A Day for Damnation

TWENTY-NINE

FOUR MEN grabbed the basket with Duke and disappeared through a door. Two others led Lizard and myself out through another exit. We followed them down a long corridor and into a medical facility. They split us up then, putting Lizard in one cubbyhole and me in another.

A minute later, a teenage girl in a white jacket came in carrying a medi-kit and sat down in front of me. "How are you feeling?" I took inventory and reported, "Hoarse. Sore throat from the dust. Pressure in my chest. Trouble breathing. Lots of coughing. Pain. Eyes hurt. Ears hurt. I want a bath. I'm still cold. I feel great!" I grinned at her.

She smiled sweetly but impersonally. "Okay, take off your shirt." She was already opening her kit.

"Huh? Where's the doctor?"

"I'm the doctor. Take off your shirt."

"Uh-" I shut up and took off my shirt. She stuck poker chips to my chest, my arms, my neck and my temples.

She studied her readouts, nodded, and blanked the screen before I could peek over her shoulder. She peered into my mouth, my nose, my eyes, and my ears. She nodded and said, "Mm hm. Wait a moment. I'll be right back."

She returned with a tray. On it was a pressure injector, a glass of orange juice, and a small plastic container with a handful of capsules. "Antibiotics and vitamins," she explained. She touched the pressure injector to my arm. It hissed. I felt a cold wet sensation.

She handed me the capsules and the orange juice. I took them without complaint. The juice was sweet and cold.

"All right," she said. "You can put your shirt back on now." She left.

The whole process had taken less than five minutes.

As I fastened my shirt, I wondered if I should wait here-or what?

I stuck my head out of the cubbyhole. A man in a jumpsuit with a Paul Bunyan patch over his heart was waiting there. "Lieutenant McCarthy?"

I nodded.

"Colonel Anderson requests your presence in the forward lounge. Follow me please?"

I followed.

The crewman led me to the forward lounge and told me to make myself comfortable. "Colonel Anderson will be along shortly. The bar is open if you want anything." Then he left.

The lounge seemed almost as big as the loading bay. It had tall, slanting windows circling in a vast horseshoe. I stepped to the very front and peered out.

The airship's running lights had been turned on again. There must have been a huge bank of spotlights just above the lounge, because the whole sky ahead glowed with the reflected light. It looked like we were plowing through pink fog. There was nothing else to see.

I could feel a faint vibration beneath my feet. We were under power. Captain Price must be using the cold-rocket assist. No other engine would function in this weather.

There was a well-stocked bar at the back of the lounge. I sauntered back and told the robot to make me a Staggering Buffalo and go easy on the soy. I found a seat by the window, still marveling at the sense of luxury in this airship. It was true; the heavy lifters had space to waste.

"Lieutenant McCarthy?" I looked up. And up.

The man had shoulders the size of Ohio. He had a broken nose and a beefy grin. He stuck out a paw at me. I stared at it for a few seconds before I realized what he wanted. I leapt to my feet and saluted. "Sir?"

He returned my salute with something that looked more like a wave than a salute, then stuck out his hand again. I offered mine and he shook my hand gently. When he let go, I wanted to stare at my fingers. He hadn't crushed them.

"I'm Danny Anderson," he said. His voice resonated like the inside of a hangar. He had a smile as wide as the door. "I want to thank you for the job you did on my father. You saved his life."

"Uh-I hate to disagree with a superior officer, sir-" Especially one as big as you. "-But I didn't do half the job I should have-"

"Oh? Could you have done better than you did?" He raised a bushy eyebrow at me.

"Sir, I did the very best I could. It just wasn't as good as I could have done if I'd had the proper supplies. We ran out of everything-"

He started laughing. I stared at him. He caught himself and stopped, but the grin remained.

He put a hand on my shoulder. "I'm not laughing at you, son. Colonel Tirelli told me you would do this. I'm trying to thank you and you're too busy devaluing your contribution to hear me. You're going to have to knock that off, Lieutenant."

"Uh-" I was doing it again. "Right. Thank you, sir."

"Good. Now, let me tell it to you again. You did a good job. You saved Captain Anderson's life. Colonel Tirelli is putting you in for a medal."

I hardly heard the last. "Uh-thank you, sir. Uh, can I ask, how is Duke-Captain Anderson?"

Danny Anderson hesitated. He looked embarrassed, and his voice went curiously flat. "It-uh, looks like he's going to make it. His vital signs steadied out as soon as we got him on Code Blue Maintenance. But it's still too early to say what kind of shape he's going to be in." And then he added quietly, "He might lose his legs."

The balloon I'd been holding inside my chest suddenly lost all its air. I sank back down into my seat. "It's that red furry stuff, isn't it? I was afraid of this. I gave him terramycin, but I didn't know what else I could do-"

Danny Anderson sat down opposite me. He put his hand on my shoulder again. "Hey!" he interrupted. "I thought I told you to knock that off."

I gulped. "I'm sorry, sir. It's just-so damned frustrating! I mean-he's been like a dad to me, and-" I looked up at him. "Well-you know what he's like-"

"No," he said, coldly. "I don't."

"Huh-?"

"Don't worry about it, McCarthy." There was something hard in his voice. "That's not your concern."

"Oh. Uh-yes, sir. I-" shut up. And wondered.

"Listen to me," he said. "What's done is done. This is it. This is how it turned out. Like it or not.

"So stop arguing against me inside your head and let me congratulate you. The video that you and Colonel Tirelli brought back with you may be the most important recordings we've got. Those bunnydogs are incredible!"

I swallowed hard. I said, "I think they may be the next step of the invasion."

"I won't argue with you, Lieutenant. You had more opportunity to observe the creatures than anyone else."

"Yes sir.

"Now, I know you're tired and sore. I know you're probably hungry for a decent meal, a hot bath and a bed. We've got all of those waiting for you. But first-we want to debrief you while it's all still fresh in your memory. Can you manage that?"

I nodded. "Get me a pitcher of coffee and a straw, and I'm yours. No, better make that an IV bottle."

"Sorry, no coffee. We have tea and cocoa."

"No coffee?"

He shook his head. "Not at thirty caseys for a half-kilo of beans."

"The bean-rot?"

He nodded. "Congress closed the border. The only coffee you're going to get from now on will be greenhouse-bean. If you can afford it."

"I'll have the cocoa, thanks."

"Good. Now, we're going to set you up in one of the cabins with a standard ECO-6 debriefing program and two technicians. I'll try and stick my head in for a while too. Will that work for you?"

I nodded.

"Good." He clapped my shoulder. "Ready to go?"

"I'll need something for my cough. An 0-mask?"

"I'll have the doctor bring whatever you need."

"Thank you, sir." I stood up and followed him aft.

I made it almost three-quarters of the way through the debriefing before I started coughing and passed out.