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

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B


The doctor turned its head to Danny for a moment upon what it thought was Lorath. "Odd, this one thought it heard Lorath... this one also does not remember that individual having any blue toned skin. Must remember to ask later." It thought to itself with a shrug before quickly turning back to the problem at hand.

"Thank you for turning down the lights." Six Four said flattening out any wrinkles in its lab coat that may have for some reason appeared, "But as this one's compatriots have said, we do not require assistance. Thank you for the offer though."

With a nod Six Four made a sharp left turn towards the shelving unit that the ORSEC person had indicated. Standing in front of the shelf the freespacer doctor started to scan the area in a typewriter like fashion attempting to locate the order. When it hit the third level it stopped, locking on a specific order, with the faint click of some unseen mechanical gears, a small tube like object popped out of the side of its helmet bathing the container in a light blue light beam. Just as soon as it appeared the scanner disappeared back into the Doctors helmet, sealing itself back in returning the portion to a smooth surface.

"The shipment is there." It said flatly to the the two in the back of the truck after turning around. "Time for you two to fulfill your roles as manual labor." Clapping its hands twice it then pointed at the shipment before making its way back to the truck.

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B

"Ja?" the squat, no-necked bull-man remarked, tilting his head as he stopped alongside the truck bed, grasping the edge with a pair of thick-fingered hands that looked powerful enough to crush a rock, or a skull. Rathe and Danny, being the closest to him at the moment, could make out telltale signs of cybernetic and mechanical augmentations showing just beneath the skin on his hands. He looked slightly disappointed that his generous offer was evidently being rejected, but the disarmingly friendly, pearly-white smile on his face remained. "Ja, I see you haff help," he continued, although his eyes settled on Danny for a few seconds, a puzzled frown crossing his expression for an instant as he examined his garments, as if uncertain whether or not his eyes were playing tricks on him. After a hesitant pause, the look was gone, and the smile was back. "My offer shall remain on ze table nonezeless, however. I vill excuse myself to attend to mein own order, but should you discover you still need help, you haff only to ask, ja?"

Taking his hands from the truck bed, he clicked his heels together and bowed his head smartly to Six Four and the mercenaries in the back, then waggled his fingers in the direction of the driver's seat where Amelia sat, waving as if to remind her that he noticed her as well. With that farewell, he turned and headed back towards his vehicle, circling around behind it to another of the shelving units, the monstrous transport obscuring him from their view.

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B

Amelia returned the squat man's gesture with the same mock salute that she gave Sienna every time: Two fingers touching the side of her forehead and then being waved away much like a military salute. She watched him take some distance before turning the truck off and jumping out, raising her harms over her hand, stretching her back as she stood on tiptoes. The astrogator turned around to address the two helpers on the truck's bed, as well as put on more friendly terms what Six Four had just said when something suddenly cuaght her attention.

"What's that around your neck, man?" The raven-haired nepleslian asked Danny, making a circular motion with a gloved hand around her own neck as if to emphasize the blue fabric that had seemingly appeared there out of nowhere.

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B
It took Danny a few moments to realise that his paranoia had made his camouflage fail and go into a combat configuration - that is, no camouflage at all. He had to keep calm, face going taut for a moment as he realised that navy skin was kind of a faux pas, unless you were in Yamatai. Just about anything went there - except for criticising government institutions - that was a no-no, but you could wear and be whatever you liked - except maybe Freespacers.

"Oh, it's for my circulation and to make sure I stand up straight," Danny said as he bent his fingers back over his palm in front of Amelia. No resistance, no cracks or pops, his fingers just went all the way back. He then let go and he bent them back over. "I was born with a condition."

He wasn't entirely wrong - since he'd gotten that suit, it'd given him structure in his otherwise jellyfish like life, and he always had double joints everywhere, possibly even triples in places. "I wouldn't be able to lift effectively without it."

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B

Amelia stared at the free display of contortionism with an awkward expression. She occasionally -and right then was such an occasion- wore the Emrys Dusk suit under her own clothing, and since she always wore baggy clothes that usually went by unnoticed, and the astrogator was glad for the small bit of extra protection and strength that the suit provided. Doing that had arguably saved her life on the Black Moon when the Veil was boarded.

"Cool," Amelia said, starting to turn around towards Six Four to see which crates needed to be removed when she stopped, then turned back around to face Danny and Rathe. "You guys never really introduced yourselves," she said, resting her hands on her hips.

