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Chapter four: The medic
Robert had been in this exam room four long, painful hours. At least he was in a private area of the medical bay. This gave him time to examine what had transpired, and to try to make some sense of it.
The fact that the two doctors in here were both Tigereans and had been assigned to him when he first came on board had made him leery. After all, the felines had been, until five years ago, the mortal enemies of humanity. His normal doctor, S'ama Ky'na, had explained to him that both he and his mate, Hr'sha Ky'na, were the doctors assigned to look after not only the humans that were assigned to him, but also the small Tigerean contingent that was on board. They were mostly technicians assigned to work on the complex machinery that enabled the jump drives and gravity generators, in addition to the liaison to the Empire. Now that he was in this exam room after the crash going through a more thorough exam then when he first came one board. But then, he noted idlly, he had changed himself.
The surface exam went fine, up until the physical exam. The doctor explained again, in a somewhat tired manner, that he had to do this because of regulations, etc. and that he was qualified to work on humans and so one. They had both had this speech a number of times, and robert had closed his eyes and started thinking about what the tigerean would say about the tail. He was surprised when the cat's whiskers tickled his left ear and then he heard the tigereans voice clearly being whispered into his ear: "This also means the weres and others on board. He winked at Robert and said in a normal tone, "Your ear looks fine, Captain. Your hearing should not have been affected by the events you have survived through. Will you please disrobe for the remainder of the exam? Hr'sha, can you turn on the privacy screens?"
Once the screens were in place, The two turned to him. Hr'Sha spoke first. "Congratulations on finding yourself." Robert looked puzzled. "Finding myself? What do you mean?"
"You can speak frankly here. The screens block video, audio and everything else from leaving this room. It is no accident that you were initally assigned to us. Although we do have our share of 'normal' humans on board, we take care of all the Five percenters. We help found the group on board with the assistance of Stromson. As for finding yourself, it would seem that your mind does not know it yet, but you have found your true self. You will find yourself in the company of people who are the true movers and shakers of this alliance of formerly deadly enemies, and you will meet the most powerful people even known to walk the planets and starts in this group. I know this is a lot to take in initally. More will be explained to you at your first meeting in a short time. Until then, we need to know as much about you as possible. Which we are all keepers of a secret, we are still your doctors, and as such we need to know everything about you."
The rest of the exam proceeded somewhat normally, although what constituted normal was decidedly different then what Robert was accustomed to. The doctors asked him to change into his bear form, which he did. When asked if he had any other forms, Robert grunted and said "Not that I'm aware of at this time" in Primal. Then he noticed Hr'Sha's eyes light up in an unearthly blueish glow. "Captain, you have accessible to you two more forms. I cannot determine what they are, but they are available to you." The blue glow faded away as she continued. "Unfortunately, I also cannot tell you how to access them, but there are enough people on board with similar talents that you should be able to find out. Please let us know when you gain these forms, so that we can collect baselines for them."
Robert was staring at her. Still in bear form, he asked her. "What was that you just did?" She chuckled, smiled and said, "It's a form of Magic. I have an ability to see people's true selves. With every batch of new recruits that come on board, I site behind a one-way mirror and 'look' at people to determine if they have any potential talents that mundanes normally do not have. I can also heal people as well. Do not worry, though. I am a fully qualified doctor using the traditional methods, however crude I may find them to be." Robert nodded his furry head slowly. "I think I understand. Can I shift back human now?" Sa'Ma stated "Yes. In fact I was about to ask you to revert." Robert did so, and noted that the pain he had experience first was still there, but it was not registering as pain any more, but as just another sensation. As he regained his normal voice, he asked "Is there somewhere on board where I can go to experiment, or to try things out? My bunk is not exactly a good place for trying to see how to access my different forms." Sa'Ma nodded. "Yes, there is. However, I do not know if you have access to that area just yet. I will check with Lt. Colonel Jackson and see when I talk with him later today." The exam finally over, The doctors released him as fit for duty. His next stop was to Jackson's office to see where they had placed his exo-frame. Jackson told him that it was resting on his bunk, and gave him permission to go down to the repair shop to see what could be done with it.
