A new perspective

Posted on Tue Jan 25th, 2011 @ 7:41am by Walter Jones & Jan Valentine & Morgan Pass & Charlotte Ashcroft

2,232 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Session 4: The Humans are Dead...
Location: Lagash cargo bay alpha 12, Port Laguna
Timeline: After the ships lands

On:

"Fine... fine.. you just tell the trade guild that I'll have the money for them, AFTER the procedure is done." Jones scowled at the man in front of him. "Does she have no compassion?"

"Mr. Jones, you know as well as I do, there is no compassion in business. I will inform my lady of your intent and take your members to the meeting point." The man bowed and walked back to the vehicle on the far end of the landing padd. The sun was barely poking above the buildings as the shadows of late day cast ever longer.

"Jan, Morgan and Chase, your guys ride is here." Jones spoke quietly into his comm.

"I'm on my way." Jan said.

"Acknowledged, Captain," Morgan responded.

Jones stared at the man and smiled and watched as Jan came out of the ship. "That guy over there" Jones pointed to the car, "Is going to take you to the doctor that is going to install your new optics. You ready?"

"Sure, all set to have an eyeball ripped out of my skull." Jan said.

"I'm sure there are worse things. Now the doc and Chase will make sure nothing bad happens when they are screwing around in there."

"That's good, don't want to wind up without lungs." Jan said.

Morgan arrived on the platform, "Don't worry, Mr Valentine. If you die during the procedure your commercial value is protected by law. I have been doing some reading of some of the local ordinances."

He glanced at Jones, "Though you may have to demonstrate a period of contractual payment pending to demonstrate exactly how long you were planing on using him as an investment."

Morgan's clinical approach to life was unsettling at best. It was never clear if he was joking or he really had little concern for the life that he was treating beyond that of an elaborate petri-dish.

"Hopefully it won't come to that. I like Jan just the way he is." Jones waved and smiled over towards the driver, who opened the door to the car. "Alright, take this padd, you are going to meet with a Doctor Tomalav, a Lagashi surgeon who works with the trade guild, and will be performing the operation. Give him this padd" Jones handed the padd to Jan. "It has my confirmation code on it, as well as the payment authorization."

"Right, see you in a few hours." Jan said.

As the vehicle sped out of the dock and pulled onto one of the major roadways in Lagash. Towering Arcologies rose all around the roadway, massive buildings blotting out the dull rays of the sun in some areas. Several other cars flew by on either side, billboards all along the road advertised everything from new shuttle craft, to colas, to recreational drugs. The driver looked back briefly as he pulled off onto a side collector street.

The neighborhood that the vehicle pulled into was nestled between two of the Arcologies, the buildings were slightly rundown, ten to twelve stories tall. At one time, they may have been luxury flats, expensive buildings, the "upscale part of town". Now, these shells, some burned out and boarded up are mere ghosts of their former selves. In the streets, people milled about, with no direction, standing near lamp posts, or digging through trash.

The driver pulled up in front of a twelve story building, the facade mostly intact. Three men, who after careful look, appeared out of place, though they were dressed like several of the unwanted in the streets, they were clean shaven, hair cut, and wearing new clothes.

"This is your stop, I will return in thirteen hours to retrieve you and take you back to your ship. You'll find the doctor on the 5th floor."

Before Jan could say anything, the man sped off down the street, disappearing around a corner.

"Gentlemen?" Jan said, motioning to the door while walking towards it.

Pass eyed the surrounds before following, "Normally I would be worried about possible infections, but I doubt even bacteria would survive long here without being mugged. Likewise, I am dubious as to the effectiveness of my normal deterrents. I think if we need to make an escape we should throw something valuable and run in the other direction."

"I have a photon grenade in my coat, I'll give it to you when we're inside." Jan said.

The men at the front door jointly grabbed the door and opened. Inside was a dark maze of doorways and stairs. "Elevator is down the hall and to the right." One of the men turned briefly to look at the group, a targeting recticle just below his left eye. "Move quickly."

"Right." Jan said.

The boards in the hallway creaked when any weight was put on them, the elevator was something straight out of an old movie, there was a metal gate that had to be opened allowing access to the cage and large lever with once fancy numbers operated the car.

"Going up?" Jan said, moving the lever over to 5.

Morgan mumbled something about antiquated technology and looked at the device Jan was offering him, "I wouldn't know how to use a photon grenade. I'd be as likely to blow us up as anyone else. I will trust Mr Chase to do the gun slinging, and I will do the patching up of all the bullets he catches. Seems like a good deal to me."

"Yeah, but a photon grenade is a simple device, even a kid can operate it, and I've seen them do so." Jan said.

"Just push the red button on top and run for your life. After you've dropped it of course." Jan said, smiling.

As the door opened to the fifth floor, the stark warn down environment that the group had entered gave away to a stark, white, sanitary room with a pressure sealed door. Suddenly, the door hissed with pressurized air and a tall Lagahsi woman emerged wearing a clean white lab coat. One of her eyes had been replaced with an ocular implant, that softly whirred and seemed to zoom, as if she was scanning the faces of the men before him.

"Gentleman, I assume one of you is going to be my patient. I am assisting Doctor Tomalov today for the procedure." The Lagashi slowly and deliberately moved forward and extended a mechanically enhanced hand to Jan. "I an Dr. Melissa Tan"

"Jan Valentine, Engineer, and patient today." Jan said, shaking her hand gently.

