"What would have compatible chips that I could wipe? Portable resuscitators, emergency shock units, they've got the same chip! There should be a lot of them at the hospital."
An officer quickly got on the phone. A few minutes later a man appeared carrying four resuscitators. "These have been used 'til the batteries were dead," he remarked. "Are they still any good?"
"That won't effect the chips at all," James answered. "Rip 'em apart!"
In minutes he was wiping the chips and clipping them in. He shut the last computer, opened the lead lined box, and took out the rebooting unit, plugged it in, and pressed 'Run'. "That's it!" he moaned. "It's going to take thirty minutes for everything to be reprogrammed. Tell whoever is in charge that's the best I can do."
An officer standing nearby wiped blood from his mouth and answered, "As far as we can determine, sir, you're in charge. You're the highest-ranking officer left. There's some one and twos on the other side of the island, but all the rest of the officers were over here at a morning conference. It was such a lovely day they were having it outside." The officer began to weep and leaned against the wall.
James stared at the floor, and then snapped "Our priority is to man the weapons systems, get the censors back up so we can send telemetry to whoever is left out there. I know this is a hard order to accept, but leave the wounded and the dying to fend for themselves. Every able-bodied person must do all in their power to defend the base! Call for help. I don't think anybody would question we need. it!"
"Orders understood, sir!" one of the men snapped. "They will be carried out."
Another man simply walked over, laid down on the pile of bodies and expired. "Lords," James moaned, "I don't know if I can handle this! I don't know if I can deal with it. Please get somebody in here to help me, please!"
Everybody quickly went to work finding out who was still alive and getting them into position to man the necessary equipment. The doctors at the hospital screamed when James told them to leave their patients and help on the weapons systems, but they finally understood the necessity and obeyed. Slowly, surely, the base came back to life, and what their instruments showed was not good. It was not good at all!
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