Hawk's Fight with Buck

        (Alternative version of the fight scene from "Time of the Hawk")

by

Teresa Spanics

Chapter Nine

"It is what the Galactic Court wants to know.  They want Hawk to explain why he went ahead after every human ship and outpost and destroyed them instead of those responsible for his people's death," said Wilma.  "The Court will also want to know when Hawk will be well enough to stand trial, Doctor."

"In a few weeks, maybe three at the least, Colonel," stated Dr. Goodfellow.

"Maybe Hawk didn't know which humans did the killings, Wilma.  Maybe he only found evidence that showed humans had attacked his people, but there may have been none of his people who lived long enough to tell him," contemplated Buck.

"Well, until Hawk wakes up, we will not know will we," said Wilma.

Dr. Goodfellow reluctantly placed Hawk in belt restraints and returned to monitoring Hawk's condition.  Two days after his surgery, the I.V. and catheter were removed.  Dr. Goodfellow was out of his office doing further research on the bird people when Hawk woke up again to find himself on a medi-bed and still in the sickbay of the Searcher.  

At first, Hawk thought he was still dreaming, but the events of the past month came crashing down upon him.  He closed his eyes in grief as the memories of his true love Koori came to him before he forced himself to push them aside.  As he tried to sit up, Hawk found that he had been completely undressed by the humans with only a blanket covering his feathered body.  Hawk also found his wrists were held down by belt wrist restraints with a belt chest restraint under his armpits across his feather covered chest.

Fearful what the humans might have planned for him, Hawk tried to see if he could get free and found that the wrist restraints were loose enough that when he pulled on them he was able to get his hands out after only a little tugging.   Once his hands were free, he undid the belt chest restraint. 

Then Hawk looked around carefully to find he was all alone and sat up only to grab his right side and right leg as searing pain surged through both of them forcing him to lie back down again.  He shut his eyes against the pain and forced himself to relax so that the agony he was feeling would pass eventually.  Once it subsided, he would be able to look at himself and see what the humans had done to him.

Forcing himself to remain calm and carefully touching his injuries, Hawk found that his chest and his right knee had been swaddled in bandages.  Bracing himself for the loss of his body feathers as he pulled back the edges of the bandage on his chest, Hawk was surprised that none of his feathers had been removed by any of the humans he had seen in the sickbay prior to the anesthesia being administered to him by the elder healer.  That the humans were able to perform surgery on him without removing any feathers came as a surprise to Hawk since his own people's healers often had to remove one's body feathers when treating injuries.

Since he had no way of knowing when a human might enter the sickbay, Hawk could only guess that he had little time to find something to wear and get out of the sickbay.  Then it was just a matter of stealing a ship to return to Throm. The desire to lay down and die so he could be with Koori again had not faded.  It was the only thing he wanted to do and no one would stop him.  Hawk knew that the first thing to do was to try and get off the medi-bed.  He laid still for a few minutes to steel his resolve and to focus on his goal.

Gasping in pain, Hawk steeled himself to get off the bed by gritting his teeth and forcing himself to sit up despite the throbbing pain in his right side and knee.  Then pulling the blanket up around himself for modesty as well to have it out of his way, Hawk eased his good leg onto the floor. 

Once he was able place a foot on the floor, Hawk slowly pulled his injured leg to the edge of the bed before carefully lowering it over.  Sitting up sent shooting pains into his right side, but Hawk forced himself to look around and saw, through the glass partion of a closet, a hospital gown hanging there.

Hawk knew that holding onto the blanket would make it hard for him to move around so he dropped it onto the floor.  Taking a deep breath, he then clenched his teeth once again and pushed himself off the bed.  Steadying himself against the bed, the birdman gathered his strength to walk.  Weathering the pain, Hawk managed to hobble to the closet where he opened the door and grabbed the hospital gown.

He had been embarrassed that he was seen undressed by all the female medical staff.  Only mates were allowed to see each other undressed on their wedding night and during their married life together.  Any exception to that would be someone of the same sex.  It would be the same for any female of his people.  When one was young, the only adults that would be allowed to see one undressed would be one's mother and father.  The only exception to that would be when one was an infant up to the age of a toddler.

Hawk wrapped the gown around his waist to use as a loincloth for modesty sake and to make it easier to move around.  The hospital gown was just large enough to only completely cover his front and sides.  Hawk had to find something better to wear because his sparsely-feathered behind along with his two-inch, soft, fluffy, white tail feathers, located at the base of his spine, were showing for all to see.

Now it was only the matter of getting a ship and leaving for Throm.  Steadying himself against the closet door, Hawk started to head for the door when Dr. Goodfellow entered the room with his notes and accompanied by his head nurse. With his mind intent on going over Hawk's treatment, he headed for his office with Nurse Jensen.