In the tank storage space between the ceiling and top of the hull were
the chemical fire-fighting liquids and foam that could be applied by
nozzles, hoses and towers now telescoped into recesses in the hull.
Along both sides and beneath the galley, bunks, engine and
machine-shop compartments between the walls, deck and hull, were
Beulah's fuel storage tanks.
The last after compartment was a complete dispensary, one that would
have made the emergency room or even the light surgery rooms of
earlier-day hospitals proud.
Clay tapped on the door and went through. Medical-Surgical Officer
Kelly Lightfoot was sitting on the deck, stowing sterile bandage packs
into a lower locker. She looked up at Clay and smiled. "Well, well,
you DID manage to tear yourself away from your adoring bevies," she
said. She flicked back a wisp of golden-red hair from her forehead and
stood up. The patrol-blue uniform coverall with its belted waist
didn't do much to hide a lovely, properly curved figure. She walked
over to the tall Canadian trooper and reached up and grabbed his ear.
She pulled his head down, examined one side critically and then
quickly snatched at his other ear and repeated the scrutiny. She let
go of his ear and stepped back. "Damned if you didn't get all the
lipstick marks off, too."
Clay flushed. "Cut it out, Kelly," he said. "Sometimes you act just
like my mother."
The olive-complexioned redhead grinned at him and turned back to her
stack of boxes on the deck. She bent over and lifted one of the boxes
to the operating table. Clay eyed her trim figure. "You might act like
ma sometimes," he said, "but you sure don't look like her."
It was the Irish-Cherokee Indian girl's turn to flush. She became very
busy with the contents of the box. "Where's Ben?" she asked over her
shoulder.
"Making outside check. You about finished in here?"
Kelly turned and slowly scanned the confines of the dispensary. With
the exception of the boxes on the table and floor, everything was
behind secured locker doors. In one corner, the compact
diagnostician--capable of analyzing many known human bodily ailments
and every possible violent injury to the body--was locked in its
riding clamps. Surgical trays and instrument racks were all hidden
behind locker doors along with medical and surgical supplies. On
either side of the emergency ramp door at the stern of the vehicle,
three collapsible autolitters hung from clamps. Six hospital bunks in
two tiers of three each, lined another wall. On patrol, Kelly utilized
one of the hospital bunks for her own use except when they might all
be occupied with accident or other kind of patients. And this would
never be for more than a short period, just long enough to transfer
them to a regular ambulance or hospital vehicle. Her meager supply of
personal items needed for the ten-day patrol were stowed in a small
locker and she shared the latrine with the male members of the team.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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