Sliding Reality: Chapter 8 Part 7 of 7 (Patreon)

Wounded were laid out on the floor, people using markers or blood on their heads to mark them.

Pumps hummed into what looked like body bags secured to the floor.

“Method of injury?” A medic asked them with tags and a pen.

“Metal shrapnel to the side, penetrating wound and head trauma, he’s breathing, ragged not sure if liquid in lungs, pulse is thready, unconscious, eyes are shot, concussion probable. I didn’t remove anything, used clothing to wrap his side to slow bleeding.”

The medic slapped the tag onto Brad’s chest.

“Over there.” He pointed to a group, a medic moving over them with a scan tool and a bottle of foam he sprayed liberally over any wound.

“Method of injury?” The medic asked the next person coming in.

“Medics, no matter the faction they fight for adhere to the rule that no matter who is in their care, they’ll give them the best care,” Stephen seemed to have sensed Luke’s confusion.

Shiro set down Brad next to the others, the spray and scan medic spidering over him.

“No internal bleed, swelling is heavy but not threatening. He sprayed Brad’s side, Green gel expanded like shaving cream, covering the wound.

“That should work, going to need to get an IV into him,” The medic moved to his bag mag locked to the floor as another patient was brought over.

“Give me the scanner and foamer, I can help out, trained medic.”

The man looked at him and passed over the hand held scanner and foamer. “If you’re lying to me I’ll hunt your ass down and burn you to the fucking ground.”

“Understood, I’ll give them my best care.”

The man seemed to see something in his bot’s eyes and nodded, moving to his bag as Shiro moved to the next wounded.

“Come on, lets get out of here, we’d only be in the way.” Stephen said.

Luke nodded, numb, seeing the room, its sights penetrating into his head, he focused on his father’s back, his eyes darting to a marine pulling a body bag closed.

"Fuck, what the hell?"

[Jynx is offline]

Luke grimaced.

“Fin can you send her a message say that her dad is fine, he will need some time, but he’ll be fine in a day.” Shiro said.

“Sure.”

Luke glanced at his dad. I couldn’t imagine if.

Luke steered his thoughts in other directions, heading back into the command post, passing the lines of prisoners and bots.

How the hell did we survive that long? He looked at the impact sites for the rockets, the dents, scuffs and holes from weapons fire.

He turned his gaze from the bots filling body bags.

"All Federation marine units have now surrendered.” Sally appeared at the top of the command post next to Stuart.

Luke looked up, Stuart looking at him, at the destruction.

“Brad?”

“He’s getting medical attention, Shiro is with him, they’ll look after him.” Stephen said.

“Thank the stars,” Stuart, grabbed onto a console for strength, closing his eyes.

“The Sixth Fleet is retreating, I can continue firing upon them.” He raised his eyes to the screens, most broken, a few had survived, he opened his mouth, closed it and looked away.

“There’s been enough blood spilled today. Tell them to clear out of the system within thirty minutes or we’ll open fire. Warn them that we will not tolerate any Federation fleet within Orion.”

“What about their ships?” Fin asked.

“Screw their damn ships, anything they leave here is ours, we’ll send their marines back in their underwear, I’m not going to give them a single thing that they could use to fight, not a destroyer, a rifle, grenades or a damn butter knife.” He shot out a breath, composing himself. “Fin I-“

“No worries, I understand,” Fin patted him on the shoulder.

Luke rested his hand on his hip, finding his repair tool missing.

“Dad could I get my repair tool back?”

“One sec I can fix up your neck.” He used it on Luke, checking his work.

“That looks good.” He handed it back, Luke clamping his rifle to his back.

“Thanks dad.” Luke turned the repair tool over in his hand and looked at the command post.

“Hey Fin, Moose, while we’re here we might as well fix this place back up, get some of the consoles working again, maybe the screens?”

“I can have the bots deliver replacement components.” Sally said.

“That would speed things up. Uhh the door, we have some engineers that might be able to fix it up for you Stuart?”

“Uhh, yeah sure, that would be good.”

“Stephen do you want my tool I’ll stay up here,” Fin said in squad chat.

“Sure thing.”

“I got the screens,” Moose tapped off of the ground and up to the screens.

“I’ll take the blast.” Luke moved to the impact in the middle of the amphitheatre. Shards hitting him and spinning off as he locked his boots to the warped metal.

He kneeled, playing the repair tool over the metal, it smoothed out and cleaned up as he worked along, taking comfort in its mind-numbing simplicity.

Looks like it penetrated there. Curiosity made him peer through the gash in the floor.

Racks and racks of circuitry filled the space underneath the ampitheatre.

That’s gotta be more than this command post needs. There’s circuits inside the consoles.

Frowning, his eyes drifted to Sally. Could this be where she is?

He checked the command post map. It was in the shape of a sphere, the auditorium stretched up from one side, then leveled out, the areas above and below weren’t marked with anything.

That’s a massive amount of space, enough space for an AI’s circuits?

“Minnie and her people are on their way, they should be here in five minutes.” Fin said on squad chat.

“Thanks for letting them know,” Luke continued using his repair tool, grabbing pieces of metal from the air and putting them on the gash, his repair tool sealing and healing the damage, hiding the racks below, moving to openings in the metal, and closing them up.

“Well, this is a bit of a mess, at least we’ve got access to free parts,” Minnie drifted through the doorway.

His eyes darted around for bots filling body bags, they’d finished their grim detail and left. Guilt warring with the relief that he wouldn’t have to see it.

“Do you know how long it will take to repair?” He focused on her.

“Shouldn’t be more than a day, Sphere World is giving us all the components we could want, and that’s just plug repair tool and play.” Minnie touched a console, turning back to the door. “More worried about that door, either it’ll be a nice easy fix, or its going to be a right beast of a job.”

“Brad is stable and good enough to move, we’ve pulled out the shrapnel, he just needs rest and should wake up in a few hours,” Shiro said on squad chat.

“Brad is stable and good to move,” Fin said to Stuart.

“Okay, well lets go to the ship then.”

“I would advise against that. The Federation sent marines there, its not really defendable if they send another fleet, and they could have put down traps. I’d say stay here in the habitable areas of the station and we can send someone out to the ship to check for traps and to get what you need.” Stephen said.

“Stars I just want to be back on a planet with gravity and my bed.” Stuart rubbed his face. “Alright yeah, Sally can you get Brad and I rooms next to one another and near the command post. Luke, could you get someone to grab our gear from the ship. We have it in bags.”

“The Administrator apartments await you and Brad. I altered my interior to create two of them. They are a five minute walk from the command post.” Sally said.

A marker appeared on Luke’s map.

“I can go to the ship,” Moose raised his hand. “I’m liable to know what traps they’d place.”

“Alright you grab their gear, food and water.” Luke said.

“On it.” Moose headed for the door.

“Lets get out of here.” Stuart said.

“Shiro can you move Brad to the administrator apartments?”

“Yeah. I’ll get him over there.”