When Fighting Monsters, page 11
part #5 of The Maauro Chronicles Series
“Got it,” Troy says. “Wow, we gonna have a lot of officers for six enlisted.”
We start now with the Mule in the lead. Troy directs us to a small range of hills not far away. As we get close, I see a thin rill of a stream struggling down it and supporting more than the usual amount of vegetation. Above the stream are a few cave mouths in the rock face. A woman emerges from one of the caves, waving and shouting. Another male human appears as we pull up.
“Rainbird, Lacey,” Cully says, “it’s a glorious day in the Corp. We are getting off this rock.”
I study the new pair. Rainbird has short, black hair and a tattoo of a bird’s wing on her face. Lacey is very young, wearing a private’s bar. They greet us with handshakes and take the other bag of food bars and bottles of tea with enthusiasm. Lacey is almost overcome and Troy thumps him on the back.
“May I see your casualties?” I ask. “I have extensive medical training.”
Again comes the searching look from Cully. Wrik merely smiles and shakes his head. “Just believe her.”
“This way,” Cully says, “Lacey, were you watching the LT?”
“Yes, Sarge. She’s not doing anything. Quiet, just like yesterday.”
“Watch her anyway.”
The young man nods and heads back to the cave on the right.
I follow Cully into the other cave, trailed by Wrik. Olivia and Delt remain behind, speaking with Rainbird and Troy. Inside, a human female and a Morok lie on bedding improvised from the shuttles crash couches. The Morok’s head is swathed in bandages; he wears a navy uniform with a communications bar and ensign’s rank. He must have run the shuttle’s ECM and com.
“He fell about a week ago,” Cully said, “bit of damn bad luck on a cliff side.
He starts to explain the injuries, but I wave him to silence, kneel and extend my hands on the Morok first, scanning and testing. “This person has a subdural hematoma below a skull fracture. I will attend to it when we are at the ship. Once I evacuate the hematoma, he should recover.”
“So you’re a surgeon too,” Cully said. “And unless you’re a preacher who believes in the laying on of hands, I’d be interested to know what instruments you used to examine him.”
I look him in the eyes. “I am the instrument.”
“I thought you might be,” he says, “though I grant I can’t imagine how. You handled that mini-fieldpiece like a popgun, and the other woman, was her name Major Croyzer?”
“It was.
“She switched to the bike because your weapon, yourself and this young man—
“My boyfriend,” I say.
“Ah, boyfriend is it now?” he looks at Wrik.
I look at him, and perhaps there is warning in my gaze.
“Now, no offense,” he said.
“My boyfriend,” I repeat.
“Well you, your boyfriend and your monster gun weigh a bit, and if you add two more Marines, well even a thick-head like Troy might notice the vehicle struggling with the weight if the major stayed aboard.”
“You’re very observant,” Wrik says.
“You don’t grow old in this trade otherwise.”
I move to the other casualty another human female named Jeiwan. She’s lost her leg below the knee and a persistent infection has taken hold. She is fevered and restless. I press my hand against her breast and inject both a mild sedative and a powerful antibiotic. There are internal injuries, so I inject a small number of nanobots to conduct these deep repairs which will be better dealt with without such invasive surgery as I plan with the Morok.
“We used up most of our medical supplies on them in the first few weeks.” Cully says. “Jeiwan was fine for weeks after the amputation, but then an infection set back in. She’s been going downhill for three weeks.”
I glance at him. “You need not apologize. You have done well given the circumstances. The amputation site is properly done and that must have been difficult—“
“Difficult, aye,” Cully said. “God grant that I be in heaven rather than have to do such a thing again.”
Jeiwan’s breathing has become more regular and she settles. I pull an IV out of my body and arrange to hang it and begin replenishing her fluids.”
“Ah, where did that come from?” Cully asks.
“I manufactured it inside my body,” I reply.
“Did you now?” he says and sits back to stare at me.
“Wrik, give me your canteen; then get me more water. I need to do the same for the Morok and I need fluids to do it with.”
