The medic’s hands moved rapidly over Trexler’s body. “Got any hurts, sir?”
“No, none at all.”
“That’s what I was afraid of. I need to check you over, sir.”
Trexler smiled. “Don’t want to make the admiral strip, huh?”
“Sorry, sir. You can do it, or I’ll do it for you. Just lower your pants so I can check your legs. Don’t try to take them off. That shoe won’t come off easily.” Trexler stood up and dropped his pants, what was left of them. Dust filled the air as he lowered the pants. The medic sprayed his legs, then Trexler pulled his pants back up and removed his shirt. More spraying, then the shirt went back on.
“Sit, sir.” The cut on his chin was quickly cleaned, pulled together with band-aids, then dressed. Scissors came out, and the shoe and sock were cut away. “Any pain, sir?”
“A little. It’s mostly numb.”
“Numb is better than no feeling at all.” He pulled a syringe from his kit and pulled off the cap.
“What’s that, Sergeant?”
“Morphine, sir. I’ll follow it up with a general antibiotic. It’ll hold you until you get to sick bay.”
“No. I’ll take the antibiotic, but not the morphine. I have a lot of work ahead of me yet, and lots of lives are in the balance.”
The medic stared at him, then gently dislodged the fragment. “Still no pain, sir?”
“Uh, more now.”
The magnifying glass was back in the medic’s hand. He leaned close to examine the foot, then looked back up into Trexler’s eyes. “You’re going to feel it a lot more in a little while, sir. Three toes are crushed, and there are some loose bone fragments.”
“How about pulling out the fragments and wrapping it up?”
“If we were on Earth, I would, but these Empire docs might want all the parts to put it back together properly. This could never be properly repaired at home, but it might here. Let’s wrap it up and let them decide.”
He peered hard into Trexler’s eyes as his hands did their work. “Sir, make sick bay your first stop when you reach the fleet. You don’t want to be making life and death decisions without some kind of pain reducer. Trust me on this. I know what I’m talking about.”
“I’ll take your advice, Sergeant, and I appreciate your bluntness.”
“Rank has no bearing in medicine, sir. I treat everyone equally.” In almost no time at all, he wrapped a thick white bandage around the foot, then another olive drab bandage on top of that. “Keep the foot elevated, sir.”
He moved on to Lieutenant Stevens. Trexler tried to check on Waverly, but he couldn’t see anything through the press of bodies.
“Who’s in charge here?” he called out.
A captain came to his side and crouched down. “How you doing, soldier?”
“I need to get back to my squadron. I’m Admiral Trexler. Can you get me up to the frigate?”
“It’s gone. You’re an admiral? What the heck are you doing here?”
“It wasn’t by choice, I assure you. Can I borrow your radio?”
“No need, sir. We’re evacuating Colonel Waverly to a cruiser. You can go with him.”
“How is he?”
“Still unconscious. No major wounds, but a pretty good gash on the back of his head. Can you walk?”
Trexler accepted a hand and got to his feet. A stretcher with Waverly was already moving toward the stairs. The captain pulled one of Trexler’s arms over his shoulder and motioned ahead. Trexler tried to lift the man’s hand away. “I can walk, Captain. I’m really okay.”
“Yes, sir. I’m just thinking of the stairs. We don’t let admirals fall down the stairs in this command.”
The lobby was in shambles, and they had to carefully work their way around debris. A fighter was touching down when they emerged into the open. The sun was just setting, and it was deathly quiet. An explosion sounded from above, and Trexler looked up to see streamers shooting out from a fireball high in the sky. He didn’t know whose ship it was.
Walters and Stevens came up beside him, Stevens on a stretcher. He seemed perfectly fine to Trexler. “You going with us?” he asked, surprised.
“I guess so, sir. Seems ridiculous to me, but they tell us we’re out of the action, so we might as well go with you. We’ll end up there sooner or later anyway. I feel fine, but I guess the fragment got an artery. It was kind of a mess when they untied my leg. Walters has a lot of fragments to be removed.”
He looked at Walters. “I don’t think you’ll need that assault weapon where you’re going, Sergeant.”
“It’s not mine, sir. It’s yours. I thought you might want it.”
A grin instantly lit Trexler’s face, and he reached for the weapon. “Thanks, Walters.” Then the grin was replaced with a look of horror. “Seeton!” he yelled. He pulled away from the captain and headed back for the building.
“Hold it, sir. What’s the problem?”
“The Sector Commander! He’s in a room on the second level. If he’s still alive, he has to go with us.”
The captain spoke into his microphone, then headed Trexler back to the fighter. “Anyone else we should bring, sir?”
Trexler considered. “No. They’ll have a mess on their hands when this is over. We’d better leave someone here to pick up the pieces.”
His mind turned to space, but he felt confused for a moment. It was almost a wrenching feeling to put the ground battle behind him and shift gears to the coming battle in space. What was going on out there? To Waverly’s captain, he said “Tell whoever’s in charge here that I’m going to need gunners for my ships again.”
“How many? We’re pretty well established here. We can probably break some away right now.”
“No, your job is critical, and I don’t want to slow you down. I’ll get transportation arranged, but it will likely be a few days. I might need all of you. Someone will get back to you.”
He went to the bridge of the fighter and took the first vacant seat he came to, planning to study the situation among the fleet, but moments after sitting down, he was fast asleep. The fighter made the short hop to the port, took more stretchers aboard, and headed up into space.
Chapter Twenty-five
Seeton woke him up. It took him a moment to get his bearings. “We’re here, Ray,” he heard as if from far away.
“Where’s here?” he asked, still shaking himself awake. His foot hurt, a lot.
“Your flagship.”
“Okay.”
Seeton helped him to his feet and to the ramp of the fighter. A small personal transport waited outside on the deck of hangar bay.
The fighter’s captain ran down the ramp, catching them before they left. “You forgot something, sir.” He handed Trexler his assault rifle, and the transport set off.
Seeton gave him a strange look. “I have a lot of catching up to do.”
“I think you can consider the planet yours again, sir. Our focus will be outward now.”
Seeton nodded. “I have the feeling I’ll be calling you sir before we’re done.”
“Look, we really didn’t have much chance to get to know each other.” Trexler stuck out his hand. “Ray Trexler.”
Seeton took the hand in both of his own and shook. “Harry Seeton. You’re pretty beat up, Ray, and what’s with all the dust? You’re coated in it.”
“It’s whatever your building was made of. You won’t be using your headquarters for a while, but your guys are okay, as far as I know. The Chessori never got in. The medic said this foot was going to be a distraction, and he’s right. I’m definitely going to have to do something about it. How are you?”
“The scree is much worse than I ever imagined. Thankfully, you’ll never know.”