The repair shop was an entire desk on the carrier, or rather, several decks. It had to be large, in order to service the Buzzsaw class fighters and the even larger Tornado bombers that the carrier deployed. In addition, it also services the carrier itself for almost every repair job that a busy ship required. The shop was divided into sections: the larger part of the shop revolved around the launch bay, and was fitted with a drydock large enough to hold the bombers and shuttlecraft. The section that Robert headed to was near the forward part where the exo-frames were stored, maintained, and rebuilt. He had the frame in three large pieces, and met the person that did most of the repair work. He was an older looking tigerean, with a pelt that had grey stripes and a muted, tired orange coloration that was white in quite a few places. Fortunately, he spoke excellent english. waving a small unlit welding laser around, he told Robert "Be with you in a minute. This job is tricky." He was working on a frame that appeared to have been run over by a Mack Truck. It was crushed in several places, bent in others, and in general looked like it had seen better days. The portion that he was working on was the lower power channel coupling, a device that Robert knew from his experience wearing his own suit controlled the flow of the gravity field to the legs and lower back. On every model he had seen, this coupling was one of the few peices that could not be built in a redudant fashion, but was normally built to withstand just about anything thrown at it in the way of use and abuse.
The feline'e laser flashed a hellish white-yellow light a few times, and stopped. with a disgusted snarl, the feline gently put the laser down and set the frame on the bench. "Bloody thing will need to be replaced. Might as well scrap that frame." Turning to Robert, his mood visibly changed from anger to one of tired politeness. "Well now. I heard about what happened to you and your frame. Set it over there on the other bench, and let's see what if I can salvage anything from it." Doing as instructed, Robert placed his frame on the bench while the old tigerean cleared off his own bench and made some notations to a tag, then attached the tag to the frame he was working on. At Robert's curious look he responded. "Poor fellow wearing this thing was doing a visual inspection of one of the damaged fighters from that last sorte, Didn't know the upper port engine was intermittent on it, and the fighter slammed him into the drydock wall when the engine cut on. Damn near burned a hole through the drydock's door, too. At least the frame took the blow that would have killed him, so I get to scrap the frame instead of beg the boss for another worker. But I'm rambling again." Standing up, his body made various popping noises as he stretched. "Getting too old for this. I think 330 is a bit old to be on a fighting ship, but the Empire sent out the best for this run. Now, let's take a look." Robert found that although the old feline looked like he was ready to cut off your arm, he was friendly, if a bit talkative. He had the maintainence covers off the controller boards and generator area in under half a minute. "Hmmm... based on an Mark 5 field generator, yes, nice and reliable. generator looks fine, we'll test that out... right leg is bent, I'll have to have one of the journymen check the conduits. good lesson for them. power pack is drained, cells will need replacement... What in the firey infernal realms did you do to this thing? The control packs has more smoke on the inside of the case then on the outside! You hot dog this thing?" The gaze that the Tigerean gave Robert could have cut through hull metal. "No sir. I was wearing it when my ship got hit by a kamakazie drone, and later when I crash landed the fighter on the planet's surface." The told man looked at him for a minute, making Robert feel very, very nervous. "Indeed. I see." The harshness dissappeared like a switch turning off. "In that case, the fact that All I have to do is clean this thing out and possibly repair some conduit is very good. I met the owners of the company that make this frame. They build them very, very strong, and capable of enduring hardships that would make even a military frame fail. But, there is something else you want to know. I can see it in your eyes. Speak up, then. Tell me what you want to know." Robert asked him if the frame itself could have caused compression damages from variations in the field it generated. The master shook his head. "The only variations that would have occured would have been below the damage on the right leg, if the conduit was damaged. the controller circuitry, damaged as it is, could not have done anything like that on this pack. It is a fail-safe built into the field generator itself." Robert nodded. "Thank you for letting me know that. How long will it take to repair?" The master thought for a minute. "Give me a week, unless the condutit is damaged on the leg. Then it will be two weeks. I will talk to the designer over at the company tomorrow and see if there are any improvements that have been made since your frame was built, and I will integrate them into the repair work." Just leave the frame there, Captain." He bowed slightly, and Robert returned the bow. As he was leaving the repair shop, his communicator device pinged once. The General wanted to see him.
