Rick wasted no time in heading to the bridge to update Captain Gloval about Lisa's condition. He shook his head to try and clear it and make sense of what he now understood. As he was received into Captain Gloval's ready room, Rick rushed in and briefly saluted the Captain. Slightly out of breath as Rick had run through the corridors when he could, it took him a second to start explaining.
"Sir, Lt. Commander Fokker sent me to tell you about Lisa, I mean Lt. Commader Hayes, sir." Rick stumbled with the words but recovered with a shake of his head trying to remember everything that happened. "Her Veritech was hit, and Lt. Commander Hayes was hurt badly, she was unconsious and she wasn't breathing and she seemed to be suffering from burns on her body. Dr. Lang put her in tank of blue liquid and..." at that Rick couldn't say anymore.
His voice faltered and shook as he tried to finish, "he put her in that blue liquid and I don't even know if she's going to be okay."
Claudia, who had been listening at the door, entered the ready room and Rick noticing her, turned to her and finished, "Roy wanted to me to let you know that he was staying with her Claudia."
Claudia put an arm around Rick, it was obvious he was shaken up by the incident. They had all lost people they knew in this war but it was the first time she had seen Rick so affected by it.
Captain Gloval thanked Rick for the report and stood up, indicating to Claudia and Rick to follow, they exited the Captain's ready room and followed him to the concealed elevator near the bridge that took them down to the secret flight deck and to Dr. Lang's lab. During the walk down, Gloval started talking, "what I'm about to tell you must remain a secret. Shortly after your escape from the Zentraedi, Lt. Commander Hayes convinced me to allow her to volunteer to be the test pilot for one of the new Veritech's that Lang's team is working on but there is more to this than just that. Ten years ago when this alien vessel landed on Earth, there was so much technology and information held within the ship and no way for us to decipher everything that we found. One of the things that we found but could not understand was that blue liquid that Dr. Lang submerged Lisa in. We didn't get to understand it's use until your return from the Zentraedi ship, Lt. Hunter."
Knowing that they need more information, Gloval continued. "It seems that while the four of you were captives by the Zentraedi, you were exposed to or given something that made it possible to unlock the potential of the blue liquid. After your return to the ship, Lt. Commander Hayes was meeting with Dr. Lang on the testing plans for the new fighter, she was drawn to the tanks of blue liquid that were stored down here and in fact, the liquid was drawn to her as well. The liquid started to swirl and move on its own. It was a risk but Dr. Lang drew a sample of the blue liquid and let Lisa touch it."
"What they discovered was that the blue liquid was some sort of organic material, capable of transfering information and thoughts. Lisa mentioned that she had seen tanks of it on the Zentraedi ship and that there were some bodies that were in it. From what we can surmise, the liquid was used by the Zentraedi for still yet known reasons but Dr. Lang discovered that by using Lisa's connection to the blue liquid, if he circulated the blue liquid through the Veritech and connected Lisa to it, that it significantly increased the reaction time of the fighters as they instantaneously seemed to be able to take input from the pilot's brain and central nervous system. Basically if the pilot thought it or made a movement, the Veritech would immediately respond."
Rick was horrified by what had been just been revealed to him. It was bad enough that Lisa agreed to volunteer to test the new Veritech's, but to also submit herself as a science test subject using unknown alien material. Why, he though, why would she do such a thing.
Claudia let out a gasp at this new information, and Rick surmised that even she didn't know about this.
The three reached Dr. Lang's lab and entered to find Dr. Lang and his team had hooked up a series of electrodes to Lisa who was still laying submerged in the blue liquid. Rick was fascinated by the liquid, it seemed to swirl and change colors around her.
He could hear Dr. Lang talking to Captain Gloval, "Lt. Commander Hayes experienced a large electrical shock, when her Veritech's bioelectrical component was hit. The feedback caused a shock to her central nervous system and brain. The sensors in her suit, overheated, causing the burns you see on her. Those we think she will recover from, but we don't know what the effects to her brain and nervous systems are. We are hopeful though that it will not be bad as we think, as brain activity has recovered after resuscitation. The blue liquid seems to also have some regenerative properties, which is why we placed her in this instead of treating the patient using conventional means.
Rick clinched his hands in anger, and turned to where Gloval and Lang were observing Lisa. "How can you say that so casually about her?!" Rick was furious, this was Lisa they were talking about, not just some random patient. Roy, who had went to talk to and hold Claudia when they came in, was startled to hear Rick yell so loud, reached out and put an arm on Rick in warning.
"Rick.." Roy said, his voice asking him to be understanding and patient.
Rick turned to Roy and shook Roy's arm off. He looked at Gloval and Lang and demanded to know. "What does this mean for Lisa?"
The two older men looked at the young man in front of them, they hated to be the ones to deliver painful news, especially to those that remained to help their loved ones recover any semblance of a normal life.
It was Dr. Lang that spoke finally, "We cannot hope for a full recovery, the shock was just too much for a human body to take. If she awakens, Lisa may be in a vegetative state the rest of her life or she may have some limited functionalities. It is yet too soon to tell. What I can tell you is that it's imperative for a patient to be surrounded by people who care and continue to talk to the patient during their recovery process. I hope that we can count on you to help your friend out?"
As Rick, Roy and Claudia stood by the tank that held their friend, Rick heard Claudia give a little sob and started to talk to Lisa to hurry up and heal and wake up as soon as she could. Rick watched as Roy embraced Claudia when she finally broke down in tears. Feeling as if he was intruding on a private moment, Rick reluctantly left the room vowing to return as soon as he could.
"Rick, wait up!" Roy called out to Rick just as he was about to enter the elevator. Rid paused and waited for Roy.
"Why'd you leave for Rick?"
"Well, it seemed like I wasn't needed and I didn't want to get in anybody's way, "replied Rick a bit sullen. Suddenly a question came to Rick that he should have asked Dr. Lang. "That blue stuff, Gloval said that all four of us were exposed, why was Lisa the only one testing it?"
"Well that's a good question Rick, but I think Lt. Commander Hayes convinced them that there no medical reason to subject you, Max and Ben to additonal tests as long as they had her. I don't think she wanted to overburden you three as she knew it was stressful enough to be a pilot and facing the Zentraedi in battle."
Roy sighed a big sigh, "Rick, Lisa was well of aware of the risks that she was taking when she agree to all this. I offered but Lisa fought hard to beat me out. She wanted to make a difference Rick, she didn't want to just sit back and watch and hope that the Zentraedi didn't annihilate us.
I thought I was a shoe in to be the test pilot, but Lisa worked her tail off in the simulators and she met all the physical requirements to qualify. Once that blue stuff came into play though and Lang got it working with the machines, Lisa in her Veritech was virtually unstoppable. Her instincts for flying in combat were always excellent, but combined with the reactiveness of the machine, she was amazing. Lang knew that it wasn't going to possible to equip every fighter with this liquid, but hoped to learn enough from it to apply some for the technology to our future fighters."
"Rick, I know you seem to have some interest in Lisa, and she's going to need her friends right now, so I hope I can count on you to come and see her until she gets better. Can you do that for me?' asked Roy gently. Getting a nod of agreement from Rick, Roy finished, "Claudia and I are gong to stay with her bit, maybe you can come by later and just check to see if there is any progress."
Rick would have done that whether or not Roy asked but just responded with a wan smile, "Sure Roy, I'll be sure to come by later."
With that, Rick got into the elevator, planning to return to his quarters to cleanup and take the time to absorb everything he had just learned.
Author's note: Hope I've thrown in a bit of a twist! Thanks for continuing to read and leave reviews! Updates will be made this weekend.