Carbon Life

by HR Ringer

  After refastening the latches for her ceramic plates, she removed Sam’s gauntlet and took a look at her arm. “Pretty bad bruise on your outer forearm, wrist to elbow. Mako must have bounced you around worse than it did me!” As she applied some Medigel she said, “We’re still one level down from getting out… didn’t find our helmets or other gear anywhere down here.” Frowning, she pulled Traynor’s sleeve down and replaced her gauntlet. “I seriously doubt the batarians we killed are the only ones in this facility.”

  Traynor was feeling some relief from her pain already. “Thanks, Luv. Feels better. Still hurts to… breathe, but not as much.”

  “Okay,” Yuán said. “Heavy pistols are better in these close quarters. I did find one shotgun, but it’s an old BSA model 10 Executioner – inaccurate, doesn’t deal a lot of damage unless you’re really close, slow firing rate.” Yuán’s smile was grim. “Don’t think you want to use a shotgun in your condition, anyway. Let’s get to it.”

  Xiùlán led the way to the hatch. Hearing no sounds from the other side, they opened it and moved into the passage.

  The tunnel between the chambers was a steep climb; Xiùlán knew Sam would go down if she attempted to climb the 25 meters to the upper hatch. She turned to her lover and said, “I’ll need to carry you… you’ll never make it otherwise.”

  Sam looked at the upper hatch as the effort to even take a shallow breath continued to increase. “Okay. How?”

  Xiùlán knelt in front of Sam and placed her right shoulder in Sam’s pelvis. “Lean over my back.” As Traynor leaned over, Xiùlán wrapped her right arm around the back of Sam’s legs right below her butt; straightening her own legs lifted Sam’s feet clear of the corrugated tubing that made up the tunnel. “You okay?”

  Sam grunted, “Go!”

  Xiùlán's wounded calf was screaming in pain as she reached the upper end of the tunnel; she gently set Traynor down on her feet. Traynor immediately bent over in an attempt to catch her breath without coughing up more blood.

  Traynor wheezed, “I hope… we’re nearly… out. About… at the… end of my… rope!”

  Xiùlán nodded in agreement. They needed to return to the Hong Kong, soon. Listening carefully at the segmented hatch, she could hear nothing other than the shrill whine of environmental fans over the low moan of pumps keeping ground water from slowly flooding the lower levels. Looking back at Traynor, she nodded as she raised her pistol in her left hand and waved her right hand in front of the lock.

  The hatch opened onto the main entry chamber from the surface; it was strewn with a haphazard assortment of shipping containers, the majority of which were grouped to the left of the hatch. Xiùlán felt a comforting hand at the small of her back.

  Neither seeing nor hearing any obvious signs of anyone in the chamber, Xiùlán moved, going to her left in order to gain the cover of the containers. The hand on her back stayed with her, indicating Traynor was right on her heels.

  Yuán turned to her lover and whispered, “You stay put, but be ready, same as last time. I’m going to look around, see what I can find.”

  “Comm sys… be nice. Let… HK know… we’re alive… need… help… can’t breathe CO2… and ethane outside.”

  Xiùlán could see Samantha was noticeably pale. “You’ve lost a lot of blood, Love. Besides what you’re coughing up, you’re probably bleeding into your chest cavity – it’s why you can’t take a deep breath.” Yuán looked around the chamber and pulled out her stolen pistol. “Don’t move unless you have to. We’re getting out of here alive, and we’re going together.” She placed her hand gently on Sam’s face, said “Wǒ ài nǐ, Sà mǐ,” and slipped away.

  Traynor had her stolen gun out and ready as she tried to visually follow Yuán’s progress around the edge of the chamber. Xiùlán had disappeared at the far end near the airlock inner hatch. She thought she heard something thump and thud against something solid, but after waiting for more, she decided her ears were playing tricks on her. She was feeling really light-headed as she leaned back against the container. ‘Hurry, Luv! I am so tired, so bloody tired – just wanna rest…’ Sam unknowingly slid down to a squatting position as her knees gave up the battle with gravity; she ended up with her back still against the container, arms relaxed, pistol forgotten in her right hand. ‘Just need… to… sleep.’

