Jason Nesmith groaned, his back and shoulders aching. His ribs hurt, and every breath sent a stab of pain through him. He was still alive; they were all still alive. "Who put in the request for a miracle? Because whoever did it deserves a raise."
"Commander, we were unable to prevent them from launching a shuttle. It seems that some of the pirates have escaped." One of the security guys offered, trying not to put any weight on his right leg.
"Did anybody die?" Jason asked, suddenly feeling a great deal less happy with the outcome.
"Mr. Angel isn't moving or responding to any questions." This security man had purple bruising that had forced one eye closed, and a thin burn over his shoulder. "Though he did say that a slain vampire became dust. It appears that he was badly injured taking out the Dominionite."
"The Dominionite's dead? Are you absolutely certain?" Jason touched his ribs, gasping at the sudden pain. "Those bugs are pretty tough."
"Commander, he… umm… Mr. Angel fought Na'triss, and he's umm…. Still holding the head. Separate from the body." The Thermian looked considerably paler than normal.
"I think we all need to go back to the shuttle and then back to the Protector. I don't know enough about vampire physiology to be able to make a good estimation on Mr. Angel, but the rest of the injuries will wait until we can return." The doctor spoke, pulling some sort of device and holding it near the closest injured Thermian. "We have quite a few injuries."
"If he's not responding, I guess we need to carry him back with us. Nobody gets left behind." Jason tried to make his voice carry, like he would on set, but his head was spinning. He was certain that he'd read about beloved commanding officers insisting on not leaving their people behind. It also sounded like a very Taggert-like thing to say.
"Of course, sir." The doctor pointed the device at him, making an unhappy noise at the results. "We'll need to set those ribs when we get back to the ship, I have no way to secure them here."
A pair of the least injured security guards gathered up Angel, one holding his shoulders and the other his ankles. Slowly, the landing party moved back out of the large cavern. Everybody had some degree of injury, and they weren't moving very quickly. An air of depression had started to set in at the escape of the shuttle. Something needed to be done.
Wincing at the way each step jarred his ribs, Jason turned to face his men. "Hey, does anybody remember where we parked?"
For a moment, there was tense silence. Then, one of the men hesitantly chuckled, before asking, "That was a joke? Something to relieve the tension of the situation?"
"Yeah, mostly," Jason's attempt to smile became a wince as his ribs throbbed. "Down that tunnel a long ways, and up the manhole. I just hope we remember which manhole we need to go up and through."
"It should be simple enough," one of them murmured. He was limping, and there was a small scorch mark across his temple. "It should be the only one open."
"There must be road maintenance personnel, there is a chance that someone could have closed the tunnel access." This security man's eye was swollen shut, a dark bruise spreading over the side of his face. "We should have a plan if that has happened."
"Well, the good thing is that since we just fought the dangerous guys hiding in the sewers, we shouldn't have any more problems like that." Jason muttered.
There was an angry growl from a side tunnel, and a trio of vampires attacked. The first tackled a limping security guard to the ground, lunging for the throat. The second hit Angel, dropping not only himself and Angel but also the pair of guards carrying him to the squishing floor of the tunnel. The third went for the doctor.
The first thing that went through Jason's mind was blind panic. The second was the outraged "Haven't we put up with enough already today?"
With an annoyed squeal that no human could ever have reproduced, the doctor moved in what looked like a backhanded strike. However, as his arm moved, it became longer and took on a rather orange cast. The orange tentacle gripped around the vampire's head and flung him upwards, effectively bouncing him off the ceiling. The vampire didn't even have time to land before one of the security guards shot him with a blaster.
The one that had tackled a guard to the tunnel floor was first kicked up and away, howling with pain. The first shot caught his leg as he was staggering to his feet, and he fell down again. His pain was short-lived as he was caught in two blasts and glowed for a moment before falling as nothing more than gritty dust along the tunnel.
The vampire that had tackled Angel and the pair of Thermians carrying him was the toughest to deal with, not because of any particular competency, but because they had somehow all become entangled. In fact, it looked to Jason as if the vampire was now trying to escape while the two security guards were trying to grab him, their collective efforts hampered by their sprawled entanglement. Eventually, that vampire was also dispatched, and they picked Angel back up.
Jason shook his head, deciding not to tempt fate any further. "Let's just try to get back to the shuttle now."
With an assortment of 'sir's and 'aye, Commander's, they started moving once again. The tunnel wasn't any more enjoyable this time through, though they had no further interruptions. It felt like a very long walk before they could see light spilling down from an open manhole.
"Can one of you guys make sure this is our exit?" Jason asked, pointing to the ladder with his thumb. His ribs still hurt beyond anything he had words for, and he wondered exactly how they were going to manage to get everybody up the ladder, especially Angel, who was doing a really good impersonation of a corpse right now.
"I think, with the Commander's permission, we may need to shift to get everybody safely up to the surface." The doctor spoke softly, as if the idea was not only unconventional but also deeply embarrassing.
The first guard moved easily up the ladder, calling down, "I see our shuttle, Commander. This is definitely the correct exit from the undercity."
"Good. Everybody out, in whatever shape works best. Just try not to scare the natives between the cover and the shuttle." Jason replied, glad that this was almost over. They'd go back to the Protector, get patched up, and he could take a double Aspirin and fall down for a while.
By the time everybody was out of the tunnels, he was certain that there had been definite tentacles. Jason thought about it for a few moments before deciding that first, he'd told them it would be okay, and secondly he didn't want to think about it. They were out of the sewers, time to go up and get some pain-killers.
