RP: The Fringe [Chapter 4.3b] - Doctored Delivery

[Floodwaters]

Dawn Station - Sector Nine City, Level 4 - Origin Medical Wholesalers - Late Afternoon/Early Evening

The simulated sun in the sky had long since dipped below the massive spires towering high overhead, obscured by the crisscrossing checkerboard of elevated streets winding every which way through the megalithic cityscape, and long shadows were stretching over the pavement and girders amid the waxing light from the streetlamps starting to come on. It was a cool day, with a brisk breeze rustling through the buildings that tousled hair and fluttered coats lightly, although its whispering sound was completely drowned out by the whoosh and thrum of traffic, like blood pumping through the city's arteries and veins, carrying its citizens here and there as they went about their daily routines.

Storefronts crammed in like market screamers jammed shoulder to shoulder lined both sides of the streets, garishly calling for the attention of any passerby, inviting them to come in and sample what they had to sell, but amongst the flashy window dressings and bright lights a comparatively simple green-and-white decorated building facade stood serenely amidst the chaos, maintaining an aura of dignity and grace between a small sidewalk cafe and, on the other side of a narrow ramp connecting to the street that presumably led down to some kind of garage or delivery loading dock, a movie theater. A simple sign over the glass double doors read, in plain block print, "Origin Medical Wholesalers, Inc."

Up the road from the establishment, a light truck weaved its way through the traffic, slowing as it approached. As luck would have it, two parallel parking spaces were open less than half a block away from the front entrance for it to take advantage of.

 

[Riko]

Concordia Veil Earlier that Day.

Six Four was in its office, reclined on the examination helmet in the middle of a book when its datapad chirped at it. The Doctor sighed and turned its head to see who or what wanted its attention at this particular moment.

"This one hopes its important, it is sure things are about to pick up soon." It said placing its bookmark in the copy of Waiting for Togdo and picking up the data pad.

From: Sienna
To: Stichtech Pat 64-4406-2207 F.F.C.S.

Are you with me?

The freespacer paused for a moment looking around the room to see if the Captain was in fact with it. From what it recalled she didn't return to the ship last night so being with her, unless she was a spirit was an impossibility. Then another string of thoughts hit Six Four, was Sienna implying that she was with as in dating itself? Clearly that was not the case, much to the protest of its sister, Six Four didn't do the whole dating or relationship thing and knew most of the nuances and none of them were mentioned or even apparent in the captain. The freespacer also knew that it was a preposterous idea seeing as it was a professional and that made a relationship was out of the question.

Moving on to the third and most likely possibility, the Captain was merely wondering if the doctor was still apart of the crew. Not much mulling over was needed before the Doctor typed out a reply.

From: Stichtech Pat 64-4406-2207 F.F.C.S.
To: Sienna

Affirmative.

Setting the data pad back down, Six Four exchanged it for its book again before settling back into the examination table. After a few moments, and scenes later, the data pad chimed again much to the annoyance of the doctor. Repeating the process of bookmarking and switching for the data pad Six Four read over the message once again from Sienna. This one particular messages did bring up a few new questions however, to which Six Four began to message the sender back with each new one.


Dawn Station - Sector Nine City, Level 4 - Origin Medical Wholesalers - Late Afternoon/Early Evening

Six Four never really had been in a car before, most of its life aboard spaceships so there was no use for such things, and to be frank it was enjoying the experience. Granted the small smile under its helmet wasn't seen but the slight tapping of its thighs with its hands was a dead give away if someone could pick up on it. Aside from that however the previous activities and chores were uneventful. The man called Vincent at Staffe & Son Astronautical Suppliers didn't say anything about payments (Which was nice seeing as Six Four did not want to be rude to the man), and picking up the truck at The OMC Twoson Dealership went pretty smoothly. Six Four did make a mental note to itself though after that experience however, noting that it is not a mechanic and inspecting a vehicle is not something it is good at. Also that going over to a tire and poking it a few times and declaring that 'everything seems to be in order' makes a lot of people laugh. Thankfully for It, Amelia was there and cleared things up, as well as drive (something else that Six Four had no idea how to do.)

