Free Here Be Dragons by Craig Alan Page A

center of the wound, was big enough for her to crawl through. Elena glanced at it as she floated past, and tasted the burning bile that rose in her throat. She continued on.
    At first Elena could see only the faint outlines of two dark bodies beneath the mist. She found them on the opposite side of the corridor, huddled against the sealed hatchway. One was wearing a helmet, and the other was not.
    Elena touched down next to them and shrugged off her medical kit. She couldn’t see who they were. In the dim light and the mist, that frosted face could have belonged to anyone. She spoke repeatedly on the intercom, but no one answered. Elena grabbed the helmeted one by the shoulders, and found another tiny red blot on the inside of the faceplate. She checked the helmet readout and confirmed that it was sealed, and that oxygen was being supplied. The rebreather was humming beneath her touch, and there was carbon dioxide inside the suit atmosphere. Whoever was in there was still alive, but unconscious.
    Elena shifted the officer to one side, and turned to the second body. She would have to get her injured crewman to the medical office as soon as possible, but she would never be able to live with herself if she didn’t check first.
    The frozen water had wrapped the head in a dull white sheen. Elena couldn’t make out any facial features, but there were twenty women aboard Gabriel , and none had hair cropped as closely as this. She reached out and gently wiped the frost from the face, and streaks of brown skin appeared among the white.
    Elena Gonzales and Pascal Arnaud had begun this journey together, six months ago. She had wanted them to finish it together.
    The panel beneath the atmospheric readout was open, but the safety systems had locked him in and, without command authorization, refused to unseal the bulkhead. Arnaud had died with his hand wrapped around the door handle, unable to escape or even to scream. His open eyes were deeply bloodshot from the decompression. Elena placed two fingers on his lids and closed them, and his frozen lashes broke beneath her touch.
    Elena rose and glanced at the bulkhead beside her. Both helmet hooks next to the hatchway were bare. The unconscious survivor was wearing one, and Arnaud held the other in his left hand. He hadn’t even bothered to put it on. She took it from him and glanced at it. A single piece of shrapnel had smashed a tiny hole in the faceplate.
    “It could have been worse.”
    Elena hovered near the center the bridge. With Hassoun at the watch station, Ikenna had temporarily relieved the backup communications officer, while Vijay remained in her chair, beside her. Now that the crisis appeared to be over there was no reason for her to kick him out, and a lot of reasons not to.
    “I know you don’t want to hear that. You probably feel like an asshole even thinking it to yourself. That’s why you need to hear it from me. Three casualties, one fatal. Makarim and Suarez will live. And if you hadn’t shot down that missile as quickly as you did, it would have been a lot worse.”
    Demyan was at his helmsman’s post as usual, and as usual she could not read his body language at all. Hassoun was much easier. He slumped in his chair, and hadn’t looked any of them in the eye since they had entered the room. His hair was matted to his forehead with dried sweat.
    “Arnaud was a good man.” She could say that now and know without a doubt that it was true. “There are a lot of other good men and women on this ship, and they’re all alive thanks to you.”
    She looked directly at Hassoun. He did not look back. With Elena absent from the bridge, Hassoun had been serving as officer of the watch when the missile had ignited and made a run for Gabriel . It had closed to nearly point-blank range before the ship’s guns had cut it down, but the damned thing had been too big and heavy to destroy completely. The fuselage had continued flying even after the explosion and rammed Gabriel