Legal stuff: Nadesico is owned by Xebec and ADV Vision not me! So I don't claim to own any of the characters in this fic apart from those which I have invented (which obviously are not those which appear in the TV series) so please don't sue me or anything similarly painful. Those which I have created … well no-one would want to but if you do have the strange desire to steal them. Please don't.
Thank you Huhn for the review and Sprite, brassmonki for the proof reading and general help. Hopefully now I have more description and I am spell checking very carefully.
Ryoko woke up, normally people would say something like 'Where am I?' or even in some cases 'Who am I?', however Ryoko didn't have this problem firstly because she knew where she was because it was on a plaque directly in front of her. And secondly even if she had lost her memory she would still know who she was …
"Ryoko … your awake … you're ok now!" Having your name shouted in your ear from an inch away is a fair indication of who you are even if you are confused.
Ryoko sank back into the pillow and closed her eyes; she didn't have to look to see who this was. Only one person could sound so bubbly in a hospital.
"Hello Hikaru"
"You're in the hospital wing of the ship"
"I know"
"Do you want me to get you anything?"
"No … actually, could you do something for me?"
"Of course" Hikaru was struck by the hesitancy in Ryoko's voice.
"In my room there is a letter, by my bed, could you bring it here .."
Hikaru starts to walk to the door "I'll just go and get it" 'And have a quick look of course' she thought to herself.
"Hikaru"
"Yes, Ryoko"
"I know that you want to but don't do it"
"Do what …" Hikaru turns back at the door an expression of innocent incomprehension on her face.
"Look at the letter" Hikaru finally notices that Ryoko is speaking without emotion, almost mechanically. "Please don't"
This statement is so unusual that Hikaru instinctively replies "Of course Ryoko, I promise that I won't look" 'Damn why did I say that, there must be something really interesting in there, maybe she's finally got over Akito and has got a secret boyfriend, …. But how' Hikaru was still muttering to herself as she exited almost knocking down an entering doctor.
Recalling what had happened Ryoko thought 'They must think I'm a real nut case now!'
As the doctor swept into the room he pulled a clipboard off the end of her bed and started scribbling, checking the various instruments surrounding her.
"I am here you know"
The doctor peered down his nose at this interruption, damn, though Ryoko, he even has those stupid half moon spectacles to peer over.
"You don't look suicidal"
He even sounds like some 80 year old second hand book seller, Ryoko thought,
"It just goes to show, you really can't tell"
Ryoko replayed these statements back in her head, "Hey I'm not suicidal, that's Izumi and she's over it" She really couldn't muster the energy for a good rant at him; also the shock might kill him she thought as he bumbled off.
At the door the doctor turned round "There's no need to get upset about it, we're here to help, and there are no sharp objects around you so don't feel tempted."
As he wandered off Ryoko said helplessly to the empty room "I'm not suicidal, it was an accident!" she then realizes that something is missing "Where the hell is that guy who I rescued?"
Hikaru struggled with the moral dilemma but finally decided not to look, or ask Izumi to look, or accidentally look in anyway at the letter. When she reached Ryoko's room and the door slid open the first thing she noticed was the stench of blood wafting out making her gag.
The bed was completely soaked and lying on the floor was a much folded piece of paper with 'Lt. Subaru' written on the uppermost side; however this had been rendered almost unrecognizable by the smudging caused by drops of water falling onto it. Hikaru picked it up and hurried away.
She almost smashed Izumi down the corridor as they collided. "How is she" Izumi subdued for once asked, catching sight of the letter she asked "what's that?"
Hikaru remembering her promise to Ryoko and herself "N ... nothing Izumi!" and continued down the corridor before realizing that in the confusion Izumi had taken the letter.
"No! I promised Ryoko … "
"I won't tell if you don't"
Izumi scans the first line then starts swearing graphically and imaginatively so violently that a passing engineer looked at her strangely then wondered off muttering to herself.
"What is it Izumi?"
Wordlessly she is handed the letter and against her better judgment she opens it.
"Not another damn doctor" Ryoko's exasperation was evident even from across the room 'why doesn't Hikaru come back I need someone sane to talk to someone sane'
"Quite chirpy now aren't we" this doctor had greasy hair and a faint patina of sweat glistening on his balding dome.
