The man on another gun was hit but the fire was still oncoming and if a man could scream loudly, he was not so badly off. It was when they went quiet you really had to worry about their life.

Wounded, conscious and alive. Noisey. So alive. 

Maybe he was cold but the Officer had been trained the old way from the Navy academy, he had been trained and this hard driven training kicked In. Fire, adjust, reset, fire coming in but that was nothing you could do about it, you had to stop them shooting at you. Pragmatic and cold…

The firing stopped eventually and someone got to the wounded man so all came and worked out. He put the weapon on safe, and left the gun. 

 …

The bridge had odd damage but nothing looked severe, nothing too hard and badly damaged, holes could be taped or plugged and welded with a little work. A half day at the most to get it all fixed and good as. Stray rounds did tend to hit and luckily it was light weapons fire, no explosions or more dangerous projectiles. 

He looked over at the wheel and the control console, a mass of things but he could keep level and on a course even if he was not exactly a pilot. Just keep it at height, speed and on course. “Sure, just show me what's up, down, port, starboard speed and what course to keep on.” He had never flown..well anything but it was just a boat that existed in 3d space vs a water plane? Right?

“a strong coffee would not go amiss, and maybe a dash of brandy, I had more action in last 2 days, than…. A long time. Makes you miss 10 inches of armour steel.” 

“So Mr Carter, you volunteered out dazzling pilot for the ladder duty then?” He joked like a rogue, almost too quickly, he had not been a combat officer in a long time and while training kept them sharp I'm in the heat of battle, he was winding down and not everything came free. Sometimes you paid a price for it afterwards. 

Hands under control in combat had a shake, damn he needed a drink, anything really, just to keep the payment a little off until he could face the debt.