Sky Hunter Read Online Free Page B

the difference between the
stringently ruled airfields where she had trained and worked and
this backwater outpost. She had hoped to learn much during a tour
under rougher conditions but this lesson was not one she had
prepared for.
    There was no one in the night-silent hall
when she moved toward the stairs. The base clinic was a below the
pilots’ floor and she was glad when no one met her on the way down
there. Her knees felt unsteady, her long hair was a tangle and her
face a puffy mess. She was not surprised when a medic rushed toward
her, looking alarmed, when she walked into the med center.
    “ What the hell happened to you?” he
exclaimed.
    She pulled back before he could take her arm.
“Get Doctor Soren.”
    “ She’s asleep. Come in here.” He put
his hand on her back to guide her into an examination
room.
    “ Touch me and I will break your nose,”
she growled.
    The medic looked at her quizzically for a
long moment before nodding. “I see. Wait here.”
    Nova sat on the edge of the exam table,
cradling her useless arm and wondered how she had stooped from
being hailed as a most promising junior officer among her peers to
this. There was no part of her body that didn’t ache and her mind
continued to throw up images of Beryl’s contorted face hovering
above her. She stood up and paced, almost glad when her shoulder
began to throb more excruciatingly to chase those images from her
mind.
    At last, the female medic Nova had asked for
arrived, obviously just pulled from her bed to attend to Nova. She
was still running her fingers through her tousled hair when she
entered the room. Like many Bellacs, she used brilliant dyes to
decorate the naturally white strands.
    “ Are you going to tell me who did this
or will I wait for the DNA results to find out for myself?” she
greeted Nova while she prepared a hefty dosage of
painkiller.
    “ Captain Beryl,” Nova said into the
plastic cup held to her face. She inhaled deeply and soon felt the
pain in her shoulder subsiding. A languid, rubbery feeling surged
through her body and she suspected something more than painkiller
in the dose she was receiving.
    “ Beryl himself, huh?” Soren began to
manipulate Nova’s arm. “This okay?”
    “ Yes, just do it,” Nova
said.
    There was no sudden jolt, just some careful
handling of her arm and then her shoulder joint slid back into its
accustomed place. The remaining pain stopped nearly at once.
    “ Hold it like this. Better?” Soren
asked, looking into Nova’s ashen face. “Shall we take a look at the
works?”
    Nova nodded. “Are you going to report this to
Major Trakkas right away?”
    Soren tilted her head. “The post commander?
Are you sure?”
    “ He’s in charge of personnel. Who else
would I complain to?”
    “ Someone who doesn’t think Beryl is the
star of the show around here.”
    Nova put her clothes on a nearby chair to
submit to the exam. Bruises were inspected, samples were taken,
wounds cleaned. Neither of them spoke during the procedure, giving
Nova time to think about her request.
    At last, Soren covered her patient with a
thin sheet and sat on a stool beside the table on which she lay.
She entered some information into the slim data tablet in her
hands. “You’re off duty for a few days. That shoulder is going to
feel like a massacre tomorrow. I’ll give you some tranks for it.
You’re also seeing the post-trauma folks first thing.”
    “ Is that necessary?”
    “ It’s policy. Especially if you want to
report this.”
    “ Why wouldn’t I?” Nova said
angrily.
    “ Beryl runs the place, Lieutenant. He
keeps the grunts in line and functioning under some pretty extreme
conditions. They don’t want women in their ranks and they do
whatever it takes to keep them out. You’re a pilot and that’s even
more offensive to them. Frankly, I’m tired of patching up his
victims and don’t think they leave the new boys alone, either. If
you’re smaller or smarter, you’re fair game.