"Willow, why don't I show you the medical facilities? It might be a good idea for at least one of you to become acquainted with them, and I have the feeling that your associates would be spending more time with Lt. Madison." Alex looked at Willow, part of him just wanting to get her alone, and part of him worrying about the idea of Angel and sufficient meals.
Willow smiled, and rose from her chair, tucking her hair back almost nervously. "Yeah, the medical area. It would be good, and maybe interesting… I used to be quite the science nerd."
Alex placed his hand under her arm, leading her out past Malthesar and Jason, sighing just a bit at the way Jason was pacing and muttering under his breath. "He's not taking this very well, is he?"
"Doesn't look that way. I mean, it could be worse, like the way my mom reacted the first time I tried to tell her about the magic, but…" Willow shivered, a hint that her mother's reaction had been very bad. "Either he'll just have to deal with it, or after this is over he'll be repressing. But if he can deal with aliens and spaceships based on your old television series, vampires shouldn't be that bad."
"One might hope so, anyhow." He shook his head, considering everything that he'd seen in all the years that he'd known Jason Nesmith. "But he's quite far from predictable sometimes. He dealt quite well with the reality of the Thermians, once he figured out that this wasn't all an elaborate set up by a group of fans."
"You're worrying about Angel, aren't you?" Her voice was soft, and her hand slid down, fingers lacing through his.
"Honestly, yes. While he seems… quiet, I find myself entirely lacking any desire to be on his dinner menu." Alex remembered those sharp teeth, imagined them ripping into his flesh, and shivered. "I'm hoping that we can figure out some sort of alternative for him."
"Angel's a decent enough guy. I just… well, him and Gwen…" Willow's free hand was making little gestures, enough that he was quite certain that he'd missed a few bits of information. "But these bad guys… Thermian would be world – no, galactic conquerers? And who's Sarrais anyhow?"
"The lord of bugs and explosions, as Jason put it. The previous bad guy. Apparently, one of his subordinates survived." Alex made a half shrug. "Our problem isn't identifying the fallen, but figuring out how to stop their successors. And I'm certain that this is a bit beyond what I was expecting today."
Willow giggled. "Beyond what you hired on for? Cordy was just planning to be a Princess, dress up nice, look haughty, have a few lines… I was hoping to escape with nothing more than standing in the background." She glanced at him, shyly grinning. "Nobody told me that we'd be trying to save the galaxy from a group of aspiring dictators. I'm hoping for division in the ranks – if they start fighting each other, then we can hopefully find them more easily. And then they're weaker because they couldn't cooperate, and we beat them."
"What are the odds of that?" He felt a little bit of hope, wondering if it could really be so simple. Could the villains turn on each other?
"Well, if they're ruthless and ambitious enough to try mutiny and power grabbing before, they might try it again. And most of the baddies we run into have an impatient streak. The patient ones are generally much harder to catch. Or maybe they'll decided they'd like a larger slice of the galactic pie, and start pruning their rivals out of the power chart…" Willow was clearly thinking out loud.
End part 16.
The doors to the medical area also made that weird swooshy noise when the opened. She was starting to think that all of them would make that same sound. It would probably be easier to use the same sort of door everywhere, after all, or at least everywhere inside. Willow wasn't surprised to see several Thermians inside – after all, one doctor couldn't take care of an entire ship, and what if the doctor was the injured patient?
"Dr Lazarus! So good to see you again." The smiling Thermian's uniform was slightly different, and he looked a bit less lean that the others that she'd met, and his hair had a few streaks of gray along the temples. "And who is your companion?"
"Doctor Teirell, this is Willow Rosenberg. Willow, this is Doctor Teirell, an expert in Thermian biology and virology." Alex made the introduction smoothly, his mind trying to come up with a smooth way to ask his questions without revealing the depths of his ignorance to everyone here. They needed to have confidence that their 'help' could, in fact, help them.
"And what is your area of expertise, Willow Rosenberg? Or should I call you Doctor Rosenberg?" Dr. Teirell's calm question accompanied a friendly handshake.
"Please, just call me Willow. I haven't… My parents are Doctor Rosenberg, although they've got different specializations. I'm still working on my formal education, with studies in computers and electronics, as well as some quantum manipulations. A… Dr Lazarus was just mentioning some of the things here in the medical area…" Willow smiled charmingly, tucking her hair behind her ear as she rambled.
"Perhaps you could explain some of them a bit to her while I see if there's anything that I need to catch up on here? Malthesar's briefing was… troubling and rather brief." Alex had this tight little smile, as if he wasn't quite pleased but wanted to hide it.
