Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.     Twice Removed Chapter 5 Adrift By Amethyst

The medical hanger was alongside sickbay for convenience and not too far from the bridge but we ended up having to take a more circuitous route than I would have liked due to some passageways being blocked by stone. Our group was silent as we made our way thought the ship’s passageways, even Jared who never seemed to shut up from what I knew of him. I too was quiet as I silently prayed that the medical ship would still be there as we made our way through the corridors. I was also worried for all the colonists on board and wondered how many of them were alive to get to the starboard hanger bay.

We were all confronted with the grim reality of the situation when we reached the entertainment room. Half of the massive room was now mostly filled with pitted black stone and, to my horror, before me was a scene that would battle Eric’s scream for supremacy in my nightmares for a long time to come. There were pieces of people I knew, or at the very least recognized, sticking out of the stone: arms, legs, faces, and some who had only half of their bodies claimed. The last were the worst; it was like they had a brief instant to realize what had happened before they died, their faces locked in expressions of horror and agony.

Training to be a doctor on any planet gets you exposed to any number of stomach-turning visuals and I had never flinched for a moment at any of it. The scene that had awaited us in that room though caused me to empty the contents of my stomach. I was not alone in that exercise.

“What in hell happened here?” I heard Jared say silently as I finished throwing up.

I quickly turned to glare at the man and delivered a punch to his jaw that sent him stumbling back a few steps. “You happened, you son of a bitch! You just had to lead your little rebellion and start shooting people. Your friend Eric somehow managed to override the panel that was keeping us in subspace! This is what happens when you make an unplanned exit to real space! Look at all these people! This and every death aboard this ship is all your fucking fault! I should do everyone a fucking favour and throw you all out the next airlock we find!”

Jared shut up after that. In fact, everyone was silent after my fit of anger and it was in that silence that I heard the whimpering. I looked around for the source and found a girl with black hair, maybe twelve years old, wearing a short black pleated skirt and a pink t-shirt in an awkward looking position, lying on her front and breathing shallowly. Her legs right up to just above the knees were fused into the stone that had engulfed most of the room but other than that she seemed to be in good condition. She was unconscious and I figured that she had probably passed out from the agony her situation was likely causing. “We’ve got a survivor!” I called out. “Everyone look for others while I check on this one.”

The others fanned out and started looking through the exposed bodies for other survivors, even Jared, Jake and their fellow mutineers. Sadly the girl was the only survivor we found and I figured that any who hadn’t been trapped in the stone had already left for the starboard hanger. *Tarek, can you manage to walk on your own? I’ll need to amputate her legs so we can bring her with us.*

*I can walk,* he assured me, *I’ll be able to make it to the medical section on my own two feet.* I knew that he was trying to sound brave for me but I also knew that he wouldn’t lie to me, even if he could. Even now he was an open book to me.

I nodded and gave him a sad smile, *Get the others to the medical hangar, I’ll join you soon.* Then out loud I started to issue commands. “Krie; you and Tarek get everyone on board the medical shuttle and secure the prisoners in a room. Lieutenant Sanchez; make sure they don’t try to pull anything on us, if any of them so much as look at one of our people funny snap their neck. Captain White; once the prisoners are secure I’ll need you, Lieutenant Sanchez, and Lirra to help Krie take everything you can find in sick bay’s storage area and load it in the storage room on the drop ship, we’re going to need supplies. Matt stay with me, I’ll need you to carry the girl. Double time it people!”

“Yes Commander!” they all replied, and then they left Matt and I behind to do their assigned tasks and leave us to ours.

Once we were alone I immediately injected the girl with a sedative and nanites that would block all of her pain receptors temporarily and got to work. I took the particle beam weapon Matt was carrying and used it to amputate the legs between the knee and thigh to ensure there would be none of the stone left in her body. Given the awkward position that the girl was in and the fact that I was using a high powered weapon as a makeshift bone saw I had to be very slow and precise in my work to avoid damaging anything I didn’t want to, The particle beam would cauterize the wound, but to be safe I applied a nanite disinfectant spray to the amputated area on her left leg before bandaging it and repeating the process with the right.

