First Admiral 02 The Burning Sun (26 page)

“Get her to the Hospital Deck!” Lokkrien called as the Officer’s supervisor started to help the injured operator unsteadily to her feet.

No sooner had she risen to her feet; leaning on her supervisors shoulders than another Technician was at the console trying to repair it. The injured operator, a nasty burn on her face, was led away by the supervisor despite the jostling.

“All vessels are starting to report structural damage, sir!” the senior Engineer reported, “We have to withdraw or we’ll be shaken apart!”

“No!” Lokkrien barked, “We hold this position as long as we can, how long until this is over!?”

“Another two minutes, sir!” the Scanner Technician replied, “We’re just about to hit the tail!”

The Sun, having been agitated by the Bardomil emitter, had thrown out one last intense burst of super-heated plasma before settling back down to its normal, more docile, state. This was what the vulnerable force-shielding umbrella would now have to survive.

“Can you hold us together for two more minutes!?” Lokkrien demanded.

“I don’t know, sir!” the Senior Engineer shouted in response, “I just don’t know!!”

“Well, we’re just about to find out aren’t we!?” Lokkrien added, “Brace yourselves everyone!”

Throughout the War Room, personnel sought what little safety and support that they could find. Most of the Officers and Technicians simply crouched beneath their consoles, like beasts hiding from a great storm.

The impact came a few moments later and was more intense than their original entry into the plasma stream. The massive concussions shook and rattled all of the Alliance craft, throwing personnel from their stations like rag dolls cast around by a petulant child. Lokkrien, flung off his feet by the impact, felt himself being swept across the War Room floor and landing heavily amongst the first bank of consoles. Around him, the War Room personnel were all undergoing a similar ordeal. Trying to rise to his feet, Lokkrien saw another console explode in a shower of dazzling sparks as a Technician was flung backwards into the row behind. A young woman screamed as she too was thrown into the air by an impact. Managing to get to his feet, Lokkrien lurched into the first row of consoles. Trying to impose any form of order and command on the situation, he knew, would be impossible. They would just have to try to survive as best they could. The only thing Lokkrien felt that he could usefully do was try to help those around him.

Stumbling amongst the consoles, Lokkrien caught a stumbling female Technician as she fell towards him. Catching her, Lokkrien felt the impact jarring most of the bones in his body. For a moment, the young woman stared in horror at him. Then, he realised that she was a Thexxian.

“Get under here!” he ordered, pushing the young woman under one of the consoles before moving on to see whom else he could help.

Lurching into the second row, another console exploded showering Lokkrien in sparks as he held up his arm to protect his face. A voice called out in terror as a body flew past.

Aboard the Black Rose, the unconscious Billy lay in the high-backed command chair, his head lolling backwards, whilst in front of him on the centre screen all five sectors were lit up and the power use bars were all deeply into the red zone with the word ‘CRITICAL’ flashing in yellow above the now-static bars.

Then, as quickly as the violent shaking had started, it stopped as the last of the super-charged plasma was cast harmlessly off into space.

On the Aquarius, Lokkrien was one of many who sat in the momentary peace and silence wondering what was going to happen next. Then, real life kicked in. Some of the injured War Room personnel started to groan and yell for help as comrades began to drag themselves, painfully and wearily, out of their hiding places and re-establish connections at their consoles. People were, shakily, rising to their feet once more and trying to restore some kind of normality. Fire extinguishers were activating adding a pall of harmless gas to the dust and debris of the shambles that was once the First Admiral’s War Room.

Amidst the devastation of the War Room, Lokkrien took immediate command.

“Get the injured to the Hospital Decks! Call in the replacement crews!” he began amongst the debris and the groaning.

“Comms, I want back on the network, priority!” he shouted towards the Communications consoles.

“Engineers, get those damage assessments made fast!” he called out as he started to help an Engineering Officer to her feet.

“And, someone get a rescue boat out to the First Admiral now!” he yelled the loudest.

