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registered no hits on the bridge. Is she . . ."
Odelia interrupted before Boniece could finish his rather awkward query.
"She lives, but Dinah . . ." She paused and gulped, tears welling back
in her eyes. "Dinah is dying. Her heart."
Carlie doubted that Captain Boniece could make any more of this than she
could, but he adapted smoothly.
"Medical emergency. It may be we can help. I'll send coordinates for
taking Aaron's Rod out of the grav wave. Then our ships can rendezvous, and
I'll extend every assistance my ship can offer. Is Mr. Winton available?"
"He is also with Dinah," Odelia said. "But I can link you to any or all
of your other men."
Carlie saw Boniece relax marginally, and realized that he had been
dreading that his men -- like the Silesian smugglers -- might have been killed
by these fanatics.
"Give me PO O'Donnel," he said.
* * *
Michael Winton came aboard Intransigent shortly after the two ships left
the grav wave. He looked tired and thinner, but Carlie Dunsinane thought that
impossibly he might well have grown several inches. Maybe it was that he now
walked straighter, his head held like a prince -- or like the Navy officer
he'd proven himself worthy to be.
They'd already had his report, transmitted as soon as the immediate
crisis was over. Reading between the lines of his neat prose it had been a
tough couple of hours.
Simply put, Aaron's Rod was a good ship for her type, but she'd never
been intended for the punishment she'd taken during that Exodus. For days to
come there would be repairs to make, systems to bring back on-line. Though
Michael never said so, Captain Boniece had been wise to leave the four
Intransigent crewmen on board. Without their skills, Aaron's Rod could never
have won that deadly race.
Even so there were the wounded and dead. Few enough if this had been a
military action, but in this close-knit community of rebels, each loss had
been felt as if it had been of, well, a sister.
Worst, perhaps, had been the heart attack suffered by Dinah, senior wife
of Ephraim Templeton, and, Carlie now realized, the true leader of the Exodus.
Judith had been ship's captain, but Dinah had been admiral. Her collapse, just
when the Sisterhood should have been able to feel joy at their release, had
nearly broken them.
Carlie watched as Michael turned to take one end of the stretcher being
extended out of the pinnace's side hatch. The other end was held by a
green-eyed girl who Carlie realized with a shock was Captain Judith.
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She covered her own reaction by stepping forward with the grav-assisted
stretcher she'd brought from sickbay, no one questioning that an ATO would do
the job of a medical attendant. The attendants were there, though, as was
Surgeon Commander Kiah Rink, who immediately took charge.
"You'll save Dinah?" Judith asked, reaching out to Rink. "Tell us you
will."
"I'll do what I can," Rink said, bending over the stretcher and taking
readings, "and I'll do it better if you'll let me get her and my other
patients to sickbay."
She softened.
"The oxygen was a good idea. So were the rest of the measures you took.
You've done all you can. Let it go."
"Michael did it," Judith said, looking at him with pride. "Came to the
bridge when we called for a medic. He had one of the kits from your pinnace.
Your medicine is far better than Masadan medicine -- and he had been trained
that a woman needs different care than does a man."
Michael was too dark to show a blush, but Carlie had the distinct
impression he was coloring.
"Why don't both of you escort the wounded to sickbay," she suggested.
"Mr. Winton, when the wounded are settled, please escort Captain Judith to
Captain Boniece, then report to me."
"I must return to my ship!" Judith protested.
"If you'll permit, Captain, we'll send over a relief crew," Carlie said.
"I have one standing by, all women, under Commander Umeko Palmer, our own XO."
Judith smiled.
"Thank you for your consideration. I will accept your relief crew, but
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