Letting the previous event slide Six Four pulled out its datapad and went over the list again, as well as send Sienna another update hoping that her communicator was fixed as well or that she saw the note it had attached to her door. It hated notes,it was so baroque. Toggling open a few things it did another check on the medical list to make sure it didn't forget anything.

 

[Foxtrot 813]

Dawn Station - Sector Nine City, Level 4 - Origin Medical Wholesalers - Late Afternoon/Early Evening

Amelia set the truck on neutral and then pulled the hand brake, sighing. "We're here," was the first thing she said during the entire ride to the freespacer besides her, turning the engine off and almost not believing her own words, busy as she was not to hit anything with the vehicle. Her driving was sloppy at best, since she had pretty much lived her life in spaceships and spacestations, which was only reflected by how she looked at the mirrors by turning her head towards it, completely ignoring what was in front -which had almost made her hit the rear of another vehicle already- or how she didn't turn the turning lights on, cutting off whoever was unfortunate to be on the lane she was driving into.

This made her wonder if the captain had put her there as some sort of way for getting back at her. Thankfully, though, she had been taught how to not crash it, and was a fast learner.

The astrogator removed the keys from the ignition and pocketed it, waiting for the freespacer to leave the truck before she did it herself. It had been a long day for her, spending the entire morning searching the things that Crash needed, then right after being called to run more errands for the ship. She shut the door behind her, then waited for the doctor to lead the way.

 

[Riko]

Dawn Station - Sector Nine City, Level 4 - Origin Medical Wholesalers - Late Afternoon/Early Evening


After dismounting the vehicle itself, taking a moment to open and close the door a few times Fascinated by the hinging on it, it walked around the front of the truck and made a beeline towards the door at a calm pace. As it walked it flipped open the notes it had on the shipment of medical supplies,ready to show whoever needed to see them. It only broke its stride as it waited for the sliding doors to open to step inside the building.

Once inside it looked around for the first available sales person.

 

[Foxtrot 813]

Dawn Station - Sector Nine City, Level 4 - Origin Medical Wholesalers

"Alright then," Amelia muttered, watching as the freespacer walked away and into the store and then followed close behin, stuffing her gloved hands into the pockets of her jacket and entered right after 64 had done so. Once inside, the astrogator kept behind a few paces, staring at the goods displayed on the shelves with some interest, but never actually touching anything.

 

[Floodwaters]

Origin Medical Wholesalers - Lobby

The crisp, conditioned air and pristine light colors gave the establishment's foyer the unmistakable sense of sterility and cleanliness. Almost everything was a brilliant white, from the walls and ceiling to the broad receptionist's desk facing the sliding glass doors, even the large-but-firm-looking cushions on the chairs arranged in an L-pattern against the walls to the right. A smartly groomed, somewhat prissy-looking young man in a freshly pressed suit and tie manned the receptionist's desk, looking up from his computer console as the Freespacer and Nepleslian entered and offering them a formal, emotionless smile in greeting. The almond-shaped brown eyes beneath a brow of short-trimmed and neatly combed thick black hair moved over each of them in turn, his fair-skinned but distinctly Yamataian features hardly moving at all in tandem with the rigid smile, almost giving him an artificial, robotic appearance as he rose from his seat.

"Hajimemashite," he greeted them with a slight bow. "Otetsudai shimashouka?"

 

[Riko]

Lobby

Six Four cocked its head for a moment when the receptionist greeted them.

"Konbonwa." It said after getting its bearings, "Kono hito to sore no nakama wa, chūmon o hirou tame ni koko ni iru. Sore dakedenaku, chūmon bangō o yūsuru."

After toggling a few things on its data pad it flipped it to show the receptionist the order number.

Spoiler

Translation

Good Evening....... This person and it's companion are here to pick up an order. It has the order number as well.

 

[Floodwaters]

Lobby

The impeccably formal young man bowed his head slightly once more, but the way he looked down his nose at them made it seem like a hollow gesture of forced manners. "Of course," he replied in Yamataigo, stealing a quick, sidelong glance at Amelia, giving her no more than a half second's regard. "If I may have the order number, I shall query its status."

