[ june ii log: the underestimated power of the forces of the unseen ]

[barrayarmods]

Who: Everyone
What: Let's go steal us a spaceship.
When: June 18th-30th
Where: the Barrayaran camp, the Cetagandan base
Warnings: TBD

Quick links:
Barrayar / Cetaganda / The Hijacking

TIMELINE
6/28 Hijacking of the Star Gate, Haut Sei's death

barrayar
Things are as tense as ever in the Barrayaran camp, but at least morale is on the rise -- in a way. While Piotr's decision to help the outsiders as part of his plan to strike back at the Cetagandans hasn't been the most popular, ever since Vorvolk's summary demotion and dismissal from Piotr's general staff, few are bold enough to put forth criticisms of the General Count, especially considering his plan now has Emperor Dorca's endorsement. House Vorkosigan has always been deeply loyal to the Emperor, and that loyalty is repaid in kind with confidence, though it isn't necessarily shared by the Emperor's son. Yuri still has his own objections, and he certainly has no love for the outsiders, but he recognizes Piotr's brilliance as a military strategist, and rather than continue to stir malcontent in Vorvolk's wake, he has decided to fall into line with his father in backing the plan.

It isn't just the Emperor's endorsement, either. In the wake of Vorkosigan Vashnoi and the despair its destruction had wrought, the soldiers crave some direction, something to rally behind -- anything to get back at the Cetagandans. And those soldiers who have known the outsiders since the start…well, many of them are just as sympathetic as Piotr, some of them even more so. Piotr makes a public speech in his camp on the matter to drive up morale, and points out to both his and Dorca's troops that they have an utterly unique opportunity: hit the Cetagandans in a way no one has done before, and nip in the bud what could be the biggest threat of the war to date. "We won't let there be another Vorkosigan Vashnoi," Piotr declares to his troops, impassioned. "Not as long as I walk this planet. The Cetagandans may have already left its scars on Barrayar, and the war may rage on still, but we can ensure their ambitions go no further than this world -- and if this does not bring us honor, what else will?"

The speech is to great effect, but to anyone paying close enough attention, it's clear that what's really keeping Piotr upright these days is Olivia. The destruction of his own district's capital dealt an especially hard blow, but he's not a man who can afford to buckle now.

Vorkosigan's District is wracked with a heat streak, the sun beating down on them from the cloudless sky. Rain is rare, and while it's cooler up in the mountains, it's still hot as hell. Make sure you're drinking enough water, maybe take a cold bath or a dip in the creek, and…don't stand too close downwind of the stables.

The Barrayaran camps have spent the last few weeks communicating with Micah and the outsiders on the other side, preparing for the hijacking of the Star Gate. They pull together a modest cache of weapons and do their best to ready themselves, but when the night of the 28th comes, all they can do is make do with what they have. Sonia, unbeknownst to Olivia, Piotr, or anyone else, disguises herself as a soldier and slips into the rank and file at the last minute. There's a small panic among the top brass when they discover the Princess missing, but after the fight, when the dust starts to settle, soldiers who were in the shipyard report having seen the Princess there -- and that not a single one of them was able to stop her from getting aboard the Star Gate ship.

cetaganda
The atmosphere around the Cetagandan base is increasingly conflicted. Sei carries out her gene therapy experiments as always, and in Diya's stead she runs the genetics research project with ruthless efficiency and, apparently, increasing pressure. Amai is perpetually uneasy ever since she was drafted (blackmailed) into working against Sei, and there are murmurs that Sei is frustrated over some of her coms not going through properly.

Zahal is catching some serious flak from central command for resorting so quickly to nuclear measures on Vorkosigan Vashnoi; it was clearly not an order he received or even requested, and his superiors aren't happy with that. Coupled with Diya's recent passing, he's not so much his usual composed self these days. And with no clear direction after Vorkosigan Vashnoi, the soldiers are getting restless and antsy.

By the 25th, construction on the Star Gate is complete, and Micah is working with the exotics to execute their plan, loosely codenamed the midnight shift, in conjunction with the Barrayarans. They've been providing directions about how to proceed with regards to sabotage and preparing for the hijacking on the 28th. In their off hours in the lab, they've been constructing dozens of small, short-radius EMP charges to be planted in the other ship sin the shipyard.

