The Infirmary became silent as everyone waited with bated breath.

“Please state the nature of the medical emergency,” the EMH proudly declared when materializing.

The entire room exploded in cheers, which were quickly quelled by the doctor. “We’re performing surgery on a Bolian female, several skeletal fractures and internal organ damage.”

The EMH quickly scanned the surgical displays while the doctor spoke. “I see that,” he began throwing around commands, sending the rest of the medical workers darting around like bees.

“Oh, the Zimmerman model, that makes sense,” Joshua mused. He slapped Jabir on the back. “Good job!”

He looks at Joshua with a grateful but the same painful look on his face after having the wind knocked out of him. He stood slightly bent over, leaning on his legs, trying not to scream out in pain.

Joshua winced. “Sorry man.”

Taking a deep breath and standing back up, he looks at Joshua and Dawa. “What’s next on the books?”

“Stay here for now. You still need some rest, and Zoff will want to see a familiar face when she wakes up,” Joshua said. “We can’t get any further on the waterways. They’ll have to send a munitions team to sweep the area.” He turned to Dawa. “Should we at least finish up the filtration system? I’d hate for this trip to be for nothing.”

“Sure thing! This time I’ll get right to work on the scanners while you analyze all that sludge in the lab,” said Dawa, hoping she could avoid another outing in galoshes.

“We fixed the scanners!”

That was the joyful announcement that greeted Dawa and Josh in the control room of the water treatment plant. The three technicians present looked frazzled and exhausted, but also incredibly pleased with themselves, and just a little bit like they were waiting for praise.

Dawa did her best not to disappoint. “Well, gosh! Wow! Great job, guys!” she said, hoping it didn’t sound too forced.

She turned to Josh. “I guess that means I’ll be helping you with your sludge!”

“You sure you don’t want to do a victory lap with the technicians? They seem pretty excited about fixing the scanners,” Joshua said with a smirk.

“Nah,” said Dawa. “If I start running right now, I might just keep going. Might as well at least try to make myself useful in the lab!”

“All right then, you’re going to be bored to tears. It’s all sciencey stuff. Hopefully, you still have your Junior Science badge!” Joshua said, walking out of the room.

“I do!” said Dawa playfully as she followed after him. “And by the end of this mission, I’ll have earned another one!”

A few hours passed and Tior was sitting at Zoff’s bedside, waiting for the cadet to wake up, so she had a friendly face to see. Then, moments later, Commander Dawa and Joshua walked into the room.

“Hey commander, how’s things? I’m feeling a lot better and ready to go back to work when you need me. The EMH said Zoff will make a full recovery but will need a bit of time to heal and a bit of physio to get her back to full walking strength.”

“Consider your shift over for the rest of the day, Tior!” said Dawa. “You’ve put in some amazing work today.”

Seconds later Zoff woke up hearing everyone’s voice, asking for some water as she had such a dry throat. Tior turned around, walked over to her bedside, and helped her sit up to take a few small sips of water. Upon drinking the water, Zoff asked what had happened. Looking around at everyone at the same time. Upon returning the glass to the bedside, Tior stood beside Zoff and said, “Well, what is the last thing you remember Zoff?”

Zoff cleared her throat with a small cough and said, “We were at the aqueduct and about to do repairs on the aqueduct’s control system and we had just sorted out the main control panel. I was going for a power calibrator to sort out the power flow. I remember reaching into the toolkit and I lost my balance and fell backward between two boulders. I thought I had put my hand onto another builder. but it was the warhead. After that, it’s all a bit of a fog.”

While Zoff was remembering what she could, Dawa and Joshua joined Tior around her bed listening in on what she had to say. Once Zoff had finished saying what she remembered, Tior filled in the gaps and brought her up to speed with their situation. “In all cases Zoff we both are lucky to be alive, if it was not for my quick thinking and pulling you away. We both would have probably died up there on the hill. Unfortunately, you got the brunt of the explosion and I was not much better. Luckily I was able to repair the EMH so it was able to perform the necessary surgery that you needed.”

“It’s good to see you awake,” Joshua said with a smile. “It was touch and go there for a bit. Luckily Cadet Tior was able to get the EMH working.” He rubbed his eyes, “I think we’re about finished up here. Kinos will have the vaccination records updated shortly, and Dawa and I figured out the filtration system. We can’t work on the waterways until they clear the area. And that’s going to take a while.” He frowned, “It looks like we’re wrapped up here, once Xiran is stable enough for transport.”

“Well, we can’t head back tonight either way,” said Dawa. “And it’s been a long day. I think we’d all better get some shut-eye, as soon as I figure out what our accommodations are.”

She pulled out the communicator given to her by the local quartermaster. “I wonder if Prefect Adelbai will be any more gracious towards us now that some of our party has been blown up in the line of duty…” she muttered.

“That’s some mighty wishful thinking,” Joshua said with a chuckle.