Siana Terso awoke gradually with a stinging pain in her left shoulder. It both burned like pierced flesh and moaned like a bone fracture. She grunted as the pain jostled her from a groggy slumber and tried to mentally shake her mind awake. Her brain felt much more muddled than she remembered it to be, thoughts difficult to get a hold of, confusion ruling her conscious.

She realized she was lying down and instinctively attempted to straighten herself up.

"Woah there!" a foreign voice called to her in an alert but calm tone, pressing her rising chest down and back into a lying position. "Why don't you just stay right there for a moment. You're not in the best of shape to be movin' around so quick."

The skin contact zapped her mind awake. She was lying on a medical table of some sort, a bright surgical light hanging over where she lied. The room was spacious, probably some general med bay, with most of the lights turned off save for the one above.

Seated across from her was a human male, middle-aged, with thick gray hair, fair skin, and wearing a rudimentary medic's uniform.

The human had a kind face and smiled as she looked around the room and finally at him. "You're right quick to be wanting to get up so soon. A lot more lively than you were when they brought you in here."

Siana, keeping her eyes focused on the human, slid herself into a half risen position on the table with the majority of her body still lying down. "Brought in?" she repeated. "What do you mean?"

"You were on the ship we picked up, the Palaven's Fire, just two days ago. Security team brought you in here with a nasty little gash on your shoulder. Compound fracture from how it looked. I got the bone sealed up for you and put it back into place. You've been resting ever since, no doubt your injury and the anesthesia keeping you out."

It slowly began to come back to her. She'd been on the Fire when the strange looking dreadnought began to pull them in with a tractor beam. She remembered taking a nasty fall when they'd been caught and began to clearly remember the pain afterward. She recalled the ship being boarded by humans and turians in body armor with her hands being cuffed and her head masked. But from there...she couldn't recall anything else.

"Who are you?" she said with her eyes narrowing in suspicion at the older human. "And where am I?"

The human was taken back by the sudden hostility. "I-I'm Doctor Finnigan Tarleton, the ship's head medical professional. You're aboard the Arc Monitor, in the med bay."

"Arc Monitor..." she mumbled to herself. The odd voice Captain Olymrius had been talking to mentioned that name. This confirmed where she was, but made her all the more worried on what had happened while she'd been unconscious.

"What happen to the Fire's crew?" she asked with a bit more calm in her voice.

The human thought about it for a moment. "Well, last I heard they were down in one of the lower brigs. There wasn't many of you so we didn't have to split you up too far apart. I'm not exactly the man you should be asking on this one, though. The Captain is your best bet...if he's even willing to answer that question."

"Well, I think have a right to know where the rest of my crew members are or, at least, to know if they're in danger."

Tarleton sadly shook his head at the sentiment. "I'm afraid not. You're aboard a military vessel which means we operate as one. You have rights and privileges of protection but we can't have prisoners communicating between each other, especially not while we're on voyage."

Siana made to cross her arms but immediately felt a stab of pain from her shoulder. She groaned at the unexpected reminder of her injury.

"Try to keep your arm still for now," Tarleton cautioned with sincere concern, "Your tissue is still healing no matter how much medi-gel we put on it. I'd give you a cast, there just isn't much it would do for a fracture like that."

She gave him a pained nod and lowered her arm back to where it had been. Sighing deeply, she looked back to the doctor. "What military are you part of them?"

"An old one, this ship is anyway. Everyone else here has their story of how they got here. Me and the Captain, along with a good portion of the older fellas on the Monitor, all served together. The younger ones come from all sorts of backgrounds. Ex-mercs, colonists, merchants, miners. We even have a former C-Sec officer from the Presidium if you can believe it."

"So what does that make you then? Pirates? A trade group?"

Tarleton chuckled. "Fortunately, we don't fit either definition. That being said, I'm not at liberty to tell you just who we are. The Captain likes to keep our existence as veiled as possible. Telling anyone, no matter how harmless they may seem, isn't gonna work out for us when they go off and blab about it to someone else. No offense intended of course."

