Tenacious

26

When the two medics arrived and had finished laying out their kit, Kris risked putting her hand on the woman’s club and lifting it away from the child. The four of them, together, backed away from the kid to make room at his side for the medics.

The corpsman did what they could to get vitals from the child and stabilize him. For now, that consisted of getting a saline drip into a very dehydrated little boy.

The needle was almost a showstopper.

Kris took her own glove off and offered the back of her hand for the needle. The young couple still seemed worried, but the old man nodded and the needle went into the child and not Kris.

The old woman stomped around saying things that Nelly said seemed to translate into one long, “It is willed. It will be.”

When she screamed it one too many times at the old man, he pounded his fist on his chest and screamed back, ~I do not will it, woman. I do not will it.~

The green girl with the long spear came forward and encouraged the bald woman to move over to the other side of the overhang.

With many a backward glance, she went. Were some of those glances of anguish?

The Sailor went to the mother and made motions to put the blood pressure cuff around her arm. The woman allowed it, then watched inquisitively as the medic did a pressure check.

“That’s interesting, one twenty over seventy-two. Pulse, seventy-five.” The medic held a thermometer to the woman’s head. “Temp 96.9.”

“I’m getting all this,” came over the net in Doc Meade’s voice.

Now it was the father’s turn. He was a bit higher on the pressure, faster in the pulse, and lower in the temperature. The grandfather stepped forward. His vitals were closer to the man’s.

Now both the green girl and the bald woman wanted to have the magic done to them. By the time the Sailor was finished with them, a line was forming. They quickly developed a database.

The kid was sick. Blood pressure was low. Temperature was high, and the pulse was low and thready.

Then the real excitement started. Kris easily caught the sonic boom of the lander coming in. Its jets were loud enough to be heard as it made its approach. The locals seemed a bit concerned, but none flinched. Two or three made signs with their fingers, no doubt to ward off evil.

The real fun came a few minutes after the shuttle landed. A chopper with the Wasp’s markings was clearly visible as it went in to hover over the stream.

Also clearly visible was the doc being lowered on the hoist. There were four more hoist lowerings, but Doc Meade was already being led up the incline to the overhang by Gunny before the last one was done.

“This place is a septic mess,” she said as she put on gloves. “Is there any chance we can move the patient?”

“I don’t think so,” Kris said, eyeing all the sharpened stones around them.

The doc had not taken time to don any battle armor. No doubt she did not wear spider-silk underwear.

“I figured as much, but I had to ask. Let’s see that leg. Ouch,” she said as the Marine corpsman lifted the fur.

“Okay, enough of that. Where’s my first package?”

Two Marines hustled up the incline with an oversize duffel bag between them. Kris and Jack unzipped it.

It came close to having a full surgical suite inside. Even one of Abby’s magical steamer trunks never had this thorough a medical treatment center.

“Get this under the kid,” the doc said, pulling out and unfolding a backboard. Kris and Jack slipped it under the child as Jacques told the parents to remove the rest of the furs.

As they did, Kris discovered that the backboard was more like a table. As Gunny spread the table’s legs out, Kris and Jack took the opportunity to move the child forward, out of the cave and into the light.

Doc Meade got her first good look at the kid.

“That’s not good.”

“Can you help him?” Kris asked.

“I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t think I could. Where’s my next duffel?”

It arrived as she asked for it.

“Rig that UV field. There’s enough nasties to keep a pharmacy firm busy for a century, but this ought to kill them,” she said, as the two medics rigged what looked like nothing worse than lights at either end of the table.

“Now, everyone, stand back,” she ordered with a sweep of her gloved hand that included everyone. “You, medic, get me a gown from the first box.”

In a moment, the doc looked ready to try her hand at her profession. She rolled the child over on his stomach and set about abrading the wound. “No use trying to kill all the bad stuff if you’ve got more of it waiting in line to dive into your blood stream, now is it, young man?”

Beside Kris, the old man eyed the process. Jacques now stood beside him, trying to put into words what was happening. The bald woman stood on tiptoes behind the old man, watching over his shoulder intently.

“Sky God magic?” Nelly translated for Kris.

~Sky people’s craft. Like a hunter finds food. A maker makes a bow,~ Jacques supplied.

~Craft?~ both the old man and woman said.

~Craft,~ Kris repeated.

They all watched as dried blood and pus were washed from the wound. Kris and Jack both had hands out when the doc cut into flesh to get at more of the infection. They’d been warned when the medic, now gowned, stepped in and applied a general anesthetic to the boy. It looked like he just fell asleep to those watching with untrained eyes.

Kris knew better. And caught the parents and grandparents when they would have ruined all that work.

~Craft. You want the boy to hunt with you again?~

Both parents and grandparents nodded.

The cutting done, the blood and pus suctioned up . . . and yes, the blood was red, Kris noted . . . the doctor cleaned out the infection and started sewing up the wound.

The two local women made sewing motions with their hands and stared hard at first the doctor’s, then their own hands.

Kris nodded.

“Now comes the good part,” Dr. Meade said. “I was studying some blood samples taken yesterday. That was a tragedy, but maybe not a waste as well. Their blood is kind of like ours, only totally different. Don’t laugh. They have something like our T-cells, just different, but there was one thing that I tested on them that had a surprising effect. Something we got from an out-of-the-way place called Pandemonium.”

The doctor raised an eyebrow over a smile suddenly gone pixie. “I understand you were there once, Admiral.”

“For my many sins, yes,” Kris agreed.

“Well, they grow something there that seems to swing both ways. The infection fighters in our bloodstream like it and, if I’m right, so will this little fellow’s. All we can do is try it and see if I’m guessing right.”

The doctor located a long needle, filled it and then started feeling around the heart. Kris and Jack got ready to stop a charge, but the natives seemed mesmerized by the doctor’s skills. They watched as she inserted it, then emptied the hypodermic needle.

Finished, the doctor turned to Kris. “Is there any chance we can remove the patient to the Wasp?”

Kris turned to Jacques. “Okay, mouthpiece for Sky Gods, work a miracle.”

“Do you mind taking all these folks up for a show-and-tell?” Jacques asked.

Kris turned to Jack.

“Only if they leave the sharp stuff behind,” he insisted.

“That’s not going to happen with the bald woman,” Jacques said. “I think that’s her totem.”

“And the guy likes his club,” Jack said with a sigh. “Okay. Invite as many as want to come with us. However, Captain Drago is going to demand a bath from all of them.”

“I think we can get them to splash around in the nearest pond,” Jacques said.

“Ah, Doc,” Kris asked. “Do you have some mild sedatives that we could inconspicuously slip them?”

“I have some patches we should be able to get them all to wear for the ride up into the sky,” she allowed.

And so it came to pass that Kris got to talk to a whole lot more of the BEMs than she’d ever expected and got a whole lot more than she’d ever bargained for.