The Cimalian Princess: Invasion
by AJ Marks
Chapter 6
Doctor Tommy Leaver glanced once more at the patient, a female who appeared to around twenty-five years old. The uniform she had on he had never seen before. Sure it looked like a pilot’s uniform but he hadn’t seen one like it on the Akagi before. Of course what really caught his attention was the fact the woman had blue hair.
She had what appeared to be sever trauma to her head and chest. He had quickly ordered scans of the woman’s chest and head. The head mechanic, Ben, mentioned that the woman might be from the enemy fighter that crashed near the hangar.
Tommy didn’t care about that. He had sworn to protect life and this woman’s would be no different. He patched up another non-critical patient while waiting on the scans to return. Two other patients were critical as well as the woman. One he feared wouldn’t survive.“The scan doc,” one of the nurses said to him.
Holding up the scan he pondered what needed to be done. A broken rib that appeared to have punctured her lung. Her head while injured showed nothing that he could do to help her out there.
“Broken rib, and a punctured lung, let’s more people,” Tommy said to her team. People quickly moved machine in and out of the area that would be needed for the procedure.
“Doc, you wanted to speak with me,” the captain’s voice said. Tommy looked over to see Captain White standing nearby out of the path of the chaos of the med lab.
“Captain, over here,” Tommy said motioning his head as well. “Is the NORM ready?”
“Powering up now doctor,” the nurse replied.
Tommy glanced over at the captain who now stood nearby. “Who is she?” he asked.
“I don’t know, Ben found her in the hangar,” Tommy replied. “Everyone ready, we’re going to have to open her up,” he said.
“She’s human?” the captain asked. Tommy heard the confusion in the captain’s voice.
“Yes, and she will die unless we work on her,” Tommy said. He began the first cut. He felt the captain move away as Tommy continued his work. He hoped they’d get to the lung in time to re-grow it.
Randy moved back from the operating table with more questions than he had answers. The woman on the table could’ve been anyone on board the ship, except for the fact she had blue hair. The one fact she was human, probably an enemy also raised more questions. Could she really be a pirate? Walking away from the activity he glanced around for the first time. Several others stood nearby being helped by assistants and nurses. Most had some sort of broken bones. The med lab only had one bone rejuvenator so it took time to get thought all the wounded.
He saw a few others who seemed worse off. One young man attended to by a nurse, he could tell the man wouldn’t make it. He suddenly thought that if one person had made it aboard the Akagi others might as well.
“Bridge, this is the Captain,” Randy said waiting to hear from Kim. “Tell security to sweep the ship, check for anything unusual.”
“What do you mean by unusual captain,” Kim asked.
“Anything that might indicate a boarding party,” Randy replied.
“Oh…be right on it captain,” Kim said. “What about the Hood and Bismarck?”
“Forward it to them as well,” Randy said.
“You got it skipper,” Kim said. The communication ended before Randy could say anything back.
He turned to look once more at the chaos going on in the med lab. He could see the blue hair of the woman. He found himself wondering who the woman was, where she’d come from and what she knew.
“Yo skip,” Randy heard John’s voice say. He watched to see John coming down the hallway towards him. Randy wondered if John had been injured and just didn’t know.
“What’re you doing here?”
“Just came to check on Baker, he took a savage hit from one of the enemy. The hangar crew said it didn’t look good, thought I check for myself,” John replied.
“How many did we lose,” Randy asked.
“Six from my squad and four from the 201st,” John replied. “For a moment I thought my goose was cooked as well. Whoever I fought was better than I was. Any idea as to who they are, pirates or invaders?”
“Not yet, but I think we might have something,” Randy replied. “An enemy pilot was found on the hanger deck.”
“Enemy pilot, I don’t think I understand,” John said. “We didn’t observe any type of ejection system in any other enemy fighter, it doesn’t make sense.”
“True, there isn’t any for space, but we do have one when the fighter detects atmosphere,” Randy said thinking about it.
“The fighter might have detected the atmosphere from the hanger,” John said. “An interesting theory. He also would be the one who fought me then.”
“She,” Randy said.
“She?”
“Yeah, and she would still have to survive surgery. Also keep it quiet the last thing we need is for someone to blab to the press or something like that before we have any information,” Randy said.
“Well, I’ll keep quiet, but if you need any help don’t hesitate to ask,” John said. “However, she did have some great moves that we could learn.”
Randy thought it was a bit strange for John to say that. The enemy pilot had almost killed him and he wanted to learn her moves.
“You’re strange,” Randy finally said.
