8-Omega Games by S. L. Viehl

Author:S. L. Viehl
Language: vie
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Eleven

The cargo air lock proved to be an excellent emergency operating room. I used the biodecon to sterilize the air, me, Cat, and the patient, and then set up a manifest station as an instrument stand. I laid out everything I needed and identified each for Cat so he would know what to hand me when I asked for it. We gloved and put on two of the disposable surgical shrouds from my case, and I injected the raider with a powerful sedative that would have to serve as general anesthesia.

“What if I drop something?” Cat asked.

“I stop operating and stab you in the chest.” Why did Cherijo’s words burst out of me whenever I was operating? I glanced at him. “I apologize. I’m kidding.”

He eyed the instrument stand. “I hope so.”

I had no blood with which to transfuse the raider, so I rigged a syrinpress and some tubing to both provide suction and autoinfuse the patient with his own blood.

“What is making him bleed like that?” Cat asked as I enabled a lascalpel and made the necessary incision to get under the patient’s ribs.

“He took a hard blow to the belly,” I said as I used the rib spreader to open up the cavity, and several sponges to soak up the blood oozing out of the spleen. “Drefan’s drednoc must have hit him. The blow made a tear here, see?” I pushed aside part of the stomach loop to expose the rupture in the spleen. “In humanoids, this organ filters out old blood cells and produces lymphocytes, which make antibodies. It’s always filled with blood, and bleeds badly when damaged, so I have to seal the tear or it will kill him.”

“He tried to kill your husband,” Cat reminded me. “Maybe you should return the favor.”

“Doctors take an oath to do no harm,” I said. “It applies to all patients, not simply allies or the ones we like.”

Cat squinted at the raider’s insides. “Do I have one of those?”

I glanced sideways at him. “Omorr have two, as it happens. One on either side of your body.” I remembered how much of Cat’s body I/Mercy had seen and touched, and quickly turned back to the patient.

“Your face is turning a strange color,” Cat said. “Should I adjust the air temperature in here?”

It took two hours for me to repair the damage to the raider’s spleen, which thankfully proved much more resilient than most humanoid species. Cat remained silent and moved only to hand me the instruments I needed, for which I was grateful.

“That’s it,” I said as I finished closing. “I’ll need to keep him on close monitor for the next day, but barring complications he should survive.” I pulled down my mask and saw how the Omorr’s gildrells poked out from under his. “What is wrong?”

He pulled the bloodied gloves from his membranes and dropped them on the table. “Nothing, except that you just came here, cut open that man, and rearranged his insides like you do it every day.

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