Chapter 19

My life wasn’t all Seward’s Folly. There were times that April and myself had time for ourselves and each other. This was one of those times. Or at least it started that way. April and I were playing chess and enjoying life. Then my communicator demanded attention. “Captain Sullivan here.”

“Captain Sullivan, it’s good to hear your voice again.”

“Commander Olivet? It’s good to hear from you. Have you decided to accept our offer? and have you found your second.”

“The answer to both is, yes Sir. But I do have a situation that I need some help with.”

“Go ahead Commander, what can I do for you.”

“Well Sir, I need immediate transport from the station.”

“No problem Commander, I can have a shuttle there first thing in the morning.”

“You misunderstand Sir. We need to get off this station now.”

“That’s going to be a bit difficult Commander. I’ll need to send a shuttle, and that’ll take time.”

“You have a shuttle here now Sir. It’s at cargo dock 15. It has just loaded some light cargo.”

I checked my ready board, and sure enough, there was a shuttle there picking up a medical shipment. “Ok Commander, I’ll get the pilot and let him know that you’re on the way.”

“Thanks Captain, we’re already there, and the pilot wasn’t letting us on board unless you cleared it.”

“Let me speak to him.”

“Lieutenant Wilson here. Who am I speaking to, please?”

“Lieutenant Wilson, this is Captain Sullivan. Go ahead and let the Commander aboard. He is our new flight boss, and I authorize the trip. By the way, he’s your new boss, so you might want to be nice to him.”

“Aye aye, Sir.”

“Olivet here Sir, I thank you.”

“A bit unorthodox Commander. I’ll see you when you arrive.” I wasn’t quite sure what the need for haste was all about, but I decided that I would discuss it with the Commander in the morning. I figured he or his companion probably needed some time to sober up.

The flight time from Mars station to the Folly was about 45 minutes. But this time they were late. At least 20 minutes late. And efforts to contact the pilot were unsuccessful. When flight ops couldn’t raise them, I was called to the landing bay. When I arrived, I found Doctor Holland waiting also.

Surprised, I asked him, “Doc, why are you here? Don’t tell me we’ve got a medical issue going on?”

“No Captain. I’m waiting for a shipment that’s on this shuttle. I’m working with the Agriculture folks on a project. I’ve been researching old-time herbal and tribal medicines. There are some indications that aboriginal remedies can be effective. I hope to find things that we can use if we run low on supplies.”

“Sounds interesting I hope it works out.” I was trying to be polite.

While we were talking, the overhead announced that the shuttle was docking. The procedure didn’t take long, and before Doc Holland could expand on his project, the cargo hatch started cycling.

First out of the shuttle was Commander Olivet. He was half carrying half dragging an older woman. He was followed by another man helping with another obviously distressed person.

Doctor Holland saw what was happening, muttered “Oh shit,” and sprinted to the hatchway. On the way, he had his communicator out and calling for a medical emergency. The overheads started sounding the alarms. Next, he called medical command. “Della, this is Bart. I’m at the loading dock, and we got an unknown number of emergency cases. Unknown diagnosis yet. Get all the EMT crews down here stat. I’ll keep you updated.”

Olivet and the other man were followed by Lieutenant Wilson, also burdened with a casualty. I was right behind Doctor Holland and tried to help as much as I could. In all, there were 20 patients on board the shuttle. As soon as the EMT teams arrived, I backed off and let the professionals do their jobs. Lieutenant Wilson soon joined me.

Wilson had tears in his eyes. I couldn’t tell if it was pain fear or horror at what we had just witnessed. “Sir, I’m sorry about this as soon as they started piling on board, I wanted to call you, but they wouldn’t let me. Sir, those people were tortured. You can see the injuries. Some of them are kids.”

“I know son, I saw. Don’t worry about calling me. You did the right thing.”

As we were talking, we were joined by Olivet and his companion. “Lieutenant,” Olivet started. “Thank you for your help. You may not know it, but you saved a lot of people tonight.”

I patted Lieutenant Wilson on the shoulder. “Why don’t you go ahead and do your post-flight checks. And when you write your report, be sure to send me and Commander Olivet a copy. Better send one to Doc Holland also. He might be interested.”

I stood watching Doc Holland and his people doing their job. I could see that they were efficient and competent. In short order, the casualties were being loaded onto gurneys and taken out of the room.

I turned to Olivet, “Ok Commander, I believe an explanation is in order. Care to tell me what just happened.”

“It’s a long and complicated story, Sir. Let me start by expressing my thanks for this. I can assure you that if there had been another way to do this, I would have done it.”

“I should start by identifying this man here.” he indicated his companion. “Sir, this is first Sergeant Benjamin Jones. We’ve known each other for years.”

I reached out my hand to Jones, “First Sergeant, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Sergeant Jones was a thin man thin to the point of being gaunt. His face looked like a skull, and his skin was drawn tight and thin. When I gripped his hand, it was a firm grip. But I could feel and see the bones. But this wasn’t his most distinct feature. He was also wearing an eye patch over his right eye.

That’s when Doctor Holland joined us. “Captain, what the hell is going on here? Those people have been abused and tortured. I’m not sure how many of them will survive. I’ll do the best I can, but some are almost at the point of no return.”