By DsignG4
Marcus bounced eagerly into Medlab 3. He'd been waiting weeks to get this blasted cast off his arm from his latest mishap. Today was the day.
He entered only to find Stephen seemingly permanently affixed at the eyeballs to a microscope. Silently trotting over and stared at him, just inches away. Stephen never saw him, he always looking straight ahead, so predictable. He was currently entranced by his tissue sample.
He folded his arm over his cast and laid his hand at the base of his throat. His fingers rolled familiarly over the small but now all invisible scar there. Merely now just a long bump.
It was from an emergency tracheotomy as a child when he fallen down a staircase accidentally choked on a small toy he had had in his mouth. He had always been clumsy, until he over came it in ranger training. It had healed extremely well, barely visible, but ever since it was just something he played with at moments of nervousness or expectation. He didn't know why exactly, just always had.
Stephen looked so serious as he spoke, "The lower cortex looks to be frayed or disintegrating at the base, almost like they were severed-" Stephen said speaking to the recorder unit.
Marcus nodded leaning in, "With what do you think?"
Stephen jumped hitting his head on the lowered robotic arm that was over him. "Goddamn it! I hate it when you do that!" he cursed rubbing his sore skull. "Do you really have to sneak around like that?"
"Yes, keeps me in practice," Marcus apologized flatly, only meaning it a bit. "Bad time?"
The doctor nodded with a perfunctory glare. He rose, turned off the recorder and took the sample to the cooler unit to store it away. He removed his mask and placing his hands on his hips he turned to Marcus. "No, it's fine, just investigating a murder."
"Who is it?" Marcus asked looking towards the body covered with a white sheet in the other room.
"Just a lurker from down below that's all." He said changing the subject. You're ready to be let out of that thing, I assume." He said pointing to the cast.
'Just a lurker' echoed in his head. The intolerance shown to the unfortunates there was at times was very disheartening. How the staff of this place could claim to defend the weak and helpless cultures from aggression and yet they coldly shunned and belittled the merely unfortunate of their race own enraged him. No, he was not a earth-first radical, he simply thought that race should be treated the same consideration. Where they got forced to live to due circumstance should not be counted in their value as beings.
He'd have been one step away from being one of them if he'd decided to stay when he'd arrived on B5. He'd had the idea to stay, use the piddly amount the Senator was sending and get a room for a while. He'd find a job and eventually work his way maybe in to an IPX excavating consultant or something, something he had experience in and would allow him to see the galaxy.
Once the radiation medication wore off he realized that wasn't a practical idea. Neither was joining the Rangers, but he'd at least go and hear what they had to say. He had made a promimse, and you kept promises.
And luckily for him he did. He'd most likely have ended up like most the ones he knew who lived there, convinced they were doing the right thing by a vision of hope for a better life that never panned out.
He decided not to pursue it. Didn't want to anger the man who knew how to use as knife to filet you into microscopic slices. After their trip together to the Martian underground, Stephen would jump at the chance, he thought with a grin. He'd managed to get through 2 entire musicals before Stephen had threatened to show him his own spleen. The doctor did have the patience of a saint.
"Yes, please. If you could be so kind. The itching is killing me." He was not going to make a nuisance of himself, he wanted it off. And quickly. He had plans for that arm tonight. Poker game in one of this regular dives. The last two times fights had broken out and he was forced to leave before they got really interesting. He didn't want to miss another, they were a great form of practice.
"Well, I think I can help with that." He motioned for him to follow to the other room.
"Okay, have a seat there and put your arm here on the counter..." Stephen pulled out a small rotating saw and started it with a smile. "Trust me?"
"I rather have to don't I?" he said nervously eyeing the spinning metal teeth with a obvious gulp. "You sure you know how to use that? "
Stephen gave him a look of warning and made the long cut and pulled the fibrous cast apart with a sharp snapping sound. A sound eerily similar to the sound the bone made when it broke to begin with.
"Finally!" Marcus pulled his arm out and immediately began scratching it. The sensation of it being touched again after being in isolation for so long was honestly rather stimulating.
It looked smaller around than the other arm, he supposed it was normal since he hadn't used it a month. He'd have it back to normal in no time now that he could work it out normally again. He had taken it upon himself to practice the pike one handed, due to his difficulty in it on Mars. He would have made Durhan proud at his ease at it now.
"Ah! That feels so good! Thank you Doctor."
Stephen took it back and examined it, then washed it of the residue of 4 weeks in confinement.
"Now go back out there and try not break it again. Please?"
Marcus caught glimpse of the body once more. "Who was it?" Marcus asked again rising finally buttoning his sleeve.
"Huh?" Stephen said rinsing the cutting blade.
"The lurker you were autopsying as I came in, who was it?"
"Oh," Stephen mindlessly grabbed a chart and a read form it. "Tony Cippriano, 42, Earther, dust addict. Maybe you know him?" he asked.
"No, not at all. I just wanted to remind you he was a person too," he smiled leaving. He hoped he had made a difference, he knew it wouldn't. "Goodnight, Stephen and thanks."