Chapter 3: Sickbay
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Bogon, Ratatosk System in the Igdrasil Sector. 9 December, 17:04 Standard Time
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"Nngggg..." A drowsy lombax slowly forces his eyes open. The effort is strenuous, like lifting huge blocks of lead. A bright, white light shines in his face. The lombax snaps his eyes shut and tries to turn away, only to find that his head is firmly held in place by padded restraints. He struggles to move his arms and legs to find that his entire body, even his tail is similarly restrained.
"Jack! He's awake! It's incredible! With such a high dose of lombax sleeping gas, and he's already becoming conscious."
I wouldn't quite say that I'm conscious yet, more like in a forced, drunken stupor. The lombax tries to move his head again, but it is held in place and restrained from moving in any direction. He tries to complain, spit out some bitter slander against the Ta'ree, but only manages to slur, "Ennnangggggg..."
The light seems to diminish and the lombax risks opening his eyes. A nearby lamp now shines on his right arm and he sees two blurry figures leaning over him, one setting down a radio. He notices one speak, the human was the one who said he was conscious. He speaks with an absolute glee, like a school child who has found a new life treasure in the playground. "Isn't it amazing doctor? Look at this! His muscles are already tensing, even with all of the sedatives!"
I'm not tensing for your entertainment, Ta'ree fool! I'm trying to escape! The lombax pushes against the restraints to find that he is stretched out, his body and legs locked in a standing position and his arms straight out to the sides. Straps hold his tail in place between his legs so he can't even swish it angrily. Then he notices something that makes his eyes snap wide open. His armor is gone. He growls, and the proper sound finally comes out suitably threatening.
A new voice speaks, "Well, it looks like he's still got plenty of vigor." The owner of the voice, the second doctor, kneels down next to the lombax on his right side. He pokes at the fur between his ear and the base of his jaw. "This looks like a residual scar from cranial surgery. Mind telling us what you had work on?"
Nanobot implants. The lombax grits his teeth and decides to keep his mouth closed rather than spit out an insult.
"Come on, buddy. I know you can talk. Your EEG is too active for you to be fully sedated."
The lombax growls.
"Fine then." The human directs his attention to the first human. "Let's finish the overview." The human stands straight and the lombax notices he holds a thick clipboard and a pen. He holds a pen over the paper, moving it down and stopping at a point near the bottom of the page. The human begins circling the lombax with a bored expression on his face, as if he had been doing this for a while. "X-rays showed nothing 'shadows' on the skeleton." He pauses to look up at the other doctor, who is unclipping a scanner from an equipment table on the lombax's right. "You said that you found something odd in his wrists?"
"Yes, Doctor Kev'." The doctor moves a scanner emitting a blue light down the arm to the lombax's wrist.
Doctor 'Jack Kev' stands there, holding his clipboard and tapping his pen against it absent-mindedly as he looks at the display screen the scanner is hooked into. "Well, that's interesting. I wonder how he can still move his fingers."
Unstrap me and I'll show you how I can still move my fingers. The lombax settles on a growl, causing the doctor holding the scanner to pause and look at the lombax's face with a slightly worried expression, but the other ignores the noise.
Doctor Kev' finishes his last note and steps back, then motions to the other doctor before he walks away. The other doctor shuts off the corded tool to its stand nearby, just out of the lombax's view, then wheels it to the side. "We're all done, miss Cross."
Angela steps in front of the table and motions to the doctor. He taps a button on the corner and the table rotates, stopping with the lombax's feet near the floor so he could appear to be standing. The lombax immediately remembers her as the one who wrestled him down in the shuttle pod. His face twists in fury as he snarls, "You. Do you have any idea what you've done?"
"I stopped a saboteur who appeared to be ready to blow up himself and the whole rest of the fleet. Perhaps you'd like to explain how you managed to sneak onto the cargo freighter, and what you were doing there?"
The lombax averts his eyes, but with the restraints keeping him from moving at all, he can still clearly see her standing there, staring at him from his peripheral vision. The lombax flexes his fingers and toes. Without the intention of changing the subject, he mentions, "I see that we are both still here. I assume that means you found a way to disarm it?"
She narrows her eyes, but decides to answer. "We tried. We worked next to an airlock, and the detonator blew up your planted charges before it exploded, so we had about a second and a half to chuck it out the airlock." Angela crosses her arms. "Eighteen people were killed when your charges blew up, and at least four ships were destroyed."
The lombax mutters darkly to himself, "Damn it. Third party casualties are against the rules of engagement."
"What are you talking about?"
"What did you think you were doing by shipping weapons and ships to a wormhole? You're supplying a war. And my—our people are on the failing side."