“How’s he doing?” It was Laruen’s voice.
“Considering the state of his body, the stress he’s been putting on himself and the lack of sleep… well… but this cannot continue.” Aideen’s voice sighed out.
“What needs to be done?” Kaidah’s voice spoke up.
“Speak to Kagome, I’m sure she knows how to run this ship, just tell her that Ken‘Daichi needs rest. Doctor‘s orders..” Aideen said and Kaidah nodded before hurrying out of the room.
Laruen had found Aideen quickly and quietly, banging on her bedroom door until the woman finally submitted and came out. She dragged her off without any explanation and took her to Ken’Daichi. Aideen and Laruen had a simple moment of understanding without saying a single thing, he wouldn’t want the crew to see him like this. Together, with a bit of struggling, they got him to his room where Aideen left him in Laruen’s care before running off to the medical bay for Kaidah and supplies.
Laruen sat in the corner of the room, being helpful when Aideen seemed to need her help, but otherwise she stayed quiet.
“Laruen, I need you to do something for me.”
“What’s that?”
“Keep him in bed, for at least twenty four hours, I don’t care how you do it, I don’t care if you have to bodily knock him down every time he gets up. I will be back as soon as I can, I need to get some supplements and sedatives for him.”
“Gotcha.”
Aideen left the room as Laruen got up and moved to stand over Ken’Daichi, watching him intently.
“nnnggg…” Ken’Daichi murmured as he shifted on the bed, slowly opening his eyes. “Where?”
Kaidah rushed to the said of the bed to check on him, with Laruen right behind her. Lauren peaked over Kaidah’s shoulder smugly.
“You passed out, like a pansy, and now you‘re in your room.”
“What?”
“You passed out, sir,” Kaidah replied as she glanced at Laruen. “The readings show your stressed, but not really enough to cause what happened. Something else seems to be happening to you, but either was Aideen wants you to take some time off.”
Ken’Daichi sat up, fully intending to walk out of there.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t afford to rest right now. I have work to do,” he replied. “Go over the readings again and let me know if you find anything out.”
There was a sharp prick to his arm... and Aideen stood behind him, a look of defiance in her eyes.
"As I recall, you said my orders, as your doctor, can surpass yours. You are on bed rest for the next day, give me that, and I'll let you get up. Don't, and I'll plug you with another sedative, a much larger dose this time."
"You know, that was never officially entered into the ships log," he said calmly as he fought off the sedative.
"Ask me, as of this moment, if I care Ken'Daichi. You'll find the answer is a resounding no. I am simply going to take you at your word. Kagome seems perfectly happy with my orders." Aideen retorted, her tails flicking in a agitated movement behind her as she prepped another sedative.
Ken'Daichi considered protesting, even claiming that in the current situation he needed to be on duty. Somehow, as he looked at each of the three of them, he knew it would end up being futile.
"Fine, but give me a counter to the sedative," he said finally. "At least long enough to get something to eat, which is where I wanted to go in the first damn place."
"Supplements." Aideen said, dropping a package into his hands. "The sedative I gave you was mild enough it'll just simply make it a little hard to think and impede some motor control. I have had enough sneaky lessons from Laruen that you can deal with it." Aideen snorted out, grabbing a chair and pulling it over.
"Damn...remind me to try to behave a little better." Laruen murmured to Kaidah whom simply nodded in agreement with the statement she had made. Aideen pretended not to hear a word they were saying, focusing on Ken'Daichi instead.
"Supplements," he echoed as he looked at them. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you'd always been a doctor. Will there be anything else?"
He hadn't meant to, didn't even realize he had done it. It was the stress probably, or exhaustion, maybe whatever else may have been effecting the crew that had caused it, but whatever it was caused a glare to accompany that last sentence.
"When squeezing into tight cracks to find someone trapped, someone you can't get out on your own and have to await help for up to three days because some asses think you aren't good enough to work on a team, supplements became a highly useful tool to have on hand." Aideen replied, frowning at him. "And no, not really." She got up then, almost seeming...angry as she disappeared out of the room as quietly as she had come in.