“Fighter pilot mentality. I came to a conclusion out there when she was on my tail,” John said. “I realized I wanted to know who was behind this, and why.”
“We just might get our chance,” Randy said.
A cool breeze tingled across Meia’s bare arms and legs. It seemed odd to her considering what she usually wore covered her legs and arms. The smell of grass and dirt piqued her senses as it lingered in each breath she took.
She tried to remember what had happened. The last thing she could remember had been flying her fighter towards the enemy ship. Someone had fired upon her disabling her guidance system. After that nothing.
The whisper of the wind caused the rustling of grass to echo in her ears. No other sound, not insects, or birds, just the wind and grass.
Opening her eyes she quickly blinked quickly trying to adjust to the brightness. Tears formed briefly but her eyes adjusted. She wiped the tears away before looking up. A white puffy cloud floated above her without a care.
‘Am I dead,’ she asked herself.
“No little one, you are not dead,” a male voice said nearby.
Shocked she quickly scrambled to a standing position. A wave of dizziness almost overwhelmed her for a second. She fought though it without taking her eyes off the man in front of her.
“Who are you,” she asked still a bit dizzy. Things were coming back into focus, but not quickly enough for her.
“Meia, I am part of who you are,” the man replied.
Meia frowned partly at the fact the man knew her but also at what he’d said to her.
“I don’t understand,” she replied at last. “Do I know you?”
The man didn’t answer her. Instead a fierce wind came up causing her to cover her eyes from the sting of dust and her nose to keep the wind from stealing her breath. The clouds changed from blue and calm to gray and angry.
A low keening howl echoed though the meadow causing her to instinctively stiffen. She looked back up when the wind had died down. The figure had been replaced by a similar figure, one she knew she’d seen.
The landscape had changed as well, from a beautiful meadow to ash and ruin. She backed away from the man as the smell of burnt wood, steel, and other unmentionable items burned her throat.
The figure raised his hand out towards her yet never seemed to move as he closed the distance with her.
Meia tried to retreat further back tripping over broken bricks and splinters of wood. Scrambling on all fours she continued to try and get away. Finally getting up to run she glanced behind her thankful when the man disappeared.
Releasing a breath she turned finding the man standing in front of her.
“Who are you?”
“Your life, your owner!”
The hand reached out once more enveloping her in darkness.
“She’s flat-lined!”
“I know, I know, Hades balls,” Tommy cursed. He’d just opened the patient when this had happened. “D-fib, now, and I want the EEG yesterday!”
“Erratic doctor,” the nurse said answering Tommy.
He quickly worked as the D-fib arrived. The two operators worked quickly placing the nuroids.
“Go,” Tommy said. The lead tech flipped the switch sending a shock to the patient’s heart.
Tommy listened to the silence that followed in the room. Then a beep echoed loudly in the room for such a quiet sound followed by another.
“Faint but constant doctor,” the nurse finally said.
Tommy felt some relief, but not yet. A drop of sweat started running down his forehead. “Wipe,” he ordered. The nurse wiped his forehead as he concentrated on the situation in front of him. He hoped his patient held on, didn’t matter who she was. “Is the NORM ready?”
“Just finished powering up doctor.”
Tommy looked at the damaged lung for the first time. There would be no doubt that it needed to be replaced. The rib had punctured it and a lot of damage had happened due to bleeding.
“Heart condition,” he asked.
“Still faint but probably due to blood loss.”
“Add a pint of,” he quickly glanced over to see what blood type the woman was. “A positive synthetic.”
“Yes doctor,” the lead nurse replied quickly brining over the blood synthesis machine over.
“EEG?” Tommy asked.
“Still erratic but stabilized a bit from before,” the reply came back.
Tommy nodded then started up the NORM. It would analyze the tissue of the lung then using the patient’s DNA recreates the lung inside the patient. He kept a careful eye on the readouts making sure no element in the machine went empty before the procedure finished.
Minutes later the NORM machine indicated it had finished its task.
“All right, let’s close up,” Tommy said.
He turned the patent over to the lead nurse as he quickly cleaned up. Another patient needed his help.
Olin reported in to Admiral Jezic’s office. He knew why he had been ordered to the admiral’s office, he’d been picked to take over the 3rd CF’s fighter group. That meant he’d be in charge finally. After taking orders from a person beneath him he finally had the position he wanted, for now.
“Come in,” he heard the admiral’s voice say. The door opened allowing him to enter. He noticed the admiral sitting at his desk frowning about something. That momentarily pushed Olin’s mood back a bit. He recovered and walked in with confidence.
