[Caves]
[Caves]
"You're going to have to ease off when I tell you," he told Ryder. He was already pulling up her shirt high enough to see the rest of the damage. "Anybody squeamish, I suggest you look away."
Nathan spent the next small eternity assisting Gibbons with a painfully methodical manner. There were reasons that human doctors were not supposed to operate on their own family, but he refused to let himself succumb to such emotions. Kali needed Gibbons and Gibbons needed an extra set of hands, so a set of hands he would be.
The build up of emotions he was stock piling away threatened to make themselves known as he and Gibbons stepped back from their work and Nathan was left with nothing but Kali's blood on his hands. He had every faith that she would survive this, but seeing all that blood nearly shook him.
[Section 31 Lab]
"Mister Ryder, you did well with the Chief, you have given her a chance, one she wouldn't have without your quick thinkin'. You can expect a commendation as well. However, on ta business. As Mister Gibbons is preoccupied, I'm goin' ta need you ta be on guard as the lieutenant and I are about ta be preoccupied with my own task."
Luckily, he was pulled out of his thoughts by his Commanding officer addressing him. A small sneer tugged at his lips for a fraction of a second at the very idea of receiving a commendation for the horrors Kali was still currently going through. However, he quickly nodded and re-focused on the task at hand.
"Aye, sir." There would be time for emotional processing later. ... Or there would not be, and it would not matter.
[Illiad III - Intake labs]
It was time for Jessica to reactivate the holo emitters, and give the away team the good news.
"Well now... looks like you all are free to go. Turn left at the door and follow the lights, your shuttlecraft is prepped. Because I know Mr. Galloway is a feisty one, I should tell you that the shuttle was will be controlled by this facility until you are out of the atmosphere. I suggest you return to your ship. Your crew needs you."
[Caves]
Post op, especially a shoddy emergency one at that, felt no good for anyone. As the sedative wore off, Kali was weaving in and out of consciousness, the world in a haze. There was a hand on her shoulder, pushing her back down if she so much as moved an inch, and her skin felt clammy and cold. She finally gathered enough energy to break out in a shiver.
Gibbons loomed over her and pulled an eyelid back as her pupils tried to adjust. "How do you feel, Chief?" His voice vibrated and echoed into her pounding ears.
"Underpass?" she asked, thinking that the lights above and the dark area was more akin to a vehicle tunnel in Tharsis City than a cave system. "Where're we going?"
"Back to the ship, hopefully."
Kali slowly blinked, trying to maintain focus, then shifted over to Ryder. She winced up at him as a dull pain bloomed in her abdomen. "Like viridian pancakes?"
"It's the cocktail," Gibbons warned Ryder. "The drugs must be making her disoriented."
"Take exit 43 to Ophir tunnel," Kali continued nonsensically. "Pancakes for kilometers, Nate. Big pancake sign on the right. Mama Trudy's Big Stack of Martian Pancakes. Kilometers, Nate."
Although the hologram of the woman had returned, Nathan's attention was quickly pulled to the real woman laying next to him. He did not even acknowledge Gibbons words, because he knew well why she was making little sense. One hand, dirty as it was, gently brushed Kali's hair back from her forehead, and his voice was tight when he spoke quietly.
"Hush, Chief... You need your rest. Everyone knows waffles are better than pancakes anyways." He did his best to give her a gentle smile before turning his attention back to the conversation between their Commander and the hologram.
"Get off your damned high horse, Commander. How many times have you blown up a ship? How many times did you have to choose between losing your crew or another ship's crew? At least when people die under my care, it's not in vain!" she said, her eyes darting to the dazed Chief. None of the equipment in here was turned on, so there is no way the automated systems attacked them... did they shoot themselves?
[Section 31 Lab]
"If you think destroying another ship in combat is the same as your butchery, then you are stupid as well as a nutter. I defy you to tell the dead of the Sarek that their deaths were anything but the byproduct of a broken twisted soul."
Nathan kept his opinion to himself, but he could see the woman's point. It was a horrible point, but he could see it nonetheless. It reminded him of a saying he heard once; something along the lines of
'In order for man to do evil, he must believe he is doing good'? He was not sure.
"Gibbons, you carry the Chief. Ryder, you get Huqma. Lieutenant Inzjana, you have point. I will take the drag. Execute."
Stepping away from Kali to retrieve the Edosian who shot her was one of the hardest things Nathan had ever done. He very nearly disobeyed and took Kali himself, but then he realized... If he had to drop his cargo to protect the team, he would much rather chuck Huqma across the room than the injured Chief.
Still he kept close to Gibbons as they made their way out of the room, the still stunned Huqma thrown over his shoulder carelessly. That left his other hand free to carry his phaser. He seemed completely unbothered by the mild explosions that happened behind them. If anything, they helped soothe some of the anger he felt at the situation, so he certainly understood why Ian had done it.
