The conscious casualty watched him work before eventually asking how bad the injury was. Pembroke advised him to conserve his strength rather than interview his physician, which only bought a few seconds before the man asked whether he could still fight.

That question made Pembroke stop.

His attention shifted toward the two Sustain cartridges resting inside the open case. The drug could probably put the man back on his feet temporarily. It could also suppress enough of what his body was trying to tell him that he might do considerably more damage to himself before realizing anything was wrong.

"What remains of the objective?" Pembroke asked. The casualty admitted he didn't know, and Adrian's expression flattened as he answered, "Then neither do I."

A communicator on the deck activated before either of them could say anything more. "Medical, this is Actual. We need one additional operator at the objective. Can you return Harker to duty?"

Pembroke looked once more toward the Sustain before answering. "Technically? Yes." The reply came back immediately telling him to do it, but Adrian's response was equally immediate. "No. You asked whether I could make him functional. You did not ask whether doing so was medically justified."

The voice on the communicator hardened as it explained that the objective was mission-critical. Pembroke asked what the objective actually was, only to be told the information was compartmented. That answer changed his expression more than the order had. He looked down at the injured operator, then back toward the communicator as though the person on the other end were standing directly in front of him. "Then you have created your own problem."

"Commander, I am giving you a lawful operational order" the team leader replied, and Pembroke's patience visibly narrowed. He explained that what he had actually been given was an instruction to incur an unknown medical cost in service of an objective whose importance had not been characterized sufficiently for him to judge whether that cost was justified. The casualty between them looked increasingly interested in remaining uninvolved in the argument.

The team leader reminded Pembroke that he was not commanding the operation. Adrian agreed without hesitation. "Correct. And you are not commanding Human physiology." He returned his attention to the patient while making the rest of his position equally clear. If the objective required another operator to prevent the loss of the team, the ship, or something of comparable consequence, Pembroke would make the medical decision with that knowledge. If all command was prepared to tell him was that another rifle would be convenient, Harker was staying exactly where he was.

The silence on the communicator lasted several seconds before the team leader finally answered. The objective prevented hostile access to Federation defense deployment data, and failure could compromise multiple installations.

That was different.

Pembroke looked back toward Harker and asked how long the team actually needed him. Fifteen minutes, according to Actual. Adrian reached toward the field case and removed one of the Sustain cartridges, though he did not use it immediately. "Then you should have led with that."

He turned his full attention to Harker. "This will make you feel considerably better than you are. That improvement will be a lie. You will have approximately fifteen minutes in which I expect you to accomplish whatever your commander requires, after which you will return here whether you believe you need to or not." Harker managed a thin smile and asked whether Pembroke was always this encouraging, earning a dry assurance that occasionally he was asleep.

The simulation registered the medication and Harker's condition began stabilizing enough for him to move. Pembroke watched the readings until he was satisfied that the improvement was sufficient, then helped him upright just as the security operator returned from evacuating the radiation casualty. Adrian handed Harker over with instructions that were brief enough to leave very little room for creative interpretation.

That left the unconscious patient.

The lights failed completely.

Emergency illumination returned several seconds later in dull red strips along the floor while the overhead system announced that extraction had been delayed to fifty-three minutes. Pembroke stared upward for a moment, absorbing the new information with the expression of a man who had been personally disappointed by mathematics. "Naturally."

The unconscious patient's condition began deteriorating almost immediately afterward. Pembroke looked from the remaining equipment to the compact surgical frame against the wall and understood what the scenario wanted next. Under ordinary circumstances, the decision would have been obvious. These were not ordinary circumstances, and apparently Blackwatch was interested in whether he could recognize the difference.

He removed his field jacket, folded it once beneath the patient's head, and began reorganizing what equipment remained within reach. "If your intention is to discover whether I can operate without proper facilities" he said toward whoever was monitoring the simulation, "I assure you the answer is yes. If your intention is to determine whether I enjoy it, the answer is considerably less flattering."