Nebula (ESS Space Marines Book 4) by Victor James David

Author:Victor, James David [Victor, James David]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Fairfield Publishing
Published: 2017-10-20T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

“That sounds like Wilkins,” Roxanna commented. She kept her gun close and shifted her body to get a better look. Andy waited nervously until the sergeant called up that they were ESS after all. That was when she slid her rifle back and finished climbing down, crawling into the tunnel on the other side.

She recognized their uniforms as engineering personnel. They both looked human, with the woman sitting upright and the man laying back, holding himself half up with his elbow but looking ashen even in the poor light. In the glow of her flashlight, she could see a sheen of sweat across his shivering skin.

“He’s hurt,” the female crewman supplied.

“Why didn’t you keep going to sickbay?” Andy asked.

The woman shook her head a little. “I’m hurt too and I can’t carry him.” She looked at him then with an apologetic look in her eye. He waved the one hand he had free, and Andy could see drying blood on part of it.

The major stifled a sigh. “I’m sorry that we can’t stay and do much for you. We’re not medics, and we have to get to engineering.” She reached down to one of her pants pockets and pulled out her med kit. “Use this as best you can.”

“Thank you,” the woman said. “If you’re going to engineering, I have to warn you. The hatch you’re on is not just closed, but locked. We had to lock it. There was damage that we couldn’t repair in the systems there. It’s what injured him. We just barely got up here and sealed the hatch against it, locking it in that section. But you can’t go through there until repairs are made.”

Andy cursed inwardly. Of course. That meant they were going to have to crawl through this tunnel for a while until they reached a hatch to exit onto the deck, go further down to a second access hatch and return in another area of tubes.

The “time was of the essence” time line was getting trickier every moment.

“When I can, I’ll alert medical that you’re here,” Andy promised. “I’m sure you’re aware that communications are down.”

“Yeah,” the woman said. “We tried contacting medical ourselves.”

Andy nodded, frustrated that she couldn’t do more. The best she could do was getting her own job done, securing the ship so people could get it working again.

“Hang in there,” she said, feeling almost foolish for the platitude but it was the best that she had to offer. “Like I said, I’ll alert medical as soon as I can, and we’re going to get to engineering and make sure things are okay there. We’ll get the ship right.”

Both engineers smiled weakly. She worried that they may not have much longer to wait, but again, she couldn’t do anything more.

“Good luck, Major,” the man said, his voice hoarse.

Andy nodded once and then uncomfortably turned around, gesturing for her Marines to continue down the tunnel. “Until the next access hatch so we can cross the deck.”

And so, onward they began to crawl again.

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