 

[Luca]

Lobby
Dressed in a hooded jacket, a beanie, some loose tracksuit pants tied together, loafers and a face as cute as a button with an unexplained bandaid pasted to his forehead, Danny entered the pharmacy wholesaler. He did have some legitimate shopping to do, since he'd spent the contents of one of his first aid kits. As he walked in, he kept his altex-clad hands in his pockets and remained low key, examining small aisles of more commonly available consumer drugs sold in bulk for something to replace his suture, disinfectant, and painkillers.

He looked up to the counter to see who was talking, and spotted the Freespacer and raven-haired astrogator. However, neither of them matched the picture that Danny had seen of Sienna. The Freespacer, however, was a person of interest to Danny since he'd seen unmistakable Freespacer paraphernalia and scrawl, and one wouldn't be walking around so willy nilly in a Yamatai-positive area without some help.

Oh, hydrogen peroxide solution's fifty percent off if I buy a litre... Danny discovered, smiling and making an "Ooh!" of delight as he held the bottle of solution and put it in a handbasket.

 

[Riko]

~Lobby~

"Arigatou gozaimasu" Six Four said presenting the datapad to the sales associate with a nod of its own. As he took care of the business at hand the doctor turned around.

"Query: You don't speak yamataian do you?" It said to Amelia.

 

[Foxtrot 813]

Lobby - Origin Medical Wholesalers

Catching the glance from the receptionist, Amelia replied with a single, inaudible "what?" and a shake of her shoulders. How disconcerting. Still with her hands in her pockets, she turned her head to regard 64. "No, I don't," she confirmed, still staring at the ship's doctor instead of turning back around to stare at the medical supplies on display with the same interest that she had displayed before when they had entered the store.

 

[Floodwaters]

Lobby

The clerk accepted the datapad with a rigid, brief bow before placing it on the desk in front of him, and took his seat once more. With a few expertly-practiced keystrokes on his computer console, hidden from the others' view, he queued up the order number. In seconds, a volumetric display flickered into ethereal existence over the counter in front of Six Four, hovering a list of medical items in the air.

"Please take a moment to review the order," the man replied in formal-toned Yamataigo. "If the order appears correct, apply your digital signature and I will have the warehouse set it out for you to pick up in the garage."

The list detailed mostly contained replacements for the bandages, antiseptics, and painkillers that the medic expended after the rescue on the Neue Jaspis moon, along with a modest amount of quick-hardening cast foam, and a canister of what appeared to be medical nanobots. The thing that caught Six Four's attention the most, however, was the much-higher-than-necessary supply of Qualen that was included in the order.

 

[nite train]

Dawn Station - Sector Nine City, Level 4 - Origin Medical Wholesalers - Late Afternoon/Early Evening

Rathe made his way down the street outside of the medicine shop, trailing behind Danny, who was already in the store. Doing detective work to find a target wasn't his favorite part of the job, and after several hours of "No, we haven't seen her," "I saw her yesterday, but I don't know where she is now," as well as the occasional, "Why do you want to know?" had left the golden skinned nepleslian physically and mentally drained. He had no idea what state the day had left Danny in, but Rathe assumed that the two of them were in the same boat.

 

[Riko]

Lobby

"Interesting. This one would assume you would speak another language. Correction, the second most popular language in the universe."

Six four was about to continue on but the clerical assistant called for its attention. "Please excuse this one for a moment." it said before heading back over to the desk. Skimming the list order it checked it off with its own personal list, noting that everything seemed to be in order until it got to the bottom.

"Query: The amount of qualen on this order seems a bit off. This one is positive that that much shouldn't have been placed with that order." It stated plainly Yamataigo, "Could you please pull up the orginal order and any additional sub orders to this?"

 

[Floodwaters]

Lobby

The clerk maintained his formal veneer, but while Six Four was oblivious to the subtle note of irritation at being questioned, Amelia picked up on it quite easily. Nonetheless, the prim young man turned back to his console and tapped out a few more commands, and seconds later his eyebrows raised slightly before he glanced back up at the Freespacer. "My humblest apologies," he answered in a tone that didn't have the slightest hint of humility in it. "There was a clerical error, and this order number was combined with a different one. The fact that it was also placed by Madam Shelton most likely accounts for the error. I will correct it immediately."

