Chapter 24: Critical!

Linda and Andrea rushed to his side, called the Ship AI, and transported Jason to the sickbay where he was immediately placed in a medical pod. The medical AI told Andrea, and Linda that Jason had suffered a critical injury. Every effort would be made to resuscitate Jason and bring him back to life. The AI informed them that the weapon had burnt through his chest, and had made a hole in his sternum then through the worst possible place at the junction of his atria and ventricles of his heart. It damaged both the bicuspid and tricuspid valves and all four chambers of his heart. The energy weapon spread out after firing leading to widespread damage. It damaged his esophagus which led to stomach contents entering his chest. It continued out of his back penetrating and severing his spine. It did damage to one of his lungs and severely damaged several of his ribs.

“Jason will need his heart regrown. He’s on full life support while this is undertaken. I’ll provide him with a mechanical heart in the short term. Nerve tissue is being grown for his spine. His rib and sternum are having bone segments grown and will be patched into his existing sternum and rib. He’s in shock and infection has commenced in his lungs and is becoming septicemia. The pod is removing stomach contents from his lungs and treating the infection removing bacteria directly and supporting his immune response. His esophagus has been patched and temporarily repaired,” said Phyllis compassionately.

“The injuries are critically severe. The only factor that may save Jason is the very short delay in transferring him to medical. He would have otherwise bled out in seven more seconds. His stomach contents are acidic and spread throughout his chest. The blood in his chest is an excellent growth medium for bacteria. His heart is so damaged it has been removed and the mechanical replacement was emplaced, four seconds ago,” said Phyllis sadly. “Poor Lord Kargo I’m so fond of him. He’s helped me so much to be a better pod.”

“The Empire technology is superb and very advanced. We’ll do our best even under these adverse circumstances. There’s nothing you can do now. I’d suggest that you return in three hours and I’ll able to tell you more.”

They walked slowly to the canteen. Robert and his deputy Marie were beside themselves with anxiety. They stood wringing their hands and were unable do their usual work. Many concerned people asked them about Jason. They tearfully told everyone that it was touch and go.

Papa Zora was incinerated and his remains thrown from the airlock. His clone and his staff was sentenced to death and subsequently also incinerated. The cardinals were tried next and forfeited their lives.

Linda and Andrea returned to the command center conference room next to the bridge, to keep themselves busy while they waited for medical news. There was minimal resistance on the planet. The troops arrested the senior executives in the information technology, medical technology, and replicator manufacturing corporate businesses and began the processes of preparing to send the businesses to Porquenta. The priest board members were also arrested. The chief executives and the priests were all interrogated and placed in stasis prior to relocation.

They were both surprised to hear that after the curfew was lifted there were spontaneous street parties all over the planet.

The attack had begun at the Nirvana equivalent of 4:30 AM. The first phase of the covert operation was completed in two minutes. Within four further minutes the shuttles and troops had completed the destruction of the garrison and the compound was under control ten minutes later. Within two hours control was established throughout the planet. The second rung of senior priests all attempted to escape and most were captured. They were interrogated and put into stasis and sent to Porquenta.

Papa Zora had managed to hide an implanted weapon in his finger. It was telepathically triggered. It was an unknown technology. It was a one-use weapon. The weapon was only visible after triggering. Following Jason’s past instructions, Papa Zora’s arms were cut off for further investigation after a post mortem was undertaken.

The telepathic Marines described to the tribunal what they had discovered in the mind of Papa Zora. They described what Jason had done in the mind of Papa Zora to the senior officers. Jason was looked at with considerable respect as the telepaths told of unprecedented telepathic power and Jason’s extraordinary control over giving others horrific visions. They tried doing as Jason had done in subsequent interrogations, without success.

Andrea, Linda, General Celia Ford, and Admiral Felicia MacDonald from Porquenta went to medical at the appointed time. They found both dogs lying next to the medical pod. The dogs looked very sad. They patted them and made a fuss of them. They were soon joined by Janet Malone the Colonel of Marines of the ship and Major Constance Ross from intelligence and a few minutes later Colonel Phoebe Harris the head of the fighter group on the ship arrived. Moments later General Morgan James and Admiral Peter Kane entered medical.

