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Chapter 8 Chapter 10

Alternity - Chapter 9

Future Imperfect

"Trance, go aft and check to see if Harper made it out of the engineering compartment. Maybe he got out in time. "

She was on her way aft before Beka had time to finish the sentence. As she passed by the medical locker in the common room she reached out to grasp the bag that was hanging from a hook on the front of the locker. The bag, which Harper referred to as a gunbag, contained among other things bandages and a strap that could be used as a tourniquet. Through the doorway leading to the crew's quarters, she heard Aurora crying. A glance into the compartment reassured her that while her baby was frightened she was safe enough for the moment. It was her husband she was worried about. She prayed to every Power she knew that he had managed to escape from the engineering compartment.

She found him lying face down in a pool of blood in the passageway connecting engineering with the common room. Kneeling by his side, she checked his pulse. It was weak and rapid, but it was there. She rolled him onto his back to check his breathing and gave out a gasp of horror. His face, upper torso and arms were a mass of burns. The undersides of his arms were badly blistered and in some areas actually charred. What remained of his shirt was a charred mess and his chest area was a mass of third–degree burns. His face was relatively undamaged, apparently he had managed to somewhat protect it with his arms. There was a large gash in his left leg which was bleeding profusely He was breathing, but his breaths were shallow and rapid. Opening the gunbag she removed a pressure bandage. The bandage was treated with a compound that promoted blood clotting. She lay the bandage over the wound and pressed down applying pressure to the wound. After what seemed like an eternity but was only a few minutes the blood flow ceased. Using the ties attached to the bandage Trance secured it in place over the wound. With the bleeding in check it was time to treat Harpers other injuries.

The antigrav lifter that she normally would have used to move Harper was stored in the Maru's cargo hold, and was now undoubtedly floating free in space, or maybe part of the pirates salvaged loot. She was going to have to move him the hard way. Going forward to the crew compartment, and once more reassuring herself as to her child's well being, she obtained a blanket then went back to the passageway where her husband lay. Laying the blanket on the deck beside him, she maneuvered him onto the blanket, then grasping the edges of the blanket she dragged him out of the passageway through the common room and into the crew compartment where she lay him on his back in one of the empty bunks. Fortunately he was unconscious, otherwise he would have been in agony from being moved. She then went to the Maru's first aid locker, Beka might have been stingy in some areas of the Maru's furnishings, but the first aid locker would have been at home in any first responder emergency vehicle. It was well equipped and Beka made sure that everyone who served on the Maru knew how to use the equipment. Trance removed a piece of diagnostic equipment and used it to check her husband's blood pressure. As she had feared, it was dangerously low, he was going into shock as a result of blood loss and burn damage. Going back to the medical locker, she removed a bag of blood substitute and an injector of a drug designed to increase blood pressure. The bag contained a synthetic fluid that could be used to replace blood in virtually any oxygen breathing creature and could be stored nearly indefinitely. It was also hideously expensive and their supplies were limited. She administered the drug and attached the bag of blood substitute to her husband She had opened up many of the blisters on his chest and arms dragging him into the compartment and into the bunk, but for the moment that was a secondary problem. Infection might set in, and if it did it might kill him, but if she didn't get the shock under control that would certainly kill him.. For the moment there was nothing more she could do for him; it was time to check on Beka.

Beka was still sitting in the pilot's chair. There was a vacant look in her eyes and tears were running down her cheeks.

"Beka?"

There was no reply. The older woman just continued to stare into nothingness. Trance tried again, this time louder.

"Beka."

Still no response. In desperation Trance shook her. "Beka, snap out of this. I need your help. Harper has been hurt and I can't take care of him and the baby at the same time. I need you to help with Aurora." Either the mention of Harper or Aurora did the trick.

"Harper? How is Harper?"

It wasn't much of a response, but it was a response. Trance hesitated before answering. If she gave Beka the unvarnished truth, that he was dying, she might turn off again, but she didn't want to lie either.

"I've done the best I can for him. He's comfortable now. We'll just have to wait. But I need you to come with me to your quarters and hold Aurora. She's frightened and needs someone to hold her."

Taking Beka's hands she pulled her from the pilot's chair and led her to her quarters. When they got there she helped the older woman into the single chair that was in the cubicle and then went to fetch Aurora.

Aurora gurgled happily when she was placed in Beka's arms, curling her tail around her adopted grandmother's wrist. Now that the noise and the shaking had stopped, she was her usual sunny self. Beka was quiet for a moment, then began to respond to Aurora's smile, rocking her and singing a gentle lullaby. Her eyes were still somewhere else however. There was a vacant look in them that worried Trance, but there was nothing she could do for her friend at the moment. She went back to check on her husband. He hadn't gotten any worse, but he was still at deaths door.

Of course if they weren't rescued soon Beka and Harper's medical conditions would become irrelevant. Once the emergency power supplies were exhausted it would be a race to see what killed them all first, asphyxiation or hypothermia.

She attempted to extend her perception and view the probable futures, but as usual when she was dealing with events that she was emotionally involved with she failed. Going forward to the command deck she sat down in the pilot's chair and began broadcasting over the emergency channels.

"Mayday, Mayday, This is the merchant ship Eureka Maru inbound to Halcyon. We have been attacked by pirates and require urgent assistance. I have injured crew members who need immediate medical care. Our engines have been disabled and we are operating on emergency power. Any vessels please respond. Mayday. Mayday."

After four hours of continuously broadcasting the Mayday she was horse, her voice little more than a whisper What was worse was that the emergency lights were starting to dim.

"Eureka Maru, this is the Systems Commonwealth High Guard cruiser Andromeda Ascendant. Continue your broadcast. We are coming to your assistance."

The Andromeda Ascendant, this was the call she had been waiting for, for over three years. The call that was supposed to lead to a perfect future. She looked at the mass of red warning lights on the instrument panels telling her of the death of her home, then aft, toward her husband lying on a bunk injured and dying, to the woman who had become more of a mother to her than her own mother had ever been, and whose spirit was now broken, perhaps irrevocably so, and toward her daughter whose future had been stolen by pirates. How could she have been so wrong?

Chapter 8 Chapter 10