(Untitled)

[twoeyesonthesky]

The door from Milliways opens onto a stairwell in Alnwick Castle. "I never did manage to get the door to the Bar to open on purpose, except when we had a lot of people here who had to go back," he says apologetically. "Everyone all right? The infirmary's two levels down."

Comments

[sime_channel]

"Just fine." Suzi says with a nod, face firm (although not ever hard), "Oh..ohhh...Gens." It's a beautiful thing, to her Sime senses; the nager of Established Gens zlinned distantly around the castle.

[twoeyesonthesky]

"Hmm?" says Quinn, glancing in Suzi's direction. "Didn't quite catch that."

[sime_channel]

"Gens." Suzi says again, a little bit louder, "I don't know how recently Established, or exactly how many, but there are Gens here. Remind me to tell you how to identify Changeover before I leave."

[twoeyesonthesky]

"Huh. Bit ahead of schedule, isn't it?" says Quinn, but he's not really objecting. "All right, I can do that..."

[sime_channel]

"How should I know?" Suzi asks, a bit of a bounce in her step as she keeps following him down, "There's a long, long time between you and me and all the history got lost."

[twoeyesonthesky]

"Yeah, I know. I figured it must've happened sometime during the losing- ah, never mind, doesn't matter." He smiles a little. "The important thing is, we're headed in the right direction."

[sime_channel]

Suzi smiles back at him, "Forward, all the way. What am I going to be looking at, down there?" At the last, her face sobers.

[twoeyesonthesky]

Quinn runs both hands over his face. "Sixteen burn victims," he says. "All Americans, all men. Helen estimates we might be able to save three or four of them on our own, but the amount of antibiotics and antiseptics we'd need to keep them from dying of infections would drain all our supplies from Milliways. Their commander's one of the worst off. I'd say he's the bald one, but I don't think any of 'em have got hair left."

[sime_channel]

"I'll do what I can." If nothing else, if nothing else, Suzi is capable of carrying in rather more equipment and supplies than a normal person. The phrase stronger than she looks most certainly applies.

[twoeyesonthesky]

"That's all I can ask of anyone," says Quinn. "Thank you, Suzi."

[sime_channel]

Suzi smiles back up at him, and nods firmly. "Just point me at the people you want me to work on first. I...can't promise they're going to react as well as a Gen, but I've been reading on Baseline first-aid since you showed up needing help."

[twoeyesonthesky]

"This way," says Quinn. "There's eleven of 'em in one room. That's not too many for you to work with, is it? Helen'll be coming to help you soon as she's got Sooraya set up."

[sime_channel]

"No, that's not too many." Her voice is softly amused, under the grimness, "I'm a very good channel. I'll be able to deal with it, even with my laterals all covered."

[twoeyesonthesky]

"Good," says Quinn, and leads the way down the rest of the corridors.

The smell of smoke is mostly gone here, but it couldn't be eradicated completely. Most of the people in this room were burnt so badly that their clothing had to be cut away, where there was any clothing left at all. None of them look like they're enjoying the concept of moving any time soon. Quinn pauses to talk to Helen a moment- Helen being a woman of mid-fifties in age- and then turns back. "Suzi," he says, "this is Dr. Bascombe."

[sime_channel]

"Hello, Doctor Bascombe." Suzi says, holding her hand out to shake it, "I'm Hajene Darley ambrov Farris. I'm here to help. I brought some things...just tell me where to go."

She can't help it, couldn't if she wanted to, and she doesn't want to. Suzi extends her nager and balances out the majority of the pain in the room; leaving numbness and exhaustion instead of agony to those people remaining.

[twoeyesonthesky]

Helen shakes the offered hand. "Good to meet you, Miss-"

"Hajene's a title," Quinn murmurs.

"Hajene Darley, then," Helen continues smoothly. "If you've experience with this sort of thing at all, pick a person and start on it. That fellow in the third bed over there is their commanding officer, Van Zant." She lowers her voice. "I'd say he's worst off, but to be perfectly honest there's really very little difference by now."

At the shifting of the ambient the little suppressed noises- these are American soldiers, they've been trying not to sound as if they're in pain, regardless of how much a fool's errand that might be- change to surprise. "Hey, Doc," rasps one of the men. "That painkiller... 's kicking in."

"Placebo," murmurs Helen too quietly for the scorched men to hear. "Are you doing that?"