Fatherhood

Who: Keto, Vanessa
Where: Medibay (NO HYPHEN!)
When: The snips will reveal all
===============================
<< SNIP - Jay Byrd >>
jay took a deep breath and opened his eyes. dr. keto fell flat on his
ass. jay had been dead... he had been dead for about 3 minutes
altogether. jay was rushed into the OR, within seconds he was put
under and dr. keto had him open. a collapsed lung, a crushed kidney,
and enough internal bleeding to make the mess all the worse. jay would
need yet another gift of fate to pull through the night...
<< END SNIP >>
It took Keto a couple of hours to stop Jay Byrd's condition sliding
into critical, let alone get to the point where he was confident
enough to leave the crewman to the support machines. After the
initial gasp of air, Keto had been forced to sedate the young man to
avoid him going into shock from finding himself awake and cracked open
on the operating table.
The life support machines could take care of the kidney, and could
keep the gas circulation to and from his blood constant until they
could heal his collapsed lung. Byrd seemed to have a heart as strong
as a horse, too, which gave Keto some cause for curiosity. Under any
other circumstances he would have poked around until he found out what
was different about it, but he had bigger fish to fry. Byrd would
survive, at least for now, and if all went well the medical support
machines might even be able to wake him up.
Unbeknownst to Keto, however, he had women trouble on the way. Two
sets of it, in fact.
<< SNIP - Rufus & Dysart >>
"You knew this was a chance, the disk was badly corrupted, Holly
warned you it could be like this." He said placing a metal hand on
Rufus' shoulder. Dysart had since been down to maintenance and got the
light-bee and himself fully sanitized. He wasn't keen to go through
the procedure again, they stuck hoses in places that hoses shouldn't go.
"I can't give up. I will get her back. There's still the DNA in the
lab, not stem cells but i'm getting there." Rufus began to babble a
little bit, like a deranged scientific parrot. "If I can only just
re-align the mollecular assessor and of course not forgetting the
X-gal medium and the litigation vecotrs.... Yes... Yes.. I might be
able to.... If I combine that with the...." He looked slightly
psychotic, like you would expect a mad scientist to look just before
he pulled the lever to activate the thunderstorm and wake up
Frankinstines monster himself.
The boy genuis got out of bed before Dysart could stop him and began
to limp his way to the door, aiming for his lab.
<< END SNIP >>
Keto stepped out of the operating theatre just as Dysart followed
Rufus out of the medibay. Keto peered after them, a frown creeping
onto his face (or at least deepening more than usual).
"What were those two cretins doing in my medical bay?" he murmured to
himself, "No doubt up to no good, I should check the ointment cabinet."
"Observation: paranoia. Please see your nearest mental advisor for
assistance and consolation."
Keto froze. The voice had come from behind him. Only a few feet
behind him. In. HIS. Medibay.
Keto wheeled around, mouth already open to hurl violent invective at
whatever pathetic soul had DARED to wander in without announcing their
presence...and then stopped, his jaw simply hanging open.
Tara looked back at him, head tilted slightly to one side.
"Wh-" managed Keto. He swallowed and tried again. "Ri-" Third time
lucky. "Is-"
"Observation: you appear to have lost the power of speech. Possible
symptoms indicating the onset of aphasia. Please see your nearest
neurological doctor for examination and diagnosis," said Tara without
any emotional inflection.
With a remarkable effort of will, Keto shook himself loose of the
mental shock that had numbed every muscle from the neck upwards, and
managed to find his vocabulary again.
"Tara?" he asked, blinking, "What...ah, what's happened to you?"
"I am a holographic projection," replied Tara levelly, "My listed
function is to dispense medical advice. Are you a licensed physician
aboard this vessel?"
"You're a what?"
"I am a holographic projection. My listed function is to dispense
medical advice. Are you a licen-"
"You're a MEDICAL HOLOGRAM?" asked Keto, his voice rising to a yell.
