Courageous: Dauntless: Book Two by JF Collins

Author:JF Collins [Collins, JF]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2025-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter twenty-two

Corpsman First Class Lucas Storjohann looked at the battered ensign sitting on the edge of the bed in the sick bay. He had an obvious and badly set broken nose, multiple contusions, abrasions, strains and sprains.

“So, what happened?” he asked for the third time.

“Marine combat training,” was the same thing he had heard the previous two times.

Navy corpsmen served alongside Marines for their medical needs and there were half a dozen assigned to the contingent on Courageous. Many corpsmen had died or were grievously wounded providing aid to the Marines in their care and were almost always affectingly called “Doc.” They were part of the team and probably just as crazy if not more so, than the Marines they worked with. Lucas had no desire to leave his relatively safe posting on Courageous and was happy where he was.

“But you’re Navy, right? What are you doing getting involved in that?”

Lucas hoped it wasn’t some sort of new hazing among the junior officers on the ship. If it was he was legally obligated to report it, and the result would be months and months of useless interviews and piles of paperwork. One of his buddies on Indomitable had something similar happen, and while it was unfounded, it still caused her nightmares.

“I am Courageous.”

And stupid. No one messes with the Marines.

“Marine combat training? Are you sure?”

“Yes, what’s the story, doc? I have duty in a couple of hours.”

Lucas quickly ran through his list of injuries.

“So it’s nothing not easily fixed?”

“I can double down on the medical nanites, but it’s going to hurt a lot more. Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Lewis,” by his name tag, lay down on the bed with a sigh.

“I am Courageous,” he added.

Lucas had heard that phrase more and more times over the past weeks. It was now apparently a catchphrase for the crew. Faced with a difficult or dangerous task, they would shrug, and say that apparently magical phrase. The same thing was said when something happened, be it good or bad. The mess serving inedible meatloaf or delightfully cooked fresh chicken earned the utterance of that phrase. Frankly, it was getting annoying, but with many trends on the ship, it would either quietly disappear or be fully ingrained into the culture until Courageous was taken to the scrapyards.

“Maybe I should bring in Dr. Anonowtz?”

The man was an idiot, but he had the magic “M.D.” after his name, although anyone who knew of his medical skills wouldn’t much trust him to work on anything more complex than pruning leaves from a geranium, which would probably die. But he was easily convinced to let his corpsmen do whatever they pleased, within some loose guidelines. And, having the good doctor sign off on his treatment of Lewis would make the whole thing legitimate, and cover Lucas’ rear end if something went wrong.

“You are what I have and will have to do. Let’s get started as I have duty in two hours. I am Courageous.”

He didn’t know what drove this young man to take Marine combat training.

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