Ryoko deciding that anybody so clichéd and dull could safely be ignored tried to sit up as Hikaru came in.
After the scream of pain subsided the doctor continued "I wouldn't try and push yourself up with you damaged arm quite yet m'dear" Leering at Hikaru "I'll leave you two ladies … alone, maybe you're friend could give you a helping hand" giggling to himself he leaves the room.
Ryoko clenched her good hand "If he comes within punching distance he will see how 'chirpy' I can be …"
"He wasn't so cocky yesterday morning, he slipped up in someone's vomit and slammed into a wall when they were clearing up"
"Who told you that?"
"The head doctor"
"?... I may have been in here some time but I don't know who any of them are"
"The one who isn't a librarian or the perv"
"Right …. Did you get the letter?"
"Um well …"
Ryoko panics "You did find it, where is it!"
Izumi, who was waiting outside, sighed and stepped in. Holding the open letter.
Ryoko loses any cheerfulness she had put on for Hikaru's sake and just stared at their faces.
"You know don't you"
"Yes"
"It's not true none of it …." Ryoko paused as her voice began to break and tears welled up in her eyes.
In the intensive care section Jun is lying lifeless in his bed the only noise the quiet beeping of the heart monitor and the quiet hiss of the artificial lungs. His head is swathed in bandages and he hasn't regained consciousness.
Asleep after a night waiting in vain Yurika is slumped in a chair outside.
Inez is slumped in another chair and is talking to the head doctor "Finally, we almost lost them"
"It doesn't help that Mr Smith suddenly broke from his coma into a synaptic cascade, can we talk freely here …"
"Yes doctor we can" emotionless as ever even after 10 hours "For her own sake I gave her a sleeping pill, she still refused to leave though …"
Sarcastic, in a nice way however he replies "Aww how sweet, anyway what the hell caused that full synaptic cascade. I've never heard of that happening before."
"I'm not sure yet, I need to run some more diagnostic tests" Inez seems puzzled by her own inability to comprehend this problem
"Somebody obviously took a dislike to Mr Aoi, whatever you may tell the others, those wounds were not accidental, he was hit three times in the stomach and two glancing blows to the head." Looking bleary eyed at Inez then stretching lazily he continued "If either of those had connected properly he would be in the refrigeration unit by now"
"However the story put out to the crew is that, still concussed he slipped up again and tragically his head smashed against the bulkhead causing that injury"
"Right I'll prep my team" Yawns "Then I'm off to sleep"
Inez was too deep in though to respond or even notice when he left she was too concerned about what had happened. Even a partial Synaptic cascade for a couple of minutes was a freak byproduct of faulty IFS insertion which was incredibly rare and of course it was occasionally deliberately employed in some dictatorships … a full synaptic cascade was a logical impossibility! As Inez drifted into sleep her mind relived what had happened ten hours before.
(10 hours before, and 5 minutes after the medical teams arrived at Ryoko and Jun)
On their way to the operating room Keiji's (the head doctor) communicator starts vibrating on his wrist and a warning message appears in front of him. Complicating matters. "Mr Smith has suddenly broken from his coma violently, Yama get this one in surgery and start work, the skull doesn't look fractured but check. The woman should be ok after patching up and a transfusion."
Yamaguchi (Yama for short known to Hikaru as the Librarian one) now recovered after being sick sheepishly relies "We might need to drill and remove liquid pressure on his brain"
"Do what you have to" Keiji shouted back as he hurried onto the ward 'damn that sounds cliché!'
Running in to the ward he is confronted by four nurses (the Howmei girls) holding down the patient and one franticly and repeatedly hitting the alarm button.
"Stop that! Now calm down what happened" This time he didn't start shaking her to get the information, he still felt guilty about ignoring that kid's evident shock before but he had to get the information fast.
"Um … suddenly his heart rate and pressure went up and the computer readout said …"
"What!"
"Um … here it is"
Keiji quickly scanned the sheet of paper until he stopped at possible causes predicted by the medical records synaptic reaction P85.
Glancing at the trembling girls name tag then staring into the distance almost calmly, a sharp contrast to the nurses who were struggling to keep the convulsing figure in the bed, he suddenly clenched his fist and asked her "Miss Eri could you please get Miss Fressange, … as quickly as possible, no I don't care if she doesn't want to be disturbed tell her, her pet theory is just about to be proved brutally right!"
