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Who: Keto, Vanessa, Holo-Tara, Amber, Rosette, The Big Pink Tree
Where: Medibay
When: During all the kerfuffle
=================================
<<SNIP>>
"Yes," Vanessa 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."
<<END SNIP>>
Before Vanessa could react to the sight of Tara apparently standing
there, however, there came a loud thud against the medibay doors.
<<SNIP>>
Amber slumped a bit upon releasing Rose, her shoulders screaming in
agony by the time they reached the Medi-Bay doors.
Only to find them locked.
<<END SNIP>>
"Hey! Let us in!" shouted Amber, her voice sounding muffled through
the sealed door. Vanessa looked first at the hologrammatic image of
Amber's dead mother, then at the currently-unconscious father of her
unborn child, and sighed heavily.
"Brilliant. Could this get any worse?" she murmured.
*Rustle?*
The Big Pink Tree bounced out of the medibay office, saw Tara, and
immediately shed three dozen leaves in excitement.
*RUSTLE!* it exclaimed, and bounded over to her...only to pass
directly through the hologram. It stopped, turned, and craned towards
her again.
Holo-Tara and the Big Pink Tree looked at each other, confused.
*Rustle?*
"Database Error: you do not appear to be a human crew member. Please
report to your nearest <ERROR: REFERENCE NOT FOUND - BOTANIST> for
<ERROR: TREATMENT NOT FOUND - WATERING>," replied Tara, frowning.
Vanessa cradled her head in her hands, then turned and buzzed open the
door. Amber and Rosette practically fell into the medibay, startled.
Vanessa waved one hand at the three figures inside, biting her lip.
"You deal with them," she sighed sadly, "I can't handle this right
now." With that, she pushed past Amber and Rosette and hurried up the
corridor.
Amber turned and watched as Vanessa marched out of the Medi-Bay.
"Hey! I'll tell Rufus that you wouldn't treat his wounded sis... Aww
forget it, it's not like you care anymore is it..." Amber yelled down
the corridor after Vanessa.
"Bleeding, technically known as hemorrhaging. Class III Hemorrhag
diagnosed in patient A, also magor trauma to the anterior tibial
arterie. Suggested treatment includes fluid resuscitation with
crystalloid and blood transfusion as well as major imediate suergery.
Are you struggling with periferal vision and an increased heartrate?"
Holo-Tara asked after reeling off the diagnosis.
Amber turned from the coridor, recognising the clear sound of her
mothers voice and blinked.
Thuwp.
"Observation: you appear to have fainted. Syncope. Please see your
nearest ship-licensed physician for revival."
The Big Pink Tree, Rosette and Holo-Tara looked at each other, then
glanced down at the floor. Keto was still flat out, entirely
unconscious, with the similarly-unconscious Amber now collapsed on top
of him.
*Rustle?* asked the Tree. Rosette looked up at it.
"I can't understand you," she said, "Umm...sorry."
"Translation: the vegetation appears to be attempting to communicate a
wish to revive both collapsed patients with smelling salts," said
Holo-Tara. Rosette blinked.
"Wait, how come YOU can understand it?"
"Unknown. Error: self-diagnosis incomplete. Theory: Tara Febuggure
could converse with the vegetation and this ability has been
maintained into this hologrammatic form."
"Right. Umm. Whatever. Look, I'm kinda possibly dying here," winced
Rosette, trying to avoid any inner hymenopterran murmurings, "Could we
please wake both of them up?"
*Rustle!* agreed the Tree hurriedly, and bounded off into the storage
cupboard, returning a few moments later with two vials of smelling
salts. Gingerly, it reached down and waved the containers under Amber
and Keto's noses.
For a few moments, nothing happened. Then, suddenly...
"MUM!" exclaimed Amber, jerking awake, shocked.
"SON!?" yelled Keto, sitting bolt upright, his nose colliding with the
back of Amber's skull.
"Medic!" groaned Rosette, and collapsed on top of the pair of them,
knocking them back to the floor.
"Observation: you appear to have fainted. Syncope. Please see your
nearest ship-licensed physician for revival."