  A few minutes later Xiùlán came back around the container to find Sam collapsed, her back against the container. ‘My god! Sammy!?’ She was leaning towards her right, hand out on the ground loosely grasping her pistol. “Sammy!? Come on, Love, talk to me!” Xiùlán placed fingertips alongside Sam’s neck, frantically searching for a pulse. “SAMMY!” Xiùlán was now truly scared for Samantha, almost to the point of blind panic. She grabbed Traynor’s collar with both hands and pulled her away from the container; doing so caused Sam’s head to loll back, as if she were a broken doll. Yuán placed a hand behind Sam’s head to support it as she started to sob. Thinking, ‘How the fuck can this be happening!?’ she started pleading in Chinese, “Lái ba, sà mǐ! Xǐng lái! Gěi wǒ de dōngxī! Wǒ de shēnghuó bùnéng méiyǒu nǐ!” [來吧，薩米！醒來！給我的東西！ 我的生活不能沒有你！ - Come on, Sammy! Wake up! Give me something! I cannot live without you!]

  Xiùlán hugged her unresponsive lover around the shoulders as she screamed towards the ceiling at the top of her lungs, “Sergeant Ross! SERGEANT! I need your help over here!” Xiùlán looked at Sam’s face, ashen in the harsh light illuminating this chamber. She kissed Sam and whispered, “Wǒmen yào huí jiā, sà mǐ.” [我們要回家，薩米。- We’re going home, Sammy.] Suddenly realizing she was speaking Mandarin, she thought, ‘Dammit, Xiùlán! You have got to focus!’ Speaking Galactic, she pleaded through her tears, “Please, wake up, Sammy! Tell me you can hear me.” Her voice was hitching badly as she struggled to speak, “Come on, please! I cannot spend the rest of my life without you… I cannot!” Kissing her again, she looked closely for a response, anything. ‘Was that…?’

  Sam’s eyelids fluttered just a bit as she whispered, “Xiùlán? Wha…”

  She didn’t finish as Xiùlán whispered a prayer of thanks to her ancestors, hugging her tight as Marine Sergeant Ross came around the container’s end, accompanied by two other marines carrying a litter. “Easy, my love. Marines from the Hong Kong are here! You’re going home… we’re going home!”

  * * *

  My sincere thanks to Desert Sunrise, always a vast repository of knowledge. DS’s invaluable assistance in writing this chapter is very much appreciated. Hey, DS! Next time you’re in my part of the galaxy, I owe you a beer!

  Chapter 13: Return and Recovery

  Love has no why, no how, no who. It just is. – Michele L. Rivera, Never the Same

  * * *

  * DIS SYSTEM • EMERGENCY EVAC, KLENSAL to the HONG KONG *

  Marine Sergeant Ross and his squad were extremely efficient – after retrieving all the equipment taken from Yuán and Traynor by their now dead batarian captors, they had loaded the unconscious form of Samantha Traynor into a transfer pod; once sealed, it was only a matter of minutes before she was inside their shuttle. As soon as everyone else was aboard and normal atmosphere had been restored, the pilot initiated a high-speed run for a rendezvous with the Hong Kong as the squad’s medic quickly opened the pod and started emergency treatment for Sam. After he secured an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth, Xiùlán assisted with the removal of Sam’s hard shells and under-armor top.

  Grunting when he saw the extent of the bruise on Traynor’s side, he carefully inserted a drain in her lower chest cavity; this produced copious amounts of the blood that had leaked from her punctured lung. With much of the liquid expelled from below her lungs, she immediately began breathing easier. Checking her blood pressure and noting her readings were in the basement, he checked her dog tags for blood type before opening another storage case; he pulled out three units of A-Positive synth and set up the first one to begin replenishing her lost blood.
After placing the other two units in a small heater to warm the contents, he set an IV drip in her other arm to replenish her fluids. Although still unconscious, Sam’s color had improved noticeably by the time she was receiving the second unit of synth-blood and she appeared to be resting easier as the shuttle came to rest inside the Hong Kong’s hanger bay.

  Xiùlán had held Samantha’s hand during the entire return flight and insisted on carrying one end of the litter taking her from the shuttle to the Med Bay once they were back on the ship. Even knowing she was going to receive the best emergency medical care available, Xiùlán absolutely refused to let Sam out of her sight, even assisting in transferring her to an operating table in the Med Bay – none of the staff felt it wise to argue with the blood-soaked woman.