"You er … Juko and you Sayuri get a drip ready and a sachet of no.2 anesthetic," franticly reading off nametags and counting off the things needed on his fingers he continues "Harumi find the strongest painkiller we have in the storage cupboard, the code is 4783LK2J … um … what else do we need!"
"A neural reader and a resuscitating unit"
"Thank you Miss Fressange, I'm glad you could take the time away from your studies to see one of your theories in action … Junko you heard the woman get the equipment, get some restraining straps while you're there and also …. don't worry its here, go go!"
After some frantic running around, bumping into each other being yelled at and occasionally mistaking equipment everything is assembled.
Inez is noting the readings streaming off the neural reader and a faint smile touches her lips.
"I'm right in assuming that there is nothing we can do except drug him up to his eyeballs with painkillers and neural suppressers … yes thank you Eri you can go and help your friends start up the resuscitation unit, its over there, by the big buzzing thing, yes that's it there … and ride out the storm" Keiji organizes the Howmei girls, ties down the patient and talks to Inez at the same time, and manages to sound vaguely coherent.
"According to my theory yes"
"According to your theory this is impossible"
"Nothing is impossible, doctor"
"Right Junko now just insert the needle gently, no not there … in the vein, that's it … no not too deep right now start the anesthetic dispenser going, you've hooked him up?"
"Yes, sir!" Howmei girls give strange attempt at salute.
"So all we can do now if wait and pray that it affects him quickly enough so that this cascade doesn't kill him!"
Inez is still standing smiling slightly holding the readout.
"Why are you still monitoring him? His brain waves should be completely unremarkable; he's completely out of it"
Inez's smile fades as she passes him the readout
"What there hasn't been any affect?"
He turns to the Howmei girls just as one of them cries out "It's not doing anything, the computer says … that he's rejecting the drugs"
"But that's impossible!" Contradicting her earlier statement Inez now frantically scans the read off.
"Sayuri, take a blood sample, quickly … um on second thoughts I will"
As he quickly inserts the sterilized needle into an available vein then draws out a capsule of blood which he quickly inserts into a blood spectrometer and a drop onto a microscope slide. And as he adjusted the tracking and focus with one hand as he tapped the desk rhythmically with the other.
As he does this the progress reports from the Nurses are steadily worsening. "INR is reaching the limit of recordable levels!" "Blood pressure spasmodically rising and falling" "Pulse weak and irregular" "Still no affect from the drugs!"
Ignoring this, Keiji zero's the microscope on a point of activity and steadily increases the magnification until even the miniscule red blood cells are visible. As he did so the tapping, reflecting his mood became more frantic and disjointed.
Standing up he sighs and stares upwards before continuing almost in a monotone, "Miss Fressange, we suspected that the Nanites can perform genetic re-composition, now it seems that is not all they can do." Gestures wearily to the microscope, then stands and stares blankly at the instruments surrounding the figure, now weakly thrashing around under all the restraining straps. Slowly his fist clenches until his knuckles turn white.
Puzzled by this strange behavior the Howmei girls stand around dumbly bereft of any orders and having no idea what to do they huddle in a group waiting.
Inez starts speaking, her eye still on the eyepiece of the microscope. "How is this possible, the anesthetics are being … decomposed? They're being converted into harmless byproducts, which don't have any effect … it's …. it's the Nanites. But how! It's been proved that they are only passive components except in the extreme case of outside intervention during the first few months of pregnancy…
She is cut off rather rudely by Keiji "He's going to die isn't he"
Straightening up she turned and answered his question, but without meeting his eye's. "Unless, we can stop the cycle he will die, its amazing he's lasted this long, but you know that, its not your fault, just like it wasn't your fault before" Finally she meets his eyes, then quickly turns away.
"You know that I couldn't take it happening again, Inez, not after last time … not again!"
The Howmei girls huddled in the corner, silent observers to a play in which they have no part or can possibly image what has happened in the first half.
"There is nothing you can do Keiji! Just except it finally!" in a rare display of emotion Inez raises her voice and finally meets and keeps eye to eye contact.
