by Trevor Wyatt
Sef moved on, Mahesh following him through.
“Be careful, Commander,” Mahesh said.
“Always am, sir,” she said. Then she opened the hatch and fell through. She was shooting her weapons even before she hit the ground. By the time she landed on the floor, Mahesh heard the bodies of the guards falling down.
“Clear!” Adachi yelled up to them.
Mahesh fell through the hole and landed on his knees. He felt the pain shoot through him. He bit back a scream when he saw Adachi eyeing him.
Mahesh stood up to his feet, glad that he hadn’t broken any of his bones.
Sef landed next to him, hitting the ground with a squat before rising to full height.
“Were you always a miner?” Mahesh asked. “The skills you’ve displayed so far are very useful, I gotta say.”
Sef sneered back in an obvious deflection, “Do you want to talk about my history or do you want to save your captain?”
“Point taken,” Mahesh said.
They were in some sort of a lobby that stood between a wide corridor and an inter-quadrant airlock. The passageway was long, but at its end, it branched into several different directions.
Sef headed over to the airlock.“This quadrant has been sealed,” he said.
“How do you know?” Adachi asked him.
“Look at the space between this airlock and the airlock of the other quadrant,” Sef said.
Mahesh came over to join them. There was an identical glass airlock on the other side and there was a space between the two airlocks.
“What’s wrong with the space?” Mahesh asked.
“The fact that there is a space and that this airlock is locked means this quadrant is inaccessible. It is all but a floating section of the ring station. A little nudge and we could be pushed off course and separated from the super structure.”
The sound of an explosion brought their focus back to the mission.
“Let’s move,” Mahesh said. “Grab whatever you can.”
“Sef, you’ll guide us,” Mahesh continued. “Is there a sick bay anywhere around?”
Sef scanned his device. “Yes. It is on our way to the crew. They are pinned down at the junction to where the holding cells are.”
Mahesh, Adachi, and Sef picked up the weapons and badges of the three guards in case they needed to split up.
“Okay,” Mahesh said. “Adachi and I will head towards the front. Sef, you stay behind and give us directions.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Adachi said, her eyes filled with concern. “You’re not a fighter.”
“Today, we’re all fighters,” Mahesh said. “Let’s go.”
The three of them slowly walked down the corridor with their guns pointed forward.
The corridor was a plane, immaculate white, set into a glare by the harsh overhead light. There weren’t any windows in the walls, nor were there any soldiers on sight despite the raging firefight they heard coming from other parts of the quadrant.
Then, at the branch off, they came across three soldiers.
Adachi fired the first set of shots. Two of the guards fell, while the third dived into the nearest corridor. Sef chased him down and knocked him out with his weapon. He then stood up and began leading them in another direction.
“Hold on,” Adachi said. She went back to the guard Sef had knocked out and aimed at the Tyreesian.
“No!” Mahesh said.
Adachi fired, killing the Tyreesian.
“Why did you do that?” Mahesh asked her when she rejoined them in the leftmost corridor.
“Because we kill them all,” Adachi said. “It’s better to leave dead Tyreesians behind us than for the Tyreesians to come back and kill us.”
Surprisingly, her reasoning made sense to Mahesh—which gave him cause for concern. If he started accepting reasons for murder and cruelty, then he wouldn’t be worthy of the Hippocrates Oath he took when he was inducted into the Armada Medical Corps.
“That was cold-blooded murder,” Mahesh said.
“Sir, it doesn’t matter what you call it,” she replied. “Right now, all I care about is getting Captain Montgomery, the crew, and the ship out of the Tyreesians’ clutches. Or isn’t that our objective anymore?”
They stared at each other; no one was willing to back down.
“Uh…the sick bay is this side,” Sef said. “We need to hurry. The crew is losing bodies.”
That got their attention. They proceeded along the corridor, passed many doors, and dropped a couple of guards who weren’t expecting them before they got to a double door that led into what looked like a small med-bay.
