Shall they part him among the merchants? Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? Or his head with fish spears?—Job 41: 6–7, King James Bible Caitlin would have far rather returned Jsutien to an acceleration bay or, failing that, a hospital tank, but he was awake now and she was stuck with him. Well, technically the hospital tank was still an option, but an Exalt didn’t need that much resource support for a simple skull fracture, and Caitlin thought Jsutien would require little attention while sleeping off his injury. Also, she needed him and she didn’t trust him, and she didn’t really want him out of her sight. So she left him tucked in a corner of Central Engineering, one arm nanoshackled to the magnetized leg of his cot. While he snored she directed survey operations and created prioritized lists of existing damage, impending damage, and available consumables for Nova’s convenience. Status one was to repair, patch, or at least seal off catastrophic injury to the world—anything that represented an immediate danger to integrity, biosystems, or consumable or static resources.