(1981/1667)
Robert had been in this exam room four long, painful hours. At least he was in a private area of the medical bay. This gave him time to examine what had transpired, and to try to make some sense of it.
The fact that the two doctors in here were both Tigereans and had been assigned to him when he first came on board had made him leery. After all, the felines had been, until five years ago, the mortal enemies of humanity. His normal doctor, S'ama Ky'na, had explained to him that both he and his mate, Hr'sha Ky'na, were the doctors assigned to look after not only the humans that were assigned to him, but also the small Tigerean contingent that was on board. They were mostly technicians assigned to work on the complex machinery that enabled the jump drives and gravity generators, in addition to the liaison to the Empire. Now that he was in this exam room after the crash going through a more thorough exam then when he first came one board. But then, he noted idlly, he had changed himself.
The surface exam went fine, up until the physical exam. The doctor explained again, in a somewhat tired manner, that he had to do this because of regulations, etc. and that he was qualified to work on humans and so one. They had both had this speech a number of times, and robert had closed his eyes and started thinking about what the tigerean would say about the tail. He was surprised when the cat's whiskers tickled his left ear and then he heard the tigereans voice clearly being whispered into his ear: "This also means the weres and others on board. He winked at Robert and said in a normal tone, "Your ear looks fine, Captain. Your hearing should not have been affected by the events you have survived through. Will you please disrobe for the remainder of the exam? Hr'sha, can you turn on the privacy screens?"
Once the screens were in place, The two turned to him. Hr'Sha spoke first. "Congratulations on finding yourself." Robert looked puzzled. "Finding myself? What do you mean?"
"You can speak frankly here. The screens block video, audio and everything else from leaving this room. It is no accident that you were initally assigned to us. Although we do have our share of 'normal' humans on board, we take care of all the Five percenters. We help found the group on board with the assistance of Stromson. As for finding yourself, it would seem that your mind does not know it yet, but you have found your true self. You will find yourself in the company of people who are the true movers and shakers of this alliance of formerly deadly enemies, and you will meet the most powerful people even known to walk the planets and starts in this group. I know this is a lot to take in initally. More will be explained to you at your first meeting in a short time. Until then, we need to know as much about you as possible. Which we are all keepers of a secret, we are still your doctors, and as such we need to know everything about you."
The rest of the exam proceeded somewhat normally, although what constituted normal was decidedly different then what Robert was accustomed to. The doctors asked him to change into his bear form, which he did. When asked if he had any other forms, Robert grunted and said "Not that I'm aware of at this time" in Primal. Then he noticed Hr'Sha's eyes light up in an unearthly blueish glow. "Captain, you have accessible to you two more forms. I cannot determine what they are, but they are available to you." The blue glow faded away as she continued. "Unfortunately, I also cannot tell you how to access them, but there are enough people on board with similar talents that you should be able to find out. Please let us know when you gain these forms, so that we can collect baselines for them."
Robert was staring at her. Still in bear form, he asked her. "What was that you just did?" She chuckled, smiled and said, "It's a form of Magic. I have an ability to see people's true selves. With every batch of new recruits that come on board, I site behind a one-way mirror and 'look' at people to determine if they have any potential talents that mundanes normally do not have. I can also heal people as well. Do not worry, though. I am a fully qualified doctor using the traditional methods, however crude I may find them to be." Robert nodded his furry head slowly. "I think I understand. Can I shift back human now?" Sa'Ma stated "Yes. In fact I was about to ask you to revert." Robert did so, and noted that the pain he had experience first was still there, but it was not registering as pain any more, but as just another sensation. As he regained his normal voice, he asked "Is there somewhere on board where I can go to experiment, or to try things out? My bunk is not exactly a good place for trying to see how to access my different forms." Sa'Ma nodded. "Yes, there is. However, I do not know if you have access to that area just yet. I will check with Lt. Colonel Jackson and see when I talk with him later today." The exam finally over, The doctors released him as fit for duty. His next stop was to Jackson's office to see where they had placed his exo-frame. Jackson told him that it was resting on his bunk, and gave him permission to go down to the repair shop to see what could be done with it.