Amber gingerly shuffled out from under Rose and thumped Keto on the arm.
"Ouch, damnit. That was my head. Watch where you are sitting up." The
pilot walked over to the hologram, the 'H' clearly visible on the
forhead of the projection.
"Acute stress reaction: The onset of a stress response is associated
with specific physiological actions in the sympathetic nervous system,
both directly and indi..."
"Stop, stop, stop....." Amber interrupted. "What's Rufus done now? The
hologram didn't work did it?"
"What? Oh. No. No, it did not," said Keto, looking flustered, "Was
Vanes-...was Ms Chrysler here?"
"Yes," replied Amber quietly, still staring at the 'H' on Tara's
forehead, "She left...just after we got in. What did Rufus think he
was doing?"
"Huh," said Keto, then blinked and looked at Amber a little more
clearly, "Right. Well, you can ask him yourself. Come with me."
"What? Where are you going?" asked Amber as Keto headed for the door.
"I need to talk to Ms Chrysler, you need to talk to that brother of
yours, and I think we'll find good odds that they're in the same
place. You keep him bus-...you talk to him, while I talk to her. We
both get answers, nobody gets hurt."
"Why would anybody get hur-"
"JUST COME WITH ME!" snapped Keto, and headed out of the medibay door.
Amber sighed irritably, then looked back at Tara. The hologram
stared back at her impassively.
The 'H' glinted slightly in the medibay light.
"Fine," growled Amber, and headed after Keto.
The Tree and Holo-Tara watched them both leave. Then they looked back
down at Rosette, who was lying on the floor and turning a very sickly
shade of pale green.
*Rustle-rustle?* asked the Tree.
"Agreement: treatment is urgently required," said Tara, "Suggest
immediate quarantine, isolation and stabilisation until return of
leading ship-licensed surgeon or diagnostician."
*Rustle!* said the Tree, nodding its top branches, *Rustle-rustle,
rustle!*
"Negative: I am not the leading diagnostician or surgeon."
*Rustle.*
Holo-Tara looked around the medibay. The population currently
consisted of her and the Tree.
"Obstacle: hologrammatic beings cannot interact with physical matter,"
she pointed out. The Tree hesitated, then held up a couple of
branches in a shrug.
*Rustle,* it explained, and then picked Rosette off the floor and
carried her towards the medibay's isolated treatment room.
-- Outside the Medibay --
Amber glanced back at the Tree carrying Rose into the isolated
treatment room and shook her head worriedly.
"Fine, but you fix me on the way." She thrust a medical kit into
Keto's hands and gestured to the seeping holes in her shoulders.
Keto tutted distractedly and began to put a makeshift dressing over
the speared shoulders, ignoring Amber gritting her teeth as the gauze
brushed against the raw edges of the wounds. They continued walking
until they reached the nearest Xpress lift, where Keto finished
dressing Amber's wounds as the lift descended towards Rufus' lab.
"What're you going to talk to Vanessa about, anyway?" asked Amber,
rolling her shoulders carefully to test how far she could shift them
without damaging the dressings.
"Mind your own damn business," snapped Keto, eyes fixed on the floor
level indicator, "You just focus on getting your brother's attention."
"That won't be a problem," said Amber coldly, as the lift drew to a
halt and the doors slid open. Down the corridor they could just about
make out the doors to Rufus' laboratory - just in time to see Vanessa
step through them into the lab.
Keto was already out of the lift and moving down the corridor almost
before Amber realised he had moved. She hurried after him, catching
up with him just as he reached the laboratory doors and flung them open.
"Ms Chrysler!" he yelped. Vanessa, a few feet from the door, turned
around with a shocked expression on her face. "I need a word with
you," continued Keto.
Beyond Vanessa, Rufus spotted Amber and turned pale.
====================================
OOC: Tag to Andy for Vanessa's response! :) Tag also to SMAndy if
you want Rosette to wake up in the medibay, if not then Holo-Tara and
the Tree will be treating her soon. Semi-competently, possibly. >:)