Meltdown Ophilion - Book One

25_ARCANE II

Fel made his way to the rear of the ship through the service tunnel. "I found him." Fel said into his wrist-com. "He's hurt, I don't know how bad. Unconscious. I'll get him to the med-lab and strap him in – see what I can do."

Jenna opened her eyes. "I'll go help Fel," she said.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Celli asked.

"I'll have to be," she said in a shaky but determined voice.

Jenna held tightly to the railing as she walked through the service tunnel.

"Thanks for coming, Jenna," Fel said, "I don't think I could get him to the med-lab by myself." They managed to drag the unconscious uncle Menaro to the lab and strap him into one of the beds. Fel looked helpless. "I don't know much about this kind of thing."

"I know a little bit," Jenna said as she checked his pulse.

Celli's voice sounded on Fel's wrist com: "Fel, we need you here... dense field ahead."

Jenna nodded. "I'll hook up the med-com. Go."

Fel returned her nod and left for the bridge, which was only ten meters away.

Following the instructions, Jenna connected Menaro to the med-com in under five minutes. The screen flashed the signal: wait for data.

"Anything yet?" she heard Orion's worried voice over the com.

"The med-com is processing the data," Jenna said, "It should be a few mec-tah. I'll call you when I know something."

Celli turned to Orion. "That doesn't sound like the Jenna I saw earlier."

"Maybe she has some med-training," Orion offered. "I sure hope Uncle Menaro is going to be okay."

Celli nodded. "Me too."

***

Three minutes later Jenna's voice sounded on the bridge. "Okay, I have some information... The machine says that he has some internal injuries, three fractured ribs and he's in a state of temporary suspension – condition: stable. The med-com started administering medication. It says to wait for further information."

"Thanks for helping Menaro, guys," Orion said.

"Thanks to you three for getting us through that stuff back there," Jenna said. "I didn't think we were going to make it."

"Neither did I," Celli said. "That was a close call." She studied the scanner data, which was patchy. "Looks like we got a clearing up ahead." She reported. "Hopefully we'll be able to tell where we are."

In two minutes Celli had an accurate reading. They adjusted their heading in the direction of the summons point. It would take about an hour to reach it. All was quiet on the command deck as they curved through the belt; each of them found that they had plenty of thoughts and emotions to process.

Near the center of the zone the asteroids were larger and there was more space between them. Fel kept a vigilant watch but didn't fire on anything.

It was Fel who finally broke the silence. "I have a question," he said pensively, not taking his eyes off the approaching asteroids. The others glanced at him. "Have any of you thought about what might be waiting for us at the summons point? Or who?"

They looked at each other blankly.

"I really don't know," Jenna said, "this was definitely not part of my original mission. I could only guess."

"So, what do you guess?" Celli asked carefully.

Jenna pondered in silence for a few seconds. "It could be another safe – like the one you found, with something we need. Or maybe other people, like us, who were given a similar mission; maybe from some other part of Ophilion. Although I don't know why we would be called to meet in the middle of zone ZL-31. What do you think?"