Chapter 6: A return to the land of the living.
The male slowly became conscious. He was wondering if he was awake or not, when he realised he must be awake to be wondering if he was awake. His mind was not clear though; it was fuzzy and seemed to work slowly. He was lying down. Funny, he didn’t remember going to bed last night. It must be early the room was still dark.
‘No, it might not be dark; I still seem to have my eyes shut. God I wish my brain would wake up as well.’ The male thought to himself.
He tried to open his eyes but they wouldn’t cooperate. It seemed like an enormous amount of effort to raise his arm and his body felt stiff, but slowly he managed to get his hand to his face.
‘Oh, I seem to be wearing a set of bandages. I wonder if you actually wear bandages? You can’t exactly think of them as a fashion accessory. Bandages… that must mean I’m not at home. I wonder where I am? Obviously it must be a hospital, but I wonder which one? Is it military or civilian? Why would I think that particular question? Have I ever been in the military? I suppose I must have been at some point for that to be a natural question to ask myself. I doubt that anyone who has not been in the military would wonder what type of hospital they are in, they would assume a civilian one. I wonder if I got whatever injuries I’m healing from now by serving in the military? If I did then this will probably be a military hospital. If I’m in hospital, I’m most likely to be under the influence of drugs and/or painkillers. That at least would explain why every neuron fired seems like it has to pass through syrup before it can connect up at the other end. I wonder where I learnt about neurons? Come on brain! WORK! OK, so my eyes are bandaged, they must have received damage of some sort. I wonder if I’ve become blind? Hmm, lets cross that bridge when I get to it, I don’t actually know what happened so there is no need to speculate and worry about things before I know if they’re true or not. I shall only get myself worked up and panicky for nothing. My eyes may not work, but my ears do.’
He listened to the room around him. The unmistakeable low hum of cooling fans in machines seemed to permeate the room. It was quiet enough that he could not pinpoint the source or sources. It seemed to be coming from everywhere at once, blanketing the room with a constant undertone of noise. Easily ignored unless you were listening for it. Unfortunately, apart from his own breathing, that was all he could hear. There didn’t seem to be any other sounds at all.
‘I suppose I had better call someone and let them know I’m awake.’
He knew that there must be a call button somewhere close to him, so he started to feel down the edge of the bed for a switch of some sort. He managed to find a whole set of buttons attached to the side of the bed. Unfortunately he was, literally, working in the dark here, and didn’t know which one was which.
‘Well one of them must be right, I’ll just try each one until someone comes.’
He pressed the first button. Nothing seemed to happen. He waited a short while in case he had lucked out and got the right button first time, and it was just taking time to reach his room. No one appeared. So he tried the second button. The head end of the bed started to raise itself into a sitting position. He swore to himself, he had found the bed controls and not the call switch. He pressed the first button again and the bed lowered itself back to the horizontal position it had started from. He counted the number of buttons on the control panel. There were four of them. Two for raising and lowering the head of the bed, and two for doing the same thing to the foot of the bed he surmised. He continued to search for the call switch by feel alone. After searching around the edge of the bed he waved his hands in the air above the bed head in case there was a pull string. Nothing. It was no good, he was going to have to get out of bed, open the door (once he had found it) and call down the corridor outside to get someone’s attention. As he went to move he felt something tug at his chest. Pausing, he felt his chest and found wires attached to it with small sticky pads. So they had him connected to an EKG. He lay back again. He couldn’t move without removing the pads, and removing them would… A grin crossed his face.
30 seconds later someone came rushing into his room.
“Hello.” he said quite calmly, but in a voice croaky from disuse.
There was a silence, the type of silence that comes from confusion. Then a female voice said. “So you haven’t died then?”
“No, not yet.”
He heard her move to the side of his bed. He felt her gently press two fingers against the inside if his wrist, she must be taking his pulse.
“I thought that modern medicine would have had machines to do that sort of thing by now.” He commented.
“We have, unfortunately they tend not to be able to keep an eye on things when the patients have pulled the monitoring connections off their chests.” She responded flatly. She was obviously not amused at his unique solution of alerting someone he was awake.