One might wonder why I use nanites so much in medicine given my own issues with them. The answer is pretty simple actually, while I am trained in most forms of first aid and medical techniques, these are the most effective and nobody has ever had an allergy to nanites. Also the problem with my nanites is that they have ongoing permanent purposes. All of the other nano-machines we use in medicine are designed to self-terminate after a certain time or when the purpose is complete, such as a wound sealing.

When I was finished doing what I could for the girl, given the current conditions, I had Matt pick her up and we were on our way again. We were just arriving at the medical hanger when Tanna pinged me. *What’s up Tanna? Did you make it to the hanger okay?*

*Yes Commander, I am prepping the drop ship for launch now. Xawin and Karran are checking the transport for damage and I’ve got the colonists that are here boarding. Your friend Sarah and a few others are taking a quick look for any stragglers. I’m afraid there won’t be many more though,* she said with a sad mental sigh. *I imagine you saw what happened in the entertainment room. Sarah and Karran both said that the port side of the ship and the lower levels are inaccessible and we only expect survivors from those who happened to be in the starboard dormitories or the dining hall at the time. I estimate that we have lost at least two thirds of the colonists in this mess.*

*Dammit,* I replied, shaking my head at the loss. *Let’s do our best to keep whoever is left alive then. As soon as Sarah and the others come back with any others I want you to launch. Every minute longer we stay we risk losing more lives when the overload in the accelerator goes critical.* After that Matt and I double-timed it to the medical drop ship. Once we were on board I had Matt place the girl in a gel bed in one of the twenty patients’ cubicles. *What’s our status?* I asked Tarek as I stepped into the pilot’s compartment.

*It looks like we are in good shape for launch Commander. The prisoners are all in one of the patients’ rooms with a quarantine photon shield in place to keep them from getting out, and the others are getting what medical supplies we can on board before we launch as you ordered,* my friend replied.

*Good,* I said with a nod. *Now could you please get in the navigators seat and rest? Don’t fall asleep though, I’m pretty sure you have a mild concussion but seeing as I want to launch the instant we’re ready we’ll have to wait to do full injury assessments until we’re at a safe distance from the ship.*

*I can fly the ship,* he tried to insist.

*No, you are injured and in no condition to fly. Now please do as I ask Tarek… for me. I’d rather not have to make it an order.* The concern in my thoughts seemed to get through to him and he reluctantly agreed, leaving the pilot’s chair to do as I had asked.

It was several minutes before I received another ping from Tanna. *Sarah and everyone that her group could find are aboard and we’re launching now. Once we’re both off the Bounty we’ll need to use subspace comms to stay in contact. Good luck Commander.*

*I’ll get everyone on board and we’ll be right behind you,* I replied. *Best of luck to you as well.* Then I pinged Krie and relayed the situation to her. *Tanna is launching now, get everyone on board so we can do the same. I think we’ve already pushed our luck staying aboard this long.*

*We are on our way back with the last of the important supplies now Xia,* my sister responded. *I will let you know when we are all aboard.*

*Okay sis, see you soon.* I began to run over a quick pre-launch checklist and found that like Tarek had said we were indeed ready to launch.

Each second waiting for the others to get aboard seemed like an eternity but finally another ping arrived and Krie sent. *We’re all on board and the airlock is sealed.*

I opened the hanger doors as soon as I heard her words and once the atmosphere in the hanger finished venting I sent back, *Hold on to your seats then because we are out of here.* I released the docking clamps, pulled back the control sticks and goosed the foot pedals launching us out of the Bounty like a bullet being fired. We had barely gotten to safe distance before the sensors showed the explosion of the Bounty behind us.

Our best guess was that the Bounty had emerged in some kind of asteroid belt or debris field. I had very nearly hit one sizable chunk of rock as we made our escape and Tanna had mentioned similar issues over the subspace communications channel. There were ship sized asteroids all around us and it was going to take some precise flying to get us safely out of the three dimensional maze we now found ourselves in the middle of. Both ships were pretty maneuverable though and we were both pretty comfortable navigating through it all. Still it was wall over six hours before we were free of the debris.

