Subject Zero

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

@Rawk Oh damn it. I meant to add something about him preferring to do it manually but forgot all about it during my four rewrites.

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

I posted. But this one is more from the perspective of a new npc (who will be floating around if he's ever needed) rather than from Amara's perspective.

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

The procedure would be a tricky one. Not because the operation being performed was particularly tricky but rather because the man performing it was on edge. As calm and collected as he appeared on the outside, Doctor Caleb Jakande felt like a complete wreck on the inside. Despite his skill, his years of experience, Caleb still felt emotional during things like this. Standing here, with a man's life in his hands, it was difficult not to feel somewhat uneasy. His parents had always taught him to be humble and he always was. Sometimes even to the point of being self-critical. That was not good in his current situation.

He was in the process of removing a section of ensign Haywood's skull to relieve the pressure in his swollen brain. The laser scalpel in his hand was a small device but for some reason it felt so heavy. He knew his own self-doubt could result in a mistake that could cost the ensign his life, so he did his best to push his parents teachings to the back of his mind. He couldn't be that humble man from Ghana. He had to be confident. He was the best at this. He would make this look easy and he would save this poor boy's life damn it!

Caleb's self-reassurance worked and he began the procedure, choosing to perform it manually, rather than rely on a machine. Caleb was somewhat old school in his approach to things like this. Allowing machines to do such potentially dangerous work never sat well with him. If something ever went wrong, he didn't entirely trust a machine to adjust on the fly and correct itself to save the patient rather than simply following a set of instructions. He didn't speak a word to his team as they worked. They had all form such a close working relationship and were all skilled enough to know exactly what needed to be done. It was why they were all selected for this job after all. Caleb had to remember that more often.

Removing a portion of ensign Haywood's skull was done quickly and the bone was taken away to be stored, ready to be replaced later. Removing the blood clot beneath proved to be more time consuming but this too was completed efficiently and without incident. Ensign Haywood was then fitted with a special helmet which would protect the area around the skull that had been removed but would also leave enough room to let the brain swell upwards without meeting resistance.

Caleb breathed a sigh of relief once the job was done and thanked his staff. As the others prepped the patient to be moved to recovery, Caleb turned to leave, stopping for a brief second when he spotted the two young women standing on the other side of the operating theatre's window. He gave them a friendly and reassuring smile before he made his way through the doors to meet them.

He had always liked Amara and Clara, despite what many people said about the former. Clara was a perpetual ray of sunshine in an often dark galaxy. Just being around her often made people feel better. Someone had once joked that she was a natural painkiller and referred to her as "morphine in human form". While Caleb himself would never use that term, he had to admit that they were sort of right. Amara was not so generally friendly but Caleb nevertheless instantly noticed her determination to help others.

"Is he going to be okay, Doc?" asked Clara as Caleb removed his gloves. Her eyebrows raised and she got that puppy dog look she normally got whenever anyone else was suffering. Amara simply stood by the window with her arms crossed in front of her as she watched Haywood.
"Well we need to watch for further issues." Caleb began. "Hopefully there's no infection..." He trailed off as he noticed Clara get increasingly sad. He felt like he was telling a child that her puppy was dying. He decided that instead of telling her all the things that could possibly go wrong, it was best to just give her a reassuring hand on the shoulder and say "Given time and care, he should be fine."

"We don't know if he has any brain damage yet." Amara decided to ever so helpfully chime in as she looked over her shoulder at Caleb and Clara. Clara seemed to shrink in on herself at that statement like it was a physical blow and she wrapped her arms around her chest and pulled her shoulders up around her neck. Caleb knew she hadn't said it to make Clara feel bad. It was just a matter of fact statement to her. She obviously realised the impact that her words had on her friend though and she opened her mouth to say something but apparently didn't know what she could say to make it better.

Caleb decided to save her and replied "We won't know that for sure until he wakes up. We've induced a coma for now until the swelling goes down but when he wakes up we can perform some tests."
"Brain scans?" asked Amara, this time in a genuine attempt to get some information that could be positive.
Caleb recognised this and replied "Showed some minor contusions but nothing I'm immediately worried about."
Clara began to relax her posture and wandered over to stand beside Amara and watch Haywood be whisked away through another set of doors to the recovery room. Amara looked like she was again searching for something to say but all she could come up with was "He's lucky he had you, Jak."
The compliment, and Amara's pet name for him, made Caleb smile. But he countered "Me? He's lucky he had you two. If you hadn't treated him on the scene or if you hadn't gotten him here so fast...he could have been a lot worse off."
Clara turned and gave him a gentle smile, which he realised was her saying thank you for trying to make her feel better. He returned her smile before he threw a thumb over his shoulder and said "I should go check on my other patients."
"Thanks, doc." Amara offered and was quickly echoed by Clara.

