Eighth Gate [Video]

[forsometimenow]

Who: Jennifer Keller and you
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: N/A unless you really want it...
When: December 10th

[Confidence. Sureness. That's what the audience wanted, wasn't it? As much as Jennifer hated playing up to them and dancing to Atroma's whistle to any degree, confidence was what was needed here, too.]

for those who haven't met me, my name is Dr. Jennifer Keller, and I'm the medical officer on the Wonderduck. Allen mentioning his blood drive reminded me... since we seem to be back on our ships for the time being and I actually have an infirmary again, I'm going to resume offering first aid lessons for anybody willing to learn. If you do have prior medical experience, all the better, but even if you have none, I can teach you.

Just let me know and we can set something up. Thanks!

[[OOC: Actual lessons will be handwaved.]]

Comments

[stefanged]

I'd think so. You volunteer with the blood drive, right? You could meet other people there too, since we have a consistent group of donors.

[Plus, you know, having extra back-up in case he gets hungry for human blood would be great.]

Exactly. I wish I could've gone, but life kind of made that decision for me.

[forsometimenow]

I do, yes- I didn't even think about that, honestly. There's been a lot on all of our minds lately.

[She nodded.]

I'll do what I can to help, then. I wouldn't expect anybody but, say, me or Beverly or Simon to do complicated surgery, but wound care is a valuable skill to know.

[stefanged]

Thanks, on both counts. I'm not great with surgery, but I should get more familiar with emergency care. Just in case.

[He doesn't exactly trust Atroma to keep them safe, but he is a bit spooked at how no one's really died in the past year.]

When would be a good time? Later this week?

[forsometimenow]

Yeah, I'd say that's a smart choice. After what they just did to us and talking to Diamond, I don't trust Atroma to not put us all in serious danger some time as a ratings stunt. You know, injuries, deaths, medical drama... they'd lap it up.

Sounds good! Just give me a buzz whenever you're free.

[stefanged]

Sssh. Let's not give them any ideas. We've got a good pool of medics, but not enough to deal with a sudden genre swap.

I don't know about you, but I kinda prefer this sitcom thing we've got. And uh, sounds good. I'll message you before heading out.

[forsometimenow]

Yeah... and that's the reason I want to teach as many people to take care of themselves as possible. Just in case. I really wanted a clinic on the Iskaulit, but since we lack the resources, this is the next best thing.

I have to agree. I didn't like being cooped up on the Marsiva for so long, but it's better than constant drama.

[stefanged]

Exactly. I would've liked one too, but ignoring resources, we don't even have enough medics for the Fleet. [A fact that bugs him to this day, considering that a vampire like him isn't the best choice to uh, heal bleeding patients.] If we get a sudden influx, maybe we could reconsider, but... as it is, lessons are good.

Wait. Drama on the Marsiva? Besides all the weird dreams we had?

I uh, I might've not noticed. [Someone got addicted to Katamari Damancy and was too busy rolling up the moon....]

[forsometimenow]

Yes, and that does worry me sometimes. I know there's no use obsessing over something we can't change, but it's also my job to worry about these kinds of things.

[She nodded.]

Just... missing pieces, so to speak. I'd wake up in the morning and there would be gaps in my memory I couldn't fill in.

[stefanged]

Huh. I remembered everything - or well, most everything. My diaries filled in the rest for me.

[His voice gets apologetic here,] I can't help if you don't remember your dreams, but stuff during the day? I could see if anything'll jog your memory.

[forsometimenow]

See, I tried writing stuff down in my communicator, but that was all gone the next day, too. Of course, that's not surprising given that it's Atroma issue, but it was still unnerving.

[She nodded.]

Yeah, it was during the day. Time had definitely passed, but there was nothing in the gaps.

[stefanged]

[Hrm. There's the sound of rustling papers in the background - Stef's gonna double-check what he had written down in his old-fashioned pen and paper diaries.]

Yeah, I wouldn't trust those. They're useful, but I keep my more important memories offline.

[He's skimming and skimming and--oh. Here we go.]

If you tried exploring the ship, you might've blanked on what you found. Either that, or you got as sick of the Princess Bride as the rest of us.

[forsometimenow]

Not a bad idea... I'll definitely invest in some notebooks the next time we're on a planet. And that way, I can preserve my memories and my observations for both myself and anyone who comes after me... just in case.

[She nodded.]

I did blank- it's like the memories were there, but they were just out of my reach.

[stefanged]

["Just in case" sounds gruesome, Stef has to admit. But when people shuffle in and out all the time - it's smart thinking.]

Okay, short version: I supposedly saw this door at the end of the hall. The touchpad gave me "level four access," and took me to an empty lab. Lights were on, but most of the equipment was long gone.

The weird part? There were empty cyrobeds. My brain knew, even though I'd never seen these before, that they were for the kind of cyro-sleep that lets you survive long space flight. The number was "56295001..." with another number or two at the end. I tried to let a friend in, but he couldn't see a thing.

[Stef pauses, as if the ink on his page'll disappear:] I trust myself. I used to leave notes like this all the time, back when my amnesia was in full swing, so I know I saw it. I just don't know how it fits in with us.

[forsometimenow]

[Jennifer sucked in a breath at that, and this time the holes in her memory seemed closer than ever- she just had to reach further...]

Yeah. Yeah, that sounds about right to me, too, now that you mention it, so I trust your notes, too. Cryobeds... and empty labs... there's got to be some kind of reason it was there and why they obviously didn't want us to find it. There are all sorts of implications about what they might be up to from the cryobeds alone.

[stefanged]

[She did not question the amnesia, thank god - he lets out a sigh of relief.]

None of them good, either. I'm thinking that we must've used them to travel to the Marsiva. That seems most obvious, but... what else are these used for?

I'm not as familiar with this kind of tech, so I'm a bit out of my league, but I don't like the sound of what I wrote.

[forsometimenow]

And it could be how they get us there when we arrive. Put us into a deep sleep, install the augment, then put us in a bed to wake up when they're done.

But mentioning your amnesia raises even more questions. If that is how they take care of us, so to speak, before we arrived, why is it we don't remember being kidnapped in the first place? Right before I got here, I was standing cuddled up to Rodney, then all of a sudden I woke up on the Marsiva. What happened in between is still out of my grasp.

[stefanged]

It's possible that our augment blocks the specifics, or they drugged us, or - [He hesitates] I'm not sure I want to go down this road.

Not in person, and definitely not on the ships. Think we could pick this up later?

[Nothing personal. This hits too close to home on numerous levels, and Stefan isn't willing to face his demons today.]

[forsometimenow]

Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I'll contact you when we can get some privacy.