“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. What’s that Macro cruiser up to? How long until we hit the next ring?”
Major Sarin glanced at Gorski, who cleared his throat. “You sure you want to hear that now, Colonel?”
I looked at both of them. “I’m not going to lie quietly down somewhere while you two run the show. It’s not happening.”
Gorski sighed. “Okay. We are having trouble steering, sir. We are on course for the ring again, but it will take another day to get there, as we went off course during the battle.”
I nodded and sipped hot coffee. I burnt my tongue and curled my lips at the foul taste.
“As for the enemy cruiser-we’re not sure what it is up to. I thought it would have fired all its missiles by now and taken us out. But it hasn’t. We were out of drones, it was at close range, and it didn’t fire. I understood why when the Macro boarding action was in progress. That made sense. But now they are just waiting, shadowing us.”
I thought about it. “Plenty of reasons are possible.” I said. “They could be out of missiles.”
Gorski shook his head. “Seems unlikely. The other ships fired eight each. Why would this cruiser have none?”
“Maybe they are studying us,” I suggested, “relaying back intel on our behavior before they take us out.”
“Maybe. But the Macros are rarely subtle.”
I had to agree with that. They were the sledgehammers of the galaxy. I snapped my fingers, and was irritated to find that even such a simple gesture caused me a sharp pang. Every inch of my body hurt, itched, or both. “Last time they delayed, they were setting up for these invasion missiles. Maybe they are setting up four more of them.”
Everyone in earshot looked alarmed at this idea. If I was right, we had no way of stopping them. The nose of the ship was a wide-open hole. They would be able to march right in like ants.
“I don’t know,” Gorski said. “It just doesn’t sound like their style. If they had eight missiles full of Macros, I think they would have fired them all at us.”
I agreed. “Whatever they are up to, it won’t be good for us,” I said. “They are waiting for a reason. Somehow it benefits them.”
The rest agreed, but there was little we could do about it. I headed over to where my brainbox pilot worked the cruiser controls with seven arms. Only three were in evidence now, as the ship wasn’t performing any complex maneuvers. Major Welter stood there, watching the machine operate. He had a computer tablet in his hands and tapped at it, making observations and taking notes.
“Welter?” I asked. “Glad to see you survived the battle.”
“Not as glad as I am, sssir,” he said, his speech badly slurred.
Major Welter turned toward me and I blinked, my smile freezing on my face. The left side of his face was a slag of hanging flesh. The eye was loose and weeping. The jaw was hinged, but not completely covered by his ripped-loose cheek. It flapped over his teeth as he spoke. Nanites glinted a silver-golden color in there. They were hard at work rebuilding his face, but I suspected he would carry a scar with him forever.
I turned back to the control system and the brainbox operating it. “I see you are studying the interface.”
Welter nodded with his ghoulishly damaged face. It didn’t seem to be troubling him at the moment, so I decided not to bring it up. Injuries were viewed differently now that we could take horrible wounds and survive. They were less remarked upon by all.
“I’ve been ssstudying this sssystem. I really think I can do it, Colonel.”
“Do what?”
“Fly it. Pilot this cruiser.”
I stared at him. “You’ve only got two hands, man.”
“Yes. But if you watch, the brainbox doesn’t move all those hands at once very often. I would need a copilot for difficult maneuvers. But I can do it.”