Just a moment later they were passing the backboard back out, a pale waiflike form strapped to it. “Don’t wait for us to get out, get that kid to sickbay ASAP!” The medic was less than halfway back through the hole when the gurney the backboard had been placed on vanished through the hatch. Jeff would have loved to follow it, but he had to take care of his ship first, and that was that.

Rhysling's Rue
Chapter 5
By Theide
 

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Stacy was sure he was going to die. It didn’t seem like a bad thing at that moment, more like a welcome relief. He had tried so hard to get to his rigged up control station after the spin of his small makeshift craft had thrown him away from it, but it was too much. The sickening feeling of dread that had overwhelmed him when he felt the brittle snap of bones on his impact with the bulkhead had almost made him vomit. Even breathing hurt.

It was so frustrating, because he knew what had gone wrong, he just couldn’t reach the control station to fix it. Another breath, drawn with effort and agony of broken ribs. “Just breathe” he thought to himself, “Just breathe and enjoy the air, cause soon one of the bulkheads is going to give way and there isn’t going to be any more air.”

He was just beginning to fade into a sort of grey reverie when a sickening lurch and a change of spin in the craft sent him sliding across the bulkhead in the direction of his control station, almost touching it. “One of the thrusters must have cut loose!” was his first exultant thought. He strained to reach up with his unbroken arm, to get to his controls, but his arm was so heavy he could just barely get it off the deck, and the hopelessness of his task seemed to sap even more energy from him. Even the simple effort of breathing was almost more than he could do, but he kept struggling to do that because it was the only thing left that he could do.

That grey dreamy state began to overtake him again, and as much as he fought it, it didn’t seem like there was anything he could do about it. Even the pain of bones grating against each other didn’t seem to matter anymore, and there was no true conscious thought in his mind as the mounting pressure crushed him flat.
 
 
“Recovery 1 to Hermes, we’ve reached the um, thing and are beginning to damp its motion” Jeff mentally kicked himself as he carefully manipulated the gravitic lasso, slowing the spin of what he could now tell was a piece of the station. *Way to impress the captain, dumbass! Just go out there and sound like a blithering idiot!*

“Hermes, we’ve got the spin stopped now, but there is no way to get whoever is in there out. I’m gonna have to bring it into the bay with us.”

“Understood, Recovery 1. Proceed.”

Jeff began the delicate job of nudging the station fragment back toward the open boat bay, being exquisitely careful to avoid sharp accelerations. Even so, he was in a hurry, knowing that whoever was inside had to be in pretty bad shape. By the time he maneuvered his own craft into it’s boat bay behind his charge, he was sweating and more than a little tense.

It was good to feel gravity return slowly to the decksole under his feet as he extracted himself from his ungainly looking craft, but there was only one thought in his mind. He hurried over to the lopsided, battered looking piece of debris, whistling in amazement as he got closer How the hell did that thing hold together?

Almost instantly it seemed like he was surrounded by deck crew. Ratings huddled in a gaggle around the thing, looking for a way in. There was an airtight door, but it seemed to be jammed, so out came the cutting torches. An intense few moments of activity yielded a large enough hole to get a light pipe inside.

Jeff was relegated to the outside of the beehive of activity, but he heard clearly enough. “Chief, that kids in pretty bad shape. We gotta get in there and fast.” The activity that had been intense now ramped up to something near frantic, with four cutting torches working on a single man sized hole. Shortly the section of bulkhead was almost free and a pry bar was inserted to ensure it fell outward when the final cut was made.

All activity but the hiss of one torch went silent. The clang of the metal as it fell onto the deck seemed like a signal, as thermal barrier foam was quickly applied to the still red hot metal edges of the hole, a medic waiting impatiently for the few seconds it took to set, then practically throwing himself through the opening. Another followed, then a backboard was passed in.

Jeff could hear the two muttering. Just a moment later they were passing the backboard back out, a pale waiflike form strapped to it. “Don’t wait for us to get out, get that kid to sickbay ASAP!” The medic was less than halfway back through the hole when the gurney the backboard had been placed on vanished through the hatch. Jeff would have loved to follow it, but he had to take care of his ship first, and that was that.

*I must be dead. I’ll be damned, the religious types were right, there is some kind of afterlife.* Stacy could hear voices around him, but he couldn’t seem to move or feel his body, or even see anything. Well not in terms of sensation anyway, but there was an immense feeling of relief at not being in pain. The voices didn’t make any sense, though.

“Well, what’s the dope, Bones?”

“Mostly neomorpha right now, Maam, but I’m easing the kid off of that as quickly as possible… oh. The kids gonna be ok, but I’ve got to say I’m a little puzzled by his, I mean her, or whatever…. I’m really puzzled by the kids physiology, maam. There was a punctured lung, some broken ribs, a broken leg, a broken arm and anoxia, but in the process, we found something else out.”

“Well, out with it doctor, what’s the deal?” That clear contralto took on a sharper edge than it had held before.

“Well maam, I think this is the most complete case of Bilateral Hermaphroditism I’ve ever seen. The kid has both sets of equipment, gonads, the whole thing. That’s not the unusual bit. Normally when this happens, the male end of things suffers, but in this case both sets of equipment seem to be functioning and developing perfectly normally. Other than the injuries we’ve treated, the only thing wrong with the kid is a bit of malnutrition.”

*Well, that answers that question. I’m not dead. Wait a minute, what was that he said?* Before he could pursue the line of thought any further, he found himself drifting back into unconsciousness.

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To be Continued...