Star Trek: Starbase 777 - village-medical-center

A hospital on a smaller side, yet clean, upkept, and well organized.

He entered the center, following his guide. Cleanliness leads to friendliness, or whatever the saying was.

"The fridge is downstairs, while the workers were brought to the left wing of the center," their guide explained. "How do you want to, uh, proceed?" (edited)

"Well, I brought the basic regenerators if anyone needs cuts and breaks healed up," he said, showing them the devices, "and a few hyposprays. If you tell me what fridged medications you lost, I can make an inventory of them and get new ones replicated for you. I'm afraid any people with more complex issues will need physical examinations and long-term care. Do you have any doctors of your own?"

Having arrived shortly behind the Lieutenant, Twelve walked up alongside them. "If you've not got the information my colleague has asked for, would you be able to point us to the hospital staff with that information?" The El-Aurian queried then.

The guy scratched the back of his neck, "Yeah-h-h-h-h.... I'm a botanist, not a doctor. But I'm pretty sure they have the info you guys need?.. Oh, wait--" Speaking of! Seeing the mini-commotion, someone else came up, dressed in the typical medical whites: "Are these the Starfleet officers? How great. Let me steal them from you and fill in the blanks..."

"Consider me stolen. Did you hear what I said just now about inventory?" Dmitri asked, redirecting his attention to the actual doctor. Botany was a valuable skill, but not right now.

"I totally understand-" The El-Aurian xB started to respond then before, as the other approached, she turned to the person in medical whites and smiled. "Hello, we are indeed Starfleet officers yes." Twelve glanced to the lieutenant then looked back to the other, listened to what the other happened to ask. "..indeed, as my colleague told your friend, we're here to assist you with that matter and can offer assistance should it be required with patients if you've got any patients with cuts or breaks you'd like us to address with regenerators?"

"Mmm," came the most mildest answer, as Dmitri and Twelve were offered a list. The storyteller will take the liberty of not naming all of the bullshit trek medicines, but safe to say, there was some variety to both rarity and options. The medical officers could also see that the local medicines - plant-based things, mostly, a-la cough syrups and some sort of bandages and whatnot - were all already checkmarked with green. It was the Starfleet-issued supplies that were under question. "As for the workers... we can delegate those with minor scraps and bruises to you. The others are already under our care, and might be... feisty."

"Understood. Should just be able to fix those with the regenerators quickly." He scanned the list with a keen eye. "So you didn't lose any of your more holistic medicines? Just the Starfleet stuff?" Perhaps they were more easily able to scavenge and remake them from their surroundings. Good. He didn't put much faith in most homemade medicines, but it was better to have options than not - especially ones that could be procured without special equipment. (edited)

The word Feisty stuck out to Diahjir, it was something that he did not hear often, and he wondered what might have happened to cause someone to get "feisty". Nevertheless, he nodded and grabbed his medical bag. "I will start helping those with minor scrapes and bruises then. Should be easy enough."

Twelve nodded slightly then at what the person had to say as she checked the list. The El-Aurian quickly located the medication that happened to be a issue and then nodded a bit at the other officers statement. "Indeed, anything we've not already got in the supply delivery can be replicated." When the other asked about that issue with the medicines, Twelve looked at the list once more. It seemed odd that it was just the Starfleet medication that they seemed to have issues with so, she assessed the different medication on the list. As she proceeded with her swift assessment, Twelve looked to see if any of the Starfleet medicines happened to stand out. Stuff that happened to not be ones that needed the freezer but had also been lost or anything else that might have well, seemed odd to make the list. Once she'd conducted that swift check, Twelve looked to the CMO and stated. "Sir, I can join you in helping with the scrapes and bruises if you'd like." She offered then.

"They are easy to recover," the doctor shrugged. They then pointed towards a set of stairs going upward: "If you have no more questions, the fixer-uppers should go there."

Diahjir nodded again before he went up to the set of stairs, trying to smile slightly and failing at getting it quite right. He had too many questions on his mind, but no time to really vocalise them.

Twelve promptly followed the CMO up the stairs then. She'd noticed a few things as well, though she'd also not really elected to vocalise them. No, she contented herself with chewing over the analysis of the supplies list she'd elected to put her brain to as she walked. That seemed to be the wiser thing to do at present, at least until more information could be gathered at present. At least, that was how she reckoned it was, at present.

Off he went with the fixer-uppers. "You're the CMO, right?" He asked Diahjir. "I'm a new medical officer. We should become acquainted at some point."

