"I am going to assume there is no dead girl in that room."
"You're not the first Zerged up person to ask me about a girl today, actually." Swann quirked a brow, looking Warfield over. "So is there really some girl running around, or is your brain fried too?"
Shaking his head and chuckling, Warfield cracked a smile. "Yeah, Tychus found a survivor and some shit went down. Wasn't sure if she made it, so I came to check. If Tychus was here then he's lookin' for her and we'll hear about it soon enough. You need a hand with anything?"
Nodding his head slightly, Swann gestured for Warfield to follow. "Yeah. We're gonna have to get to the Adjutants room down in lower sector T, I'm sure I can make use of you. Let me grab some tools and we'll go."
When no fancy bloodhound instinct kicked in after he sniffed the bloody cloth, Tychus grimaced. Can't win em all. A bit grossed out with himself, he tossed the cloth back to the table and took a good look around. It would be prudent to get some anesthetic, he figured. He was poking through containers and breaking into any cupboards that had remained sealed, the girl having broken into just about everything already, when he found what he was looking for: surgical anesthetic. Bingo. He grabbed enough to possibly knock out even himself and returned to searching.
She couldn't have left the ship and she'd be avoiding all the infested- intelligent ones and otherwise. Food and water would be important for a person looking to hole up somewhere, so he stalked off to the mess hall.
"Captain. I know this situation seems very bleak, but we have to fight just like we always have, don't you see?" Stetmann stood across the table from Horner, clenching and unclenching his fingers around his clipboard while looking at him in concern.
Staring at the younger man dully, Horner rested his hands on the tabletop. "I fought to help free our sector from a tyrant, so did you. But we let Jim pull us into a mad bid to free his past and got killed for it. As far as I am concerned we're dead and this is our hell, Stetmann."
Frustrated, Stetmann wished for the power to just make Horner see what needed to be seen. "You only woke up recently, so maybe you don't really know or remember what happened with Tychus and that survivor. We have something-someone to fight for right now, and that mental struggle against Shlassa is proof we have the strength to fight this!" It was clear he wasn't getting anywhere with the Captain. Horner was staring off at a point on the ceiling and resolutely ignoring him.
Stetmann. Tychus grumbled in everyone's mind.
Horners eyebrows drew together tightly as he brought two fingertips to his temple and pressed, discomfort clear.
Stetmann perked up, eyes widening in surprise.
"What?" Swann dropped the small wrench he had been using on the door panel that separated him and Warfield from the Adjutants room, pressing his palm to his forehead. Warfield grunted, uncomfortable but not in the kind of discomfort he had felt before when receiving bug messages, as he liked to think of them.
Tychus found her a lot faster than he thought he would, but he supposed it was habit to hide in a place that felt safe and familiar to yourself, even if it was a bad one. Checking the mess had gone fast- clearly raided, and since he had not felt any normal hunger pangs, he deduced nobody else had either. From there he took a guess and made his way to the sector containing all the floors with rooms for the crew, figuring she may have gone for "home". He dredged up the memory of when he pinched her butt and tried to remember anything distinct, other than almost being brained by a wrench. Orange outfit. One of Swann's engineer types.
He was glad he had taken the time to get to know the floors of the ship, and subsequently where the different cliques had been housed. From there it was just silently creeping through the halls until the renewed smell of anesthetic burned his nose. While he was hesitant, especially after the hostility he threw at Stetmann over it earlier, he called out to him mentally all the same.
Stetmann. Found the girl, door is locked though. Don't want to break it down, she took her gun. I know her arm is broken and I brought some knock-out drugs, gonna need your help. He was not confident that he had successfully sent his message at all, but he felt in his gut that it had gotten through- and Tychus often trusted his gut, so he waited.
Swann sighed, feeling an unnatural fatigue as he wiped his forehead on the back of his sleeve and turned to face Warfield. "So we got some kind of bug radio now?"
"Yeah, not fond of it either." Warfield was resting his hands on top of the Gauss rifle he had taken to carrying around, just in case.
"Well. I got a skeleton key card we can use on the door, guess we should go give em a hand. If whoever this person is, isn't infested, we won't have to fight with the Adjutant to override a bunch of the infested protocols."
The Generals brows furrowed, but he turned to follow Swann as he started walking all the same. "If you have some skeleton key, how come you aren't using it on that door?"
"It would be pretty disastrous for some infiltrator or unsavory sort to get a hold of a key to the castle, don't you think?" Swann snipped. "Its only for the living quarters, specifically for room maintenance and medical emergencies."
