A Calculation of Entropy
Chapter 7
AN: Thanks for all your reviews for the last chapter. More are always welcome!
"We found an aberration," said Martin, as Sara walked into the Library. "I confess to being somewhat suspicious."
"Oh yes, this is most definitely a trap," said Sara, with a nod of her head. "Let me guess, Kasnia 2140?"
"Very insightful, Miss Lance," said Martin. "I'd have suggested some kind of clairvoyance if I didn't know better. I assume that we're still going there regardless."
"Of course," said Sara. "We need to catch up with Zero, and that's where she's going to be. We'll just have to be careful."
"How's our Captain?"
"His usual stubborn self," said Sara. "Pretending he's fine and not worried. He's decided that we're going to jump tomorrow."
"Is he going to be well enough for that?" asked Martin, with concern.
"Probably not, but he's determined," said Sara. "Gideon seems to think that he has a reasonable chance of surviving it, but he might wish that he hadn't for a bit."
"How did he take the news…?" Martin tailed off, gesturing rather than saying something that he didn't want to say.
"That he's dying? It could have gone worse. He wants to get Zero," said Sara, her eyes on the main screen.
"Don't we all?" replied Martin, ruefully.
"There's still the hope that she has the cure. What's the aberration?" asked Sara.
"Tor Degaton's troops lost an encounter with a rival faction that they should have won. It looks like it was because they didn't have the required weapons," said Martin.
"We're thinking that Zero took the weapons to sell, then," said Sara, thoughtfully. "Does this mean that she hasn't met us at Durno yet or is she collecting more weapons for another run?"
"I'd say the latter. If we're assuming that what Captain Hunter told you was right, and she wants us to hurt him by jumping, then we have to also assume that she's creating aberrations in the correct order for us to follow," Martin replied. "It would put her at a disadvantage if she was doing this any other way."
"But you agree that she's doing this to torture Rip?"
"Maybe not solely, but it was certainly a secondary intention. She infected him with a virus that doesn't kill immediately, given Gideon's rather amazing abilities to heal and the impressive immune system that Captain Hunter possesses, but does incapacitate and cause considerable pain. If she's a Time Master, she knew Gideon wouldn't be able to cure the virus, but would keep him alive so that he could experience further symptoms and pain. That sounds very much like torture to me, and make no mistake, this is definitely distressing for our Captain, despite the reassurances that he's given us otherwise. Gideon can take away the majority of his physical pain, but this illness is hurting him in other ways as well." Martin shook his head and sat down on the edge of the desk. Sara thought that he looked very tired.
"You saw how he reacted to the ventilator," said Sara, with some understanding.
"I'm not as unobservant as you think," replied Martin. "After that incident, I went through his list of emergency instructions to Gideon to ensure that we weren't going against his wishes in any way. He has made his preferences very clear when it comes to medical interventions, and I believe I now may have some kind of understanding of how Zero became who she is."
"Really? Rip's medical preferences gave you that?" she asked, a little intrigued.
Martin nodded. "Captain Hunter specifically mentions that he does not wish any mechanical additions to be made to his body. Which suggests to me that this is something that an AI might do - if not specifically told not to - to heal an otherwise untreatable injury."
"You're telling me that Gideon has the ability to replace our parts with machinery if she can't heal us?" asked Sara, with some horror.
"Gideon has apparently been instructed to always seek our consent for such a procedure, but I wonder if Godiva, the AI on the Helios, was given the same instruction," said Martin. "Imagine what might have happened if her Captain had been grievously injured and the only thing that Godiva could do to save her was to turn her into a cyborg."
"Then she'd do it. Right, Gideon?"
"Indeed, Ms Lance. The primary purpose of all ship's AIs is to protect our Captain. It's why Captain Hunter was so insistent to make his wishes clear as to how far I should go. There are many avenues open to me when it comes to medical care and I understand that not all of them are what might be preferred by the patient. However, I can only do what I am programmed to. I will seek consent whenever possible, but if the patient is unconscious then I must provide whatever lifesaving care I have available to me, unless I have been instructed previously what the patient wishes to be done in such circumstances."
"Time Captains work alone," said Sara, with understanding. "There was no one to tell Godiva not to do it. Somehow, Hera was injured and the only way to save her was to do that to her." She frowned. "We have to tell Rip."
