She smiled wanly at him through her transparent face plate as he knelt down beside her. 'My math checking out?'
'Sure did. The meds taking care of you?'
'Real good. Can't feel anything below the shoulders. Everyone else okay?'
'They'll be all right. Larry should be up once the nanos have fixed him up.'
'Good, I could use his brain.'
'Panloo is on her way. She'll be taking the shift.'
'Thanks Oz, I thought I'd have to finish mine on the floor.'
He couldn't believe her bravery. Ashley was in tears at the sight of someone else in pain, but with the lower half of her body twisted and broken she only needed someone to talk to or something to do.
'Oz, Iloona is coming to treat Ash personally. One minute out,' Jason informed him.
'Thanks J, I'll tell her.' He looked to Ashley. 'Med team's on the way.'
'I'm not going to be okay, am I?' she asked quietly.
Oz looked at her hand before he put his atop it, making sure he wasn't worsening a broken limb. 'Check your fitness icon, just glance at it and it'll pop up.'
She stared at him for a moment, her fear plain for the first time since he knelt down.
'Go on,' he encouraged.
He watched her glance at the icon in her peripheral and saw the medical screen populate her transparent visor. Her eyes widened.
'There are a few problems but it's all in the yellow.'
'I'm screwed,' she said quietly. It would look bad to someone who wasn’t medically trained. There were a lot of breaks and recently repaired organs, but she was stable.
Oz squeezed her hand and shook his head. 'Look at me. The nanos were able to fix the internal bleeding and once you've been straightened out Iloona will be able to mend your legs and hips. She'll put you out while she does it so you'll wake up as fit as ever.'
'I was just sitting at my console then I rag dolled in my chair and slipped over the console like a wet noodle. Nothing's ever hurt like that. How's she going to fix it all?'
'You'll be fine. If you were screwed there would be red marks on your fitness reading.'
'None of those,' she sniffed. 'I knew I should have taken a medical qualifier.'
'We'll take it together when we get clear of this. It's been a while since I've done one.'
'Think we'll ever get clear of trouble?” she asked. “I mean, it's been one thing after another.'
'Just some bad luck. We'll patch up and find clear skies somewhere.'
'A beach. Find me a beach, Mister Wizard,' Ashley chuckled. A tear escaped the corner of her eye. 'And tell Iloona I want to look good in a bikini.'
Oz couldn't help but chuckle. 'Done and done.' Damage reports were coming in, his visor was active with scrolling the summaries. Two reactors were down; bulkheads were sealed where previously damaged sections of the ship were reopened by the trauma.
Iloona arrived in a careful rush with two medics behind her. They carried a stretcher equipped for emergency stasis. 'Hello Ashley. Looks like you'll be spending your next few shifts in medical.'
'Yay, hooky,' Ashley managed. She sounded tired, a side effect of one of the emergency anaesthetics.
'Do you feel any pain?' Iloona asked as she gently touched Ashley's reversed ankle.
Oz knew that if the anaesthetic wasn't working as well as it should have, Ashley would be screaming. Instead she sighed and replied; 'nope, all doped up. Feeling better all the time.'
'Okay, good. What I'd like you to do is keep your eyes on the Commander while we get you onto the stretcher. Ignore everything but him, okay?'
'Okie dokie.'
The responder team placed a pole on either side of Ashley and Iloona pressed a button on one. A grey material flowed from the poles and slipped under her, joining seamlessly in the centre and solidifying to form the bed of a stretcher. It solidified and Iloona carefully adjusted Ashley's legs so they were both squarely in the centre.
'Bikini's and beaches, I'll make it happen Ash,' Oz told her.
'And drinks with umbrellas. Make sure Ronen’s there too,' she added drowsily.
Iloona and the responders brought the stretcher's restraint blanket up and over her and sealed it to the sides so their patient wouldn't roll off. 'My, the system's drugged you up good, hasn't it?' Iloona smiled at Ashley. Her thin lips stretched back and upward along her narrow snout, exaggerating the expression.
'Uh huh. Oh hi Panloo. Taking over?' She asked as she noticed the nafalli night shift pilot take her station at the helm.
She was wide eyed, trying not to stare at Ashley's awkwardly bent legs. 'Yes, I, um-'
'The course and sequence are already set, all you have to do is make sure the ship is doing what it’s supposed to then pilot us into the nebula.'
'I see that, you've done well.' She smiled, glancing at the bent metal edge of the console. It was crushed in a few millimetres, the only sign of Ashley's body breaking against it before she sailed over top and struck the forward wall.
'I'll see you in medical soon Ash,' Oz smiled at her.
'See you soon!' she called back cheerily.
'We'll have her straightened up and recovered in about two days, Commander.' Iloona told him as she followed the medical responders and the stretcher closely.
'Thank you Doc.'
'Two days? But I'm going to the beach,' Ashley muttered.
Oz moved to help Larry to his feet. 'You're off duty, everything feel okay?'
'Fine. Suit says I had a concussion and hairline fracture across my forehead, fixed me up before waking me up.'
'I know, it was the first thing I checked on.'
'Nice to know I'm in good hands,' he whispered. 'We in trouble Commander?'
'Tons. Now go look after your pilot.'
'Yes sir,'
Oz could feel Jason's eyes on him as he returned to the Command seat. 'What?'
'Oh, nothing. Just picking up one of those vibes.'
'Ignore it.'
'Yes sir.'
'How hard will it be for them to find us in that nebula?'
'If we power down during repairs and cling to one of the hotter asteroids, we'll be undetectable. I'm wishing Ashley were at the helm for that though, landing on the back edge of a drifting mass isn't exactly a walk in the park.'
'Do we have the shields to make it through the tails Laura?' Oz asked.
'Our aft shields are worse than ever, but I don't think we're going in ass end first, so they are.'
'What about repairs, Chief?'
'In dry dock it could happen in a few days. Out here? We can patch, place temporary shield emitters in a few hours, but anything else is on the scale of months,' answered Liam Grady over his comm. unit.
'What about installing the main thrusters we have sitting in storage?'
'I'll have to survey the damage outside, make sure the prep work is still good. If it is, then maybe. No guarantees.'
'All right, get on it. We'll need the speed if we want to get out of this.' Oz set his command and control unit to privacy mode and entered a message to the flight control deck that said; Have the hangar prepare three Muriel fighters with wormhole generators installed. Arm all our fighters with fusion rounds. Keep it quiet.
Chief Vercelli looked up through the semi-transparent deck to Oz after reading it and nodded. Is it that bad? Came his coded response.
Oz nodded. It was the only appropriate answer.
'What's going on Oz?' Jason whispered.