"Alright, fair enough."
Stetmann recovered from his surprise quickly after receiving the message. Depending on how severe the break was, the woman could need immediate medical attention. With time being of the essence, he looked sharply at his despondent Captain. "If you won't help, then it is most likely we will fail." Focusing briefly, the ability to pinpoint where people were was becoming easier every time he tried. "I will be with Tychus in the Engineer section of housing, should you choose to pull your head out of your ass."
Walking away briskly, he paused at the door as it hissed open and added thoughtfully. "If anyone could recognize who this person is, it would be you Captain." Horners gaze was heavy on his back as he left.
Be there soon, Tychus.
The lack of response to him being outside of her door, and noise in general, was grating on Tychus. With nothing better to do while he was waiting, he thought about Stetmann. That kid was handling this situation better than anyone, and he supposed giving him more credit was in order, like Warfield had said. Rubbing his face with a hand, his thoughts of the squirrely scientist gave him a queer feeling in his head: As though he could picture the other mans surroundings as he was walking, snippets of thoughts and where he was in relation to Tychus. At best, he could relate it to some kind of radar. A very annoying radar.
When Stetmann came walking around a corner, Tychus swore he saw himself through his eyes for a second and blinked hard, shaking his head.
"Something wrong?"
"Aside from there being a girl who's probably going to shoot herself the second that door opens behind said door? No."
Stetmann took a breath, looking at the door and thinking like always. "Alright. Swann and Warfield are coming. I can't do anything about the door but maybe they can. It is entirely possible that the woman is unconscious, which would make things easier but also means she may need serious medical attention."
Sighing, Tychus looked at the door and considered smashing it. Stetmann followed his train of thought with his eyes and shook his head sharply, but Tychus did not follow through thanks to Swann and Warfield.
"Hey. Heard you were having some trouble and came to give a hand." Swann piped up, they had come from the opposite direction of Stetmann and approached from behind Tychus, who turned to look at them casually.
"Yeah. Figured the doll might want to keep her door." Smirking, he stepped aside as Swann swooped in, all business as he pulled a key card off his belt and went for the door.
"Came as quick as we could. Any idea who this person is?" Warfield intoned, standing back and out of the way to watch.
"No. The Captain would probably know- he was very good at keeping up with faces, but he decided to not come." Stetmann could not mask the disappointment in his tone while he watched Swann swipe the card and punch a short code into the door pad.
"Was some kind of techie, one of Swanns folk. He might know." Tychus offered as the door hissed open, four pairs of eyes peering into the lit room cautiously.
Jayce was splayed out on top of her bed covers, gun held loosely in her good hand, sound asleep. Her data pad was resting on her stomach, below her broken arm, and flashing a red warning continually. The room itself was furnished sparsely, and if it wasn't for there being a simple comb resting on the greasy machine part covered tabletop, there would be no indication of a female living there.
"Yeah, that's one of mine." Swann piped up, stepping aside for Stetmann as he squeezed in quickly and took stock of the situation. Jayce's gun was relieved from her feverish fingertips and passed off to Tychus to hold, who traded a handful of anesthetic shots off to Stetmann.
"Don't think we need that much, but thanks Tychus." Stetmann quickly and expertly measured and administered the shot, to which there was no visible reaction.
"Never know." The big man shrugged and stepped out, it was too cramped in the small room for his tastes.
Free to touch her arm without any adverse reactions, Stetmann pulled back the strips of loosely cut sleeve and gave her arm a good feel, frowning. "You didn't break her arm, Tychus, you pulverized it. We need to get her to the med bay operating room immediately." Stetmann sounded dire as he stepped back from the unconscious woman. Tychus felt a pang of guilt, enough to keep him from trying to defend his actions and arguing.
"I'm going ahead to prep the room, bring her please." All business, Stetmann swooped off to the med bay at a hurried pace. Swann had stepped into the room around him and took a good look at the woman.
"Oh wow, that's Jayce!" Swann was both surprised and impressed, he gathered her up into his arms and left the room with Warfield and Tychus in tow. "She's a tough cookie, can't say I'm surprised to see her still kicking. One of my Junior Mechanical Engineers, she'll be real useful."
"How does a woman end up in space working as a mechanic on a floating rebel palace, anyway?" Tychus shouldn't have been so surprised, but he was looking for reasons to disparage her for getting herself into this mess if he had to be honest with himself.
