After that he was unpleasantly lucid for a considerable period of time. He was carefully transferred to a narrow table, then told that the doctor would be with him in a few minutes. Both of his legs ached monstrously and he wanted desperately to sit up and have a look at the damage, but a searing pain in his back wouldn’t let him. When one of the chatty orderlies asked him if he wanted more morphine, he nodded and closed his eyes gratefully as the drug flowed through his system. He must have only dozed off for seconds, though, because when he came to again the same orderly was still there, helping a rather plain-faced and tired-looking nurse cut his stinking shorts off him with a large pair of shears.‘Am I on the hospital ship?’ Joseph asked, his voice rasping dryly.‘That you are, Sergeant Deane,’ replied the nurse cheerfully, snipping through the waistband of his pants, apparently immune to the sight of male genitals. ‘You’re on the Maheno. You’ll be fine now, just wait and see.
