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The drive to Miasma Pass is tense, even without a siege worm on their tail. Cleve navigates the ford on his own this time, and the bottom of the rover makes unsettling noises as it scrapes along some surfaces that would have been better avoided. The steering wheel is definitely pulling to the right after that point. Cleve remains convinced that the rover is how they are all going to die.
Mariah doesn’t make a sound this whole time; no level of jostling disturbs him. That worries Cleve. There’s blood all over the side of his face—could be he has a concussion from his impact with the rover. But there’s nothing to do about that until they get to a safe campsite. And even then, Cleve’s no surgeon. All he can hope to do is stabilize Mariah until the doctor back at Data Haven can properly patch him up. Along the way, one of the teens leans forward to try to apply pressure to stop some of the bleeding, but with how bumpy the ride is it’s impossible. And trying to do anything about the arm right now is likely to cause it further damage.
Worn from the constant level of stress and from fighting both the environment and the uncooperative steering wheel, Cleve calls a halt just at the head of Miasma Pass. The suns are getting low, and he doesn’t want to risk the pass in the dark. And by stopping now, they’ll be able to get some recharging in.
Cleve is definitely the one running this show, but Louisa is used to being in charge of her activists. “How do you want to split up responsibilities?” she asks Cleve once they’re parked. She’s never seen siege worm injuries, but she’s had one of her squad shot before her. “I’ll set up camp, you take care of Mariah?” Arx and Takuto have already left the vehicle with the wolf beetles.
“Do you have any medical skill?” Cleve asks immediately. Louisa’s pause before responding is all the answer Cleve needs—no, not enough.
“I’ll get the vehicle repairs started,” she offers.
“Do whatever you need to do to get it fixed,” Cleve tells her, heading around to the trunk to get his first aid kit. “I’ll see to Mariah.” If the teens break the rover further, he can repair that later. The same can’t be said if Mariah dies. Cleve pulls out one of the bedrolls to set up as a work surface. While he preps for triage, Louisa starts issuing orders to Takuto and Arx.
Arx is having none of it. “I know what I’m doing,” they say as they snatch the toolkit Louisa is holding out to them. “You think I don’t care about Mariah? Dude saved me from that hospital. Just let us work in peace.” They set the tools down and slide under the rover to take a look at the undercarriage with a flashlight. Soon they are busy freeing weeds that got wrapped around the vehicle during the river crossing.
Takuto takes some of them to the trunk to include with the aquaxenofungus in case Dr. Citali is interested, and while he’s poking around there, he finds some antiseptics. “Would these be helpful to you, Mr. Cleve?” he asks, offering them.
Cleve simply tells Takuto to leave them with the other medical supplies and go check the connections on the solar panels. Mariah needs so much more than antiseptics. The first aid kit is not intended for surgery, and Cleve can’t perform any, anyway. He heads back to the rover himself; it’s time to get Mariah.
It’s bad. There’s no way to sugarcoat this. Cleve moves Mariah over to the blanket as carefully as he can, but that arm… that’s an infection waiting to happen. Louisa appears at his side. She’s gotten a fire going and some water boiling, and she’s ready to provide whatever untrained assistance she can. Cleve sets her to work with his knife, cutting through the sleeve of Mariah’s blazer and shirt so that they can access the injury. While she does that, he takes a look at Mariah’s head.
There’s blood all over the side of Mariah’s face, and bruising is already setting in around his left eye and cheek. If this is a broken cheekbone, then that’s more than Cleve can handle. And, he reflects, that would probably bother Mariah more than the busted arm. With a damp cloth, he wipes Mariah’s face clean, which lets him track down the source of the blood: just some cuts along Mariah’s hairline. Those are simple enough to handle with liquid bandage, no stitches required. The cheekbone and nose both seem intact.
The arm, though… that bone is broken clean through. Even just trying to set it… “This… I can’t do this,” Cleve admits to Louisa. “This is more than I have the training for.” All they can do is clean it to the best of their ability, wrap it in bandages, and splint it so that no further harm is caused by movement. “I don’t know what else to do for this,” Cleve says, once it’s all wrapped. I really hope Dr. Citali can handle surgery, he thinks.
After the two most serious injuries are dealt with to the best of his ability, Cleve assesses the other nicks, cuts, and bruises Mariah has accumulated. His ribs all feel fine, despite the force of the impact with the side of the rover, but he’ll be sore for days. Cleve decides to dip into his limited supply of accelerated healing shots that he brought from Earth. OAC 5/5 is lost somewhere out there in the Chiron wilderness, but he still has OAC 3/5 and OAC 4/5. They contain antibiotics, coagulants, immune boosters… If ever there was a time to use them, this is it. Cleve administers the shots and looks glumly at Mariah. I can’t fix the bones, I can’t drive the car… Well, at least he’s not dead… I don’t think. He sits back on his heels, considering his patient.
Mariah’s eyes flicker open, but as soon as he starts to sit up, they widen in an unfocused look of terror. His breathing speeds up into rapid, gasping snatches as he shudders. “Takuto, get another blanket,” Cleve orders, recognizing signs of shock.
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