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lower two nonreactive. All webbing nonreactive to probe.” Another scan showed the tissue around the fractured vertebra was swelling, despite the corticosteroid drugs we’d administered. “Set her up and wheel her into room one. She’ll be my first.” I leaned over and put a hand on the Tingalean’s triangular brow ridge. “GySikk, I’m going to operate on your spine, to relieve the pressure and repair the broken vertebra.”
    GySikk tried to look down at her body, but the restraints strapping her to the spinal support board didn’t allow her to lift her head. “Will I… be paralyzed?”
    “No. Your spinal cord is intact.” I smiled down at her. “Just relax and let us take care of you now.” I waited and watched her vitals until the sedation kicked in, then went to the cleanser to scrub.
    The assisting nurse popped up beside me. “Doctor, what about her blood?”
    I thrust my hands into fresh gloves. “What about it?”
    “It’s extremely poisonous. Lethal upon skin contact.”
    I nodded and put on another pair of gloves over the first. “Analyze a sample and set up the whole blood synthesizer to duplicate it. And don’t spill any on yourself.”
    Squilyp came in with Vlaav and a team of Jorenians just as I headed for surgical suite one.
    “I’ve got a spinal cord compression I’ve got to work first,” I called over to him. “I’ll be an hour, maybe two.”
    He nodded. “I’ll take the next one. Vlaav and Adaola will cover triage. Go.”
    I kept my hands up and backed into the surgical suite. The team had the Tingalean rolled over and her back prepped and sterilized.
    “Everyone in double gloves and full face visors? Good, let’s get moving.” I powered up the laser rig and positioned it over the upper half of the snake-woman’s body. “Okay, GySikk. Let’s see if we can’t get you back up on your belly.”
     
    The spinal procedure went smoothly, and I was able to repair the fractures and relieve the pressure on the patient’s cord. If all went well with her post-op recovery, GySikk would be slithering around the ship again in no time.
    When I finally got a chance to access a console, I tracked my husband down in Engineering. He was too busy to talk, though. Once we finished treating the injured and performed post-op rounds, I went down there to find out how bad the situation was.
    Reever was working three consoles, accessing ship schematics on one, consulting with the Senior Engineer on the second, and receiving updates from work crews on the third.
    When there was a brief lull in the madness, I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Captain. You’re earning your paycheck today.”
    “I do not receive compensation for my position.” He glanced at me. “You should be in Medical on the Sunlace .”
    “What can I say? I got bored.” I sat down beside him and studied the latest transmission of repair estimates. “Whoa. Looks like the ship got slammed pretty good.”
    “The hull could be restored, if we had engines to get to a more advanced system. We don’t. Damage from the residual debris is our primary concern at the moment.” He accessed one console, and brought up an interior view of the stardrive section, which was deserted. “The drive initiators are offline, main fuel cells have ruptured, and radiation levels are climbing.”
    Radiation was never a good thing. “Can you get anyone in there to purge the cells?”
    “No, the exposure would kill them in a few minutes. It’s not coming from the cells, but from radioactive fragments lodged in that section of the ship. Even if we had propulsion and could land safely on Te Abanor, it would take weeks, possibly months to remove all the debris.”
    I doubted the Meridae would want us to expose them to that much radiation. “Can the Lok-Teel help us out?”
    “They would try. Unfortunately, the radiation would prove fatal to them as well.”
    I gnawed at my lower lip. “So basically the ship is unfixable.”
    “For want of a