Transitioning (1)

The medics maneuver Sayer into the isolation chamber, and lay him gently on a flat bed. The chamber is shut and the medics step back as the scans activate. Once multiple scans are taken, arms extend to gather samples. Sayer's temperature is high and a rash is slowly spreading over his skin.

Sue 209 goes through the medical files she saved from Tokuma, finding Sayer's "There a handheld or something I can transmit his medical files to for you?"

Looking at the display panel the doctor speaks in a confused tone, "Where the hell was he?! A toxic waste site?!"

Phoenix puts her hands on the isolation barrier and watches, her face torn apart with worry. "I'm not sure exactly where he went. Sayer, do you remember?"

Sayer's stystolic blood pressure is dropping rapidly and his kidneys are starting to fail. He turns his head to Phee and looks at her, shaking his head, confused. Everything is starting to move slower to him.

The doctor makes a snap call. "We can induce a coma and keep him stable for the time being, that's the good news, bad is we have NO IDEA what the hell is attacking him and what frightens me is that in my 30 years of study I've never seen a virus or toxin of this sort. It's either something of the Old World or.. well something new. Like I said, we can either keep him in a coma until we figure out what it is, keep him stable or we pull the plug and let this thing have its way with him."

Phoenix  looks at him desperately. Her shoulders are beginning to shudder as she weeps tearlessly. Her mouth opens but no words come.

Sayer tries to raise a hand to reach out to Phee but he was having trouble making his limbs cooperate. His eyes were getting glassy and unfocused. Phee was a blur now. He wanted to tell her so much, but he couldn't speak. His throat had constricted and his lips were numb.

The doctor glances at Phee then nods to the techs "Do it." The techs begin prepping to induce a coma, getting  life support systems ready.

The medical techs seem to be in a frantic rush. The doctor moves closer to Phoenix, "You want the bad news or good news?" She can tell from the monitors that things are not good. "The bad news."

Souvenir (2)

[NPC doctor played by Erich, NPC medics played by Sue and Erich]

A doctor Sayer had never seen before exits the elevator flanked by two other medics. He walks briskly toward Phoenix and asks her, "Is he showing any trouble breathing? Any symptoms of any type?"

Phoenix glances over at Sayer again and then replies, "Not that I've observed."

One of the medics looks at Sayer for a moment before asking Phoenix, "So what happened?" Phee turns to the medic, "He was exposed to the HL toxins directly. No protective gear."

Sayer puts a hand on his chest as he begins to cough. He felt weak - as if his knees were beginning to fail him. He holds out a hand to try to hold on to Phee's arm but his fingers slip and he sinks down to his knees. Phee quickly kneels with him "Sayer!?" she cries out, her voice full of emotion. She looks up at the doctor, "Please help him!"

The doctor nods over at one of the medics "They have a isolation room set up. Quickly, let's get him there."

The two medics lean down and heft Sayer up in their arms to carry him. One looks back over his shoulder at Phee, "Follow us, he can be saved don't worry."

Sayer's lips are starting to feel numb and he's finding it hard to speak. "Phee... I don't feel so good"

Souvenir (1)

Back at the shuttle Phoenix lands on the pod near Sayer's ship. She doesn't bother decompressing her cabin before opening the hatch, and the air blasts out into space, nearly knocking her ship off the platform were it not for the mag clamps. She flies to pad 3 and quickly cycles the airlock. "Sayer. I am so sorry. Are you ok?"

He looks a little shakey and nervous. "I'm mostly just embarrassed at my naiveté. It was a stupid blunder to take off my suit there, but I saw other people without suits and thought it would be okay."

"No, it's my fault. I should have filed a travel warning as soon as I became aware of the toxin. I just didn't think about it."

"How bad is it? I was only out of my suit for about three hours. Is that enough time for me to get ill?"

"I don't know. I've only run a few bio simulations. We've done no real testing. I was busy trying to determine its source."

"What should I do now? I wasn't sure if I should go to the medical bay or not."

"No, we need to go through decon first, then get you to the medbay. Here." She steps to a nearby panel and touches a button. Several gas masks on hooks are revealed "You'll need this. I know the compound denatures in the presence of ammonia gas, but the gas itself is toxic."

Sayer takes the mask and slips it on over his head. Phoenix holds his hand, and taps a button on the isolation airlock panel "Come on. I'll go with you." she says, shutting off her olfactory system. She watches him with a guilty look as gas hisses into the chamber. "Hold your arms out so that the gas can penetrate your clothing."

Sayer does as she says and holds out his arms as he turns around slowly. After a few minutes he stops and sways there uncertain, looking lost and unstable. Phoenix touches his arm "They're coming."

Supply Run (2)

Sayer checks the map quickly and sees that he'll never make it to another one of his locations before he needed to be back at the shuttle. He was a little disappointed that it had taken so long to get to the first greenhouse and that he had been unable to learn much about their hybrids. But he had gotten the name and contact inforamtion of the person he should talk to, so it hadn't been a complete waste of time.

He spots a small place to stop for something to drink. It looked almost like a trailer with barstools in front of it. Sayer hops up on to a seat at the counter and leans forward to peer into the interior. He clears his throat. "Hello".

Evie scurries about, throwing a slighty dirty kitchen towel over her shoulder as she checks on a pot of noodles. "Yeah, gimme just one second..." steps over to a tray of chopped green onions, slides them into a nearby bowl, and quickly scrapes down the cutting board. She turns to the man, an expression of fatigue and boredom in her eyes, and rests on her elbows in front of him "whaddya have?" she says in practiced habit, the words almost indistinct.