The repair shop was an entire desk on the carrier, or rather, several decks. It had to be large, in order to service the Buzzsaw class fighters and the even larger Tornado bombers that the carrier deployed. In addition, it also services the carrier itself for almost every repair job that a busy ship required. The shop was divided into sections: the larger part of the shop revolved around the launch bay, and was fitted with a drydock large enough to hold the bombers and shuttlecraft. The section that Robert headed to was near the forward part where the exo-frames were stored, maintained, and rebuilt. He had the frame in three large pieces, and met the person that did most of the repair work. He was an older looking tigerean, with a pelt that had grey stripes and a muted, tired orange coloration that was white in quite a few places. Fortunately, he spoke excellent english. waving a small unlit welding laser around, he told Robert "Be with you in a minute. This job is tricky." He was working on a frame that appeared to have been run over by a Mack Truck. It was crushed in several places, bent in others, and in general looked like it had seen better days. The portion that he was working on was the lower power channel coupling, a device that Robert knew from his experience wearing his own suit controlled the flow of the gravity field to the legs and lower back. On every model he had seen, this coupling was one of the few peices that could not be built in a redudant fashion, but was normally built to withstand just about anything thrown at it in the way of use and abuse.
The feline'e laser flashed a hellish white-yellow light a few times, and stopped. with a disgusted snarl, the feline gently put the laser down and set the frame on the bench. "Bloody thing will need to be replaced. Might as well scrap that frame." Turning to Robert, his mood visibly changed from anger to one of tired politeness. "Well now. I heard about what happened to you and your frame. Set it over there on the other bench, and let's see what if I can salvage anything from it." Doing as instructed, Robert placed his frame on the bench while the old tigerean cleared off his own bench and made some notations to a tag, then attached the tag to the frame he was working on. At Robert's curious look he responded. "Poor fellow wearing this thing was doing a visual inspection of one of the damaged fighters from that last sorte, Didn't know the upper port engine was intermittent on it, and the fighter slammed him into the drydock wall when the engine cut on. Damn near burned a hole through the drydock's door, too. At least the frame took the blow that would have killed him, so I get to scrap the frame instead of beg the boss for another worker. But I'm rambling again." Standing up, his body made various popping noises as he stretched. "Getting too old for this. I think 330 is a bit old to be on a fighting ship, but the Empire sent out the best for this run. Now, let's take a look." Robert found that although the old feline looked like he was ready to cut off your arm, he was friendly, if a bit talkative. He had the maintainence covers off the controller boards and generator area in under half a minute. "Hmmm... based on an Mark 5 field generator, yes, nice and reliable. generator looks fine, we'll test that out... right leg is bent, I'll have to have one of the journymen check the conduits. good lesson for them. power pack is drained, cells will need replacement... What in the firey infernal realms did you do to this thing? The control packs has more smoke on the inside of the case then on the outside! You hot dog this thing?" The gaze that the Tigerean gave Robert could have cut through hull metal. "No sir. I was wearing it when my ship got hit by a kamakazie drone, and later when I crash landed the fighter on the planet's surface." The told man looked at him for a minute, making Robert feel very, very nervous. "Indeed. I see." The harshness dissappeared like a switch turning off. "In that case, the fact that All I have to do is clean this thing out and possibly repair some conduit is very good. I met the owners of the company that make this frame. They build them very, very strong, and capable of enduring hardships that would make even a military frame fail. But, there is something else you want to know. I can see it in your eyes. Speak up, then. Tell me what you want to know." Robert asked him if the frame itself could have caused compression damages from variations in the field it generated. The master shook his head. "The only variations that would have occured would have been below the damage on the right leg, if the conduit was damaged. the controller circuitry, damaged as it is, could not have done anything like that on this pack. It is a fail-safe built into the field generator itself." Robert nodded. "Thank you for letting me know that. How long will it take to repair?" The master thought for a minute. "Give me a week, unless the condutit is damaged on the leg. Then it will be two weeks. I will talk to the designer over at the company tomorrow and see if there are any improvements that have been made since your frame was built, and I will integrate them into the repair work." Just leave the frame there, Captain." He bowed slightly, and Robert returned the bow. As he was leaving the repair shop, his communicator device pinged once. The General wanted to see him.
(1981/1667)