We had found a spot adequate enough to be used as a shelter, and the best part was some part of it was dry. However, since the three of us were completely wet due to the downpour outside the cave, I decided to remove my t-shirt and tried to dry it for some before I put on my body armor again. Billy then proceeded to do the same, and it was at that moment when I saw the thing that caused his pain in his lower right chest.
It was a serious bruise, nearly as wide as my palm that had occurred on that spot. I came to notice that he removed his clothes very slowly, most likely in order to not touch his injury. I could clearly heard him sighed hard and heavily when he had finished removing his clothes.
"I do not mean to make you feel bad or anything, but…" I said to him, before he cut off my words.
"Rib dislocation? Worst case, it is a rib fracture?" he responded by cutting my words. "Yeah, probably. Perhaps if I had not been wearing my armor I could have died of internal organ bleeding."
I had to agree with him. First of all, since he was knocked off pretty far away from me before he fell down back when we were in the meadow must have meant that the force that hit him was pretty severe. Then, shortly after that we were forced to crawl through the meadow until we reached the jungle, and during that time period the injured spot must be very vulnerable to continuous friction against the ground. Even though the friction was indirect since the injured spot was covered by his body armor, it could also worsen the injury.
Aside from that, there might also be a factor where some portion of the hit force was not suppressed enough by the body armor to prevent any serious injury to the wearer. If anything, I would say that Billy was very lucky to have his armor worn with him. To the least of my expectation, even though I could tell that he felt pain with his injury, it did not really seem that he was too uncomfortable with it, which perhaps had something to do with his pain tolerance that he honed during his early days of intensive training.
"Do not worry about me, Travis." Billy suddenly said and smiled, "It is not like I will die because of this injury, will not I?
In an instant, I could not say any words as a response to what he just said. It was not because he smiled and made it looked like he could endure his injury. Rather, it was because he said each of his words with assertion and certainty, strongly implying that whatever happened to him it will not be of an obstruction to both me and Jessica. Somehow it reminded me a little of both Jonathan's actions and Commodore Quentin's speech. With nothing to say to him anymore, I only nodded as a response.
I then quickly switch my focus on having to inform Commodore Quentin about the hovering object that we had encountered earlier in the jungle. As I began to start transmitting my message, I also noticed that Jessica seemed to be assisting Billy in giving emergency treatment to his rib since she rolled his wet clothes and put it on his lower right chest.
'Nest, come in. This is Black Caiman calling, over.' I transmitted the message through my watch.
'This is Nest, reading you all clear, Caiman.' it responded quickly
Without any other opening words, I transmitted right away everything that had happened to us back when we were in the meadow and in the jungle. From when we had been forced to crawl along the grassy meadow ground to when we had been accidentally standing right below a massive threat above us. As I had expected from the very start, Commodore Quentin seemed to be surprised about it, even though his transmitted messages did not really show it.
'Damn, son. Even I have to say that it was lucky for both you and Golden Jackal to be able to breathe right now.' my watch vibrated and blinked after a while.
'No kidding, sir.' I responded as I shook my head in reflex to his reply. 'I also picked up something that may in fact be a clue to us on how strong its hovering power is.'
I continued by transmitting the information about the broken stone that I had picked up back when both Billy and I had not been walking below the hovering object. I gave as much detail as I could about the stone, especially on how clean the rupture trace was. I was not surprised when my watch did not give any respond right away after I had finished transmitting my message, indicating that Commodore Quentin too was not sure on how to respond or what to say to me.
'I decided to ask the Ballistics Division for this matter.' it replied to me after a longer while. 'Since this is definitely a crucial case, I also put myself in charge directly of monitoring their analysis.'
'But, sir… why only the ballistics? I asked him back quickly since I was curious. 'With all due respect, would not it be better if you also ask some Materials Engineers or even Rocket Engineers?'
'I have the Materials Science Division on my mind as well, but for now I will let the Ballistics to do the analysis first.' my watch vibrated and blinked a little bit quicker. 'Do not worry, it is not like we will be able to estimate their hovering ability just by ballistics analysis anyway, right?'
'I see.' I transmitted the message, not sure of what else to respond.
'One other thing.' it transmitted another message again. 'You have yet to tell me the rough dimension of the stone have not you? Can you estimate it?
'Oh right, my apologies.' I quickly sent the message just before I picked up the three pieces of the stone and looked at it more thoroughly.