Chapter 32

The Star-Cruiser Aquarius

Having been pulled from the Control Cabin of the Black Rose, Billy Caudwell was barely able to recognise the harsh antiseptic smell of the Hospital Deck that he had been brought to. Strangely, he felt that the radiation burns to his face and hands were giving him no pain or discomfort. The Medical Officers who hovered around his Med-Bed, however, knew that this was the sign of a serious injury. Even the protective force-shielding of the Personal Environment Suit, lying on the floor next to the Med-Bed, had been unable to defend Billy from the full harshness of the sun’s fury. The deep, angry red welts on his face were interrupted by patches of pale waxy white flesh where the tissue had been completely killed off. The gathered Medical Officers had heartily concurred that it had been a miracle that his eyes had not been damaged.

Sitting up on his elbows in the Med-Bed that hovered about a metre from the ground, Billy was only just able to focus on the hive of activity that surrounded him. Medical Officers seemed to congregate like undertakers at a deathbed, whispering and arguing amongst themselves.

“Did it work?” Billy asked and found that his voice was no more than a shallow croak.

For a moment, the Medical Officers ceased their conference to look concernedly at their patient as a kindly-faced Medical Technician smiled and leaned in close to Billy.

“What was that, First Admiral?” she asked softly, pulling up the pale blue cover to his waist, and turning her head to place her ear close to his mouth.

“Did Earth survive?” Billy croaked the question he desperately needed answered.

“Yes, First Admiral,” the Technician smiled, “now you must rest, sir,” she added and carefully helped him to recline once more.

Lying on his back, Billy felt breathless and uncomfortable and tried to prop himself up on his elbows again.

“No, First Admiral” the Technician placed her olive Thexxian hands on his shoulders and gently pushed him back, “you must not agitate yourself.”

“Can’t breathe lying down,” Billy croaked as he tried to resist her shove.

“He says he can’t breathe, sir,” the Technician called out to the Medical Officers, who quickly gathered around the Med-Bed.

“It might be scarring on his lungs or windpipe,” one of the Junior Medical Officers commented as if Billy were on another planet.

“Keep his shoulders elevated,” the Senior Medical Officer instructed.

A moment later, Billy felt his upper body being pushed upwards as the force-shielding on the Med-Bed’s horizontal surface was adjusted to raise his head and shoulders up to a more comfortable position.

“Lokkrien,” Billy croaked softly.

“He wants Admiral Lokkrien,” the Senior Medical Officer said, “bring him in and commence the intensive phoronic radiation treatment.”

The gaggle of Medical Officers quickly scattered to their duties as the kindly-faced Technician reappeared with what looked like a breakfast tray with two large hollow tubes at either side.

“We’ll do your hands first, sir,” the Technician smiled and clipped the breakfast tray contraption to the edges of the Med-Bed across Billy’s stomach.

As Billy watched the breakfast tray contraption being attached, Lokkrien appeared at the foot of the Med-Bed.

“Welcome back to the land of the living sir; we thought we’d lost you for a moment there,” Lokkrien tried to sound cheerful as he struggled to ignore the burns on Billy’s face.

“You don’t get rid of me that easily, Marrhus,” Billy croaked as he tried to smile.

“We’ll just put your hand in the treatment bay,” the Medical Technician indicated to Billy’s right hand.

“What’s the situation then?” Billy asked, his throat starting to ease, as he nodded to the kindly Technician, who gently lifted his burned right hand and carefully slotted it into the hollow on the treatment device.

“Well, we, I mean you, saved the Earth from the solar flare,” Lokkrien tried to sound positive, “but the Bardomil have pushed Admiral Chulling back to Valnarim in the Praxos system,” he added the sting-in-the-tail as he stepped aside for the Technician.

“Just lifting your left hand now, sir,” the Technician announced and began to slide the hand into the treatment bay.

“Is Chulling holding?” Billy asked.

“He’s hanging on in there, sir,” Lokkrien replied, “but, it’s a tough fight, they’ve had to give ground and they’ve lost the Ticonderoga.”

“What do you mean, ‘lost’ the Ticonderoga?” Billy queried unable to grasp the concept that a force-shielded ship could be destroyed.

“Her proto-star Containment Chamber was compromised,” Lokkrien explained.

“Dear God,” Billy mumbled as the enormity of the loss struck him.

“Switching on,” the Technician announced and pressed a button on the left treatment bay.

