The Girl in the Tank: Galactic Consortium, Season 1

Episode Two: A Shaky Start: Chapter One

Jimmy Fox woke to the sounds of someone shouting. His bunk shook as someone leaped off the top. He struggled to make his weary brain work. This wasn't his bunk, he realized, as the events of yesterday rushed over him, it was the bunk assigned to him on the Corelean, the Other's medical ship that had rescued them when his ship, the Cambridge, was hit by a nuclear blast.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"It's Davies," Clower said.

Across the narrow room Davies was thrashing in his bed. His eyes were open and vacant. Fox forced himself up. He reached out with his right arm to brace himself and nearly fell.

Memories of the day before flashed through his mind. The explosion from munitions locker, the searing pain, seeing the bleeding stump of his arm and being sure he was going to die. Less than twenty four hours later and it barely even hurt. The stump ended about midway down his bicep and it had been fitted with some black rubbery sort of device, medical gel on the inside. They had said something about nerve dampening.

The thought was pushed out as quickly as it came. He focused on the current issue. Clower and Jensen were staring at him, skin pale and eyes wide. "It's some sort of seizure," he said. He ran to the door.

Petty Officer Dan Oleson was just coming out of the opposite room, his bunkmates behind him. Fox wasn't sure if protocol was required, but the situation overrode it anyway. "Oleson, we've got a problem," he said. "Davies, he's seizing or something."

Dan stuck his head in the doorway and looked at Davies, still jerking on the bunk. "Crap," he spat. He spun towards his bunkmates. "Kleppie, we need one of their healers. Go find them. Tell them its a medical emergency."

It must have been some sort of signal. A holographic male head appeared in the hall. "State the nature of the emer- oh crap," the head said. It spun, talking to someone off screen. "We've got a seizure, down forward." The head spun back. "I've got a crew on the way."

Another voice was talking to the head, but they couldn't make it out. "We're out of range," the head snapped, and then, "security stun, good thinking."

Davies stopped seizing.

"Roll him on his side," Dan ordered. Clower moved to obey.

"Won't stop what's wrong, though," the head was saying to whomever was beside it.

They heard the sounds of footsteps running down the hall.

Two healers in white were first to arrive. They were followed by a third woman. She wore tan pants with many pockets on the sides and tight fitting sleeveless top. Her skin was dark and her hair had been woven back in cornrows, except for one braid that hung down the right side of her face. Tattoo work ran down both arms. She stopped at the doorway and observed the healers as they worked.

Fox had stepped back against the wall to let the healers pass. "What's wrong with him?"

"He's got a fever. His electrolytes are off..." one healer began.

"It's the radiation," the other broke in. "We've got to get him to a meditank, pronto. He'll be fine."

"Eh," the woman said with a nod. She slid four pieces of metal to one of the healers. They placed the metal above and below Davies. Lights emanated from the curved ends of each rod. When the lights met, the entire thing became a single solid piece.

"Quicksilver," the woman said to Fox's raised eyes.

The healers hoisted the stretcher with Davies on it and started negotiating it out into the hallway.