Mahesh went over to the cupboard. He grabbed a bag and began packing medical supplies. He knew most of these things; some, however, were ones he had never seen before and thus had no knowledge of. The writing on each product was descriptive enough, though, he realized as he used his tablet to translate it.
On their way out, Mahesh saw a medical scanner and grabbed it.
The group passed by several other corridors and knocked down twenty guards in groups of two and three. Each encounter left Mahesh scarred just a bit deeper. He watched coldly as Adachi shot and disemboweled a Tyreesian who had rushed to them. He himself blasted the head off another Tyreesian without a thought as they rounded a corner.
It began to be an endless parade of death.
They came upon the junction where the other officers were being held. The junction was filled with Tyreesian guards who had the crew pinned down the corridor.
The guards had the upper hand, firing into the corridor and preventing any crew member from advancing. The crew was also severely outgunned, with only one pistol and an assault rifle. Whips and blades couldn’t do anything this far away from the enemy.
The Tyreesians were so focused on the crew of the Seeker that they failed to look to their side, where Mahesh and the away team was slowly advancing. Once they were at a safe distance, they broke into a run—making sure they didn’t get the attention of the guards.
Sef and Adachi burst into the corridor, mowing down all the Tyreesian guards across their gun’s direct line of sight. This relieved some pressure from the crew and they pushed through until they were spilling into the corridor en masse.
Tira and the lead ensigns met up with the away team.
“Are you alright?” asked Mahesh.
Tira nodded. She was sweating profusely. She was also frantic, adrenaline raging through her.
“Anyone hurt?” Mahesh said. He looked around. “Anyone hurt? Check yourselves and let me know if you’re hurt.”
“We need to move, sir,” Tira said. “A lot of the crew members are dead in the corridor. Let’s not allow their deaths to be in vain.”
“Right,” Mahesh said. “Let’s go get our captain.”
“The senior officer and the captain are this way,” Sef boomed above the crew’s voices.
Mahesh handed his rifle over to more capable hands, as well as the rifles they had picked from the guards. Adachi led the team of armed officers, while the crew held on to their other weapons, like the whips and the blades. They wouldn’t stand a chance against a fully-armed, fully-prepared Tyreesian security force, but at that difficult moment, their weapons would have to do.
They entered the section where the holding cells were and met guards with little resistance. They had a lot of cells to cover, so the armed officers split into groups of two, while the rest of the crew stayed in the general area of the holding facility.
Mahesh followed Tira and Adachi to go rescue Jeryl, while the other teams went to secure the freedom of the other senior officers.
The door into Jeryl’s cell was closed; still, they could hear the distinctive sound of Ashley and the Jeryl’s loud shouts. In an instant, it became clear what was happening in the cell, and what had been happening since they were imprisoned there.
Mahesh shook his head. He knew that Jeryl wouldn’t talk. He knew he wouldn’t break even if they tortured him,
so they went for his wife. But no man, no matter how staunch he could be, could withstand his wife’s screams of pain.
Adachi and Tira stood at a ready before the door.
“Ready?” Adachi said to Tira.
Tira nodded.
“Go,” Adachi whispered.
Tira shot inward and she and Adachi burst into the cell, while Mahesh waited outside with his bag of medical supplies ready.
The engagement didn’t last too long. There were three precise shots, and then Jeryl’s terse command was heard.
He ordered not to kill Veld.
“Doctor, get in here!” Adachi yelled and Mahesh ran into the cell.
Chapter 17
Mahesh stopped shortly upon crossing the threshold into the cell. He was first hit in the nostril by the strong stench of blood and vomit. He felt his face squeeze before he adjusted it to fit with his medical training.
The first rule of responding to medical emergencies was to never reveal the true extent of the damage to the patient, be it by vocal or facial expression. Mahesh should’ve kept his facial expression in check automatically, but he had been toting an assault rifle for so long that he was forgetting how to be a medical doctor.
To the right was a heap of three bodies. Two of them were fully dressed with their weapons still on their bodies, while the second one was half-dressed. He seemed to have been taking off his clothes for some reason.