Our new situation left the survivors of the Bounty in a bit of a pickle though. The pair of drop ships that we now inhabited were meant for atmospheric travel and not for extended space flight and this presented us with a number of problems. First, neither ship had the food or other supplies necessary for a long sojourn in space. Secondly, the entire crew was exhausted and Tarek was injured and at some point we were all going to need to rest. And last but not least we had no way to let those on Saer’kah know about our current plight since all of the remaining subspace anchors and long range communications gear had been destroyed along with the Bounty.

The obvious solution was that we needed to find someplace safe to land, and so as soon as we left the asteroid field I was using the medical ship’s long range scanners to get at least a general idea of where we were. The result was that we were in a solar system with a yellow sun and seven planets so it was likely the solar system we had been aiming for. We appeared to be somewhere between the second and third planets, which much to my sheer joy were the two that were in the green belt. Of the two, the second planet seemed to be the closest so we set a course so that I could begin closer range scans to see if we could survive there.

Once we arrived at the planet in question and both ships were maintaining a high orbit I had Tanna settle down for some rest while Karran took over for her and I waited for the results of the planetary scans. The scans were likely to take a few hours so I had Krie go to check on the girl’s condition and make sure the amputated areas were looking all right. I intended to use the time we had so Tarek and I made our way back to the main section where the others were waiting. “We’re in orbit and running scans on the second planet of this system now,” I announced. “We have some time before Krie and I can go over the results though, so let’s see if our friend Eric feels like talking.”

I flushed the burn bath solution from the medical tube and opened it up to look inside. He could use some more time in the burn bath and he was going to have some major scarring, but the wounds were starting to heal up nicely. I was sorely tempted to take the time to remove whatever it was at the base of his skull but it would have to wait until he was in better shape and Krie and I could generate a prosthetic eye and arm and perform proper surgery. For now though he was stable and that was all I needed at the moment so I removed the oxygen mask and fiddled with the neuro-supressor to wake him up and gave him another nanite injection to alleviate any pain he might feel.

His one good eye fluttered open and I didn’t even give him a chance to speak before clarifying his situation for him. “Good morning Mr. Townsend. We have woken you up to have a few words with you. You may notice that you can’t move anything below your neck, that is a precaution to keep you from doing something stupid and aggravating your injuries. So here’s how things are going to work, you’re going to answer my questions honestly. If I have reason to believe that you’re lying I will rip the answers from your mind and leave you with the intelligence and reasoning capability of a bowl of tapioca pudding.” The last was of course a bluff since I had no desire to ever do such a thing to anyone, but from the look on his face he wasn’t willing to chance it.

Now that our positions were clear I asked, “Who do you work for and why are you here Mr. Townsend?”

“Like I told you before I was in the United States Air Force,” he answered. “I was ordered to get on one of the Migration ships and when we were sent off to start a colony I was supposed to make sure that if we found any likely colony worlds that humans would claim it first and that it would be under American control. Earth needs new sources of resources to thrive and compete on a galactic scale and even with the knowledge the Saer’khi shared we’re still at least a decade away from colonizing planets with our own resources, you should know that. Who are you working for anyway, the Chinese? You have that look about you. I must admit I’m impressed though, getting the bugs to trust you enough to put you in charge of the whole colony mission and limiting the amount of bugs they sent with us was brilliant.”

It figures, I thought, humanity gets shown that we are not alone in the universe and offered a chance to be part of something bigger than ourselves and still most of us can’t see past our petty differences and territorial greed enough to see the big picture. I shook my head sadly as I replied, “I’m not working for anyone, I just didn’t want to see anyone hurt. And I’ll have you know I was born in California.”

“We should be working together then, with your abilities we could make sure this ship and the colony it starts are under American control. Think of your country,” he prodded.

I glowered at him. “News flash Eric, your little stunt on the bridge destroyed the Bounty and killed over half the people on board. Also I have no loyalty toward a country that instead of trying to actually help me took the first diagnosis handed to them and made me into a combination lab rat and tour attraction. Why should any of us here have any loyalty to the countries that shipped us off to another planet just because due to illness or other circumstances beyond our control we couldn’t contribute? The Saer’khi took us in and did what they could to help us, even if they did make some mistakes; I think they deserve our loyalty far more. Now enough of this shit, I ask the questions and you answer them. Now what’s the deal with Jared?”

