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BADKARMA00

The Last Spartan – Chapter Twenty-Nine
Sunday, December 2, 2007

Nothing says Jayne like carnage!


CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 2151    RATING: 9    SERIES: FIREFLY

The Last Spartan – Chapter Twenty-Nine Don’t own any of it, but do so love playing with them. **************** Simon worked feverishly over Inara. His tux was ruined, covered in her blood. Prim’s was worse, but neither cared for that at all. Prim hovered beside the young doctor, face intent. “Master Tam, will she. . .?” “I don’t know,” Simon replied brusquely, in full doctor mode. “I’m still. . .there it is,” Simon interrupted himself, having found the bullet. He reached for a retractor. “Prim, I need you to hold the wound open for me,” Simon told him, grabbing a pair of forceps. “I need to get that bullet out, and repair the damage. I think. . .yes, see? It’s nicked an artery. We don’t have much time. Hold this,” he handed the retractor to Prim, who took it gently. Simon worked quickly, carefully removing the bullet from Inara’s abdomen. He finally located the damaged artery, and began prepping it for repair. “Need help, Simon?” Zoe walked asked as she walked in. “I need an arterial needle, with internal silk,” he told her at once. “And see if. . .River,” he said as his sister walked in behind Zoe. “River, I need you to prep Inara for a transfusion, and get it going. She needs blood. And quickly.” River nodded and went to work at once. Zoe handed the readied needle to Simon, who took it wordlessly. During all this, Prim had been quiet, looking down at the still form of Inara Serra, and cursing the duty that had taken him from her side when she needed him most. He vowed, as he watched Simon work, that someone would pay for this. Pay very dearly indeed. **************** Neera Trivett looked at the scene before her, eyes grim. “Nam Phin,” she muttered quietly. “Who in the hell would hire Nam Phin to attack the estate?” “Gunfire in the main house,” her radio operator informed her. “Situation under control, but Lady River was attacked. Lady Inara has been wounded.” Trivett’s growl was audible even yards away. She looked at the two survivors lying before her. Three of her own men were down, one of them dead. “Get them up to the Bunkhouse,” she ordered, indicating the two prisoners. She toggled her own radio. “Nevill, it was Nam Phin, but there are only seven here, including him. Doesn’t his crew run larger than that, usually?” “Fourteen, last I heard,” Nevill replied. “That was five, maybe six months ago.” “Alert all security forces then, and roust the off watch,” Neera ordered at once. “This may not be over yet.” ***************** “Well?” Janos asked, as Simon walked out of the OR, followed by Zoe, River, and Prim. “Well, I managed to get the bullet out,” Simon told them. “And I think I’ve repaired the damage. But she lost a great deal of blood. The bullet caught an artery. She’s receiving blood, and should be able. . .” He broke off as alarms began shrieking in the room. He raced back inside, his assistants following. “She’s crashing!” Simon yelled, grabbing a breathing bag and placing it over her face. “Prim, squeeze this every. . .” “I’m aware, Doctor,” Prim assured him, taking over the assisted breathing device. “Simon, her heart is weakened!” River shouted. “I think she’s gone shocky.” “Flatline!” Zoe called urgently, and Simon grabbed the paddles. “Clear!” he yelled, and hit the switch. Inara’s small form convulsed as the electricity coursed through her, tickling her heart, but failing to start it. “Clear!” Simon yelled, and hit her again. Nothing. He threw the paddles away, and started CPR. River watched the charge, and handed the paddles back as soon as the cart was ready. “10cc’s of adrenaline, mei mei,” Simon ordered, taking the paddles. “Clear!” Again, Inara’s body convulsed as the paddles sent a charge through her system. When she didn’t respond, Simon grabbed the syringe from River, and injected Inara with adrenaline. He threw the syringe into the wall, and grabbed the paddles once more. “Clear!” he shouted yet again, and depressed the triggers. Just as he’d decided it wasn’t working, the monitor fluttered slightly. Inara’s heart was beating again. But for how long? ************ “The wound is too much for her system,” Simon declared, exhausted. “She’s gone into shock from the rapid blood loss. I’m trying to stabilize her with fluids, including another pint of blood, and wrapping her in warm blankets. But she’s not responding quickly enough.” “What are you saying, Simon,” Zoe asked, her voice dark with emotion. “I’m saying that she’s. . .that she might not make it,” Simon finally got out, anguish plain in his voice. “What?” Mal was stunned. Kaylee sat heavily onto the couch and cried quietly. “You. . .Simon you do something!” Mal demanded, his voice ragged