"Let's go up and get ourselves put back together." He collapsed onto the seat, aching all over and blankly wondering why things felt like they'd gotten off lightly.
End part 41.
Guy Fleegman wiped his palm along the side of his pants, trying to look calm. Okay, calmer than he really was. He was trying to be Guy Ingersoll, Chief of Security for the starship Protector, not Guy Fleegman, actor. The security people here believed in him, and he didn't want to disappoint them. Not only that, but he really didn't want things to go wrong enough to get people killed.
"Guy? We've just got a request for docking permission from a shuttlecraft." Gwen's voice emerged from one of the speakers. "However, it's not one of ours, and according to the computer, we're on the only ship authorized in this section of space."
"So, where did this shuttle come from?" He checked his little Thermian palm-pilot, which informed him that three of his boys in security were already on their way to the shuttle bay. "Are we letting them inside?"
"There's apparently a built-in protocol that allows access for unidentified ships and shuttles that claim to have a medical emergency." It sounded like she was annoyed, though that could have been the speaker. Permission to dock has been granted due to that."
"You don't believe them?" Guy glanced at the walls, which suddenly seemed very thin and fragile.
"We did a computer scan, and the engine of the ship the pirates escaped on is underground just outside the LA corporation limits. Presumably most of the rest of the ship is there as well. I'd say that they're probably not friendly." There was a pause. "Can you tell your guys to be careful?"
"I already did that. We've spent a few hours going over dirty tricks and how to see through them." He shook his head in dismay. He'd had a few hours to try to prepare his boys to go up against professional bad guys. The idea was ridiculous.
There was only silence from Gwen.
"I know, that's what I thought." He didn't know if she was still listening or not.
"Chief?" The slightly hesitant voice was one of his security boys. "We need a cell ready for two prisoners. And Kersithon needs to go to the medlab."
"Of course." He hooked the palm-pilot into the nearest computer port, and requested that it show his security boys. Touching the nearest four that weren't already in the shuttle bay, he used the on-ship intercoms to relay, "We have two prisoners who need to be thrown into the brig, actual throwing optional. Someone needs to help Kersithon to the medlab as well, I don't want them to have the chance of using anything long term and lingering."
"Sir?" The voice of the other security guard in the shuttle bay came again. "What do we do with this green computer disk that they had with them?"
"Keep track of it and don't put it into any of the normal computer consoles. They may have had some sort of electronic attack for the computer systems." Guy felt a moment of light headedness at the thought of a computer virus on the only thing keeping them from a painful death in space. "Have someone from tech support look at it right away."
"You were right, they faked injuries in order to gain entry to the ship. They bashed Kersithon over the head when he went to figure out how badly they were injured." The voice held a mixture of dismay and awe. "If you hadn't warned us…"
Guy grinned, feeling much better all of a sudden. "If you hadn't remembered and been smart enough to be careful and not panic, they still could have. I'm lucky to have such a good crew to work with."
Now he just hoped things would go as well for the landing party.
End part 42.
Alex Dane stared at the two sets of readings. They would probably make a great deal more sense to him if he was the doctor that most of the ship believed him to be, but as he wasn't, Willow and Gwen's neurological readings were still rather puzzling to him. "There is some variation here and here. It might be that certain neurotransmitters enable the Handmaiden to perform her quantum manipulations."
"Will this influence our efforts to assist the Princess Mirabanna?" One of the nurses asked, frowning a little.
Looking back at the printouts, Alex shook his head. "The neurotransmitters that seem to be connected to the quantum manipulations aren't the same as the ones causing the Princess her difficulties."
"Can we establish a safe range?"
"I believe so." He pulled out the stack from the analysis of Cordelia's vision and the after-effects. With a neon green highlighter, he marked the names of the neurotransmitters that had gone haywire in Cordelia's brain, and hoped that he wouldn't have to try to pronounce them. "Looking at the analysis from earlier, it seems that she was not experiencing problems until the levels of free transmitters reached a certain point. If we simply arrange for a rapid recollection if they have a sudden spike…"
"Of course." Dr. Teirell nodded, and held out his hand. "If you'll allow me to program the appropriate neurotransmitters into the adjustment device?"
No sooner had Alex passed the analysis of Cordelia's visions to Dr. Teirell than the medlab intercom chirped. Arching one eyebrow, he stepped to it and pressed the button. "Medlab."
"Yeah, one of my boys in security got bashed in the head by our would-be boarders." Guy's voice held both worry and pride. "They caught on to the attempt, and took both of them into custody, but there's still an injury. Ker's on his way down to the medlabs right now. You might want to be ready for injuries on the landing party as well."
"Naturally, what would things come to if there was an uneventful landing party," Alex murmured. "I'll see to it that preparations are made."
He turned around, catching the attention of one of the nurses who wasn't assisting with the little device for Cordelia. With a slight clearing of his throat that seemed like some sort of pre-speech punctuation, he spoke. "There was a member of security injured when some of the pirates sent a shuttle to attempt to infiltrate. Chief Ingersoll didn't give me many details, but it sounds like there is a head injury, possibly among other minor matters."
"Of course, we'll begin preparations. I assume the injured crewmember is on his way here?" The nurse's question sounded mild, but there was an implication that if he wasn't, there had better be a very good reason why not.
"Indeed he is. Ingersoll also reminded me of a very good point – we should be prepared for injuries among the landing party." Alex was pleased to note that his voice had remained level and calm. Hopefully, he would be able to maintain at least the pretense of calm when injured people started to arrive.