"Chest wound."

"I can see that" she answered.

The operator stared at her for half a second, apparently reconsidered whatever response had come to mind, and turned his attention back toward the corridor.

The new casualty was bad, but not hopeless. Respiratory compromise, significant blood loss, worsening vitals. Immediate. Solana classified him accordingly, confirmed that the woman she'd just treated remained stabilized for evacuation, then opened another section of her kit and got to work.

This was the part she liked. Not the injuries, not the screaming, and certainly not the artificial smell the simulator had added to make the whole thing more convincing. She liked the moment when everything unnecessary disappeared. There was no room for worrying about whether she was making a good impression, whether somebody on Deck Eighteen thought the new nurse talked too much, or whether there were still two storage cases sitting unopened in her quarters. There was only the patient, the problem and the next thing that needed doing.

Then the computer complicated it.

"Warning. Structural failure imminent. Estimated collapse in ninety seconds."

"Of course it is" Solana muttered without looking up from her patient.

The Blackwatch operator turned toward her. "We have to move. We have five casualties and one of them can't walk."

"I heard the warning, I can count, and at the moment several of them can't walk" Solana replied as she finally looked toward him.

His attention shifted toward the crewman still pinned beneath the plating, and hers followed. There was the problem. One immediate casualty needed evacuation. Another had been stabilized enough to move. The trapped man remained classified delayed, but that classification had been made before the entire structure decided to become a countdown timer. The corpsman against the wall was still expectant.

Ninety seconds had turned triage into extraction, and Solana hated when the lesson changed halfway through.

She moved back to the pinned crewman and dropped beside him, scanner already in hand. The plating hadn't shifted. His foot remained trapped beneath it, crushed badly enough that there wasn't much left for the computer to pretend they were saving.

"Can we lift it?" the operator asked.

Solana looked at the slab, the unstable debris above it and the countdown glowing along the edge of her scanner. "Not fast enough" she replied.

The trapped crewman looked between them. "Then what?"

Solana didn't answer immediately because there was another option and she hated that one too. The scanner merely confirmed what she already knew. The damage below the ankle was catastrophic. Freeing the foot wasn't realistic.

Freeing the man was.

She met his eyes. "I'm going to get you out of here, but you're not leaving with all the pieces you came in with."

Understanding took a moment before his expression changed. "My foot?"

"Your foot is already gone for every medical purpose that matters" Solana told him, keeping her voice level. "Right now it's just the part keeping the rest of you under this building."

The computer announced sixty-eight seconds remaining. The crewman swallowed hard while Solana opened her field kit and prepared to do what the scenario was now demanding of her.

"You can hate me after we're outside" she said.

He looked at her for another second before giving the smallest nod. "Do it."

That was all she needed.

Solana administered the simulation's emergency pain control and moved with the speed the scenario demanded. There was nothing elegant about the decision and no point pretending there was. She used the field equipment to remove what the wreckage refused to release, then immediately sealed and stabilized what remained.

The crewman screamed anyway.

"I know" Solana said through clenched teeth while keeping her attention on his readings. "You can file the complaint later."

His pressure dropped sharply enough to make the scanner complain, then steadied as the treatment took effect. The computer announced forty-five seconds remaining, which was apparently its way of reminding her there was no time to feel pleased with herself.

Solana shoved the instrument back into her kit and pointed toward the casualty near the doorway. "Pick up casualty five."

The Blackwatch operator looked over. "How?"

"Fireman's carry. He's stable enough for it and you're bigger than I am" Solana told him.

He didn't waste time arguing. The operator crossed the room, hauled the casualty across his shoulders and adjusted the man's weight until he could move. Solana appreciated people who understood that an order delivered by the person keeping everyone alive usually wasn't the right moment for committee discussion.

She turned back to the amputee. "All right, sweetheart. This next part is going to lack dignity."

The crewman looked from what remained of his leg back to her. "Next part?"

"I'm dragging you" Solana said.

His expression changed again. "What?"

The computer announced thirty-five seconds.