Joint post Between White Wolf & Cerebrum - "The good Doctor gets a

 Dr. Cerebrum ran out of his office, as the place burst into flames.
 "I can safely write that possibility off as a failure," he said, covered in soot and ashes.
 "Looks like easy shortcuts are out." The only thing that he had managed to get out was a single memo. He looked at it, nodded, and then headed towards the nearest air vent.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked, as he fell out of a vent in White Wolf's room.

White Wolf, who was sitting at his desk reading something on his desktop pc screen, startles for a moment, then quickly recovers and looks at Cerebrum for a moment, and takes the memo from him and glances at it, and says, "This is dated nearly three months ago."

"It was?" Cerebrum said, astonished. "Oh, well, you don't have to worry about that anymore. Most of my paperwork just got cleared up."

"Been using the circular file again?" Quips White Wolf, before continuing, "Alright, since your here, did you want to complete your Pysch eval today then?"

"No," Cerebrum said. "I was trying to rebuild one of my devices. Jay insisted that I do it quickly, and I, um, kinda made a few mistakes when I tried to take a shortcut and use ordinary binary circuits, rather than the alien ones we salvaged before Christmas last year. Oh, you'll probably be receiving a report soon about a large fire on level 21."

White Wolf turns back to the computer on his desk, and checks it out via the ship status monitor program. "Yep. There’s a fire alright. And might I ask, what exactly did you do to Jay & the other pilots?"

"Ah, just a minor thing, really," Cerebrum replied, evasively, trying to look innocent, and failing because it was hard to see his face under all the soot. "Nothing that won't get sorted out in a few hours. Or days. Months at most."

The huge hamster flips out a sheet of paper from a nearby desk drawer and sets in on the desk in front of him and pointing to it, says "Uh Huh. I've got two reports of illegal 'Personality Swapping' here.  Shall I ask again, what did you do, Mr. Cerebrum?"

"Just two?" Cerebrum asked. "I switched six people."

White Wolf shakes his head, and makes a note on the paper, then looks at Cerebrum sternly, "Well, I'll take that as a confirmation then. What do you plan to do to resolve this problem you created, Mr. Cerebrum?"

"I'll observe them all through the security cameras, record their actions and write a paper for the psychiatric monthly. Why do you ask?"

The giant hamster replies, "Because I was hoping you were going to solve the problem, but it sound like you aren't going to! Should I bring in the Appendix to clean up your mess, or are you going to fix it?"

"I intend to solve it," Cerebrum replied. "Once I fix the machine. You see, it kind of melted after I swapped their minds. I knew I should have upgraded to 6.0. But I will fix it. Once I get the required components. And once they put out the fire on level 21."

"How are you going to fix something that's completely melted? Why don't you just rebuild your device in another area, Um… like one of the abandoned parts of the ship?"

"Well, you do have a point. It's just that some of the casing remained intact, wait, not any more. So I guess I will rebuild it. The primary problem is that I didn't build it in the first place, which will make reconstruction a tad difficult."

White Wolf slaps his paw over his eyes, dreading the answer he suspected he was going to get to this next question, "Alright... Who did make it then? And I hope for you sake it's somebody who can make another one, because once Alota hears what you done to Jay, you may not have very long to live, if she hears you can't get another one made..."

"I'm more worried about what Phil will do when he finds out about Amber. He'll probably leap to the wrong conclusion, and assume that Dean's malicious act of sabotage is my fault," Cerebrum said, passing the buck. "Anyway, I found it on the Dinosaur planet. Remember Lenin? That was the result of my first experiment with the machine, involving me and Shakespeare."

"Uh, oh!  That mean's you can't get another personality swapping device, doesn't it? Because you don't have any experience in making one!" Exclaimed the overgrown hamster.

"Well, I did sort of modify it a bit from the original version, but that's all. I think it was one of a kind, I don't think the aliens built any others after they built this one. I wonder why?"

The large hamster laughed out loud and commented, "Oh that one's easy, Cerebrum, because of things just like this!"

The huge hamster sighed slightly, and continued, "Alright, so you probably aren't going to be able to get them back into their body, without help right? Then who & what do you need then?"

"Alien microchips: third stage, non-binary, quantum chips would be nice, as well as some Zenonium alloys. I have some theories on it, give me a qualified engineer, and I might be able to get one working soon. Fortunately, I have a stash of the microchips, so we won't have to research an entire branch of computer science from the ground up. I've got them stored in a secret place on level 21."
 "I'll have Zodar assign someone to help you. Wait a minute... Did you just say your secret stash of microchips is on the same level as the fire?" Asked the mighty hamster worriedly.
 "Yes, I did. Is that a problem? They should be safe, provided they're not heated past one point five times room temperature, in which case they'll explode rather violen-"
  A loud thud was heard from below, and the ship shook slightly. Cerebrum smoothly changed sentences and said. "So, does Zodar know how to make microchips?"
 The rotund hamster’s face boggled for a moment, and then he replied, "Well, you better hope he can, since his Chief engineer, and this is the Blue Dwarf after all... Alright, Cerebrum, I'm going to postpone this Psych exam and your formal reprimand until after you get this resolved. Understood?"
 "So, will I be reprimanded after it is resolved?" Cerebrum asked, cutting directly to the important point.
 The overgrown hamster leaning forward towards Cerebrum replied with a stern voice, "Perhaps, if you resolve this quickly enough, I'll overlook the six of them filing 'medical negligence' charges..."
 "How can they do that? They agreed to be treated, and you must admit that they haven't been quite as insane as they were before. Dean hasn't crashed a single shuttle in the last four hours. Side effects are to be expected from any treatment, it's a fact of life."

"Treatment, yes. Body swapping, and... " Said the hamster as he glanced at the paper once again, "the use of something that looks like a 'electric chair'? No… I think you'd be lucky if they didn't take your license to practice away with a report like this..."

"I'm a psychiatrist. I got results. The board of interstellar psychiatrists won't take away my license if I get results."

"For extremely bad results they will, Mr. Cerebrum. Especially if a certain Captain also files an affidavit along with those charges confirming them." Growled the huge hamster as he leaned back in the chair, and finished, "Fix the problem, Cerebrum, That's all I'm ordering. The rest is in your court."

"Aye, aye, sir!" Cerebrum said, saluting. "I'm not particularly good at tennis or law, though. Do I have to construct the machine in a court?"

"No... Just somewhere where you can use it, and nobody else can become 'body snatched' if you get my drift." Growled the overgrown hamster again as if he were trying to control his temper.

"Good idea. I'll build it in the promenade, where it won't hurt anyone I know or care about."

"Mister Cerebrum! I would rather you build it In Dr. Keto's ointment locker than the promenade!" Shouted the overgrown hamster pointing towards the door, "Now get going, before I reconsider my decision!"

"Understood," Cerebrum replied, and then scurried up the vent since Cerebrum wasn't insane enough to use the elevator.
Then the huge hamster smirked as he crumpled up the paper he was pointing to earlier, which was his laundry list, and tossed it into the nearby trashcan.
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OOC - I'm gonna be visiting the Minnesota state fair tomorrow, so I probably won't be available to post, but I'll try to check in from the technology building while I'm there bugging my buddies at this years Nasa exhibit!
- WW