A moment later, the breakfast tray contraption began to hum softly as Billy felt the gentle soothing waves of phoronic radiation stimulate his own healing processes. At first a gentle itch subsided into a sensation not unlike bathing his hands in tepid water.

“Then we have to get to Chulling with everything we can manage,” Billy’s voice began to clear.

“Well, what we have sir, is three of the five Star-Destroyers badly damaged and unable to move under their own power and the other two with major structural problems,” Lokkrien replied.

“Can they initiate Trion Drives?” Billy asked.

“There we go, all finished on the hands,” the Medical Technician said brightly and pulled the breakfast tray contraption away from Billy’s hands.

Lifting his hands, Billy could still see the outline of the burns beneath the pink newly healing skin that the radiation had stimulated to grow over the injuries. The damaged nerve tissue would be starting to regenerate within a few minutes and Billy knew that he would have to get the Personal Environment Suit back on to ward off the intense pain that would entail.

“It’ll be touch and go if they try to enter the Trionic Web,” Lokkrien warned.

“Well, I’m not leaving Chulling to hang out to dry,” Billy said determinedly, “round up every Eagle and pilot you can scrape together and cram them into the two functional Star-Destroyers,” Billy ordered.

“Your face now, sir,” the Technician held up a transparent mask in the shape of a human face attached to several spindly leads, “close your eyes now, sir,” she added.

“It’s still a terrible risk,” Lokkrien warned once more, “if they’re not up to scratch, the Trionic Web will tear them apart.”

“Now keep very still, sir,” the Medical Technician instructed as she gently placed the mask on Billy’s face.

“What choice…” Billy began to answer when he was interrupted by the Medical Technician.

“I mean completely still, sir,” the Technician said firmly immediately silencing Billy, “switching on,” she intoned and the machine began to hum softly again.

Again, Billy felt the gentle itch on his skin rapidly transform to the tepid bathing sensation.

“I used to know a Drill Instructor like that at the Bardan Military Academy,” Lokkrien smiled at Billy, “and he wasn’t half as tough as this one.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, sir, I…” the flustered Technician began to apologise.

“Technician,” Lokkrien smiled, “you’re doing a fine job; just remind me to call for you should I ever need to tell the First Admiral to shut up, will you?” he joked.

Unable to move, Billy stifled a laugh as the waves of healing radiation swept over his face.

“There we go, sir,” the Technician said shame-facedly as she removed the mask from Billy’s face.

“How do I look?” Billy asked nervously.

“As pink as a boiled Terran lobster,” Lokkrien answered honestly, “with blotches.”

“Oh great,” Billy said imagining his face in the same sad condition as his hands, “just what I needed.”

“So, we still go with Titan and Colossus?” Lokkrien asked hoping that Billy had changed his mind.

“Yes, we don’t have a choice,” Billy said and swung his legs out over the edge of the Med-Bed with a pained groan, “and, make sure the civilians get back to Earth all right.”

“First Admiral, I must protest!” the Senior Medical Officer stepped forward anxiously.

“Good,” Billy sighed as he sat on the edge of the Med-Bed, “put it in writing and submit it to Admiral Lokkrien,” he winced and pushed himself onto the floor.

Stumbling, Billy quickly regained his balance, and stood shakily on his own two feet as Lokkrien darted forward.

“Steady, old man,” Lokkrien said catching Billy’s shoulder as he stumbled again, “where exactly do you think you’re going?” he added softly.

“If we’re the Cavalry,” Billy replied straightening up, “then I can’t ride to the rescue on a Med-Bed can I?”

“The Cavalry tend to like their leaders living and breathing,” Lokkrien countered.

“Oh, they will be,” Billy answered, “give me that uniform,” he indicated the Personal Environment Suit that lay on the ground.

Stooping down quickly, Lokkrien swept the pale blue uniform overall up in his right hand and passed it to Billy who draped it over his shoulder and began to hobble, stiff-legged and pained towards the doorway.

“First Admiral, I…” the Senior Medical Officer protested once more.

Stopping in his painful hobble, Billy held up his left hand to silence the Medical Officer.

“It’s all right, it’ll be my responsibility,” Billy assured the concerned Officer.

And, continued hobbling painfully away.

Chapter 33

The Star-Cruiser Aquarius