Seymour, Alota, and a coma patient having a picnic

Who: Seymour Niples
Where: Titan, recreational habitat zone
When: After the crew were removed from the Blue Dwarf
Seymour laid back on the soft synthetic grass and let the warmth of
the fake sunshine pour over his face. Titan didn't have much of a
decent atmosphere, so recreational zones like this were created for
people who wanted to feel like they were taking a stroll on earth on
a sunny summer's day.
It wasn't bad, several rolling hills had been created, with some
plastic trees intermingled between them. But it was all so very fake.
Seymour had wanted to go on a family picnic. A proper family picnic.
With his family. The problem was that the mother of his daughter was
in a coma, and wheeling a stretcher into a park looked a little odd.
Seymour had done some cooking, he had made his own packed up
sandwiches, and sausage rolls, and some scones. He had laid them out
on a chequered tablecloth on the synthetic grass and placed baby
Alota down on it. She was just starting to move on her own and was
crawling off in any direction she could manage.
Seymour looked at the other corner of the blanket. Jennifer Bond lay
there, on a stretcher.
Some people walked past and stared. Then pointed and laughed amongst
themselves.
"Is something funny?" Seymour called out. "Haven't you ever seen a
man try to eat a picnic with a baby and a comatosed woman before?"
They quickly walked on, to get out of earshot of him. "Do you think
it's easy? For me... a Royal Ambassador, to bring up a baby alone?"
He picked up baby Alota as she was trying to crawl away, and he
placed her on her mother's unmoving body, where she started tugging
at the tubes going up her nose. Seymour watched as the people walked
away, and turned back to Alota.
"No sweetie, no. Bad baby!"
He pulled Alota away from her mother and put her down on the floor
again. "Here sweetie, have some milk from your bottle."
He put the end of the bottle in baby Alota's mouth, but she refused
it. "Oh come on, I know you're hungry!"
The baby batted it away. "What's wrong with it? It's good quality
synthetic cows milk, the best that money can buy!"
The baby batted it away again and looked at her mother. Seymour
looked at the milk in the bottle, it clinged to the sides in an
unusual way, not like proper milk.
"I know I know, it's not as good as your mother's milk." he said.
Then had an idea. He pulled out a breast feeding pump and stood up,
hovering over Jenny.
Seymour awkwardly started pulling back the sheet covering Jennifer's
torso. The baby clapped with happiness. He pulled the sheet down to
below her chest and then stopped as he realised what he was doing.
He sat down again next to the crawling baby. "I'm sorry little
Ambassador, but no mummy milk today. It is just too weird."
-----------------------Later-------------------------
Who: Seymour
Where: Titan Hospital
Seymour sat in the waiting room of the major hospital on Titan. It
was a huge building with many coloured lines all going in different
directions, the ones that showed you where to go to get to different
departments. Seymour had been told by a nurse that some of the lines
were even in colours that humans couldn't see, for the GELF species
who had been bred to see different colour spectrums.
"Semour Nipples?" Called out a doctor.
"Niples!" Seymour corrected. "And it's Ambassador."
"Sorry Ambassador Nipples." Said the doctor, and waved for him to
enter into his room.
Seymour entered tentatively. He was here to see if these doctors
could do anything for Jenny. Not that he didn't trust Dr Keto's
opinion, but he knew that the equipment on Titan must be better than
on the Blue Dwarf (he hadn't seen a single leech since he'd got here).
Seymour noticed Jennifer in the room already, the doctor must have
wheeled her in to perform examinations.
"Mr Nipples..."
"Ambassador Nipples... I mean Niples!" Seymour corrected the doctor,
then himself.
"I'm sorry to tell you that there is nothing we can do for Ms Bond."
"What!" Seymour exclaimed. "With all the medical science and all this
equipment-"
The doctor continued "She took a nasty blow to the head, and isn't
ready to come out of her coma just yet."
"But you don't understand... her daughter... my daughter... I can't
cope on my own! I have too much Ambassadoring to do to be a full-time
parent! There must be something..."
"I agee."
"Pardon?"
"I agree there is something that can be done." Said the doctor. "But
not here. Our medical science is not advanced enough. But there are
races in the galaxy who will be able to help her."
"Oh." Said Seymour. "Who?"
"I don't know, I'm not the one who has spent the last eight years of
his life living onboard a starship am I?" the doctor said shot
back. "But preferably some race who don't want to eat her first."
"Well yes." Seymour said, and sighed heavily. "I'll see if I can find
someone who can help her."
With that he wheeled Jenny out of the room.
<TBC>