“Sure.” He looks at Cully. “God as my witness, your people could not be in better hands.”
Cully studies Wrik’s face. He is about ten years older than Wrik and his blue eyes search Wrik’s brown ones.
“I don’t lie much myself,” Cully says “So I’m not easy to lie to. There’s something about you, about the way you hold a man’s eye that tells me you shoot straight. Beside’s I like her, begging your pardon, Commander.”
I smile. “I take no offense and do not stand on rank.”
“Is that because you don’t need rank to make everyone obey you?” he asks.
“In part,” I admit, taking the canteen from Wrik. I drain its contents in one swallow and begin reprocessing it into fluids the Morok needs.
“Who is in charge in your little party?” Cully asks.
Wrik and I point at each other and Cully laughs.
“Later,” I say and pull another IV from inside my body. I casually bend some metal into a hanger as Cully whistles.
“I can do that too.” I whistle a tune that Wrik taught me.
Cully chuckles and shakes his head in wonder.
“You mentioned the Lieutenant?” Wrik asks. “What’s wrong with her?”
“Lieutenant Menoan is a Denlenn demi-female, prefers a female pronoun in our language. I don’t think we’d have made it at first without her. But she started to go strange on us. The thing, whatever it is, seems to have had an effect on her. She began making images of it, drawing obsessively, even making a pile of rocks in its image. When we tried to stop her, she got violent. Started raving about us being worthless cattle only fit for sacrifice. After that, I didn’t feel I could leave her alone, especially with the wounded, so I relieved her and took her weapons. She went quiet after that, just sitting in a corner, barely eating or drinking.”
We follow Cully into the next cave, more of a hollow. Lacey looks up at us, Cully gestures with his head and the young man steps out with a relieved expression. Seated in the back is young Denlenn demi-female. She is tall and well-featured, but her eyes are slack and the body gaunt. Her uniform is fouled and judging by Wrik’s face, she smells worse than the other survivors. She simply sits in the back of the cave, not reacting to anything.
I study the Denlenn. “Deep shock. You say that she felt she was in contact with the thing that struck you down?”
“Aye, it’s what she said. There’s no physical trauma, but she rarely comes out of it. It’s been a battle to get enough food and water into her to keep her alive.”
I lean forward and place my hand against the Denlenn’s chest. Menoan’s eyes flutter and she slumps. Carefully I lay her down.
“The anesthetic may help,” I say, “and she will be easier to handle until we get her back to the ship and we can intervene more forcefully.”
“Do you still have those drawings?” Wrik asks. “The one’s the Lieutenant made?”
Cully shook his head. “We needed the paper for fire starters. It wasn’t much, just images of some beastie, with many eyes and limbs like tentacles. I don’t know where it was from. It looked nothing like what struck our shuttle. She couldn’t say.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
After Maauro finished her initial aid to Menoan, we walked out to see Olivia and the other Marines.
I looked at Maauro. “Should we move back to the ship, or wait here tonight and start in the morning?”
“I have already sent for the three crab robots,” she said. “We can move the survivors to the ship before nightfall.”
The look of relief that washed over the Marines faces was palatable.
“Any issue with life-support capability?” Cully asked, apparently determined to suss out any possible impediment as soon as possible.
I shook my head. “We’re a Comet class scout, original crew capability of twelve but she was military so she’s overbuilt by 200% in that regard. We were specially supplied for extended voyaging on our own. Don’t worry Cully, we won’t be running off and leaving you.”
Lacy gave a sour look. “Well, when you’ve seen your own cruiser hauling ass out of system with a monster on its heels, it’s hard to trust.”
“Make preparations to break camp,” Cully said. Everyone scattered.
“I want to take a look at the shuttle,” Maauro said.
“Me too,” Olivia said. The pair of them mounted the Mule and headed back the way we came.
As soon as the vehicle was out of sight, Cully reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. “The beautiful little girl with all the magic tricks, what the hell is she?”
I gave him a hard look. “My girlfriend, as she said.”
