Drama!

Jade pressed the wad of bandage tighter to her body and hissed in pain. It felt like someone had shoved a white hot poker through her body and wiggled it around a bit. She was good with pain, very good. It took a lot for Jade to admit that something hurt, but this, this was agony. Her breath was beginning to rattle in her chest and she was beginning to feel a warm wetness through the wad of bandage. Eve was chattering nervously, worried about Jaxx. Alex was leaning on the wall, his eyes and their crowfeet crinkled with concern for Cass. Jade wondered why she hadn’t noticed the streaks of grey in his hair before, but put it down to the situation at hand.

Then it all went white as the time drive activated.

The group of Dwarfers appeared on the promenade. Rusty, rodents, slight antiqued feel, home. She stumbled as they appeared and yelped as she fell against Alex. Alex made a throaty noise of forgiveness and promptly fell to the floor.

“Alex!” Jade exclaimed, kneeling beside him masking the pain with her fear and worry, feeling for a pulse with her free hand.

“What’s happening?” He asked, his voice hoarse with the wisdom of ages, much like Plisken’s. His hair greying before their eyes and wrinkles creasing his skin.

“Cass what’s happening to him?” Jacky asked, peering with curiosity at the aging Solvay. Cass whipped out her handheld scanner, shaking off the effects of the time travel much faster than everyone else, and frowned over the readouts. Alex made a strange strangled noise and Jade looked on helplessly as he began to youth rapidly. His features losing their haggard edges and taking on the appearance of a man in his early twenties.

“It’s ok Alex, we’ll get this sorted. Hold on.” Jade said to him, feeling his brow for a temperature or any signs of fever. She pulled her hand away as her own body protested the position kneeling over the downed man by wracking her with several agonising muscle spasms. With the scanner focused on Alex, Cass wouldn’t have noticed the injury.

“I’m picking up several chronotological cellular breakdowns… Massive amounts of tachyon radiation… There is evidence of a gammatron reaction rapidly acting in a nonstandard function…It’s almost as if…” She tapped away on the small pad her brow creased into a deep frown. “But it shouldn’t be…”

“Cass!” Jade implored, looking up at the younger woman.

“We need to get him into stasis. Now.”

“Why?” Jacky said, hauling on one of Alex’s now ancient arms again and helping the old man to his feet. Jaxx made a pathetic noise, like a sigh, as he wished that he could do something to help. Eve slotted in under his other arm as Jade was getting to her feet, an <agonised> expression missed by the others as they worried over Alex.

“Shut up and get him into stasis. I don’t have time to piss about explaining things to idiots.” They moved off, Jacky retorted with something slightly below the belt and only just witty. Cass shot him a look to melt faces. Jade paused, so she didn’t double over in pain. She felt her mind beginning to drift away, into her safe place, the place away from the hurt. It began to go dark, the pain began to fade away. Then from somewhere on the promenade a blast of music appeared as someone opened a door to a club. The song jolted her back to reality;

“Because…. I’ve had… The time of my….” The song was cut off again as the door closed over again, a burst of laughter from the rodents leaving.

Help Alex first, you can wait. You’ll be fine. She moved off, a slight limp in her step to alleviate the pressure on her injured side.

*****

The door sealed over, Alex’s face frozen in an instant into a mask of emotionless nonexistence. They had seated him in the booth, and Cass had sealed the booth when Alex was registering and looking like his actual age.

“He was in chrono-shock.” Cass said, beginning to walk away.

“Yo, Mrs… I mean Miss Jones. What is chorno-shock? Is it like a computer game?” Jaxx asked.

“No. And I said Chrono-shock. Not chorno.” She sighed and turned around. “It’s when the body reacts badly to the constant stresses of time–travel. It’s rare, but most of the longer serving STCP agents experience it at some point. It’s fixed by suspending the body outside of time.”

“But then, like, how does stasis resolve it?” The scutter asked.

“Stasis holds the person in a field outside of time. You are not subject to the ravages of it at all. I’ve programmed the booth to let him out once the effects are healed.” Cass explained, using a voice that you might use to talk to children, morons or possibly a pet dog. As she put the palm pad away and raised an eyebrow at the questions.

“Oh, poor Alex…” Evelina breathed, her face crinkled with concern. “How long will it take?” Jade gasped, it was harder to breathe now, much harder. She huffed as she leaned on the wall of the pod for support.

“He’ll be fine. It varies, I’ve seen some cases fixed in minutes or hours, others take months or even years.” Cass said casually. Then she smirked and added afterwards. “I guess ironically only time will tell.”

“Can we, I dunno. Like. Get me back most righteously into my own body now? I mean. Not that I don’t like being a scutter, but I think I want to be normal again.” Jaxx asked, wheeling up to Cass, the claw head looking up at her.

“You gotta be kidding right?” Cass asked incredulous at the question.

“You can’t deny him his own body!” Eve said, defending Jaxx to a fault.

“Guys…” Jade whispered. Her face was clammy and pale. She felt like her insides were on fire, it was a worse pain than after the hysterectomy. Worse than the time she'd been beaten to within an inch of her life. Alex was safe. Everyone was home. A small voice in the back of her mind told her she should rest now, she didn't need to be strong anymore.

“Yeah... I can... He’s a god damned menace.” Cass said, glowering down at the scutter.

“He only acts in the best interest of the crew!” The girlfriend responded, threatening to turn the whole scene into a giant catfight. Jaxx wheeled backwards a little bit and rested his claw on Eve's arm.

"Yo Eve babe it's ok. Chill. We can talk about it soon. We need to give everyone time to like.. Urm.. grief? After Mrs C's death." Jaxx said, a note of sadness in his broken voicebox.

"Idiot. That's not it at all." Cass snapped, down at the machine, ready to argue her point.

"Guys!" Jade gasped louder.

"What?!" Snapped Cass, her foul mood spilling over into her voice.

"I... I don't feel so good." She stumbled forwards and managed to catch herself by grabbing at the wall with both hands. The bloody wad of bandage fell to the floor and she groaned.

"Shit!" Cass said, jumping forwards to try and catch Jade. Cass nearly fell flat on her face as Jaxx moved to try and help as well, getting under her feet.

"I think... I think I need to go to sleep now..." She moaned, her eyes going slightly crossed as she lost focus.

"Damnit Doc stay awake!" Jamie yelled, too far away to come in to help as he was over by the stasis controls monitoring the readouts of the pod.

"I'm.. sorry..." She said quietly, as she slipped into her safe dark place away from the pain and fell to the floor.

<TAG!>

OOC - Tagged those people I used, not everyone who is there as I keep losing track!