Sei is murdered by Jasper on the evening of the 28th, before the hijacking begins. Lapis did tell Amai that they'd take care of things with Sei, after all. But because things go to hell so quickly that by the time they have a chance to process the site of Sei's death, the responsible parties are already long gone. Amai also seems to have gone missing, except she isn't really missing -- having been blackmailed into helping with the hijacking, she had no choice but to go with them. Her career might has well have a DNR order on it at this point.

In the aftermath of the hijacking, the base is in a logistical shambles, despite them having taking comparatively much fewer casualties than the Barrayarans. However, beyond the initial emergency response, Zahal's response has been disorganized, enough that they don't manage to immediately get any ships off the ground to pursue the hijackers.

the hijacking
The unabridged mission results are located here.

The Barrayarans don’t descend from the mountains until after dark, their faces smeared with mud to keep the light from reflecting off their skin. Ezar and Piotr lead the infiltration force, while Yuri and Dorca lead the assault on the shipyard perimeter. Casualties in a mission like this are inevitable -- it's just a matter of how many.

While Byerly and Lakshmi are infiltrating along with the rest of the security task force, another force is taking out the shipyard perimeter security. An initial wave of soldiers takes out the perimeter guard, while a second wave fans out through the shipyard to dismantle internal security, including any inner guards. Sonia sneaks herself in on the mission, disguising herself as a soldier in uniform and sticking with the second wave. They're able to secure the shipyard more or less successfully, but it's at the cost of quite a few bodies, and their hold is shaky at best, especially with alarms being triggered after the security task force fails to disable internal security.

Meanwhile, Micah and Kaidan are working on the anti-aircraft protocols, Julian and Pearl are destroying the gene samples, Nash and Symmetra are destroying the research, and Tarn and Lapis are trying to create a diversion. Unfortunately, it doesn't entirely succeed, and with the alarms going off, it makes everyone's job harder. Sisko and Deanna move in with the second wave into the perimeter so they can get started on re-engaging the flight mechanics.

It doesn't take long for things to get bad, and the ghem soldiers begin to close in on the shipyard. There are Barrayaran assault teams both inside the base and in the shipyard, among which are Wash, Miles, Vex and Tucker. The Barrayarans are fighting fiercely, but they're still vastly outnumbered, and they push the perimeter into the shipyard, forcing the rear guard further back. Timing for the Star Gate's departure is starting to run out. Thankfully, though, despite the delays, everyone manages to get to the Star Ship just in time for takeoff -- except for Vex and Tarn.

Micah detonates the EMP charges in the Cetagandan ships as they take off, but they've only planted 23 devices. Luckily, the Barrayarans took initiative and brought along some bombs to plant in the shipyard, like they do. The Barrayarans provide cover fire until the the Star Gate ship clears, and once it does they begin to fall back, taking even more casualties as they pull out. The bombs that go off shortly after their retreat take out another 22 ships, leaving the Cetagandans with only 5 immediately available -- but plenty enough to go after the Star Gate ship.

The Barrayarans retreat back to the mountains, many of them wounded, and at least a hundred of their small army died in the attack on the base, including both Lakshmi and Tucker. The Cetagandans' attention is sufficiently occupied right now, which is good, because now more than ever the Barrayarans need a chance to recoup.

The Star Gate ship breaks orbit, but it's only a matter of time before they'll be pursued. In addition to Micah, both Sonia and Amai are aboard the ship when it lifts off, and later Negri is discovered to have somehow stowed aboard while no one was looking.

Comments

Sonia Vorbarra

[vorbratta]

a. if i were that kind of grateful, what would i try to say?
While everyone's gearing up with rising anticipation, if not excitement, for the upcoming mission, Sonia is looking a little melancholy. She hadn't had many friends before the outsiders arrived – really, it'd just been her sister – and she knew they'd probably all leave someday. And she does want them to go home, if that's what leaving means. She knows they don't belong here. That doesn't mean she isn't any sadder to see them go for it.

She's doing her usual thing around camp – boosting morale however she can, although she seems to be paying much sharper attention to what's being said around camps, conversations between the soldiers, and especially among her own family. There are politics at work that make her uneasy, and she's getting savvier to them these days. But as the 28th draws near, she's far more preoccupied with saying her last goodbyes. She's become deeply attached to many of the outsiders even in the few short months they've been here, and the need for closure is urgent, bordering on desperate. If you haven't come to her to say your goodbyes, she'll almost certainly find you.

b. can't change the start of a hurricane
It isn't until almost the last minute that Sonia decides to do something so spectacularly stupid that even she's able to admit to herself that it's just a little bit of a bad idea, especially after her capture a few months ago. But saying goodbye to her friends now just doesn't feel like enough, and realizing that she'll never get to say goodbye to Miles if she stays behind, and worse, that she won't be able to make him go home, eats away at her steadily. The night before the hijacking, she lies awake for far too long wrestling with the idea.