He raised the hand in a placating gesture. “Ok so you’re a lucky bastard; she’s quite the looker. But she handles a gun I’d expect to see mounted on an APC like it weighs nothing, and she can tell at a glance who has internal injuries and begins pulling medical equipment out of her body. Then, like its nothing, she announces she’ll do two surgeries later tonight. Those are the prettiest eyes I ever saw, but the biggest too.”
“For right now you’ll just have to accept that she’s an officer in Confed MI and on your side.”
Cully mulled this over. “Who is in charge here? Croyzer, says she’s a major, both of you hold the rank of Lt Commander…”
“Command rests with me and Maauro,” I said, though I wondered if the addition of a few Marines would alter that dynamic. They were no threat to Maauro, but they could be to me. Then I dismissed that, on board our ship with its compartmentation and her control of the environment, Maauro could handle both Olivia and the Marines if she came to regard them as a danger.
“Huh. Well as long as you keep on this Maauro’s good side you mean.”
“Been there a good while so far.”
“Son, I’ve seen HCRs up close and I thought they were amazing. They’re tinkertoys to your lady.”
I nod. “A good point to remember.”
“Well, good enough for now,” Cully said. He then left to help the others pack.
Maauro and Olivia returned in an hour. Examining the shuttle had told them little. There was no sign of an unusual weapon. Most of the damage was from the crash, and the ship’s small computer system has not survived the landing and subsequent exposure to the elements. Maauro returned to the wounded. Cully stayed near Olivia, seeming more comfortable with her then us, and doubtless was pestering her with questions.
The three crab robots slid into view over the hillside and another cheer rose from the Marines. Maauro appeared at the mouth of a cave, casually carrying Jeiwan, stretcher and all, past her staring comrades to place it on the back of the Mule. Maauro had evidently decided that there was little point to concealing her nature to fellow combatants as we pursued whatever was haunting this sector of space. She noticed my look and gave me a cheery smile before heading back to the cave for the Morok.
The Marines loaded up their remaining supplies, one never wasted anything on a space trip, and readied themselves to break camp. Troy and Rainbird went to visit the graves by the shuttle. We would pick them up on the way.
Delt lead with Olivia on his bike as the convoy headed back for the ship. The demi-female Denlenn remained somnolent, but we’d belted her onto a crab bot with restraints. The stretchers were placed on the Mule which Maauro jogged easily alongside. The poor terrain and my cargo of wounded kept my speed low. A couple of Marines offered to give up their spots on the crabs, but Maauro waved it off.
The trip back to the Stardust took three times as long as the trip out. Delt and Olivia sped ahead to make things ready. Dusko had used the time wisely, using one of the crab robots to bore a well before Maauro sent for it, and had hit an aquifer. The water was potable and he’d set up an outside shower. While the ship ran at 99.90% recycling efficiency, one never took water for granted. Now, we’d have hot water to waste.
“Maauro,” I said, as we drove. “What are we going to do for clothes for these folks? There’s some aboard but…”
“I have some of the damage control bots converting machinery into a resynthesizer. I will simply feed in their old clothes and have them reconstituted.”
“Oh,” I said.
“I have scans of everyone’s bodies, if needs be I can harvest plant material to be converted into additional clothing.”
“You’re beautiful, deadly and you can cook and sew,” I replied with a grin.
“Delt has said I am the perfect woman,” she shot back, eyes shining.
“Yeah, but he says that to all the girls. I only say it to you.”
“You’d better,” she said.
We top the rise and see the base of the ship. Another cheer came from the Marines. Dusko was outside, his perpetually sour look focused on the oncoming parade, but I noticed that he stood next to a table of sandwiches, pots of soup and drinks next to the shower. Olivia and Delt came out as we pulled up.
I pulled up and Maauro had the first casualty off in an instant. She effortlessly carried the stretcher to the ship, but rode the elevator up into the vessel.
“Ok,” Olivia said. “All clothes off and in a pile there, everyone into the shower. We got skivvies and blankets with the hot chow. Maauro told me there will be clean uniforms for everyone in an hour.”