"Yes, I am. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Lieutenant Commander Diahjir Lan, at your service," he spoke in an even tone -- even if he seemed to have his mind elsewhere for the moment.

"Well, it's more like I'm at yours. You can tell me what to do, after all. At least, on missions." It was an idea he'd disliked at first, someone else being able to order him around, but it was how things worked, he supposed. (edited)

Twelve initially contented to make her way to where the fixer-uppers happened to be, glanced at the other to. The conversation they happened to be having was somewhat curious. Why did people say they happened to be at someone's service, especially if they happened to be of superior rank? It was a conversation related decision she still struggled to wrap her head round, it also seemed quite elegant when people used it. "Introductions?" The El-Aurian inquired initially then, curious. That and also somewhat intrigued by how the Lieutenant had qualified what they said. 'At least on missions'. She assumed he meant at least on duty, that assumption followed, she considered his words only briefly before she turned her focus on the path ahead to where the fixer-uppers happened to be.

As the medics made their way up, they would walk into a room full of beds - some of them occupied by locals. They were all chatting and laughing before, but their bubbling activity came to an awkward sort of halt when they spotted the Starfleet officers.

Yeah, this was usually how it was when he walked into a room. "We're here to help."

3

That reaction certainly noted, Twelve affected a warm smile as she entered the room and approached the 'fixer-uppers!' "Hello, apologies for interrupting your chat" She started then. "As has been said, we're here to help." She started before she added. "We're officers from Starfleet medical, one of the medical staff here asked if we could help out and render assistance." She smiled again as she looked about the beds and visually assessed the different individuals present for injuries. "We promise we'll be as swift as we safely can be in helping you all, I'm Lieutenant Commander Twelve of Twenty and my boss here-" She indicated the CMO "Is Chief medical officer Lieutenant Commander Diahjir Lan along with my fellow officer who, I'm sure'll be happy to introduce himself also." "As has been said, we're here to help."

"Oh, of course, you're medical officers," one of the people blurted out, causing a melty sort of chuckle to bounce around the room. "Why do you and scientists both have blue accents?" "They have a bump on their head," came a helpful not-really-whisper from the side, "Or two. Maybe two, judging by the sentence structure!"

"Medicine is science-y." He approached the bumpy person (berson), staring at their pupils, wondering if he might need to flash a small light at them but not wanting to jumpscare them just yet. "Any dizziness or nausea?"

Nevada gave a brief tight-lipped smile as she pulled out her medical tricorder. Being unwanted by the people you were trying to help was always stressful. “Starfleet uniforms are in the primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. I guess blue was just… the most medical of those three colors. Plus,” she nodded to Dimitri, “It matches with the science division.” She spoke slowly, as though she was choosing her words very deliberately. She hadn’t brushed up on the history behind division colors recently, and wasn’t totally confident. She stood off to the side as Dimitri worked, not wanting to overwhelm the person. “Does anyone else have any injuries they need help with?”

"Admittedly, while the blue looks the same-" Twelve started then on the heels of what the other two had stated. "-There are some differences in uniform between medical and science department uniforms past that." She hummed as she also headed toward the others and produced a medical tricorder. "I've had one or two people claim to be the blue's are slightly different but I'm not quite that sure about that." The El-Aurian then nodded a bit at the question of the other officer. "Indeed-" She started then. "-if anyone else has injuries, I and my colleagues can assist you while the Lieutenant helps your friend with their head bump."

"So science came first before medicine? Wrow," the human blinked up at Dmitri, then, their pupils appropriately small. They wrinkled their nose in thought, "Maybe a bit dizzy? It's mostly hurtin' like something fierce, really. I'm seeing you okay, no twins or anything. Unless I am supposed to see one, or there's, like, a ghost??" "Don't say that!" the same person spoke up, a Saurian. It didn't seem to be a joke, as they shot the chatty "berson" a judgmental sort of look. It was gone when they turned to look at Nevada, "Um, I think there's some bruises all over my left shoulder. Got a bit too overconfident with lifting stuff..." "Think my ankle's busted," another one spoke up, oddly calm about such prospect.

"I despise ghosts, so hopefully not," he said, frowning. "How long have you had the headache? Does anyone have a small light?" A headache was one symptom of a concussion, but having a bit of a sore head after you'd bumped it was normal - unless it'd been hours.