She let go of his wrist and took hold of his hand and turned it so that it was palm up. He felt a small plastic control pad placed on his palm, and he closed his fingers around the object so it didn’t fall when she let go.
“That is the alert button. I’d be grateful if you use that the next time you need anything.” Her voice was still flat and un-amused. “I’ll go and get you something to drink, you must need it by now.”
He hadn’t realised it until she mentioned it, but he was thirsty. He heard her leave the room. He lay there waiting for her return. After a short interval he heard her come back into the room and move to the foot of his bed.
“Good morning.”
He jumped, the voice was male, it wasn’t the nurse returning after all.
“Is it morning? What time is it?” He asked the new arrival trying to cover his mistake.
“I’m Doctor Shime, just so you know who your speaking to.” He replied in an amused voice. He had obviously seen him jump. “I’m afraid I haven’t got my watch on so I can’t give you an exact time, but it’s about mid-morning, and before you ask, the cycle is Banath. You have been unconscious for two cycles. I suspect you are wondering what’s wrong with you. You were in an accident, quite a lucky escape actually you should have been killed. Fortunately for you fate stepped in and you are here with only one major injury and a lot of bruising - which is why your body probably feels stiff. You are on painkillers, which is why the bruising isn’t causing you any pain. A blow to your forehead, which fractured your skull, caused the major injury. Your eyes are fine, the position of the fracture meant we had to place bandages across them. The fracture is healing nicely and with the medical nanites helping the process, you should be fit to leave sometime later today. The blow to your head also caused some bruising to the brain. This is not serious, and will heal itself. Until it is healed though, you may experience memory loss. This will also pass so don’t worry about it for now. If you need anything please summon the nurse with the alert button, but I would wait a short while if I were you. She hasn’t got over the shock of seeing a supposedly stable patient flat lining yet. Have you any questions?”
“Actually on the subject of memory loss, who am I?” The male asked.
Doctor Shime chuckled and then replied. “We haven’t got your records through from central admin yet, so at the moment we have had to use the name that was on your flight suit.”
“Oh, so I was a pilot! OK, so what am I known as at the moment?”
“Blue One.”
Blue One sat up in bed holding his head still while the nurse carefully removed the bandages. His head had lost the fuzzy feeling that he had when he first woke up. Once the bandages were removed he carefully opened his eyes a fraction. He felt his pupils contract and he waited for his eyes to get used to the unaccustomed light coming in before he opened them any further. He looked around the slowly emerging room. It was a typical hospital room, antiseptically white with the bed half way down one wall and perpendicular to it so medical personnel had easy access to both sides of the bed. To his right was a small bedside cabinet, which had a glass and pitcher of orange juice on it. To his left there was a machine, which he assumed to be the EKG that he had been attached to when he woke up earlier. In the far left corner of the room there was also a chair, and a male in military uniform occupied it. This surprised Blue One as he had not heard him enter the room or sit on the chair. How long had he been sitting there?
He asked the obvious question. “How long have you been sitting there?”
The military man looked up from the data pad that he had been using and replied. “Since about 1/25th of a cycle before you regained your senses.”
Blue One looked at him stunned. “You mean you have been here the whole time? You saw me struggling to find the alert button? Watched me pull those EKG wires off? Have seen me laying and sitting here for half a day and you have not said or done anything?”
There was a small pause before the man answered. He waited until the nurse had left.
“The main reason I am here is irrelevant until you recover, but I have secondary orders to protect you as well, so I had to be in this room with you. You don’t know it yet, but at the moment you are one of the most important men on this planet, a unique planetary resource you might say. I doubt you will be left alone and unguarded for a long time to come. As to the other matter, I watched what you have done without interference because it is always interesting to see how a person copes with the unknown. The primary reason I am here relates to something that involves problem-solving skills, and I wanted to see how you dealt with your situation. I must say that your solution to not being able to find the alert button was very amusing. I don’t think I would have thought of doing that myself, and even if I had I’m not sure I would have had the bare-faced audacity to carry it out.” He finished almost laughing.
“So why are you here?” asked Blue One.
