Star Trek®: Vanguard: Open Secrets by Dayton Ward

Author:Dayton Ward
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2009-04-28T00:00:00+00:00

31

Atish Khatami stepped off the turbolift and onto the Endeavour’s hangar deck, beholding the scene of chaos before her.

Perhaps chaos was too strong a word, she decided as she began moving among the dozens of people occupying the vast chamber. Cots and containers of supplies that had been stored here were now in use. Moving among the people were the familiar blue tunics of Endeavour medical personnel, as well as the red shirts worn by members of the ship’s security division. Other members of the crew also had been drafted for working parties, helping to organize the sudden influx of new passengers the Endeavour had acquired.

“Captain,” a voice called out above the fray, and Khatami looked up to see Commander Stano crossing the deck toward her. The first officer’s expression was all business as she sidestepped other crew members.

Nodding as Stano drew closer, Khatami asked, “Is that all of them?”

“Yes,” the commander replied. “Transporter control reports the last eleven colonists just completed beam-over. I’ve got an engineering crew standing by to beam across and see if we might be able to repair the damage and restore environmental control.”

Khatami shook her head. “No. We’ll take the ship in tow and tractor it to Pacifica. Once we get there, we’ll assist in any way we can with repairs, but I don’t expect we’ll be hanging around that long.”

Footsteps echoed along the deck to her right, and she turned to see Dr. Leone walking toward them. Like Stano, the chief medical officer had tabled his usual sardonic manner, now all business as he tended to his latest batch of patients.

“We’ve finished treating the most serious injuries,” he said, reaching up to brush sweat-dampened hair from his forehead. “A lot of radiation burns from the engine overload and some broken bones and assorted lacerations and other bruises, all sustained during the attack. We’ve stabilized all of the radiation patients, and none of the other injuries is life-threatening, but a few of them will be sore for the next couple of days.” His expression changed, and Khatami knew the doctor was readying for the transition back to his normal behavior even before he hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “Sleeping on those cots won’t be much help,” he said. “If you want, I can set up a torture rack in sickbay. It’d be less painful.”

Smiling despite herself, Khatami said, “That won’t be necessary, Doctor. My compliments to you and your staff. As for the billeting situation, Commander Stano is taking care of that, but this will have to do for now. Make sure they have access to whatever they want or need from ship’s stores.”

“All the reconstituted chicken they can eat,” Leone replied. “They were better off with radiation poisoning. Anyway, that’s my report.”

“Thanks, Tony,” Khatami said as the doctor turned and made his way back to where his staff had set up a central point for treating the Roanoke’s passengers.

“He’s always going to be like that, isn’t he?” Stano said, eyeing Leone as he went back to work.

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