“Delt,” Maauro said, returning from depositing the first stretcher in sickbay. “Please take the Lt and lock her in the small cabin on the engineering deck.
“You’ll need a guard,” Troy said.
“The ship’s AI will watch her for me,” Maauro returned. She unlatched the second stretcher holding the amputee.
“I don’t think—” Troy began. Cully tapped him on the shoulder and shook his head. Troy subsided reluctantly.
Maauro took the human female up to sick bay. I followed her in to check on the two casualties. Both were still unconscious but resting. They stank from sickness and difficult hygiene.
“I will wash them before surgery,” she said. “Leave this to me.”
I nodded and slipped out. Dusko, Delt and I threw the Marine clothes and boots in the machine Maauro’s repairbots had created in Engineering, before crawling back into the spots in the hull where they spent most of their time unseen. We threw the stuff in the top, closed it and minutes later a panel opened in the bottom and fresh uniforms, with badges and insignia in place came out. Boots took longer, but we had clothes for all in the promised hour. Dusko brought in the last impossibly foul load from the wounded, but these too came out fresh.
I checked on Maauro, looking into the sickbay panel. Inside I could see her working on the Morok’s open skull. Unlike a human, she didn’t need to be capped and gowned. She noticed me, winked, then returned to her gruesome work.
I went outside to see the Marines had enjoyed the shower fully. Water ran off onto the rocks and disappeared into the ground, but there was little mud. They were shaved and cleaned up, sitting on rocks or camp chairs, covered in blankets and fresh underwear, devouring the food.
“Coffee,” Cully said. “St. Patrick be praised. Real coffee again.”
Troy methodically munched on his sandwiches. Rainbird sat back with hers, as if she was afraid it might vanish
“Easy on the chow,” Olivia said. “You’ve been on short rations too long. Fill up the corners with some soup. I don’t want anybody sick.”
Dusko and Delt appeared with boxes of uniforms and boots. I noticed there were also slip-on shoes for shipboard, a typical, thoughtful Maauro touch.
“Hey,” Cully said, holding up a shirt. “This is my uniform! I mean the one I was wearing. It’s like new but there’s the patch my son gave me. I had it sewn inside a pocket where it couldn’t be seen, for luck. How? This was only fit for burning.”
“Learn to accept minor miracles when Maauro is around,” Delt said. “It saves time.”
Everyone hastily donned uniforms, as if normalcy would return with clean clothes and regular food. From survivors, they quickly regained the look of professional military.
“Olivia,” I said, motioning her aside. “It would be best for you to take charge of them. Settle them together on the passenger deck cabins. Maauro’s already working on the Morok. She’ll call me when she’s through. Those two will be in med bay for a while. No way we can lift off with someone who had a brain surgery, not for some days anyway.”
She nodded, then turned to the Marines. “Alright. Finish what you’re eating. Then I want all weapons checked into the armory and I’ll get you quartered aboard. All the rations and equipment you brought will go into stores. Maauro will do a med check after she’s through with the casualties.”
The others looked at Cully, who gave a sharp nod. They began gathering up everything.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Hours later we gathered at the galley. With the exception of the lieutenant, secured in a cabin and the two Marines in sickbay, everyone was present.
“OK,” she said. “If anyone didn’t get the word, I’m Major Croyzer. I’ve heard bits and pieces. Now, I want the full report from the top.”
“Yes, Major,” Cully said. “But first we’d like to know where we stand. I saw your ID card and they aren’t easy to fake, but it’s possible. But I’ve already seen some impossible stuff...” He looked directly at Maauro.
Olivia nodded. “Ok. Let’s start there. Maauro and Captain Trigardt are both officers as well, navy commissions. Technically, they’re Confed Military Intelligence, but in reality they are mercs, plain and simple. Their chief loyalty is to each other. That said, they were sent here by the highest levels of Confed and are trusted. None of you would have clearance for any code that can verify that, so there you’ll have to believe me.”
