finishing a cup of tea and making his way back to the flight deck through
the pressed throng when he heard a shout from the main cargo area. He quickly
walked back to see what was happening.
‘Boss, the Jade CO is
arresting!’ he announced through his comms unit.
‘Jan, get back there!’
Everyone pushed themselves up
against the walls as Jan rushed back towards the cargo area, briefly detouring
to grab a large medical briefcase. She knelt down beside the dying woman,
placed the briefcase on the deck and slapped the top of it as Demetre Garland
arrived and took over from the commander administering CPR. Jan’s unit opened
and unfolded to present a compact field surgeon’s unit. She grabbed a
diagnostic tool from the unit and attached it to the woman’s arm. Seconds later
the readout started to provide information.
‘Cardiac arrest. OK, sir. Slap
the mask on her.’
Demetre reached across, picked
out the slim mask from the case and placed it across the CO’s face. It folded
out, grasping her face, taking over her breathing for her.
He reached back into the case and
took out a band of metal as Jan overrode the seals in the CO’s suit, exposing
her chest. Demetre placed the band down on her skin. It also folded out,
conforming to her chest, and slid probes down into her heart to supply direct
stimulus to it.
‘OK. We have good heart.’
‘Yeah, but I am showing a massive
stroke occurring.’
‘Shit! Through the shunt?’
‘Might be too big for that.’
‘Show me, Jan. Right. I need my
faceplate; I’ll actually see what’s going on then. OK. We use the neck shunt. I’ll
set up the machine. If that doesn’t work we’ll have to use the heart one as
well.’
Jan lifted another small piece of
equipment from the case, locked it onto the faceplate, plugged a jack from the
scanner to the faceplate, and activated the screen. The micro-surgical tool
unfolded with a portion rolling out and locking onto the shunt in the CO’s
neck, sliding a cluster of fine probes into her carotid artery and then reached
deep up into her brain, first seeking out the clots then dissolving them and
ejecting the resulting bloody mess onto a towel that Jan had placed under the
unit.
‘Good. She is stabilising, sir.
The scanner shows blood supply reaching past the blockage site. Heart OK, but
still needs assistance. I wonder why her suit didn’t do this for her?’
‘Not sure about that, Jan. Some
nasty shit going down today. Perhaps just overwhelmed, considering her
injuries. I would recommend emergency medivac. Admiral, I’ll need your OK on
this.’
Admiral Riddell, the commander of
the fleet whose flagship had been Jade, looked down at his unconscious
friend of many years.
‘Sorry, son. Not today. I’m sure
you can keep her alive until we get on shore. If I were fleet that is what I
would expect. Just too much happening to justify a one-person Orbital medivac.
Just keep her alive, OK?’
‘I’ll go forwards and see if I
can encourage the boss to go a little faster,’ Marko said.
‘Thanks. Staff, nice work.’
Jan nodded down at the captain
and to the admiral, who smiled wanly at her and returned the nod.
‘Boss, the CO of Jade is
OK but we need to get her to base as soon as possible,’ Marko informed the
captain.
‘OK. Can we wring a few more
knots out of this bus?’
‘Yeah, but only a couple above
where we’re at right now.’ Marko checked his readouts. ‘We are borderline fuel
use. Could go down and scoop up some seawater if you want. Looking at the
intake specs we could do it at one hundred twenty kilometres per hour and we
would only need six seconds of actual surface contact. It would be a dirty
cracking with all the salt but nothing that a hellish good cleaning afterwards
couldn’t fix. That way you could go as fast as you like. Yeah — just number
crunched, we would save twenty minutes’ flight
the pressed throng when he heard a shout from the main cargo area. He quickly
walked back to see what was happening.
‘Boss, the Jade CO is
arresting!’ he announced through his comms unit.
‘Jan, get back there!’
Everyone pushed themselves up
against the walls as Jan rushed back towards the cargo area, briefly detouring
to grab a large medical briefcase. She knelt down beside the dying woman,
placed the briefcase on the deck and slapped the top of it as Demetre Garland
arrived and took over from the commander administering CPR. Jan’s unit opened
and unfolded to present a compact field surgeon’s unit. She grabbed a
diagnostic tool from the unit and attached it to the woman’s arm. Seconds later
the readout started to provide information.
‘Cardiac arrest. OK, sir. Slap
the mask on her.’
Demetre reached across, picked
out the slim mask from the case and placed it across the CO’s face. It folded
out, grasping her face, taking over her breathing for her.
He reached back into the case and
took out a band of metal as Jan overrode the seals in the CO’s suit, exposing
her chest. Demetre placed the band down on her skin. It also folded out,
conforming to her chest, and slid probes down into her heart to supply direct
stimulus to it.
‘OK. We have good heart.’
‘Yeah, but I am showing a massive
stroke occurring.’
‘Shit! Through the shunt?’
‘Might be too big for that.’
‘Show me, Jan. Right. I need my
faceplate; I’ll actually see what’s going on then. OK. We use the neck shunt. I’ll
set up the machine. If that doesn’t work we’ll have to use the heart one as
well.’
Jan lifted another small piece of
equipment from the case, locked it onto the faceplate, plugged a jack from the
scanner to the faceplate, and activated the screen. The micro-surgical tool
unfolded with a portion rolling out and locking onto the shunt in the CO’s
neck, sliding a cluster of fine probes into her carotid artery and then reached
deep up into her brain, first seeking out the clots then dissolving them and
ejecting the resulting bloody mess onto a towel that Jan had placed under the
unit.
‘Good. She is stabilising, sir.
The scanner shows blood supply reaching past the blockage site. Heart OK, but
still needs assistance. I wonder why her suit didn’t do this for her?’
‘Not sure about that, Jan. Some
nasty shit going down today. Perhaps just overwhelmed, considering her
injuries. I would recommend emergency medivac. Admiral, I’ll need your OK on
this.’
Admiral Riddell, the commander of
the fleet whose flagship had been Jade, looked down at his unconscious
friend of many years.
‘Sorry, son. Not today. I’m sure
you can keep her alive until we get on shore. If I were fleet that is what I
would expect. Just too much happening to justify a one-person Orbital medivac.
Just keep her alive, OK?’
‘I’ll go forwards and see if I
can encourage the boss to go a little faster,’ Marko said.
‘Thanks. Staff, nice work.’
Jan nodded down at the captain
and to the admiral, who smiled wanly at her and returned the nod.
‘Boss, the CO of Jade is
OK but we need to get her to base as soon as possible,’ Marko informed the
captain.
‘OK. Can we wring a few more
knots out of this bus?’
‘Yeah, but only a couple above
where we’re at right now.’ Marko checked his readouts. ‘We are borderline fuel
use. Could go down and scoop up some seawater if you want. Looking at the
intake specs we could do it at one hundred twenty kilometres per hour and we
would only need six seconds of actual surface contact. It would be a dirty
cracking with all the salt but nothing that a hellish good cleaning afterwards
couldn’t fix. That way you could go as fast as you like. Yeah — just number
crunched, we would save twenty minutes’ flight
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