Offended on her behalf, Swann stepped through a door and mumbled at Tychus. "This woman was a refugee from Summerset-P35. One of those real small colonies you don't hear about. Dominion was oppressing them heavily and all but robbing them of their ability to survive. Turned out bloody like it usually does. Picked her up in an escape pod that was launched from a small ship- she's no stranger to surviving, let me tell you. Lucky worse didn't find her."
"You know everyone's life story, chief?" Tychus and Warfield fell in on either side of Swann as they walked into the med bay, looking for Stetmann.
"The people who work for me? You bet. Everyone in a damn rebellion has one, and they all deserve to be heard." Swann was adamant. His people meant everything to him.
"Strong words, I can get behind them." Warfield chipped in, liking what he heard. He didn't really know Swann, and it was good to see his character on display.
"Ah good, bring her over here quick!" Stetmann was in an operating room with glass walls, prepped and ready. Swann quickly laid Jayce out on the operating table and everyone stood there, unsure.
Already moving her broken arm off to the side and prepping to cut into it, Stetmann paused and looked up at all the uncertain men staring at him, uncomfortable. "Er. I got this, you can leave and check up on her later if you like. I'll put her in one of the containment chambers when I'm done operating." There was a collective sigh of relief- no one was a medic, and doing surgery was well beyond their level of medical expertise.
"Right. I'll come to check up on her later then, sooner she gets up and running the better." Warfield made to leave with Swann and Tychus in tow, but Stetmann spoke before they could.
"If all of you could come back here later together, that would be great. I wanted to talk about what happened with the broodmother and some theories I have, you should all be present." Swabbing Jayces arm with an antiseptic-soaked cotton swab, Stetmann had already started making his surgical incision as he spoke.
Warfield nodded, curious what the younger man had managed to cook up in that egg head of his. "Alright, we'll meet back up in oh-three-hundred. See you then." They left Stetmann to fix Jayce up. Tychus sat down on a small, uncomfortable waiting seat towards the entrance of the med bay, figuring that there really wasn't anything else to do but wait anyway.
Warfield and Swann left together to continue working on the door to the Adjutants room. Swann reasoned to himself that Jayce was not going to be operational in a decent amount of time and he could deal with the Adjutant before then anyway.
If this was what being dead felt like, Jayce was not impressed with how painful it felt. When consciousness came back, she couldn't quite clear the haze from her mind and could barely open her eyes. Moving her limbs was out of the question. There were voices not far away though, low and grumbling, so she stopped trying to open her eyes immediately and focused on hearing and feeling.
She was still on a bed and she couldn't determine if it was her own or not by feel, but going by the clean smell and heavy sedation feeling, she was in the med bay. The men speaking sounded like they were being filtered through a pillow, lacking enough clarity to be understood.
"Why are we having this conversation right beside her, anyway?" Horner had come to the med bay, only to sate his curiosity of who it was that had survived, but hadn't left before everyone else had come back for Stetmanns meeting and was included whether he wanted to be or not.
"Well she's unconscious for starters, but she is also the only other person with a mind on the ship and I believe she should be privy to what is going on too." Stetmann was standing closest to Jayce, clipboard in hand and looking over her post-op information.
"She's in this with us, and she has a damn sight more to lose than us right now too." Warfield agreed, Swann and Tychus grunting their own agreements.
"Yes, well." Stetmann fidgeted with his hands, speaking in front of others was never his strong point. "As you know, we are able to communicate with each other mentally. What you may not know is that we can also control the infested in the ship, too." He kept his eyes down, purposefully avoiding knowing glares so he wouldn't lose his courage. "We've each been getting stronger since we woke up, using our mental abilities just a little bit easier each time we use them. But that struggle with Shlassa? I theorize that she inadvertently forced evolution on us, that we're much stronger than we were before we were forced into a deep sleep."
"You also saw how that little mental battle with the broodmother turned out. We lost, badly." Tychus crossed his arms, frowning. "Just what are you getting at, kid?"
"Gonna have to agree with Tychus, son. I don't much care about the path you're taking to get to the point, just get to the point and quick." Horner was silent and listening, as was Swann who hadn't been a part of their battle with the broodmother in the first place.
"Alright. We need to train ourselves more: harder and faster than this idle discovery we've been going through these past few days. Actually figuring out what we can do physically and pushing ourselves mentally. We need to fight to force ourselves to become stronger, or we won't be able to get out of this."
Tychus was skeptical. "Say we do. Aren't we just giving queeny what she wants? I don't think any of us are capable of comprehending the power of that monsters mind. We could become strong and then she uses us for whatever she has planned, unable to fight her."