Kaidah looked to Laruen, and handed her a hypo before leaving the room after Aideen, to try to see what had her upset.
"Sorry Ken'Daichi, docs orders. I'm your baby sitter for the next day." Laruen said as she settled herself down into the chair Aideen had been in.
"Joy," he murmured quietly as he looked at the supplements again. "What’s wrong with her?"
"I don't know." Laruen sighed out, "But she seems mad at you for some reason. Maybe it's not mad, maybe frustrated. Eh. I don't know." She gave a aimless shrug eyeing the supplements as well before she reached out to take the bag from him. She got up and walked across the room, fidgeting with something before she returned to him, offering him a thermos full of stew. "It's hot. Got to be tastier then this stuff though." Laruen mused as she sat back down. "I always keep that on hand... kind of like you. I won't remember to eat until Mu or Kaidah yells at me. So I keep that around to wave at them to get them to leave me alone." She smiled slightly.
"I'll have to remember that," he said as he took it from her. "You don't really have to stay here. I'm sure you have other things you'd rather be doing."
"Work on a engine I don't exactly know how to fix? Oh sure. I'd love to be doing that." Laruen scowled. "Besides that, I really don't want whatever Aideen's frustrations are on my head... it would just end in a violent fight." She sighed, looking at him as she crossed her arms across her chest.
"I still say she's over reacting," he stated as he looked out the cabin window at the still unfamiliar stars. "Something is happening to the crew, and I need to figure out what it is. Not sit here like a caged animal."
"Won't know until someone talks to her." Laruen said with a aimless shrug before she got up and paced around the room... she stopped and then turned to Ken'Daichi. "Four hours, get four hours of sleep and I'll see about sneaking you around to where you need to go. But if Aideen gets wind of it, you may possibly be on your own. Think you can handle that?" Laruen offered, as she understood about feeling caged, better then she should have.
"Do I have a choice?"
Kaidah studied the readings she had collected from various crew members, looking for any clue that may lead to an answer. Aideen would be back soon, but somehow Kaidah suspected this was outside of her medical training. Hell, it was outside of her own training.
Nothing like a good cram session, she thought ruefully.
She heard the med deck doors slide open as Aideen walked in, and collected what she had been looking at.
“Aideen, I think I may have found something.”
Aideen made a unintelligent sound, taking a long drink of whatever was in the cup in her hands, before she sighed loudly and walked over to Kaidah.
"What is it?" She asked, peering over Kaidah's shoulder.
"Right, well it got me thinking that maybe that’s exactly what it was. Some one, or something else," she started rambling again, but more coherent this time. "So I checked the neural scans looking for anything out of place, but nothing really stood out. There was some variance in Musevni's brainwave scan; and I believe Laruen's too although I don't know enough about her physiology. Anyway, there was some variance, but nothing outside normal parameters. Then Ken'Daichi passed out, I think the effect and the stress caused the more severe reaction. This time I saw the variance again, but it registered as a distinct and separate brainwave. Like it was a completely different consciousness.”
Aideen blinked and had a far off look on her face. She was quiet for the longest of time before she peered at Kaidah.
"If I am understanding this, and it makes sense, there's something... fucking with us, as Laruen would put it." Aideen scowled deeply, "How are my dreams connected?" Aideen asked, almost absent mindedly as she finished off the drink in her hands and set the cup down. "We've got to tell Ken'Daichi. Until then, keep this quiet. The crew doesn't need to riled up just yet."
"There could be something about your race that is causing the effect to manifest as dreams instead of waking thought," Kaidah commented. "Oh I wish Dianae was online... There is one thing though. The neural stimulants... I think they might be making us more susceptible."
"...that's not what I want to hear. C'mon, we need to go talk to Ken'Daichi." Aideen said rubbing her forehead, "Bring your findings with you. And radio for Ken'Daichi's location, I would bet one my tails Laruen let him out of bed."
Kaidah tapped the controls on the console. "He's in the hanger bay, Laruen is with him."
"Let's go." Aideen replied heading for the door.
Laruen looked up from the codex in her hands as the hanger doors opened and Aideen and Kaidah walked in. "Where's Ken'Daichi?" Aideen asked as they walked up to Laruen.
