Fracture Lines (The Glass Complex Book 2)

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The bright red gurney moved quietly along corridors and around corners on its cushioned tires as it traversed the hospital starship. The controlling AI had a pre-set destination and ignored half-hearted attempts by operators and nurses to question its activities. The gurney passed a nursing station and a khaki-uniformed nurse lieutenant raised his head in an inquiring move. He returned to his viewscreen task when the gurney moved on without hesitation. The AI had received its program via HS
xTaur’s
computer system and would not deviate from its instructions.

The small vehicle eased aside and slowed when it detected two nurses in the corridor, heading towards their duty stations to commence their shift. They casually checked the empty stretcher borne by the gurney and continued, without comment; gurneys traveling under direction of their dedicated AIs were a common sight for a hospital starship. One of the nurses, her curiosity piqued by the unaccompanied vehicle, attempted to trace the gurney and its mission when she reached her duty station. Her efforts were unsuccessful, and she soon re-focused on her standard shift responsibilities.

After the two nurses passed, the gurney moved back into the middle of the corridor and accelerated, as though wanting to make up for time lost because of the brief delay. As it moved further into the interior of
xTaur
, it encountered fewer and fewer crew or medical staff.

xTaur
was based on a category 10 warship; however, while it had extremely powerful shields, as a hospital ship, it did not carry major offensive weapons. It was able to defend itself against minor attacks and unfriendly boarding parties, and carried a small force of marines in support of its defense.

There were patients on board the hospital starship: personnel rescued from damaged or destroyed starships and wounded marines recovering from injuries suffered in recent territorial hostilities, Empire against Rim polities. Most of the patients were in their final stages of treatment and recuperation and would be discharged when
xTaur
reached her home base.

Medicos and crew rarely frequented the more remote areas of the hospital ship, and the linking corridors were unlit until motion detectors recognized movement and triggered illumination. Overhead lights flickered on and off in sequence, matching the gurney’s transit through the gray, fullerene-steel lined corridors. It moved along these corridors, now at an even faster pace, with programmed foreknowledge that its path would be uncluttered. Gurneys, rated as emergency transport equipment, had priority over most other AI-controlled mobile devices. This gurney did not falter in its progress, guided as it was by an accurate internal ship positioning system. As it traveled into the depths of the starship, it encountered only maintenance bots, which, recognizing the urgency of the gurney’s mission, moved quickly out of its path. These bots were not programmed to question the presence of other
xTaur
-registered AI ship life.

The gurney slowed as it approached a stretch of darkened corridor where lights did not switch on and its pace faltered. The gurney’s AI was receiving commands that appeared to conflict with its perceived reality. It halted its forward movement and edged sideways until it was pressed firmly against the outward wall of the corridor. At the moment it was in position, a section of the wall slid back, revealing a hidden doorway.

The door opened and a humanoid body fell through the opening, collapsing awkwardly onto the gurney. The AI did not question the unassisted nature of the body’s fall nor the existence of the damaged black sword that also fell; these things were outside its scope, as were the soft-hued red and blue lights of the portal revealed through the doorway. The gurney, directed by its AI control unit, used its arms to straighten its new burden, securing the body and ensuring it was in place on its stretcher. It placed the black sword alongside the body. Before the gurney moved away, the door to the portal closed, creating a seal undetectable to all including the most diligent and industrious searcher.

The AI had conducted a rapid assessment and determined the body was alive, although barely so. It recognized the critical nature of its passenger’s injuries and with renewed urgency, the AI instructed the gurney to retrace its original path. The vehicle accelerated to an almost dangerous speed, using its siren and flashing lights to warn of its approach and to advise of its urgent life-saving mission. As it traveled the corridors, it produced a detailed assessment of its patient. On return to the more populated sections of the hospital starship, it ignored nursing workstations on its path, even though nurses, alerted by its emergency alarms, attempted to offer their assistance. The gurney had a pre-programmed destination and would not be diverted from its target. It passed through areas populated with patients, doctors, and nurses, and ignored them all.

At last the gurney sensed its destination and slowed to almost a complete halt outside a small intensive care unit. The door to the ICU swished open and the gurney rolled inside, stopping beside a prepared bed. The sides of the stretcher dropped automatically, enabling easy transfer of its burden. A surgeon and two nurses, alerted by workstation instructions, which included the patients name and rank, were waiting and reacted without delay to their patient’s needs. The gurney’s AI downloaded its medical report to the ICU workstation.

“Lift him,” Dr. Yi said. She was dressed in white trousers and jacket with her colonel’s badges displayed on each shoulder tab.

“Yes, ma’am,” replied the senior nurse.

The two nurses moved the patient from the gurney to the bed while the surgeon reviewed the AI’s injury assessment report, after which she examined the patient.

His head was badly bruised and bleeding from pressure-generated splits in his skin. There was a jagged wound, still oozing blood, reaching from his left temple to his jaw. The side of his head was her major concern, and the AI examination had identified a number of underlying fractures that, she hoped, had not caused brain damage. There was a possibility of brain swelling, which she would need to monitor and determine if and when surgery would be necessary.

“Quickly, remove his uniform,” she urged. When the nurses began to strip the unconscious body, she noticed the blackened hilt of the damaged sword. “What’s that?”

A nurse lifted the weapon. “A sword,” she said. “Damaged. It’s similar to those the front-line officers have. More ceremonial than anything else, I suppose.”

Dr. Yi said, “Put it in the cabinet with his clothes.”

She issued precise directions to her nurses as they prepped their patient. The intensive care staff carried out their tasks with little conversation. They attached sensors and data leads to the patient’s body and skull, and connected them to various diagnostic, monitoring, and pharmaceutical dispenser units. These would measure and report vital signs, monitor recovery progress, and insert medication into the tank and the patient. The nurses completed their tasks in minutes.

At last the doctor said, “Ready for full immersion.”

One of the nurses used a keypad to control the bed unit, moving it towards the immersion tank. The bed tipped, sliding the patient into the tank, where his naked body sank into the warm and welcoming liquid.

Dr. Yi used an ICU workstation to enter a set of instructions for the immersion process based on her assessment, together with details from the AI’s report. She entered her patient’s DNA sample via an attached input device. Meanwhile, small and accurate pumps added measures of fluid and medication as the immersion tank followed its new program. The doctor checked the reported details of her patient’s vital signs and, satisfied, closed the lid of the tank and secured it firmly. She expected, given the nature of her patient’s head injuries, her patient would remain in the tank for at least three weeks. She and her team would monitor him continually, day and night, during the immersion process. Dr. Yi’s main concern was the likelihood of brain damage, caused by what she assessed as the pressure impact from an energy weapon; she was hopeful surgery would not be required.

The gurney, its task completed, had reversed out of the intensive care unit. A one-time externally loaded program wiped the AI’s memory of the last thirty minutes and then deleted itself as the gurney, under its regular software control, returned to its charging station. The emergency transport unit halted in position over the ceramic power supply, now unaware of any of its recent activities.

“Captain de Coeur?”

Steg raised his head off the pillow to look at his visitor. “Yes?” His voice was a croak. Almost instantly, his head fell back and his eyes closed.