“Oh, uh…” Nevada considered making a joke about her own twin but she couldn’t quite make it work and the other person didn’t really seem to be joking. She decided it would just make things awkward. “I can take a look at that ankle,” she said instead, shifting her focus. She pulled her tricorder off of her medical kit and separated the hand scanner. “May I scan you? It’ll just give me a clearer picture of what’s going on in there so that I can help you better.”

"It's been like... less than an hour?" they sounded unsure, at first. "Oh, yeah, no, I'm right. About 20ish. I was the last one to come in." The one with the hurt ankle nodded, gesturing a bit with their hand: "Yeah, go for it."

She waved the scanner over their ankle, listening to the ambient conversations as the readings came in on the screen. Right, she should be making small talk while she worked. “So. The weather here… has been bad, huh?”

"Some dizziness, a headache for twenty minutes, but no nausea or vision problems... Was that a little disordered speech earlier? Someone said something about sentence structure." Maybe they were just being a grammar pedant, though. "I still need to test the pupillary light response... Oh, could you do me a favour and try to stand up by yourself?" He was prepared to catch them if they fell.

"Oh, don't listen to him," Dmitri's patient tsked their tongue, meanwhile the Saurian was burrowing a fierce glare in the back of the good doctor's skull... "I talk like this all the time, promise. Uh, you can test me if you wanna?.. Dunno how, though. Oh, um..." Feet planted, they... did indeed stand up! The poor worker nodded in satisfaction, and immediately winced from the too-fast gesture, "Yeowww..." "Ah, you've heard about that already?" the scanner showed some swelling in the ankle area, but seemingly no major breaks! "Yeah, occasionally we get that. It gets fo-- windy. Real windy, and wet. Something about the oceans, maybe? I don't know, I'm not good at that whole thing, heh-heh. Yeah..."

"Okay, you don't seem too dizzy. So far I think you'll be fine, but if you experience any more dizziness, or other things like nausea or vision problems, or your pain gets increasingly worse, you should check in again. Just in case, I... Could someone just go to the ship's replicator and bring me a small flashlight?" He'd brought all the regenerators and hyposprays and other first aid equipment he'd thought he'd need, but he hadn't brought a small flashlight. Maybe he should just carry one around on a keychain from now on.

"There's one in that one cabinet, I'm sure," Dmitri was pointed to the corner of the room. Huh! Convenient. "I'm, like, sure you can borrow it."

"Oh, excellent. I'll only need it for a minute." He went and grabbed it. "I'm just going to flash this in your eyes for a second. Don't blink." And so he did, watching closely for a delayed, abnormal or nonexistent pupillary response.

Twelve approached the person who'd not yet been seen too, which appeared to be the man with the bruised shoulder. As she approached, she affected another smile and half asked half offered. "While my colleagues see to your friends, how about I check that bruised shoulder of yours?" Once she was close enough, she stopped and pulled her medical tricorder from her belt. "If you're okay with it, I can scan you and see what's amiss."

“It was mentioned, yeah. I don’t know anything about climates either. I’m not that kind of doctor.” She shrugged. Oh, thank god they could go back to talking about medical stuff. “It’s not broken, which is good. Can you move it at all?”

"Wueghugh," came an eloquent answer, but the patient did indeed stay still, despite the light blasting their eyes. The pupils constricted in response. "Man..." The Saurian snapped out of their murderous glare session as soon as Twelve approached, to whom they offered a short nod. The tricorder would, indeed, report quite an impressive bruise, consistent with trying to lift something large and utterly failing at it. "Um, let me try..?" Nevada's patient braced themself by grabbing at the bedsheets, before making a timid attempt at moving it... "Nope! Nope. I mean, I think I can, but it hurts real bad..."

"That is quite the impressive bruise there." Twelve observed then as she completed her scan, reached into her medical kit and informed the Saurian. "It's easily dealt with, if you're fine with it I'll use a dermal regenerator to address the bruise."

They gave Twelve a thumbs-up gesture with their non-affected arm. Good to proceed.

Twelve pulled out the dermal regenerator and proceeded to get to work! As she did so she watched for any sign of additional medical concerns the Saurian might have had that needed addressing. She assumed they'd have been picked up by the tricorder scan but well. She had also learnt it happened to never hurt for those to be something she continued to monitor for. So she watched for signs of further injury or other issue as she used the dermal regenerator and played it over the affected area as she worked to deal with the Saurians bruise.

“Alright, it’s just a sprain. I can give you a hypospray to help with the pain and inflammation if you’d like, and I’m going to recommend you stay off of it as much as possible.” She pulled the hypospray out of her medkit and began prepping it as she waited for the go-ahead, mentally running through if she had seen anything that could be used to comfortably elevate the ankle.