"She does want us for something. It bugs me that we don't know what, and Tychus does have a very valid point." Warfield crossed his arms, much like Tychus, and looked thoughtful.
"Kerrigan is not infallible! We just need to make the best of our situation and wait for her to make a mistake." Stetmann was frustrated that they were giving him a hard time, honestly thinking they would be all aboard with the idea of returning to fighting.
"Can't they basically hear everything we're saying and thinking right now, anyway? Kind of hard to fight with no element of surprise." Swann looked discouraged.
"The broodmother, Shlassa is probably listening to us. But I don't think Kerrigan listens all the time, she would have stopped Shlassa from controlling Tychus well before that situation got to the point it did. Just because they know what we're doing does not mean they will interfere, they do want to use us for something, as you said."
Horner rubbed his forearm slightly, squeezing tight when he felt the tendrils inside flexing and writhing. Agitated, he looked up from the floor at Stetmann. "That's the plan? Get stronger, try to fight Kerrigan when we think the time is right? Then what? What happens if we do win, Stetmann? You think our fellow Terrans are going to just welcome us back for help kicking Mengsks ass? We are Zerg."
"I don't know, Captain. But I do know we need to get this ship operational, grow stronger and move forwards. I do know we need to be a team for anything to work at all."
Taking a long, slow breath, Warfield tilted his head back slightly and breathed out before looking back down at Stetmann. "Kids right. No matter what we do, sitting here don't sit right with me. We can at the very least try to help the civilian get out of here, can we agree on that much?"
Each man looked at Jayce, who's eyes had opened far enough to look at them and mind had cleared enough to get the gist of their conversation.
"Oh, you're awake already? Hello!" Stetmann walked around her bed and flashed a light in her eyes, to which she made an annoyed grunt.
Horner looked at Jayce with sympathy, sighing. "I'll help her get out of here, but that's it." No matter how low he got dragged down, Horners morals would always rise up to bother him at the worst times.
"Look, you got my vote kid. You just tell me what I need to do and I'll do what I can, alright?" Swann piped up, casting the first vote.
"I'm in." Tychus mumbled, looking at Jayce as she struggled to get away from Stetmann's prodding of her temporary cast.
Warfield nodded. "It's decided. Need to get this ship running though."
Voice gravelly, Jayce whispered. "Ain't that sweet. I'll help you. God knows I want to get the hell outta here."
"You get rested first, girl. That's an order" Swann came to stand at her bed side and smiled cheeringly.
"Don't have to tell me twice, sir." Smiling, Jayce fell back into an exhausted sleep immediately. She had no strength to fight being infested or murdered, might as well get some shut-eye.
Pleased at the results of the meeting, even if the only thing they could agree on was helping Jayce, Stetmann smiled. "Well, I'm glad that is decided. Jayce here is very lucky that we had gotten to her in time, marrow from the crushed Ulna had already gotten into her bloodstream and bacteria was building up rapidly. Could have easily suffered from blood clots from the marrow particles, too." Stetmann only realized then the glazed looks directed at him, clearing his throat to change the subject. "Yes, well. I think we should get started right away on mental training. We can do that any time and anywhere aboard the ship. It may be distasteful, but try to work on controlling the Infested crew members too. They can't feel or think for themselves, they really aren't the people you once knew them to be, don't let it get to you. We need them if we're going to run this ship with seven people."
"Eh. I don't know about controlling those creepy infested, but I'll try. We will have to wait for Jayce to make any headway on the Adjutant, however. I tripped the security measure on the mainframe door and there is now a several thousand volt electrical field blocking it." Swann and Warfield had also learned very fast that it indeed did hurt badly when touched, Zerg improvements or otherwise.
I'll see you nerds around then. Tychus thought towards them, smirking as he walked out and left them all frowning.
Rigid, Horner turned to leave. "That's that, then."
"Son. I know you are dealing with this in your own way, just remember we all are, alright?" Warfield called out to him cautiously.
"Don't know if this can really be dealt with, General." Matt stalked out, making for the bridge to do some thinking.
"Not taking it so well, I guess?" Swann looked at the other two men with a quirked brow.
"No. I think it'll blow over when the Commander ecloses though. Not really looking forward to then." Stetmann stared down at Jayce uncomfortably.
All three of them nodded tensely, there was definitely different camps of opinions on how much blame Jim really deserved for their situation, although no one had directly addressed the matter yet.
"Well, enough of that. Findlay has the right idea." I'll go practice. Warfield squinted as he thought towards them, feeling the touch of a headache coming on already.