Battle Beyond Earth: Resurrection Read Online Free PDF Page A

up to the waist. A female doctor was approaching.
    “Where are we?”
    “Welcome back, Lieutenant,” the doctor replied in a calm and polite fashion, “You are aboard UCN Ares 4.”
    “Where we shipped out of?”
    “That’s right,” she said, checking some readings on a display at the side of his bed.
    “How long have I been here?”
    “You arrived fifty-four hours ago.”
    “I can’t have been unconscious that long?”
    “Your injuries and blood loss were severe, Lieutenant. We could not operate on you without using EPR.”
    Jones looked confused. ”Which is?”
    “Emergency, Preservation, and Resuscitation.”
    “Oh, come on, suspended animation?”
    She smiled and nodded slowly.
    “You drained by blood and put me on ice?”
    She laughed a little. “I assure you that EPR is a common and successful method of treatment for those patients who have suffered fatal physical injury.”
    He shook his head. “You know how many horror stories there are about it? Don’t you ever watch the news?”
    “I like to rely on facts and evidence, not mass hysteria, Lieutenant. You were going to die. We ensured your survival. I am sure your wife would not be bothered by a treatment that saved your life.”
    He groaned in approval, but then his mind returned to the events that led him to being so badly wounded.
    “Did anything come through the gateway with us? How about the crew of the Bulwark? What about Commodore Laska? Did he make it?”
    The doctor smiled in response, and it was clear to him that she wasn’t going to give him any answers to his questions.
    “You’ve been through a great trauma, Lieutenant. Your superiors have been notified of your condition, and somebody will be along for you shortly.”
    He sighed at the lack of a response he had achieved. Once again he looked down to the scar in his abdomen. The skin felt tight, and he knew something had happened, and yet he felt no pain at all, just a slight irritation.
    “So that’s it. I was at death’s door, and now I just go back to work?”
    She nodded in response. “You’re all fixed up, Lieutenant.”
    “And I don’t have to do anything?”
    “I’d try not getting impaled again,” she replied with a smile.
    He’d heard of such miraculous medical treatment, but he’d never seen it with his own eyes. Nobody he knew had served in a war or anything close to one, so injuries were nothing more than what they encountered in training.
    “You know I’ve never so much as broken a bone?”
    The doctor laughed. “Well you certainly have a story to tell now.”
    The doors to his room slid open, and two officers approached. One was a UCN Captain, the other an Army Intelligence officer of the UCA. He wore chrome Union flag dog collars and bore the rank of Major, but Jones had never seen either of them before. He could just make out two Navy guards at the door outside, both carrying sidearms.
    “I’m in some kind of trouble, Sir?” he asked the Major.
    The Major took his cap off and reached out his hand in friendship. Jones took it but was surprised at his informal approach.
    “Good to see you awake and recovered, Lieutenant. I am Major Redford, and this is Captain Keegan. I am here to get to the bottom of what went on in Kepler-186. But before that can happen, I am here to escort you to an emergency conference where you will give your account first hand to military and civilian leaders of the four races.”
    Jones was speechless and could only stare at the Major, with his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide.
    “I appreciate it’s a lot to ask, and I know you have been badly injured, Lieutenant, but as I am sure you are well aware, your experiences and knowledge of an imminent threat to life are of vital important to us.”
    “How long have a I got?”
    “No time at all,” replied Redford and pointed to the fresh uniform hung behind Jones. He got up and pulled on the fatigues that he instantly recognised were his own. It was a deep, dark green