“Olin, reporting as ordered admiral,” he said.
“Interesting position you’re in Olin,” Jezic said.
Olin noticed that the admiral didn’t look up from his reading. He waited for the admiral to continue.
“We lost our flight leader,” the admiral said looking up into Olin’s eyes.
“I believe I’m the most qualified to takeover that position,” Olin replied. He truly believed his abilities gave him the right.
“True, but we also lost the Oi, many of her fighters are currently housed on the Kitakim, and we failed to take our objective,” Jezic said.
Olin paled a bit at the word failure. He’d forgotten that the objective hadn’t been met.
“Our failure was due to lack of leadership in the fighter groups admiral,” Olin said. Putting blame on Meia seemed logical to him.
“Maybe, but as the new leader of the fighter groups you are responsible for the failure. Report in one hour for you punishment. Have a report on how many Vengeance fighters we lost in the battle and reorganized the groups if you have to,” Jezic said.
Olin glared a bit at the admiral but didn’t say anything. He couldn’t say anything, not to an Alpha class citizen. He would accept the admiral’s words, for now.
“By your will sir,” Olin said then turned and walked out of the office.
He’d bear the punishment. Then he’d become a better leader than anyone could.
Meia heard voices but couldn’t pinpoint where they came from. She couldn’t see anything so she strained to listen to what was being spoken.
“It’s done,” a male voice said. She’d heard the voice before. It sounded familiar to her.
“She’ll never know,” another voice said, one she didn’t recognize, yet had a feeling she should.
Her vision began clearing and she could make out her surroundings. She stood in a hallway, hiding from others. It’d been so long since she’d done this. The academy and the head teacher’s office. The door opened as Meia scrambled out of the way into the shadows.
Two tall men, at least to her, walked out of the room. One man appeared to be bald and very much over six feet tall. The other man had black hair and a bit shorter. She’d never seen any of them before, or at least she thought so. The shorter man turned.
“Brother, I still say this is a dangerous plan,” he said to another man walking out of the room.
“Nothing can go wrong, she’s ours now,” another man said from the doorway.
The image faded seeping into another place. She noticed once more her mother sitting at the table. One of the few times she’d ever seen her mother frown.
“Hello little one, how are you,” she asked.
“Where am I,” Meia asked still confused at everything.
“Remember in our world not everything is what it seems,” she said.
“Momma, what’s going on,” Meia asked. Once more the darkness overwhelmed her.
Jack glanced once more at the face of his son on the screen in front of him. He couldn’t tell if Randy had told him the truth or not. The idea that an enemy pilot had survived an attempted ramming of the Akagi seemed remarkable, but it also didn’t sound right.
“Are you sure about this. It seems like this person was planted on board your ship,” Jack said.
“Even if she’s planted she’s yet to recover consciousness,” Randy replied.
“I don’t like this,” Jack said. “I still have senators breathing down my neck about all this and now, well, if this gets out it very well will have the government and public thinking conspiracy.”
“I know dad, but I might have a solution,” Randy said. “I think keeping it a secret might help, but I want permission to try something.”
Jack sighed knowing his son loved trying out things. He wondered what his son had thought of this time. “All right, let me hear it.”
“I want to show her a bit of kindness, a bit of who we are to see if we can find out anything about them,” Randy said.
“Interrogation with kindness,” Jack said. “That has the potential to backfire drastically.”
“I know but I have a gut feeling about this,” Randy replied.
“I’ll probably regret this but you have permission,” Jack replied.
“You won’t regret this dad, promise,” Randy replied.
“I hope so,” Jack said more to himself as the communications ended. He turned to see Chad standing nearby. “Chad, you heard nothing, that’s an order.”
“Yes sir,” Chad replied.
“All right, I’ve had enough excitement for today. I’m going home to get some sleep, have whoever’s on duty contact me if anything else happens. Oh and Chad, get some sleep as well” Jack ordered. He heard Chad acknowledge his order then walked out. He looked up into the now blue sky. A couple of clouds floated by and he spent a moment watching them before continuing on his way.
Senator Agnes watched from the small café as Admiral Jack White walked by. He noticed the man didn’t see him. That suited Agnes just fine as he observed the man. The admiral seemed to be thinking about something.
“Senator,” Barnes voice said interrupting Agnes’ thoughts. He looked over seeing the man walk towards him. “President Winerich is expecting your report.”
“I’ll be right there,” Agnes said. He already knew how he would spin this report. The military wouldn’t get away with what they’d done. He already had people moving into position to counter what people had seen.
End Chapter 6
Continued in Chapter 7
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