They seemed to be nervous during the administration of medical care, but stayed seated. Twelve could not see anything else on her patient that could raise concerns. Given the pattern of the bruises that was slowly fading away as the regenerator did it's magic, this guy definitely tried lifting something that was not fit for his strength. And in the meantime... "Blease," that was a resounding go-ahead to Nevada's offer.

"Good news - you don't have brain damage." He gave the patient a quick scan with his tricorder, and assuming he didn't find anything unusual, he said, "You may take some standard painkillers if you want, although obviously that may inhibit your ability to monitor your pain. Everything else I said continues to apply." The stuff about coming back if they had any more symptoms and such. (edited)

"Ya-a-a-a-ay," this time they were more careful and did not perform any sharp movements. "Thanks doc. I forgive you for temporarily blinding me."

"I medically prescribe you a nap and a day off work. Next?" He looked around for anyone else who needed help.

She administered the hypospray before tucking it back in her medkit. “Hold, please,” she sounded like a receptionist, and held up a single finger to match. She turned away and started poking around the room looking for something to elevate their ankle with: spare sheets, blankets, or pillows mainly.

There were two more people in the room, all perking up at Dmitri's question. More bruises, but nothing all to serious. A round with a regenerator would fix up both of these gentlemen in no time. Nevada meanwhile would quickly find good, sturdy pillows that she could use for her needs, lying on an unused bed. There were two of them.

Nevada scooped up the pillows and returned to her patient, carefully arranging them under their leg to their comfort level. When she was done, she gave them a double thumbs-up. “Let me know if you need anything else. And,” she turned to address Dimitri, “I can get one of them now if you have the other.”

He would ask them a few questions about their bruises to make sure they were all from bumps and bangs they'd gotten and there weren't any mystery hematomas or sneaky skin cancers they should be worried about, but with a few regens, they were all right as rain. (edited)

Twelve finished her work on her patient and conducted one final scan as she checked for any signs of injury that remained. "The shoulder should feel better now, it may take a short while for the muscles to ease." The El-Aurian xB then affected another smile then as she added. "I imagine what ever you were lifting was important sir-" Twelve started. "But if it'd help, please consider this doctors advice to enlist some additional helpers with lifting it in the future." The advice softened, she hoped, with another smile then as she asked. "The shoulder should ease up within the hour as your shoulder gets used to well, not being bruised." "I'd advise you take it easy until the feeling of tenseness around the bruising site has fully passed." The El-Aurian finished before she added. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

And just like that, the medical team did a splendid performance. With all of the patients taken care of, and with said patients reassuring them that everything was just fine and dandy and good and fantastic and no, nothing was smarting anymore and yes, it was all just bruises from getting a tad bit stupid about performing fixes on the Saurian's house... they were done! As they were finishing with the procedures, Nevada could notice a plaque by the door of this room.

4

Nevada was returning her supplies to her kit when she noticed the plaque. She hadn’t seen it while she was working, but now it caught her eye. Plaques in medical buildings always had something interesting to say. Maybe it’d have some history on the building, emergency instructions, or similar. She shuffled over to read it.

"In memoriam. Prof. Alexandra Deima, Fatum I's lead meteorological researcher." divider

Curiositas nocet.

It was Nevada’s instinct to just take a mental note and move on. She always hated drawing attention to herself but… she likely wouldn’t be back to the planet after she left and she didn’t know if she’d be able to look up this Professor Deima later. If she didn’t ask now, the curiosity would drive her crazy. As ironic as that was. So she went against her instinct and turned back to the patients. “So who was Professor Deima?” She pointed a thumb back at the plaque.

You could hear a pin drop - that's how silent the room became after that question. The Saurian wrung his hands together.

5

“Youuuu know what? That’s ok actually. It’s no big deal, I was just… uh…” curious. She cut herself off before she said that, though. She pulled at her collar, feeling the attention of everyone in the room. “I’m, uh. We’re done in here, right?” She looked to her fellow medical officers for help.

Following Nevada's thumb and reading the plaque, then reading the room like a book where all the words were just 'red flag', he visibly tensed. "Yes, we're all done here, so we'll go back now."

"Um, thanks again, genuinely," the person with the bump spoke up, but their voice was now... distant. Timid.

