Chapter twenty:
Daniel realized he was hurt more than he originally thought, as he wasn’t sure he would even make it to sickbay. They were almost there when another crewmember saw them and immediately moved to help. When they entered sickbay several of the doctor’s assistants moved to help him lie down on one of the few empty beds left. Once he was settled the two crewmembers that had assisted him left to return to their duties. Daniel cringed at the waves of pain coming from his right side. He tried to relax but it just seemed to get even more painful as time went by. One of the assistants came back and ran the scanner along his side. Daniel could tell from his expression it wasn’t good.
He shut the scanner off and said, “Just a moment Commander while I get Alex.” Daniel just nodded his head. It seemed like an eternity but in reality only a few minutes passed before the assistant returned with the doctor. Alex didn’t waste any words but ran the scanner again as if reconfirming what he had already been told. He turned to his assistant and told him to prepare the third surgical room for immediate use.
Alex finally turned back to Daniel and said, “Looks like you’ve really done it this time Daniel. You’ve managed to shatter one of your ribs, puncture one of your lungs and some of the bone fragments are sticking out your side. I know I’m wasting my time telling you, but it’s better to let us come and get you instead of moving with those type of injuries.”
Daniel winced and said, “Sorry Alex, you know I hate sickbay, I just thought I’d save you the trouble of hunting me down this time.”
Alex smiled and laughed. “That’s true. The good news is I can easily repair the damage but it will require surgery, as I will need to build the foundation to re-grow the rib that was shattered. I know you hate being under, but this type of work is quite delicate so I won’t be able to allow you to be conscious this time. I’ll also need you to stay in sickbay for at least one day after the surgery is complete to give the new rib time to stabilize. I will inform Sub-Commander Kim that she will be in charge until further notice.” Alex paused for a moment before continuing. “And Commander, please don’t make me restrain you this time. I’ll put you under for several days if I have to. I’ll be more than happy to set things up so you can stay in contact with Kim, but this time it really is important you stay put.”
Daniel said, “Very well doctor. Though the moment I am recovered enough I expect to be released.”
Alex smiled and said, “Deal.”
Kim stood up and stretched a bit before continuing with her work. It had been twelve hours since their encounter with the resistance ship. She had heard how they would commit suicide to prevent capture; she just had never seen it firsthand before. Only the Commander’s quick thinking in switching all power to the front shields had saved them from even more extensive damage. Other than the interplanetary communications and the hole in the forward storage hull all the more serious damage had been repaired. The wiring to the communications had already been fixed, but the main computer boards had been fried due to an energy overload caused when the resistance ship exploded. They had all the materials necessary to build a new board and the engineer’s had told her they expected to have it ready in another six hours.
Kim now had every able person assessing the damage to the hull in the forward storage area. The last report indicated that although they could fix it well enough to make hyperspace possible. It would be necessary to return to a space dock and have a section of the hull actually replaced as the stress had warped the metal beyond its stress point. If everything went well all the repairs there should be finished in another twelve hours.
Kim finished preparing a report for the Commander. The doctor had informed her that he had taken the liberty of giving Daniel something that would keep him out for around fourteen hours. Knowing how stubborn Daniel was about medical treatment she had post-authorized the sedative. Kim smiled; she would enjoy arguing with Daniel about it later. She always gave him a hard time about treatment.
She got up and left the bridge to go to sickbay. Knowing the Commander even though he was suppose to be out for a few more hours it was more likely he would wake up early. Besides she had something really important to tell him about. Among the wreckage of the ship they had found a few things intact. By immediately disabling the engines of the ship it had resulted in them lacking the power to completely destroy everything on board. A hand held device had been recovered still intact. Although most of the files were corrupted beyond recovery a few of them had been salvageable and she knew the Commander would want to know what was in the files immediately.
If for some reason Daniel was not awake by the time the interplanetary communications were restored she would contact Sandra’s ship immediately. Based on the information in the device the resistance had known that Sandra’s ship would be arriving in this sector in a few days. That meant that there was probably a member of the resistance working undercover on Sandra’s ship! It was possible that Commander Sandra already suspected that there was someone from the resistance on her ship, but if she didn’t know she would want this information as soon as possible.
Kim continued walking through the ship to the sickbay. She had also noticed that the location of the resistance ship in the system would mean it would go unnoticed for several minutes based on where Sandra’s ship was due to drop out of hyperspace. The fact that they had almost collided with it upon arriving in this system told her that who ever was working for the resistance didn’t know about Daniel’s ship being assigned to work with Sandra. Otherwise they probably would have left this sector already. The real question was why was the ship there in the first place?
Kim entered the sickbay and went straight to the room the Commander was sleeping in. Since he wasn’t awake yet she sat down and continued to look through the notes that had been recovered from the hand held device from the resistance’s ship. Who ever was working for the resistance on Sandra’s ship had to have some level of authority. They had even sent recommendations for the base in this area to be abandoned. Which meant the probability of them finding anyone still here was slim. Most likely they would find an abandoned base that had been stripped of any clues as to where they may have gone.
As soon as the ship was able to move she would have them scan the planets in the area for signs of an explosion. If there hadn’t been enough time to evacuate then they would have made sure to destroy the base. If that was the case the chance of finding clues was slim to none as they usually were quite though in that respect. Kim entered the room where the commander was and sat down; she continued to work on her own report regarding their arrival in this sector while waiting for the commander to wake up.
