D5W and Ringers Lactate and shunts in both lines if we need more!”

“Great,” I grinned. “In all the years we have been doing this, there is nothing better for first response!” I pulled two syringes and popped them into the shunts as a push. “And there is nothing better as a transport for this, they will make it. This stuff is the gift from Kara’s skills, how she found that correlation I will never know.

“Now Doc, drop those pants and bend over, you don’t have a line in you so the best way is IM in a large fleshy area.”

“Kurt, if you even act like you are enjoying this; you will find out why I am Andy’s partner!”

“All I care about is getting somebody else healthy enough to do simple sticks. I know you have BS problems but, you should still be able to do simple sticks. Pull up your pants and just set and monitor these two.

“Now LTC, your turn to drop those pants.”

Main Dock

“Bridge, Ghost; If you give it a try I think you might be able to close the doors now. Working in air is a bit nicer and easier.”

“Ash, Monroe here. Not to mention that when we get them closed I can go see what your pack of young pirates did to my ship.”

“Monroe they ain’t mine. Andy and Glen came up with this plan. BTW any luck on tracking Glen’s ship?”

“We lost it when it went deeper into the belt, what we do think is that the shield was holding when we saw it last. What Andy is not going to want to see is the data on that damaged freighter you guys left out there. Something real damn big came and retrieved it and it was fast.

“Here comes the first try on the doors, BTW the status indicators are not working.”

“Got that Larry, looks like the sensors are shot and we need to be pressurized to fix those. The doors are closing but they are a bit slow. We might have lost a couple of motors. What happened here, I thought you were going to leave the doors open?”

“We did Ash but those things just popped out shooting kinda blindly. Those damn energy weapons can do some damage.”

“Yeah Larry, tell me about it. We have full closure indication, wantta trying bringing up the pressure real slow?”

“Sure, the pressure repeaters are still working so we can monitor from here. The damage up there is totally random, OK pressure appears to be holding. Get to work on the Comm links, my crew will come finish the mechanicals.”

“Good, make sure your people see Kellerman on the way up, he has a friendly needle waiting on them. I need to rotate my people down except for Jan who’s already been stuck.”

Port Side Main Corridor

Larry Monroe had moved quickly from the Bridge to here only to be stopped by Kurt Kellerman.

“Sorry CAPT Monroe, you don’t get past here without getting your vaccination.”

Monroe stared at a man that once had been almost universally disliked. What he saw was a haggard tired figure in the Black and Silver of Strike Force with the proud symbol of a Combat Medic on his chest. “Doc, if you even look like you are enjoying this.”

At that point a wavering raspy voice came out of the corner, “Don’t worry Larry; even in this shape I am faster than he is.”

Kellerman and Monroe turned to see the figure of Andy Stuart using his hands and heels to force his back up the wall to a sitting position. “Damn,” he rasped, “I need a drink.

“Kurt get Jai and Natasi up to speed, They have a SAR mission to fly!”

Monroe stared, “Andy, we don’t even know Glen is alive!”

Andy glared at him, “Then they bring me a body. Did you think ‘No Man Left Behind’ was jingoistic Bullshit?”

Gabe Benjamin groaned and said, “Andy, you have to stop finding these parties. The hangover is getting old!”

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Colony: Alchibah is a science fiction blog novel.
Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Probably.

All Contents (written or photo/artwork) not attributed to other sources is
Copyright (C) 2006 - 2011 by Jeff Soyer. All rights reserved.