"Of course, Dr. Lazarus. Nurse Eelani can explain everything. There have been a few changes in the staff, and some of the equipment has been updated… I will make certain that copies of all the manuals will be left in your quarters." Dr. Teirell nodded, and made an expansive wave towards the facilities. "Where would you like me to begin, Willow?"
Glancing to see that Alex would be alright, Willow looked back to Dr. Teirell. "Why not start with explaining how a routine check up would go? I'm guessing that it's a bit different from what I'm used to. Then, I can move on to asking what everything does, and what would happen in an assortment of horrible situations."
"And what specializations do your parents practice?" His voice was curious as they moved towards one of the flat blue-gray beds.
"My father is a dentist. He takes care of teeth, and tends to cavities, a little dental surgery on occasion. As for my mother, she's a psychologist. Do you have those? It part of her job to figure out if people are thinking and functioning normally in society and to try to help them adjust if they aren't."
"And are the people of your world reluctant to see the one who tends and inspects their biting surfaces as well?" He had a faint smile, and a twinkle in his eyes as if her comments had brought up fond memories.
"It depends on how well they take care of them, I suppose. People with a lot of cavities really don't like to go, but those with healthy teeth don't have as many problems." Willow smiled, noticing the odd way that he'd phrased that question – their biting surfaces?
Willow listened carefully as he explained the process of a check up, and how the basic diagnostic tools worked. She might be able to follow the procedure, but she doubted that she'd know what the results meant. "So, what happens if there's an injury? If there's a lot of blood loss, some physical trauma…"
"Well, that would be most unfortunate." Dr. Teirell made a glance around the room, and pointed at a door marked with several strange curling marks that reminded Willow a bit of Hebrew writing. "Through there is our surgical facility, where we would try to realign any shattered bones and tend to soft tissue trauma. There are several specialized machines which would assist in the procedures if needed, to ensure continued safe breathing, to regulate heartbeats, or to administer vital fluids. There is another machine that would be most important if any of the humans are injured – it can synthesize blood, assuming that the appropriate supplies are here and we have a reference sample for a template. We were unable to leave with a supply of human blood in case of injury, and shall simply have to hope that Commander Taggert avoids any spectacular heroics this time."
"Oh thank goodness for that." Willow sighed in relief. If they could synthesize blood for Angel, things were definitely looking better.
"Why do you say that? You appear to be in excellent health, and uninjured." Dr. Teirell's question was a clear effort to get an explanation.
"Because… one of the other people brought onto the Protector, Angel is… his health is different. He's a vampire, which might not be a familiar term to you at all. But one of the things that it means for him is that he can't… he can't digest normal food, and must feed regularly on blood. I'm sure that you can understand why this is cause for concern to me, to all of us." Willow looked over, hoping that the doctor wouldn't panic.
"This sounds like a most unusual condition indeed. Is there any sort of treatment, medication perhaps? A cure?" Dr. Teirell was looking thoughtful, as if his mind was already considering Angel's 'medical problem'.
"It's not the sort of thing that medication can help, and as far as we know, it's irreversible. There are some compensations for him, but…" Willow shrugged, uncertain how much to explain, and deciding to leave it at as little as possible. "It's very important that he have a blood supply."
"We can begin synthesizing a supply as soon as we have a sample to use as a template. Perhaps several samples would be better… I shall have to call everyone in for a physical anyhow. Perhaps I could start with a sample of your blood? And a full physical to establish a baseline for future references, of course." He had that gentle professional smile again.
Willow sighed, somehow not surprised that she would be asked to do something like this. It was perfectly logical, after all. "I suppose it would be a good idea."
End part 17.
Cordelia sat there, rubbing at her temple while Malthesar left the room. Jason was still pacing, and Fred and Laliari were sitting very close to each other, whispering back and forth. "This is not what I signed on for. This is not supposed to be happening today. Today was supposed to be normal, with just ego flashes and lighting problems."
"He's a vampire! Why didn't you bring any of this up before?" Jason's growl wasn't as intimidating as a demon's, but it was still fairly intense.
"And when would that have come up? Why should it have come up?" Cordelia looked at him, her eyes narrowing. "It wasn't any of your business then. And you are in no position to be yelling at me for keeping secrets."
"Why should it? He's a vampire! Vampires are dangerous, bloodsucking monsters that kill people! I can't imagine why that would have been good to know." He'd stopped pacing, and was now standing there, glaring at the seat where Angel had been sitting.