Next to the heap of soldiers and bounded by shackles was another Tyreesian. This one wasn’t dead—he was being held at gun point by Tira Avae, whose murderous eyes and execution style stance was clear enough to keep the Tyreesian in check. From the coat of blood on his hands, it appeared he was the one responsible for inflicting pain on both Ashley and Jeryl.
“Doc,” said a low, resigned voice, “over here.”
To the left were Jeryl, Ashley, and Adachi.
Jeryl and Adachi were both kneeling over Ashley’s limp body. The very sight of her body caused Mahesh to tremble with horror, but he had to make sure it didn’t show.
“What did they do to her?” Mahesh whispered, rooted to the ground. Deep cuts criss-crossed over her half-naked body, and her swollen face told a story of dozens of hits. Blood was pouring out of her wounds, and if he didn’t do anything soon…
And to think Jeryl had watched this the whole time? Mahesh shuddered.
The floor where she lay had a thin film of her blood coating it. The blood coagulated and a white film of crust had formed over it.
Ashley was stripped down to her underwear, and she had stab wounds all over her body. Mahesh, still far away from such a freak, horror show, observed that the incisions made in her body were done to avoid any major organs. That was why she kept losing blood slowly despite the pain inflicted on her. She was being kept alive to feel every ounce of pain.
Mahesh couldn’t imagine the darkness that possessed a mind to go through such lengths. As he stared at the stab wounds littering Ashley’s badly brutalized body, he felt a storm of anger erupting inside of him.
He turned his anger to the Tyreesian interrogator, who was staring at the handiwork with passionate excitement. Mahesh, for the first time in a very long time, felt an overwhelming desire to grab the gun out of Tira’s hand and shoot the bastard in the head. He wondered how Tira was able to keep from shooting the fucker.
Mahesh caught and upbraided himself from the dark thoughts. However, it was hard to come in terms with what he was seeing of Ashley. The last time he had seen her, she was the picture of perfect health. Now, she seemed like a bloody monstrosity. Mahesh wasn’t sure if he could help her…seeing her body alone made him shudder.
Jeryl looked up at him. There were many emotions brewing in his eyes; anger, pain, bitterness, sorrow, and a whole lot more.
He was broken. The man Mahesh had adored since their border patrol days before the Earth-Sonali war, and the man who he had never thought could be put down—was now broken.
“Mahesh?” Jeryl said, his voice evidencing the fact that he was barely keeping it together. “Can you do anything?”
Adachi looked at him. Her face was moist with tears. She was holding Ashley’s limp hand.
Mahesh moved towards them. He took Adachi’s place, dropping the bag of medical supplies by Ashley’s side. As he knelt there, his clothes began to soak in a little of Ashley’s blood on the ground.
“Did you watch it all?” Mahesh asked. He hadn’t even started treating her. The truth was, he didn’t know where to start. He wanted to tell them that Ashley would be fine, but he wasn’t so sure about it. He wasn’t sure if she could still make it.
Jeryl didn’t look at him when he replied. He just held her hand in his. “Every second of it. I...I can still hear her screaming inside my head.”
Mahesh felt his heart tremble. He swallowed hard, pulling the bag of supplies closer to him. He ruffled through all the medicines, trying to come up with a plan. What he needed was his sickbay and the regenerative machine he had on board. But even with that, he still wasn’t sure if he could save her.
Mahesh’s hands found the medical scanner. He pulled it out and did a full body scan on Ashley.
The results were just as bad as he’d thought. One of her lungs had collapsed. Several bones in her body were fractured, and there was internal bleeding. Surprisingly, her heart was still beating.
“How long does she have?” Jeryl said, his voice cracking.
Mahesh looked up at him with a questioning look.
“I saw the look on your face when you studied the readout,” Jeryl said. “I know she’s going to die. How long do I have?”