Caleb turned and left, leaving the two medics quietly staring into the now empty operating room. Hopefully it would remain empty for a while.

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

Amara and William
Part 2
_{Written by @Sep & @Subject Zero}

The transport slowed as they approached the hub. “Every job on this ship is important-” He turned to look at her “-And everything you do is even more so, at least to me. Fathers privilege.” On the old comment he gave her a false look of disdain, and spoke in a voice as if insulted. It was obviously put on, though that was largely for effect more than anything.

“Old? Why did you need to ruin a perfectly good compliment.” He chuckled slightly as he remembered something. “You know your Grandfather used to have a saying. You’re not old until you have grandchildren. So you can imagine how me and your mother broke the news that you were going to be born to him. We told him he was finally an old man.” He paused as he thought of Amanda, while he had grown close to Rita over the past couple of years Amanda and Amara were always first in his heart and it still pained him to think about how they lost her. It was a difficult time for everyone when they realized they weren’t alone in the universe anymore, and they lost her to illness.

Life was a bitch like that.

“So unless you have something to tell me, you can’t call me old. Not yet anyway.” He stood up as the doors of the transport opened. “Anywhere in particular you feel like eating?”

“Pulp Kitchen.” Amara responded almost before the last syllable of William's sentence had left his mouth. She hadn't even thought about it. Her mouth just blurted it out before her brain had time to react. She even took herself by surprise. “I mean...If it's okay with you.” she added, quietly, as she got to her feet.

Pulp Kitchen was Amara's absolute favorite place to eat in the Hub. The food was surprisingly tasty, despite more often than not looking awful. It was comfort food and right now, the one thing she needed more than anything was comfort food. She thought about making a joke about “eating for two” but realised that her dad would probably think she was being serious. Amara's jokes usually had such deadpan delivery that people more often than not misinterpreted them.

But the whole subject of kids made her think. She had never really planned to become a mother. But in the situation the human race now found themselves in, maybe she would have to. It was the future of the entire human race they were talking about after all.

But that was a concern for the future. Probably the distant future if her current success with the opposite sex continued. A glance in her father's direction made her feel awkward about such thoughts though and she focussed her attention on thoughts of food as she took the old man by the hand and led him off the transport.

“Watch your step, Admiral.” she commented. “We don't want you breaking a hip.”

“If the foods good enough for it to be thought of instantly, I’m sure it’s fine. I mean, back when I was running Stealth Ops for the Martians I ate nothing but-”

“Potatoes.” Amara blurted out, cutting him off and adopting a deep voice in an attempt to mimic him. “Baked, boiled, mashed. You even grew your own in that harsh, Martian soil.”

“-Okay. I get it, I like telling stories. When you get to my age-” He offered her a scowl. “-Which isn’t old. You’ll have a fair share of war stories too. Hopefully not many of them will be actual war stories.” He accepted her hand as they walked off the transport, choosing to ignore the breaking a hip joke. The day he was that fragile was the day the stars would come of his shoulders and he’d sit and paint all day reminiscing the good old days. Sure he knew that this voyage could actually take that long but that was just part of the job, he could be in command of these people for years.

He let himself be carried away by the crowd as they entered the hub, the noise, music and the smells were an assault to the senses. He knew people who loved to spend their day here, it made them feel like they were home. To him it just felt strange, he had never been to the Citadel so a civilian establishment like this inside a ship was a brand new concept to him. Not to mention he wasn’t exactly fond of cities either. The only reason he had stayed in Arcadia so long was to look after Amara once her mother had died.

“I’ll tell you what though, just because you’re my favourite medic this meal will be on me-” despite the fact that Pulp Kitchen was one of the few establishments where the food constituted as part of your regular rations and you got it for free. Though that was the whole joke. “-Just this once though. I can’t have the other officers thinking I’ve gone soft.”

“What do you mean?” asked Amara. “Everyone already knows you’re a big, soft teddy bear. I started that rumor years ago.” She smiled and gave him a gentle tap on the shoulder. “That eye patch is fooling no one.”

They continued to walk and talk until they reached their destination. The outside of Pulp Kitchen didn’t look like much. It was a lot like the food they served in that way. But the inside was beautiful. To Amara anyway. Rows of picnic tables ran through the center of the room, with booths lining the walls. The bottom half of those walls looked like wooden fencing while the top half and the ceiling were decorated to look like a starry night, with twinkling lights and all. The main focal point of the room, however, was the huge screen on the far wall, hanging over the bar area. The whole place had an atmosphere that Amara loved. It almost made her forget that they were hurtling through space after abandoning the solar system to alien invaders.