“Jason remains critical, and despite my best efforts is still unstable. His friend is helping as is his crystal. There’s a long way to go. I regret that I can’t give you more reassurance.”

“What is this friend that you are talking about and what is this about crystals,” Morgan James asked quite puzzled by what he had heard.

“He’s a friend in a trans-dimensional pocket who is with him always. He’s one of the Una. He found Jason in one of the trans-dimensional rooms on the battleship.

“Jason has over a hundred and forty crystals that have mysteriously consolidated into one enormous crystal. Many of these crystals were the biggest crystals that have ever been encountered. He was given many more crystals than any other member of the Royal family. No one known has ever been able to load so many crystals. No one has ever heard of someone living in a dimensional pocket nor has anyone heard about crystals joining together. Now he has an extra four hundred free slots,” said Andrea.

“Please return in twenty-four hours. If there’s major news I’ll contact you immediately,” said Phyllis sadly.

During the night, Phyllis contacted them all.

“Archduke Kargo is deteriorating, slowly. I replaced his heart with a mechanical heart. The nature of the energy weapon is unknown to me. It has had more widespread effects than I expected or was able to establish on examination. There’s a cone of damage from the entry point. Very much more tissue has been damaged than expected and there is also a poison in him. I’ve removed all the tissue I can but I’ve reached my limitations.

“There are many great hospitals in the Empire. There’s a superb facility on Nirvana. It’s probably the most technologically advanced facility in the Empire. I’ve contacted the facility to transfer him. It’ll give him the greatest chance of survival,” said Phyllis with a shaking voice and unexpected emotion.

The ship’s doctors and the medical AI transferred Jason to the surface in the medical shuttle along with the senior team and guards.

The hospital was the largest building in Nirvana. It was a substantial research facility for both medical research and for the development of medical technology. It was the largest such facility in the Empire. Doctors trained in Nirvana hospital were highly sought after. The research facility designed the most sophisticated medical pods and their AIs.

Jason was well guarded. Four Marines followed by a further sixteen including Marine AIs accompanied him as he made his way rapidly through hospital diagnostic processes while still in his pod. He was then transferred to a larger impressive but very different looking pod. Marines were scattered defensively around every area that Jason traversed. Six doctors from the ship observed every medical intervention. The floor was evacuated and heavy weapons put in place. Staff were provided with unique identification implants.

“Our doctors are observing the diagnostic processes and going through the proposed treatment with them. They understand our nervous and suspicious state of mind,” said the senior ship doctor.

“The doctors attending Jason are regarded as the greatest doctors in the Empire and the Archduke is safe with them, I know them both and I did train here for some years. They are Dr. Watson and Dr. Watson. He’s Charles Watson she’s Delia Watson. They are very old and very experienced. They have worked together since they qualified. They are truly inspired teachers and they have an amazing team. They can achieve miracles. There’s nowhere better than this hospital for an unusual injury. They will speak to you as soon they have useful information,” said one of the ship doctors.

They waited anxiously with their guards in the large waiting room.

Nearly three and a half hours later two small sprightly energetic looking doctors arrived accompanied by an entourage of fifteen who all looked exhausted. The old doctors Watson looked as though they were in their thirties. Their manner was breezy and confident.

“I’m Delia Watson and this is my husband and colleague Charles Watson. I’ll introduce the rest of the team later, but time is pressing and we have much to do. Thank you for providing us with arms and hands of Papa Zora and also the hands containing the weapons of the others. Our weapons specialists fired a second weapon. We have seen a similar but much larger weapon in the past. There’s an ancient people who created these weapons. We don’t know exactly where they live, but they meddle on the edges of the Empire. They are known to stir up trouble. They supply advanced technology to pirates and those interested in insurrection.

