Ringship Discretion by Sean League Read Free Book Online

"Ready? 1, 2, 3!"  All 4 of them flew across the hangar toward the other shuttle.  Atticus looked at AJ's face.  The inside of his helmet had blood splattering. "AJ!  AJ!  Come on AJ! God Dammit AJ!"
    Amelia yelled "Attie! Brakes!"
    Attie looked ahead. "Shit! Fire in 2, 1!" They both fired their suit thrusters trying to slow them down, but they hit the hatch door hard and almost went over it.  Doc grabbed them as they hit and pulled them down.  They all climbed in and shut the inner and outer hatches.  The shuttle was already powered up.  Doc hit the pressurization button and a rush of air flooded into the cabin.  They waited as the cabin pressurized.  Amelia was having a hard time seeing AJ's face with all the blood and condensation on the inside of his helmet, and she instinctively tried to wipe it clean with her glove. "Attie! I can't see him!" The cabin indicator finally turned green to indicate the air level was safe. 
    Doc motioned "Help me get this suit off of him!"  They floated him in the air and began to remove his helmet. Fog rolled out of the seal as the doc caught the base of his neck.  As AJ's head appeared out of the helmet, blood was bubbling from his nose. Doc removed his glove and reached around AJ's neck to feel for a pulse. Everyone watched anxiously, but no one said a thing, not wanting to block the radio channel from important discussion. 
    The captain finally asked. "Doc?".
    Doc kept his hand on AJ's neck and leaned forward.  Moisture appeared on the front of Doc's helmet, vaporized and appeared again. "He's alive!  I have to get the blood out of his nose. You  guys get this suit off so I can seal up his cut next.” 
    The captain asked "Where is all this blood coming from?" 
    Doc ripped a piece of shirt off of AJ and used it to soak up some of the blood on AJ's face. "I think this is just a nose bleed, but in zero G it's not good".
    They began to pull the suit down and Ben's suit alarm went off.  Ben looked at his gauge. "Captain, I only have 30 minutes of air left." 
    The captain looked up. "Doc, I assume you don't need all of us in here?"
    The Doc shook his head while ripping AJ's bloody shirt sleeve in half. 
    The captain continued. "Amelia, you and Ben get back to the ship.  Forget everything else, just get those control modules installed and bring the ship back here.  And grab one of those air tanks there in case you have a problem." 
    Amelia looked over at Ben and used her head to signal while she said "Aye, let's go."  She touched AJ's face, turned, grabbed a spare O2 container and they headed to the air lock. As they entered the air lock she asked "Ben, you got everything you need?" 
    He felt his pockets "I dropped most of what I had, just the rifle and the ammo in my pockets, oh, and a few chocolate bars." as he pulled one out.  He looked at her. "I assume you have the control modules?" 
    She felt her pockets to make sure. "Yes". 
    They pushed off the shuttle and floated toward the hatch they had entered through.  Amelia looked over at the other shuttle and she could see the supplies that had been cast away to save AJ drifting in all directions.  "We'll have to round up all those supplies again when we return, I just hope none of them drift out the breach." 
    That made Ben look over. "Oh, yeah.  Nah, I don't think they'll drift too far."  Another alarm went off and everyone heard it because Ben had his comm open. He then said "Crap! 15 minutes left! Am I using that much air?! There has to be a leak!  I am going to lower the pressure in my suit a bit."
    The captain came on. "Careful Ben.  Amelia, keep a close eye on him."  As she fired her suit jets to steer and slow her approach towards the hatch "I will..and how is AJ?". 
    Doc spoke. "He should be fine.  He's got some damage to his arm.  I think I can regenerate everything, but he might be down for a few days". Amelia relaxed a bit "Oh, that's good news! We are leaving the hangar hatch now.  Be back