Twelve proceeded to sweep the room with chocolate hued eyes the moment everything seemed to go silent. Trusting the others had the social element of the situation handled, Twelve looked to the plaque that had caused this and proceeded to read it swiftly for herself. "Hmm." When the other then started to speak as they did, Twelve nodded then. "Yes, indeed." Before, at the response of the person with the bump, she mustered another smile. "We're happy to help, if you need anything further please don't hesitate to ask for us and we'll come." "Have a good rest of your day." She considered things for a moment and decided it'd be best not to press further. As such, she started back the way they'd come!

He stared at them for a second, wondering what all this meant. These red flags sure looked like they were feeling blue. Nodding, he left with Twelve.

As she departed, Twelve waited until they were out of earshot of the people in the room before she softly observed to the lieutenant junior grade. "That certainly seemed...interesting."

"The latin said 'curiousity hurts', by the way. Or perhaps they meant it like the phrase 'curiousity kills'." Usually it kills the cat, but he was more of a snake. "Perhaps it means if we look into things here more, we will die."

"We-" She paused, frowned and then corrected."I thought it might mean in the way they'd used it, curiosity does harm." The El-Aurian xB used then before she added. "I'm not entirely sure I agree with your assessment at present as we lack information further to reinforcing that inference." Her jaw worked a bit then. "But.. I wonder if it's implying something related to that about the person on the plaque." She paused. "They looked too deep."

“I didn’t realize it would be such a sore spot. I mean… why put up a plaque if you never want anyone to talk about them?” She ran her fingers through the back of her hair. She was mainly defending her decision to speak up to herself. Alarmed, she turned to Dmitri. “I hope that’s not what it means. Maybe I’d better internalize being incurious though. You know, just in case.” She let out a soft, hollow laugh.

As they reached the first floor again, they could see their guide waiting for them, blissfully unaware of what just transpired. "Oh, hey, all done already? I will lead you to the town square, then. Our head of the colony wants to thank you for your work."

"Certainly. Lead the way." But if he saw a giant pentagram on the floor with candles and salt, he was leaving.

5

Just before they reached earshot of the other, Twelve simply stated. "Caution is perhaps advised." Before, once the guide ended up in earshot and greeted them, she smiled warmly! "Indeed, lead the way" The El-Aurian agreed then even as she watched their guide.

Still oblivious - good job team - the guide nodded, and began leading them to the town square!

"Oh, thank god.." Kirio exhaled as they were welcomed into safety, heart still racing. "No offense, man, that little girl was creepy as shit. Uhm—" they swiveled to the person who let them in. "Thank you. Seriously. Where do you— where can I put..?" They inclined their head towards Mr. Sleepyhead on their back. (edited)

He tumbled into the medical center, ripping off his mask and inhaling. Truthfully, he should be more used to wearing masks than most people were, and yet... Well, Kirio was right; he had wasted too much breath. His elevated heart rate didn't help, either. "Do you guys... Oxygen masks?" Hard to breathe, hard to talk.

A woman dressed in medical scrubs looked the three over, before sternly ordering other people to take the Betazoid off of their arms. Or, well. Kirio's back. "Oxygen masks? We do, but... surely you are not planning to go back?" she narrowed her eyes. "We can't be holding our doors open for you to bring every single stray in, you have to understand. Stay here..."

"No, no, we wouldn't ask that of you. But we have to find the rest of our team, and especially the civilian Starfleet assigned us. The priest. Romulan. Have you seen him? Is he— here?" Kirio took their own mask off, letting it hang loosely around their neck as they caught their breath. "We've lost communication with our ship, and I assume everything else, too. Do you have any alternatives?.."

She crinkled her nose in a thoughtful grimace: "Unsure... I will check. As for communications... tough luck with the ship, but we have phone lines running all over the city. Anyone specific you want to call?.."

"I don't know.." The detective deflated. "We all got separated in the stampede. They all went into houses, we got stuck in a shed.."

"Mmm. Well, Rami is probably checking up on everyone. You can try calling her house," she shrugged. "Top number in the dial."

"Okay, thank you very much. Please let me know if you find him— and thank you again, seriously." To the phone! Kirio hesitated, not quite sure how to use the thing, fumbling with the buttons for a second before bringing the phone to their ear..

He sat down somewhere to rest. It was the first time he'd hallucinated anything for months, perhaps years, and the first time outside of a manic episode at all. He was going to need some time to stabilise.

"How was the call?" the doctor asked with mild interest, all the while keeping her eyes on Dmitri. A habit.

