Re: Kyla

Who: Kyla and Tara
Where: Medi-shuttle...
<snip>
> In the main area of the shuttle Tara helped Kyla onto a bed.
> "So, how did you get here? What made you pick the Blue Dwarf?
Well,
> it's been blown up by the bugs so not much Blue Dwarf anymore."
<snip>
Kyla, who was still blinking at Tara's name, took a moment to
reply. "Well... I wouldn't say I so much "picked" it."
"Really? How did you get here then?"
"Alcohol," Kyla explained.
"Ah," said Tara, wondering, perhaps, if Kyla had any left. She began
running a few basic medical screening tests, while Kyla started
digging through her little black bag.
"I have gum, a Walkman with a cracked cover, a good piece of string,
ten dollarpounds in random change, and a tissue. I hope this isn't a
used tissue." Kyla blew her nose on it. She looked at the machine
Tara was holding. "I hope you're qualified to use that."
"It's not hard," Tara said evasively. So far as she could tell, Kyla
was perfectly fine. The alternative was clinically dead, but Tara
didn't think that seemed right, somehow.
"Well," Kyla said. "I'll trust you. Out here, I don't think I've got
a lot of choice." She put everything back in her bag, except for the
tissue. "JMC Blue Dwarf, hey? I was on a ship called the Pulsar, at
least until I wasn't any more."
"What did you do?" asked Tara.
"Got drunk."
"No, I mean what was your job?"
Kyla shrugged. "Dunno. What's a technician meant to do?"
Tara told her.
"Reckon I'm well out of that, then." Kyla sighed, then did an
extremely belated double-take. "Wait a minute. You said the Blue
Dwarf had been blown up by bugs. What bugs? Were there any other
survivors? Where are they? Where are _we_? Aside from on the medi-
shuttle of course," she added hastily.
<tag Tara!>