Don't show off. Don't show off. Don't show off.
In response, Hal raised a paw, and a silver-barreled flimsiplast stylus flew from the pencil cup on Vek's desk and into his palm.
Fucker.
Smiling, Hal handed the stylus back to its owner. "Yeah, you could say my midichlorians are fairly high," he replied with a wink.
Vek Vek's eyes seemed to brighten.
"Intriguing. Symbiosis repeatedly documented but never personally observed. Transsentience a personal curiosity of mine. Sensitivity to symbiosis hypothesized to be an evolutionary imperative, but no immediate data presented to me."
He coughed politely.
"I digress. As said, a curiosity. One I would like to explore, but with your consensus."
Warning! Warning! He's coming on to you!
He is not coming on to you!
He said he wants to explore my consensus!
That's not what he said. Trust me, I can understand the big words. Just go with this.
...Okay, but if he tries to kiss me, he's the one who's gonna need a doctor.
Clearing his throat, Hal scratched at one ear with unease. "Well... I guess. I mean, it's not going to involve any more shaving, right?"
Caught in a dilemma. To lie, or not to lie? The Doctor's lips twisted in internal conflict.
"Perhaps some shaving."
The glare that Hal shot back was something more powerfully hateful than the pink color of his irises had any right to be able to manufacture.
"Where?" he growled.
Vek Vek deferred defensively.
"Erogenous zones not priority. Cephalic electrode interface most preferable."
To emphasize his point, he gestured at his temples.
Whew! Dodged that blaster bolt!
What, you'd actually let him shave you there?
Hey, you're the one always telling me to be more into science!
I swear, you have no idea what I'm saying, most of the time.
His tongue ran over dry lips as he thought about it, then placed a pair of fingers to his temple and rubbed softly. "Hmmm..." he mused.
It wasn't that he was afraid of the doctor lying to him and hijacking his brain for evil mad science experiments, as he was convinced all alien doctors did at some point in their career. No, he was more concerned with his vanity, especially since there was no one around to vouch for him. Showing up with a bald patch on the side of your head makes you look like a looney, not a trustworthy protector of the galaxy, after all.
After another moment's deliberation, he asked, "Couldn't you just use conductive gel that will seep through the fur and make it to the skin?"
He shook his head.
"Imprecise reading. Would need to boost electric current to compensate. Implications for central nervous system unpleasant."
The doctor gave a thin, conciliatory smile.
"Will consider less invasive alternative. Later. Simply wished to address the issue conceptually. Thank you for your cooperation."
As an afterthought, he reached into a pocket, pulling out a lollypop.
"Reward for cooperation. Reinforce desired behavior."
Hal's face was a mask of mix emotions as debated with himself over the lollypop.
You're not six years old, don't take it.
But it's orange, that's the best flavor!
Best color; we've never been able to figure out what it actually tastes like, except that it isn't oranges.
Maybe this one is!
Doubtful. Seriously, don't take it. You're a grown male.
Spoilsport.
Five seconds later, Hal emerged from the cramped office with the stick of a cheap lollypop sticking out of his mouth.
"You guys are all still here?" he asked around it.
"Yeah, we're still here," Ben replied, laying on one of the docked hover stretchers. Kiera was standing over him checking his vitals; Ben looked distinctly uncomfortable.
Just after Vek had left, Kiera had noticed the doctor had said something about shock and a more ruthless warning. It hadn't taken much to get Ben on the stretcher, but he still wasn't speaking much.
"The doctor gave you candy?" Ben whined when he looked over. "I want some candy now."
He fixed Kiera with his most pathetic look.
Kiera's lips twitched as she placed a finger under his jaw line and checked under her breath.
"Maybe, if you're good," she said, feeling herself relaxing at something that reminded her of the Ben before he'd 'died'. She was trained for field medicine; but that same training helped immensely in situations like this.
Now if only she could get Officer Vek to stop caller her 'nurse'.
Cirr drifted into high orbit, away from the maelstrom. He found solace at the periphery of the infirmary with Lyanie. Feeling a bit like an overdressed doofus while still in most of his zero-gee suit, he tried and failed at the act casual pose.
"Therre's no way forr me to pull rrank out of a quarrantjine, jis therre?"
He already knew the answer, to his chagrin. He looked at her. While the quarantine screen only deflected microbes, something stronger deflected him from getting any closer, but the look he gave his engineer betrayed himself.
Sighing at his trapped predicament, he glanced back at Ben's strange cult of personality.
"So, off the rrecorrd of courrse...jI'm dyjing to know..."
A terrible part of him inheirited his mother's gluttony for gossip.
Vek Vek backed the brunette female's play. Reward administered on conditionality of desired behavior.
"Candy given to patients exhibiting admirable recovery. Please to lie on table."
He gestured to Ben.
"Deep breaths. Control. Introduction of oxygen to blood mixture to promote equilibrium and cooldown. Close eyes and count to ten."