  * * *

  * HADES GAMMA / DIS SYSTEM • SATURDAY EVENING, 2180/03/11 *

  – SSV Hong Kong –

  The small Med Bay on the Hong Kong felt rather full with two people in for treatment. Ship’s Doctor Nathan Finn began working on Traynor’s fractured ribs and injured lung the moment she was lying on the table; Xiùlán insisted any treatment of her own injuries could wait until she was certain Samantha’s life was no longer in danger.

  While Finn tended to Traynor’s injuries and made sure she was comfortable, his assistant had helped Xiùlán out of her armor plates. Once she was standing in her under-armor skins, he looked closely at her chest and leg before asking her to strip to her panties.

  Xiùlán looked down at her chest and spotted the dark stain in her shirt. “Shit! That miserable bastard was a good ten meters away!” She quickly inspected her new ceramic chest plate and found the hole, right side of center above her breast. “Damn it!” She peeled off her under-armor and her bra, surprised at the amount of blood she’d lost through a gunshot wound she hadn’t even noticed.

  The doctor’s assistant helped Xiùlán onto a treatment table and covered her with a blanket to keep her warm. “Amazing how little pain you feel when your system is full of adrenaline,” he said; he checked her blood pressure twice, commenting, “Just a bit low…”; after cleaning the dried blood from her skin, he applied medigel to the wound, started an IV drip to begin replenishing her fluids, and gently washed her hair and face with disinfectant soap to remove all the dried blood from her scalp wound.

  He finished by shaving the hair immediately around the gash in her scalp before employing a dermal regenerator to close the wound, commenting as he did so, “When this heals, the skin will begin growing hair just as if nothing had ever happened.”

  It was several hours before Dr Finn was done tending Samantha’s injuries. As he came over to Xiùlán, she asked, “How is she doing, Doc. She’s gonna be okay, right?” Tears started trickling from the corners of Xiùlán’s eyes as she looked at her still unconscious lover.

  Yuán’s tears surprised Dr Finn. “I take it Ms Traynor means a lot to you?”

  Xiùlán had to swallow past the lump in her throat as she looked at the silent form under the blanket. “Can’t live without her, Doc. She’s…” Xiùlán couldn’t finish as her voice broke; she brought a shaking hand up to cover her eyes.

  Dr Finn placed a gentle hand on her upper arm as he quietly told her, “She should be good as new in a few days. You did a great job keeping her alive. I’m told there are fewer slavers in this region, thanks to you and your friend.” He shifted his hand from her arm to her hand, gently lifted it from her face and repositioned it beside her hip. “You both did a really good job down there, Ms Yuán.”

  Xiùlán looked at Sam’s unconscious form as she asked, “What… happened to her arm?”

  “Badly bruised, is all,” he responded absent-mindedly. “Bones are intact…” Dr Finn looked at the gash in Xiùlán’s scalp; placing a hand behind her head, he combed through her hair with his fingers and added, “I heard what those slavers did to you, Serviceman. There’s a Marine corporal down below who's right handy with a comb and scissors. Want me to ask him to take a look when you’re sitting up again?”

  “Thanks, Doc,” Yuán said in a shaky voice. She heaved a heavy sigh and finished with, “I’ll certainly give it some thought.”

  Dr Finn next pulled the blanket away from her neck to look at her gunshot wound. “Looks like this one bled quite a bit… not surprised you didn’t feel it with all the stuff that was happening. Pain receptors get turned off when your system is full of adrenaline.”

  He used a hypospray to numb the area before carefully employing a pair of omni-tool directed auto-forceps to extract the minute sliver of metal from the middle of the three minor pectoral muscles, right next to a rib. “First bullet wound, Ms Yuán?”

  “First one,” she grunted, feeling a jab of pain from the forceps despite the numbing effects of the local anesthetic. “Hope it’s my last,” she hissed, “but I doubt I’ll be that lucky.”

  After filling the wound with medigel, he bandaged it while commenting, “That’ll be sore for a few days. I’ll change the bandage in a day or so, take another look at it.”

