The journey to MedSec was an obstacle course of human suffering. A dense crowd of injured personnel choked the corridor outside MedSec, their low groans and the sharp scent of antiseptic filling the narrow space.
"Are these all the injured people from the attack?" I asked, my voice soft as I drank in the surrounding emotions.
"These are the ones that aren't critical," Khalil replied, his expression darkening. "They're still able to walk."
"There's more?"
Khalil stopped and turned toward me. For an intense moment, he just studied my face, gauging if I was being sarcastic. His emerald eyes were so piercing that I felt an irrational urge to melt into the crowd of wounded surrounding us.
"Yes," he said finally.
He turned his back to me and began carving a path through the throng. He was gentle but firm, placing a large hand on a shoulder here or a waist there to guide the people out of our way. The atmosphere was thick with resentment. I could feel their eyes on my clean uniform.
"Make some space, please," Khalil commanded calmly.
When we reached the door, he gestured inside. "Here we are. Dr Amaya should be there. Let me know when you are done, and I'll escort you back."
"Thank you, Khalil, but I really don't need to be escorted."
"It's my job, Mah'Abeu," he said.
I nodded, accepting the reality of my 'shadow.' "Very well. I'll see you after this."
Khalil assumed an 'at rest' position against the wall, and I squeezed past the crowd into the medbay.
---
The air inside MedSec was heavy and hot. It hummed with the sound of life support monitors and the frantic movements of overhead MedAssist droids. A young man spun around angrily as I brushed past him, but he froze in terror the moment he recognised my rank.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I need to get in here. I'm looking for Dr Amaya."
He pointed toward a woman standing over a bed at the far end of the room. Her back was to the room, her shoulders hunched with exhaustion.
"Dr Amaya?" I called out.
"Yes?" she barked without looking up. "What do you want? I'm a little busy at the moment."
"I wanted to introduce myself. I'm–"
"I know who you are," she interrupted, her voice dripping with resentment. "You're the Mah'Abeu sent here to report on all of our faults and shortcomings."
She turned around then, her whole body radiating annoyance. She took one look at me, and her eyes widened. "Oh! But you are barely an adult! You still look like a child!"
"Don't let my apparent age fool you, Doctor," I replied evenly. "I'm an adult, and I'm still a Mah'Abeu."
She snorted. "Yes. My apologies. What do you want, Mah'Abeu? I really don't have time to waste."
"You can call me Ezra."
"I think 'Mah'Abeu' will be just fine. Why are you in my department?"
"I'm here to see what I can do to help you get MedSec up and running again."
"Excellent," she said, her tone mockingly cheerful. "This took much less time than I anticipated. We are up and running, so you can see yourself out." She turned back to her patient and began tapping furiously on a datapad.
"Doctor, I'm not your enemy. Let me help."
"You're not a friend either," she snapped back. "And right now, you are an annoyance."
"This doesn't have to be unpleasant. I'm just doing my job."
"And by doing so, you are preventing me from doing mine!" She turned back to me and sighed heavily. "Look, what will it take for you to stop bothering me?"
I looked around the room. There wasn't a single empty bed. Some patients were being treated on the floor.
"You're obviously over-capacity," I noted. "What can I do to help you treat your patients faster?"
"Fine. If you can get me more power from Engineering so I can run a second skin-grafter for the burn victims, it will halve the treatment time. But good luck convincing Matthias. He won't give it to you."
"I'll get it done," I said. "See you soon?"
"It's not like I have a choice. Now let me work in peace."
---
I found Khalil waiting exactly where I had left him.
"How did it go?" he asked.
"I think the Doctor likes me even less than everyone else does."
Khalil tried to hide a smile. "That sounds about right. Dr Amaya rarely has time for pleasantries."
"Is she good at what she does?"
"She's the best."
"Then I don't care about pleasantries," I said. "Where to next? Let's try Engineering to see why this 'Matthias' is hoarding all the power.
---
We could hear the shouting long before we reached Engineering. It was a sharp, frantic argument that made me reach for my smart-tool out of instinct. Khalil just shook his head, smiling.
"Reyna Marín," he whispered. "Our comms specialist. She has a thing for Matthias."
He opened the door, and the volume doubled.
"Matthias, just– stop being YOU for a moment!" a woman shrieked.
"Reyna, I'll stop being me if you stop being YOU!" a man's voice roared back.
I stepped inside just as a woman rushed toward the door, crashing into me. She was so upset she didn't even seem to notice me.
"Matthias is proving to be extremely unhelpful today!" she yelled over her shoulder before stomping out.
I looked at the man remaining. He looked exhausted. "You must be Matthias."
"I am," he sighed. "And you must be the Mah'Abeu. Don't worry about Reyna. What she lacks in tact, she makes up for in passion. What can I do for you?"
Khalil stood beside me, arms folded, clearly enjoying the show.
"I need you to increase power to Aeroponics and MedSec," I said.
Matthias lifted his head, staring at the ceiling. "Not you too. Look, I'm not a heartless monster, despite what Reyna says. The problem is Alishka."
"Alishka?"
"The core," Matthias said, his voice dropping. "It's overloaded. The protective safety measures are deteriorating as fast as I can repair them. If I increase the power output any more, the containment field will tear itself apart."
"Radiation will leak," he continued. "And if it continues, our destruction will be sudden and violent. No extra power for anyone."
"So... what now?" I asked. "We just wait for the ship to die?"
"Not quite. We just need patience. Once we are berthed in a dry dock in a few days, we can connect to an external power source. Then all the departments can have as much power as they want."
A notification chimed on his datapad. Matthias winced. "The containment field needs calibrating. Again. If you'll excuse me."
I nodded to Khalil, and we stepped back out into the hall. The Tabitha was a ship of desperate needs and empty sockets, and I was beginning to realise that the "problem" I was sent to solve had a few unforeseen layers that would need to be peeled away first.
---
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