He rolled his eye at that. “On Earth Jared was very vocal in his distrust of aliens. Since he wasn’t useful for much else the government had me recruit him to come with me on the last Migration ship and encourage people to distrust the bugs. The conditions made it fairly easy for him to get people on his side and I was hoping that it would make my job easier once we found a colony planet. So I watched him and waited for the time to make my move.”

That wasn’t terribly surprising to me, the government probably couldn’t resist the chance to get rid of a waste of space like Jared and destabilize things on Saer’kah at the same time if their goal really was to claim the new colonies for themselves. “Next question: Why did you attack the bridge and try to force us to leave subspace? How did you manage to override the controls?”

“I figured that you were working for the Chinese and had found a viable planet,” the burned soldier replied acidly. “I thought that you were waiting to leave subspace until you could get your people in place for a takeover so I decided to beat you to the punch. I have a talent for languages which is why the Air Force chose me for this mission; I’ve been studying the bugs language since they came to Earth.”

“Well you guessed wrong and thanks to you, and your idiot friend, hundreds of people that I was trying to protect have died,” I half-growled in my anger at his stupidity. “Tanna warned you that unplanned jumps out of subspace are a recipe for disaster and you still did it, even after I explained to everyone that the Saer’khi are incapable of lying.”

“But you are,” he suggested with a cold smile. “You even said you tried to teach them to lie. I think you had more success with that than you let on.”

“Well you were wrong about that too, they can’t lie it goes against their natures and it’s impossible to teach them since so much of their interaction is telepathic. What was that weapon you had and what is the device that was located at the base of your skull?” I specifically used past tense when referring to the latter to make him think that we had already removed it.

His eye widened at the last question. He likely hadn’t expected us to discover it. “The weapon is a prototype version of a particle beam weapon based on the data given to us by the Saer’khi. They must not have shared the technology for whatever weapon you used on me because I wasn’t briefed on it.” Then another cold smile passed over his half-ruined face. “The other device was a subspace tracking beacon, it constantly sent my location back home. When the signal gets back to Earth they will be able to use it to find us.”

“I’ve heard enough,” I muttered, “Good night Mr. Townsend.” I reached forward and set the neuro-suppressor to put him back in a coma before replacing the oxygen mask, closing the tube and setting it to fill with a mixture of burn bath and proteins. With a sigh I turned to the others, “So what do you think?”

Lieutenant Sanchez was the first to respond. “When I was still on Earth I ran my share of ops for the government, and this does have a government feel to it. You can bet they will send someone to follow that beacon sooner or later to see if the op was successful and possibly plan a new one if there’s anything on that planet to make it worthwhile.”

Karran was listening on the subspace channel and quickly put in, “It will likely take a while for any signal to get to Earth, even by subspace. If you and Krie can safely remove the device Xawin and I will examine it. Then we should be able to make a guess at how fast the signal will travel and possibly find some counter measures for similar devices.”

“We should try to warn the Saer’khi about this situation as soon as we can,” Captain White put in. “There’s probably more than one sleeper agent among the colonists and probably some from other countries as well. Military countermeasures might be worth discussing as well once we have a better grasp of our situation.”

I was silent for several minutes as I thought over what each of them had said, and then I sighed and gave the only answer I could. “We will definitely remove the tracker and screen other human colonists for similar devices. It will at least give us an idea on a time frame when Earth could be sending spies or troops. Countermeasures will have to be decided on by the colony government once we have it established though, I don’t have that kind of authority. My authority ends when the colonists land on a planet.”

To my surprise Lirra shook her head at that. “With all due respect Commander, I believe that my species as well as the other non-human species will continue to look to you for leadership. You have earned our respect and proven yourself a good leader who cares about others.”

“She’s right you know,” Dennis pointed out. “You have quite the following among the aliens. And a lot of the humans who don’t buy what Jared has been selling have developed a lot of respect for you as well. I think people will be looking to you for leadership until the colony is ready to elect a government to make the big decisions.”