with anger. “Don’t just stand there and tell us she might not make it! Help her!” “Mal, I’m doing all I can,” Simon told him, his voice gentle. “It’s out of my hands, now. Her body has to be strong enough to overcome the injury. I can help her, and I am, but I can’t do it for her.” “We need to get her to a hospital!” Mal demanded. “There’s no hospital, anywhere, better equipped than this one,” Simon assured him. “Everything they have, we have right here. It isn’t a question of available tools, Mal. It’s a question of her body’s ability to survive. To overcome. And I. . .” he trailed off, unable to find the words. Mal, face red with rage, whirled on Jayne. “This is your doing!” he yelled. “You fix this, Jayne, or so help me I’ll. . .” “You’ll what?” Zoe asked quietly. “Shoot him? Blow him out the airlock? You’ve done all that, sir, and look where it’s gotten you. Jayne isn’t the problem. This isn’t his fault.” “If it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t even be here!” Mal screeched. “It was you that ordered him off the ship,” River reminded him. “For saving me.” Mal winced at that, and fell silent. “Look, all of you should go and clean up, and get changed,” Simon ordered, trying to defuse the situation. “Kaylee, please bring me some clothes down, as well, if you would. I’ll stay here, and watch over Inara.” Silently the crew broke up, heading to obey Simon’s suggestion. Finally only Janos, River, Simon, and Prim remained. Prim had been silent for the entire time. “Simon, let’s get you out of that tuxedo, and into a gown or something,” River said quietly, leading her brother away, Simon giving instructions as he went. Janos watched as they departed, then looked at his oldest friend. “What are you thinking, brother?” Janos asked quietly. Prim looked up sharply at that. “What?” he asked. “What are you thinking?” Janos repeated, sitting down beside him. “I’m thinking that I do not wish her to die, Janos,” Prim told him truthfully. “I can understand that,” Janos nodded. “Does she know?” “Yes,” Prim nodded. “She does.” “Prim, I cannot tell you what to do,” Janos said suddenly. “I know what your heart tells you, and feel that mine would say the same, in your place. Remember to listen to your head as well.” Janos rose again. “And consult the physician,” he ordered. “He is not unaware. Seek his counsel.” With that, Janos departed, Prim watching him go. What could he do? Should he do? He had the ability, perhaps, to save this most remarkable woman, the most remarkable woman he had ever met. Just as Janos had saved River. But the situation was hardly the same. Janos had known River for some time before the incident that led to her becoming. He had known Inara for only a few short weeks. And she was only lately aware of his, Prim’s, own secret. He ached to make her whole, to hold her again, to feel her moving in his arms on the dance floor. To love her. The drive was as strong as any he’d encountered over the ages. I haven’t the right, he thought to himself, shaking his head. He did not have the right to make such a decision for her, no matter how he felt. And what if I failed? The question rang in his mind. If it didn’t work, then she would certainly die. That was a risk he was simply unwilling to accept. Simon and River returned as Prim’s musing wound it’s way. He looked up, and saw a questioning look on River’s face. “Janos has gone upstairs to clean and change,” Prim told her softly. “He will await you there, as well.” River nodded, and started to leave. Suddenly she stopped, and embraced Prim in a tight hug. After a few seconds of surprise, Prim found himself returning it. “She’s very fond of you, Primeter Vatorian,” River whispered. “She is confused, and still hurting, but her feelings for you are strong, for all that they confuse her. Don’t give up on her.” Prim nodded, unable to find any words to answer hers. River smiled weakly, and then left to join Janos. Simon stood nearby, watching Inara through the window, monitoring every indicator on the machines that sustained her life. “Physician,” Prim said suddenly, and Simon turned to him. “Yes, Prim?” “Tell me, true, will she live?” Simon started to recite his usual spiel, but stopped short at the look on Prim’s face. “I don’t know, Prim,” he said quietly. “In all honesty, I don’t expect her too. The blood loss was so great, so rapid, that I don’t think her body can recover from it.” “I suspected as much,” Prim sighed, sadness flowing off of him in waves. “You’re very fond of her, aren’t you, Prim,” Simon asked softly, and Prim’s eyes darkened. “I’m not trying to pry,” Simon assured him at once. “I just know what you’re going through. It wasn’t so long ago, you know, that my sister was in a similar situation. I did all that I could, all that I knew to do, and still she was dying right in front of me. There came a point where I knew that I couldn’t save