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B

Six Four almost regretted dismissing the stout friendly man, seeing as the help was chatting with Amelia still in the truck. Shaking its head with a digitized sigh it grabbed one of the boxes from the shelf. Hefting it off of the shelf with relative ease, noting that it was a box of bandages after all, the doctor made its way over to the truck, payload in tow. Approaching the vehicle from the rear, it lifted the box the tailgate, setting it in front of Rathe and Danny with an audible thud. Resting its hands on top of the box it looked back and forth between the two, not saying anything but silently getting its message of 'work now chit chat later' across.

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B

Before Amelia could inquire any more about the strange suit that one of the two men were wearing, as well as find out their names, she noticed the very overt display from the Freespacer that they should get a move on. "Sorry," she said to Six Four apologetically, turning around to face the ship's doctor instead. "Which ones am I supposed to be carrying?" She asked.

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B

Rathe jumped down from the tailgate of the truck to begin his work. "I see 'This One' sure is the life of the party..." said Rathe, mimicking Six Four's voice as he quoted what the Freespacer called itself. With that, the Nepleslian turned to Amelia to ask what needed to be carried to the truck.

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B

"The items are located on the third shelf, second one from the left. They are also marked with the Captains name for visual reference." Six Four said to both Amelia and Rathe.

"Six Four does not understand. It does not attend many festive parties, or parties in general for that matter." The freespacer said cocking its head to the side at Rathe's comment, "So it does not understand how it could be the life of one. Is this a metaphor of some sorts? Or are parties vampiric and feed off of peoples life forces? This would explain why people are always tired after them. Tell me are alcoholic beverages a deterrent to this vamparisim?"

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B

Regarding the Freespacer's remarks, Rathe responded to Six Four as he scanned the aforementioned shelf. "Y'know, I'm gonna leave you in the dark on that one. Got lots of work to do, right?"

In all honesty, Rathe knew forming negative relationships with leads was never a good idea, but he was still angry with Six Four over its numerous responses to his accidentally buying kaserine, and withholding knowledge from the automation seemed like adequate vengeance.

As he looked down the aisle shelf, the presence of the trucks from before caught Rathe's attention. 'These guys don't seem to get the memo. Something's definitely up with that guy and his buddies...' Rathe thought to himself as he carried the box to the truck bed.

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B
Danny started moving some of the boxes Rathe was giving him to the back of the truckbed and securing them with straps to the tray and the walls so they wouldn't move around - and hopefully act as something to hang onto on the trip back instead of pulverising the hapless Danny on the trip back.

"Third shelf, second from left..." Danny repeated to affirm that it was correct as he got off the truckbed to assist with moving the boxes. He followed Rathe's lead for moving boxes around, and found himself with the name he recognised on the box - Shelton. However, he couldn't say it out loud. "Shelton, is that right?" Danny asked, feigning ignorance as he carried a box to the truckbed and placed it down on the tray, giving it a push so it got to the back.

The fact that the Freespacer hadn't noticed that they'd been boxed in showed that they definitely weren't alert, and definitely more civilian.

On the plus side though, at least the one called Amelia was okay with the suit under clothing look, he was a little pink in the cheeks as he moved the boxes.

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B

Even though she had been expecting something exactly like that, Amelia had to suppress a chuckle at Six Four's remark. She was about to put another box of supplies on the bed of the truck before turning her head around to regard Danny. "Yeah, why?" she asked, pushing the rectangular cardboard box forward until it came into contact with the others that were piling up on the front. For a ship that small, those were quite a bit of medical supplies to stock on the diminute makeshift medbay that they had.

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B
"Just making sure I'm picking up the right boxes." Danny replied. Amelia couldn't have expected him to know her captain's name. He stood up on his tippy-toes to grab one of the last boxes, grabbing onto it and pulling backwards with gravity as he put his feet back on the ground. Once firmly in his grasp, he placed it on the truckbed and made sure it was secure with the other boxes.

"I didn't get your name though." He said as he stood up from the truckbed to see what was left, "I'm Danny." Though, his gaze also examined the other two trucks that were boxing them in, and doing a headcount of possibly hostile numbers.

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B

"Amelia," the astrogator replied as she alternated between who picked up the boxes with the rest of them. "Thanks for the help again, by the way," she said, looking up towards the man standing on the truckbed and then idly following his gaze, only then noticing that the two other vehicles had them boxed it. While it didn't made her paranoid, it did concern her in the least, and she had a bad gut feeling about it. She decided to suppress it.

"Looks like we're gonna ask for one of them to pull back if they're not gone by the time we are," she commented in a casual manner, thinking that was what Danny was worried about.