She waits until it's already well after dark, taking advantage of the distraction of war preparations to steal a Ranger's uniform. She braids her hair and tucks it under the cap, tugging it low and hiding her face behind war paint made of mud across her cheeks. Her height is to her advantage here; while she isn't as tall as most of the soldiers, with a uniform that's just a size too big on her and the darkness obscuring all else she can pass herself off as a man of somewhat below average height -- at least for now, anyway. Sonia isn't a soldier, she doesn't move or think like a soldier, but she's been taking self-defense lessons from Wash and Carolina, and when there are hundreds of soldiers moving out, it's easy enough to slip into the ranks of the assault force on the shipyard. She knows how to use a stunner, but she's smart enough not to put herself in the front lines, hanging back until the second wave moves in.

c. in the grand, i'll go anywhere with you
Sonia knew posing as a soldier wouldn't really be sustainable, but as long as it gets her to the Star Gate ship, that's good enough. It's only a matter of time before somebody figures out the Princess is in the middle of the action, and some of the soldiers try to catch her, usher her away to whatever safety they can provide here or fall back and take her back to camp. But Sonia is famously stubborn, and she makes a beeline for the Star Gate ship as quickly as she can – not only is that her end goal, but she also knows that it's probably the safest place she can be right now. That doesn't mean she isn't at risk the whole time she's out in the open, but she holds tight onto her stunner, even fires off a few shots to get past ghem soldiers.

She's aware it might be a little too much to hope for that her friends won't be mad at her for putting herself in danger, and she's probably going to get a lecture from whoever's on the ship when she gets there – or anyone who shows up after she does. But that doesn't stop her from helping as much as she can from the ship, offering a hand to pull people in to safety if they need it.

c

[dendarii]

This whole thing has gone to hell too quickly. Lakshmi dead, Tucker dead, Wash presumably half out of his mind from watching his friend die - and Miles himself badly injured, clutching his bloodied left arm close to him. Afraid to look too closely at the injury for fear of what he'll see. He can't feel anything at all in some of it. Too much of it. And he isn't quite brave enough to look down and see if he's missing something or just nerve-damaged from a disruptor ...

But he is alive, and he is racing for the ship with the others left on covering fire duty. He reaches out with his good hand, grabbing on tight before he even looks up. But when he does ... His eye widen with relief and surprise both. How the hell - she really shouldn't be here, but --

"Sonia!"

He pulls himself up the rest of the way, immediately leaning in to hug his great aunt.

[vorbratta]

"Miles!"

Sonia's heart is in her throat as soon as she sees him -- oh, thank God he's alright, she needed to see him alright -- relatively speaking, anyway, because he's visibly injured. She wraps her arms around him and pulls him in, into the ship, safe from danger. For a second she can't bring herself to let go, but finally she pulls back, studying his face and then his arm with concern and alarm.

"Oh, God, Miles -- what happened to your arm?" She reaches to take him by the elbow to get a good look at it. There's first aid kits on board, there has to be synergine somewhere around here...

[dendarii]

He's so fucking glad to see her. Manages a one-armed hug, pressing his forehead to her shoulder as they embrace. When the plan had started to go forward, he'd thought he'd never see her again. And - while he wasn't going to turn down going home at this point, there had been a part of him that had been tempted to try to go back. Just to see her again. God, he is going to miss his great-aunt something terrible.

But his arm? Ah, that's right. He lifts his left arm, awkwardly, to see how bad off he is. It's ... not great. Part of his hand is completely missing, the remaining flesh bloodied but cauterized by the plasma rifle shot that had taken them off in the first place. More concerning is the fact that he can't feel anything below his elbow. No pain, no, but a nerve disruptor blast is never a thing to joke about.

So, naturally, he's going to.

"Ah," he says, staring down at himself. "I seem to be all right."

