Questionable Courage

<SNIP>
“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.
<SNIP>

After Jade and Katrina were taken to Phi at the sick bay by the crew members, Jaxx left to his room. It didn’t take long till Evelina caught up with him and said, “I can’t believe it first Katrina gets killed, then Alex gets time travel poisoning then Jade turned out to be shot and bleeding then to make matters worse Cass is denying you your body back and there is no sign of Jay or Artemis. Any ideas Jaxx?” Jaxx muttered in his Vader voice, “Not really Eve babe.” Evelina clearly knew something was wrong as she looked at Jaxx and asked, “What’s wrong Jaxx? If your worried about what Cass said, I’m sure Jay will help you out.” Jaxx remained silent as he went to his room. Evelina was now very concerned as she tried to get Jaxx to do some of his favorite things only to get little response from him. Jaxx slowly began to zone out while Evelina was talking to him. Eventually Jaxx replied, ”Sorry Eve babe but I like think I am tired. I’m like gonna recharge and stuff.” Evelina was still concerned but reluctantly let Jaxx have his alone time. After recharging Jaxx just watched Evelina’s old recorded shows. Even though Evelina joined him she felt he was in his own world.

As the days went by and Evelina grew more concerned as Jaxx just sat there recharging and watching tv shows. The crew was still running ragged as they were dealing with their own problems. Evelina did her best to comfort Jaxx only get very little response from him. Normally she would be very concerned about Jaxx’s health but since he was a skutter all he needed was some power and some maintenance. Evelina’s concern grew to the point of sleeping next to him on the floor as he watched tv shows non stop. After a week of watching tv shows went by Jaxx had become a complete couch potato. Evelina tried to bear with by staying by Jaxx’s side, but eventually she was beyond worried. Jaxx was just a shell of a man, no pun intended. At this point Evelina knew she needed help to get her Jaxx back. After a big sigh Evlina looked at Jaxx and said, “Jaxx sweety, I’m going to step out for a spell ok?” Jaxx replied in his Vader voice, “K.” Evelina nervously bit her bottom lip and left her room in hopes of finding anyone who would help her.

As Evelina walked the empty hallways the only activity she found was a few busy skutters. It was hard fighting back her tears as she constantly thought of her Jaxx in his hopeless state. She didn’t know whom to turn to at this point since the crew was either against helping, wounded, missing or unable to help. Eventually Evelina couldn’t fight back the tears anymore and fell to her knees and began crying. The tears wouldn’t stop as Evelina’s mind was filled with terrible thoughts. At this point Evelina was glad she had her melt down before she made it to the medbay. After a good ten minute cry she heard some noises from the morgue that sounded different.

<SNIP>
“Holly…set my stasis field for 3,000,002 years…set Artie’s to manual deactivation, I’ll get Jade or Phi in here before we shut it down.”
“You what?” Holly asked
“Just do it!”
He slid his drawer shut from the inside and…
Before he realised it, kicked it open.
He heard a scream. Phi was white as a sheet seeing a morgue drawer sliding open on it’s own and a man climbing out.
“Phi! It’s me! Listen…Artie….” He paused mid-sentence. On the table lay Katrina.
Phi looked between Jay and Kat’s body.
“Plisken brought her back…they arrived a few days ago…we…..we wondered where you’d got to.”…
“…Artie needs help…drawer next to mine…” Jay said weakly, before walking out.
<SNIP>

Evelina staggered herself up and wiped away her tears as she peeked around the morgue door to see Jay and a dying Artie. Evelina stayed hidden as she watched what went on in the morgue.

<SNIP>
"Space Corps Directive Zero Zero Thirty, in order to keep up maximum efficiency all Guild Scientists that become physically unable to continue their work are to be placed in an ILIAD unit. One of the more 'con-tro-ver-see-al' directives, a bit outdated with hard-light holograms and all" Holly added. "Very smashing if I do say so meself, Artie"
"So this was the guild's answer to holograms not being able to touch objects?" Phi asked.
"Yes, Hard-Light holograms made the ILIAD's obsolete but the Space Corps was to stingy to replace them. Or maybe they did, I don't know, I stole mine when I quit" Artemis said. "So...what do we do with my body?" he said.
"Well, we can't treat the wounds, they're too severe. The best we can do is store it until we find the means to fix it" Phi said.
"Hmm...I suppose there are worse things than being stuck in a robot body. I no longer suffer from most ailments, I can levitate, I don't need to use the bathroom...but...eh, I'll live. Come dear, I may be like this for a while, we have some reorganizing to do"
Artie and The Missus left. Phi had the Skutters put Artemis' old body in storage and went back to what she was doing before Jay scared her half to death.
<SNIP>

After seeing Artie being turned into a hovering brain powered monitor Evelina stepped out and just entered the morgue. Evelina just looked in awe, as Artie was no like Jaxx. Her puffy eyes made it quite clear she had been crying and her shy demeanor showed she was troubled. Evelina was having trouble trying to find the words to say as she looked at Jay and Kat and then at Artie and the Missus. As her hands began to shake her courage fell through and she found herself ashamed to ask for help as she looked at the floor. Before Evelina knew it she was walking out the door without saying a single word.