War Stories (Book 1) - Keith R.A. DeCandido [8]
“And then all of a sudden, the red alert went off, and we all started to go to battle stations, and Jenson—I don’t know why I remember this part particularly—but Jenson said to Halprin, Wilhoite, and Soriano, ‘We’d better get a move on.’ And then—”
“Wait a minute,” Lense said, stunned at this revelation. Those were the other three medtechs. Now that she had a moment to think about it, none of them should have been on deck twelve. Jenson was supposed to be down in engineering, with Wilhoite on deck twenty, Halprin on deck eight, and Soriano on deck two. “They were all together?”
“Yes, sir. Along with me and … and Ensign Hasegawa. We were all going to report to our duty stations, when … when the bulkhead ripped off.”
Lense recalled Wan’s damage report. Hull breach on deck twelve.
The ensign shook his head. “Soriano, Wilhoite, and Halprin were blown out into space, sir, along with Hasegawa. A piece of shrapnel tore through Jenson’s chest before the force field kicked in. I don’t know how I managed to make it through without a scratch.” The ensign smiled, but like Captain Anderson’s, it didn’t reach the rest of his face. “I guess I’m lucky, huh?” he asked, not sounding like he felt in the least bit lucky.
“Go to your duty station, Ensign. I get the feeling they’re going to need you, wherever that is.”
“Mithra to sickbay—we’ve got wounded down here. Where the hell are your people?”
Lieutenant Commander Rachel Mithra was the chief engineer. “They’re all dead or incapacitated, Commander.” Think, think, think. “ Are transporters still operational?”
“What difference does that make? Shields are up.”
“Think inside the box, Commander—we can beam intraship with shields up, yes?”
“What? Oh, yeah, of course we can. Sorry, Doctor, it’s a little—”
“Save it. Feed the coordinates of your wounded to the transporter room and beam them directly in here.”
For the next hour, the Lexington sickbay was unusually quiet. The EMH performed its surgical procedures with a minimum of fuss, a maximum of competence, and a healthy dose of smugness, but with no support staff, neither it nor Lense had anyone to talk to but each other, and Lense deliberately kept that interaction to a minimum. The only constant noise was that of the transporter as it beamed in the latest casualties, punctuated by the occasional scream of pain.
The smell of blood got worse. Lense would have thought she’d get used to it.
It took a brief lull to realize that there were no other casualties being beamed in. She was about to contact the bridge for an update, when Commander Galloway came stumbling in, carrying another crew member—in, Lense noted, a proper carry. She quickly took stock of the wounds on Galloway’s head and torso.
“I’m fine, but Fornnel here needs help.”
Galloway gently lay the officer down on a biobed. With a start, Lense realized it was the same Bolian whose youth she’d been lamenting back on the bridge. Blue blood coated his entire right arm.
“We need to talk,” Galloway said seriously after setting him down.
Lense called the EMH over and had it work on Fornnel, then regarded Galloway with an expectant look.
“Transporters are down. That was a very clever idea of yours, but the Jem’Hadar have made it impossible. The bridge has been compromised—Captain’s setting up in the auxiliary bridge with Wan.”
As Galloway spoke, she was clutching the right side of her belly with her right hand. The blood that covered that hand was red, so it definitely didn’t belong to Fornnel.
“Tell me the rest while I examine you.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said, backing out of sickbay. “I saw about ten other wounded people on the way here—without the transporters, we’ll never get them here. They’re worse off than me. Be right back.”
Before Lense could say anything else, she left.
Lense was just starting to debate the efficacy of going after her, when she heard a wheezing noise. Antonacci, one of the engineers, was going into shock. “Dammit!”
More hours passed. She stabilized Antonacci, and she and the EMH dealt with the casualties as Galloway and others brought them