The Second Star by Alma Alexander

Author:Alma Alexander [Alma Alexander]
Language: eng
Format: epub

8.

Stella barely paused for long enough to pull on sufficient clothes to make her acceptable to appear in public before stumbling out of her quarters and racing towards the Parada crew quarters at a dead run. By the time she got there, it was to find the rest of the crew up and awake and standing very close together in a tight and quiet cluster a little away from Lily Mae’s quarters. There was an orderly standing in front of Lily Mae’s door, firmly closed; he looked fierce, as though he was guarding treasure, although it wasn’t entirely clear against whom. He was no match for Stella’s glare and stepped aside to let her pass.

Lily Mae’s room was crowded. A duty medical officer and a nurse were already in there, the nurse tidying away medical paraphernalia as best she could in the cramped space which wasn’t meant to hold this many adult human bodies. The doctor, who had been bending over Lily Mae, straightened as Stella stepped into the room, and from the expression on his face he had clearly been expecting somebody else. Martin Peck, perhaps.

Stella took advantage of his disconcerted pause and moved forward until she stood toe to toe with the man; he was nearly a foot taller than she was but she managed to give the impression of glaring directly into his eyes.

“Report,” she said sharply. “What happened here?”

“We… there was an emergency call. To the duty nurse. I got here as fast as I could…”

“How long ago?”

“Forty minutes…? Maybe?” The man hesitated, collecting his wits. “I should be reporting directly to…”

“You are reporting to me,” Stella snapped. “I am a primary caregiver on record. I was quite possibly the last person to leave notes on this woman’s medical chart. I want to know exactly what you found when you got here. Who called you? Who was here when you arrived? What was the status of the patient when you got here?”

“The Surveillance crew put in the call to the medical staff on duty,” the doctor said. “They called me.”

“What did you find?”

“She was gone when I got here,” the medic said. “No pulse. I called it, almost immediately.”

“Who was with her when she died?”

The medic blinked. “She was alone in here.”

“The rest of the crew. Nobody was in here with her?”

“Not when I got here,” the medic said. “Surveillance will know…”

“Did you exclude them?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“There’s a guard set outside this door. Was that to prevent the rest of the residents from coming in here? Are you even aware of the situation? Of the connections between these people?”

The man looked bewildered, and raised his hands as though to defend himself, but Stella lifted her head and indicated the door to the room with a toss of her chin.

“All right. You have done your job. Now get out of here and wait outside. Both of you. Both of you, and the guy at the door. Send the rest of the crew in.”

“Ma’am…”

“Now,” Stella said. “It

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