“Nanites will eat those. You fuss like my grandma.”
I turned my head toward the voices. That hurt. It really did. Opening my eyes was worse. They felt glued shut, and I swear some of the flesh on my corneas was ripped off as I forced them open.
I saw right away it was a new med-tech-a female this time with vaguely Asian features.
“Kwon,” I said. It came out as a croaking sound.
“Hey, it’s the colonel!” Kwon said. He put a massive paw on the med-tech’s shoulder and used her as a prop to heave himself into a sitting position. Any normal woman would have been knocked down. But this girl was like everyone else on the expedition, sturdy and full of nanite enhancements. She made a squawking sound and staggered, but managed to stay on her feet.
“Kwon,” I croaked again.
He loomed near. I could see him now. He had one leg and one arm. He balanced with his one hand on the med-tech’s shoulder. She looked annoyed and alarmed. I tried not to look sick. Kwon was the only person in the medical brick that looked happy. He had a kid-like grin on his face.
“What is it, Colonel?” he asked me, as if I were a king giving him my final words.
“Get your ass back in bed,” I said.
Kwon looked disappointed. He turned with a grunt, hopped back to his rack and flopped onto it. “I’m fine,” he said. “Really.”
I laid there for a minute, watching Kwon and the med-tech. Kwon complained while the tech worked to touch up the IV lines and tape down a few flapping instrument leads that were attached to his body. I felt vaguely nauseous to see Kwon like that. We could give him prosthetics of course. Fake arms and legs made of nanites that were better than anything made in the past. But it still wouldn’t be the same. He wouldn’t have sensation in his limbs, and there would be health problems associated with missing body parts. There always were. We couldn’t regrow his original flesh. Nanites could do fantastic cellular repairs, but they had to have something to work with. They couldn’t rebuild missing limbs from scratch.
I had a sudden, upsetting thought. What kind of shape was I in?
I lifted my head and tilted my chin down to my chest. The process was slower and more painful than usual. I’d suffered a hard blow to the head and neck, that much I was sure of. But I had no idea if I was missing a foot or an arm. I licked my cracked lips, and looked down.
Right hand, left hand-check. Two of the fingers were wrapped up, but they were still in there. I could wriggle them and move them. The legs didn’t look so good, however. The right was in a cast. The left-the end of my left foot looked funny. It was exposed and bluish-purple. Maybe the med-tech had been in the middle of wrapping it up when Kwon had decided to go on a safari and distracted her. That foot looked like a cookie with a bite missing.
I eased my head back down onto the pillow. Two-thirds of a left foot remained. Three toes-the smaller three-were missing. I was already bargaining with it. Could have been worse, I told myself. I’d almost died out there.
The med-tech loomed over me. Her young face hovered like a moon. “I’m Ning. How are you doing, Colonel?”
“Just peachy, Ning,” I said, faking a smile.
“You’ve lost a lot of-everything. But you’ll live.”
“Did you cut off anything other than the foot?”
Ning winced and glanced down toward my missing foot. “You’ve been peeking,” she said. “Only the foot is gone.”
“What’s your name mean?” I asked her.
She looked surprised. “I think it means ‘tranquility’,” she said. “Why do you ask?”
“I don’t know. Good name for a nurse, I suppose. What happened to the rest of my foot?”
“There was a puncture in your suit.”
“Ah yes,” I said, remembering the Macro that had done the deed.
“The foot was frozen, and there was other damage. We had to take off that piece. Your legs are both broken as well, but they are healing very fast.”
“Nanites are wonderful things when you are hurting,” I said, feeling the familiar itch and tingle in my legs. “All the Macros were kicked off the ship, I assume?”
Kwon crinkled his sheet as he heaved himself up and leaned toward me. “We killed the last ones that survived the blast,” he said. “What you did was killer, sir! I’ve never seen something like that!”
I chuckled. “I barely remember it.”
“We’ve all watched it like twenty times.”
“Watched it?”
“Your suit recorder caught it all, right out of your faceplate. The cruiser looked really cool when it swallowed you. We should watch it again. Hey Ning! Put the vid up on the ceiling screen again.”
“Uh,” I said, putting up my hand, “I’ll check it out later, Kwon, if you don’t mind.” I had no desire at all to relive my near-death experience.
Kwon huffed in disappointment. “Well,” he said. “It was cool.”
I glanced over at him. His command of English had grown since he’d joined up with Star Force. He still had an accent, but now he sounded like most of my marine recruits: young and exuberant.
I had a sudden thought then, an alarming thought. “How long have I been out?”
“About fourteen hours,” Ning said. “You were in bad shape, Colonel. Really it was-hold on sir, you need to stay in bed.”
I didn’t use her as a prop, but I did heave myself out of bed. It hurt badly and my head swam. I reached for leads and needles and began plucking them off my skin.
“Sir, you really need to listen,” Ning said. Her small hands pressed against me, but I ignored them.
“I’m sorry, but I’m pulling rank here. I’ve got to get back to the bridge.”
“You tell her Colonel,” Kwon said. “Don’t let Ning boss you.”
Lieutenant Joelle Marquis showed up then, while I struggled to shoo away Ning and get out of bed. Marquis began fussing over Kwon. Her blonde curly hair hung limply around her face and she wore an expression of sick worry. I was glad Kwon at least had someone who really cared about him. Those two had seen each other through a lot of trials in a short amount of time.
I pulled on my battle suit, noting the scarred surface. The nanites had been working on it, but it still had plenty of pits and divots. I stopped at Sandra’s brick on the way to the bridge. I felt a pang of fresh pain, seeing her still in there. I turned to Ning who had followed me. “What happened to the other med-tech? The guy who used to run this place?”
Ning pressed her lips together, forming a tiny line with her mouth. She gestured toward another medical coffin. Inside was a turnip that I recognized: a corpsman named Carlson. I didn’t know whether I should laugh or cry.
“How’d that happen?” I asked Ning.
“He stayed with the turnips,” she said with a shrug. “The Macros caught him and tore him up, but they left the rest here for dead.”
I looked at Sandra next, and found her condition unchanged. I wasn’t sure if I felt good or bad about that. Seeing her in there made me want to keep moving, however. While I was still breathing, she had a chance. They all did.
I walked slowly out of the brick’s airlock. As the hatch closed behind me, I could still hear Ning complaining. Medical people always hated it when their patients walked out on them.
On the bridge, I found things were under control-barely. The enemy cruiser had maintained its distance and had not fired additional missiles. The drones we’d fired at the last missiles chasing us had taken them out. In short, we were under no immediate threat, but we’d suffered a lot of damage and a fair number of casualties.
“We’re still not able to maneuver freely,” Major Sarin told me as I reviewed the situation through bleary eyes. “When you took out the nose of the ship, you damaged our steering jets.”
I ordered a steady stream of coffee, sandwiches and a hot towel. I figured I needed a shower, but it could wait until after the briefing. “All right,” I said after the reports had all been made. “Now, give me the bad news.