“I am here to protect you while you recover. Once you are released from hospital I am to take you to see some people that are in need of your skills. They will fill you in on the details, I can’t tell you any more than that at the moment because of security restrictions.” He finished with a shrug.
Blue One looked at him and paused thoughtfully before replying. “I know all about security restrictions, so I won’t waste my breath with futile questions trying to prise more information out of you. Can you at least tell me your name?”
“Laiban”
“First name or last name?”
“Does it matter?” Laiban asked.
“No I suppose not, just curious, and your rank?”
“Let’s just say it’s higher than yours.”
“I assume we are getting into security restriction territory again. Hmm, thinking about it I would also lay money on your name not being your real name either.”
“An astute observation. I would keep that just between us for the time being if I were you.” Laiban said smiling. “To work that out that quickly you must have an analytical brain.”
“No, I just know how the military mind works. It’s not that hard to work out if you think about it for a couple of seconds. You just have to be ultra suspicious and the answer presents itself to you on a plate. At least when I’ve had to deal with the intelligence service before that attitude has always served me well.”
Laiban’s head snapped up and he looked at Blue One frowning. “How did you know I was from the intelligence service?” he demanded.
“I didn’t for sure until you just confirmed it for me…. Captain.”
Laiban’s jaw dropped. “How the hell did you work that out?”
“I’m a Lieutenant. You said you were a higher rank than I am. A Colonel, or higher, wouldn’t be baby sitting me.” Blue One said in a matter of fact voice.
“I suppose you do realise an intelligence officer is well within his rights to kill someone who finds out compromising information about him?” Laiban stated without any inflection in his voice.
Blue One looked Laiban directly in the eyes. “I do, but you won’t kill me. If I am as important as you say I am, you would be committing treason by killing me. I am also meant to be under your protection. It wouldn’t look to good if someone you were supposed to be protecting died at your own hands would it? So you can stop trying to intimidate me. I have faced death more times than I can remember, this episode only being the latest in a long line of close calls. It will take more than you, Captain, to scare me.”
Laiban held Blue One’s gaze while thinking how to continue. He had underestimated this mans intelligence; he was obviously more intelligent than his current occupation of pilot suggested. Before Laiban could comment Blue One spoke again. “I won’t give anything away, Laiban, but don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m stupid again.”
Laiban noticed Blue One’s deliberate return to using his pseudonym rather than his rank. “I didn’t think you were stupid, but you are right in thinking I didn’t realise that you were quite so intelligent. A truce then? I think we will work better together as comrades rather than opponents.”
Blue One paused before answering. “Agreed. I won’t try to get any more information from you either. You have a job to do, and me making it harder on purpose isn’t fair.”
Laiban didn’t get a chance to say anything in return because Doctor Shime entered the room at that moment. He performed some tests on Blue one and then said. “Well I can’t find a reason to keep you here any longer. You are free to leave as soon as you want.
Blue One sat in an antechamber waiting to be called into a meeting. Laiban and himself had been driven from the hospital to a building that is unofficially known as the headquarters of the intelligence service. In other words, everyone knew that it was the headquarters of the intelligence service, but officially it was denied. During that drive Blue One and Laiban talked to each other on a wide range of subjects. They deliberately stayed away from talking about anything relating to what was currently happening by mutual unspoken agreement. Instead their talk ranged from films, to music, to art, to travel, and a whole host of other small talk topics. In doing so they slowly began the first tentative steps towards a friendship that neither of them could have foreseen.
When they arrived at the headquarters they had to go through a rigorous and time consuming identity and security check, which took even longer because Blue One had to be issued security clearance, and a clearance card had to be made for him. When they had finally finished with that, they had been escorted to the antechamber, and told to wait until they were called into the main meeting room the chamber was attached to. Laiban was called in after a short while, but that was just over 4/25th of a cycle ago.
Blue One was bored rigid, and he needed the toilet. Finally he had had enough of waiting and opened the door leading to the corridor looking for a toilet. A female was walking down the corridor away from him. “Excuse me.” He called out to attract her attention. She stopped and turned in his direction.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“Could you tell me where the nearest toilets are?”
“They are through the door to my left.” She responded indicating the door she meant with her hand at the same time.