“The weapon produces an energy beam the technology of which we are not familiar. We have not been able to reverse engineer these weapons, but we know the effects and have seen many injuries produced by them. They behave differently to our weapons. Our energy weapon will burn through tissue and there will be a small region where the tissue will die from heat. The wound is easily cleaned.

“This weapon behaves more like a high-speed solid impact such as is produced by high speed shrapnel. It produces a shockwave on impact and a cone of tissue dies behind the impact point. This weapon causes an even larger cone of damage and the tissue becomes toxic. His cone extends backwards from the Archduke’s sternum. The impact circle is only a quarter of an inch but it involves half of both lungs and his entire thorax at the back. It produced a wide cone damaging nearly twelve vertebrae and a long segment of his spinal column.

“The damaged tissue is hard to distinguish from normal tissue until a day later. It becomes a toxic mush. We have dealt with many such injuries over the years.

“Fortunately, the Archduke was struck by a very small weapon. The effects are nevertheless devastating. Few will survive unless they receive medical care within minutes. Field medics use stasis techniques to keep people from deteriorating until they can receive care. This care can only be delivered at a super specialist level hospital,” said Dr. Delia Watson. She handed over to her husband.

“The Archduke is stabilizing. We have a rapid micro-transporter system that can target the toxic destroyed tissue and remove it. We have a new generation of antimicrobial nano-bots that will assist his immune system. The pod transporter system targets foreign DNA and is also removing virus and bacterial material from the wound. Nano and micro-bots are working to stop bleeding and repair the damaged tissue. We are concurrently growing tissue which is put in place by transporter technology.

“We’ll complete his repair within seven days. He will need to learn to walk again. It’ll take at least a month of strenuous rehabilitation effort before he’s back to as close to normal as we can do it,” Dr. Charles Watson said confidently, “but I fear he will be weakened in the future and much more vulnerable physically.

“There’s something about his system that has puzzled us. We extracted and identified bio-mechanical cellular structures in his blood. Initially we began removing them, but we discovered they’re part of his immune system and augment it. They appear to also assist in tissue repair. We found despite him appearing fully human and having extensive DNA of the Empire, he’s an admixture of some of the ancient DNA we have found in ships disabled during the past great wars. This DNA is actively producing these immune and repair adjuncts. We have also detected another being within him in another dimension, who appears to also be assisting though he’s now very weak and exhausted. Can you help us understand what is going on so we may be of more help?” Dr. Watson asked.

“The being within Jason is known as Winston and he’s living in a trans-dimensional pocket that was created when Jason went to seek a crystal in a trans-dimensional room. Winston is part of an ancient race known as the Una that exist throughout the galaxy. He acts as a mentor to Jason and to us and we have had a number of discussions with him via Jason. Jason received an extraordinary number of very large crystals and these have also consolidated into one single crystal which apparently is unprecedented,” said Janet Malone.

“Winston is communicating with me telepathically,” said Linda. Dr. Watson and Dr. Watson, I’ll tell you directly what he says word for word.

“Doctors, we the Una are very ancient race. We all communicate together and at this time I’m speaking to you as the leader of the Una.

“Jason is a very precious person to us and we’ll do anything to help in this precarious situation. If at any time you feel that Jason is deteriorating, please put him into stasis and I’ll convey him to another galaxy to a very advanced race with special medical skills.

“In all likelihood Jason is part of a very ancient race that precedes even very ancient races like the Una. The immune phenomena that you describe are very much part of his people and that indicates to us even more certainly the origins of Jason. We are somewhat reassured by your words. We do know the dangers of the weapons that you’ve described and know the race that has produced them. The technology was considered to breach all intergalactic rules of warfare, but I can say that intergalactic warfare had few rules if any by the time the last war drew to an uneasy conclusion. It’s quite safe both to leave Winston in place, who has helped as much as he can and to not worry about these unusual immune phenomena. You will undoubtedly in time find out how to change your DNA to augment your immune system bio-mechanically. That should only be a few hundred thousand years away.