[vorbratta]

Sonia's seen injuries before, bad ones, fatal ones, and this isn't fatal, but it is Miles, and she feels a lurch of nausea at seeing Miles's hand, a hand going to her mouth for the single moment of horror she spares herself. She realizes belatedly that the vague wetness on the front of her stolen uniform is Miles's blood, and she swallows down the nausea as best she can, her mind tripping over itself.

"Oh, God," she breathes again, staring, "your hand -- "

And he's...far too composed about it. Oh, hell. Sonia takes Miles by the shoulder, his uninjured side, and there's nothing on her pale face but concern and worry she's trying desperately to put a brave face over.

"Miles, you're in shock," she says, and she's no doctor, not even a med tech, but she finally finds a half-open first aid kit with a hypospray of synergine in it and packs the whole thing up and shoves it under her arm. "Come here -- come on, let's get away from the airlock, you need synergine -- "

[dendarii]

He is in shock. More mentally than physically, although the hand doesn't help; he keeps thinking of Tucker and Lakshmi, how quick it had been to go from glee at seeing them again to agony at seeing them dead or dying - no, focus on Sonia. He's glad to see Sonia, dammit, desperately so. As such, he lets her lead him along with not even a whisper of complaint. Staggering slightly, dazed.

"Will that help? I'm not sure anything will at this point." He makes a gesture towards his limp arm. "I'll have to - have to go home after all to get it fixed."

[vorbratta]

At least he doesn't fight her. Sonia's already feeling sick, forcing her eyes away from Miles's hand so she can lead him away from the heart of the chaos, further into the ship where she can sit him down. She's the farthest thing from a combatant but she's had first aid training, they all have, and she knows how to use a frigging hypospray -- more than can be said for half of Piotr's soldiers. She sits Miles down in the first chair she can find and sets the first aid kit close to hand, kneeling in front of him.

"Of course you're going home." She says it as matter-of-factly as she can, though her hands shake slightly as she fumbles for the hypospray of synergine in the first aid kit. She's had first aid training, yes, but God, what the hell do you do for a hand that's -- half-missing? Synergine first, she tells herself, checking the ampule in the hypospray. Then stop the bleeding. Those are the priorities. She takes Miles's other arm, rolls up his sleeve to the elbow so she can press the hypospray to his arm. Her own breathing is shallow, but she gives him as much of a reassuring smile as she can manage. "Why do you think I'm here?"

[dendarii]

Bind it up and get him to real medical treatment, basically. Which means going back to the future. As long as he can get there, he can have something done, but here ... not so much. He awkwardly shifts his arm to meet her hypospray, suppressing a faint hiss of pain as she administers it. The synergine will help. That's a good start. It's a miracle he hasn't had a seizure in the middle of all this ...

"Because you missed me," he says, with a bloodless grin. "Or to throw me through the wormhole bodily, one of the two."

[vorbratta]

"Both," Sonia says, answering with a tight smile of her own, touching her fingers briefly to the injection site before she puts the hypospray away. "Don't think I'll hesitate to pick you up, either."

She tries to keep her voice light, but her mouth is dry, and her eyes a little too wet. She blinks back tears, biting the inside of her cheek. Now is no time to panic. There's no one else she can ask for right now, and Miles -- Miles needs help. She's never had to look at an injury like this before, let alone on someone she loves. God. She tears open a packet containing a sterilizing cloth.

"I have to clean your hand before I can bandage it, Miles," she says, trying to keep her voice even, and she isn't sure if she's saying all this aloud for his benefit or her own. She reaches for his bloodied wrist with one hand. "It's probably going to sting. I just -- need you to hold still. Alright?"

[dendarii]

"I imagine you would," he says fondly. He's still a bit dizzy from the relief of seeing her. Also from the blood loss, but this is more cheerful to contemplate. As dire as the situation is. As upset as she clearly is to see him wounded.

He winces a little as she lifts the cloth to what remains of his hand, but - it's all anticipatory. Which he realizes as soon as she actually moves to touch it. Ah. Dead nerves. "I can't feel anything," he murmurs, watching her with morbid fascination. He feels like he's watching her bandage someone else, not himself. "You won't hurt me worse than I am already. I trust you, Sonia."

[vorbratta]

Sonia pales further when Miles tells her he can't feel any of it, panic and nausea lurching in her stomach again. But it's when he tells her he trusts her that she has to squeeze her eyes shut for a moment, even as she carefully tries to wipe away the excess blood from what's left of his hand. She's never felt a weight like that before, to have someone's trust in a situation like this, a place she doesn't belong, something she's aware of even if she had flown directly into the face of it. She swallows, forcing her eyes back open, looking up at Miles's face instead of at his hand. Giving him the synergine had been the right thing to do, at least.

