Vicky Peterwald: Survivor (Vicky Peterwald Series Book 2) by Mike Shepherd Page A

return him most of the use of his lower quarter. It’s his leg. There are a lot of pieces.We’ve just gotten the bleeding controlled. If we amputate it now, could the Navy clone him a new one? We sure can’t these days.”
    “Doc?” the admiral said. “Would he be better off up here?”
    “No doubt, but what would a launch to orbit do to all the fine work the good doctors down there have done?”
    “Would it help if you had some of our gear down there with you?” the admiral half asked, half ordered.
    “I can give you a list of our off-line equipment and the parts we need to get them up and running,” the Sevastopol doctor offered.
    “Send us the list,” the Navy doctor said. “I’ll have my med techs and supply technicians go over it with me.”
    “Your Grace,” Admiral Mittleburg said. “I see you’ve had a full evening. I’d have called you myself except I’m just now getting the report of the attack. Heads are going to roll.”
    “Don’t roll them on my account,” Vicky said. “Gerrit took the blast for me. Other than my pride, I’m unhurt.”
    “I don’t think you have any reason to be concerned about your pride. I understand that you’ve done quite well for an uninvited visitor they threatened to shoot down.”
    “May I ask how you know?”
    “I had a copy of your meeting with the mayors on my desk after supper, and I read the one concerning your other meeting before I went to bed. Well played.”
    “Again, may I ask how you knew, sir? Someone leaked my travel itinerary, and that’s how we got bushwhacked.” Vicky was going into a slow burn.
    “Commander Schlieffen sent it all along to me. I assure you, up here, it was my eyes only.”
    “Oh,” Vicky said, burner going out.
    At that moment, she realized just how tired she was.
    Vicky took a moment to settle deep into her chair. She really was exhausted. If Gerrit was stabilized, maybe she should think about some time in that bed the hospital had offered.
    The doctor’s conversation with the Navy doc topside was putting a happy smile on her face.
    Vicky allowed herself a smile.
    A nurse dashed through the door and up to the doctor to whisper words in her ear.
    The doctor’s face lost its smile, and she whirled to race back through the doors.
    Vicky glanced up at the Ranger. The captain’s face was that blank one officers were trained to wear when the battle goes suddenly and badly wrong.
    Vicky didn’t care what the Navy expected. She leaned over to rest her face in her hands and tried not to cry.
    But wasn’t very successful.

CHAPTER 16
    O N the sunny ramp at the spaceport, Admiral von Mittleburg offered Vicky his arm. She took it gratefully.
    A week ago, his admiral’s barge had led a trio of landers down into the bay. The longboat on the right had held a quarter of the doctors, technicians, and supply yeomen from the station’s sick bay, along with a major chunk of their medical stores.
    The longboat on the left had held a company of Marines.
    No one questioned their right to land that morning.
    Admiral von Mittleburg had led the charge of medical personnel into the room where Vicky still waited for word about the commander. While the station’s senior surgeon moved swiftly through to merge his team and equipment with the best the locals had to offer, the admiral took a good look at his Grand Duchess.
    “You’re out of it, Lieutenant Commander,” he said, invoking Vicky’s Navy rank. “Walk with me.”
    A junior Navy officer could not refuse a walk with an admiral. This walk ended back at Vicky’s suite, with two female Marines undressing her and a medic giving her a shot.
    She got one glance out the window at the rising sun before she slipped into unconsciousness. The next thing she rememberedseeing was the afterglow of the setting sun as she rose, muzzy-headed from her bed.
    Bathed, cleaned, and dressed in a proper uniform, she was soon dining with the admiral in the hotel’s best restaurant.
    The admiral ordered.