Day 46: Lunch

[tostepforward]

The mere fact that she'd been susceptible to whatever hold the Institute had had on her yesterday was sufficient to leave Ayumu both upset and angry - no, not angry, downright furious, both at herself and whoever was responsible for that. But there was also the fact that because of it, she'd lost out on an entire day of work, and in several ways

Comments

[loyal_soldier]

More food. There was always some part of 622 that wondered why they were given three meals every day. It just seemed too generous, too much for this place. Why hadn't they been made to starve? People's defenses lowered significantly when all they could think about was getting food, after all.

He took some of the 'pizza' and sat down in the mostly empty mess hall, trying a bite of this strange new food. It tasted like grease and bread.

He had half the piece eaten before he even stopped to think.

[For one Doctor McCoy!]

[hes_deadjim]

Whoever that man was on the primitive speaker, McCoy was finding his bedside manner more and more abrasive by the second. Maybe abrasive was the wrong for it. He'd have called it sickeningly sweet. He preferred frankness, honesty, and being treated like an actual person, not someone you had to tip-toe around, dammit, or talk down to. He found it hard to trust any medical practitioner who felt like they had to resort to downplaying any potential problems to a patient's face. It made him feel as if they were hiding something. If they could go glossing over vital facts to a patient, who knew what they'd decide colleagues or commanding officers really needed to know? It was a slippery slope

[loyal_soldier]

622 eventually noticed movement in his peripheral vision that had escaped his attention for... he didn't know how long. Oh, blast. He looked up, swallowing his current mouthful of food.

"Sorry I didn't see you there, sir," he said politely, trying to ignore the look. Yes, he ate fast. All troopers did, by habit and by demands of metabolism. But everyone here seemed to find it odd.

He wiped off his hands on a napkin and held one out to his tablemate. "Stormtrooper Sergeant TK-622. I haven't seen you here before. Are you new?" He tried to keep a vague mental tally of faces he'd seen before, and this man wasn't among them.

[hes_deadjim]

That was quite the mouthful. It reminded him more of a serial number for a piece of machinery than the name for a man. The 'Stormtrooper' part of his rank was also strange. Definitely from a military organization with that rank. McCoy didn't know what organization he belonged to though. He'd never heard of one that used that designation.

The doctor took the offered hand. He had a strong grip. "You could say that. Chief Medical Officer McCoy."

He paused, consideringly. The name did sound familiar. He wasn't sure if the exact number was a match but he thought he'd heard it yesterday.

"TK-622? I think Commander Hayes mentioned you last night," McCoy said. That was if this was the man in question, but how many people had a name like that?

[loyal_soldier]

622 shook the man's hand firmly, a gesture which was mostly unfamiliar to him at his rank, but still common enough to be the polite thing to do.

A medic. That was something he respected. The good work of human and droid medics had kept him alive for as long as that had been possible. Medics were valuable people, especially the experienced ones.

"Yes, I was going to meet up with Commander Hayes at an RV point we'd chosen before moving on to find him a weapon." He shrugged just slightly, "But events decided to line up against that plan." It happened. Frequently. It didn't really bother him all that much, now that he knew Hayes hadn't been eaten by anything.

[hes_deadjim]

A weapon? In a hospital? McCoy wouldn't have seen any reason for it if it hadn't been for last night. After seeing what that thing had done to Jim, now he could believe it.

He hadn't ever seen anything like it occur naturally. Perhaps it was a native of this planet, wherever this was. This was supposedly a replica of Earth, but he'd never heard to what extent. If it was a limited area, it made sense that the native flora or fauna might start leaking in. But if whoever made this place was powerful enough to make it and yank people from all over, then McCoy couldn't see how such a power couldn't keep out animals

[loyal_soldier]

"Understandable, sir. The best thing to be done here is to keep everyone alive long enough to make it out." Not that anyone had found a way yet, so a medic's skills were likely to be in high demand for quite a while.

"Ah. Well it's good that you traveled together, at least. Individuals trying to head out on their own are far more likely to meet resistance they can't handle here." Still, if they were both new, then McCoy didn't have any weapons either, so it was just double the meatshielding with nothing in the middle.

"Do you have a weapon yourself, sir? The cell block is usually safe, but if you plan on leaving that area then you're going to need some way to keep yourself defended."

[hes_deadjim]

He didn't like the sound of that. The last thing he'd expected was a medical facility that didn't have its patients' best interest in mind, and yet that was just what this was looking like. It went against everything he worked for. And while it could be all in a person's head, McCoy found it strange that the story seemed universal from everyone he'd encountered so far. A mass delusion, with similar stories, wasn't common.

