Read Online Sky Hunter by Chris Reher - Free Book Online

crowded section near the back. It was out of
sight from the main entrance and darker. She finally spotted Reko,
barely conscious on a thin mattress that was too short for his
gangly Centauri frame. Someone had stripped him of his uniform
jacket and covered him with a dusty blanket.
    “ Tomos,” she whispered, crouching
beside him. “You in there?”
    He blinked up at her and tried a lopsided
grin. “Yeah. What is this place? Evac?”
    “ No. Med station. Patrolled by rebels
to make sure their people get treated first. Looks like mostly
Bellacs working here.” She tried not to wince when she lifted the
thick pad of dressing from his side. “You’re missing a chunk of
meat there,” she said. “I’ll try to find a scanner to get a better
look.”
    “ You do that, Lieut—” he frowned,
reminding himself they were among rebels. “Nova.”
    She looked up when someone knelt beside her.
It was the Human who was apparently responsible for her upon pain
of death. He replaced the bandages on Reko. “We have one scanner
here, and it’s not a good one. But the doctor said this is just a
bad bleeder. We need to get that stitched up.”
    “ Stitched?” Nova said. “That’ll need a
graft. You have no equipment here at all?”
    “ Not a lot. Your friend here didn’t
rate highly in triage.” Nova realized that he was younger than he
first appeared. Unlike herself, whose skin was exposed to the sun
only on the occasional ground mission, he was deeply tanned and his
light hair seemed bleached by weather. His body was dense and
powerful, like that of someone used to working outdoors. He smiled
wistfully. “I suppose that’s a good sign.”
    “ They gave me a shot of the good
stuff,” Reko said. “Not feeling much pain now.” He nudged her arm.
“You have to get out of here, Nova. Get back to the base and get
some help.”
    “ I’m not leaving you, Sergeant. Bet on
that.”
    The medic gave a snort of derision. “There is
no way in or out of here without sacrificing more civilians,
anyway. You know that and they know that. You’ll have to be our
guests for the next little while.”
    “ This has got to blow over soon,” Nova
said.
    “ Not until your people get some backup,
I’m guessing.” He shrugged. “Seems that your elevator is more
important that a few townsfolk.”
    “ They attacked the tether
base?”
    He seemed amused. “I’m probably much less
interested in warfare strategies than you are. We are a little too
busy for that sort of thing around here.” The tilt of his head
pointed out the disorder around them. “And could use a hand until
someone gets this under control.”
    “ All right.” She gave Reko’s hand an
assuring squeeze and rose. “You get some sleep, if you can. We’ll
get out of here soon enough. Don’t worry.”
    Reko squinted up at the medic. “They teach
them to say that crap in officer school, you know.”
    “ I thought it sounded a little
rehearsed.”
    She followed the man down an aisle between
the rows of cots and into a makeshift dispensary. The shelves were
nearly empty. “He called you Nova?” he said, handing her a plastic
smock and a supply of gloves. “That’s quite a name to live up
to.”
    She watched him count out single-dose ampules
of some sort of medication. “I had a bit of a temper as a child.
What’s your name?”
    “ Nathon Lis Djari, formerly of the
Tangmak Rift but currently stuck here in Shon Gat, as you can see.
You can call me Djari.” He smiled, something that seemed to come
easily to him, even here. “And I will call you Sunshine. Far less
explosive a name, I think.”
    “ You’re a poet,” Nova mumbled as she
pulled the smock over her head. “And a doctor?”
    “ I can only wish, on both counts. I’m a
farmer. Apparently I took a wrong turn when the shooting started. I
hope that Centauri was right when he said you might have some
training?”
    “ Just basic medical. I don’t know much
about Bellacs at all. And you have a lot of