Revolution: The Ship Series // Book Two (12 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

He
will be awake in thirty mins.

The
Boss propped himself against Sergeant Bailee as they both listened intently as
Imair spoke.

“The civilian staff requested a medkit be kept in Waste
Systems years ago because so many workers got injured working in the deep
caverns. Open wounds and sewage aren’t a great combination, and it took too
long for the injured to make their way back up for medical care. Major
Westerick denied our request, but someone took it upon themselves to steal a
kit from a different section. We’ve managed to appropriate enough supplies to
keep it functional ever since.”

“Where is it?” The Boss coughed out his question, but
there was no blood coming out of his mouth.

“In the sewage treatment cavern.”

The Boss turned to Zax. “Can you get us there?”

Zax grimaced but realized they had no choice given the
Boss’s condition. He nodded as he replied. “Yes, sir.”

Zax paused frequently during the group’s march back into
the depths. He checked on the Boss to be sure the pace he was setting was
feasible given the man’s injury. The officer’s shirt was thoroughly soaked with
blood, but he continued to move as fast as Zax was leading them. The Omega had
his faults, but Zax could never deny he was tough.

The air became thicker and thicker with the reek of human
waste the deeper the group descended. More than once, someone behind Zax gagged
on the stench. If folks were having an issue with the odor now, he couldn’t
wait to see how they handled it once they reached the treatment cavern. The
smells there were beyond horrific but even worse were the sights. What he saw
with his eyes led him to vomit the one time he had visited.

Eventually, the group reached the bottom of their final
ladder. By the looks of the Boss, they had reached their destination just in
time. The officer was forced to lean on Sergeant Bailee for support as they
walked the final one hundred meters to the cavern. Zax opened the final hatch
and stood aside to allow everyone to enter.

When Zax followed the last person through, he couldn’t
help but gawk at the size of the space even though he had visited previously.
There were precious few spaces on board the Ship which were as large in volume
as the treatment cavern, with only the Flight Hangar being bigger. Unlike the
wide-open space of the hangar, the treatment cavern was jam-packed with the
massive containers which were the heart of the sewage system.

Everything on board the Ship needed to be reused and
recycled for maximum effectiveness and the waste output of ten million humans
was no exception. The fifty-meter-tall vessels converted all of the feces and
urine into a relatively benign sludge which was used to fertilize crops. Each
was constructed of stainless steel. Legend held they had gleamed like mirrors
generations ago, but that was hard to imagine given their current appearance.
Innumerable accidental overflows during the most recent decades had caked the
outsides of each egg-shaped container with a thick, oozing layer of biological
sludge. The gasses associated with this ancient accumulation occasionally
shifted from horrific to truly dangerous and required the use of secondary
breathers until the methane concentrations abated.

As treacherous as the air sometimes became, it didn’t
compare to the other dangers which lurked throughout the cavern. All of the
machinery, in addition to being festooned with human waste, was designed such
that it lacked almost all of the safety features found in other systems Zax had
encountered around the Ship. One careless mistake on the part of the sewage
treatment workers could easily lead to injuries, amputations, or worse.

Zax heard a retching noise and looked over just in time
to watch Major Westerick bend over and puke between his feet. Salmea
immediately followed his lead. Imair caught Zax’s eye and they shared a sly
smile at the sight of the two officers getting a taste of what life in Waste
Systems was like for everyone other than them.

The civilian woman turned and walked quickly away from
the group. Sergeant Bailee was clearly agitated about her sudden and
unannounced movement, but he held his tongue and followed from a few paces
behind. The Marine was so focused on Imair that he missed seeing the Boss
collapse to the deck. Aleron and Kalare jumped to the Omega’s aid in his place.

Imair moved to the far side of the cavern and pushed
aside a workstation. Its back must have been hollowed out because she pulled a
Crew medkit out from behind it. She wheeled the kit back and set it up next to
the Boss. Imair turned and addressed Bailee who had remained a couple paces
behind the civilian throughout.

“Sergeant—you’re doing an amazing job considering you’ve
got a banged up arm, but with your permission I think it would be better if I
treated the officer.”

The Marine nodded his assent, but there remained an
unspoken threat in the posture he adopted.

Before Imair got started, she took off her shirt and
placed it under the Boss’s head balled up as a pillow. It struck Zax as an
unnecessarily kind gesture considering the man appeared to finally be
unconscious. She next started to remove the Boss’s shirt. She had undone the
fasteners and was about to pull his arms out of the sleeves when Sergeant
Bailee interrupted.

“No—leave the shirt on. Just pull it up on the side of
the wound.”

Imair gave the Marine a look of confusion but, after a
moment, shook her head and followed the man’s instructions. She pulled the
shirt up, and Zax got a clear look at the damage. The energy bolt from the
civilian blaster had hit the Omega in the side. The wound oozed blood and was
clearly life-threatening, but the Boss was lucky it hadn’t hit a few
centimeters more towards the center of his body where it would have shredded
organs.