"It's going to be alright," she says, her voice hitching and a little thick, but otherwise firm, but it's just as difficult as before to tell just for whose benefit these assurances are. She drops the bloodied cloth to the floor with fluttering hands, not sure what else to do with it, and reaches for the gauze. "You're going to be alright. You'll go home, and you'll get this fixed up -- if not on Barrayar, you'll go to Beta Colony. They'll fix you up so good you won't even be able to tell the difference."

[dendarii]

It's possible he's just been clipped with a stunner instead, but he can't tell at this point; better to assume the worst and be done with it. He's still kind of out of it from everything that's happened, anyway, though the synergine is bringing light back into his eyes. Breathing. Focusing. He's here, Sonia is here ...

He shifts his arm a bit, awkwardly lifting it up so that she can wrap his hand more easily . Still watching with morbid fascination as his poor hand disappears under a soft cloud of white. "You're right. I've had worse. Hell, I've been cryorevived before." He gestures awkwardly at his neck scars with one hand. "I'm just glad I got a chance to see you again."

[vorbratta]

"You've been cryorevived?" That genuinely takes Sonia by surprise, but then, she's never noticed those thin white scars under his collar before. She can only afford to give them one close look before she has to force herself to look back down at what's left of Miles's hand. She forces out a shaky laugh. "I suppose I shouldn't be all that surprised."

She's seen plenty of nasty injuries, born witness to executions of the slowest kind, but she's never had to do this herself. Her hands tremble slightly as she grasps his arm by the wrist and starts to wrap around his bloodied hand, grateful for the chatter. She needs the talking right now. She's feeling awfully nauseous.

"You might be the only one," she says wryly, giving him just a quick rueful smile before she returns to her work. "But -- I'm glad. I wanted to see you again. I wanted to make sure you got home safe."

She wanted to make sure he got home, period.

c everything is fine

[protocol]

Wash is limping, dragging one leg slightly when he finally makes it back to the ship, but it's slight -- the injury is more serious than he's making it look, even from a near miss a plasma burn isn't pretty, but sheer determination has him pushing through, and pain is the least of his concerns. He's stubborn about lingering near the ship, about using the disruptor he has to cover anyone else coming on board, and not shy about yelling for people to hurry the fuck up and get inside. There'll be no more losses today. There'll be no more losses of any of his own, today.

He'll probably end up one of the last people on board, and when someone offers a hand he's a little stubborn about pushing it away, until. He realizes who that is. He grabs her by the arm, as he half-limps his way on the ship, just kind of staring at her, whatever flicker of joy he might feel from seeing her again mostly swept under by worry ( what the hell is she doing here ) and grief, the ache of a loss still too recent, too raw. Seeing her might make it sharper.

"What the hell are you doing here, Sonia?" Sorry, Sonia. He's glad to see you, he is, but he's lost too many people already and you have no damn place anywhere near the lines, and god, seeing her just makes him think of Tucker, and. He's really not in the best state of mind for this.

[vorbratta]

Miles had looked bad, but not like this. Those plasma burns have to hurt like hell, and they can cause permanent tissue damage, and there's synergies in the first aid kits around here --

Sonia lets off one last burst of stunner fire before she starts to pull back, helping Wash as he limps along, pulling them both out of any line of fire into the ship. The mud Sonia had smeared over her face before they'd set out has mostly fallen away with sweat, the skin underneath flushed with adrenaline and exertion, and her braids are already half-undone, but she doesn't appear to be seriously hurt.

"Wash," she breathes, a little hitched just at the look of him. "God, Wash, what happened? Here -- "

She makes a grab for a half-open first aid kit nearby, though her jaw automatically sets in a familiar stubborn expression at that question. "I'm helping," she says fiercely, slipping her arm under Wash's to help him further into the ship. Everything around them is shouting and chaos. Sonia rifles through the first aid kit with one hand. "Oh, hell, where's the synergine..."

[protocol]

He'll notice the pain more once stubborn determination, adrenaline and the bitter anger that comes from grief fade away. Right now, it's really only a footnote in everything else he's trying to process, everything else he has to do -- still intense, too bright and terribly distracting, but something he shoves into the background of his thoughts, still. He's stumbling enough for him to allow Sonia to help him further into the ship, but when she starts rifling through the first aid kit he's turning to grab her by the arm.

