Requiem by D.M. Pruden

Author:D.M. Pruden [Pruden, D.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fuzzy Slipper Publishing

Chapter 7

Our mag boots clank as we hurry to the infirmary.

“What’s going on, Chambers? Do you have a plan, or are you making this all up as you go along?”

“A little bit of both, Mel.”

He opens the doorway to the cramped medical suite and bids me to enter ahead of him. Once inside, with the door closed, he turns to me, an earnestness on his face that has been absent until now.

“I want you to cook up an anesthetic gas to pump through the ship.”

“What?”

“Listen to me; I bullshitted Singh about what the pirates will do. They will board us and probably space us. We have to do something to get out of here.”

“But you said they wouldn’t harm us.”

“That part would be true if we stayed on the main trading route. The fact that we came to one of their bases changes things. We are so far off our registered course that we’ll never be found, and they can’t risk being exposed.”

“You and Singh knew this when you brought us here?”

“He thought he had a deal that ensured our safe passage. We all know how that worked out,” he says. “Can you do it?”

“An anesthetic? I think so. This place is well stocked.”

“We need it soon, Mel.”

I turn to the medical computer and run a search for an effective agent. Chambers watches me closely, wringing his hands when he believes I can’t see him.

“Okay, I think I have something,” I say. “I need time to prep it.”

“They’ll be here in less than fifteen minutes.”

“Can you stall them?”

He laughs unconvincingly. “For a bit...maybe we could experience hydraulic problems with the docking port; but they won’t wait patiently for us to fix it before they blow a hole in the side of my ship.”

I am already pulling supplies from the cabinets. “Ten minutes; and I need Schmaltz to help me tie it in to the environmental system.”

Chambers opens the door. “I’ll send him. Anything else?”

“Yeah, how do you expect our crew not to be overcome by the gas?”

Concern clouds his face. He scans the room then clanks over to the cabinet and removes an oxygen canister with a mask attached. “With this.”

“How many more are in there?”

“Um, two.”

“That might be a problem, Chambers.”

He frowns as he considered the situation. “We’ll pump the anesthetic into the airlock. We just need to make sure they take off their helmets. The crew shouldn’t be affected.”

“You have an answer to everything, don’t you?”

“It’s a work in progress. Hurry up and then meet me at the docking port.”

“Me? Why?”

“These pirates don’t see many attractive women. You’ll be an effective distraction.”

“You’re a misogynistic asshole.”

“C’mon, Doc, we don’t have time for righteous indignation if we want to escape this alive.”

“Fine, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“I knew hiring you was the right decision. Don’t be long.”

My training as an emergency trauma physician clicks in, and I focus on preparing the anesthetic. There is no time to give in to the fear that lurks beneath my professional composure.

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