Incursion Vector

029

[▲] INS Robert A Heinlein, Caminha Waypoint

"Lieutenant MacNamara's condition has been stabilized. Blood loss was significant due to a lacerated radial artery and suit electronics failure disabling tourniquet functions. Spiral fracture of left radius, linear fractures of second and third phlanges, multiple organ contusions and a third grade concussion." Commander Yates hiked his thumb over his right shoulder towards his medical equipment. "CNS and circulatory scans have normalized and bones are all patched. I've replacement dermis in the printers and she's undergoing sub-dermal regen which should be done in a day or so. Putting her on inactive medical for the next seventy-two. Going to keep her sedated so she doesn't stage a breakout before reinnervation is complete."

"Good." Michael glanced towards the beds in the darkened isolation room across from the doctor's station and noted there was only one which was occupied. MacNamara's entire left arm was encased in a thick reddish gel and wired to four separate computers coordinating the regrowth of every muscle and nerve in the limb. Having sat through the process a few times he knew it was an incredibly boring ordeal better slept through by people with her acute inability to be idle for very long. "How's Lewis?"

"Fullerene support went through mostly tissue, leaving minimal bone damage. Missed the brachial plexus by a lucky margin. His suit handled everything to spec. Immobilizer brace for the bone patches, dosed with broad spectrums, and kicked off the flight deck for the next twenty-four while printed tissues integrate."

Before the Captain could open his mouth to ask the next question the doctor ran down his list of patients. "Troskaya, like the rest of the pilots caught in the blast, has a first grade concussion and some deep bruising of the ribs but nothing serious. I've got a tag on him for the next forty-eight. Lieutenant Collins on Agamemnon is keeping an eye on their pilots, but Dropkick protocol prevented most of the serious shrapnel from puncturing the isolation suit layer as per spec. Exosuits are, of course, completely trashed, but all our marines will be fine."

The taller man nodded again. "All right, on with the bad news."

Yates turned his chair around and faced his screens, throwing several different images up onto the holographic monitors. They were stillframe images taken from the exosuits of the members of Methuselah and Tantalus who hadn't been caught in the explosion, and the ship surgeon had gone through and placed individual data tags and notes on several of them to record his findings since he had gotten his hands on the data two hours earlier.

"Flight Tantalus did a structural scan on the subjects isolated in the 'sickbay' of that ship and ID'd only eighteen unique cranial formations. I combined that with the data pulled from Methuselah's passive scans of the subjects on the bridge plus the ones found expired in the corridor leading from the LZ and called in a favor from Doctor Michael. It was just a prelim search, but he sent me back these."

Moving to look over the man's shoulder at the screens Michael scanned the personnel files as Yates matched them all up against a particular dead body from the suit captures. There was nothing particularly noteworthy about any them save that they were nearly seventy years old and only two of them were female. "I take it these are the crew? Or the sources of the DNA."

"Original DNA donors. Just the ones registered within Alliance territories. Eight of them were likely colonials or part of some migrant fleet as Commander Ibrahim claims. None of the ones we know about were registered as missing." He scrolled several of the files down with a flip of his wrist. "They were registered as dead. More specifically, the ones we've ID'd in the subdeck listed cause of death as stillbirth. As in not ever alive."

Admittedly he had absolutely no knowledge of the medical details, but even the captain knew that with all the technological advances and genetic screenings of modern medicine stillborn children had been basically unheard of for centuries in all but the most rigid anti-technological sects. "That has to be a records error."