She looked at Jan and closely studied his eye. "I'm so sorry, I'll make sure that we take good care of you. I know what it is like to lose something as precious as site." She smiled at him, trying to be reassuring. She brushed away her black hair from her face. "Doctor Tomalov is amazing, one of the highest regarded on Lagash, it is a shame that due to political pressure, he has had to go underground."

"Indeed, I look forward to meeting him." Jan said.

"And I assume that you are shipmates with Mr. Valentine here." She looked at the other two men.

"I am," Morgan said, neglecting to give his name, "I will be advocate for the patient during the procedure as contracted under article 134, paragraph 17. I assume you do not need to see the documentation to that effect."

"No, that is perfectly fine. Please if you'll follow me through the air lock we'll get you prepped for surgery Mr. Valentine." She gracefully turned around, a slight whirring noise the only sound emanating from the woman as she walked over to the airlock door and started entering an access code.

The airlock opened allowing entry to a small antechamber where crisp white medical garments hung from hooks on the wall. On the left where three small closets. "Please change into these garments. I assure you that your weapons will not be necessary, as you more likely then not noticed we have protection around the building. If you prefer there are changing closets for a bit of privacy."

Morgan gratefully handed back the photon grenade. He disliked personal weapons. He changed quickly, with an experience of years, into the garments. and stood ready to assist the others.

After the three switched into their garments, Dr. Tan opened the inner airlock, exposing a large laboratory, several monitors and medical equipment lined the wall. The doctor led them through the corridor several other white coated scientists moved between several experiments.

"As you can see we have many of the latest medical equipment here. We were fortunate to have this in place when we had to remove ourselves to this location."

Dr Pass paused next to one device and almost reached out to touch it. He quickly drew his hand back and moved to catch up with the group. Business before pleasure.

Tan reached one final door and pressed a button. The doors slid open revealing a surgical bay, and a heavily modified Lagashi man, standing next to the bed looking over some charts. He slowly turned towards them examining them. "So this is my patient, Jan Valentine, it seems, as if you've had some run in with something grizzly... and I understand you have had some issues with radiation... by the time I'm done with you" He paused as he slowly moved toward them. "You'll be a new man."

"I hope so, best of luck to both of us, doc." Jan said.

Morgan remained silent, but watched like a Hawk what exactly the Doctor was planning to do to this 'New man'.

"This should take but a few hours." The doctor spun the table around and angled it so it would be easier for to Jan to get on. "Before I put you under young man, is there anything that I should know about?"

"Well, a lot has happened to me really. But the most serious incidents happened many years ago. I sustained prolonged exposure to gamma radiation over a period of 4 hours. I was also exposed the the vacuum of space for 30 seconds or so. And most recently, I got shot in the face." Jan said, in an oddly calm and somewhat proud manner.

Dr. Tan was visibly shaken by the injuries as listed by the intrepid engineer. "Sounds like run of the mill, though the gamma radiation may prove to be troublesome down the road and in the short term may affect the sensors in the implant." The doctor carefully lifted a bionic eye and optical nerve. "This here is the mark 97 optical implant, it will interface directly with optical cortex, allowing normal site, as well as vision across the entire EM band, infrared, ultraviolet, and allows for Macro up to 30 times resolution and magnification up to 2000mm in focal length, though vignetting may be evident as such high magnification." The doctor carefully placed the implant back down on the medical tray. "I'm also currently working on an upgrade that allows interfacing with standard and enhanced tactical weapons arrays. I can patch that in when it is finished."

"Wow, I would love to see the technical manuals on this implant, the engineering behind it must be incredible." Jan said, looking at the implant.

"I'll make sure that you get the schematics in case you need to make field repairs on the device." The doctor turned to Pass. "Do you have any questions or concerns? And you are more then welcome to observe the surgery."

"I will be observing, thank you. You have opted for the 97, rather than a 98 or the BETA 99? Is that because of the interface feedback problems the 98 has, or is it just what you had in store?"

"The 97 is a trusted piece of equipment and it is also field serviceable, I would hate for you to have to come all the way back here everytime something needed to be adjusted on the unit." The doctors mechanical smile gave a small piece of reassurance.

Morgan nodded in acceptance and continued to watch with interest.

"Hey Morgan, if I die here, don't use me in any of your little 'experiments.' Also, I don't want to wind up on some sort of intergalactic e-bay." Jan said, jokingly.

Pass almost smirked, "Your resale value would hardly be worth the posting costs. Besides, IF you die we claim you on insurance but the medical board here claims your carcass as recompense. I had you sign the papers earlier."

"I figured you'd say something like that." Jan said.

"I'll see what I can do about the radiation poisoning as well." The doctor swiveled the table back into a lateral position and placed a neural stabilizer on Jan's head. "I'll see you in a few hours." The doctor activated the device and watched as Jan began to slowly daze off.

Morgan glanced over his shoulder at Jan, "That Neural Disruptor you have in your belt? Turn it off. It might interfere with the systems."

"It's not a disruptor, it's another grenade. Totally forgot about it." Jan said.

Jan tries to hand it to Morgan, but he drifts out of consciousness and it slips onto the table.

Morgan retrieved the device, switching it off and then shot a sideways glance at Chase, "Then it must be someone else who DOESN'T have an ND hidden on their person that they haven't turned off. Those things make my filings tingle."

 

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