Sayer notes the expression on her face and tries to be the least bother he can be. "You have tea here ma'am?"

Evie starts to recite the tea flavors the Belching Dragon offers, but is caught off guard by the word "ma'am" and hesitates, flashing a quick half smile before standing fully, plopping the towel on the counter and wiping it absently as she speaks "yah, I got green and black. Heratago?"

"Whatever you recommend would be good with me. I'm guessing you are the expert on what's tastiest here." He looks around the food joint curiously. "I've never been here before, but it looks like this place has been around awhile. You own this place?"

Evie smiles. A tourist. She leans forward again, so he can hear her better. "Nah, nah, hun... fah here." points downward "Or ta go?" points out toward the street.

Sayer smiles back at her, "For here please, if you don't mind."

Evie turns to a nearby panel, covered in greasy smudges. She touches a few buttons on the screen, then asks again, resuming her normal rapid pace of speech "Green or black, hun?"

"Green would be fine ma'am." he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his credstick. "You accept UBC creds here?"

"Sha thing, hun." she says, pointing at a pay slot in front of his seat. She grabs a bowl, looks at it, frowns, tosses it in the sink, then grabs another one, and walks over to a metal teapot. "I used ta."

Sayer slides his credstick into the slot in front of him, squinting a bit at the small screen making sure it had registered. He pockets the chip. "You used to? So you don't own this place anymore... who owns it now?"

Evie puffs up her pride "I stillz got a 20% stake." She pours the tea, spills a bit of it, then puts the cup under a strange looking fluid dispenser. "Code, hun?"

Sayer looks at her quizzically, "Code? What is that?"

Evie blinks and looks at him, surprised. She laughs slightly "Ya suveyah code - ya know, supplements. What supplements you up fah?"

He shakes his head, completely at a loss. "I have no idea what those are. Can I get just the tea? With no ... um... extras?"

Evie shakes her head "You must be havin a fun night, huh? I want some a whateva ya took. Ya suveyah, it's puttin a code in yah head - a number. Just tell me the number." Her hand hovers over a numeric keypad.

Sayer starts to think it was a bad idea to try the local cuisine, even if it was just tea. "Um... I'm just visiting. I don't have a number."

Evie looks at him incredulously and slowly puts down the tea. "Yah from outta town, and yah walkin around wit no spacesuit or nothin?"

"Well, I guess I'm not a very good tourist. You think I need protection? I was told the air here wasn't that bad... that it was safe?"

Evie steps over with his tea, a look of concern on her face "Hun, the only reason yah seez me walkin around breathin this fine air is because I got a suveyah" touches her stomach "constantly filterin everything I breathe, eat, and drink to counta the effects of the toxins. Somebody shudda toldya."

Sayer's face pales and looks a little green. "Toxins? What kind of toxins?"

"What kinds? All kinds! Widout suveyahs, we'd all die in weeks from canca or somethin." She makes a shrug gesture.

Sayer wipes his forehead with the sleeve of his sweater. "Weeks? So being here only a day there isn't much to worry about?"

Evie looks at him with pity "I dunno, hun, I never saw nobody breathe the air witout a space suit on."
Sayer stands up a little shakily. "I better get back to the shuttle and get a suit on then." he looks at the tea and his stomach quivers thinking of it being full of toxins. "I'll pass on the tea. Thanks for the information."

"I'm sahrry, hun, I wish there was somethin I could do. You might wanna go by the Realcov clinic on yah way out - 2 levels up, around just there, left, right, left again, and downstahs."

Sayer nods at her but is thinking he should just get back to the space station where someone he trusts can check him out. He remembers now why he always used his supplier to handle shipments. "Okay... thanks again." he turns and hurries down the walkway towards the docking bay.

Evie grabs his cup and tosses it, tea and all, in the sink.

Supply Run

[[a few weeks ago]]

Sayer checks his PDA again. Still no response from his main supplier, Mel. He was anxious to get samples from the new city he had just learned about; apparently there were hybrids of unusual plants being grown and he wanted to study them.

He decides to just go see if he can make contact. How dangerous could this new city be? He had survived the last city and that one had been full of psychopaths.

In the shuttle bay he finds a pilot with some time on their hands. He negotiates a fee for flying him to the city for a few hours. It wasn't that long of a trip, and he got some time to read on the way. He had gotten more fiction on his PDA, and so engrossed that he was surprised at how quick the flight was.

The pilot was meeting with a mechanic in the hangar as Sayer finally gotten out of his flight suit and walked out of the shuttle. He checks the time and makes a mental note to be back within three hours for the trip back.

His boots clang on the metal walkway as he trots down the ramp of the hangar bay and through the cargo holds. Out on to the street he cranes his head back and peers up at the towering buildings. He had never seen a city with such tall buildings before. He pulls out his PDA and connects to a visitor information hub. He debates downloading general information about the city but reminds himself he only has a few hours. He should save that for a day when he can come back and sightsee. Right now all he really needs is a map.

It takes a few moments for the map to transfer. He thinks this must be a huge city, with so large a file for a map. At a quick glance he is immediately thankful he took the time to get it - the city looks like a maze. He puts a marker at his current location so that he'll be able to find a way back to the shuttle bay later. Fifteen minutes later, he has all the locations he wanted to visit mapped out on his PDA and he sets off.