Author's Note: Thank you all for the wonderful feedback, reviews, questions and comments. Even those who only favorite'd and alerted this story, I really do get a little thrill each time I read one of the emails notifying me of these things. I will say that I tried very hard to keep Thrawn in character, and that Voss is a great deal easier to write this time through. I fully plan on playing with Voss and Thrawn again one day, but not quite yet. I almost hesitate to write more, as that new book is coming. *bounces* and the holidays are here and we have little in the way of time...
and a certain Time Lord is starting to knock on the plot bunny door...
Chapter 6: Medical Musings
As lift doors opened, Parck could almost hear the next sentence before his friend uttered it. "No," he said firmly. "I'm seeing you right into the med droid's clutches."
Thrawn sighed softly and carefully walked out of the lift. Parck watched him carefully, but the Vice-Admiral seemed to have found his equilibrium. He appeared almost normal, strides albeit slower, as the large doors opened. The smell of sickbay was not nearly as strong in the officer's medbay as it was for the crew. Smaller, better ventilated, with an extremely fussy set of MOUS droids, there was less the feeling of a battlefield triage area and more the comfortable closeness of a planet-side clinic.
A 2-1B medical droid took one visual scan of the pair of them and pushed one of a series of intercom buttons. "This way, Vice-Admiral," it intoned, rolling toward a private room.
"Yes, you look that bad," Voss muttered as, with a tired eyebrow raised, the Chiss followed.
The droid was fussing with a rack of vials as Thrawn settled down on the edge of the patient bed. Leaning on the doorframe, Voss watched as the droid lined up seven vials for blood samples. "Uniform coat off, please, sir," it said, readying a needle.
Three vials had been filled before their chief medical officer arrived. Dr. Bellasmus strolled in, reading a datapad. Giving one nod to the draining Chiss, he speared Voss with his gaze. "You brought him in?" he asked, voice gruff.
"Yes, sir," Voss answered promptly, dipping his head.
"Good," Bellasmus grumbled. As he turned to the Chiss sitting on the bed, he passed the pad to Voss. "You are one sick officer, you know that?" he announced, shooing the droid out of the way and finishing the fourth vial himself.
"Nothing a decent night's sleep won't help."
"Oh, you need more than one's night's sleep, I'll guarantee that much." The fifth vial was full. Twisting around, he made eye contact with Parck. Pointedly, he looked at the pad Voss was holding, and then raised his eyebrows. Idly, Voss shifted the pad as the doctor went for the sixth vial so that he could see the display without being obvious about it. On the screen, one line had been typed:
He'll need bacta, but he'll resist. Distract him when I'm at the last needle.
Moving forward, Voss picked up on the vague thread of conversation. "Oh, now, perhaps a few days more R&R at the palace would do," he quipped. "I'm sure your cell is still available."
"Hardly restful, Captain," Thrawn murmured, eyelids dropping for a moment. He straightened almost immediately, to the limit of the medical paraphernalia the doctor wielded. "I could return to my quarters while you run your plethora of tests."
"Where a pile of paperwork won't distract you? Not likely," Voss sniped. Bellasmus was finishing the last of the blood vials, and was rooting around for something. Carefully, Voss avoided looking that way. "And don't claim it's light reading, either."
"Most of those are routine reports," Thrawn objected.
Bellasmus emptied one syringe filled with clear liquid back into the IV line, began to fiddle with another one. "Just flushing the line," he murmured.
"But when there is anything that piques your interest, it won't stay 'light' reading. You'll have to track down the problem and soon enough you are back on the bridge."
"Speak from experience, do you?" the doctor asked, straightening up with a few of his own snaps and pops of bone on bone. He collected his work together on one tray, leaving the IV line in his patient, capped off. "I'm done for now. Don't go anywhere; I need to make sure we have enough for the lab. Make sure," he said to Voss on his way out, "that he stays put."
"Since when did Captain outrank Admiral?" Thrawn half asked, half groused, leaning back on outstretched arms.
"Since I am on your forms as next in line for decisions?" Voss answered, smirking. "Besides which, that cantankerous old man outranks us both the moment we walk in."
"Indeed," Thrawn murmured, eyes half closed.
"Finally feeling it, are we?" Voss asked softly.
"Feeling what?"
"Like you look; while sea-foam green is a very pretty colour, it's not so much on you. Would look nice on a little boat, go out fishing with when I'm on leave," he added as an aside.
Thrawn nodded, eyes still half closed. "Pohskapforian," he murmured.
Voss nodded slowly.
After a moment, however, the Vice Admiral focussed on Parck's face. "What was in those last two shots?" he asked, voice beginning to slur.
"I wouldn't know," Voss said truthfully. Knowledge and suspicion, after all, were very different things.
"What do you think was?" Despite the slur and the heavy eyelids that were only just staying open, there was a host of menace in his voice.
"Something to help your body relax and let you sleep while you soak," the doctor's voice sounded from behind them both. Walking fully into the room, he pierced Thrawn with a glare that rivalled any admiral's. "There is no point in fighting it. I gave you enough to knock you out for ten hours. You'll soak for eight, and we'll scan you then. If you still are having these micro-seizures, you will stay in for another full session."
The admiral was still fighting to stay awake, Parck noted uneasily. The Chiss was stubborn to the last. The doctor could see that as well.
"My medbay, Thrawn. I rule down here. Acquiesce, and this won't go on your permanent records. Don't, and you won't be able to hold a stylus when you turn fifty, of that I can guarantee you. This is serious, despite what you may want to believe. Your muscles are having spasms, micro-seizures to be precise, all over your body, and there are dangerous levels of calcium in your blood and muscles. There has been a massive and sudden calcification in your skeletal system, and it is sending you into shock. That double vision you've been having isn't from lack of sleep or a decent amount of sustenance. Neither is the muscle weakness or the blackouts. It's your body trying to cope with that electrical current the only way it can, Thrawn. Unless you soak now, these symptoms will become permanent and degenerative."
After staring at each other for moment more, it was clear who won the encounter. With a tired sigh, Thrawn leaned back on the pillows and swung, with help, his legs up onto the bed. "You will consult with me before you experiment with any other treatments, doctor," he murmured.
"Of course," Bellasmus soothed.
The admiral murmured something else, eyes finally closing. Watching him for a minute, Bellasmus nodded, turned, and motioned Parck outside of the room. He closed the door to the patient's room before turning to the Captain. "Damn admiralty," he grumbled.
"How long?"
Bellasmus sighed. "At least twelve hours in the tanks. That electrical current that is running through him is doing serious damage to his muscles, and is a bugger to get out. He'll need at least 36 hours to sleep, more likely 48 full hours before I let him out. You have until then to get this new fleet of his in order before he wakes up, causes a fuss, and gets out of my grip. Get it ready so all he has to do is walk out of here and crush this little problem."
"Then I should be leaving him in your capable hands and more capable sedatives," Voss said, smiling. With a bow, he turned sharply and headed out of the medical section. There was, indeed, quite a lot to be done, and little time to be doing it.
AN: Please read and review. All questions are answered if you leave me a contact email to respond you again, one and all.
Ladyravena, signing off.