Seymour - "Stasis time"

Who: Seymour
Where: Blue Dwarf, stasis deck

“Seymour Niples to the Medibay please, Seymour Niples.” Phi's voice crackled over the tannoy and echoed down the corridor. Seymour grumbled as soon as he heard it. “That's AMBASSADOR Niples” he said, but of course Phi didn't hear it. He was several corridors away, nine decks and two very irritating non-wheelchair accessible steps away.

“Oh for goodness sake.” he said upon seeing the small steps. The makeshift wooden ramp he'd used previously had slipped down the steps, making it impossible for him to pass. “How many angry letters do I have to send to the interior planning committee to make this ship wheelchair friendly?”

Up ahead, Yasmin was walking past. Her hands in her jumpsuit pockets, just ambling about. “I say, Miss... erm... Adimar isn't it?”
Yasmin noticed him and came over, skipping down the steps. “Would you mind awfully giving me a push up the steps? You see I'm late for an appointment with Dr Moreau.”

Yasmin nodded and pushed him with great effort up the steps. “What were you doing down here anyway? It's only stasis pods on this deck.” She said, huffing and puffing but finally getting his wheelchair up and over the final step.
“Never you mind!” He said. Then couldn't pass up on continuing to use her services. “Would you now mind pushing me to the Medibay?”

She rolled her eyes and pushed him towards the express-lift. Yasmin couldn't help but express how bored she's been recently, with the majority of the crew off-ship.

They made it to the Medibay, where Yasmin decided to stick around. She sat in one of the waiting room chairs, as Phi approached, her face obsured by a clipboard.
“Ahh Seymour, take a seat please” She removed the clipboard to see Seymour glaring angrily up at her. “Is that a joke Doctor?”
Phi bit her lip, then went to wash her hands for the hundredth time that afternoon. When she came back she ran a medical device around Seymour's head, where he'd sustained the head injury a couple of weeks ago.
“This hasn't healed as much as I'd hoped.” Phi admitted. “In fact, it's barely healed at all. I... really don't understand why.”
Seymour shifted nervously in his chair, which Phi noticed. “You're hiding something!”

Seymour clenched his jaw.

“Tell me! Have you been exposed to time travel device... or a micro-universe where time travels slower... or...” She snapped her fingers. “Stasis! You've been in stasis haven't you?!”

Seymour exhaled. “Alright. I've been using the stasis booths.” Phi put her hands to her hips and let him continue. “The trouble is... life has been rather dull recently. My wheelchair prevents me from getting around, and I've read all the good books in the library several times now. So I've been using the stasis booths to make time go... a little quicker.”
“How often?”
“For a week at a time, then once a week I'll come out, have a lovely cup of tea, then if there's nothing much happening, I'll go back in for another week. If you think about it, it's very sensible. Also, in just a couple of weeks I'll be an entire year younger than the rest of you.”
He paused for a moment. “The only drawback is that in my timeframe I've had 5 cups of tea today”.

“That's probably not the only drawback!” Said Dr Moreau. “We don't know what long-term exposure to stasis will do to you. It could be dangerous!”
“Nonsense. We were all in stasis for millions of years, and we're all fine.”
“Apart from the ones who were killed and eaten by monsters, those who died because of a malfunction, and not to mention those who are still IN stasis who we can't afford to expend the energy on resuscitating!”
“Pish!” Seymour said. “I'm not harming anyone. How I decide to spend my spare time is none of your business. It just so happens I don't want to 'spend' it at all. I'd rather not waste it thank you very much.”

Phi shook her head but backed off. “Alright. But I warned you. It sounds like a bad idea to me.” She allowed him to leave, and Yasmin pushed Seymour back down to the stasis deck.
“I've got an idea.” She said. “I'm really bored too. Can I come into stasis with you? I've seen the size of the booths, we can both fit into the same one.”

“Absolutely not.” Seymour said. “You could spend your time reading books or learning a new language. I've exhausted all those options.”
“Oh so you've learned every language have you?”
“The important phrases yes. Mi ŝatus ruĝan vinon bonvolu. Ich möchte ein Rotwein bitte. Je voudrais un vin rouge s'il vous plaît?” he said smugly.

They arrived at the stasis deck, where the paused faces of crewmembers stared lifelessly out of their small diamond-shaped windows. One door was already open, with cold gas vapour poured out at ankle level. “Would you mind hanging this sign on the door when I'm inside?” Seymour said. Yasmin read the sign which had written in very neat handwriting “Please do not disturb thank you very much”.
Seymour set the dial on the outside to resuscitate in 1 week, then wheeled himself inside.

Before the door closed, Yasmin leaped inside. “I said no!” Seymour said.
“Too late.” Yasmin reached around outside of the closing door and hung the sign onto the dial, which accidentally spun it from “1 week” to “10 years”.

Time slowed to a stop.

OOC – Look! I posted for the first time in ages! Jack/Alex encouraged me to post something to tie up any loose ends with Yasmin/Embrystical, and I thought it was a good opportunity to also explain why Seymour isn't getting involved much. Hopefully it won't actually be 10 years until I post again, but there's still a lot I want to get done and this seemed a clean way of explaining Seymour's whereabouts.

OOC2 – I'm still recording and publishing the BD podcast, and have recorded some just yesterday in fact. You can get these on iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/blue-dwarf/id590035190 or I'll post a direct link every week on our BD Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/bluedwarf Speaking of iTunes, if you could post a comment or rating on there that would be very helpful as it helps it get seen by more people. Ta!