Crineal Chronicles 1: In Hera's Service by Raymond L Jennings Page A

and the awful scene there. Half the beds
contained injured pilots; only a few were able to even sit up. The medical staff
rushed from one bed to another checking the readouts and shouting instructions
and requests back and forth.
    Major
Strieger spotted him as he moved into the room, quickly walked over and saluted.
“Sir, I was worried there for a while. I thought you’d be here sooner. Did you
having a landing problem?” She radiated concern.
    “I’ll
tell you about it later, Major. What’s the sit…?” Crineal’s comm link buzzed.
“Crineal here. Go.”
    “This
is Flight Control, Sir. Just wanted to let you know that SnR One just reported
that they have Lieutenant Feldea safely aboard. She’s badly hurt but they are
doing triage and heading back to the Annihilator as fast as they can. They
think she’s going to make it.”
    Crineal
said a silent prayer of thanks. “That’s good news, Flight. Any word on our
other two missing pilots?”
    There
was a slight pause “I’m afraid not, Sir. SnR Two and Three are still looking.
Chronos and Hecate are giving them a hand. They aren’t giving up yet, Sir.”
    “Thank
you, Flight. Let me know the minute you have news.”
    “Will
do, Sir, Flight out.”
    Strieger
looked at him. “Good news, Sir?” she asked.
    Crineal
nodded. “Yes, Feldea’s been picked up and is on her way back. She’s hurt but
they think she’ll be ok.”
    “That’s
good to hear. And Bannerman and Rochelle?”
    He
shook his head. “No news yet, they’re still looking. What’s the situation
here?”
    Strieger
gave a heavy sigh and glanced at the seeming chaos around her. “The docs say
everyone will make it, but some are going to be off flight duty for weeks. If
we’re lucky we might have twenty pilots available in three days, maybe thirty
in a week… maybe.” She looked over at Perl and noticed his awkward stance and
the damage to the left leg of his flight suit. “Lieutenant?”
    Perl
shifted to attention stiffly and saluted. “Yes, Ma’am?”
    Strieger
pointed to an empty bed. “Bed, now, and don’t even think about arguing.”
    Saphya
and Linthea, the other Delta Flight pilot, helped him over to the empty bunk
and he sat down with a groan of relief.
    “Let’s
go give Saymes the good news about Feldea,” Crineal said.
    Strieger
nodded and led him down the rows of beds. He noticed that even the uninjured
pilots were here, not that there were many of them, all lending what help they
could or moral support at least. Saymes was in the third bed on the right and
his left arm and leg were covered in biotic gel to ease the pain of the burns
and help with the healing. He saw Crineal and Strieger approaching and
struggled to sit up.
    Crineal
motioned him down. “Take it easy, Captain. How are you feeling?”
    Saymes
let out a weak chuckle. “Well, in the interests of keeping up morale, I’m doing
fine, Sir, but honestly, I feel like shit.” His face turned grave. “Is there
any news of Lieutenant Feldea, Sir?”
    Crineal
could see Saymes was expecting the worst. He smiled at him. “You can relax.
She’ll be on a bed next to you before you know it.” A look of relief flooded
over Saymes’ face. “SnR One picked her up a little while ago and is bringing
her in now.”
    “That’s
great, Sir. She’s a good pilot.”
    Strieger
gave Saymes a tired grin. “We don’t have any bad pilots here, Captain.”
    That
elicited another soft chuckle from him. “That’s the truth, Ma’am. And the other
two?”
    Crineal
shook his head. “No news yet, but they’re still out looking. You’ll know as
soon as we do.”
    He
raised his head to look around for Captain Naralat and Captain Olinini, Alpha
and Gamma flight leaders respectively, but before he could pick them out
someone else entered the medical bay and Lieutenant Linthea called out,
“Attention! Admiral on deck!”

    Crineal
turned to see Admiral Ken’Rathel stride into the room with the Annihilator’s captain,
the