Tara nodded.
"I am a holographic pr-"
"RUFUS! RUFUS FEBUGGURE!" bellowed Keto, his face turning red, "YOU
GET BACK IN HERE RIGHT NOW!"
"Observation: your blood pressure is rising to dangerous levels, I
shall discover what medications are available to alleviate this
condition," said Tara, and without a further word turned and walked
into the medical storage room.
Keto stared after her for a second until he heard the medibay door
open behind him, whereupon he spun around, eyes flashing with fury.
"WHAT THE SMEG DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING!?"
Vanessa Chrysler stood in the doorway, white-faced. They both stood
there for a second, Keto with an accusing finger still pointing at the
figure in the doorway. Finally, after long moments of silence, he
lowered it.
"You're not Rufus," he observed, quietly, then coughed awkwardly,
"Miss Chrysler. Is there something I can do to you? ...FOR! I meant
for! Anything I can do FOR you?"
Vanessa stared at him. Keto was still red-faced, but this time it
didn't appear to be with anger. She stepped forward and tapped the
button to seal the medibay door behind her.
"We need to talk," she said quietly.
"Talk takes time, time is money, money is not medicine and this is,
after all, a MEDIbay, so talking would violate the hippocratic oath
and so cannot be countenanced in here," babbled Keto hurriedly,
turning to one of the nearby worktops and shuffling medical papers
absently, "And as you can see I have an AWFUL lot of work to get done..."
"Those papers are upside down."
"AN AWFUL LOT OF WORK TO GET DONE and I am one hundred percent certain
that you and I have nothing, and I mean nothing, to discuss, because
really what could we possibly talk about, hmm?"
Vanessa opened and closed her mouth for a minute, trying to think of
how best to broach the subject. Eventually, when Keto still refused
to turn and look at her, she squeezed her eyes shut and just said it.
"I was pregnant," she said.
Keto stopped shuffling the papers, but still didn't turn around.
"After...you know, that night," continued Vanessa, having to
physically force out every word, "And...well...you know I've been gone
from the ship for quite a while...well..."
Keto still hadn't moved.
"I had a son, Keto," Vanessa blurted out, "WE had a son. His name's
William. William...Chrysler-...Keto. And, and he's going to be
coming up onto the Dwarf on the next transport, and I'm sure you're
going to really like him, I mean..."
Keto murmured something. Vanessa blinked.
"What was that? I...I didn't hear you."
Keto murmured something again as Vanessa leaned forward to try and
hear it. She just managed to catch it.
"Chrysler...Keto?"
Vanessa nodded. "Yes," she said, "William Chrysler-Keto. I've always
liked the name William, and-"
"Chrysler-Keto?"
"Yes."
"There's...there's going to be a Chrysler-Keto? A Chrysler...with the
name Keto?" Keto repeated, still not moving. Vanessa glanced at his
hands. The fingers gripping the medical papers he had been shuffling
were now turning white as he squeezed them, the papers creasing in his
hands.
"Yes," she said, "And he's our son, doc. You're a father."
"I...fa...Chrysler-Ke...I...I think...I need to sit down..." said
Keto, face turning as white as his hands.
Then, without moving a single muscle, Keto toppled backwards. He hit
the ground with a thud, still gripping the medical papers.
Vanessa sighed and buried her head in her hands. It hadn't gone as
badly as she'd feared, but...
"Observation: you appear to have fainted. Syncope. Please see your
nearest ship-licensed physician for revival."
Vanessa spun around just in time to see Tara step back out from the
medibay's storage room.
"Information: there are six different blood-pressure medications
available. Please see your nearest physician for prescription," said
Tara, before turning to Vanessa, "Greetings. You appear to be in good
health. Please state how I may assist."
======================
OOC: Tag either Holo-Tara or Vanessa (or anyone else who wants to
wander in). Please don't tread on Keto. ;)
- Chris (JHXMT)