"I can look for some myself," he snaps at her, his grip's too tight, his voice too harsh, she can't be here, not when. An image flashes in front of him, too sharp, too real, Tucker falling to his knees then collapsing completely. His grip tightens even further -- but he does notice it, at least, shaking off the memory, forcing himself to relax his grip, still holding onto her arm."There are people out there fucking dying, Sonia, what the hell are you doing here? We're running out of time before this thing needs to take off, there's no damn way we can get you back safely with all of this going on."

[vorbratta]

Sonia flinches visibly when he snaps at her, instinctively pulling away, though his grip is far too tight. She was expecting some people to be less than pleased to see her here, if she'd thought anyone would have approved she wouldn't have done it all on her own, but she wasn't expecting so vehement a reaction.

"Wash -- " She's trying to help, damn it, because he's injured and she isn't and that's what she's here for, and she tries to wrench her arm out of his grip, her eyes flashing. "I know that! Why do you think I'm here? I'm not going back, Wash -- not yet. Not until all of you get home safely. Just let me help."

[protocol]

There's a world of difference between Wash in camp talking with her in her tent and Wash in full mission mode, focused and brutally efficient and with little patience for anything. All that is only sharpened more by Tucker's death, god, he'd been right next to him, Tucker had taken the shot, Tucker had taken the shot. He should tell her. He's not the right person to tell her, not now.

His eyes flick down to the uniform she's wearing, up to where there's still some mud smeared on some parts of her face.

"You were with the soldiers? God, Sonia, you could have died out there, I don't even know how the hell you made it here." A breath, trying to center himself, he lets go of her arm, finally. Rifles through the first aid kit himself. "If you were really going to be this damn stubborn about coming along you could've at least told one of us, we could've helped watch you --"

Someone like him or Byerly or Tucker, and. He just kind of stills.

[vorbratta]

"I was fine," Sonia insists with rising stubbornness, even though she knows full well that what she'd done was at least a little bit stupid and plenty risky. She shakes him off as soon as he lets go of her, rubbing her arm with her other hand as if in defense. "I had a stunner, and I knew the orders. I didn't put myself in the front lines. And if I'd told any of you, you'd have stopped me!"

She doesn't think for a second that Wash or Byerly would have even so much as entertained the idea; Tucker wouldn't have liked it either. They'd all have been too busy worrying anyway, and she couldn't afford that. With a noise of frustration, she digs her hand into the first aid kit and finally comes up with the hypospray, already loaded with an ampule of synergine. Sonia's dizzy with adrenaline, breathing hard, but she's not going to stop now.

"Roll up your sleeve," she says, demanding but with none of the childishness that usually accompanies it. "You need synergine before you go into shock."

[protocol]

Wash doesn't seem to hear what she's saying, and it's unnerving, how he was so angry before and how all of it seems to evaporate from him in an instant. All he sees right now is Tucker. The shot trajectory, it was hard to tell, he hadn't really caught where it'd come from, but judging from where he'd been hit, from the angle of it, he could calculate, extrapolate from the wound -- it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what his mind clings to to try and make sense of it or reason it away. Everything sounds like he's hearing it through water. The only thing that matters is that Tucker had taken the shot. He'd taken a shot that would've hit him, instead. The only thing that matters is that he's dead.

He's barely responsive, his body moving without conscious thought, still just rifling around in the kit, finding the hypospray -- and it's the feeling of Sonia tugging it out of his loose grasp that stirs him. A breath. He didn't realize he'd been holding his breath. There's a chain wrapped around his hand, again. So soon, too soon, even one loss is too many. He doesn't look up to meet Sonia's eye, just wordlessly lifts chain-wrapped fingers to lift the sleeve of his other arm.

"Definitely would've stopped you," he says finally. Too calm, all of a sudden. "That would've been the point."

[vorbratta]

Wash's anger had made her flinch, almost made her afraid, but this is far more chilling. Sonia goes a little cold when he goes so still -- God, is he already in shock? The injuries look bad, but it's chaotic and the lighting isn't the best, and there's too much blood and burned uniform to be able to tell at a glance, and she's not even a med tech anyway, just someone who knows basic first aid. She presses the hypospray to his inner arm and hears the hiss as it injects the synergine -- that should help. It should.

