Shell Shocked

Who: Keto, Wildflower
Where: The Shellite Planet
When: After the marooning of the crew
=====================================
While Seymour, Dante and Harris were attempting to procure essential
food supplies at one end of the local shellite market, Keto and
Wildflower were attempting to procure different supplies - in a
different way - at a tall building at the edge of the market.
"You're sure nobody's looking?" murmured Keto from within his shellite
suit. Wildflower, standing not far away and similarly clad, glanced
in either direction.
"Can't see anyone," she hissed back.
Keto was crouched in front of a sealed shellite door, trying to
dismantle and disable the locking mechanism. They were on the sixth
floor of what they had managed to identify as some kind of shellite
hospital, in what appeared to be a little-used corridor between
storage rooms. A glance at the layer of dust on the floor implied
that the shellites had some other access to their storage rooms, and
that this corridor had simply been left there as a planning oversight.
During their time disguised on the shellite world, several crewmembers
had been injured in varying degrees. Most were suffering from
shellite bites or minor firearm injuries...and even most of THOSE came
from their own makeshift firing range, as untrained crewmembers tried
to learn which end of a gun was the good end.
Wildflower looked out of the corridor window, out over the market
below and towards the distant spot which, she knew, hid the
crewmembers and Starbugs.
"I think I've almost got it," hissed Keto, touching another two wires
together and twisting them tight.
"You said that five minutes ago! Hurry up!"
"Oh, I'm so very sorry," said Keto coldly, "All that medical training
must surely have deserted me, if my extensive lectures in how to pick
alien technological locks cannot help me now! Oh no, wait, never mind."
"Look, maybe we just have to admit that we can't get inside! We
should get back to the camp before-" began Wildflower, but was
interrupted by a flash of light and a yelp as the locking mechanism
sparked, causing Keto to fall onto his back. Then it clicked, and the
door hissed open. Wildflower grinned.
"Well done, Charlie!"
"Just help me up," said Keto, stranded on his fake turtle shell.
Wildflower reached down and helped him to his feet, before they both
entered the storage room.
"Excellent," whispered Keto, as they saw the walls lined with
bandages, medicines and vials of unknown materials, with a single
sealed door on the far side of the room, "Right. Grab as much as you
can carry without looking less like a pregnant turtle."
Wildflower glared at him.
"Was that a fat joke?"
"I'm referring to you as a chelonian, and you're concerned about the
WEIGHT reference? Just start unloading the shelves, woman!"
The two of them started pulling the medical items off the shelves -
mainly bandages and the more basic medicines, although Keto did take
the opportunity to steal some of the more advanced looking vials. For
all the Dwarf crew knew, shellite medical science could be decades
ahead of their own. Mind you, so was most medicine that didn't simply
involve waving a stick with feathers attached over the patient, or
drilling a hole in their head to let out the demons. And even then,
only barely.
They had just about managed to seize everything that they could
comfortably carry when Wildflower coughed.
"Um, Charlie? I think we might have a problem..."
"What are you talking abo-" began Keto, before Wildflower pointed and
he spotted the security camera in the corner of the room.
Simultaneously, there was a banging sound on the far door.
"This is hospital security!" came the muffled shellite voice, "We know
you're in there! Come out with your hands up and your heads fully
retracted! This is your final warning, or we WILL come in there
shooting!"
"Ah smeg," cursed Keto, as he and Wildflower made a break for the
corridor they had come in by. They skidded out of the room, only to
spot groups of shellites rapidly approaching from either end.
"Wildflower, I believe this is an EXCELLENT opportunity for you to
prove your value," murmured Keto, "You distract one group of them,
allowing me to escape with the medical supplies. It's the only truly
moral, ethical and...hey, where are you going?"
"Oh, shut up and help me, Charlie!" said Wildflower, darting back into
the storage room and tying one end of a thick bundle of bandages
around a shelving unit. Keto blinked.
"You're not planning to-...NO! Wildflower, I hereby strictly forbid
this-!"
"Sorry Charlie, hold tight!" said Wildflower brightly, before grabbing
the bundle of bandages in one arm, Keto in the other, and diving out
of the window in the corridor.
Keto's descending scream as the pair of them fell six storeys, slowed
down only by the unravelling bandages, caused the entire marketplace
to look up.
<<SNIP>>
Meanwhile Dante had been putting essential fruit and vegetables in a
bag. "These please." He boomed. He beckoned Seymour and Harris over.
"How are we going to pay for those?" Seymour said. "We don't have any
local currency!"
The market stall owner looked angry as they emptied out their pockets.
<<END SNIP>>
"Erm, I'm sure we can resolve this perfectly amicably," said Seymour,
looking nervously from side to side as the market stall owner stepped
out from behind his stall, not looking like 'amicably' was in his
personal dictionary.
Any imminent violence was rapidly halted, however, by the sudden
impact of a young woman and a terrified doctor on top of the market
stall owner.
Keto rolled as they hit the ground, coming to a halt at Seymour's
feet. The latter looked aghast at the former as he stood up and
brushed himself off. Wildflower, groaning, was helped to her feet by
Dante Wendigo and Chris Harris.
"Doctor?" blinked Seymour.
"Ambassador," murmured Keto, trying to focus.
There was an angry growl from behind them as the market stall owner
struggled to stand up.
Seymour and Keto glanced at each other again, then simultaneously
pointed at the other.
"It was him!"
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OOC: Tag anybody! :)