Transmigrant - Chapter 36
Copyright © 2024 Stephen B. Anthony
True readiness means considering not just the likely, but the unthinkable.
—Ray Decker, Rebirth of the Eldar
CHAPTER 36
Peter Martin stood before a thick pane of glass, looking out over the devastating remains of Eden Station. Three thousand, six hundred, seventeen people were dead. Ten floors of the station were completely lost. Irreparable damage affected another six levels. Lesser damage, still in a state of repair, extended below this for another ten levels. Honestly, the attack should have taken more lives, but people acted quickly. People mostly followed the protocols correctly, although there were still lessons to be learned from the events.
They had housed over fifty thousand people in the damaged levels. Most had escaped. But not the fleet. The fleet lost one thousand three hundred and six officers, over half of whom were irreplaceable senior officers. It was hard to fathom that Ellen Lamond was gone, but she was.
Medbays were still overflowing on all the fleet ships that had arrived in response to the attack. The four hospitals on Eden were overwhelmed, so they transported those who could be to hospitals all over Earth and Andonia. At last count, over ten thousand casualties, most of them injuries, including many life-altering injuries. But Peter was thankful that most of the civilians had survived. It could have been far worse.
Atmospheric generators had worked overtime to restore suitable levels of breathable air to all the remaining enclosed spaces. Carbon dioxide scrubbers were still arriving to supplement the lower thirty-six levels of the station, where people now congregated at twice the normal density. This had pushed law enforcement further toward the planet side, making the peasant levels safer and shutting down some organizations that had previously gone unchecked on the dark side of the station.
“Admiral?”
He turned to look at Debra Lucas, formerly an enlisted chief who he had field-promoted to lieutenant just a day ago.
“Yes?”
“Sir, there is a call for you,” she said.
“Who is it?”
“A giant ship has come through the jump gate,” she said.
“What ship?”
“It’s a battleship of some kind, but nothing I’ve ever seen before. I asked around on the way here. No one knows what it is.”
“Send it to me,” Peter said.