I first combined all of the three pieces together again, leaving as little gap between them as little as possible. I suppose I must thank the smooth surface of the higher ground of the cave since it somehow helped me in piecing up the broken stones together. When I thought that the pieces had been combined pretty close enough to its unbroken state, I released both of my hand very gently away from the stone, not wanting to somehow drag any of the pieces away in the process before I began my rough estimation.
I began by first estimating the length and width of the stone since estimating the thickness would mean that I must lift it up again. Unlike before, I decided to measure it in centimeters and millimeters since I somehow had the feeling that the Ballistics Division would prefer those kinds of unit, and therefore using them instead of inches would be more appropriate for them. It took me roughly three minutes to figure out that the length of the stone was about ten to twelve centimeters, and that the width of the stone was six or seven centimeters.
I had mentioned earlier to Commodore Quentin in my transmission that there was a hole almost right at the center of the stone, which was most likely caused by the hovering force of the object. However, since I had yet to measure the diameter of the hole, I decided to look upon it and found out that it was just a little bit more than one centimeter. In the end, I assumed it to be either eleven or twelve millimeters of diameter.
Thankfully, since the stone had a pretty much uniformed thickness, I only had to lift up one of the pieces in order to estimate it. It was more than three centimeters, and perhaps close to four centimeters but I was not so sure, and so I assumed it to be around thirty seven to thirty nine millimeters. I also took my time to estimate each of the rupture lines that must have caused the stone to break.
The first line that I measured was the one located above the hole which was going to the upper left corner of the stone, with a little bit of a curve and had the length of around forty to forty four millimeters. The second line that I measured was the one located below the hole, going diagonally to the lower part of the stone in a straight line and had the length of nearly five centimeters.
The last line that I measured was a little more complicated than the previous two, since the line was first going straight the right direction from the hole, before it went up diagonally to the upper right of the stone. I believed that the straight line was very close to twenty five millimeters, while the diagonal line was around thirty two to thirty five millimeters. I quickly contacted Nest again as soon as I had finished estimating everything about the stone, as well as apologizing for not having done it earlier.
'Not at all, son.' my watch quickly responded. 'If anything, you were slightly faster than I had expected.'
Commodore Quentin then told me that he would notify me as soon as he got the data and the analysis from both the Ballistics and Materials Science Divisions. I then also asked him if he had any other updated information about the artifact analysis, but unfortunately he still had yet to hear more from the National Board of Archeologists.
'Always be on full alert, Caiman. God be with you.' my watch vibrated and blinked again.
'Copy that, Nest. Over and out.' I ended the transmission.
I let out a heavy sigh as I closed both of my eyes for several seconds, before I picked up the pieces of the stone and carefully put them inside my backpack again. When I turned to both Billy and Jessica, I found out that apparently Billy's injury had received the emergency treatment. He had then seemed to be asleep, using her lap as his pillow while he held his rolled wet clothes with his left hand and put it on his lower right chest. Jessica also seemed to be less fatigued by then, but obviously still in no condition to be moving just yet.
"I have to say it is kind of scary to see that you can be too focused at something." she said to me as she chuckled when she noticed that I was looking at her.
"Oh, did I?" I responded as I raised my eyebrows and moved closer to her. "Well, maybe you are right after all. I did not even pay attention to you and him when I was estimating the stone."
Apparently, sometime after Billy had received his emergency treatment, Jessica had changed into her spare clothes while I still had my full attention on the pieces of the stone since I noticed right away that she had a different t-shirt on her when I finished transmitting the messages.
"You also need a rest, do not you?" she asked me shortly after.
I did not know what to say, since I was indeed very tired after all that had happened to us, but on the other hand, no one would stay awake on guard for any unexpected thing that might occur. To the very least of my expectation, she suddenly said that she would not mind if she would be the one to stay awake and watch for any possible threats.
"It is okay." she continued. "It is my turn to be awake and watch you both. You do not have to worry about any gunshot noise, since he will not be able to use his submachine gun in his sleep."
"Thanks. I owe you…" I said as I smiled and somehow relieved as well.
She only shook her head and smiled as a response, and proceeded to grab Billy's submachine gun while I put my backpack on the ground near her. I then used the backpack as my pillow and slowly putting my head down on it as I took a deep breath and let my whole body relax. The time was then 02.29 p.m., and I told Jessica to wake me up when the time was 04.00 p.m. As soon as she nodded in confirm, I quickly felt a heavy weight on my eyes, before everything around me quickly faded to black.