“On our shuttle, but two more patients went critical after they left.” Dr. Taylor stepped away from one of the beds. “Thank you for responding so quickly.”
“Looks like you were lucky to be close to the station.” The medic went to Taylor, extending his hand. “Hendrix, Dr. Taylor. Want to show me your worst and we’ll see what we can do?”
“Absolutely.” She took the medic to the stasis tubes, but warned him off them. Disturbing their lowered metabolic rates could kill them. Any medic knew as much. Anyone living in space knew that rule. She led him to the back, to the real patients.
To Jayda he seemed appropriately attentive, looking at the wounds and asking questions. He’d need to know what each patient needed. Breeze came to stand next to Snead, watching the medics work.
“I agree with Hendrix. You were lucky this happened here, not out in the cold.”
Breeze gave a realistic shudder to Snead’s comment. “True enough. Dr. Maldonado and Nick were right on top of us, giving us refuge, giving us access to their robots to try stabilizing my ship.”
She leaned around to give Jayda an awkward smile. “Still apologizing for the damage. We weren’t as graceful with tugging the ship back to the station as they are and had a little accident.”
“Told you. No harm done.” Jayda snipped back. “Can we get on with this? I have an experiment running in the lab.”
The medic looked up from the patient he was examining, easing the bandage back into place. “Just a moment.” He removed his gloves, rolling them into each other, then into his pocket. “Is this everyone?”
Taylor glanced at Breeze and sighed. “A few more walking wounded, but I’ve ordered them to a sedated bed-rest so they’ll be healed up sufficiently when the evac ship arrives.” She gestured to Jayda. “Dr. Maldonado’s been helping with the wounded, but it’s still exhausting. I’m sure she’d appreciate a few less of us.”
Hendrix gave a squinty smile. “Well, let’s see if we can… accommodate you.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Hendrix nodded to the stasis tubes. “We’ll get them aboard and move to the more serious patients. If you’d like to help Dr. Taylor prepare them?”
Jayda nodded, but her eyes were on his hand. He was rubbing his fingers together. He must have gotten some of the ointment on them, or he had his own nervous habit. His smile felt fake. Then there was Snead, who seemed unable to steady himself, nudging up against her repeatedly.
“Sure! I can do that.” Anything to get away from the creepy ghost. She half-expected to feel his hand on her ass any minute. “Capt. Breeze, if you’ll escort them back to the docking bay.”
“Yes, ma’am.” She tapped her comm. “Lewis, are you in the middle of something right now?”
He answered after a moment, his voice muffled. “I am, Captain. Sealed up in docking bay 2 fixing the dent we made.”
“Oh, that’s right!” Breeze smiled innocently at Snead, taking a step away. Maybe because he kept rubbing up against her too. “Forgot I had you on that. Proceed.” She glanced over her shoulder at Jayda. “Your guy’s monitoring the Dolan for fluctuations, so that leaves just me to help with the move.”
One of our walking wounded stirred, the one Jayda dabbed with the ointment. “Cap, I’m sure I can help out.” He acted like he was going to get up.
“NO! You already strained yourself this morning.” Taylor was there to put a hand on his ‘unwounded’ shoulder. “I ordered down time and I mean it.”
“That’s all right!” Snead and his pasty white face stepped away from me. “We got enough crew.”
Hendrix joined Snead. “And I’ll make sure I have space cleared for them.”
“The sooner the better.” Again Jayda let the snippiness slip out, intentionally.
“Yes, ma’am!” Breeze said as sharp. Anyone listening would think there was tension between these two women. Probably helped that there was.
Taylor resisted a smile as Breeze led the men out of the med lab. Jayda peeked over her shoulder. “Are they for real?”
“He knew his medicine.” Taylor whispered.
“I don’t know. I still got a nasty feeling.”
“Yeah, that medic gave me one too, right there at the end.” The fake patient chimed in, nodding at Taylor, then to Jayda. “Didn’t like how he said he’d ‘accommodate’ you.”
“Yeah, I picked that up too!” The other fake patient rose up on his elbows. “If I was a girl and someone grinned at me that way, I’d want to be armed.”
“Could just have been bad manners.” Jayda shook her head. “Let’s keep to the plan. Tubes first.”
“Agreed!” A voice came through the earpiece on Jayda’s comm. “They’re at the docking bay and leaving the ship.”
Taylor went over to the tubes, giving several taps to warn the men inside they were about to be transferred. She got the same rhythm taps back.
If this was legit, they’d be moved and immediately plugged into a power supply, per protocol, to preserve the long-term batteries for a real emergency. If not plugged in, they’d proceed with their secondary plan, exiting the tubes and standing by for trouble.
Jayda moved to the back of the room, to the real patients. “How are you doing? Do you think you’ll be able to do this if it goes wrong?”
A young woman who looked fresh out of school patted the side of her bed. She pulled off her oxygen-pak. “We ran through it a few times. Dolan Co makes sure we’re trained in piracy before we come out.”
If not for the nods from older patients, Jayda would think she was over-confident. “Right, then be ready.”
Nick distracted her. “Six men just entered through the portal. Breeze bringing them your way.”
“Acknowledged.” She returned to the stasis tubes. In just another minute Breeze led the GR crewmen into the med lab. They paused, looking at all the patients staring back at them. One of the men in the back got fidgety.
Taylor stood between the stasis tubes. “Your medic Hendrix wants to start