"He doesn't do that sort of thing." Cordelia deliberately didn't add the part where he 'didn't do that anymore', figuring that really wouldn't help matters.
"We've been dating! Why wouldn't you have mentioned that the guy you work for is a walking corpse?" Jason moved closer, his nostrils flaring and his face turning red.
"Maybe for the same reason that you didn't mention that we might be kidnapped by aliens? Maybe because I thought you might freak out, or think that I'm crazy?" She glared right back, refusing to let him shout her into submission, especially about this.
"Of course I didn't mention the aliens! That sort of thing makes people freak out. But he's…" Jason fumbled for words, glancing at Cordelia before looking over at Fred. "A little help?
"I'm not getting into this one." Fred made a little swirling gesture between them. "You just keep right on trying."
"Thanks for the support." Jason muttered, looking back to Cordelia. "You didn't tell me about any of this."
"No, I didn't. We're always in public, or arguing, or kissing. And it just never came up. Deal with the fact that I didn't share any more than you did, and deal with it quietly so that we can figure out how to get rid of these bad guys. I have an episode to guest star in." Cordelia glared, certain that she'd want to shut herself in a room and cry later.
"That… but… It… arggghh!" Jason growled, stomping his way out of the room.
"That went… badly." Cordelia sank back into her seat, now really wishing that she had another cup of that nasty herbal potion that Willow had given her.
"It is a bit of a shock." Fred's voice seemed pretty calm as he ventured the words.
"You aren't freaking out like that." Sighing, she wondered if there was something like aspirin on this ship, and if she could get some of it.
"He's more excitable." There was a small shrug to accompany the words.
"Yeah, I guess." Finally, she looked at them. "Can you lead me somewhere that I can get something to take to make this headache go away?"
"Of course. There are medical facilities, they should have something for your head." Laliari's voice was calm, and she glanced over. "Are vampires normal for this world? They are in many movies, in songs, and yet… his reaction was most shocked."
Cordelia smiled, finally a question that would be easy to answer. "You know how you guys thought that the series was real when it was just a story? Vampires seem to work just the opposite – people want to think that they're just stories, but they're real. Scary and real."
"Ahhh. That almost makes sense." Laliari stood up, her hand still liked to Fred's. "Follow me to the medical area."
"And in other situations, those words would bring up a creepy feeling." Cordelia shook her head, before deciding to follow the alien to most likely an examining room. "Maybe I should get my head checked out when this is over with."
End 18.
Willow smiled, and rose from her chair, tucking her hair back almost nervously. "Yeah, the medical area. It would be good, and maybe interesting… I used to be quite the science nerd."
Alex placed his hand under her arm, leading her out past Malthesar and Jason, sighing just a bit at the way Jason was pacing and muttering under his breath. "He's not taking this very well, is he?"
"Doesn't look that way. I mean, it could be worse, like the way my mom reacted the first time I tried to tell her about the magic, but…" Willow shivered, a hint that her mother's reaction had been very bad. "Either he'll just have to deal with it, or after this is over he'll be repressing. But if he can deal with aliens and spaceships based on your old television series, vampires shouldn't be that bad."
"One might hope so, anyhow." He shook his head, considering everything that he'd seen in all the years that he'd known Jason Nesmith. "But he's quite far from predictable sometimes. He dealt quite well with the reality of the Thermians, once he figured out that this wasn't all an elaborate set up by a group of fans."
"You're worrying about Angel, aren't you?" Her voice was soft, and her hand slid down, fingers lacing through his.
"Honestly, yes. While he seems… quiet, I find myself entirely lacking any desire to be on his dinner menu." Alex remembered those sharp teeth, imagined them ripping into his flesh, and shivered. "I'm hoping that we can figure out some sort of alternative for him."
"Angel's a decent enough guy. I just… well, him and Gwen…" Willow's free hand was making little gestures, enough that he was quite certain that he'd missed a few bits of information. "But these bad guys… Thermian would be world – no, galactic conquerers? And who's Sarrais anyhow?"
"The lord of bugs and explosions, as Jason put it. The previous bad guy. Apparently, one of his subordinates survived." Alex made a half shrug. "Our problem isn't identifying the fallen, but figuring out how to stop their successors. And I'm certain that this is a bit beyond what I was expecting today."
Willow giggled. "Beyond what you hired on for? Cordy was just planning to be a Princess, dress up nice, look haughty, have a few lines… I was hoping to escape with nothing more than standing in the background." She glanced at him, shyly grinning. "Nobody told me that we'd be trying to save the galaxy from a group of aspiring dictators. I'm hoping for division in the ranks – if they start fighting each other, then we can hopefully find them more easily. And then they're weaker because they couldn't cooperate, and we beat them."