"Over here," he called as he came from behind the Aaranen ship with an engine component in hand. "And before you get angry with me, you told me to relax. This is relaxing."
"I can't muster any anger right now." Aideen said with a smile, which quickly faded away. "We have a problem. A couple of them. Kaidah was busy while I was away, and she found out some things. There is something out there, what it is, we're not sure, but it's messing with us, not sure why it's doing that either. And the neural stimulants aren't helping."
"I think they are making it worse, by making the people who are taking it more susceptible to this things influence." Kaidah said, offering up her findings to Ken'Daichi.
Laruen listened in, choosing to stay quiet for the time being, even as a deep scowl worked its way across her lips. Ken'Daichi looked over the data in silence, trying to piece it together.
"Medical science is not my area of expertise, but what might this... influence be?"
"Emotional, mental perhaps." Kaidah mused, "Not completely certain at the moment. Aideen is the only person, thus far, who hasn't lost it after being affected."
"I don't understand my dreams, and also, cannot be completely certain that they are connected. But it would make the most sense that they were. But the question is, if I'm affected, why is it only affecting my dreams, and not my mind like it did Laruen and Musevni." Aideen said with a frown, "You'll also have to pardon my earlier running away.”
"There is a story in my home land," he muttered calmly. "About the Amatsu-Mikaboshi. The have no body, no face, no physical form."
Aideen's ears perked at that.
"I recall restoring a collection of beautiful scrolls about that. All of them were drawn in such haste, two of them were half finished, but the words were so desperate, what little I could understand. By what little I could gather, Amatsu-Mikaboshi was a he, and was depicted as a god."
Kaidah looked at Aideen with a frown, now realizing her hunch that there was far more going on with Aideen was true... but knew full well that now was not the time to deal with it.
"Yes, many of the cultures we've encountered have similar tales," he replied. "The Amatsu-Mikaboshi was said to feed on the darkness within all men. Love would turn to jealousy, ambition to greed. I never believed such a creature truly existed, but the coincidence is a little much to ignore."
"This still leaves us in a great unknown. How do we search for something that we aren't certain what looks like? And how do we get away from it if we can't find it? We are still very much trapped in this void." Aideen mused with a frown.
"I can take the Chimera out, once it's up and running. I wouldn't be against the risk of going even further then Mu did. Someone's got to start branching out else we're all going to go mad and probably start killing each other." Laruen said from where she sat.
"No, too dangerous. If this thing gets to you while you are there we might not be able to avert disaster this time."
"Then what do you suggest?" Laruen sighed out, frowning at Ken'Daichi, "The longer we stay here, obviously, the worse things are going to get."
"There has got to be a way to track it," he muttered. "It says here you detected a distinct energy pattern when you did my neural scan?"
"Yes. And I don't suggest putting yourself under those conditions again." Kaidah said.
"Glad she's on my side," Aideen said as Kaidah gave her a slight smile, "If I'm affected, but not actively suffering aside from nightmares, it would be most likely to track whatever it is through that. I of course, would have to-."
"Man up." Laruen injected with a slight grin, earning a snort of amusement from Aideen.
"Yes, for a better lack of words." Aideen looked back over at Ken'Daichi.
"I was thinking of something else," he replied. "It might be possible to isolate the energy pattern itself and track it to it's source."
"Maybe." Aideen mused, "we can only hope it's that easy. With that in mind, I am going to take Kaidah back to her room, and then get to work, if you want to be involved in this, meet me back up in the medical bay in about ten minutes."
"But I-" Kaidah started up.
"You haven't slept in nearly twenty hours, your shift is more then over. I'm sure I can hold the fort until you get back up Kaidah." Aideen stopped her, smiling. Kaidah scowled at her, putting her hands on her hips.
"Fine, but if you need me for any one reason... you better call for me."
"I will, I promise. Now, if you'll excuse us." Aideen said, canting her head at Ken'Daichi and ushered Kaidah out of the hanger.
Looks like it was a forum hiccup. The post time is exactly the same.
