The betrayal Chapter 10 snippet 2

“You’re awake, Skipper,”
Looking over to see Reynolds moving through the room, Kate forced herself into a sitting position. It was a surprise to feel her right arm moving after the blow it had taken. Repairing it must have taken some work for the doctor, she reflected, especially with the amount of wounded the probably had sustained.

“I feel like a truck ran over me,” Kate mumbled as she went to stand up. “But I’ll live.”

The first step she took felt like it lasted a million years. Her knees nearly betrayed her as they gave way under her. This is going to be fun, she mused, as she reached out to steady herself with a hand. Looking up at Reynolds, she could see the doctor staring at her with concern.

“I’ll be fine,” she growled.

“You shouldn’t be up yet,” Reynolds said.

“I have a ship to take care of,” Kate countered a she stood back up and took a few tentative steps before she started moving with her normal stride.

“How many casualties?” she asked the Doctor, as she looked toward the filled beds in critical.

“One hundred fifty are dead,” Reynolds said as her eyes drifted to the floor. “Twenty are critical, and thirty are stable.”

“That’s half the crew,” Kate breathed as she closed her eyes to the enormity of the butcher’s bill.

“At least your math skills are still there, Skipper,” Reynolds said.

Without a word, she stared to walk towards the intensive care section. These were the people who had given their all for her, and she refused to turn her back on them. Half the crew dead of injured, she mused, all because she had to go chasing after the truth like Captain Ahab and his white whale!

Entering the quiet room, she looked over each bed individually. Sometimes she found herself wincing at the injuries that Reynolds’ staff had treated. Each time she looked at a bed, it felt like an indictment on her leadership. Wiping a tear away from her cheek, she continued to go to each bed in order.

If only I had done my job better, she told herself. Then these people wouldn’t be injured like they were!

Stopping before the bed of a gunnery officer, Kate felt her stomach drop to her feet. The woman before her wasn’t any older then she was, in fact she was probably younger, and her injuries were severe. Missing sections on her arms and legs, her body looked like a shell of its original self. She was such a pretty young woman, Kate mused as she remembered seeing her in the mess hall, and look at her now!

“What’s her prognosis, Lisa?” Kate asked softly.

“With the advances that Matthews made,” Reynolds said. “We should be able to replace the segments of her limbs she lost with cybernetics.”

“And be a freak like me…”

“You’re alive aren’t you, Kate?” Reynolds said. “It’s time to quit throwing the pity party, damn it! You gave your best!”

“And I got beat…”