CHAPTER 19
A GOOD MAN FALLS
Sick Bay was a level above the airlocks. Tom could hear and feel the battle nearby. He watched men and women run past the glass double doors to defend the ship. Most defenders wore hard body armor, with built-in weapons, computers, and engines for combat. Others had only space suits and police shields. The shields were strong armor, and mirrored to reflect away lasers; computers in the shields analyzed each attack and automatically adjusted the best defense.
“How can they fight and hope to win?” Tom wondered. More people ran by.
Everyone in sick bay was silent. No one moved, or spoke, they waited in fear. The zapping of laser guns and the boom of blasters roared in the hall. Tom watched the door; he could see flashes of blue light beyond, and feel the boom, boom, boom of blasters firing over and over.
Ollie could tell there was a fight. Inside he was excited; his wolf spirit was longing to go.
“No! Ollie! No Ollie, stay here with me.” Tom held him around the neck as they huddled on the floor. He needed Ollie.
The horror of desperate battle screamed in the voices of blasters and explosions. The wounded began to arrive in the sick bay. Some staggered through the door and fell. A man blindly groped his way in with a face black from burns. Another came in and leaned weakly against a wall. He slipped to the floor and rolled onto his face. The back of suit was burned off, and the flesh was blackened and bloody.
Men were yelling in the hall. Flashes filled the passage with an eerie light. The battle raged, swaying up and down the hall, and at times right in front of the Sick Bay door. The defenders were overwhelmed and turned to run back the way they came.
One stopped in front of the door. He turned to face the enemy, crouching behind a silver shield he fired three quick blasts. A laser beam bounced off of the police shield. A second later it was hit by a blaster that exploded in a flash pushing him back, then another and another. The front of the shield exploded, flipping off his arm, to fly across the corridor and crash against the wall. The man was on one knee firing his weapon over and over. He refused to turn and run. Laser beams streamed past. The man was hit by a blue electric taser beam. He flopped on the floor like a rag doll and lay on his back. He wore only a cadet’s space suit. With jarring horror, Tom saw the cadet’s face. It was Roger!
(c) Adron
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