Salem stumbled back when Ossanlin awakened. He was trying to get back up again when Ossanlin's thrashing tail knocked him back down. Once the Andalite lost consciousness, he was able to scramble back up. He glanced at the faces of those around him and cursed under his breath before rolling up his sleeves and kneeling down next to the War Prince. He ran his fingers along Ossanlin's spine and cursed again when they reached the cracked vertebrae. He carefully applied pressure to a spot just above the compound fracture to slow the bleeding while he spoke to those around him.
"You," he said, looking at Elayne, "Find something I can use to splint his legs. Pipes or sticks. Stiff and straight." He turned his attention to Terenia now. "Get me something flat and straight. I need to immobilize his neck, and a back board is the fastest way I know." He glanced around at the group. "If anybody has a sedative or medical supplies handy, go get them. And if anybody has an idea how to immobilize that tail, do it. Even with my painkiller this is going to hurt him. Flying guy," he said, nodding at Mar, "Go find that four-armed doctor. Or any doctor. Fast." He glanced up at Thordon as he spoke the rest. "Let's not wake him up again. That did more harm than good. Can you tell how he's doing from here?"
Without waiting for an answer he turned back to Ossanlin and ripped a strip off the bottom of his jacket to tie around his leg near the fracture. "Now I'm using a Sparkle-Be-Good jacket as a bandage. You're not getting out of talking to me this easily, Andalite, especially after that crazy stunt you just pulled." He muttered. "Don't choke to death on me."
***
Al continued to increase the ship's throttle, and it now accelerated straight up, away from the little world. When Temrash launched his missiles, Al glanced at some readouts on his console. He wasn't going to be able to move fast enough to get away from them. "Yeerk missiles are good piloting practice anyway," he muttered, bringing the ship around and running at a right angle to the missles, straight up. As the missiles got closer, Al wound his curve tighter and tighter, always keeping the ship moving at a right angle to the missiles. Just as they got close, he pulled the ship into the tightest curve possible, aiming straight at the missiles, and, closing his eyes, wove between them in a manner that would have required reaction times beyond what should be possible. On the ship, all that was felt was the slightest jerk when he changed direction, resulting in a vibration as he dodged through the missiles. "Yeah! Oh, man, the old coaster never had that kind of agility!" he yelled with a fist pump as soon as he was through.
He breathed for a second and chanced a glance back at Keshin. It was only now that he noticed Joanne's bleeding neck. "You organics," he muttered. He glanced around, then reached out with his foot and kicked a roll of bandages towards Keshin. "I can't help now, but it doesn't look bad," he said to Keshin with a warm smile before turning back to the controls.
