A/N: Hi everyone! I got this idea from the part in the movie where Kruger wants to take a look at Matilda. Very AU, but I think in keeping with his character ;-)
The ship was totally silent, locked into a holding pattern over Elysium when Kruger made his move. Drake and Crowe snored from their bunks while the hostages nodded, lucky recipients of the Raven's limited supply of tranquilizer. It was powerful stuff that could be administered orally, by syringe, or even by dart as the case warranted. The only hostage who hadn't gotten any in her food was the little girl who lay in a coma on her mother's lap.
Or at least, her mother said she was in a coma. The girl was supposed to have leukemia, but Kruger thought the odds were good the mother was lying in order to protect her child. She needn't have worried; of all the things Kruger had ever been into, kids had never been on the list.
The mother had fought him when he tried to examine her. Kruger respected that; if there was anything he hated, it was some worthless doos too stupid to protect her own blood.
Moving silently in his bare feet, Kruger crouched down in front of the child and laid a careful hand on her forehead. His bio-implants showed that she was truly unconscious. They also showed the presence of chemotherapy drugs in her system. The coma, then, could simply be a complication.
Very carefully, Kruger tugged the child from her mother's lap and hefted her into his arms. The Raven had a small medbay on board for emergencies. A few minutes and he would know what the situation was and how he would deal with it.
The medbay showed that the child was suffering from a combination of the aftereffects of her treatment, stress, and an elevated white cell count. In order to stop the disease entirely, she would need new cells. No problem there; she could have some of his. Part of the miracle of the medbays was that they could alter the DNA on any cell to match any recipient. Kruger grinned to himself. Whether the woman liked it or not, her daughter would always carry a bit of him with her.
He put the child in the medbay and closed the lid. After a few minutes of rummaging in the supply containers, he produced a sterile transfer line. He slid the needle into his hand without flinching and attached the other end of the line to the machine. A few taps of the medbay's computer keyboard and it was done: blood flowed through the tube as the machine hummed softly, passing its arm back and forth over the little girl's still body.
"Cancer cells removed…beginning implantation…" Kruger had forgotten how loud the computerized voice would be in the small space. Crowe grunted and sat up in his bunk. "What ya doin',boss?" he asked sleepily.
"Nothin', boet. Go back to sleep."
Crowe blinked in the dim light coming from the medbay. "Did you land us?"
"No. We still haven't been cleared. Go to sleep, I said. That's an order."
"Fine!" Crowe grumbled for a few minutes as he punched his pillow into a more comfortable shape. Kruger muted the medbay's voice and waited. Crowe had just started to snore again when the medbay's monitor indicated the transfer of cells was complete. The machine's arm continued to pass back and forth until the new cells were completely assimilated. The child's eyelids fluttered, and Kruger was beside her with a syringe. She would sleep for at least another twenty-four hours. Maybe in that time the woman would be able to put her into another medbay. Kruger smiled his twisted smile, imagining the look on the teef's face as she tried to figure out what the hell was wrong with the machine.
Next to braai, beer and sex, Kruger loved a good joke.