CHAPTER FOUR Medical Checkup

As Jake goes to Bri he tells Bri that the testing he may go through is extremely painful. Bri's eyes widen in the simple thought of pain, but Bri sees no other option to change the environment so he goes to Dr. Franklin and Jake stays with Delenn, as Bri and Stephen leave the Interstellar Alliance (ISA) headquarters in Tuzanor, Bri is taken to a smaller building which appears to be their hospital. As Bri and Dr. Franklin walk in the building it is busy. Minbari in white robes with red lining are moving all about speaking a language that Bri could barely understand. As Dr. Franklin shows him to a room which is about similar to a doctors office, Franklin shuts the door and sits down on a chair as Bri is told to sit on a bed. "Well Bri, it is to say—it's been quite a strange day today."

Bri nods his head. "Yes, you're telling me."

Dr. Franklin looks at a sheet of paper, "Now when you were back on Earth where did you live?"

"Do you mean permanent home address or where I spent most of my life?"

Dr. Franklin places down the paper, "Well let's say where you spent most of your life."

Bri slightly nods his head and slightly smiles, "At Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, in Seattle—I was born there and at that moment I became hostile to my surroundings. It was first called asthma, but then progressed into a rare form of cystic fibrosis called cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator or short hand for CFTR."

Dr. Franklin is writing on the paper the information given by Bri. "Could you explain your hospital?"

Bri looks of in the distance trying to remember. "Well it is large—it covers many acres of North Seattle. I mostly lived in the Children's Hospital of the overnight section. Its color is a creamy white, but its glass is tinted a purplish-blue when it is clear and sunny out side. There are two main entrances to the hospital, the Train Entrance and the Whale Entrance."

Dr. Franklin goes to an computer and opens up Bri's files, "You have any other illnesses?"

"Yes, just CFTR, allergies, and a heart defect—that is what killed me."

Dr. Franklin is reading the history surrounding Bri's in-patient history at Children's Hospital. "I read some of the hospital history and it states about an event with Nazis?"

Bri feels this ice cold chill run down his spine, "Yes," Bri says with his face looking downward, "we were invaded by the Neo-Nazis who were out for revenge against Children's—we really don't know why. In the long run the Neo-Nazis failed and the hospital recovered."

Franklin slightly nods his head in amazement, "Wow, what a life you had to live."

"Yes, it was quite a challenge."

Dr. Franklin looks at Bri, "Well Bri as we change subjects I am going to have to run a series of medical test that are required by the Minbari Government, so my first job is to give you the Minbari flu shot and draw some blood."

Bri tenses up about the idea of needles. "Is there an easier way to this check up that does not involve needles?"

"Well—no, but we no longer use needles anymore, it's more like pushing the medicine through the pores in the skin at fast rates—the risk for infection is about 10 and reaction to the medicine is about 20 so there is not much to worry about."

Bri still is not comfortable. "But is there pain involved?"

"Yes, but only a stinging feeling, drawing blood on the other hand involves a more of a needle approach."

Bri feels a wave a nausea come over him, he hates needles. "So in the long run there is pain still involved?"

"Well yes—I suppose, we could discuss this for a long period of time or get it over now."

Bri tries to remove the nausea from him "Well let's get it over." Dr. Franklin rolls up Bri's left arm sleeve and takes out a strange looking device that is almost similar to a ephedrine shot, but the ephedrine medicine has been replaced with a empty clear tube. With a click there is a sharp prick and the blood is immediately taken. Next Dr. Franklin presses an injector to Bri's skin, as the injector goes off there is a sharp pain for a second. As Dr. Franklin applies a strange fluid to seal up the wound; he tells Bri that it is all over—the medical check up is completed.