Pixie Hazard by Archibald Bradford (top young adult novels .txt) 📕

Maria had multiple tubes going into her from Billy’s medical bag and she did not make for a pretty sight: all the way from the left side of her hip to the front of her left shoulder she looked like a bloody and overcooked steak.

With hands shaking from crashing adrenaline, the captain twisted her helmet off, her suit letting out an irate hiss as the seal was lost. Sweat was beaded on her brow and stinging her eyes as she knelt beside the doctor and the hulk of burnt and pockmarked metal that was Maria’s exo-rig.

“Talk to me Bridget, how’s my marine?”

Her voice was tired and hoarse from shouting so much, but the question was steady.

She’d seen friends die in combat before: loss was part of the life she had chosen.

But no matter how much she prepared herself, it always stung.

Billy had already removed her own helmet, though it sat at her side with the interior HUD showing her Maria’s vitals.

“Armour absorbed the brunt of it, but as is plain to see her suit was breached in multiple locations before the plasma burned out. I gave her enough nanites to pay off the last of my student loans and they are earning their keep mending the underlying tissue and stopping the burns from spreading.”

“Okay. Now the version without the stupid metaphors?”

Billy tried and failed to shake a sweaty lock of black hair out of her face, then absently pulled it behind her ear with one finger.

“I’ve induced a coma, but her prognosis is good. We’ll be bagging her piss for the next several days to try and get some of my money back, but she’ll live.”

Medical-grade nanites were designed to inevitably find their way into the patient’s bloodstream, from there they ended up filtered out by the kidneys and expelled as normal body waste.

The ones that were still viable once their operating procedures inside the body were completed could then be recovered, recharged, and reused.

The company that invented them cautioned against this because people recycling their product hurt their bottom line, but a recent report released by the GRC found that as much as fifty percent of nanites in use in hospitals across the core systems had been recycled at least once.

The mega-corporations weren’t the only penny pinchers in the universe.

Though relieved that Maria was going to pull though, Donnie’s breathing started getting a mite shaky as the could-haves and might-have-beens began to pile up on her again.

She wiped at her face in a bid to get the sweat out of eyes, instead leaving a smear of blood in its place on her forehead.

“She was so fucking lucky!” She lamented with a shake of her head; “If that prick had gotten the shot off from a few feet closer we’d be prepping our dress greys for a funeral.”

Billy nodded.

“More than that though, she was lucky we scored these nanites. I was feeling good about having such a large supply to keep in reserve aboard the ship. Didn’t expect to use more than half of them in one go like this. Plasma weaponry should be banned.”

Both of them were very conscious of Donnie’s shotgun, sitting on the floor between them, not to mention the carnage she and Eva had so recently unleashed on the Junkers that had been dogging them.

“We’ve had that argument before Bridget. Though it’s not like I’m going to disagree with you after today. If it makes you feel any better I’m almost out of ammo. Only have a couple clips left on the ship.”

“It doesn’t. But whatever. The more terrible a weapon the more likely someone is to use it. I can live with you using it on them before they use it on us.” Billy finally looked up from her patient and gave the captain a once over; “You and Eva okay after that Geronimo maneuver you just pulled?”

Her gaze flicked down to where Donnie was holding Maria’s limp hand in hers, her priorities clear in her mind.

Triage and assess.

“We’re fine. Her suit was glowing in a couple places from some lucky pulses, but they didn’t make it through the carapace. I feel like my tits went into a rock-tumbler from all the repeaters. But yeah, we’re fine.”

“Okay. Station is clear?”

“Yup. Eniella is scanning the sector before the Pixie docks again. The big red dildo made a jump. Kinda hoping that doesn’t come back to bite us in the ass down the line, but I find myself rather indifferent at the moment.”

Billy nodded her agreement.

“I guess now we play the waiting game? Not much I can do for Maria until I get her back on the ship. She’s going to need several skin grafts once the nanites are finished, and she’ll hate the number of body-scans and blood-screens I’ll have to put her through to clear out the internal residue from the plasma discharge.”

Donnie knew that Billy wasn’t really talking to her at this point; the doctor was going over her treatment procedures out loud so that when she got her patient back on the Pixie she could do her work quickly and methodically.

“Glad you have a plan.” She looked up as they all felt the deep thunk of a ship docking; “That better be Davie. I’m not up for more just yet.”

__________

The constant dull hum of slipspace served as the backdrop for a panicked conversation taking place aboard the fleeing Junker vessel.

“Don’t we need a jump window?!”

“Who cares! Everyone is dead! I think even the commodore bought it! I thought that majestical fairy was unkillable!”

“No he weren’t! Now calm down the both of you!” The navigator who had initiated the reckless jump snapped; “I need to hear myself think!”

Being the only three survivors to have the sense to abandon the Commodore’s vendetta, the trio of ashen faced Junkers