Awake
05 Jul 2023Doc Scalawag
The first two surprises of the day came in rapid succession. The first was that I was apparently not dead. The second, and only slighltly less surprising, was that neither was I in a prison ship, nor was I in a hospital. I've spent enough time in both to divine that much. My eyes adjusted quickly to the dim light, and I went through a mental checklist of my own faculties, much as I would before leaving a station after an extended shore leave. My chest hurt, badly, and I couldn't move my right arm at all. I flexed the fingers on my left arm and was rewarded with a dull ache that shot from my hand up to my elbow. I tried to sit up, but I couldn't move at all before my body pulled against the restraints holding me to the bed. My legs were immobilized as well. Zero G, I thought to myself as I looked around the poorly-lit room. I was clearly on a spacecraft, probably a big one given the noise; or, more appropriately, the lack thereof. I could definitely hear the thrusters humming, but the sound was quiet and distant. Too distant to belong to anything smaller than an Anaconda. I craned my neck to try to get a better look around, but the pain it caused was too intense, so I straightened back out and consigned myself to my fate.I didn't have to wait long. A handful of minutes passed before I was blinded by a brilliant light, made all the brighter by the surgical-white ceiling and walls.
"Our guest is finally awake" a man with a thick Imperial accent observed.
"Finally?" A woman said. She sounded young, also with an accent, although I couldn't place it. Independent, probably, maybe Alliance. In any case, it was clear that I wasn't on a Federation ship. "With his injuries, I didn't expect him awake for another week. If ever."
"Where am I?" I asked coarsely, still unable to raise my head to look at whom I was speaking.
I felt someone fiddling with the devices that secured me to the cot. "Welcome aboard the Venture Scrapitalist, Commander," the woman said proudly. I felt the first of the restraints give way. "I'm Commander Abigail Sinclair. This is my ship."
After a second set of straps came free, I was able to raise my head enough to look at the two people who had joined me in the room. The male voice belonged to a gentleman who appeared to be in his late forties, with salt-and-pepper hair and matching beard. His features were sharp and linear and very Imperial. The woman was young, couldn't have been much more than twenty, with auburn hair that floated around her in zero-g and soft green eyes. She smiled cheerfully when I first looked at her, but her expression quickly turned sorrowful. "So, uh, there is something you need to know before you try to get up."
"Commander," the man spoke, his face also somber. "My name is Dr Zahn. Let me begin by telling you that the severity of your injuries cannot be understated. It is, frankly, a miracle that you survived at all."
"We registered weapons fire on the FSS." Commander Sinclair continued. "We dropped in just in time to see that FDL make a high-wake jump. Thought maybe we could capitalize on the salvage from the fight."
"You weren't even in an escape pod when we found you." She went on. "Just you floating in a cloud of your own blood with naught but your Remlok keeping you alive."
"'Alive', but only just." Dr. Zahn interrupted. "You had massive, puncturing trauma to the right side of your chest and shoulder. Your right lung was collapsed."
Sinclair had moved closer, standing now on my left side. She took my hand in hers. "Doc saved your lung, and your life, but he couldn't..." Her voice trailed off.
"We couldn't save your arm. Maybe in a proper hospital, but not here. Abi has provided me with a wonderful infirmary, but we just aren't equipped for that kind of surgery here."
I looked down at my right arm, rather, the stump where my arm should have been. There was nothing there, only a mass if bandaged where my shoulder should have been. I tried to speak, but no words came out, only a pitiful groan that sounded like it came from some animal.
"We would've taken you to Casper Ring," Sinclair added quickly, seeing the question forming in my mind before I could speak the words. "But, your bounty."
"They would have taken you to the Pillar of Fortitude before they even bothered treating you. You wouldn't have survived the journey. Not in your condition." He sighed. "I'm sorry."
My bounty? Shouldn't that have cleared the moment he destroyed my... oh, God. Second Heartbeat. A heavy sense of loss, greater even than that of losing my arm, settled in my chest. I blinked away tears I knew I could not hold long at bay. "No, Doctor." My best attempt at stoicism. "You did everything you could, which was much more than anyone could ask. Thank you."
"I would like to run a few..."
"No, not now." I interrupted him. "I need some time to process this... shit." The doctor merely nodded.
Sinclair squeezed my hand I'd forgotten she was holding, and gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "We'll be back in a few hours." Her voice was almost a whisper. I simply nodded, unable or unwilling to speak.
After both of them had left and the hatch closed firmly behind them, I wept.