"What are the odds of that?" He felt a little bit of hope, wondering if it could really be so simple. Could the villains turn on each other?
"Well, if they're ruthless and ambitious enough to try mutiny and power grabbing before, they might try it again. And most of the baddies we run into have an impatient streak. The patient ones are generally much harder to catch. Or maybe they'll decided they'd like a larger slice of the galactic pie, and start pruning their rivals out of the power chart…" Willow was clearly thinking out loud.
End part 16.
The doors to the medical area also made that weird swooshy noise when the opened. She was starting to think that all of them would make that same sound. It would probably be easier to use the same sort of door everywhere, after all, or at least everywhere inside. Willow wasn't surprised to see several Thermians inside – after all, one doctor couldn't take care of an entire ship, and what if the doctor was the injured patient?
"Dr Lazarus! So good to see you again." The smiling Thermian's uniform was slightly different, and he looked a bit less lean that the others that she'd met, and his hair had a few streaks of gray along the temples. "And who is your companion?"
"Doctor Teirell, this is Willow Rosenberg. Willow, this is Doctor Teirell, an expert in Thermian biology and virology." Alex made the introduction smoothly, his mind trying to come up with a smooth way to ask his questions without revealing the depths of his ignorance to everyone here. They needed to have confidence that their 'help' could, in fact, help them.
"And what is your area of expertise, Willow Rosenberg? Or should I call you Doctor Rosenberg?" Dr. Teirell's calm question accompanied a friendly handshake.
"Please, just call me Willow. I haven't… My parents are Doctor Rosenberg, although they've got different specializations. I'm still working on my formal education, with studies in computers and electronics, as well as some quantum manipulations. A… Dr Lazarus was just mentioning some of the things here in the medical area…" Willow smiled charmingly, tucking her hair behind her ear as she rambled.
"Perhaps you could explain some of them a bit to her while I see if there's anything that I need to catch up on here? Malthesar's briefing was… troubling and rather brief." Alex had this tight little smile, as if he wasn't quite pleased but wanted to hide it.
"Of course, Dr. Lazarus. Nurse Eelani can explain everything. There have been a few changes in the staff, and some of the equipment has been updated… I will make certain that copies of all the manuals will be left in your quarters." Dr. Teirell nodded, and made an expansive wave towards the facilities. "Where would you like me to begin, Willow?"
Glancing to see that Alex would be alright, Willow looked back to Dr. Teirell. "Why not start with explaining how a routine check up would go? I'm guessing that it's a bit different from what I'm used to. Then, I can move on to asking what everything does, and what would happen in an assortment of horrible situations."
"And what specializations do your parents practice?" His voice was curious as they moved towards one of the flat blue-gray beds.
"My father is a dentist. He takes care of teeth, and tends to cavities, a little dental surgery on occasion. As for my mother, she's a psychologist. Do you have those? It part of her job to figure out if people are thinking and functioning normally in society and to try to help them adjust if they aren't."
"And are the people of your world reluctant to see the one who tends and inspects their biting surfaces as well?" He had a faint smile, and a twinkle in his eyes as if her comments had brought up fond memories.
"It depends on how well they take care of them, I suppose. People with a lot of cavities really don't like to go, but those with healthy teeth don't have as many problems." Willow smiled, noticing the odd way that he'd phrased that question – their biting surfaces?
Willow listened carefully as he explained the process of a check up, and how the basic diagnostic tools worked. She might be able to follow the procedure, but she doubted that she'd know what the results meant. "So, what happens if there's an injury? If there's a lot of blood loss, some physical trauma…"
"Well, that would be most unfortunate." Dr. Teirell made a glance around the room, and pointed at a door marked with several strange curling marks that reminded Willow a bit of Hebrew writing. "Through there is our surgical facility, where we would try to realign any shattered bones and tend to soft tissue trauma. There are several specialized machines which would assist in the procedures if needed, to ensure continued safe breathing, to regulate heartbeats, or to administer vital fluids. There is another machine that would be most important if any of the humans are injured – it can synthesize blood, assuming that the appropriate supplies are here and we have a reference sample for a template. We were unable to leave with a supply of human blood in case of injury, and shall simply have to hope that Commander Taggert avoids any spectacular heroics this time."
"Oh thank goodness for that." Willow sighed in relief. If they could synthesize blood for Angel, things were definitely looking better.