Martin shook his head. "I think we're better leaving him to sleep. He needs the rest and I doubt anymore stress will help him to be well enough to jump tomorrow."
"You have a point. He doesn't need to know right now." She gave Martin an assessing look. "When did you last get some sleep?" she asked.
Martin waved a hand at her. "I need to get back to Raymond and our search for the next antiviral."
Sara shook her head. "You're no good to anyone if you're too exhausted to think. Go get a few hours' sleep."
"As long as you do the same," replied Martin.
Sara let out a long sigh. "Fine. I'll go and sleep too. It basically seems to be my job at the moment to remind people to sleep. Gideon, please tell me that Rip is actually in bed…"
"He is, Ms Lance, and fast asleep currently. Jax is scheduled to check in on him in two hours' time," replied Gideon, with just a touch of smugness at anticipating her next question.
"Thank god for that," she murmured. She'd seriously considered locking Rip in his room and she was fairly certain that Gideon would have happily helped her. Sara headed out of the library. "Night, Martin."
Tomorrow was going to be a difficult day and everyone was going to need to be well rested to deal with it.
The jump was every bit as bad as Sara had thought it would be.
Rip walked onto the bridge on his own, without help, but slowly and with Ray beside him to catch him if he fell. He was pale with red-rimmed eyes, but had made the effort to get dressed and looked a lot like his usual self if you ignored his skin tone and the tremors that frequently ran through his body.
"Are you absolutely sure about this?" asked Sara, for what seemed like the hundredth time.
"Yes," said Rip. "We need to find Zero and stop her. There's no use in procrastinating. Let's get this over with so that you can all get on with the mission while I spend the next twenty-four hours in Gideon's care in medbay." The last was said tersely, but with resignation and not a little disappointment. Sara hoped that it was only going to be twenty-four hours, but had suspicions that it might be longer.
Sara gave a final sigh at the stubbornness of her Captain. "You should already be in the medbay," said Sara. "It's sheer pig-headedness that you're sat here with us."
"As I said before, if this is going to be my last time jump, then I want to do it on the bridge," said Rip. "It's only fitting, and there's no point trying to persuade me otherwise. I've made up my mind."
"You're lucky she hasn't just sedated you," said Mick, as he took his seat on the other side of the room. "If I was in charge, I'd have punched you out and left you in the medbay."
"Which, I think, demonstrates why I left Sara in charge during my illness, and not you, Mr Rory," said Rip, with a pointed finger in Mick's direction.
"Yeah, well, I'm beginning to think that Mick was on to something," said Sara. "This is going to be pretty miserable and you'd be much safer doing this in the medbay."
Rip gave Sara a defiant look. "We've discussed this and I've given you my answer, now perhaps we can get started."
Ray did the honours with the blanket, wrapping it around Rip, which did still his shivering a little, while Jax handed him the bucket, ready for the inevitable throwing up. Finally, everyone strapped in and was ready to go. Sara turned back to the navigation controls and lifted the ship up and into the timestream. She heard an audible gasp of pain from behind her, but couldn't turn around to deal with it whilst they were in flight.
"Rip?" asked Ray, who sat on one side of their Captain.
She glanced over her shoulder and saw Rip wave off Ray's concern. The suggestion that he was in any way okay was clearly disputed by the fact that his face was drawn with pain and his eyes tightly screwed shut. His breathing was rapid and his hands were gripping the bucket as if it was a lifesaver to a drowning man.
There was a considerable part of the timestream to traverse and she needed to concentrate on navigating. So, she turned back and ignored what was going on behind her, despite her worries, while she got on with the task at hand. She knew that leaving the timestream would be the worst part, it usually made her feel at least slightly queasy on a long jump, but she wasn't already ill.
"Okay, we're going to exit now. Just hang in there," said Sara, over her shoulder. She steered them out and into 2140.
There was a somewhat suppressed groan from behind her, and then the sound of Rip throwing up everything that had been in his stomach. She set the ship down as rapidly as she could at the predetermined coordinates, and pushed up her restraining bar, already moving towards Rip's seat. He was shivering violently and looked as pale as a ghost, eyes still shut and breathing rapid.
He opened his eyes and blinked, staring off into the distance. Jax put a comforting hand on his shoulder and he flinched, or perhaps it was more that he was startled, and Jax removed his hand, looking bewildered.
"Rip?" she asked. He didn't even look in her direction. "Rip, can you hear me?"