"Deep breaths. Control. Introduction of oxygen to blood mixture to promote equilibrium and cooldown. Close eyes and count to ten."
"Did he just say I need to breathe so I can calm down?" Ben asked as he closed his eyes.
"Yes," Keira said. He grew visibly tense, but after a few moments of deep breaths, he relaxed. Only slightly.
"Dyin' to know what, Cirr?" he asked, looking at him from around the curve of Keira's waist. He was fanny... finally starting to get used to the idea of Cirr as a out and out Alliance military man, though he didn't like it one bit.
Cirr had been a lot like him, once. Ben couldn't see himself doing anything for any military ever again, but looking at Cirr, his surety of his continued non-involvement in the war was shaken.
"Well...", she drawled out, "...some would say it's because he's adorable."Originally Posted by Cirrsseeto Raurrssatta
She smiled with that, glancing sidelong at Cirr, then settling her gaze back on Ben, walking over to stand beside where he laid before continuing. The fingers of one hand were posed on her chin, the other hand supporting the elbow in an observative stance.
"Others would say it's because he's such a nice, sweet, genuine guy." She dropped one hand while the other reached to pat Ben on the shoulder as she turned her face back to Cirr. She left her hand there and squeezed her best friend's shoulder. Her eyebrows popped up and a certain smile curled her lips.
"But what I heard is that in this case, there was alcohol involved and someone..." She glanced, a knowing mirth creeping into her features, at Keira. "...discovered that good ol' Ben here is a krayt in the..."
But she never got to finish that sentence as she promptly found her mouth assailed by not one, but two unusually fast hands from two different people. She exclaimed something in far-too-muffled words and wrestled her pie-hole from their urgent and mortified/embarrased grasps. Lyanie looked quickly from Ben, to Keira, and back again in slight surprise.
"Hey! What's the deal? Nothin' wrong with bein' honest!"
Kiera looked at Ben, and saw his expression displaying an equal amount of mortification to what she was feeling; there was a certain amount of relief in that, but once again she was confronted with a different man than she remembered.
"Lyanie," she said in warning. "Now's not the time to be bringing that sort of thing up. Ben's doesn't need any more shocks to his system."
Ben was nodding vociferously in agreement, the redness in his cheeks subsiding to his normal pallor.
"I'm a sick man, Lyanie," he said, laying back on the bed and laying an arm over his forehead in mock swoon. "You wouldn't do such mean things to a poor sick man, would you?"
Hal groaned. "If the sexual tension gets any thicker in here, I think I'm the one who's gonna be sick."
Sitting back down on his exam table, the Nehantite shook his head. "Can't leave you alone for one minute, can I?"
It was a joke, to be certain, as he'd barely known anyone in the room for more than twenty minutes, so far.
His eyes widened a bit, and he bit back a laugh. When your hearing is better than a human's, sometimes you just say a thing and assume those pinkies can't hear it. He'd miscalculated. However, at Lyanie's gloriously frank explanation of it, the laughter finally came out.
"Well, nothjing wrrong therre. That's job securrjity jin some places. jI know some matrrons enjoy a njice gai'forrda'ro'chee on the sjide."
Okay, that was the extent of his ribbing. Any more would be cruel, especially considering he was already outmatched. It also just wasn't a source for that much controversy to begin with. Was having a reputation for being a good lay a scandal everywhere else? It was usually open for discussion where he came from.
Vek could feel the hormones and pheromones exuding from every other person in the room like a fog of musty funk. The protective membranes on his eyes narrowed to murderous slits, and he suddenly realized that thrusting a needle full of sedative into every neck in the room would not only be rash, but it would also cross contaminate his patients with each other's blood. Unprofessional.
His second option within easy reach was a spray bottle of disinfectant, which he quickly spritzed at everyone. Only when he stopped did he realize that the very same quarantine field designed to keep out microbes and cough droplets was also buffeting the disinfectant mist.
A blink.
"Irony."
Salvaging his ego, he carefully set aside the bottle, and laced his fingers together.
"Coitus a fact of life in confined space. Inevitable. Nevertheless consider this infirmary off limits to...coupling."
"I'm sorry Cirr, but if boning becomes a job, don't it lose it's luster?" Ben asked, blinking back tears at the liberal amount of spray in the air. The doc muttered something about 'Aironee' (Was she pretty?), and proceeded to give a little speech.
If you have rut like squibs in heat, don't do it in here.
That was basically the gist of it.
Kiera was too busy trying to get the taste of disinfectant spray out of her mouth to say anything.
"Ah, I don't think you need to worry about me gettin' any in here, doc," the pilot said, laying back. "So we're nice an' shiny."
And, rounding out the group (except for Lyanie, but she'd gotten to say her piece all ready) Ben looked at Hal.
"Nice to see you're not poked full o' holes, there," he said.
Last edited by Ben Merasska; Apr 4th, 2012 at 07:16:14 AM.
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