Sholan Alliance - AU Bk. 02 Ch. 04

Satasha was sitting up next to him and she grasped his hand and stroked his hair. "Calmly Yilly and we will straighten this out. He is simply telling you what is going on and using the appropriate rank as of now." She had been more than shocked when she had been informed as well. Right now she could tell that his emotions were a mess.

Billy twitched away from her hand. "Satasha don't please. Don't try and calm me. They had no right and that is all there is to it." He felt a bit bad for speaking so coldly but he was going to need to deal with his anger. Trying to keep it from showing wasn't going to work. "Now tell me what is happening please."

The physician straightened slightly at the command in Billy's voice. Here was an officer speaking and giving an order. He responded to the tone as much as anything. "Commander when we resuscitated you and your Leska we immediately started operating on you. We had to remove several pieces of ribs which had lacerated your right lung. The artery leading to your arm was damaged and had to be repaired. Some reconstructive surgery was done as needed for the repairs. You have three chest tubes in your right side. What I would like to do is to give you another three or four days for the lung to finish healing. Once that is done I will have two of the chest tubes removed and then put you back into cryo. At that point we will continue your journey to Shola for continuing treatment and rehab."

He took a breath before continuing. "The recovery and rehab will take several months due to the damage to nerves, bones, shoulder girdle, and any other damage. I have been in contact with a number of the doctors at the Telepath's guild and they will take over once you arrive on Shola."

Billy listened and was slightly appalled by the damage the doctor was mentioning. Technically he should be dead based on the damage listed and would have been if he had been treated on earth. Well treated by earth doctors that is. For the moment his anger over what had happened with being recalled was muted by the shock of the injuries. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes and started shaking slightly.

Satasha curled as best around him as possible. "Please give us some time Doctor. We will page you when we have an answer." She at least had already been informed of the extent of injuries. It had shaken her as well but she wasn't the one that was hurt. "Hush Yilly you are going to be okay. Maybe not perfect but you are going to live and so am I. That is what matters."

Billy turned his head into her shoulder and cried in frustration. It was to much and he couldn't handle it. The machines kicked in and medicated him and shortly he was asleep in her arms.

~~~

Over the next several days Billy kept getting better. He talked to both of his girls as well as Tasha and finally decided to agree with being tanked. All agreed that he would recover better on Shola than on the ship or even Earth. So far they hadn't heard much news about the attack on earth. Billy and Satasha had been informed of the loss of the fighter escort which upset both of them. He understood that it happened and chances were they would lose more people they knew and didn't know.

The doctor kept a close eye on him and finally told them that the next day they would put him back in cryo. Once they were in cryo and stabilized they would be taken to the ship and routed to Shola. One thing they hadn't been told was that the Mother Ship was enroute to earth. They knew that the Others were more advanced than earth. The fighters that had gone back to check on the escort had encountered more enemy ships. They had run but the fact that there were so many indicated either they had a carrier or their planet was close.

Sally had to tease her father. "Daddy I know you have been wanting to see Shola but you could have asked you know." She even went so far as to give him an innocent look when she said it.

Billy stared at her and then snorted. "Not going to make me laugh girl. I really don't feel like crying from the pain of laughing. I will deal with you later when I can put you over my knee and spank you." The joking was nice since he really didn't want to think about going into cryo again. No he didn't have any memories of it but that didn't mean he wanted to be a human corpse-cicle.

Early the next morning the doctor and some of his staff came in. "Good morning and we are here to get you ready and then put you under. You will wake on Shola and I hope for the best for you." As he was talking his staff was starting to inject the premeds. Once they were in they moved both to floaters and floated them out of the room. By the time they reached the capsules both were asleep.

~~~

The General was sitting in the chair behind his desk and was glowering at the door. He had been informed of what had happened and was waiting on one of his junior officers to give the report. If the male didn't hurry up he was going to turn him over to the priests and let them deal with the male. Almost as if the male had felt his General thinking in his direction he dinged the door and walked in.

"Afternoon my general and I have a preliminary report for you. My staff is sifting through all the data available from the damaged ship right now. Once they have compiled it I will give you more details but I expected you to want as much information as soon as possible." The General was a pain in the ass to work for but it gave the male more chances to advance. That was especially true if the general screwed up and was relieved.

"Well don't just stand there." He hissed. "What does the report say or do I need to remind you the priests are bored?" That thought was enough to make even him shudder though he didn't. They valued their ability to torture people and see how long they could keep them alive. Well usually that was. When they encountered those aliens for some reason the priests went nuts. They had to be restrained to keep from killing all of the captives on sight.

"Yes ssir. Based on the report four of our scout-fighters intercepted two vessels. They appeared to be somewhat larger but of two totally different types. One was obviously a fighter craft of some sort. The other we aren't sure of since it ran when our ships were detected. The first four ships headed in to try and disable the fighter and the rest of the squad was sent to follow after the other ship." He paused as he reviewed the information on his tablet.

"As per what scan data we have managed to recover at the moment the second ship had some rather odd power readings. The scans show it as being a relatively small vessel but the power readings appeared to be from a vessel at least twice its size. When it went to full speed it was extremely fast and the scout-fighters were not able to catch it or keep up. It was approximately five percent faster than our ships." He scanned through more of the report.

"As per the ship that did return from the original four the fighter was very well armed and agile. The other three ships were damaged to the point they dropped out of hyper. The one remaining ship turned away to avoid getting destroyed so they could bring the readings back. The fighter was destroyed as well. Our ship stayed in hyper due to damage and the captain did think they would be able to get back into hyper if they did drop out to check for the other ships. He deemed getting the data back was of more importance." Or he was trying to save his skin of which both were possible.

The General took a sip of his drink and stared at the other male for several minutes. "What about the other ships that were following the second enemy vessel? I know they came back without any damages at all." He was most definitely considering sending one male from each crew to the priests. At the very least they should have gotten some shots off before retreating.

"There were four enemy vessels approaching. Since they knew that one had damaged or destroyed four vessels the senior captain decided it was betting to get as many sensor readings and then break it off. They also detected a hyper signal of a very large vessel. Considering there were at least six enemy vessels it has to be capable of carrying parasite craft. That indicates it is either a carrier or a combat vessel that carries a small compliment of parasite craft to scout and extend it's combat reach." In other words the captains would have been stupid to stay around.

The general hissed at him. "Don't presume to defend their actions. It is my job to decide if they performed their jobs correctly. Do that again and I might give you to the priests for a day." Punishments could be anything from a simple whipping to death and were all administered by the priests.

"Yes sir I understand. The report has been sent to your computer and as soon as my techs have further information it will be sent as well. Do you have any further need of me?" The threat didn't really bother him since if the General tried it he would be dead before he sent the message.

"Get out of my sight you egg licker. Don't come back without some news that has some use." The general hissed again and tossed back the last of the liquor in the cup and turned to face the window. Behind him he heard the male leave the room and the door hiss shut.

***

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