Through Glass Darkly: Episode Two (6 page)

Payne, slowly raised one of her hands and after a moment confirmed he had found a slow and steady pulse, In the process he also revealed the three bullet holes in Ariel’s chest where my bullets had clearly penetrated the carapace armour.

These were the next area of concern, which required first straightening out Ariel’s long limbs and covering her with surgical sheeting and thermal wraps in order to make sure she didn’t lose too much body heat.

This gave the surgeons time to relax for a moment before proceeding. Payne began the examination, but after only a moment or two asked for a set of forceps, which he then used to slowly extract my bullets.

‘These appear to have cracked her breastbone,’ he explained as he continued to work. ‘And a couple of her ribs, but I can already see quite a significant amount of healing has taken place, which with a bit of luck will continue.’

At this he sutured the wounds, before asking one of his assistants to dress them and then take her through to the recovery room for close monitoring.

I couldn’t quite believe how well it had all gone, and that my fellow crewman who I’d thought dead was now practically whole again beneath the surgical sheets that covered her. I could only hope her mind would also somehow be as intact.

CHAPTER 23 - RECOVERY

I stayed at the Sanatorium for short while after the operation just to make sure Ariel was alright while she was moved through into the recovery room, and although there was a significant part of me that hated myself for doing it, I also suggested the hospital should once again fasten her to the bed with strong restraints in case the psyche that remained within her was that of the creature rather than that of my crewmate.

It was gone midnight by the time I finally took my leave and headed back to the ship in a police patrol car to get some rest. The city was still warm and inviting after another long and sunny summers day, but being New York it was of course still full of life, and from my previous visits to the same city on my own world I knew it would remain so far into the small hours of the morning.

The police officer driving the car must’ve been close to the end of his shift as well, because aside from the usual politeness he was happy to sit in silence on the way back, content to allow the bright lights and bustling streets of the night-time city wash by with the warm summer air that flowed through the car’s open windows.

A few minutes later and I was past the security cordons and riding back up to the ship in one of the cradles. And after checking in with the Captain who was once again back in the engineering decks overseeing the night shift at work, I retired to my cabin.

I was dog tired, but needed a few minutes to let my mind slow down a bit before I’d be able to sleep, so after getting changed out of my uniform I absently settled down to give my gun and my lensing rig a quick service. All the tools were still in my kit where I’d left it, and in no time my Webley was in pieces and once again as clean as a whistle, as were my lenses and the automatic rig they sat in.

The servicing was a well-worn routine for me, which only took a few minutes, after which I was ready to sleep and after lying down nodded off immediately.

Despite the odd noise from Bradbury’s team as they worked through the night, I slept well and deep, and woke up early the following morning feeling refreshed and ready for the day.

For a moment it seemed odd to be back aboard ship, and not to have to relieve anyone or have a shift to start, but then I remembered all the work I had to get started on in preparing the new simplified lensing rigs for the search teams.

Fortunately with all the workmen aboard ship, Bradbury had also sorted out some refreshments for his men in one of the refectories on the engineering level so I was able to get a good cup of coffee and hearty breakfast before I started on the work of the day.

I began by checking in with both the Captain and Platt, in order to get up to speed with everything they’d done while I was at the sanatorium with Ariel the previous evening.

Both men had been busy, the Captain had prepared all the information the manufacturer would need to mix up the appropriate batches of lens glass for the new lenses, and then cast the different glass types into appropriate sized lenses. It was a short but concise document containing several hand drawn technical illustrations, accurately drawn and fully detailed with precise measurements.

He’d also selected a number of sample lenses and found an early prototype lensing rig frame that he’d further cut down and simplified so that it would hold only the lenses the search teams were likely to need.

These would all make excellent templates for the manufacturer to use for their own castings, as well as a working model that they could use to see how everything was supposed to fit together.

Where the Captain had found the time to rest after bringing all this material together I couldn’t imagine, as it must’ve taken several hours to put even this concise a document together.

The police captain had made similar progress, and had not only identified a likely local manufacturer, he’d also dispatched one of his detectives to establish contact with the owner and impress upon them the urgency that we wanted the work delivering with.

Again Platt had a car standing ready to take me to the site around mid-morning where I was to meet with both the owner and the relevant technical teams. Hughes had also volunteered to come along as a well-known business-leader to try and smooth the waters if it were required.

This gave me time to do a bit of preparatory work in the ships lensing lab for the various coatings and baths that would be needed to finish the lenses off before they could be used.

The day passed in a whorl. No sooner had I finished in the lab than I was transported to the manufacturers plant to discuss our requirements, but far from encountering any form of reluctance or hesitation on the part of optical manufacturer, we discovered they were incredibly keen to work with us, to such an extent that I couldn’t help but openly wonder why when I had the opportunity to speak to Hughes privately.

‘Ah yes of course,’ he replied as though trying to figure out how to phrase his response diplomatically.

‘There is a tacitly accepted truism in our society that war drives technological advancement, perhaps it is similar in your world?’

When I indicated it was, he continued.

‘Well, your war with these creatures from the Expanse has I think improved your knowledge and understanding of many technologies to something far beyond our own.

‘You have some technologies we don’t have at all like those palely glowing Aetheric batteries or capacitors that are built into so many of your devices,’ he said indicating the small pale green capacitors built into my lensing rig.

‘But even the technologies which we recognise, seem much more refined and capable than our own versions, and these things have come to the attention of a great many very powerful people, even nations. Many of whom would in other circumstances have been happy to simply try and take these secrets from you.