There was no response. Ray waved a hand in front of Rip's eyes and he didn't even blink.
"I don't think he can see or hear us," said Ray, worriedly.
At least he seemed to have stopped being sick. Sara took one of his hands, unpeeling it from its grip on the bucket. He flinched again, but she held on. She could see in his eyes that he was worried and he needed contact, because he didn't have any other stimuli to help him make sense of what was going on. She thought quickly and turned his palm over, then traced out the two letters "OK" with her finger, hoping that he'd understand.
He looked down in the direction of her hand, but not directly at it, confirming Ray's theory.
"C…c…can't see or hear," he stuttered, quietly.
"Yeah, we got that," murmured Sara. She squeezed his hand, hoping he understood once for "yes".
"C…c…cold," he managed, leaning his head back against the headrest. "H…head…hurts."
She looked up at Ray, he was frowning. Headaches weren't one of the standard symptoms of time travel. Jax was removing the bucket, so that they could get him out of the chair.
"We should get him to medbay," said Martin.
"Agreed," said Sara. "Just let me tell him." She turned his shaking hand again and traced out "MED BAY" and then did it again.
Rip groaned, but nodded.
"Mick? Can you do the honours again?"
Then suddenly Rip's eyes rolled backwards in his head, he went limp for a second and then his back arched, limbs jerking. He wrenched his hand violently out of Sara's grip.
"He's having a seizure," shouted Martin. "Get him on the ground, somewhere he can't hit anything and hurt himself."
Ray and Jax were closest and managed to manhandle the flailing form of their Captain to the ground between them.
"What do we do?" asked Sara, helplessly.
Martin had pulled the blanket off Rip and was now busily folding it to place under his head so that it wouldn't hit the floor as he seized. "There's nothing we can do. We have to wait for it to pass, unless it doesn't after a few minutes and then we need to get him to medbay. But carrying him right now is going to be next to impossible."
Rip's limbs were twitching in an alarming manner as his muscles contracted and released seemingly at random. Then it all stopped and Rip lay completely still. The Legends stood around him looking shocked and concerned, and for a moment no one moved.
Then Martin shook himself out of it and knelt beside Rip. He felt for a pulse. "He's not breathing."
"Medbay, now!" said Sara.
Mick scooped Rip up from the floor, threw him over his shoulder, and ran from the room. Sara followed, with the others lagging several steps behind.
"Gideon!" Sara shouted.
"I am preparing the medbay," said Gideon.
Sara skidded into the medbay to see Mick dropping Rip rather unceremoniously on the medbay couch closest to the door.
"Fix him!" snarled the pyromaniac, which Sara assumed was aimed at Gideon.
"Of course, Mr Rory," replied the AI. "Please attach the cuff, and then the oxygen mask will be required."
Mick did both things that Gideon had requested as the blue lights ran over Rip's body.
"Administering adrenalin and positive pressure oxygen," said Gideon.
Rip gasped, his eyes flying open. He sucked in air like a man who had been suffocating, looking around him with wild eyes that still didn't seem to actually be able to see anything from the way they looked past Mick. He clutched at the armrests. Sara let out a breath that she'd been unconsciously holding in.
"The Captain is suffering from hearing loss and blindness. Both of these should pass and I am administering drugs to help with the other symptoms," said Gideon.
Sara once more found herself going to Rip's side and taking his hand in hers. "H I" she traced out.
"Who…?" mumbled Rip through the oxygen mask, looking somewhere in her direction but not exactly at her. He had begun to shiver again.
"S A R A," she tried. Tracing the letters twice to give him a chance to work out what she was trying to say. Rip visibly relaxed, and muttered her name in understanding.
"What are you doing?" asked Mick.
"Hand spelling," said Sara. "He can't see or hear us. This is about the only way I can think to communicate at the moment."
Ray and Jax tumbled through the medbay doorway, with Martin a moment behind them.
"Is he okay?" asked Jax. "Did Gideon get him back?"
"Yes. He's going to be fine," said Sara, at least as much for her own benefit as the rest of the crew. "But he still can't see or hear."
The team exchanged unhappy looks. Ray went to the cupboard and took out a blanket that he gently tucked around Rip, despite the initial startled reaction. There was a murmured "thank you" from the patient.
"I can't imagine how scary that must be," said Jax.
