Fiction Home - More by Andy Novak - More in Action and Aventure
The woman stood looking at the tank, she knew there was a man inside but you could hardly make him out. He was wrapped in something white, unlike most people in the tanks who were practically naked.
"What's with the bandages?" Corry mumbled to herself, trying not to think about all the injured in the infirmary, all the injured she had put there.
"Sedatives, he's terrified of bacta tanks. But his injuries were too severe not to put him in. Hell, with what happened to him in vacuum and Scar we're surprised how well he's recovering," the medic replied, not realizing it had been a rhetorical question.
She found herself close to the tank.
"Sorry Andy!" Corry whispered.
A man sitting by the tank spoke. "He's a soldier ma'am, he'll understand," Cooper said.
"Doesn't make what happened to everyone any less my fault," she replied.
"You were responsible for the mission, Colonel, you weren't responsible for the other side. If the mission involves sending people into dangerous places it's your job to make sure the job is done. Getting home is the responsibility of the squadron's officers," he replied.
"And you think he'll see it that way, with half his body nearly dead?"
"Should do, he was the one who told me!" Cooper replied.
* * * * *
His universe was tinted red. He could see a woman and a man—they were talking. Something about getting the job done. Andy began to grin and felt the skin on his face tear again. The pain took him back into his memories, to a place of fire and death.
* * * * *
"Shuttle 3 you are clear to jump. Get out of here!" Andy was yelling into his comms.
"Lead this is Ten, Shuttle 3 has jumped," Jess said through static.
"Ok, time to bug out, Coop. Jess on my wing!" Andy commed his relief patrol.
They had responded to the distress signal of a freighter. He, Cooper and Jess had remained to allow the crew of Shuttle 3 to effect repairs. Before they could do this however, pirates had overwhelmed them.
"Our escape route is cut off," Cooper commed.
"They're keeping us in the gravity well of that planet," Jess said.
"This is lead, we don't have a choice. We land and evade," Andy interrupted.
They acknowledged.
* * * * *
Andy woke again, pain throughout his body. His face was on fire, his body convulsing. Someone rushed to his side—no, the side of the tank—and hit a switch and the pain went away. He looked down and saw the concerned face of Jess looking up at him.
* * * * *
"I'll be fine kid," Andy said to a concerned Jess.
They had landed, hidden their fighters and entered the wreckage of another freighter. While Cooper and Jess inspected the damaged freighter, Andy had set up a beacon as far from their fighters as they could safely get. Unfortunately he had been injured when one of the pirates had made a strafing run.
"Your ribs seem to have got most of the rock the shots tore up Andy," Cooper said.
"Just so long as I don't need bacta. Hate those bloody tanks," he replied, throwing a shard of rock into the darkness now surrounding them.
"Always found them relaxing myself," Cooper grinned, the blue rock and the red flame reflecting in his face.
"You would." Andy grimaced.
"We've been here days. When are they going to send a search and rescue team?" Jess asked the universe at large.
Andy grinned.
"We were a rescue team, and a rear guard. We don't get rescues. The person in charge has a mission, they send us to do the job. We do the job. If we get into trouble we get everyone out. If we can't get out, we don't. The officer in charge does the mission; the people under them do the job in front of them. Survival is a bonus."
"So we don't get out of this." Jess looked astonished at Andy almost hoping he was concussed and talking gibberish.
"Gods, no. We get to our fighters and fly out and do the impossible. I'm sure it's in the job description somewhere. Look under Day to Day Living," Andy replied.
Andy turned over to go to sleep and saw a small circle with a leaf in the middle drawn on the wall of the cavern.
"We're leaving now!" His face had gone white, his heart beating faster than it ever had.
He grabbed the other two and pulled them to their feet, silencing any concerns.
"I'm not ending up like her, no, never. Better to die on your feet…" he mumbled as he started up his X-wing.
* * * * *
Andy woke, remembering the flight from the pirates, facing his friends and telling them of his fear. They never knew why he had to be sedated to get in a bacta tank and why a circle scared him more than a hundred Star Destroyers.
He tried to move his mind to happier times, places he could stay for a while, but he always went back to the ship.
* * * * *
"We should be up!" she said.
"Not getting up!" Andy replied.
"I could order you. It's mutiny, not following your Lieutenant's orders!" she replied.
"Yeah, I'm meant to follow orders. You're not meant to sleep with airmen in your command. Who'd they shoot first?" Andy grinned at her.
"Maybe they'd just shoot us both together," she grinned.
"If they let us die in bed, I'll take it!" Andy grinned at her.
"Green Squadron report to briefing room," the comm system blared.
After finding their squadron assembled in the briefing room they were informed of the missing freighter. The three flights of Green Squadron left their frigate and searched for days and found nothing. On the fifth day of the search Andy and his group found the stricken ship.
"Looks big enough for us to land in, hanger is open," she said
"Acknowledged, Lead." Andy replied, struggling to remember that outside of her quarters he couldn't use her name.
The ship was large and old, its hull and interior a greyish blue colour. The ship's crew were all dead, victims of a life support malfunction. As they searched the ship for survivors Andy got his first real sense of death. The smells and sights sickened him to the core.
"I'm on the bridge, no survivors here. Ship has markings on the walls though, circle with a leaf in the middle of the circle," he commed.
"Ok, head for medical. I'll get someone to check the markings," she replied.
Andy entered the darkened medical bay and found more bloated and decaying forms that had once been crew on the beds as well as leaning against the bulkheads. He felt sick. He walked over to the bay's single bacta tank. In this tank was a young woman, possibly a teenager, Andy couldn't tell. She was dead, but something was a little off.
"The bacta tank seems to have some power," he said to his squad mates, who had just entered the room.
"How are her vitals?" one of them asked.
"She's dead, it's just the recorder that's active," Andy spoke, until he read the screen and started to retch. The crew had died days ago, fairly quickly, but she hadn't. According to the screen she had been alive as recently as ten hours before and awake. Andy fell over, taking the console with him. They hit the tank, it cracked and shattered, spilling bacta all over him. He looked up as the girl fell on him, mouth open and blue eyes staring accusingly through him as if to ask "why?"
* * * * *
He always woke at this point. He had to. The first time round it had taken months for him to recover. He blamed himself for the girl's death, he thought if he had changed their patrol route they would have found her sooner. For a long time he would not accept that he wasn't high enough up the chain of command to effect such a decision, but terror was rarely logical.
His self recrimination had nearly cost him his career. It had cost him the relationship with her—he pushed her and everyone else away.
He had run, taking more and more dangerous assignments, finding that he was good at them. His luck had to end sometime, had it ended now? That single incident was the reason he was in Rogue Squadron. When offered the chance to go beyond known space he had jumped at it.
He stopped and looked outside his little bowl, out beyond the red haze. He saw two officers sitting, snoozing, talking and waiting for him to wake up, a third stood by the door the same old grin on her face that she'd had all those years ago. He had friends, comrades, respect, all despite his supposed curse and flaws.
Andy smiled, his new scar stretching along his jaw line. This was not the end of him. Perhaps his luck hadn't quite run out yet.
* * * * *
Cooper, Jess and Xylem looked up and wondered what their friend was grinning about.