  He then helped Yuán roll over to lay face down on the exam table so he could work on her leg. After applying a local anesthetic, Doctor Finn thoroughly cleaned the cut before using a tissue regenerator on her calf muscles. “Traynor pull the blade out and dress this for you?”

  Xiùlán took a few moments to answer. After swallowing hard, she said softly, “Yes. Treated the cut on my head, too.”

  “You were lucky. Most batarians coat their knife blades with a toxin similar to snake poison. She did a nice job, given the circumstances,” he said. “I’ll be sure to tell her when she wakes up.”

  Doctor Finn proved to be a pleasant young man; as he continued to work on her leg, he had explained how Captain Mosley had taken on two batarian corvettes, completely destroying one and severely damaging the other. The Marines that boarded the disabled vessel were forced to kill all the surviving batarians when each and every one of them refused to surrender. Given the tight quarters on the batarian ship, the squad leader felt they were fortunate to have had no more people injured in the boarding action than they had, with only two Marines injured seriously enough to require medical attention. The Hong Kong’s ordnance expert then disabled the explosive charge wired into the engine core controls, a standard batarian failsafe to prevent their captured ships from being used against them or the hegemony.

  Upon searching the vessel, they found a number of interesting items in the cargo bay, not the least of which were several containers of anti-tank mines; one such container was only partially full, which meant there was still unexploded ordnance on the surface, probably near the other pathways to the main facility. There was also a lot of gear that could only be used for subduing and controlling captured people, the most damning of which were the shock collars designed to keep slaves in line. Yuán and Traynor had been lucky – the batarians inside the facility hadn’t had time to call down reinforcements with more equipment.

  The remainder of the freight consisted of containers full of weapons – heavy pistols, shotguns and assault rifles manufactured by Batarian State Arms; all were of inferior quality, meant for bartering with vorcha and krogan mercenaries.

  Once the ship was secured, Captain Mosley placed several of the Hong Kong’s crew aboard; the Hong Kong was providing escort as the skeleton crew flew the captured corvette with its jury-rigged repairs back to the relay. Once there, they’d meet a relief crew being transported in from the Exodus Cluster.

  After leaving the captured corvette, the Marine squad had gone groundside to recover the exploration team; they recovered Sergeant Perkins’ body from the wrecked Mako before destroying all the automated cannon turrets around the facility and eliminating the guards stationed outside the repurposed mine.

  They had only just entered the facility when they encountered a bloodied Yuán scouting the upper chamber; she had been in the process of collecting all the equipment their captors had removed upon dragging Traynor and herself into the mine.


  Doctor Finn finished working on her leg by complementing her, “The size and definition of your calf muscle should be a help in its healing, but… it will be sore for several days” He showed her a datapad with a still image of the back of her leg before he began his repair. “That cut was only moderately deep, but it was pretty large; fortunately it was lengthwise to the muscle fibers and entered between the lateral and median heads of the calf muscle. That said, you still need to take it easy for ten to fourteen days. That means no heavy exertion, no running, and go easy on the Tai Chi.” He smiled at her look of curiosity. “I’ve seen your morning routine. You and Traynor are very disciplined. Just… take it easy on that leg, and it’ll heal just fine.”

  While attempting to find a comfortable position on the medical bed, Xiùlán glanced at Traynor’s still unconscious form in the bed next to her. She was struck by how small Sam appeared under the blankets… vulnerable even, IV bag beside her on a hanger, monitor panel above her head softly beeping in time with her heart, keeping track of her blood pressure, her breathing. Yuán silently thanked her ancestors once again that Samantha had survived their ordeal.

  She was still watching Sam’s silent form when Captain Jaclyn Mosley entered the Med Bay to see how she and Traynor were recovering. Seeing that Xiùlán was still awake, Mosley stopped beside the bed as she said, “I just wanted to personally offer my thanks for stopping a slaver operation before it could gain a foothold in the system.” Mosley went on to express real admiration that two injured people – students, no less! – had been able to escape from their cages and eliminate all the batarians inside the facility in their bid for freedom, to which Xiùlán had offered a grim smile.

  “They were standing between us and the exit, Ma’am.” Her expression turned sad as she continued softly, “I’m so sorry about Sergeant Perkins. Did he have family?”