With a few more keystrokes, the volumetric display shortened its list, the quantity of Qualen fell back to an amount that fell more in line with what the medic deemed reasonable.

 

[Riko]

Lobby

When the new list popped up Six Four gave it another once over.

"Yes that list is much more compatible to the one that Six Four had made." it said with a nod and small unseen smile, the doctor also made a note to discuss the qualen fluctuation with Sienna. The Freespacer guessed that it must of been a clerical error on her behalf, she was human afterall and lacked the hyper computer that was the mental processor in Six Four's head.

"This one also understands that it was already paid for correct will we be needing to load it ourselves or is that your job?"

 

[nite train]

Store Entrance

Rathe stepped inside the store and immediately began searching for migraine medicine. As he scanned the aisles, he spotted Danny and made a mental note to check with him after he got what he needed.

 

[Luca]

Lobby
Danny knew that Rathe was simply too fabulous to be the one to do some subterfuge. In addition, he knew Yamatai-go, enough to get by in a conversation as he queued up behind the raven haired woman and the freespacer with some bulk antiseptic stone thread bandages, hydrogen peroxide solution and a very large roll of suture and a smile on his face. He hummed something from Aoi Tanaka's personal band, maybe the themesong to a cartoon she did the music for, jaunty and upbeat.

Of course, he could still listen to them at the same time.

Interesting. Shelton's orders like to go for abwehran medicine. Danny contemplated as he listened to the clerk, taking a familiar name, and then putting another name to a face - or at least the back of a bubblegum pink head of hair. This Six Four is the medic, but who is the woman with black hair - still an unknown but I can rest easy knowing these won't be far from the target.

He continued musing gently on the knowns and unknowns as he got into the swing of mumbling some of the lyrics and bobbing along gently, the contents of his handbasket rattling gently too. "Rising from the ashes~ ♫ burning like a comet in the sky~ ♫" It was the Captain Phoenix theme song.

When he glanced aside to Rathe, he gave a very quick wink to them. These were the crewmembers that'd lead them to the target they were looking for.

 

[Floodwaters]

Lobby

"The pre-payment is sufficient only to cover the cost of the products," the clerk responded matter-of-factly. "However, for a nominal fee, I can have the warehouse... personnel--" His words trailed off slowly as his gaze shifted from the Freespacer to the Nepleslian man who was humming a tune, the cracks in his formal expression revealing a look of mild irritation at what he apparently perceived to be a rude and unwarranted interruption. He held his eyes firmly on Danny for a few seconds until the humming stopped, then turned back to the Freespacer. "Forgiveness please. As I was saying, for a nominal fee, I can have the warehouse personnel load it in your vehicle. I will give instructions to your driver."

Looking to Amelia, the clerk raised his voice slightly, and pointed out of the door and to his right. "Along this street take your transport," he commanded her in heavily accented Nepleslian, "and turn down the ramp immediately to the left of the entrance. Follow the tunnel until a junction you come to. Turn right, and in one of the areas marked by yellow stripes park it."

Without missing a beat, the clerk's attention shifted to Rathe disapprovingly. "Are you needing of assistance?" he asked him pointedly with a subtly suspicious tone in his voice.

 

[Luca]

Lobby
It only took a few very pointy moments of staredown for Danny to realise the Clerk was waiting for him to stop and stopped bobbing - as did the shaking of his handbasket's contents. The hum eventually trailed into a short whine, then Danny looked a bit despondent with life for the moment.

He was still listening though. Directions: Along a street, turn down the ramp left of entrance, follow the tunnel, right at the junction and park at an area with yellow stripes for pickup. Still, he had his wallet ready for buying his wares.

At the very least, if he forgot or his recall was foggy, something in his suit was recording this for posterity. Danny looked over to Rathe as the clerk drew attention to them, but pretended to be strangers. I still think K-Kendra would be all over him... Danny considered quietly as the directions were fed to him - that Separa'shan always made his skin crawl with how touchy-feely she was.