Siana's mandibles flicked in agitation. "If you wanted to not attract attention to yourselves why would you then kidnap the entire crew of a Hierarchy ship? Or by attacking trade out in the Traverse?"

"That isn't my place to answer. I'm just a doctor after all. I leave things like that to the Captain and the boys up on the bridge."

"May I speak with your captain then? It's the least he could do considering the circumstances."

"He was thinking just the same thing," he said with a smile. "Man's been itching to meet with you since he heard that someone on your ship had been injured. It makes him feel like his promise of not harming any of your crew feel hollow and almost like a lie. I can guarantee whoever was operating the magnetic output of the tractor beam is scrubbing the bathrooms with a toothbrush right about now."

"As for seeing him, I'm afraid he's busy at the time being. He no doubt has something special planned to make it up for you and your crew. I know he's soon to meet with your Captain, explaining the situation man to man as any respectable person should. It seems you'll be getting the same treatment."

Tarleton leaned back in his chair and took a sip from a mug that Siana just realized he'd been keeping on the table behind him. "Would you mind if I asked you a question, though? Doctor to patient confidentiality?"

Siana swung her legs around to face him. "Depends on what the question is."

"Nothing too personal, I promise," the doctor replied with his palms raised in assurance. "I noticed that your uniform doesn't quite match up with the rest of your crew. They've got naval outfits while it seems you're wearing something that makes you out to be a doctor of some sort. Though not a medical one from what I presume."

She nodded. "I'm a Hierarchy psychologist actually. I was brought along for their annual screening tests. A slight scheduling error popped up and I opted to come along with them on their scouting mission, instead of waiting for them to come back. They all checked out fine if you're wondering. No mental anomalies in sight."

"That's good to hear. I'm not all that equipped to deal with the psychological side of injuries. I'd offer you the job of helping me in that avenue, but I think I already know your answer."

"Although I appreciate the offer," Siana replied with a polite smile, "I'd like to focus on just getting back to Hierarchy Space for the time being."

The doctor returned the smile. "Well, no sense in not trying. If you said 'yes' I would've recommended a quick X-ray of your head just to make sure you hadn't taken any trauma in the fall. Stockholm Syndrome doesn't set in that quickly unless you're a deserter or have a few bumps on your noggin. And you don't seem like the deserting type."

"Stockholm Syndrome?" Siana repeated as she tilted her head in query. "What's that?"

"It's the old Earth way of describing a kidnapped or captured person getting sympathetic to their captors. It ranges from the rationalization of actions to open support. But there's probably a more medically correct term to put it. I think that clarifies just how much I don't know about all this. I try to stick with the physical and do whatever I can to comfort whoever I needs it. It's not much, but it's something to make people feel better."

Siana found herself smiling at the human's charity. "That's very honorable of you."

He shrugged. "It's what I'm here for. Somebody has to help the depressed and the grieving. There's a lot of pain on the Arc Monitor, not all of it is apparent." The man gave a melancholy sigh and shook his head once again. "But I bet you're wondering what happens from here. How exactly this all going to play out."

"I'll admit; I'm just a little bit bit curious. Are you going to send me down to the brig with everyone else?"

"Not anytime soon. That shoulder of yours needs to be looked after and won't be healed for a little while. I can't in good faith risk that wound from being reopened or from an infection forming. For now, you'll be staying in the med bay until you'll all checked out. When I leave I'll be auto-locking the door behind me as well as the medical cupboards. The room's also got cameras just to make sure you don't try anything."

"So does that mean you don't trust me?"

"Even though you're a psychologist now I assume you started off as a frontline soldier. I remember what they taught us in basic all those years ago and I bet you haven't forgotten either. You never trust a soldier who's got their wits about them."

He straightened himself out his chair and walked to the door. "I'll be back in a few hours. There's some old magazines on the counter if you're interested in month old publications from Elysium. It's about the only entertainment I got."

Siana gave him a smile. "I'll think about it."

And how I'm going to get out of here she thought to herself.