“You do realize that I never wanted this whole leader thing in the first place, right?” I asked them.

“The best leaders don’t want to be in charge,” Matt put in. “They just do what needs to be done because it needs to be done.”

I groaned, holding my head in my hands as I replied, “Fine we’ll discuss countermeasures once Karran and Xawin have had a chance to look over the device. Captain White, I would like you and Lieutenant Sanchez to please stand guard while Krie checks over the mutineers for injuries and treats them. I need to check Tarek's injuries and then explain to a little girl why I had to cut off her legs.” I didn’t give anyone a chance to reply before I spun on my heel and walked out of the room with Tarek right behind me.

I took Tarek to a patients room and had him sit on the bed so I could do a thorough exam. Neither of us had said much since leaving the Bounty so I sat on the bed beside him and attempted to cut off any complaint before he could make it. *Look Tarek, I know piloting is your job here and that you feel like you should be doing it, but I was doing my job when I told you to rest. As both the Commander of the Bounty and one of the medical officers I had to make a judgement call. You had been shot and have a possible concussion and if I had let you pilot this ship in that condition, especially through that asteroid field, it could have endangered the lives of everyone on board.*

*I understand Xia,* he replied sincerely, *You were just doing what you thought was necessary and I can’t be mad at you for that.*

I breathed a sigh of relief, *Good now let me take a look at you. I’d like to see how badly you hit your head and how well the nanites managed to seal that wound with all the moving you did to get to the hanger from the bridge.* I had him remove his uniform so that I could get a better look and was pleased with what I saw. The wound was healing up nicely, but to be safe I added another liberal spray of wound sealant to the entry wound. I was in the process of shining a light in his eyes and gently prodding at the back of his head with my fingers feeling for a lump while using the X-Ray vision on my goggles to check for skull fractures when I finally got up the nerve to say *I’m sorry Tarek, you got hurt all because of me. I… I don’t like seeing you hurt.*

*I joined this ship’s crew because I wanted to and you explained the risks to all of us,* he replied, taking my hand in one of his own and looking me right in the eyes. *Sure I came here to be with you, but this is not your doing. You could not have predicted that one of them brought weapons and explosives on board. I am still alive and here with you and that makes me happy, although I must admit I am a bit disappointed that it took me being shot for you to ask me to take my clothes off.*

I was blushing and I knew it, but he did manage to get my mind off the fact that my incompetence nearly got him killed. I quickly turned my face away and tried to be professional. *The wound is healing up nicely and while you do have a concussion it’s not very serious. I want you to rest for the next twenty four hours and then you can return to your duties if we still need you as a pilot.*

Tarek squeezed my hand in his, *My feelings about you will never change Xia. We need to talk about this sometime. I know you’re not ready now but I just needed you to know that I will wait until you are ready.*

I nodded and replied, *I know Tarek, I just need a little more time. When things aren’t so crazy we will talk about it, I promise.* He released my hand and I hurriedly left the room telling myself that I was just in a rush to talk to my next patient. The reality was that nothing could be further from the truth.

When I arrived at the room that Matt had said he had placed the young girl in I found her sleeping, long black hair pooled beneath her head on the pillow. It appeared that her dreams were not at all pleasant. Krie had covered her up with the blankets and tucked her in from the looks of it but her arms were flailing and she was moaning and whimpering. I took a seat beside her on the bed trying to ignore how her legs suddenly ended beneath the blankets, gave her a little something to counter the sedative I had given her earlier, and waited for it to take effect.

Her eyelids fluttered as she returned to consciousness and I reached out to take her hand and give her a sad smile. “Hello, I’m Xia, you looked like you were having some pretty bad dreams there. It’s understandable given what happened on the Bounty.”

The girl looked at me groggily before her blue eyes opened wide in what I figured to be sudden realization, “You’re Commander Phar!”

I nodded slowly as I thought about how to explain the situation to her. “Yes I am. I’m also a doctor. Can you tell me your name honey? Do you remember what happened?”

“I’m Amy Stewart,” she replied instantly to my first question. Then she thought back to what happened and her face quickly changed from thoughtful to utterly horrified. She didn’t say anything else, she just broke into tears and I reached forward to pull her into a sitting position and a tight embrace.

