The Alchemist

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"Middle eastern/north african influence on design, primarily found among ancient Egyptian ruins. So I'm in Egypt?" "Not exactly, Dr Pritchard" a man clad in a lab coat, dress clothing, and traditional middle eastern garments stood in the doorway. It was another Artemis. "How did you get here?" Artemis-1 (The prime-reality Artemis) asked. "There was an accident aboard Blue Dwarf....I'd rather not speak of it. But since the accident I've been stuck here" Artemis-2 replied (the new guy). "Where am I? What is this place?" "Get dressed, there's clothing in that basket. Come join me for breakfast, I'll explain everything"

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Artemis-2's reality was similar to Artemis-1's, save for a few notable differences. First off, the JMC was the sole mining company for the human race, and therefore turned astronomical profits. Artemis-2's Blue Dwarf, though similar in design, was 10x more high-tech and better equipped. As a side effect, the uniforms were more decorative. The captain, for example, wore a decorative green uniform with a gold badge (OOC-Imagine Rimmer's series 3 uniform). Artemis-2 wore a white button up jacket, white pants, and black boots with the regulatory lab coat. Another stark difference was Artemis-2's fate. Artemis-2 was spared during the cold-fusion explosion, both Artemis-2 and Frank Cadbury-2 were instead put into stasis, and were present in the 'Dwarfer's earlier adventures. Artemis-1 was curious as to how his counterpart faired in his earlier adventures, but her was more curious as to the fate of Blue Dwarf.

"So what happened?" Artemis-1 questioned Artemis-2, who was carrying in a tray of food. "To what?" Artemis-2 replied. "To Blue Dwarf, you said it was lost in an accident" "Accident is a bit of an understatement, an assault is more accurate" "What happened?" "We left the Roo outpost..." "Wait, you went there too?" "Hold on, aren't you from the reality where we never enlisted with the space corps?" "No, my quantum reality is almost like yours, except Blue Dwarf is still around and I was frozen in the cold fusion accident" "Really? Good, I thought you had come back to smeg up my life even more than you already did, he's the reason I'm stuck here! At first I thought you had amnesia, but when you didn't recognize me I got a little suspicious. So, how long were you frozen?" "Over three million years! I just recently got out!" "So you missed everything else? Consider yourself lucky...it's been rough" "Anyway, what happened?" "Well, we left the outpost and returned to Blue Dwarf. With White Wolf's help we managed to recover a quantum jump drive, which was capable of instantaneous travel to any point in the galaxy! We decided to head back to Earth, however, Plisken and I discovered monitoring equipment that could track us if the drive was activated, so we kept it shut off. One day, Cadbury was working on a beacon that was wired into a discharge coil. He thought that powering the coil would burn out the beacon, but it did just the opposite, it powered the beacon and lead the Roo straight to us. They savagely attacked us and knocked out our engines. Alex activated the drive in a last ditch attempt to escape. We were too heavily damaged, and the jump damaged the ship even more. The ship plummeted towards this planet and just before impact I was saved from certain death by Artemis-3. He destroyed all surviving shuttles and told me that he was stranding me here for the greater good. I've been here for years, acting as the alchemist/doctor for the outlanders. I don't know if anyone survived the crash, or where they might have gone" There was a knock at the door. Artemis-2 stood up from the low dinner table and opened the heavy wooden door. A young woman was standing outside, tears running down her face. "Mister Pritchard, my son, he's so sick! Please help him!" "I'll be right there, give me a few minutes to prepare" Artemis-2 shut the door and rushed into another room. He came back in wearing a long robe with a gold sash draped over his shoulders. He handed Artemis-1 a similar outfit. "Put this on and grab that bag, it has my surgical equipment". Artemis-1 changed and joined his counterpart.

The village was small and impovorished. Broken shacks lined up one by one along garbage filled streets. In the center was a run down bazaar, filled with shouting merchants and various goods. Animals and people wandered the streets, stopping to glare at the two intimidating gold laced scientists as they made their way to their patient. The mother waited outside a small hovel, which most of her neighbors had gathered around. Artemis-2 handed Artemis-1 a shawl. "Cover your fave so they don't recognize you" Artemis-1 covered his face and entered the hovel. Inside was a sickly child, his father and mother waiting over him. Artemis-2 pulled the MS-scanner from his bag. He scanned the boy and checked the readings. Diphtheria, easily treatable with a CXD-3474 injection. "Hand me a CXD-3474 please" he asked Artemis-1, who pulled out a syringe filled with the orange medicine. Artemis-2 injected it into the boy and gave him some sedatives, the boy's coughing stopped immediately and his color began to return as he. He packed up and made to leave. The parents embraced Artemis-2 and thanked him repeatedly. "It's what I'm here for" Artemis-2 waved for Artemis-1 to follow.

"Pretty soon I'll want to search out my fellow Dwarfers and go home" Artemis-1 commented as the two walked back home. "I know, but it's too dangerous right now. The pyramid builders are raiding villages for slaves, and the Dark Beasts attacks are too frequent lately for anyone to leave safely. Let's get some rest and tomorrow we'll take inventory and see what we can do"

OOC-I left the fates of the Dwarfers from the alternate reality ambiguous just in case you guys want them to meet the prime reality Dwarfers.

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