her, even though she had saved me.” “What are you saying, doctor?” Prim asked, his voice hollow. “I’m just telling you what happened to me, when River was shot, and lay dying on the table in front of me,” Simon replied. “About how I felt, about what happened just as I knew she was gone.” “Janos,” Prim grunted, and Simon nodded. “Janos,” he agreed. “Jayne Cobb, scoundrel of the spaceways,” he added with a laugh. “He should be on stage, you know.” “He has developed fine acting skills over the ages,” Prim nodded in agreement, smiling slightly despite the situation. “Prim, I know you care deeply for her,” Simon said at last, sitting down beside the older man. “And I’m fairly sure that you are like Jayne,” he went on. “No one’s told me that, to be honest, but despite my proclivity for saying the wrong things at the wrong time I’m really not that dumb.” Prim smiled again, and almost chuckled. It came out as a choking sound, but the intent was there. “I can’t tell you what to do,” Simon said finally, hands on his knees. “But in the next few hours there will probably come a time when she’s on the brink of death. And I won’t be able to pull her back. It’s possible I’m wrong,” he admitted, “but it’s unlikely. Whatever you need to decide, you need to decide before that happens.” Simon stood then, and looked back down at Prim. “If you’re interested in my professional opinion, that is,” he added, before returning to Inara’s side. Prim watched him go, reassessing his opinion of the young doctor. There was steel beneath that foppish exterior, Prim realized. Steel, and grit, a combination sorely lacking in the time the Centurion now found himself living in. He sat back on the couch, then, considering what the young man had said. ************* “Prim is almost overwrought,” River told Janos as she entered the suite the two now shared as their private quarters. “I. . .I think that he ponders. . .” “He does,” Janos nodded, donning his clean clothes after a hasty shower. “I have not seen him this way before, and we have traveled together nearly two thousand years. He has fallen very hard for Inara, and it grieves him that she is. . .” “Blames himself,” River said in the singsong voice she often used when talking about things she’d ‘gleaned’ from others. “Thinks he should have been there to protect her.” “He shouldn’t have needed to protect her,” Janos snarled, though his anger was not directed at her. “That’s the problem. Somehow, someway, this man, Nettles, you said? Nettles, found a way around every security feature we have, and that is saying something.” He stood, having finished dressing. “And I intend to find out how. Right now.” Before River could reply, an alarm beeped on the table by their bed. *********************** Reegan Abonda, Nam Phin’s second in command, knew something was wrong. His boss didn’t answer, and the employer’s requests for aid had been cut off in mid cry. His team, six men plus himself, was stationed at the rear of the estate, nearly three kilometer’s from the house itself. Their assignment had been simple; create a diversion when ordered, to help facilitate the removal of the package. That didn’t seem to be an issue now, however. With Phin apparently either dead or in custody, he was in command. “Looks like you gotta promotion, there, Reg,” Dalton Bobbin drawled, not quite smirking. Abonda didn’t like Bobbin, and never had. The rim worlder was too violent even for the hardened mercenary that Abonda had become over the years. Abonda was forced to give the larger man his full attention now, worried that he might see this as a prime opportunity to move up himself. “We don’t know that,” he snarled quietly. “For all we know, the ops over, and they didn’t need us.” Bobbin snorted at that, but said nothing. Before Abonda could act to quell the man again, he heard an amplified voice boom across his position. **************** “Place your weapons on the ground, and raise your hands,” Neera Trivett spoke calmly into the amplifier. Finding these idiots had been almost too easy. Mercenaries, she snorted. They’re an insult to the term. “This is your only warning. You have five seconds,” she continued. Lowering the microphone, she nodded at Gaul Nevill, her second. He smiled thinly, and hefted his rifle. “Section three, prepare to fire,” he mouthed into his comm. “Section four, stand by.” His own half of the team would handle this one, as Nerra’s had taken three casualties, including one of Nevill’s best friends. Rolf Svenson would never drink his precious mead again. Gunfire erupted blindly from where the ‘trespassers’ were holed up, and Nevill’s men opened fire without the need for orders. The entire operation took only twenty-eight seconds. There were no prisoners. *******************

COMMENTS

Sunday, December 2, 2007 1:01 PM

MEGG


Way to leave me hanging, dude!!!!


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