“Thank you.” Blue one said as he let the antechamber door shut behind him. He walked up the corridor, entered the toilets and did what he needed to do. When he had finished he walked back down the corridor to the antechamber, and placed his hand on the handle ready to open the door. He paused as he heard a commotion from inside the room. He placed an ear to the door trying to hear what was going on, but the chamber was too resonant and the door to thick for him to make out any intelligible sounds. All he could tell was that someone was angry and shouting at others. He shrugged and opened the door. There was a large overweight male standing in the centre of the antechamber haranguing a group of four people standing along one wall. To Blue One’s left one of the large double doors leading to the meeting room was open, and in it, hidden from the large males view by the open door itself, stood Laiban. He saw Blue One glance in his direction and grinned a mischievous grin at him.
Suddenly the large male turned to Blue One and started to shout at him. “Who are you? Do you know where the person who was occupying this room is?”
Blue One’s hackles went up. Who the hell was this male that he thought he could just speak to anyone in that manner? “No I don’t know where he is.” He said in a bold tone. Talking to the large male as an equal and not as a subordinate, he knew that this tone would annoy the large male as he was obviously used to people cow-towing to him. Blue One saw, out of the corner of his eye, Laiban smothering a laugh with his hand so as not to give his location away.
The large male looked at him and again shouted. “Why don’t you go and look for him then instead of just standing there like an oaf.”
Blue One looked the male directly in the eyes, held that gaze and then, in the most insulting way he could manage, slowly let his eyes move down the male’s body to his feet and then back up again until he was again looking at the male in the eyes. “You are the one who seems to have lost someone. Why don’t you go and look for him?”
The male couldn’t believe his ears. He was so angry that at first he had trouble speaking. When he did finally speak, he was no longer shouting, but talking in a deathly quiet voice. “What did you just say too me? Do you know who I am?”
Blue One replied in an equally quiet voice. “No I don’t know who you are, but I do know what you are, and it is quiet in hear you heard me quite clearly. You are a male who has no manners. You couldn’t be civil to someone unless it was to your advantage, and even then it would be a false civility. I have met dockworkers that had a better idea how to treat a fellow person than you do. You talk to me as if I was something you have just scraped off the bottom of your shoe, without even knowing who I am. For all you know I might have been the person you were looking for. What a good impression you would have made.”
Blue One hadn’t thought that the male could have got any angrier, but it seemed he was wrong. He stood there no longer able to talk at all, all he could manage was spluttering. Suddenly the spluttering stop and the male roared. “You’re fired! Get out of here! I don’t want to ever see your face again!”
Blue One continued to look at the male with unconcealed contempt. “You can’t fire me.”
“Give me one good reason why not!”
“I don’t work for you.” With that Blue One turned on his heel and walked out of the room.
Chap 7: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=197438
Living ship Chap 6
Moderators: TheElf, Moderators for English X Forum
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Aragon Speed
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Living ship Chap 6
Last edited by Aragon Speed on Tue, 8. Jan 08, 15:08, edited 1 time in total.
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Aragon Speed
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Good story and an interesting plot. I eagerly await further developments.
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Captain Chris sTc
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Aragon Speed
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Aragon Speed
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blazermick
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Aragon Speed
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Dragonteen
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Aragon Speed
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That's not quite what I meant when I wrote it, but the way it reads you are quite right. 
No...no, definitely not 
![[ external image ]](http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/8375/sc2siggybc4.jpg){kind=link}
Syndrome wrote:I like the way you made Aragon think that we've given up hope. That way he'll be more inclined to make the next chapterTaku wrote:I supposed we'll never see chapter 7 will we *Sigh*
Uh, yeah....! thats exactly what i was going for lol, nah i'm kinda really giving up hope, i dunno i mite make some trash account on the XTM forums and bug him till he writes the seventh one lol.
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Aragon Speed
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Yeah, well, i mean, i hate it when this kinda thing happens, also i'm the dude who sent you that wierd email, lol, ah you better be doing some really good stuff for XTM! lol nah, its ok man, i understand.Aragon Speed wrote:Sorry guys, been busy with XTM. Will try to get something done soon. It's funny, I didn't think that anyone would be that bothered.