"You weren't there, you didn't watch him die! It was my fault; nothing you can say can diminish that." His voice brakes as the echo's of the past threaten to overwhelm him and he turns away from Inez as he does so the Howmei girls see his face now cold and emotionless the features a stark relief to the eyes. Two dark orbs filled with unending pain staring out upon the world blankly with remembered pain.
"It could be said that the greatest crime would be to give in to selfish self-pitying when the chance remains to save this man"
Slowly with deadly calm he replies "Once I didn't know what to do or what I was doing, that wasn't an excuse then it isn't now, now I know exactly what I need to do, I just can't do it; and yes it is selfish of me, but then people with emotions need to release them occasionally"
"Then I will leave you to your pain, whatever good that does you … or him" after this bitter retort Inez walks slowly out ushering the shocked Howmei girls with her.
Ryoko has recovered and Hikaru and Izumi are sitting either side of her bed, even Izumi realizes that making wisecracks at this point wouldn't be a good idea. Ryoko is red eyed and exhausted in mind and body. This huge contrast to the confidant, authoritative and sometimes violent tomboy the pilots knew was gone frightened young woman sheltering under the shell was exposed. After reading the letter both pilots understood why.
Speaking in a gentle voice Hikaru asks "You know we will always believe you Ryoko"
With a flicker of her old self Ryoko reply's "Hikaru I may be in a hospital but I am not a nut case, neither am I an invalid, continue in that tone of voice and expect immediate violence."
"Erm … yes, right" Hikaru continues in her normal voice. "Well I think the first thing we should do is tell the captain"
Izumi slightly less naïve answers before Hikaru herself is hospitalized "No we can't do that, firstly as captain she would have to lock up Ryoko, even if personally she did believe her."
Depressed as her fears are confirmed Ryoko continues "Secondly she might not believe me."
"Why wouldn't she believe you?"
"Less competition for Akito, if Ryoko is out of the way" Izumi feels that this positive joke should be safe and maybe cheer up Ryoko.
"Izumi, I hate to brake your perverted bridesmaid fantasies, but our benevolent captain has Akito firmly under her thumb, I don't have a chance and …I never really had any chance" Izumi's comment backfires as Ryoko becomes even more depressed.
Hikaru is bursting to say something so the others let her "Um … we could work together as a team and find this blackmailer!"
Izumi can't help herself and starts giggling insanely.
Ryoko's mental compass swings back to normal as she smiles slightly then explains the facts of life to Hikaru "Hikaru, I don't know if you noticed but we're not in one of your anime shows, the real word doesn't work that way. 'Three best friends and a dog' going around solving mysteries only happens in kiddies shows."
Hikaru pouts and turns red at this insult of her pride and joy "Some of those programs are designed and written for an adult audience; there not all for kiddies … anyway even those are fun to watch."
Izumi falls out of her chair laughing at the outraged expression on Hikaru's face.
Even Ryoko manages a proper smile.
Hikaru outwardly embarrassed and inwardly pleased splutters "Well I like them anyway!" in her mind a little chibi Hikaru punches the air in triumph. Not only had she managed to stop one of Ryoko's more destructive mood swings but she had … made a complete fool of herself … damn she thought as the chibi Hikaru hung her head in shame.
"So what can we do then?" Hikaru is steadily turning redder and redder.
Izumi is lying on the floor thumping it with her fist and begging for mercy between bouts of laughter. Ryoko is staring out into space with a slight grin on her face which slowly fades as her mind returns to the problem at hand.
"Well what!" Hikaru exasperated at the lack of response, or in Izumi's case coherent response. "You don't have anything better to do, do you!"
"Nothing"
"What!"
"Nothing, we can't do anything, anything at all … were completely at this persons mercy."
End of Episode 3
(A/N Hopefully all will be revealed in next episodes, cos otherwise this one will be too long. About the Howmei girls being Nurses, well … er it seemed like a good idea at the time. I'm sorry if I have insulted any Nurses by inadvertently suggesting that all it takes is the ability to take orders promptly and a certain familiarity with sharp knives and slicing up things. I didn't mean it. Also otherwise I can't justify more than 3 doctors on a ship with Mr Prospector as the bursar. Plus I find them funny….)