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B

Six Four Frowned at Rathe, with his comment of keeping it in the dark but at least they were working. Unbeknownst to them Six Four had a schedule to keep, granted it was so it could get back to reading its new book (the last one being a let down, and Six Four was somewhat determined to make up for it) but it was a schedule none the less. Not to mention the sooner they got things back on the ship the sooner it could have them inventoried properly as well as ask Sienna why there was an abundant order of Qualen.

As the other three loaded the boxes, Six Four took out its datapad and began to check all that was going aboard the truck was in fact theirs. With Amelia's comment about the trucks however, it stopped. Making a note on its checklist the doctor put the datapad back into its coat pocket before doing an about face towards the truck with the man that was just moments ago talking to them.

"This one will ask if they can move." Six Four as it moved with a purpose towards the tri-truck.

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B
"No problem, Amelia," Danny replied as he looked at the two trucks again and clicked his tongue, "certainly seems that way," Danny said as he hopped out of the truck again to inspect how many boxes there were left. He was relieved that the verbose Freespacer, whose name he hadn't caught was trying to clear things up, but he was still on his guard.

Should I tell them what's what when the shit hits the fan? Danny thought, face turning up in concern as he looked for the last of the boxes of medical supplies, grabbing it and hauling it over - able to mask his thoughts with exertion. Do I come clean about Sienna and see if I can call the bounty off, or follow through...

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B

Ahead of the group, the indiscernible pair of men appeared to be nearing the end of their loading task, judging from the fact that they had made two good uses out of the loading fork and then put it away. They now appeared to be grabbing a few straggling odds and ends from the shelves and transferring them into the van, and one of them had gotten back inside.

Behind them, as Six Four approached the big vehicle from which No-Neck had come, she began to hear his thickly accented voice murmuring quietly, but couldn't see him. The windows of the vehicle were tinted almost to the point of being opaque, it seemed, or perhaps it was just a trick of the lighting, but she couldn't see him sitting in either of the front seats. If anyone was in the second or third row, however, they were completely hidden. The barrel-man, still hidden from the Freespacer's view but clearly very nearby, as she walked up alongside the truck, was continuing to speak in a hushed voice, in Volksprache. conversing with someone else whom Six Four couldn't hear at all.

"No sir, I don't think this is all of them."

"...Yes, of course. I already have."

"..."

"How do you know?"

"..."

"What about the others? How many are there?"

The Freespacer rounded the back of the truck, and spotted the squat, muscled man with his back to her, holding a phone of some kind to his ear, pensively staring up at the shelving unit towering in front of him. Somehow, he seemed to notice someone's presence, and glanced over his shoulder to notice Six Four standing there. Smiling broadly, he held up one finger and nodded a little with pursed lips, indicating he would be just another moment. Turning his back to the bed of the big truck, he leaned on its tailgate, possibly so as not to appear too rude to his visitor as he wrapped up his conversation. "Understood, sir," he continued. "I have to go now. Thank you for the update."

Taking the phone away from his ear and tapping something on its display, he heaved an apologetic sigh with his massive shoulders and looked in Six Four's direction. "Please forgive me," he apologized in Trade. "I did not realize you were standink zere. I can help you mit somesink, ja?"

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B

While Six Four went to negotiate getting the van behind them to clear the way, Amelia loaded the last crate onto the truck's bed, sliding the cardboard cube until it stopped at Danny's feet. That had been surprisingly easy with the extra help. "So what's your name, dude?" She asked Rathe with mild interest, briefly glancing at the van to see how the Freespacer's exchange with the human teacup was going.

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B

Six Four ignored the Volksprache, rationalizing that eavesdropping was socially frowned upon and also it didn't want to pry.

"No apologizes are required." It said waving its hand in a friendly yet dismissive gesture, "This one and its associates are near complete on the loading process, and with your vehicle and the other at the end of the aisle we are unable to get out." As it spoke the doctor pointed to the two trucks in question before returning its concentration to the oddly built man. "If it is not a problem could you please move your trasportation unit over roughly 15.3902 feet so that we may proceed to exit this warehouse. If it is not to much of an inconvenience to you and your associates."

Six Four added a friendly bow/half nod as well, just to be a bit more polite.

Origin Medical Wholesalers Warehouse Garage - Aisle 47B

"Hmm? Oh, I'm Rathe." the golden skinned Nepleslian replied with a smile as he slid the box he was holding to the front of the truck bed. "Mind my asking what brings you to Dawn? Besides an order of meds, of course." he asked casually, occasionally shifting his gaze to the trucks that currently enclosed the group.