And apparently quite a few others agreed. The place was quickly filling up. Amara couldn’t blame people for wanting to come here. They wanted a reminder of the home they had lost.

“Admiral!” Someone practically yelled. William and Amara turned to see a mature lady heading their way. Amara had eaten here enough to know Eliza, the unofficial hostess of Pulp Kitchen. Despite her age, Eliza had surprisingly few wrinkles blemishing her dark skin. Amara wished she looked half as good when she reached Eliza’s age.

As though embarrassed by her sudden outburst, Eliza quickly adopted a quieter tone and said “We didn’t expect to see you in our neck of the woods today.” She beamed at them both and gave Amara’s arm a gentle caress. That was the other reason Amara liked coming here. Eliza was like a doting mother to everyone she met. Amara had literally never met a nicer person.

“Table for two?” Eliza asked before glancing over William’s shoulder at the guard hovering a few feet behind them and adding “Or three?”

William turned back to his escort. “That’ll do Jenkins. Have a break I’ll contact you when we’re leaving.”

“Sir…”

“That’s an order Private, go have some fun.” Jenkins offered a brisk salute.

“Yes sir.” Turning around and leaving after William returned the salute. He took a proper look around the nice little establishment, it had a very quaint and rustic feel unlike many of the other places in the hub. He hadn’t been to many places tending to stick to ‘The Mess’ which was run by ex-military predominantly for Military personnel, not that they discouraged civilians going in just not many chose to go in in lieu for more comfortable places to eat. Though the conversation in the mess was the most exciting, not that he heard most of it. Mouths tend to close whenever he entered a room full of military personnel, the burden of command. Though he always got a good chat out of the owners, no this place was a nice change of pace.

“Table for two, thank you very much.” As Eliza began escorting them to the table William indicated for Amara to take the lead. “I have to say, I’ve heard people talking about this place and have been meaning to visit it myself but have never had the time. I can see why people have been talking.” He nodded at a couple of people as they noticed him and went to stand, before he shook his head that was.

Sitting down at the table he smiled at Amara. “Time to eat.”

William and Amara sat at a booth near the bar and Eliza took their order. The food arrived in front of them at a much quicker speed than was usual for the kitchen and Amara wondered if it was because of her father's status. She made a mental note to eat here with him more often. She did feel bad for all the people who had to wait longer though.

As they ate and talked, Amara almost began to forget about her worries. But as if the universe itself was calling her back to reality, the datapad on her wrist made a ding sound that she was all too familiar with. It meant she was being called back to work. She had slightly underestimated how busy she would be on the Vitae. Which was a silly mistake to make. This ship was the size of a large city after all.

She had taken out her earpiece communicator so at least Deacon wasn't talking in her ear this time, making some smartass comment and calling her Princess. A title he had given her after finding out her father was “king of the ship” in his words. It was not a name she particularly liked but she had given up on trying to get him to stop calling her it. She knew it was only a matter of time before he was blabbering away like always.

Ding went the datapad again and Amara rolled her eyes and groaned at Deacon's impatience. Couldn't he at least let her finish her meal? She knew she couldn't stay though and that thought ruined her good mood.

“I'm sorry dad.” she said with a sigh. “Work's never done...I have to go.”

Amara reluctantly got up from her seat and as she passed William she bent down and kissed him on the cheek. “Love you. Tell Eliza I said bye.”

William crossed his knife and fork on the plate as he placed his arm round Amaras shoulder as she leaned down to kiss his cheek. “It’s the consequence of being brilliant.” He turned his wrist up to check his old analogue style wristwatch, he liked to keep things simple sometimes. Besides it looked a lot better than the fancy ones that acted as a microcomputer that had been all the craze on Mars in lieu of the implants most other people got.

Amara was quickly making her way to the door then, popping her earpiece back in and immediately regretting it. “I'm on it. Quit your complaining Deac.”

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

@The Spectre Oh I intend to, we'll need to collab at some point while everyone whose a member of the away team is off seducing alien women risking their lives.

@Sep

I'm sure Amara can't wait for that.

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

I'm having the biggest case of writer's block and haven't been feeling well, so I may just wait until the next major event.

@Xandrya

I can maybe help you out...Maybe.

Unfortunately, Amara is currently unavailable (Check the doc, @Sep. I may have written a spiel.) but if you want to bump into any of my npc's like Clara or Deacon, then we could maybe do something?

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

@Sep I'm fine with either.

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

@Sep I was going to have Amara show up on the bridge, give William a huge hug, thoroughly embarrass him and leave.

...Or I guess she could "behave appropriately"...

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

@Sep No worries. We can wait. :)

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

@Subject Zero

BWAHAHA. If I were a chick, I'd want to be Tina Fey.

@Rawk

I think we all secretly want to be Tina Fey.