A slightly embarrassed Kirio put the phone down with a sigh of relief. "Whoever isn't with Miss Fobosse is nearby, and everyone is accounted for." They chewed on their lip. "Except the priest. Which means he's probably out there somewhere.."

She winced, her voice a whisper: "Well... my condolences. Speaking of this... situation. Can I tell you something? With the promise that it will be... kept confidential."

"Of course." Kirio answered, stepping a little closer so they could speak less in the open. "What is it?.."

She looked around, before stepping closer to Dmitri, so that the human could also hear her: "I recognize you, the medical officer. You were here before, and you and your team... noticed the plaque. For Professor Deima. I... think you two should gain some context, given what just happened. And I am, admittedly... selfish."

"Oh," they said softly, wringing their hands. "Right. What.. what happened, then?"

He looked up at the woman. "...Context? What would a meteorologist have to do with all this?"

She looked over her shoulder, paranoid, before turning back to the two officers, whispering: "Deima studied the fog. She had... more of a scientific approach to it than many of us here. She died around two years ago, when she ventured into the fog and disappeared. At least... that's the official story."

2

"The official story...?" He knew it! That priest bumped her off! Except he had absolutely no evidence to decisively conclude that and was mostly basing it on his own biases, which were not a reliable source of information. But still! He knew it! Aha, and that's why Maiek disappeared! Evil priests eat good priests for breakfast, don't you know?

1

Kirio furrowed their brow, the hair on the back of their neck standing up. Freaky... "I see," they murmured, nodding. "Thank you for telling us. We'll.." What would they do with this information, really?.. "Investigate." The only thing they could.

"She," it's like a cork was undone from a champagne bottle. The woman just couldn't stop after saying those first few sentences, desperate and determined and shaking: "No. No, you have to understand. She told me. About sending out a capsule with a sample, out into the orbit. With instructions, for someone more capable to study it further, perhaps even hoping for your starbase. Then she told me about the probe being shot out of the sky, and... after that... she was pronounced missing. "Willingly ventured off into the fog to prove a point", they said." She went silent when a nurse passed them by with supplies, giving her a nod and a smile.

"Oh." He took a moment to contemplate what that meant. Then he scowled, not at her, but at a wall, thinking of how much better things could have gone if they'd known all this. "Well, that's interesting, because we did analyse it. I scanned it, and it was in our database. If we'd known beforehand it was such a massive problem for this particular planet, we probably could have hastened our research and prepared countermeasures for both you and us before we came here. It seems to me that someone doesn't want the problem fixed."

She was silent for a bit, and then blurted out a stressed little laugh, which... sounded awfully close to a sob. "Yes. God, yes... I wish I could tell you more, but I'm scared. I need to go to our patients, but... please be safe, officers."

Everything clicked into place, then; and the detective's expression darkened, violet eyes narrowing. Something dark indeed was lurking in the shadows of this place, and they intended to find out just what before anyone else got hurt. "Alright. Alright," Kirio reached out, offering their hands if she would have them, to allow her to ground herself. Their voice was gentle, but strong, reassuring. "Thank you. Sincerely, thank you for this." They looked her deliberately in the eye. "We will do all we can to get to the bottom of this, and justice will be served. I give you my word." "For oxygen masks— do you have a way to replicate more, so we can bring them to our crew? The last thing I want is to deprive you of any necessary supplies." (edited)

He had to stifle a bitter laugh. So he'd been right. The villagers had been hiding things! Their lack of knowledge DID make them weak! This was going to do wonders for his paranoia. He stood up, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself. He'd sat down in an attempt to chill out, but in truth, his heart hadn't stopped racing for a second since they'd entered the medical center. If he had any other symptoms, he would have checked himself in for a heart attack. "If they had working replicators, they wouldn't have needed our help with quite a few things... Although, since the engineers fixed it, perhaps the power is working now?"

"It's worth asking, just in case.." they mumbled in reply, a little embarrassed.

"No, it was - it was a good question." He gave Kirio a shoulder pat.

1

"I can help with that," she assured. "There will be enough."

"Excellent. I assume they're portable? I'd like to look for that priest." Or, well, at least someone should.

One problem ticked off the list. Kirio nodded. "Thank you."

After a few minutes, they received their masks. The doctor somewhat sternly told them to book it to Rami's place and not take any detours... even if they heard someone's voice call them.

Wearing their mask with the box tucked under their arm, Kirio gave her a two fingered salute. Out we go!

He gave the same salute as he left, mask deployed (on his face). Mimicry is a sign of friendship!

Back to the streets they went...