You, Me, We Are All Mistakes

28. A SHOT TO THE HEAD

"What was that?" he finally yelled.

Taroooc had observed his Captain's unexpected flight path. He hollered back.

"Well, it looked and sounded somewhat similar to a narrow-cast, uni-directional nuclear explosion."

"A what?"

"I said..." shouted Taroooc, compensating for their new separation, "...it was possibly a narrow-cast, uni-directional nuclear explosion."

Sennai stood awkwardly and slowly arched his back to stretch. Staggering towards his Wellness Officer, he brushed snow from his insulated jacket.

"Explain."

"I've seen such devices utilised to create small scale, localized warmth in frozen environments. The residual kinetic energy from the tiny nuclear blast creates a medium-term heat. I am guessing you just got in its way."

"La-di-da Taroooc, all very technical. Then why am I not dead?"

"It's a theory. Perhaps a very small one, and you were lucky."

"Yelyah!"

The Medical Officer snapped her head. She took a few paces to Sennai and observed him impassively as if he were in a specimen jar.

"Check me for radiation exposure."

Yelyah Soss had been a Fleet Medic for more than thirty annums. Her braided white hair and weary demeanor suggested a keen instinct informed her when patients were truly ill, or merely seeking attention. Two sturdy carboplastene kitbags slung over each of her shoulders remained zipped tight as the Medical Officer placed two fingers to the left of Sennai's eye, just above his temple.

"Well?" asked Sennai.

"Your head's still there."

"And what about the radiation count?"

Yelyah relented and retrieved a slender torch-like device from her left kitbag. She angled it at forty-five degrees to Sennai and then she quietly hummed for a few seconds.

"And?"

"You're okay."

"Why the humming?" asked Sennai.

"My batteries are flat," replied the Medical Officer.

"So, what's the reading?"

"0.0"

"Does that mean I'm okay?"

"No. It means my batteries are flat."

"Yelyah..."

"Yes."

"You're fired."

"As you wish."

Sennai surveyed his landing party and then his gaze drifted to the distance. A faint sun offered a winter's twilight to this world. Pallid hills dotted with snow and rocks stretched into the distance, until the horizon fused with a sky devoid of any real colour. He shivered and turned to Taroooc.

"Does this mean I was targeted directly, or that someone on this barren world is trying to keep themselves warm?"

"Possibly," answered Taroooc.

"So, which?"

"Either."

"Taroooc, you really are completely..."

Since arriving via the Teleport Stream the Second Officer Cadet had shivered and atrophied. A sudden movement developed on his thin lips to interrupt Sennai.