“Good, patch me through to Ashley.”
“Here she is.”
“What's going on sir? Is everyone all right?” Asked Ashley.
“The boarding crew are fine but we've found some people in need. Set course for Thadd and get us moving as fast as you can without going over safety limits. Have Silver chart the quickest route out of this territory possible. As soon as we've crossed the territorial line start broadcasting on emergency channels and contacting emergency organizations. Several thousand refugees rescued, in need of medical assistance, various races. Send our expected point of arrival to Thadd.”
“Yes sir, I'll be down to help as soon as-”
“No. You stay up there. Keep this boat together along with the entire cargo train. I don't want it falling apart on the way there.”
“Yes sir.”
One of the refugees, a nafalli with brown fur and yellow stripes, cocked her head and blinked for a long moment before opening her big dark eyes wide. “Captain Jonas?” She asked with a lovely voice that was strained to a squeak.
Jake Valance looked at her, and her eyes widened. “Captain Jonas from Zingara, Captain of the First Light!” She lurched ahead and grabbed his hand. “Please!” She shouted.
He recognized the mewling and huffing sounds she made immediately. She was crying, near hysterics. “Don't do anything!” He shouted to Stephanie, who had her stunner pointed at the nafalli who was dragging him deeper into the makeshift complex. “Ramirez, with me!”
It took him a couple seconds to react, but he followed the nafalli and his Captain, looking right at them and ignoring everything else.
“You can calm down, I'll follow you.” Captain Valance said in a calm tone as he was hauled through a maze of makeshift blanket and refuse nests, triple bunks, cloth partitions and exhausted or very ill people. The state of the place was unbelievable. They had barely any form of light, he could see emergency ration wrappers lying around and there were stands of water tanks every fifty or so meters but most of them were empty.
She stopped at a nest made of blankets, parts of a bunk, its mattress and several other things he didn't take the time to identify. Laying right in the middle of the small nest was a seven foot tall nafalli. His hair was falling out, his breathing was shallow and his dry, cracked nose was seeping blood and pus. “Captain Jonas is here Oomal, he has come to rescue us.” The nafalli said soothingly, stroking his patchy grey fur. She made a soothing purr sound and he lifted his head slightly.
The male's eyes couldn't focus on him. “Jonas, Captain,” he managed to say.
Something stirred in Jake as he stepped forward and knelt down. It was like the gears of a machine left to rust had come to life and he knew exactly what he had to do. He freed his hand from the female nafalli and set his arm command unit to perform a medical scan, extended his hand over the male and took a reading.
“Oomal is suffering from dehydration, exhaustion and has a virus. It's not contagious at the moment and I can use my materializer to make medication for him.”
Other refugees were coming to watch, most of them nafalli. Ramirez stood up, having regained his senses a bit, and quietly directed everyone with his hands. “Please stay back, he needs room.”
A couple of the furry multitude actually began to help him keep order, gently forming a barrier. One tried to break through, yelling; “Food! Give us food! Some of them have hidden it from the rest of us! We need food!”
“Ramirez, stun him if he breaks through,” Jake said as he finished programming the needed medication into his arm command unit. It began materializing it right away.
Two large nafalli grabbed the one trying to break through and dragged him off. “Be careful with him! I don't think he means any harm!” Ramirez shouted after them.
Jake started taking off his arm command unit and looked to the female who had brought him there. “Okay, I'm going to inject this,” he whispered. “It'll take a moment for it to medicate him.”
“I should have known the First Light would come,” she whispered back, putting one slender hand on his shoulder.
He shook his head. “I don't know anything about that ship, and I'm sorry I don't know you, but I will help you.” Oomal had already passed out but the medical scanner indicated the medication was starting to work.
“Don't remember me?”
Jake looked around for a moment then focused on Ramirez; “Don't repeat what I'm about to say to anyone.”
Ramirez nodded. “Yes sir.”
He looked back to the female nafalli. “I'm missing everything before the last five years, I don't know why, only that I was in a pod just like the ones in the forward compartment.”
The female's eyes went wide. “Your mate looks for you. She said you were taken by Vindyne. She misses you.”
“How long ago?”
“It must have been over seven core world years.”
Jake wanted to know more but all around him people were next to dying from dehydration, starvation and disease. His instincts lead him in a direction that was completely selfless for the first time in years. “I have other questions, but for now it's important that you take care of him. The medication will do its work and I'll inject him with nutritional necessities and an accelerator so his immune system works faster but without you I don't think he'll be happy.” He said as he knelt down low on one side and very cautiously pulled out all his meal replacement bars. There was enough there to last both of them for two days. He put them very carefully under the edge of the nest and looked down to indicate where they were to the woman.
She followed his eye line and saw what he was doing then she looked back up at him, her eyes welling up with tears. “You may have forgotten yourself, Jonas, but you are still a good man. You are very good.” When she pulled him into her arms he could feel that under all that fur, which he could see was originally white, she was nothing but skin and bones.
Triage
The medical supplies were gone in two hours. Finn joined the rest of the repair and maintenance crew that wasn't already helping in the cargo container get the only materializer on board running. It wasn't high resolution enough to make medications, but it could start converting energy into bandages, blankets, light foods and other very basic items of moderate density.
Some of the rescued slaves were essential to their success, keeping their fellow captives calm and under control as those that could walk lined up for food from the galley and ship stores. The processed nutrient packages that the crew found bland and poorly textured were a Godsend for the over four thousand survivors who were crammed into that one kilometre long cargo container.
The hull of the vessel was cold in some places. The girding and decking used to separate it into different floors were made from scrap materials. It must have taken a long time to build it regardless of the quality. Whoever was responsible had put a great deal of premeditation into it. They knew exactly what they were doing.
“Captain, we're running out of food and we haven't fed half of them.” Came the communication from Stephanie.
“We still have fourteen tons of fruit in preserve crates. Break them open.”
“Yes sir,” he could hear her smiling over his ear communicator. The nausea had overtaken him again as he went from one person to another, but he was able to control it after re-medicating himself. It was a race against time, and spared little thought for his own condition as he treated one captive after another.
Jake already drained his power cell and had to swap the one in his arm unit with the one in his sidearm. It was the only object that could materialize medications and complex items, but it wasn't made to do so constantly.
“Valance to Frost,” he verbally commanded the channel open as he treated an issyrian with an advanced lung infection.