The Withered Land: Dragons and Marauders

Dragons and Marauders, Part Thirty

The pain radiating from the area between his shoulder blades was so intense it momentarily took his breath away. It roused him from the grayness of unconsciousness and back to reality at a dizzying speed. Then the walls shook violently and the floor he had collapsed upon tilted to a crazy angle as he fought to keep himself from sliding off from the medi-cradle healing mat on which he'd been laid.

Vandessha'Jai, Rae'vynn Wyyng's First Mate, gasped past dry lips and squinted under the bright fluorescent lights in the Medi-Bay ceiling. He'd briefly blacked out a couple of times after he'd rendezvoused with the skycraft at the pre-arranged secret location. He wasn't sure about how much time had passed while he was out and he was copletely at a loss as to the current status of the ship's crew, mission and current disposition. As he gathered his wits about him, he again became aware how he'd at last made his way aboard the Aerieakon, bleeding and suffering from particle beam strafer-blasts, after engaging the crew's former Quartermaster and Bursor, Geh'wan Shryke, in a lethal gun battle on the backstreets of Peravendath. He'd fallen and could not rise... Then he'd experienced a strange dream of flying.

Ruefully, he thought to himself that it had so far really been a bad day and, from the way the Aerieakon was bucking and jerking from what obviously had to be powerful impacts to the external hull, the day was getting even worse.

He flinched as something behind the ceiling bulkhead popped noisily and a shower of hot sparks fanned out across the section of the Medi-Bay where he'd been while unconscious. Whatever it was that was happening, the vessel was taking a real beating.

Suddenly, the bearded face of crewman Pu'Leick Vendimn, a former Jagveneer mercenary who had joined Rae'vynn Wyyng's crew after turning away from his criminal past, leapt into focus. Vandessha'Jai was startled, he'd thought he was in the medical station all alone, but he quickly regained his composure and began questioning the man.

"What's happening?"

Pu'Leick Vendimn's beady, glittering amber-colored eyes widened and he smiled crookedly, the livid scar that bisected the left hand side of his mouth twisting the homely ex-mercenary's expression into something far more threatening than was intended. Vendimn, who was as just as tall as Vendessha'Jai, but much thinner and rawboned, was holding onto the overhead hood that partially enclosed the medi-cradle with one gloved fist while, in the other hand, he grasped the oblong elliptical case that contained a multi-function data-sensing scanner used by the medical staff.

"So you've decided to rejoin the living, have you? Damn well about time! We could sure use your help! I know you've been on an Away-mission for a while, but things have really gotten crazy. The ship's under attack from the King of the damned scale-faces, no less than the vemperstakkling Dragon himself!"

"Whaaat?!" Vandessha'Jai sat straight up from the medi-cradle bunk. He had to close his eyes for a trio of heartbeats as he fought back a wave of dizziness created by his sudden movement. Was he concussed? How did that happen? He recalled drawing down on Geh'wan Shryke and throwing himself out from the path of the man's blistering return fire, remembered feeling himself get hit, but the definitive details of what happened after were chaotic and blurry. Something carried him away, through space, light as a feather. No doubt the severity of his injuries had brought on hallucinations. He worried whether or not that was going to present itself to be a problem and for how long, but then quickly pushed those concerns aside.

"The Dragon..., he's tearing holy hell out of the ship's hull, roaring so loud anyone deckside would probably go deaf," Vendimn remarked past tightly clenched teeth. "The attack knocked out the battle command-console's connection to the hull cannons on the starboard side. Greander's Tears, who knew he was that begafrelking strong?"