Mahesh sucked in a lungful of air. “Less than thirty minutes. I’m sorry, Jeryl, but she’s far too gone. If I had come earlier, I could have…”
“This isn’t on you,” Jeryl said, the tears pulling free from his eyes and falling down his cheek. “It’s not your fault. The murderer is in the room and he’s going to pay.”
The interrogator laughed out loud. “Pay? You are not getting off this station alive. And I will be free again. I will do much more to you and your crew than I did to your wife!”
Tira kicked him in the face, sending him against the wall after which he slammed into the ground.
“Shut the fuck up!” Tira bawled.
Mahesh was angry now. There was no way he was letting Ashley die. The Tyreesians tortured their victims often enough, and they had to have some way of bringing them back so they could keep torturing them. The Tyreesians could be brutal and cruel, but they were very efficient and smart. The interrogator must have had a plan.
Mahesh began to search the bag again as he remembered a bottle he had taken from the medical room. There were few liquids in bottles he had taken that he didn’t really know the use of.
“What is it?” Jeryl asked.
“I might be able to help her stay alive,” Mahesh said, although he wasn’t sure he should giving any hope to Jeryl..
“How?” Jeryl said. “You just told me she only has a few minutes to live.”
“Based on my knowledge of Terran medical science, yes,” Mahesh said as he rummaged through the bottles. Then, he found what he was looking for. “But the Tyreesians? There may be a way.”
Mahesh picked a small bottle filled with a clear liquid. The label was written in Tyreesian, but Mahesh used his tablet to translate it: Replicating Cell Factor.
Mahesh said, “I’ve heard whispers in the medical community of some Tyreesian advances when it comes to the healing process. Apparently they’ve developed this,” he raised the bottle in his hands, “to keep the victims they torture going for weeks. It’s a long shot, and there’s no telling of the side effects—”
“Do it,” Jeryl cut him off.
“Sir, I want you to understand that this is a big risk.”
“Please,” Jeryl said, his voice trembling. “Do it.”
Mahesh nodded. He pulled out a syringe and extracted the bottle’s content, which was about thirty milliliters.
<
br /> Mahesh stabbed the syringe directly into the left ventricle of Ashley’s heart. Then he pushed the plunger down, sending the liquid into her heart. He pulled out the syringe and they all waited.
Ashley’s stab wounds gradually sealed up before their amazed eyes, although her skin seemed seem frail over the wounds. Her misshapen face began to heal, the wounds drying up as the Tyreesian liquid did its work.
“It’s a miracle,” Adachi whispered, leaning in to observe Ashley’s skin. It was mending—slowly, yes, but steadily. There was a lot of scars covering her, but Mahesh was willing to bet that, in due time, even those would go away.
“No, it’s not,” Mahesh said, scanning her body with his scanner. “It’s science. All I know about this that it acts as an enhancement, like a part of one’s biology. I have never seen anything quite like this before. But I guess the science is accurate.”
“Will she be okay?” Jeryl asked.
“She’ll survive. For now, at least,” Mahesh said. “Her internal organs are still being healed. Her lungs and heart may need more work. Either way, we’ll need to get her back to a medical facility as soon as we can. As good of a drug as this might be, it isn’t miraculous. Either way, I’d say she’ll be able to stand in ten minutes or so.”
Jeryl rose to his feet. He glanced at Adachi and said, “That’s enough time to clean her up and clothe her.”
Adachi nodded.
Mahesh left a cleaning lotion and cloth for her to use.
“How about him, sir?” Tira asked, pointing at Veld.
“Stun him,” Jeryl said. “He’s coming back with us to the Terran Union. I’m going to give him a taste of his own medicine.”
Tira smiled and let loose a series of shots that slammed the interrogator into the wall. He slid down to the ground, stunned.
“Come on,” Jeryl said to Tira and Mahesh. “It’s time to take this quadrant and get out of here.”
Jeryl led them out of the cell, down the corridor to the general area. There, the crew of the Seeker—at least those who survived, were gathered. All the teams were present, including the senior officers, who had been released.