Chapter 9
Doctor, Doctor
1348 hours/ August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Ship The Raven, ONI launch platform, planet Reach, Epsilon Eridani system
Ben resisted the urge to tend to Wang-mu's injuries immediately. But he knew that he couldn't do that right now. If he didn't get off of Reach they would both die. Ben accessed The Raven's flight control systems. This would be a bumpy ride.
Ben knew that the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, or slipspace drive, on the ship couldn't be used inside of a planet's gravity well. He'd have to get around the Covenant and then get far enough away from Reach if he wanted a chance to escape. And even if he did that, there was still a chance that the Covenant's faster ships would follow him.
The Raven shot down the 250-meter launch strip at 850 kilometers per hour. But if someone else were there, they wouldn't have known. The Active Camouflage truly did live up to all expectations. Soon Ben was in Reach's upper atmosphere. As soon as he cleared the stratosphere, he could see the force that was bombarding Humanity's military headquarters. He plotted a departure vector that was farthest from any Covenant ships, but it took him directly through a debris field from a decimated Covenant destroyer. Ben would have to pilot The Raven on his own, because the ship didn't come with an on-board AI to handle pinpoint space maneuvers, and his concussion prevented any help from Déjà.
Ben could hear each ping against the side of his ship as small chunks of metal ricocheted off of its hull. The Raven's pointed design helped to prevent any serious damage, however. The problem was that wary Covenant sensors might be able to notice that the debris was suddenly parting in a certain area.
To his luck, Ben managed to make it out of range of the Covenant ships without being detected. But in order not to be spotted when he went into slipspace, Ben had to be at the edge of the Epsilon Eridani system. So for now he set the ship to autopilot so he could tend to Wang-mu. He carried her to the medical bay and set her on one of the diagnosis trays.
The Spartan – IIIs were trained in field medical application, and had received a cursory training in more in depth medical situations. However, this was mainly used to augment their studies in biology. But Ben had always taken an interest in medicine, and had studied it extra-curricularly. He had a particular interest in flash cloning: quick-growing clones of vital organs, including brains and even people. But it hadn't been perfected, and most attempts to clone Humans had failed: the subjects dying from mental and physical ailments within months.
The computer came back with Wang-mu's diagnosis. Both of her legs were broken, and her right arm was completely shattered: broken in 23 places. She was bleeding internally, and one of her broken ribs had penetrated her right lung. She had some slight damage to her spinal cord, and slight radiation poisoning. Her heart was barely beating now: 23 beats per minute, and her liver was about to fail. Without it, her blood would cool. Ben couldn't think of what to do. He put her on life support. That would keep her heart beating, and keep her left lung breathing. Ben thought of using The Raven's flash clone chamber to clone her a lung and a liver, but in order to transplant them into her body he would have to take her out of her coma, and that would kill her. And no matter what he did, short of cloning her a new brain and spinal cord, she would still have radiation poisoning, and would most likely be a vegetable. And that would never work. Even if the clone lived, he couldn't just remove her original brain… she was going to die… of course! Ben had the answer! Why hadn't he thought of it before!