Absolution by Glynn Stewart

Author:Glynn Stewart [Stewart, Glynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781989674369
Publisher: Faolan's Pen Publishing
Published: 2023-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

EB was still unconscious when Trace arrived at the medbay, but the focus of the activity in the small space was on one of the other two patients.

The corvette’s medbay had four beds, each set up in its own alcove with a full range of equipment. Even Trace could tell that the equipment in there was at least on par with Lan’s medbay on Evasion, if not better—which made Zelda’s medbay the highest-end equipment available in the area.

Which made sense, she supposed, for a ship carrying Trackers—interstellar bounty hunters—that also worked as mercenaries on a regular basis.

She spotted Sarge, the pale-haired and -skinned soldier familiar from the attack on the Cage. He was propped up in his alcove, with an array of medical equipment festooned down his side. Sarge was awake, though, and gave Trace a small wave with his free hand.

The third occupied alcove held another soldier—Olafson, Trace guessed—along with a group of four people that had to be the ship’s entire medical team. She couldn’t hear their conversation, but its firm and steady tone told her two things.

One, things were bad. Olafson was in rough shape, and the doctor was maintaining tight control of the tone to make sure they worked steadily.

Two, things were manageable. Even doctors could lose hope, though most she’d known would keep trying, but the tone of the conversation sounded like they were winning. It just sounded like it wasn’t being easy.

The last thing Trace wanted to do was interrupt a medical team in the process of saving someone’s life. She slipped into EB’s alcove, out of sight, out of mind—and out of the way.

There was a seat next to the bed, and she half-slumped into it in relief as she looked over the displays on the bed. She didn’t know what all the numbers meant, but she figured the assorted steady green lights were a good sign.

He’d just been stunned, after all. Stunners weren’t perfect and problems could happen—but they were astonishingly rare. The self-targeting light stunner Trace usually carried was basically incapable of causing serious long-term damage—but was also easily defeated by even unusually heavy clothing.

Heavier stunners had greater risks—and she’d never even heard of stun bombs before. Her datanet search suggested a military crowd-control weapon, scalable from hand grenades to true bombs dropped from air- and spacecraft.

She didn’t need the warning in the article she’d found to guess that anything with that much power and area of effect was drastically more dangerous than even a heavy stunner.

Of course, it was the difference between a one-in-a-million chance and a one-in-ten-million chance, and Trace heard EB cough even as she closed the article in her headware.

“I’m here, Dad-E,” she said instantly.

“Oh,” he said faintly. “That’s good. The last thing I remember is a scalpel.”

He felt silent and she shifted to take his hand.

“Stun hangover?” EB finally asked.

“Yeah. Reggie and Zelda’s people threw a stun grenade into the compartment you were in,” she told him.

“Did they get Ali, too?” He coughed and shook his head as if dizzy.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.