"Why do you say that? You appear to be in excellent health, and uninjured." Dr. Teirell's question was a clear effort to get an explanation.
"Because… one of the other people brought onto the Protector, Angel is… his health is different. He's a vampire, which might not be a familiar term to you at all. But one of the things that it means for him is that he can't… he can't digest normal food, and must feed regularly on blood. I'm sure that you can understand why this is cause for concern to me, to all of us." Willow looked over, hoping that the doctor wouldn't panic.
"This sounds like a most unusual condition indeed. Is there any sort of treatment, medication perhaps? A cure?" Dr. Teirell was looking thoughtful, as if his mind was already considering Angel's 'medical problem'.
"It's not the sort of thing that medication can help, and as far as we know, it's irreversible. There are some compensations for him, but…" Willow shrugged, uncertain how much to explain, and deciding to leave it at as little as possible. "It's very important that he have a blood supply."
"We can begin synthesizing a supply as soon as we have a sample to use as a template. Perhaps several samples would be better… I shall have to call everyone in for a physical anyhow. Perhaps I could start with a sample of your blood? And a full physical to establish a baseline for future references, of course." He had that gentle professional smile again.
Willow sighed, somehow not surprised that she would be asked to do something like this. It was perfectly logical, after all. "I suppose it would be a good idea."
End part 17.
Cordelia sat there, rubbing at her temple while Malthesar left the room. Jason was still pacing, and Fred and Laliari were sitting very close to each other, whispering back and forth. "This is not what I signed on for. This is not supposed to be happening today. Today was supposed to be normal, with just ego flashes and lighting problems."
"He's a vampire! Why didn't you bring any of this up before?" Jason's growl wasn't as intimidating as a demon's, but it was still fairly intense.
"And when would that have come up? Why should it have come up?" Cordelia looked at him, her eyes narrowing. "It wasn't any of your business then. And you are in no position to be yelling at me for keeping secrets."
"Why should it? He's a vampire! Vampires are dangerous, bloodsucking monsters that kill people! I can't imagine why that would have been good to know." He'd stopped pacing, and was now standing there, glaring at the seat where Angel had been sitting.
"He doesn't do that sort of thing." Cordelia deliberately didn't add the part where he 'didn't do that anymore', figuring that really wouldn't help matters.
"We've been dating! Why wouldn't you have mentioned that the guy you work for is a walking corpse?" Jason moved closer, his nostrils flaring and his face turning red.
"Maybe for the same reason that you didn't mention that we might be kidnapped by aliens? Maybe because I thought you might freak out, or think that I'm crazy?" She glared right back, refusing to let him shout her into submission, especially about this.
"Of course I didn't mention the aliens! That sort of thing makes people freak out. But he's…" Jason fumbled for words, glancing at Cordelia before looking over at Fred. "A little help?
"I'm not getting into this one." Fred made a little swirling gesture between them. "You just keep right on trying."
"Thanks for the support." Jason muttered, looking back to Cordelia. "You didn't tell me about any of this."
"No, I didn't. We're always in public, or arguing, or kissing. And it just never came up. Deal with the fact that I didn't share any more than you did, and deal with it quietly so that we can figure out how to get rid of these bad guys. I have an episode to guest star in." Cordelia glared, certain that she'd want to shut herself in a room and cry later.
"That… but… It… arggghh!" Jason growled, stomping his way out of the room.
"That went… badly." Cordelia sank back into her seat, now really wishing that she had another cup of that nasty herbal potion that Willow had given her.
"It is a bit of a shock." Fred's voice seemed pretty calm as he ventured the words.
"You aren't freaking out like that." Sighing, she wondered if there was something like aspirin on this ship, and if she could get some of it.
"He's more excitable." There was a small shrug to accompany the words.
"Yeah, I guess." Finally, she looked at them. "Can you lead me somewhere that I can get something to take to make this headache go away?"
"Of course. There are medical facilities, they should have something for your head." Laliari's voice was calm, and she glanced over. "Are vampires normal for this world? They are in many movies, in songs, and yet… his reaction was most shocked."
Cordelia smiled, finally a question that would be easy to answer. "You know how you guys thought that the series was real when it was just a story? Vampires seem to work just the opposite – people want to think that they're just stories, but they're real. Scary and real."
"Ahhh. That almost makes sense." Laliari stood up, her hand still liked to Fred's. "Follow me to the medical area."
"And in other situations, those words would bring up a creepy feeling." Cordelia shook her head, before deciding to follow the alien to most likely an examining room. "Maybe I should get my head checked out when this is over with."
End 18.