Her breathing is shallow as she administers the synergine and her head jerks up when he finally speaks, her face pale. It isn't the words; those don't come as a surprise. But his voice.

"I know. That's why I didn't tell you." She finds herself sniffing, blinking back tears she didn't even know were there. Wash had scared her -- still is scaring her. Nothing to be done but move along, keep moving forward. She wipes her nose on the back of her sleeve and drops the hypospray back in the first aid kit, trying to get a look at his injuries. After dealing with Miles's hand, she can -- she can probably stomach this. "What happened -- where were you hit? How bad is it?"

[protocol]

"Burn from indirect plasma exposure on the upper thigh." He answers automatically as if he's reporting to an officer. Calm, breathing steady. He can still feel the pain, but it's distant. Breathe, David. Focus. He finally lifts his head to look at her -- she's sniffing, not crying but blinking back tears. Sonia isn't trained for this. She's lived through a war but being in it is different. He looks back at her blankly for a few moments, but something does drag him back, at least slightly. Tucker. She should know about --

"I know how to deal with it." In theory, anyway, plasma weaponry was Covenant standard issue and Cetagandan tech didn't seem that different on that front. He lifts his hand and it trembles for a moment but somehow he manages to steady himself as he gently cups his palm against her cheek, metal of the chain wrapped around his fingers cool against her skin, thumbing lightly underneath her eye. "Sonia, I'm okay. It's going to be fine. Breathe."

Still some distance in his eyes, but he's more present than he was a few moments ago, and there's a softness to his voice. She didn't fight, but she'd still moved with the soldiers. She would've seen some fall and die, would've heard the screams. It wouldn't be the first time, but Wash already knows how she took it, before. He's really not in a good place, for this, can't really be there for her now, but he wants to try and calm and center her at least just a little, give her something to try and anchor herself to before she goes back to trying to help. She should know about Tucker. She should know about Tucker. She should know about -- not yet. Not now.

[vorbratta]

Sonia's almost reluctant to admit to the massive wave of relief that comes over her when Wash seems to come back to himself, when he talks to her like Wash again, and her breath hitches a little when he puts his hand to her face in that gentle gesture. Sonia hiccups quietly and squeezes her eyes shut for just a moment, nodding. When she opens them, her lashes are damp, but no tears are falling down her cheeks.

"I am. I'm okay." Nobody here is really okay, but it's a necessary fiction they must uphold, at least for the time being. She swallows, sniffing again, but she does look more centered. She looks at Wash with that desperate intent to help in her dark eyes. He ought to know what that looks like. "Tell me what to do."

[protocol]

Good. That's good. There's so much he can't do, so much he couldn't do, but at least he can do this much for someone. He really can take care of himself, he knows how to handle a burn and the pain -- is a lot, but he can bear it. But she knows that look in her eyes, and he'll relent a little before he sends her off. She should know about Tucker. She should know about Tucker but not yet. She wants to help, right now, there are people to help and there will be more coming onto the ship, and it'll be easier for her if she can do it with a clear mind, or as clear of a mind as she can manage. He can tell her -- later. When she's ready for it. When he's ready for it.

He nods. Another brush of his thumb over her cheek, the gesture soft and gentle before he drops his hand away.

"It's a burn. Not as bad as it could be, but a burn. I might need remove anything that looks too bad." He can do it himself. He's quite intent on that, but Sonia can help him, still. He finally allows himself to lean his weight a little against something nearby, and that's the first time when he really shows any real pain, a slow grimace. He doesn't know what the hell a Cetagandan ship would have in a first aid kit, but he does know his training. "Get me what you can find, autolytic dressings and saline if there's any, just something non-adhesive to wrap with otherwise."

[vorbratta]

Sonia nods, grateful for something to do, knowing that Wash could probably take care of all this himself but he's letting her help. She knows he's not happy to see her here -- the only one who really has been is Miles -- but it's about what she expected. She just hadn't expected that initial reaction, that anger. This -- this she can do.

She digs around and comes up with gauze and saline, but that's all she can find in the first aid kits -- along with at least one useful tool. "Here," she says, a little breathlessly, and jerks her head at a bench set against the bulkhead for him to sit. He's probably going to need to sit for this. "I've got saline and gauze, and I found some disinfectant just in case -- and a vibra-scalpel. It's got at least a half charge. Anything you need to cut away, this'll do it."