The civilian popped the latch on the medkit and it
butterflied open. A vidscreen dominated the top portion of its left half, and a
series of compartments and ports of varying sizes were distributed throughout
the remainder. She removed a small disc and fastened it to the Boss’s temple
and then a slightly larger one which she applied to his chest above the heart.
The monitor came to life and displayed the Omega’s vital signs. Zax had been
given introductory training on the use of a medkit and knew enough to recognize
how the flashing yellow symbols showed the man to be in serious condition,
albeit with a good chance of survival.

Imair next extracted a long wand from the kit. She
slowly waved it over the site of the wound. As she did so, a 3D rendering
appeared on the screen and detailed the extent of the damage. Once again, the
display was dominated by the yellow symbols which showed the man’s condition to
be serious, but not yet deadly. A red number flashed a countdown until the
medkit would be ready to proceed.

While the medkit counted down the time, Imair prepped
the Boss for treatment. She opened a compartment and removed a small, circular
device with a transparent hose attached. She plugged the hose into one of the
ports on the medkit and then attached the other end to the Boss’s forearm
between his wrist and elbow. The next device Imair grabbed was much larger and rectangular
shaped. It also had a transparent hose which the civilian plugged into yet
another port before she placed the square end over the Omega’s wound. Suction
formed a vacuum around the wound and Zax could see the indent the device caused
where it pressed into the man’s body.

The countdown flashed a green 00:00:00, and Imair
double-checked the placement of each device and which port they were plugged
into. She looked up at Bailee for his approval and the Marine nodded. She
pressed a flashing green button and then leaned back to watch.

The first thing Zax saw was bright green liquid ooze out
of the medkit and down the tube into the circular device attached to the Boss’s
arm. He recognized the plasma which would replace the man’s blood loss. It was
filled with artificial red blood cells which would help oxygenate the officer.
These were programmed to slowly die off and be flushed out of his system over
the next hundred days as the man’s body recovered and replaced them with the
real thing.

Shortly after the plasma flowed into the Boss’s arm, a
dark blue liquid flowed out of the larger tube into the square device which
covered the wound. Zax remembered from his training how this liquid had
numerous properties. First, it was a broad spectrum antibiotic which would
cleanse the wound, a critical activity given their current surroundings.
Second, the liquid was filled with nanobots which would swarm through the wound
and repair any and all damage at the cellular level. Finally, it contained a
material which would form a matrix to close the wound and protect it during the
healing process. This matrix would dissolve over days and weeks as the body
regenerated tissue around it until eventually the patient would look down and
see nothing but new, smooth skin.

After a few mins of working its magic, the medkit
sounded a notification to signal completion. Imair removed the various devices
and returned them to their compartments where they would be automatically
cleaned and sterilized for the next patient. She looked up at the Marine and
spoke.

“He’ll be awake in thirty mins. After that, he’ll need
to rest for another forty-five to allow the protective matrix to complete
formation. How about I take a quick look at that arm, Sergeant?”

The Marine hesitated for a moment but then nodded and
sat down next to the medkit. Imair removed the diagnostic wand once more and
waved it over Bailee’s shoulder. The screen revealed the man’s collarbone had
not been broken but instead shattered. His ability to move his arm, much less
tolerate the intense activity he had participated in over the past few hours
was truly inhuman. Imair gave a low whistle of appreciation as she surveyed the
damage.

“Well, there’s your problem right there, Sergeant. It
looks like your arm is about to fall off. Let’s get a patch on you, and the
medkit can take a genetic sample and brew up the right binding agent to repair
that bone.”

The Marine shook his head. “I can’t afford to have my
arm numbed right now while the binder sets. It will keep.” He stood up to
indicate there would be no further discussion of the matter. “Zax—search all
the workstations and storage lockers to see if you can find any food. I’m
hoping maybe one of the workers kept something around in case they ever got
hungry in these beautiful surroundings. Unless, of course, the female civilian
already knows where any other supplies might be stashed away like the medkit
was.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Why
are you nice to me?

Imair
assured Bailee she wasn’t aware of any hidden food. There would usually be
serious trouble if something like a stolen medkit was discovered in a civilian
area, but Zax had to hope the Omegas would look the other way this time.
Revealing the civilians’ secret was a brave and selfless act, and Zax hoped
Imair would get rewarded somehow when all of this was over. If she said she
didn’t know where any food was located, then Zax believed her.

Zax looked over at the young civilian. The boy was
siting a few meters away and had watched wide-eyed from behind Kalare and
Aleron as Imair used the medkit to fix up the Boss and check out Bailee.

“Hey, Nolly—do you want to help me tear apart all of the
workstations and storage lockers over there to see if we can find something to
eat?”

A huge grin spread across the boy’s face as he popped to
his feet. He had stopped clinging to Zax in favor of Imair once she appeared,
but he seemed thrilled by the prospect of spending time with his favorite
member of the Crew. Particularly if it involved an adventure which sounded both
illicit and destructive. He sprinted off towards the far end of the cavern.

Aleron stood as Nolly ran off and called out to Zax.
“You two check out the far side over there and I’ll search the storage areas on
this side.”

