Star Trek Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 55 - Wounds - Book 1 by Star Trek

Author:Star Trek
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781416509608
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2005-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter

8

“Oh, this is just perfect.” Enraged, Kahayn dodged around the security director and made for the gurney. The suited figure was still writhing, but she couldn’t see who or what was inside. The faceplate, which she assumed was clear, was shiny with a thick layer of soot that had an astringent smell and smeared like oil when she touched her finger to it.

Cursing, Kahayn snatched up a large square of gauze. “Give me a hand here,” she said to the tech as she leaned down hard on the patient’s right arm and started scrubbing at the faceplate, “grab that other arm, get it out of my way. The rest of you, I need a crash cart, stat, and get me an ET tube. As soon as I get this clear, I want this guy wired for sound. Call anesthesia, get them down here, we’re probably going to intubate.”

“Stand down, Colonel!” said Blate. His bullish face was a mottled purple. “That’s an order!”

“You don’t outrank me, Blate.” Kahayn threw the nurses a look. “Go.”

This seemed to be all the nurses were waiting for; they moved fast, one nurse racing off for the crash cart, and the other whirling toward a wall-mounted comm.

“Arin.” Kahayn craned her head over her shoulder. “Did you check for explosives?”

“Colonel Kahayn!” Blate, again. “You are ordered—!”

“Shut up, Blate.” Kahayn tossed aside one stained gauze and wadded up another. Residue’s sticky like tar, like he’s been in a chemical fire, maybe a fuel depot that went up—but this suit, I’ve never seen anything like it. “ Arin, what about it, is he packed? What about contamination?”

“No.” Arin came alive. Taking the distance in three loping strides, he relieved the tech, leaning down hard on the patient’s arm. “Get me restraints,” he ordered, and then to Kahayn: “No explosives, and the suit’s not radioactive as far as we can tell.”

“What about scanners?”

“Colonel,” said Blate.

“Scanners are a nonstarter,” said Arin. The tech returned with brown leather restraints and Arin got busy belting down the patient’s left arm. “The suit’s impervious, maybe lead-lined. We can’t see anything.” Arin threw a restraint around the patient’s left leg as the tech took the right. Then Arin crowded next to Kahayn, threaded leather through a buckle and cinched down the right arm, tight, midway up the patient’s forearm. “Can’t call up anything on tomography, either.”

“We’ve got to get this suit off.”

“Yeah, but those lights, the ones going to red on his wrist, they bug me.”

“You’re thinking countdown?”

“Maybe.” Arin peered at Kahayn over his glasses. “No way to be sure, right? Except we crack it and hope we don’t go boom?”

“That is precisely why you must release this intruder to me,” said Blate.

“Forget it, Blate. Write me up.” She grabbed another gauze. The patient’s faceplate was smeary, but she caught a glimpse of a face. Almost there. “Better yet, arrest me. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in a week.”

“This isn’t funny, Colonel.”

“Blate, you idiot! You think the Jabari or an Outlier have the

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