As much as he didn't like it, it was probably what it looked like. There was something strange going on here. And it would start making sense with some of the disorganization and malpractice going on here, and the patients being left to roam around at night.

"No, I can't say I have."

Maybe that flashlight could work as one. It was heavier than he was comfortable with, especially in the hands of patients, but he could handle it.

"Why, are you saying they just have phasers lying around?" McCoy asked dryly. It was too much to hope, but he didn't exactly expect a hospital to have weapons all over the place either.

[loyal_soldier]

"There isn't much easily available, but you can at least get something fit to work as a blunt weapon from an equipment shed on the Rec Field," 622 said, starting to eat again. This stuff looked phenomenally unhealthy, but it tasted great.

"I can help you with that if you want, sir. Commander Hayes and I will already be heading out there to get something for him."

He stopped eating, tilting his head in confusion at the word 'phaser'. "Nothing more than primitive weapons, unfortunately. There are some people who can make weapons. If you ask for the Cooking Club over the bulletin, you can try to get an appointment set up with one of them. They're obviously in high demand.

[hes_deadjim]

The rec field? Maybe that was where they'd found Jim last night. He filed it away for later. He didn't see why TK-622 was telling him to see some Cooking Club. Cooking wasn't what he was interested in.

As tempting, and sensible, getting a weapon sounded, McCoy already had his priorities elsewhere. Last night he'd been faced with just how under-equipped he was to deal with any form of medical emergence. Know-how could only go so far before you started needed ways to actually disinfect and seal wounds. They couldn't close themselves."I appreciate the offer, but I wanted to track down medical supplies first. Any idea where I could get those

[loyal_soldier]

"There's a room on the second floor," 622 pulled out his journal (real paper, he still couldn't get over how weird that was), and turned to the page where he had carefully copied out the maps that had been available on the bulletin, pointing to the pharmacy. "There's also a group of medics that I've collected supplies for. You might be able to contact them over the bulletin as well, but the recent censorship might make things difficult. Hence rather odd names like 'cooking club'." But come to think of that, they'd been using that name for weeks. Weird civvies.

"They don't have anything that looked modern to me, though. Just period for whatever level of technology this is supposed to be."

[hes_deadjim]

McCoy leaned over a little to get a better view of the map, taking note of where that room was. It really all hinged on just how well-stocked it was, and he didn't think it'd just be left unlocked either, but it was a start.

"Thanks," McCoy muttered. He was still tracing a mental path from his room to that second floor room. After a moment he leaned back.

It was strange that the staff felt they could get anywhere by censoring the patients, especially if they were the very ones responsible for letting them loose at night. What was the point if all parties knew something different was going on?

"You said there's a group of medics. Are we talking Starfleet associated medics or independent?"

[loyal_soldier]

"I can make a copy of the map if you want," 622 offered. It wouldn't be brilliant, but at least he could draw straight lines.

"Unfortunately, I haven't a clue what you're talking about. I've never heard of a government that calls their navy 'Starfleet'. They aren't from the same organizations, however." Was he going to have to explain the multiple universes theory? He really didn't want to, it always made him sound like he was completely bonkers.

[hes_deadjim]

"I'd appreciate that," he replied.

Finding another person who hadn't heard of Starfleet wasn't as surprising this time around. McCoy decided it was better to let the matter drop for now. So far there were people here completely unaware that space travel was popular, followed by the opposite end of the spectrum, like Jim, Spock and Hayes. The Sargeant hadn't made it clear yet just where he fit in on that. Bad enough he'd almost violated the Prime Directive once already.

"You sound like you know the run of this place. How long have you been here?"

[loyal_soldier]

622 started copying out the map, trying to work efficiently. He wasn't exactly a cartographer, but he'd do his best.

"Nineteen days. It doesn't sound like much, but... A lot of people tend to either die or just disappear." He looked up from his notepad. "I'm glad we have another person with medical skills now, sir. This place patches people up at the end of each night, but we don't have many people to act as medics during the night."

[hes_deadjim]

The doctor was silent for a moment.

"And no one's said anything?!" McCoy exclaimed. The idea that any medical practitioner would willingly risk their patient's lives was inconceivable. It wasn't clear what TK-622 meant by "disappearing either". He would have assumed death, if the Sergeant hadn't just covered it, and that left the alternative ominously open-ended. How was this allowed to happen?

McCoy watched him continuing copying the map. "I don't doubt that," he grumbled. It certainly sounded like he was going to have plenty of work cut out for him.