Dust & Iron by Kevin McLaughlin

Author:Kevin McLaughlin [McLaughlin, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Role of the Hero Publishing
Published: 2018-09-21T06:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Four

Charline’s first sensation on waking was pain. She hurt all over. Her body felt raw, especially her right side. She tried to shift, and agony flashed up her right arm and leg. She gave a soft moan and stopped trying to move.

“You’re awake. Good. How’s the pain?”

Charline just winced. Talking hurt too much.

“Hang on. I’ll add some more pain medication to your drip. You did a number on yourself,” the voice said. She recognized the man speaking, but she couldn’t place his voice.

He fiddled with something beside her. A few moments later, the pain receded enough for her thoughts to clear. She remembered the battle. The plasma blast that washed over her armor…

Some of the heat had flowed through a hole in her suit. It had hurt badly at the time, but not like this! She must have been more injured than she’d thought.

“Everyone else?” Charline managed to croak out. Her mouth and throat felt dry as dust.

“Alive, except Max. You saved everyone else. That was damned brave. Stupidly so. You almost killed yourself.”

Charline gave him a smile that faded immediately. Even smiling hurt. At least she recalled the medic’s name again. “Did what needed to be done, Karl.”

“Well, it worked. This time,” Karl said. “You’re lucky we had some medical nanites in my meditation, or you might not still be here.”

“She’s awake? Thank god. I was so worried,” Andy said.

His face drifted into view, then he knelt down on the floor next to her. Charline realized she had to be laying on the ground, but there was a curved ceiling overhead.

“Where are we?” Charline asked.

“In the alien shuttle,” Andy said. When she looked alarmed, he waved a hand in dismissal. “I know it’s a risk, but you couldn’t be moved. Karl said we’d risked you enough just getting you out of your armor. They haven’t come looking for their shuttle, anyway. It’s been six hours. I’m starting to think they aren’t going to.”

That was strange. Why would the aliens abandon the shuttle? It had to have come from a larger ship, right? It was hard to imagine that this one shuttle was the only Bug ship in the system. So why hadn’t anyone else come to help, or at least come looking for it?

“Ship’s log?” Charline asked.

Andy shook his head. “We can’t make heads or tails of it. The shuttle’s systems are mostly still functioning. But there don’t seem to be anything that resembles flight controls, and while we found the computer and managed to link up with it, we can’t decipher what it says.”

Charline grinned. “Tablet.”

Andy raised an eyebrow and looked at Karl.

“If she’s well enough to ask, she’d well enough to play with a tablet,” Karl said. “But she still needs plenty of rest while the nanites do their work.”

Andy motioned to someone else just out of Charline’s line of sight. They handed him a computer tablet, which he passed over to her. She activated the device with her left hand – her right still didn’t want to work.

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