Chapter 5: Holding on to Nothing
'Al I want you to promise me you will stay with the team' "Dr. Tanoge I think your pushing to far" 'and not take your new status to heart.' "Jones its fine he can go a little further" 'No don't just say it, you need to mean it or the rest of us won't trust you' "Doctor that's to far your going to rupture his cerebral cortex, I'm pulling you out" The pain came to a slow stop and he could think a little clearer 'Promise me Al' He finaly fell asleep before he could think about what had happened.
It took him a moment to realize that he was awake this time and not in another dream, opening his eyes and immediately closed them again "That's bright" He said sorely his mouth dry, rolling to his right he opened his eyes again shielding them with his hand. As he moved somebody walked up "Take it easy" He looked up to see a doctors assistant handing him a small glass of water "Drink this slowly" He took the glass and began sipping the water. The assistant turned and called over some body else "Orderly go tell the commander he's awake" The orderly nodded and walked away "How long have I been here?" Alistar asked looking around seeing that he was is the infirmary "Two days" He replied taking the emptied glass from him. "Only two, last time I was in an infirmary it was four weeks" He said as he pushed himself up a little "Funny I don't remember seeing you" The assistant replied "Well it was over a hundred years ago" Alistar said calmly and the assistant looked at him like he had lost his mind, Alistar simply smiled leaning back into his pillow. It was several minuets before the orderly returned with the three commanders of the Militia, They walked strait over to him stopping in a semi circle at the end of the bed he was in. Barker leaned forward grabbing the rail at the foot of the bed "You sure have an interesting way of getting somebody's attention kid" Barker said as he did "Well I never liked doing things the normal way" Alistar joked sitting up a little higher "Ya I've notis-" Barker started but was cutoff "Barker you can talk later we need to ask some questions first" Sarah said as she pulled out a data pad and she continued with "Fist of all" But was cutoff herself by Gates "How are you? Do you think you can answer some of these?" Sarah was quiet for a second realizing that she had forgotten to ask what state he was in before starting "I'm good, a slight headache but I'm good" They all nodded and Sarah started again "Do you have any idea what happened?" "No I don't, I remember hearing things and old memories but I have no clue" "So you don't know what you were saying at the time?" "I was talking?" "That's a no Sarah" "Barker I'm well aware of that" "What was I saying?" He asked confusion mounting in is mind "You were talking about a Dr. Tanoge, he's been a SRS target of interest for six or seven months now. We've never told anybody about him so you can see why I'm a little worried that when you star spouting his name in a seizure" "I see your point, do you know why I was saying his name this Dr. Tanoge" She shifted her weight and sighed saying "No to be honest I was hoping you that you would know" "I see" was all he said. The four of them were silent for a moment and then Barker straitened up and began walking out saying "When they let you out come and see me I'll buy you a drink" Alistar called after him "I'll do that" Barker waved behind him as he walked out, Sarah said nothing but walked out in silence. Gates stayed at the foot of the bed for a second watching the two of them leave and then moved to sit in the chair next to the head of the bed, Alistar sat all the way up and swung his legs to face her. She sat there for a second looking at him studying the details of his face, there was the things she had seen before his dark brown hair almost curling out of control his nose a little bigger than normal and bent at the end where somebody had broken it. But then there was the things she hadn't really looked at before, like the two scars he had on his face one ran down from his left temple to his chin it started at the hair line and just missed his left eye ending just under his mouth in a little J shape the second ran from his right ear down following his jaw line also ending at his chin. His eyes they were sunken in some with his brow jutting out shading his eyes giving him a permanently tired look, then the eyes themselves were a dark grey with black ring on the outside one could look at them and get lost in the depth almost instantly with only a hint of finding the bottom. They sat there not saying any thing for a wile and then Gates spoke up "Are you sure your ok?" He leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees "Ya I feel ok, not combat ready but I can walk I think" "You were also saying 'I promise' a lot when you went down, do you know why?" "Ya I do I made a promise to somebody a long time ago and I never kept it since I'm sitting here now" "Oh, did it have to do with project Olympus?" "Yes" the short and almost harsh answer surprised her "I take it you didn't like it there?" "No" "From what I've seen and read on the project it seams that they made you who you are" "More than you know, but I'm just an echo of some thing best left in the past" The room went silent again for a wile, then she remembered something "I've got something for you" she said reaching into one of her pockets and pulling out a small pin with the 64's logo on it "Now you don't know how the factions recruit pilots over a certain skill level but this is how, each faction gives the pilot a pin of there logo and the pilot puts the factions pin of there choice on there uniform until a proper patch can be issued so here" She finneshed handing him the pin. He couldn't think of anything to say finaly saying "Thanks" as he accepted the pin, she stood and looked at him again after a second he said "What?" She didn't know what had happened then it donned on her "Sorry I was looking at some thing in my HUD" "Oh ok, you know its hard to tell what your doing some times since you are always wearing your helmet" He said shifting his position. She exhaled a little saying "Not always" "Well its pretty close then" He responded teasing her a little "I see that your seizure hasn't effected your ability to be an arse" She joked back as she started walking away "You've been talking to Storm haven't you" "Maybe a little" and with that she left the infirmary.