‘Now, because of the high profile nature of your arrival over our city, and the continued interest in who you are and why you’re here the likelihood of anyone trying to take anything from you is almost zero. But don’t allow yourself to underestimate how much interest there still is out there in finding out more about these strange devices you have, and more fundamentally the technological advances you’ve had to make to create them.’

‘So the people we’ve spoken to today, they’re keen to help us because they think they can learn things that will give them a commercial advantage?’ I asked slightly surprised.

‘Yes, of course!’ He replied. ‘Simply think of the applications of the optical technologies that you’re sharing with these people today. The benefit in hunting this creature will be enormous, but these same technologies could also help our soldiers perform better at night, or allow our spy planes to see the ground clearer, or our astronomers to see further into the night skies. They could transform medical microscopy, give ordinary people better spectacles to wear, film-stars better sunglasses, paparazzi better cameras, and film directors a few more options on the film set.

‘And yet,’ he continued, having already blown my mind. ‘This is a level of technology so primitive to you that the greatest challenge you’ve faced in talking to us about it is whether you can simplify it enough to allow us to copy it.’

‘I had no idea,’ I conceded. ‘In the years that we’ve been battling these creatures we’ve come to take so much of this for granted. It had never occurred to me that the gap between us was so wide.’

I should’ve seen and thought of it before and said the same to Hughes, but there had been so many other things going on I just hadn’t stopped to consider.

‘Has the Captain discussed this with you?’ I asked hoping that I hadn’t been the only one who’d been too busy to consider it.

‘He has,’ replied Hughes with a gentle smile. ‘He’s taking the view at the moment that the best way of achieving his mission is to share all of the technological advances from your world, in order to give us the best chance possible of joining the fight against these creatures.

‘In fact he’s encouraged me to act as a go-between for any and all interested parties,’ Hughes explained further. ‘But he’s also quietly urging everyone who will listen to start preparing this world in the same way you did your own.’

I thanked Hughes for his candour in helping me to understand the much wider repercussions which our arrival had caused.

When we went back to talking to the engineers and technicians that had been assembled to work with us in the factory I did my best to honour the Captain’s wish for us to share as much of our knowledge with this world as possible, so in addition to explaining as much of the early lensing technology which they needed to understand in order to manufacture what we were asking of them, I also tried to explain some of limitations that we’d subsequently also discovered so they had a better grounding in the wider field before we shared the more advanced techniques and technologies with them.

It was another long day, but by the time we finished the engineers and technicians I’d been tutoring all seemed confident they had not only understood enough to get the job we wanted done, they also thought they could re-tool their machinery and have the first batch of lenses and rigs off the production line in only a little over two days, which was far quicker than I’d dared hope.

We were just saying our goodbyes at the factory gates, and I was just beginning to think of where I could find an evening meal, when one of the technicians came back out to find us to say that the Staton Island Sanatorium were calling for me on the phone.

I hardly dared hope it might be news that Ariel had woken up so soon after the operation as I walked back through the factory to take the call from Dr Bach. While Ariel was still unconscious, she continued to heal rapidly with no obvious counter indicators after being removed from the creatures carapace shell.

‘The thing is Mr Hall,’ he continued matter-of-factly. ‘I’ve been talking to Dr Payne about the remnants of those additional limbs that are still attached to the patients spine, and now that we’ve had a chance to X-ray her again without that shell material weakening and blurring the image, we think it’s probably a relatively straight-forward procedure that could be completed with just a single surgery.

‘Unfortunately, we’re still no further forward on the whole anaesthetic and painkiller question, though we have now confirmed that her blood has definitely been hybridised in some way.’

‘So, you’d like to get this second operation out of the way before she wakes up?’ I said, anticipating where he was going with the call.

‘That’s it exactly,’ replied Bach. ‘We could be ready to start first thing in the morning if her situation remains unchanged, but because of her now unique physiology we’d feel more comfortable if you could be there to use your lenses again to monitor her condition both before we start and while we operate.’

I confirmed I was willing to help out in any way I could, but that I’d naturally have to discuss it with the Captain before giving the final go ahead. Either way I promised to have an answer for him within the next couple of hours.

Hughes had waited outside the office so I could have the conversation in private, but I saw no reason not to update him on Ariel’s condition as we walked back to the car.

‘I know it must be difficult for you and the Captain,’ he observed, when I finally finished telling him what was going on. ‘To go from a crew of thousands down to just the two of you in such a short period of time, let alone to find yourself on a new world so similar and yet different to your own.’

‘It is,’ I admitted after the briefest hesitation.

‘But it’s not something I feel consciously.’ I con-tinued, struggling slightly to find the words. ‘There have been times in the last week when I’ve pushed myself so far beyond what I thought were my limits that I’ve barely recognised myself, but at the same time I’ve also felt more at one with myself than ever before.’

‘Well, you’ve certainly confounded several people’s expectations in the way you carry yourself Ashton,’ Hughes confided earnestly.

‘There are those who wonder whether you’ve got some kind of a death wish after the way you’ve chased these creatures down time and again, constantly putting yourself in harm’s way to try and stop them. But there are other seasoned officers who’ve seen you in the field and are convinced nothing could be further from the truth.’

I trusted what Hughes was saying to me, but had been caught so off guard by this change of subject and I barely knew how to respond.

‘Well I appreciate the concern I must’ve caused,’ I finally replied. ‘And while there’s a lot about my situation I don’t feel I can adequately explain, I can say with confidence that’s I’m not driven by suicidal thoughts.’