Chapter Two: Admitting Room

The car pulled up in front of the tall, clean complex that formed the London Grace Children's Hospital. Speed climbed out of the car, gazing up in awe at the massive main building. She had never even been in this part of town before. She followed Dimak up the path to the closest building. Large blue letters above the door read, "ADMITTING." The doors slid open of their own accord, granting Speed and the International Fleet Captain entrance to the white tiled floors and light blue walls of the waiting room.
Dimak flashed a security badge at the front desk and a wrinkled old woman pointed them down a hall to their left.
"Do you have any idea where we're going?" Speed asked as they walked down yet another long hallway several minutes later.
"Not a clue." Dimak responded smiling mysteriously, ignoring Speed's razed eyebrow. Dimak stopped in front of an ordinary door, looking first down the hall to his right, and then down the hall to left before he pushed the door open, and Speed stepped inside.
The room was bright, but it was not the typical hospital room that Speed had seen in her brother's history books. She guessed this must be a consultation room. A desk and three chairs sat to one side of the small room, and the on the other were a scale and an examination table. A young woman in a lab coat stood at the far corner of the room admiring the wall of diplomas on the wall. She turned around when Speed entered revealing the insignia on the front of her coat marked her as a Lieutenant in the International Fleet.
Dimak excused himself and left the doctor and Speed alone.
"Good afternoon Speed." The doctor said pulling her chair out and sinking into it, "Please, sit down." Speed eyed the doctor carefully but took a seat across from the doctor. "My name is Doctor Freedman. I am a surgeon here at the London Grace."
"And a lieutenant in the Fleet." Speed finished.
"Yes, I am a lieutenant." Freedman said, "I will be performing the surgery on your ears in three days time."
"Three days?" Speed interjected, "I'm not having my surgery for three more days?"
"There are some tests to run between now and then." Freedman continued, completely ignoring Speed's comment, "Any more then that I cannot say."
"Why not?"
"It's classified." Freedman opened a one of her desk drawers and began riffling through it.
"Since when are my medical matters classified?" Speed prodded
"Since they had to do with the International Fleet." The doctor slammed the drawer shut, "You should learn that now, and stop asking silly questions. They won't get you very far in Battle School."
Speed silently disagreed, after all she had gotten under the doctor's skin without so much as trying. This told her two things, one that the doctor was not good with working with children who were awake and two she had not reached the rank of Lieutenant through Battle School or any of the other of the children training programs. It was amazing what one could grasp from a handful of simple questions. While this was running through her mind Speed kept her face placid and nodded her understanding of what the doctor had told her.
"That's a good girl." The doctor stood up, "now I'm going to have to sedate you to run the first series of tests."
Speed didn't like the sound of that, she pushed back from her chair and stood up. "I'll stay awake."
"Speed you do not want to be difficult for this." Doctor Freedman said, removing a hypodermic needle from her pocket. Before Speed could react she flashed out and inserted the needle into her neck.
The young girl saw the world go black before collapsing into a heap on the floor.

"What in God's name happened?"
"She reacted to the drug."
"How much did you give her?"
"20 milligrams."
"Of course she reacted at that rate, she's never had medication before, let alone 20 Millis!"
"Perhaps I should have been informed of that previously."
"You're out of order, lieutenant."
"My apologies, captain."

Speed woke up in a large bed in the recovery room. She could see the heart monitor on the right side of her bed but she could not hear its patterned beeping. She turned to see Dimak standing at the foot of her bed; Doctor Freedman wasn't there.
Dimak's lips started moving but as far as speed could tell, nothing came out. She looked at him blankly until he grabbed a desk from the table beside her and typed something in, his fingers moving like lightning. When he had finished he passed the desk over to her and she read it quickly. "COMPLICATIONS WITH MEDICATION. POSSIBLE LONG TERM DAMAGE."
Speed read it twice over before she passed it back to Dimak, shaking her head in disbelief. She looked at him and watched him mouth the words "I'm Sorry" Speed couldn't believe it, she didn't want to believe it, she spoke, and when she did she couldn't hear her own voice. "You mean.I'm deaf?"