"Multiple neurological complications are usually a rare side effect of time travel; however, the Captain was quite weak when we jumped. If he wasn't such an experienced time traveller then he would probably have died," said Gideon.
"He almost did," said Ray.
Rip was staring up at the ceiling with unseeing eyes, but was nervously fiddling with the edge of the blanket. Sara suspected that he needed the contact. He pulled down the oxygen mask with the hand that wasn't held in Sara's.
"Medbay?" he asked, resignedly.
Sara squeezed his hand. Rip gave a small nod.
"How long is this going to last?" His voice was quiet and hardly sounded like Rip at all.
"Gideon?" asked Sara.
"Unknown," said Gideon. "Probably between a few minutes and several hours."
"Okay, how do I communicate that?" asked Sara.
"Just tell him a few hours," suggested Ray. "Then he'll be pleasantly surprised if it wears off before then."
Sara traced out "FEW HOURS" on Rip's hand.
"Hmm, of course," Rip murmured. "Too ill to jump really."
"How many drugs have you got him on, Gideon?" asked Sara, with a little amusement. She doubted that Rip would have admitted that he was too ill to jump otherwise.
"He is in considerable pain, Ms Lance. I have provided him with appropriate levels of medication," said Gideon, somewhat indignantly. "I am also readjusting his electrolytes back to normal levels."
"I get the impression that Gideon is trying to tell us that Captain Hunter is quite unwell," said Martin.
"Indeed, Professor Stein," said Gideon.
"We were there when he decided to stop breathing," pointed out Mick.
"Sara, you have a mission," said Rip, quietly. "Whilst I appreciate the hand holding, it's not necessary."
"Yeah, none of us believe that, Rip," replied Sara, knowing he couldn't hear her, "but if it makes you feel better to say it, I understand." Instead, she wrote on his hand "O K".
"Good," said Rip. "Go. I'll be fine. Gideon will look after me."
He looked through Sara. She gave a long sigh, and squeezed his hand. How Gideon was going to look after him when he couldn't hear anything that she said was a mystery to her. She wrote out "BACK SOON"
"Bring Zero back with you," replied Rip, earnestly.
"O K" Sara traced out. She turned to the group, still holding Rip's hand.
"Martin, Ray, we need you here working on the antiviral for the next mutation of the virus," said Sara. "Mick, Jax and I will go and recon, see if we can find out where Zero is hiding. We'll check in every couple of hours. Everyone okay with that?"
She received a series of nods. Then she turned her eyes upwards. "Gideon, sedate him, please," said Sara.
"Is that necessary?" asked Martin.
"Do you really want to leave him here on his own, in the dark and silence, while you work?" asked Sara. "He's better sleeping through this."
"Administering sedative," said Gideon.
Rip frowned, apparently feeling the effects of the sedative, and blinked heavily. "Gideon, that's… not…necessary…" His eyes closed.
"Sleep well, Rip, we'll see you later," said Sara, replacing the oxygen mask and finally letting go of his hand. She led the team out of the medbay and towards their costumes for 2140.
None of the team particularly liked 2140 and the Kasnian Conglomerate. If this era held bad memories for Rip, then it held equally bad memories for the rest of them. At least Ray and Martin would be staying on the ship, assuming backup wasn't required. They hadn't found any trace of the Helios, although Gideon was still looking.
"Okay, we should be here in time to stop that shipment of weapons from going missing," said Sara, fastening her black uniform coat with the red arm band, as she opened the door of the Waverider. Her hair was pulled back in a severe style so that she looked as if she was an officer of the Kasnia Conglomerate forces. She remembered how distasteful Rip had found it to put on this uniform last time they were here, and she felt the same now. It was like dressing as a Nazi, this uniform represented everything that they stood against.
"They're keeping the weapons in a secure bunker, so I don't know how Zero's planning to actually steal them," said Ray, as he made sure that the team had everything that they needed. "Gideon couldn't find much data on how they went missing. I guess that's the military for you."
"Yeah, things would be much easier if there weren't so many damn secrets," said Jax, pulling on his own black, military jacket. "Also, I'm kind of hoping to avoid getting entangled with any of those freaky ATOM bots this time."
"They are not "freaky", they're based on my suit technology," said Ray, slightly affronted. "Besides, I think we're before the point when they were deployed in Kasnia."
"They burned good, but metal isn't usually my thing," said Mick, who looked quite formidable in his Kasnian soldier's uniform. He was clipping his heat gun to his belt.
