Last Call

Man Of The Hour

Gideon had a strong desire to kiss the docking bay floor as he stepped down the flyer’s ramp, his knees wanting to give out beneath him. The singeing spent fuel fumes never smelled better. Medlab techs jogged quickly towards him and wheeled their equipment across the deck on gurneys, ready to give assistance to the Toledo’s injured.

“Sir, are you okay?” Matthew felt a hand rest against his shoulder as he finally slumped at the end of the ramp, sitting down.

“Yes, I’m fine, just a little…nevermind.” Gideon found the energy to stand again, remembering Galen’s warning about his ship. If one of the med techs touched something out of curiosity-- Gideon didn’t want to think about the outcome.

“Sir, you should probably sit down.” The techs pushed past the Captain, mounting the ramp to get to the injured inside. Matthew followed.

“No, I’m fine.” Crossing over to his pack he had removed, he pulled out the medical case and handed it to a technician. The young man looked at it dubiously. “Make sure this gets to Doctor Chambers. I want to know what this is.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I kept their helmets on thinking they could get more air that way. Better than the recycled stuff in here.” Matthew motioned with a hand at the crew. Two were stationary on their backs while the others were propped against the Captain’s equipment. A tech reached for a gloved arm, and twisted the seal, exposing a delicate hand. Pressing two fingers on the vein behind the thumb, he felt for a pulse.

One by one, the Toledo’s crew were rolled onto backboards and taken down the ramp to the awaiting gurneys. The EVA helmets were stripped so the crew could be checked for vitals. In consideration to the phobia of resting horizontal, the gurneys were adjusted to suit the two Minbari and raised to a slight angle. Confident all the passengers were stable, the Medlab techs wheeled them from docking bay while working on cutting off the rest of the suits.

Something seemed off to Gideon as he glanced around the bay, finally noticing that the fighter births were unusually empty. Twisting the o-ring seal on the glove of his EVA suit, he exposed his hand and depressed a toggle on his com bracelet.

“Matheson, what the hell is going on? Why are the bays empty?”

“Welcome back, sir.” The Lieutenant answered. “You brought unwanted visitors with you. I’m taking care of our pest problem now.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant. Less of those vermin in the universe, the better. If you need my assistance—“

A heavy quake beneath his feat threatened to pitch Gideon to the deck. A familiar down surge of energy echoed throughout the ship as the Excalibur drew power from all of its systems to fire the main beam cannon. Lights winked out before the backup generators took over and Matthew’s com link fuzzed out. Static electricity licked at the hair on his exposed skin and he closed his eyes, relishing and mentally envisioning what was going to come next.

The crackle was audible even within the destroyer as the power from the relays combined with that of the main cannon—three beams from the Excalibur’s fin nacelles pooling into the direction fire from the bow. The ship around him vibrated from the immense energy until the surge stopped abruptly after every reserve was discharged. Mentally Matthew count down the fifty seconds needed to bring up the system again.

“As you were saying, sir?” A small amount of playful smugness was in the Lieutenant’s voice after he reestablished communications with the Captain.

“Way to make a person feel unneeded, Matheson. I’ll be in Medbay if you have a use for me.”

“I’ll keep you in mind, sir.” The Lieutenant cut the link and Gideon smiled to himself.

Turning back to the flyer with every confidence that the Lieutenant could handle things with the Drakh, Gideon climbed back aboard to collect what was left of his gear and to find Galen. He picked up his discarded EVA helmet and placed it in its storage bag. Unclamping his other glove, he tossed that in before reaching for the sealed closure across his chest.

“Galen, where are you?” Matthew took a few cautious steps in the direction he thought he had seen the Technomage disappear and pulled on the tab that opened the closure. Peeling his arms out of the suit, Gideon adjusted his leather jacket beneath it.

The Captain didn’t receive a reply. He pushed down the suit to his calves and carefully balanced on one foot while he pulled the magnetized boot off the other. Repeating the procedure for the left leg, he bundled the suit carefully before placing it in the bag.

“Galen?” Again Matthew carefully moved, not wanting to accidentally touch anything as he began to worry. But knowing Galen, Gideon figured the Technomage would be gloating on how easy it had all been even if it nearly cost the Captain his life. Galen would surely call it ‘an adventure.’

“Come on Galen, where are you? This had better not be some stupid joke of yours.”

“I assure you, Matthew, this is no joke.” Galen’s voice was deadpan and nearly breathless as he stumbled into the light. Besides being pale and gaunt, dark red blotched his lips where it had trickled from his nose and ran in streaks like tears from his eyes.

“…My God, Galen.” Matthew caught the Technomage under the arms; Galen’s legs gave out beneath his weight. “What the hell happened?”

“It wasn’t as easy as I had hoped.” Gideon eased Galen down to the floor and knelt beside him. Reaching for the com link at his wrist, Gideon noticed the blood smeared across his hand and his eyes widened.

“Doctor Chambers.” Matthew turned his fingers so Galen could see and the Technomage nodded wearily as if he knew, but simply passed it off as nothing serious.

“Chambers here, Captain. I’m working on the injured crew members right now, but I—“

“Doctor, I need another tech unit sent to the docking bay A-SAP.”

“Are you injured?”

“No, it’s Galen.”

“They’re on their way, sir.”

Gideon turned back to the almost unconscious Technomage. A mixture of awe and anger filled Matthew as he looked down at Galen.

“Did you know this would happen?”

“Are you suggesting I planned this?” Galen replied weakly but defiantly.

“No.” Matthew sighed and looked over at the ramp, impatient for the med team to arrive.

“I wouldn’t have suggested it if I knew this was going to happen.”

“And I wouldn’t have agreed for the same reasons.”

“The blood?” Matthew looked at his fingers and drew his thumb over the tacky film.

“The implants may have done some damage to the surrounding tissue. But nothing that won’t heal itself in due time.”