Sharpe's Doctor Chapter 11
Quote of the Week from Sharpe's Siege
'Are you one of the Wiltshire Sharpes, perhaps?' Ford seemed eager to place the Rifleman in a comforting social context.
'Middlesex,' Sharpe said.
'Do mind your head,' Ford smiled as he waved Sharpe under the break of the poopdeck. 'I can't quite place the Middlesex Sharpes.'
'My mother was a whore, I was born in a common lodging-house, and I joined the Army as a private. Does that make it easier?'
Chapter 11 The Sainted Physician
The Doctor was the first to reach the wounded Sharpe. The body of Lieutenant Adamicz at fallen on the ground fifty meters away dead with Harper's rifle bullet through his heart. The Doctor sighed in relief, Sharpe had been lucky. The sabre cut aimed at his neck had missed and sliced into his thigh. The nine inch long cut had scored deep through Sharpe's inner thigh and had hit a main artery.
Sharpe had lossed consciousness and all the signs pointed to his body were going into circulatory shock. The Doctor quickly pulled out his underpants from his pocket and ripped it into a bandage. Seeing that it wasn't enough he ripped off his tie and bound it tightly to Sharpe's inner thigh in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
Knowing that the shock would restrict blood flow to the major organs and cause Sharpe to freeze, the Doctor pulled off his brown coat and draped it over Sharpe. The Doctor was then joined by Harper, Harris and the solemn Gattica. Harper looked down at Sharpe and cursed.
"God save Ireland, he looks like the ghost of Saint Patrick himself"
"He's not dead yet Harper, not if I have anything to say about it. Use my coat and make a stretcher, take him back to your camp. I need to get back to my ship and get some medical supplies. I'll meet you back at camp" said the Doctor in a rush.
Harper hesitated for a second wonder whether to obey the strange Doctor.
"Hurry man your Lieutenant only has fifteen minutes to live" ordered the Doctor.
There was such urgency and authority in his voice that Sergeant Harper jumped to it joined by his two fellow Riflemen. Know that Sharpe's life hanged in the balance they used their Rifles and the Doctor's coat to make a stretcher. While the Doctor not wanting to waste any more time turned on his heel and sprinted up the nearest slope towards his ship.
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Harper had led the wild jog that had taken Sharpe safely back to the Riflemen's camp in under five minute which had left him, Harris and Gattica out of breath. They had wrapped Sharpe in there green jacket which didn't stop Sharpe from shivering. But even so there Lieutenant was worse than ever being as white as a sheet but the good thing was that the Doctor's bandage was holding up. Sharpe himself had entered into a delirium and was randomly yelling out names to all the Riflemen who had crowded round the Officer.
"Astrid...Grace...McCandless...Amy, Amy Pond" Sharpe moaned.
Hagman the nearest thing that this Rifle unit had to a medic quickly examined Sharpe and his face drooped.
"Mister Sharpe isn't long for this world Sergeant, I think we should put him out of his misery" said Hagman sadly.
"Don't you dare" yelled the Doctor.
He had just raced into the camp with a white bag that had a red cross emblazoned on the side. The Doctor opened the bag, searched through it and pulled out a needle. Then pulled off the coats and stabbed the needle through Sharpe's cotton shirt. The needle was 25th century so didn't have a dirty great syringe but it was big enough to make the Riflemen flinched
"You stabbed him" said a very shocked and surprised Harper.
"Oh yes, but this isn't a knife it's a needle full of a drug called adrenaline" said the Doctor.
Harper and the rest of the Riflemen noticed a change as the kick of the adrenaline coursed through Sharpe's body. Sharpe stop shivering and blood start coming back to his face. The Doctor didn't stop there; he stabbed Sharpe with another needle which gave him a dose of Nanogenes. Small robots the size of blood cells that would travel through Sharpe's artery's, fixing any damaged tissue, increase blood flow and deliver a dose of Saline through his system.
"Now I think we should change the bandages. I don't think my underpants can stop the blood, not to mention being very unsanitary" said the Doctor.
The Doctor could have used the 31st century bandages in his bag but he didn't think it would be a good idea to leave anything so advanced behind. The bandages were made of nylon and delivered advance anti-bacterial drug through the system.
"Excuse me sir, but I have some vinegar and best brown paper. Nothing heals wounds faster like vinegar and brown paper mixed with cobwebs and a certain kind of moss" said Hagman.
"Oh that's Brilliant. Molto Bene"!
Sorry for all those readers who want Harper to fire his volley gun but this story is based between Sharpe's Havoc and Sharpe's Eagle and Harper doesn't get his seven barrelled gun from Sharpe until Sharpe's Gold. I'm sticking to established continuity because I want this story to link back to Sharpe's Eagle, where at the start of the novel Sharpe has just finished recovering from his thigh injury from a French Hussar. If you read the first couple of pages of Sharpe's Eagle you will see that some of the circumstances relate back to this story.