"Well, at least we get to use a decent level of technology this time," said Sara, holstering a sleek looking laser pistol under her coat to add to the knives that she'd already hidden on her person.
"Yes, but so do they," pointed out Jax, with a little trepidation.
"We'll be fine. We'll do the recon and then work out where we go from there. We shouldn't even come into contact with Zero and her men," said Sara.
"Just be careful out there," said Ray. "We know that this is a trap, and after what she did to Rip… she's definitely got it in for us."
Sara gave Ray a pat on the shoulder. "Like I said, we'll be fine and we'll check in every two hours. You just concentrate on making that antiviral so that we have a Captain to come back to." She headed out of the cargo bay and down the ramp, only turning back to check that her team were following her.
"Yeah, have fun storming the castle," said Ray, with a half-smile.
"Dude," said Jax, with good natured dismay at the reference, rolling his eyes, as he walked past him and followed Sara.
Mick just gave Ray a glare as he went down the ramp, and Sara tried her hardest to conceal a grin, but failed.
The trio headed out, towards the military compound where the weapons were being stored. The Waverider closed its door and the camouflage engaged once again to hide it completely. They'd made sure it would be getting dark when they set out but not too late that the light was gone. They needed to get the lie of the land.
The compound was a series of concrete buildings with a high fence around it. That shouldn't be a problem, but ensuring that they weren't seen when they entered might be a bit more difficult. Everything in this time period seemed to be grey, from the concrete of the buildings to the clothes that the general populace wore. The only spots of colour were the huge red banners with the logo of the Kasnian conglomerate on it.
They got as close as they could before the cover of the trees gave out and there was open ground between them and the compound. Now, it was a matter of watching the compound to see what the guard patrol schedule was and how the gate was operated. It took them some time to conduct surveillance on the entire site and conclude that there was no easy route in.
"What do we think?" asked Sara. "Can we get in the front gate or are we going to have to cut through the fence?"
"They've got papers that they're showing," pointed out Mick.
"We could intercept someone heading to the base?" suggested Jax.
"Too much hassle," said Mick. "I'll melt the fence and we can get in that way."
"Except there are cameras everywhere," said Sara. "And if an alarm sounds then the whole Kasnian army will be on us."
"Bad idea then," said Mick. Apparently even he didn't like those odds. "Let's head down the road and jack a car."
Sara raised an eyebrow, and smirked at Mick. "I like the way you think."
"Er, Sara," said Jax. "Look who just turned up."
Sara turned back to the road. A very shiny black hover car had just arrived and it appeared to hold an important individual who was being personally met by a high-ranking member of the military. A woman stepped out of the car and she was unmistakeable. The blue hair and glowing eyes gave away her identity, despite the fact that she was dressed in a Kasnian uniform not unlike the ones that they were wearing, except with more braid.
"Oh my god," said Sara. "She didn't steal the weapons, she walked in and was given them. Somehow she's infiltrated the Kasnian military. We need to move fast, otherwise she's going to get away with this."
"Yeah, but we don't have nearly enough fire power to take on an entire base," said Jax.
"I know. Maybe we can beat her at her own game. We just have to prove that she's an imposter," said Sara.
"Dangerous games, blondie, since we're imposters too," pointed out Mick.
"We can't let her get more weapons to sell to primitive civilisations," replied Sara.
"And we need to get her to give us the cure for Rip," added Jax.
"We're going to have to capture her," said Sara. "This is going to be more complicated than we thought. We can't just blow the weapons shipment after she has it, because those weapons are needed here to prevent an aberration."
"Whatever we're doing, we need to do it," said Jax, "because she's in, and we've basically got until they load up a truck with weapons to fix this thing."
Sara frowned thoughtfully. "Okay, let's go get ourselves a car, but I think we'll need Ray's help and maybe Gideon can produce us some appropriate papers, and Ray can make sure the Kasnian military's computer system agrees."
Jax nodded. "Yeah, that should help."
Rip opened his eyes to a blurry milieu of colours. He blinked, expecting his vision to clear, but it didn't. He remembered the time jump and then darkness, and then he remembered why. He closed his eyes again because the blurred images they were sending to his brain were just a distraction. He needed to concentrate on listening. He heard some rustling, and became aware that he was wearing an oxygen mask. He suspected that someone was in the room with him but his eyesight was too poor at the moment to discern a person amongst the background noise. He reached up and removed the oxygen mask.