He took a deep breath in as he look out at the city next to the base, he had slipped away from the medical staff and made his way to an observation platform. "You know the doctor on duty is going crazy looking for you" came from behind him, turning he saw Bear standing there "That woman is driving me nuts, I'm in perfect health and she insists on bed rest" He said turning back to the view, Bear walked up next to him and leaned on the rail "I'm guessing you had a clash of opinion" "Ya we did, I mean all my tests come back clear no problems and still 'you can't leave the infirmary you need bed rest' I don't get it" "I did some reading up on you in the Olympus files" "And?" "I think I will trust the opinion of the secret super soldier with four doctorates in the medical field over a Militia trained one, nothing against her" "Thanks Bear" "No problem" "Why are you up here did she send you?" "No Gates did, she didn't want you wandering off with no body to help you if you had another problem" "That's was nice of her" "I heard she gave you a pin" "Then you heard correctly, she gave it to me four days ago" "Hmm, You know that's the first pin she's handed out in two years" "Really?" "Ya, mostly the 64 gets our assigned troops on lone we're a small group as you've seen" "Two years, who was it then?" "A guy named Davis, he was good" "Was?" "He's not dead if that's what your asking, he and another pilot from the 64 started there own faction they handle all of the Militia's extractor ops" "Oh, I take it that Gates just doesn't hand out pins to any good pilot" "Your right she doesn't, like I told you before the 64 is a family and she try's to keep it that way nobody she doesn't like or she doesn't think will fit in" "I see" "I think you do, well come on best get back before that doctor finds you and ties you to the bed" "Is that what she was yelling?" "Ya lets go"
"Harmony command this is strike 5 come in command' strike 5 this command go ahead' command we are reporting mission failed we're RTB with SRS injured on board requesting medical on standby for fifteen walking wounded, seven stable and three critical over' confirmed strike 5 inbound with twenty five wounded medical will be waiting command out'
"I can't believe myself I spend six days trying to get out of the infirmary and now I'm going back, at least this time I'll be doing some thing" Alistar thought to himself as he ran to the infirmary to help with the incoming wounded, as he ran in he could see all types of medical personal getting ready "Cambel over here" it was the doctor he had disagreed with. Jogging over she said " I don't have the people to work in here and do landing pad triage" "So you need me out there" "Yes, we've only got twenty five coming in this time so when your done get in here and scrub up" "Got it" He said running out to the landing pad. Once he got to the pad he could see orderly's medics and corman standing there with stretchers and gurneys waiting, one set of gear he recognized "Bear what are you doing here" he said walking up "I'm the corman in Gates's team so I'll help" "Got it" They waited in silence for a minuet or two then over the PA "strike 5 cleared to land pad two" They all began to move to pad two waiting on the edge of the boundary. Then over head they heard the familiar sound of a ship jumping in, strike 5 began descending to the pad at a speed only a medivac pilot would try. Eight seconds later he was down and the rear loading ramp came down, they all rushed in checking the first person they got to and soon the cabin of the ship filled with sound of medical teams working "I've got a head injury here his pupils are dilated and unresponsive" "This ones bleeding into his belly" "Orderly help me with this" "Help me hold him down" "Corman I need a tourniquet here" Alistar stopped at a boy that looked barely old enough to fight, checking him over he saw his chest wound lifting the bandage he could see the round had nicked his hart. As he looked blood started shooting out at high pressure "Shit" ducking out of the stream he reached in and grabbed the artery stopping the loss of blood temporarily "CORMAN!" He shouted a second later two corman stood next to him "Help me get him inside" They nodded grabbing the ends of the stretcher and lifting it out of the cradle it sat in. "Ok go" Moving at a brisk pace all the way in they made it inside and one of the Nurses ran over "What's wrong?" She asked with a triage card in her hand "The bullet nicked his heart I need a table, tools and some help" Alistar said and the Nurse ran over to a door waving them in, as they walked past she put a mask on him the corman set him down on the operating table and ran back out side "Ok Nurse lets start" He said grabbing a clamp.
Gates walked into the infirmary and looked around not seeing Alistar she asked a passing nurse "Where is Cambel?" The nurse turned and pointed to the OR "In there, he's been working on that kid for seven hours now" Gates thanked the nurse and walked over to the window to see Alistar and another doctor bent over somebody working almost endlessly. After ten minuets they both straitened up and looked at each other and began to walk out pulling off there gloves and masks, they held the door open as two orderly's pushed the man to a bed. Alistar let the door swing shut and turned to look at gates "Will he make it?" She asked following him as he walked to a chair "Ya I think he will, the bullet shattered when it hit his rib and it took us this long to find all the pieces thirty two to be precise" He said taking a cup of coffee from the table next to him which seamed to have been laid out for the medical teams "You say us but I only started three hours ago" said the other doctor that walked out with Alistar "And I'm glad you did I'd still be in there if you didn't" he said reaching over to shake his hand "Nice to meet you?" "The names Sam" "Well thanks again Sam" Sam nodded and walked off Gates looked at Alistar and sat next to him "I was wondering where you were when Bear walked into his room and passed out five hours ago" She said after a little "I was working" He replied "I see that" She looked over at the boy he had saved resting in a bed she saw a woman and a child walk into the infirmary. They walked up to a nurse and talked for a bit and the nurse pointed at the boy and then walked them over, they stood there a wile talking to the nurse and then Alistar stood up and walked over to them. When he got there they talked a little and then the child a little girl ran from her mothers side and gave tried to give Alistar a hug but only got his knees, he stopped her knelt down and gave her a proper hug. After a little more talking Alistar walked back over and sat down again "He's a local boy, that's his mother and sister" he said answering her unasked question. "How did they know?" She asked looking at him "He told them when he left, and when they heard the call for all medical personal on our PA they began to come here to see if he was ok" "You know you saved that family's future right?" "I saved his but he saved more, he jumped in front of there comms officer when he was calling for evac saved the platoon" They sat there for a wile, finaly Gates said "You look like you cloud use some sleep, and that reminds me the reason I came to talk to you we upgraded you room to an actual room I'll take you there now if you like" "That sounds great" He said standing up, She led him to the room. Once they were there he thanked her and went in crashing on the bed not bothering to get undressed he slept.