The adventures of Prinz Eugen and the young engineer Volume 1.

No. 2 Chapter 15

The young engineer came to his senses. "Great, another blackout in my memory." He tought. "I really hate these black spots in my memory, they bug me out." He continued his monologue to himself. The next thing the young engineer realized was that he could barely seem to see anything in front of him. His sight was similar to the effect one had when looking straight into the sun or a light and trying to make out the shapes and forms through the light. "Wonderful. If that is the quality of my sight through the welding goggles, I would probably be blind if I had not put them on. I just hope my eyesight recovers and I did not mess it up that badly." Getting on his knees, the young engineer felt the pain emanating from his hands. He realized that he had probably burns on his hands beneath the gloves. Knowing that, he would not take them off himself without hurting himself even more. Standing up and shuffling to the next wall, he thanked his good orientational sense that allowed him to shuffle into the right direction and find the wall close to the southern exit of destroyer dock 2. Slowly making his way through the hallway towards the entrance he heard steps coming his way. "Hello Fritz, is that you?" He asked into the bright glare that was his vision. "Can't you see who is in front of you, you idiot?" Came the angry voice of Admiral Hipper in return. "Ohh, Admiral Hipper. It is good to hear you. I can't really see and my hands are probably burned. Can you help me get to the doctor?" He asked. "You can be happy you are even alive and you will wish you died in that experiment when I am done with you." Was the more than angry answer the young engineer received. He was grabbed by the hair on his head and dragged by the cruiser into the direction of the entrance to the bunker. "Hey, that hurts. Please let go of my hair." He pleaded, but to now avail. "Hipper! Let the boy go. Can't you see he is not capable of keeping up with you? You will rip out his hair if you continue like that." The voice of Wiedling was a blessing to the young engineer. "Urrgh! Fine!" Yelled the heavy cruiser. "When he is well again I will get my hands on him." She exclaimed. "You deserve what happened to you, you moron!" Were the last words Hipper shouted at the young engineer. He was let go and almost fell over by the unexpected lack of pulling force.

"How are you doing?" Were the first words of Wiedling to the young engineer. "I think I am alright. My hands are probably burned and I think I temporarily blinded myself." He explained his situation. "You look like a piece of charcoal." Stated the old engineer with a chuckle. "Come, I will lead you to the doctor." Said Wiedling. The young engineer was grabbed by his left arm and tugged into the direction of the exit. When they got out the young engineer could hear many different voices. Some congratulated Wiedling that he had found the young engineer. Others brought forth their astonishment that he was still there, while others asked how he was doing or what had happened. "Fritz, why don't you and the other engineers take a look at whatever he managed to do with the rigging. I will be with you after I bring this mole to the hospital wing. It might just be a good idea to invite the Konteradmiral as well." Wiedling addressed Fritz Mahler. "I will take a look at what happened." Agreed the latter. The young engineer, unsuspectingly, got smacked on the back of the head. "I told you I would hit you if you managed to survive that lunacy." Came the words of Fritz afterwards. The young engineer was then led away from the crowd and into the medical building of the base.

"Hello doc. I got a patient here for you. Probable burns under the gloves and blindness " Greeted Wiedling the doctor who was currently residing. "I will leave him to your tender hands." Said the old engineer before letting go of the young engineer and leaving the hospital building. "Hello there." Was the greeting of the doctor. Ahh, General..." The young engineer was stopped from continuing his phrase. "Yes yes, Generalarzt Kenode. At least your humor is intact. Now shut up and hold still." Came the less than enthusiastic instructions of the main doctor of the base. "Just because your wrist was just about healed up, did not mean that you should try to break other parts of your body." Was the dry humored comment the doctor made. He carefully cut open the thick leather gloves the young engineer had worn. "Well, you are an idiot." He stated. "I guess so. A lot of people told me that today." Replied the young engineer, by now sick of being called that. "Well, your burns are not too bad, they should heal with some time. But you should know better than to wear asbestos insulated gloves. That stuff causes cancer, you know. In this case it prevented you from getting worse injuries than those burns though." Explained the doctor. "A good ointment against burns should help there. Let's see how your eyes are doing." He continued and pulled the welding goggles off the young engineer's face. " Looking at your eyes I can tell you that they got a bad glare, but nothing you should not recover from within a couple of days and enough rest. I will put a dressing around it so you don't get any more light into your eyes and they can recover faster. My estimation would be that you should be able to see again in about 3 to 4 days." He explained to the young engineer. "Until you can see for yourself again you will remain in a bed here on the station." Concluded the doctor while slowly pushing the young engineer further into the room until they arrived at a bed.