Spears of Uu'kata

Chapter 56 - Live Together, Die Together

Nichols was unconscious and pale as he was hefted up onto a table. His head lolled to the side and blood dribbled from his lips.

Dr. Himura groaned in pain but still reached over the table and started tearing the printed clothes off his torso, teeth gritted in determination. She felt his chest, then put her ear by his mouth.

"I think his lung has collapsed," she said.

"Baby, you got a bullet in your hip. You need to-"

"Xochitl, help or shut up," she said. "Hand me the emergency kit we took off the transport."

He swallowed and handed her the kit.

"What's his blood type?" she asked.

"AB positive," Vasquez said.

Which of your guys is a match?" she asked, digging through the med kid and pulling out gauze and clamps.

"I am," Anerudo said from where he sat with Bishop by a table at the back of the room, hand resting on Davidson's body. It was covered by a sheet that was soaked through with red.

Dr. Himura looked the man up and down. He was injured and no one had examined him yet.

Glancing up, Dr. Himura looked at the Uu'k'asht doctors. "Which of you speak English?" she asked.

"I do," Gondroll said, stepping up to the table.

"Good, this room doesn't have even half of what I need to save his life so tell me you can use magic to siphon liquids from one place to another."

Gondroll frowned hard, then nodded. "I can do that," he said.

"Good," she said.

The Tilith doctor stepped up and set a container beside the table. He started pulling out instruments and setting them on a tray and Dr. Himura groaned in relief. "Thank God at least someone here isn't stuck in the stone age."

The doctor took control of the med suite, bossing everyone around as she cut into Nichols.

Charlotte watched in fascination as a mixture of technology and magic was used to remove the bullet from the man, sew up his lung, put in stints, and put him back together.

As Dr. Himura sewed Nichols back up, the Tilith doctor got down on one knee beside her and started looking at the wound in her hip.

"Stop," she said, pulling away from him. "Go check on him," she added, pointing at Anerudo.

"With all due respect, Doctor, you are the only expert on human anatomy and how to fix it on the entire planet," Gondroll rumbled at her. "You will let him see to you."

Dr. Himura blinked at him, a crease forming between her eyebrows. She clearly wasn't used to being spoken to I'm such a way. Vasquez wore an expression of triumph until she glanced at him and he scrubbed it from his face to glare at Gondroll, though there was so little heat in the glare it just looked comical.

He shrugged and scratched the back of his neck.

"He ain't wrong," he mumbled.

"I am ok," Anerudo said, his voice empty. "The bullet went through. I will not die and I have not lost so much blood that I cannot give some."

Dr. Himura glanced at the body, then at Anerudo, then to Vasquez and at Gondroll, her eyes bouncing from one to the other.

Finally, she looked down at the Tillith doctor and gave him a nod.

"I guess I'm gonna have to be on this table next," she said through her teeth. She was looking pale and Vasquez looked like he was going to pop a blood vessel with the effort it was taking for him to stay away from her operating table.