"Hello?" he tried. "Is someone there?"
There was the sound of a chair being pushed back. His hearing had returned so hopefully his eyesight would also be back properly soon.
"Ah, Captain Hunter, you're awake," said a voice that he knew belonged to Martin Stein. "Can you hear me now?"
"Yes, although I'm still having a little trouble seeing," said Rip, attempting to look in Martin's direction. "Everything's blurry, just colours really."
"It should clear up soon. Apparently, the jump inflamed your optical and auditory nerves, and some parts of your temporal lobe, producing the symptoms that you experienced."
Martin's voice was a disembodied thing in the room at the moment, and Rip was finding it slightly disconcerting being able to hear but not see. However, he'd take it over the total silence and blackness that he'd experienced earlier. If he hadn't been able to connect to the world through his sense of touch then he had no idea what he would have done, and he was currently thinking that he should thank Sara when she returned for thinking of the finger spelling.
"I assume I passed out after the jump," said Rip. "I just remember coming to in medbay with Sara tapping out messages on my hand."
There was a pause and Rip was certain that something was up.
"You had a seizure," said Martin, in what Rip knew was his tone reserved for breaking bad news gently. "Gideon explained that it's a very rare side effect of time travel but given your condition…"
"It was not unexpected and that explains why my body feels like it went five rounds with Mr Rory," said Rip, with understanding. "Still, I'm not sure that sedation was totally necessary, Gideon," he looked up in the direction of the blur that he was assuming was the ceiling, his tone somewhat annoyed.
"Ms Lance requested it," said Gideon. "She felt you would be better sleeping through the worst symptoms."
"I appreciate her concern, but unless there is a good medical reason, then I'd always prefer to be awake. I've done enough sleeping lately. Which reminds me, Gideon, step down pain medication by two points, I can feel that it's making me think slowly," said Rip.
"Of course, Captain," replied Gideon.
"Are you sure that's wise?" asked Martin.
"I'd rather suffer some slight discomfort and be able to think straight. Gideon has discretion if I'm unable to make my own decisions, but I prefer to be less drugged up that she would have me. Gideon's programmed to ensure that her patients' experience as little pain as possible, but that does lead to a corresponding impairment of cognition. Besides, if it's unbearable then I can always step it back up again," said Rip.
"Well, you know your own ship's idiosyncrasies," said Martin.
"All ship's AIs have the same underlying medical programs," said Rip. "Although Gideon has definitely picked up a few interesting traits over the years, and has learnt a few bad habits. One of which is apparently listening to you lot when you tell her to do something." Rip rubbed a hand across his forehead.
"Actually, I had a theory that I wanted to run past you in that regard," said Martin, apparently pulling up a chair beside the medbay couch that Rip was reclining on.
Rip attempted a look towards Martin but still couldn't see anything more than a blur. "Go ahead. Is this regarding Gideon?"
"Well, in so much as she is an AI, but I'm actually thinking about Godiva and the Helios. I have a hypothesis that something happened to Captain Meaden and she was badly injured. Is it possible that Captain Meaden was so badly injured that Godiva might have added the inorganic elements that Sara described as being part of Zero Hour? I took the liberty of checking your medical preference list and noted that you included an instruction that none of your limbs or organs should be replace with inorganic machinery without your express consent."
Rip nodded. "Yes, because I know what happens when humans stop being humans. They lose part of what makes them who they are."
He paused, considering the Hunters that the Time Masters had altered. He wondered how he'd ever managed to reconcile their existence with his job of protecting the timeline. Somehow it had seemed that they were a necessary evil in service of their higher goal, and he'd never considered what it had taken to create such beings. He'd been so blind to what was going on, but he was also beginning to realise that the Time Masters had committed a subtle kind of brainwashing to the children that they'd recruited to become Captains. They'd given them a home and a purpose, and created an atmosphere where rebellion was almost unthinkable. Rip was constantly surprised that he'd managed to be as much of a thorn in their side as he'd been, given his upbringing. However, he'd never forgotten what it was like to live on the street, and his mother had always encouraged his individuality, as she had with all her children.
"Captain?" asked Martin, and he realised that he'd been lost in thought for a little too long.
