Chapter 11

Out of the side of her right eye Gaitha could see Greeghan's form so she turned her head to watch him and saw the flashing red button on the edge of her right field of vision. She saw Greeghan twitch as she raised her arm up and smashed the red button with her the palm of her good hand. The platform immediately started to descend, smoothly and quickly but not before she saw Greeghan's head start to turn her way. Then she was safely ensconced in the panic room. She hoped that Greeghan had not seen anything but she knew lizards had great optokinetic reflexes which, historically speaking, had helped them catch food sources easily. She didn't think you could breed the instinctive qualities out of them that fast from an evolutionary stand point even if they were civilized beings. He could have seen her.

Now that Gaitha was in the panic room she momentarily forgot the order in which she needed to do the things that needed to be done. She was still holding her injured forearm against her chest. She would splint it but first she would ice it so it wouldn't swell badly, then she needed to contact her father. After that she could attend to the bloody gashes on her ankles and calves as well as her shoulders and upper arms. The wounds stung like there were hundreds of maddened honey bees all attacking her limbs. She had to look for something for pain before cleaning her cuts and splinting her arm.

She located the first aid closet and opened it to grab the ice bag and shook it until it was cold, then she applied it to her forearm. It would last for up to 24 hours but Gaitha hoped she wouldn't need it for that long. She scanned the room for the ship's beacon and swiftly went to the control panel and turned it on. She knew that the lizard would not be able to disarm this one as it could only be done or undone in the panic room. She also hit the switch that locked the panic room so that even if Greeghan found the outside switch he wouldn't be able to use it.

Gaitha returned to the first aid closet and found the pain medication. It was hard to open with one hand so she put the bottle between her knees and finally got the cap off. She carefully shook two pills into her mouth, put the bottle down, and swallowed them with some bottled water from the closet. She then grabbed bandages, gauze, a cleaning solution for her cuts and scrapes, and an arm splint that uses air to stabilize a broken limb. She waited a few moments until she felt the fast-acting pain medication starting to work.

Once she felt the medication kick in Gaitha set to work, first sliding the splint around her forearm, securing it, and then pushing the button for the auto-air pump. It still hurt like hell but the splint now held her forearm securely in place. She was bruised, scraped and, in some places cut. She was grateful some of the pain was subsiding but some of the cuts were deep and would need stitches but the butterfly bandages she had applied would have to do for the time being. She surveyed her arms in the mirror on the inside part of the door and widened her eyes. She was wearing matching upper arm bruise bracelets that were the deepest shades of purple, blue, and red she had ever seen. She had never experienced this level of bruising before, but then again she had never before been a fight with a giant lizard almost twice her height. She was glad she had knocked his lizard ass out.

When she was finished Gaitha finally let herself relax a little because she knew her father was speeding here with Dragar and Stinger ready to lay waste to any further threat to her safety. It dawned on her that they likely saw everything from the vantage point of the locket but she couldn't imagine how they interpreted what they were seeing and hearing. She had forgotten she even had the locket on. She took the locket from around her neck and turned it so she was looking into the face of it. She knew he could see her but she couldn't see him.

She scrambled to put her ear plugs in place. "Dad? Dad can you hear me. Listen, I'm okay, a little banged up, but okay."

She listened through the ear plugs with the fingers of her good hand pressing lightly on one of the earplugs, trying to hear as best she could.

"Yeah, but Dad he may already be awake and waiting for you. I saw his head turning towards me when I got on the panic room elevator."

She cocked her head slightly as she listened.

"Okay, but please be careful, I think he might be really pissed!"

She could do nothing but wait it seemed. Her father had told her to sit tight and not come out of the panic room until any threat of further harm to her was gone. Gaitha didn't know if she could do it. Her eyes were already surveying the panic room looking, noting everything. She had her father's stubbornness and as she scanned the room a second time looking for the most logical place for weapons, she had already set her mind to a course of action.

She finally spied a box-shaped object protruding from the floor. It was almost touching the shelf in which the control panel was set. She walked over to it and tried to see how she might open it but she couldn't see any obvious way to do it. She looked over at the control panel and spied a button with an armory seal on it. She reached over and pressed it and the front of the box slid down into the floor. It displayed a mini-mauler and shield as well as a pair of skyjacker boots, her size of course. There was also a beam rifle, stun grenades and plenty of clips of ammo. She took the mini-mauler with two clips of ammo and several stun grenades. She put a dark vest stuffed the many pockets in it with her gear. She grabbed the skyjacker boots and put them on before turning and also taking the shield.

Gaitha knew she should stay where she was but she was scared that the Sargorn had the advantage of now knowing the ship whereas her father, Stinger, and Dragar had never been in it. However, knowing her aunt she was sure a she had an extra sheave with the schematic on it and had given it to her father.

She chewed on her lip for a minute, which was the only sign of her unease with disregarding her father's wishes. She also didn't think she could just sit and wait for rescue either. She then remembered something she didn't see the first time she saw the Sargorn but it definitely could be a vulnerability for the lizard. She needed to remind her Dad before she did anything else because she didn't know if he remembered this in his mission to save her mother from her uncle Balem almost twenty years ago.