We sat there for a time, me just holding her and whispering, “It’s okay, you’re going to be okay.”

Finally she stopped sobbing and sniffling enough to tell me what had happened. “The sh-ship sh-shook a-a-and then th-there was st-stone everywhere. P-people were screaming ‘cause they w-were trapped inside. M-my legs were…”

“I know honey,” I said in a calm and steady voice as I held her tight and gently stroked her hair. I think that only part of the reason I was holding her was to comfort her. I was half afraid to look at her, afraid of seeing hate in those eyes looking back at me. “We couldn’t stop the ship from dropping out of subspace and half of the ship materialized inside of an asteroid. I couldn’t do anything for your legs; I did what I had to… to get you off the Bounty alive. I’m sorry but I was not going to just leave you there to die. Do you know where your parents were? Were they in the entertainment room with you?”

I could feel her head bobbing against my shoulder as she nodded. “It was j-just my Mom. My D-dad died in the accident when Mom l-lost her arm. Sh-she was on the other s-side of the r-room. I... I think she was trapped in the st-stone with e-everyone else. Did you f-find her? M-maybe I j-just couldn’t see her. I… I was in a lot of pain.”

My heart really went out to this poor child that I held in my arms. If her mother was on the other side of the room then there was no hope of her having survived. “I’m sorry Amy, you were the only one we found alive there.” Her sobs became worse at that point and her whole body shook with them. I knew exactly what was going through her mind right then, I’d had those same thoughts so many times at her age when the loss and the feelings about my condition were at their worst. She felt suddenly all alone in the world and like she would never have a normal life again. I needed so badly to take away some of that hurt and despair, to shine a little light in the darkness that threatened to consume her world.

“You know Amy,” I began, “When I was your age I lost both of my parents and because of my health I ended up living in a hospital. I hated it there and I felt like the whole world hated me but that’s where I met my new mom. She’s a Saer’khi and she not only fixed what was wrong with me but she adopted me and took me home to live with her, that’s one of the reasons I didn’t live in the barracks with the rest of you. She taught me that I might not have been born into her family but in a real family what matters is how much you care about one another. I know you feel all alone in the universe right now but you don’t need to be.”

“But I am alone,” she croaked out, her voice getting hoarse from all the crying.

“You’re not alone Amy, this whole colony is going to have to stick together if we want to survive,” I pointed out. “I’ll tell you what though; I’ll make the same deal with you my mom made with me. I will fix you up and I’m probably not the best role model, but if you want you can stay with me and my sister. We’ll make sure you’re taken care of and if you want to learn I’ll teach you what I can, but you have to follow my rules and realize that our customs may be a bit different than you’re used to. We’ll discuss it more later. Once you are feeling better I will take you to the body mapper and we can make you some bionics, you know what bionic limbs are right?” I pulled away so I could see her expression when I asked that last part.

She nodded and was a bit teary as she tried to come to grips with what this would mean for her. “My Mom had a bionic arm, that’s why we first came to Saer’kah on one of the first ships. They’re metal though; will I be able to feel anything? Mom said she could but I always thought she just didn’t want me feeling sorry for her.”

I pondered a moment on how to best explain the bionic limbs and the nanites they incorporated before answering. “There’s a bunch of little sensors in the newer bionics that are connected to your body’s nervous system by tiny little machines inserted where your real body and the metal parts meet. They will send and receive the same kind of signals that your real feet and legs would have when touching something or when you want to move them. We can even add some cool special features if you want to. We’ll discuss that later though. For now I want you to get some rest, your body has been through a lot of trauma and you need rest to heal properly. If you need me just press the touch-pad beside your bed and I’ll come running, okay? I’m going to send Matt in here to keep you company for a bit. He’s one of my personal protectors, he will keep you safe and he has bionics too, so he can tell you all about them.”

“Okay,” she agreed. I was pretty sure she didn’t want to be alone but I wasn’t lying about her needing rest and I still had work to do. I gave her another hug, had her lie back down, and tucked the blankets around her once again before leaving her to find Matt.