Rip looked back towards where he assumed Martin to be. "Yes. Sorry. Er, to answer your question, if Hera didn't specifically state that Godiva should not use all life saving measures possible, her AI would have had the option to replace her body parts with mechanical equivalents. However, she would have had to have been extremely badly injured for Godiva to have done that. Normally a ship's medbay can regenerate tissue, but it does have limits. As you know, regeneration taxes the body, especially if it is done a lot. You may remember that Mr Snart slept for most of a day after Gideon rebuilt his hand. Now, imagine if a whole body needed such treatment. The border between saving a person and killing the person would be very slight. However, in such circumstances, the medical program could use inorganic parts to save someone, usually with the intent of replacing those parts later."
"So, it is possible?" asked Martin.
"Possible, yes," said Rip. "Very unlikely though. Godiva would have tried everything else first. Unless…" He had suddenly been struck by a worrying thought.
"Unless?"
"Unless Godiva's programming was also damaged," said Rip. "Again, the Helios would have needed to sustain heavy damage. The self-repair systems would have to have been destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Which begs the question of what happened to it? What happened to Hera?"
"That, I'm afraid, I can't answer," said Martin.
"Dare I ask for an update on my own condition?" asked Rip, wearily.
"Unfortunately, as we expected, the virus has gained ground after the time jump and I expect you to be running a fever again in a few hours' time," said Martin. "Raymond and I are working as hard as we can to find a new antiviral, but once again the new mutation is proving to be very difficult, and different from the previous one. Whoever created this knew what they were doing. I'm sorry I can't give you better news."
"I appreciate all your efforts, Martin," said Rip, sincerely. He caught movement in the direction of the door, and decided that Ray had probably returned. "And those of Doctor Palmer."
"Hey, you're awake," said Ray, confirming Rip's assumptions. "And you can hear." He sounded quite enthusiastic about this.
"Indeed, but alas you're still just a colourful blob so my eyes are not yet up to much," said Rip.
"It'll be better soon," said Ray, optimistically. Rip hoped that he was right, because he was quite fed up with this. "How are you feeling?"
"I would really like people to stop asking me that," said Rip, with annoyance.
Ray gave him a nod of understanding and at least didn't press the question. "Yeah, I bet. Professor, I have the new cultures. One of them looks like it might be promising."
"Ah, good work, Doctor Palmer," replied Martin. "Let's get back to work then."
"White Canary to Waverider, Ray, we could do with some backup if you don't mind getting the suit on."
"I'll be right there," said Ray, his voice fading out. Rip could only assume that the inventor was going to put on his ATOM suit. He could hear Sara continuing the conversation with him as Gideon changed the speakers she was using so that Ray could continue the conversation as he moved. There was something about papers but he didn't catch anything else. Then there was a lull in the voices, so Rip decided to see if anyone would actually tell him what was going on.
"Is there a problem, Ms Lance?" asked Rip, tiredly. Gideon would pick up his voice and transmit it.
"Hey, you can hear," said Sara.
"Yes, still working on seeing. Why do you need Ray?"
"We need him to help us steal a car," said Sara, her voice a little distorted by the radio.
"I probably don't want to know why," said Rip, with resignation.
"You're supposed to be resting, not worrying about us," pointed out Sara, unapologetic.
"Thanks to you, I've had quite enough rest for now," replied Rip, crossly.
"You needed it, so quit complaining. Ray, what's you ETA?"
"Five minutes," replied Ray, back outside the medbay. "I'm leaving now. Hopefully this won't take long, Professor."
"Don't worry about us. The Captain and I will be fine," said Martin.
Again, Rip could only go by what he was hearing, because his eyes were still only producing blurry colours, but he thought he heard Ray snapping up the final components in his suit and then stomping from the room.
Rip felt totally useless, lying here, half blind and still without enough strength to even sit up on his own. His muscles ached from the seizure, something which was becoming more obvious now that Gideon had stepped down the painkillers. He pulled the blanket up around himself, he was cold and medbay was suddenly feeling very large and echoing. He shivered and then realised what that probably meant.
"Martin?" he asked.
"Yes, Captain Hunter."
"Is my temperature up again?"
Martin got up and came over to look at the vitals on the screen behind the chair. "Yes, I'm afraid it is. That was quicker than we expected."
Rip scrubbed a hand across his poorly functioning eyes and let out a defeated sigh. "Since when has anything we've ever done gone as expected. I hope the rest of the team are having better luck."