It seemed curious that Aleron was trying to be helpful
all of a sudden. He must be hoping to restore some goodwill with Bailee if he
could be the one to discover food. Zax turned and jogged to catch up with
Nolly. The boy had stopped running but bounced on his toes with anticipation.
Zax had just about caught up to the young civilian when he saw that Kalare was
similarly jogging after Aleron. Kalare wanting to be alone with Captain
Clueless was even more strange than Aleron being useful and filled Zax with
such consternation that he slowed to a halt to ponder the matter. 

“Excuse me, sir. Why are you nice to me?”

Nolly’s question took Zax by surprise and yanked his
attention away from concerns about Kalare. He didn’t have an answer so instead
responded with a question of his own. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, no one else from the Crew is ever nice to me. The
man who was bleeding forced me to go out into that passageway all by myself.
The other man with the white hair scared me by shooting his blaster right
behind me. None of the other Crew we’re with have ever said anything to me at
all.”

“I can’t speak for the officer or the Marine, but I’ll
say that most of the other Crew never have an opportunity to work with
civilians, so they might not be very comfortable around you. I’ve been working
in Waste Systems for a year now, and you’ve always been super nice and helpful
to me. It would be pretty bad of me to not return the favor, right?”

“Thank you, sir. I hope if I get to be in the Crew when
I get older that I still get to work with civilians and don’t forget about
being nice to them.”

The shock caused by Nolly’s statement nearly made Zax
fall flat on his face. How could the boy think he could ever become a member of
the Crew? What did the civilians teach their children? Zax had been taught for
as long as he could remember how the original Crew were chosen due to being
perfectly suited for the mission of commanding the Ship. Hundreds of
generations worth of artificial breeding since then had focused on genetic
optimization to reinforce their critical traits. Crew weren’t born through the
genetic crapshoot of procreation and then influenced by whatever might happen
while gestating within a woman’s belly. They were designed by the well-honed
algorithms of the Genetics AI and then nurtured through birth within the ideal
conditions of the Ship’s artificial wombs.

Civilians, by contrast, were allowed to breed however
they saw fit once a female was given permission to have children. Whatever
random attraction happened to bring together a man and a woman created
offspring which were equally random. They supported the Ship in lower value
roles like those in Waste Systems, but it was absurd to think civilians were
capable of much more.

Zax debated whether he should be the one to help Nolly
understand the proper distinction between Crew and civilian and what his future
would hold, but he decided that was better left to whatever crazy system the
civilians used for educating their offspring. Thankfully, the discussion was
dropped altogether when the boy sprinted ahead and started yanking drawers out
of workstations and dumping their contents onto the deck with wild abandon. Zax
smiled at the boy’s excitement and set out on his own path of destruction.

The first few drawers Zax checked held nothing
interesting, only random collections of paper and the various detritus which
collects as someone does their job through the years. Zax couldn’t imagine
working all day long in a place which looked so repulsive and smelled so vile,
but obviously there were dozens of civilians who had no choice but to do so.
The drawers of their workstations looked like their jobs were just as boring
and routine as Zax’s.

“Check this out, sir!”

Zax walked over to where Nolly was holding a Crew slate
he had found. The device would only work when activated by the biometrics of
the owner, so Zax knew it was futile for a civilian to have stolen one. Away
from its owner it was about as useful as a rock. There was no sense in risking
additional trouble for the workers in this compartment beyond what they already
faced because of the medkit, so Zax told Nolly to return the slate to the
drawer where he found it and get back to searching.

They checked all of the workstation drawers without
success, and then Zax and Nolly moved on to the storage lockers. After a few
mins of rooting around Nolly called out excitedly.

“I’ve found some food, sir. It’s amazing!”

Zax’s stomach grumbled at the prospect of sustenance,
and he walked to where Nolly stood in front of a locker. The boy pointed inside
and Zax followed his gaze to a box of nutripellets.

“It’s nutripellets, sir, I LOVE nutripellets! They’re so
amazingly tasty and filling compared to what we usually get in the mess hall. I
know Imair is going to be super excited too. Can I be the one to tell her,
please? Please?”

The only thing which would have been worse in Zax’s
opinion than finding no food was finding nutripellets. The disgusting, chewy
nuggets had sustained Zax for days at a time whenever he needed to keep his
belly empty for repeated FTL jumps, but he had long fantasized about never
eating another once he was Plugged In. Of course, that hadn’t worked out as
expected. Zax sighed but took small solace in the amount of delight Nolly
expressed. Zax signaled for the boy to grab the box and run off to Imair so he
could announce their big find.

After Zax checked the last few lockers to no avail, he
returned to where the group had spread out to wait. The others among the Crew
must have felt the same antipathy for the nutripellets because the box, along
with a pile of empty wrappers, sat between Nolly and Imair. Nolly had such a
look of pure contentment on his face that Zax could not help but grin out of
appreciation for the boy’s innocence.

Zax’s smile melted away when he noticed that Kalare was
back sitting next to Aleron again. Even worse was discovering that they were
engaged in an animated conversation which involved both excessive smiling and
frequent laughter. Zax wanted to march over and investigate what was behind
this disturbing turn of events, but movement in his peripheral vision drew his
attention to the Boss. The Omega was unsteadily trying to stand as he barked a
question.

“Why is everyone just sitting around?”