Page 287 of Every Almost

"—she wouldn't let me help. I told her I could. The ground kept moving and she wouldn't let me help, she just kept sayingshe had it under control and to sit down, that it was just one more?—"

"Sir, I need you to?—"

"You don't understand. It came down on her. It came down on her and Meris pulled her out. Meris did! She got her out by herself and she can barely stand?—"

"Sir—"

"Meris wouldn't leave her. We told her the shuttle was coming and she wouldn't leave."

"... okay,"Kess said."Okay. Get me the board. Tavi, both hands under her head, don't move it, don't let anybody else move it. Laith, I want that ramp warm in ninety seconds."

"Kess—"

"Ninety seconds, Laith. Go."

"I'm going, I'm going,"Maren said in the smallest voice Reyna had ever heard from her.

More breathing, more movement sounds.

"Kess?"Maren again."She's going to be okay, right?"

Silence.

"Go, Maren."

Reyna stopped breathing.

Ninety seconds later,they loaded Charlie onto the shuttle. All three colonists were with them.

Reyna heard all of it. The board placement, the count to move Charlie, the sounds of people getting Charlie up off a planet and up a ramp.

"Bridge, we're wheels up. Forty-one minutes to rendezvous."

Reyna keyed the headset.

"Kess."

"Not now, Captain."

"Kess," Reyna pleaded.

"Rey,"Kess said softly."I said not now."

So, Reyna waited.

She waited while a doctor worked, and it was the longest four minutes of her life. She didn't say one word into that channel the whole time, because the woman on the other end of it needed her hands to assess just how badly Charlie was hurt.

"Rey."

"Kess!" Reyna moved to the headset.

"Hey, okay, listen to me."

Reyna went quiet.

"She's hurt, alright? I'm not going to lie to you. I can't see how bad it is yet, but she has a pretty nasty gash on her head."

Reyna gasped.