Blood, Sweat and What the Heck is That?!

"Stasis, jungle, torture, swamp. What next?" Jade mused as she headed back to her quarters to gather a few pieces together for the trip. The mantra was comforting in some ways, helped to keep track of things.

At her quarters, she changed into something tatty and old. No telling how much swamp water was going to get on her clothes. She checked her field kit. Several small crystsls, self igniting charcoal disks, various dried herbs. Bandages, anti-septic wipes, needles, thread, bottle of water. The list went from the weird to the mundane. It also included the usual smeg that a woman would have in her handbag. It was heavy, and it was hefted at someone there was a great chance it would do some serious damage.

She was half way to the shuttle bay to wait for the others when her beeper went off. A brief glance showed her the worst. She turned and pelted towards the medical bay at full speed.

*** Medical Bay ***

Her kit had been discarded in the reception area, lab coat donned, gloves and mask covered most areas of her skin. The alarms, now silenced, were still blinking insistantly.

"Damnit Cass why do you have to be so damn good." Jade grumbled as the second scanner fizzled at the edge of the electric field before turning off in a fit of pique. "Phi help me out here, I'm just going to have to open him up and look."

"I... But... What about the nanophage?" She quavered, already bemasked and gloved, dithering on the edge of the field.

"You want to watch him die instead?"

"Ah..." She thought about it. Actually had to weigh up the consequences of germs versus someone's death. "I suppose... Ok." She stepped into the field with Jade.

"This is going to be a bit old school. We are going to have to operate without the scanners and anything electrical."

"I've never done that." Phi said, prepping the expertly sanitised tools.

"Yeah, Med-school. The one test they make you do in case you ever have to operate with no electricity. Even in my field tests it wasn't this bad." Jade said, eyeing up Jay's naked chest for an incision.

"You were a field medic?" Phi visibly shuddered. Jade began to operate.

"Yeah, the hymenopterra wars were harsh on everyone. I still remember the number of limbs I had to amputate. Have you ever removed a stinger the size of your arm from someone's chest, with only a laser scalpel and a sonic clamp?" Phi paled, with a mix of curiosity and horror on her face.

"No..." She breahted. Captivated and appauled by the idea of it.

"Yeah. Not great. The guy lived, although we had to retroactivly fit him with a bionic lung system once we got him back to Jupiter Station." Jade carried on, detached from the thoguhts and focused on her task. Somewhere, Jay was bleeding out internally. She had an idea that it would be his heart, a hunch. Given the way the nanophage had progressed so far it seemed like a logical conclusion to jump to. There wasn't much else left in one piece to damage anyway, everything was in some form of system failure.

Sure enough, there it was. A small leak, no bigger than a pin head. Jade patched it, but before she could do anything else, it another had sprung open.

"We need to bypass his heart. Go get the bypass machine and set it up outside the field. It should reach if you put the secondary set of pipes on it." Jade barked.

*** Several Gory Hours Later ***

"Jade are you joining us or what? I thought you'd be here by now." Cass' voice queried over the comms.

"I'm a little busy right now. Didn't you get the page?" Jade said over he shoulder at the wall mounted unit.

"No... Apparently the batteries have run out." She said. Jade heard the sound of something plasticy being bashed of something metaly. "Yeah, batteries."

"Well, I'll explain it when i'm there. Give me half an hour." Jade finished the final few stitches and looked down at the new set of pipes acting as Jay's heart. Pumping the blood around his body, filtering out some of the toxins that his failing liver and kidneys couldn't manage anymore. He looked peaceful, none of the burden of leadership or familly or women on his face. The pain medication at least was still working.

"Crikey he's not going to last much longer is he?" Phi murmered, beginning to tidy and clean up.

"Yeah... Can you handle this? I need to go tell Cass and Katrina." Phi nodded her assent and Jade ditched the now bloody coat into the laundry.

*** Shuttle Bay ***

As she entered she gestured for Katrina and Cass to join her.

"I've got some bad news..." She paused, ensuring that the other crew were out of earshot. "Jay... He won't last much more than the next few days at the most. The virus has reached his heart. I had to set up a bypass. It will keep him going but..." She tailed off, the obvious now hanging over the three women.

"Are we going or what? What's the hold up?" Jacky shouted from the shuttle. Several other faces appearing.

<I'm leaving a gap here for your responces if you want to post them>

*** Shuttle Ride ***

Jade found herself sat between Jacky and Alex. There was an ammount of uncomfortable silence going on. Jacky twitched like a hamster on too much coffee. Mentally she cringed, and apologised to White Wolf in her mind. Alex was back to sulking. At least, Jade assumed he was sulking. Maybe he was sulking because he had nothing to sulk about this time? Jade grinned at thr thought and looked about. Everyone was quiet.

"Everyone ok?" She smiled, trying to start a conversation with anyone.

"Yeh. Fine." Mumbled Alex.

"Fine." Mumbled Jacky.

"Yep" Mumbled Cass.

"You know, my old Psychology teacher used to say that that meant someone was really thinking 'Fucked-up Insecure Needy and Emotional'" She said, getting a look of mild surprise from some people when she repeated the swear. She didn't like using it, but maybe it would spark a conversation.

Alex, Cass and Jacky all smirked, but that was it. Jade sighed and leant back in her chair. Well, that was a non starter. Jade frowned, resigning herself to a quiet journey.

*** Swamp ***

The Starbug touched down. Then prodeded to sink several feet into the muddy ground. The landing stairs deployed with a sploosh, covering the unfortunate people in the doorway to be covered in mud, water and other... swampy things.

"Right, split up into groups and start searching. Stay in radio contact and if you find anything let me know. We are running out of time people. Let's hussle."

"You know you sound a lot like him wheh you talk like that." Katrina braved a smile at Cass.

"Yeah. Someone has to do it." Cass said, her mask of impeneterable grouch briefly cracking to show an amount of pride. "Let's go."

<Tag!>