RP: YSS Miharu Mission 1 "REAR GUARD", Day 5

Miyoko nodded in acknowledgement of the order before pulling the device onto Kotori's head. After making the necessary adjustments, she turned it on and took a seat in the chair Kotori had just vacated. Turning to Nyton, she said, "For what it's worth, I'll do my best to save your body if you get injured that badly. For reinstalling your cybernetics if you die, though, you may want to discuss that with MEGAMI. My best bet would be having them created in the hemosynth tank with your new body, but I'm not sure if they'd need to be scanned in order for her to make them. Of course, there are some parts I'll have to put back in if you want to see your death anyway... but the less chances I have to mess them up, the better."

That was about when Miyoko, Nyton and Leutre picked up an odd burning smell quickly followed by a unfamiliar electric buzz that immediately struck them as wrong.

Nyton was listening to Miyoko when the sound and the smell struck. His senses went on the alert and he instinctively moved over to Kotori to shield or move her. He then put a hand near his sidearm and began to scan the medbay with his infrared vision. "Shut down the ST device! Get Kotori out of here now! Miharu give me a status report on the operations of the medbay devices! What is causing the noise and the burning scent?!" While he was no electronics expert he knew enough to search for odd heat signatures in junctions where they should not be or that were growing hotter at an intense rate. Or perhaps for some more sinister presence that could mean sabotage. He also tried to identify the odd buzz to determine if it were some sort of device or just part of the malfunction.

Now that Nyton was looking Kotori's way... the ST backup image reader looked to be awfully hot. Not that he ever paid that reader much attention... but Kotori's writhing, her face a grimace of pain, sort of put things neatly into proper perspective.

ST Backups were damned unpleasant, but all they really amounted to was suffering a brief jolt on the nervous system and then being hit by a very bad migraine that was thankfully only a few minutes long.

"The ST Backup device was not malfunctioning!" Miharu asserted.

"Shimatta-..." Miyoko scrambled to turn off the device at Nyton's order, simultaneously trying to pull it off of the Taii's head. Such an abrupt disconnect probably wasn't good, but it seemed a better option than leaving it on.

She waved Leutre over. "Leutre!" It seemed that in her panic, she reverted to referring to him on a first-name basis. "Take a look at this, could you, see if you can tell if it's been tampered with." She was no technician either, but she knew plenty about backups, and something like this was not usual.

Fearing the worst, she leaned over Kotori and asked, "Ketsurui-taii, are you alright?!"

"No," Kotori gasped out, involuntary tears sliding out from the corner of her eyes and down her cheekbones to her ears. "It feels like a Fox shuttle landed on my head."

As soon as the reader was off from over Kotori's head the wierd hum ceased... though small wisps of smoke began curling upward.

Asher had moved out of the Med Bay only a few minutes earlier. He wasn't too far down the hall when heard the commotion happening in the Med Lab. The Santo-Hei turned and stood for a moment.

"Somethin' ain't right." Asher scratched his head, unsure if he should go back to the Med Lab to check.

"Eh, I'ss probably best that I leave it to tha' bandage brain. Wouldn't want ta' get in tha' way..." The Yamataian assured himself, before hearing the situation turn silent.

"Ah, all better." Asher grinned, thinking the problem was solved, and continued to his room.

The Yamataian looked at the Taii worriedly. "I don't know what that was, but it can't have been good. Are you able to walk? I want to do a scan of your head to make sure it didn't cause any damage."

Kotori huffed once before gingerly sitting up and swinging her legs down. She looked out at the medlab and uttered a faint "Whoa, my equilibrium is off," as she raised one hand to wipe the tears and added more loudly: "...along with a lot of other things. I'm getting the feeling that if I move, I'm going to vomit."

Somehow, these revelations did little to abate the science specialist's fears. "That's okay, take a moment and see if your stomach settles. I can ask these two nice strong men to carry you if you don't feel up to walking." She could at least spare enough time for that--given the smoke drifting away from the device, the most likely culprit was an electric shock. Since Kotori hadn't passed out and seemed to be breathing regularly, she probably wasn't in any immediate danger.

She turned to Nyton. "I don't like this. If she's dizzy and nauseous, chances are it was affecting her brain. Pulling it off so suddenly might be partially to blame, but if not, well, this was either the worst malfunction imaginable or..." She trailed off, letting the rest of the sentence assemble itself in his head.

Nyton returned to normal vision and focused more on the immediate condition of his commander however he kept up a heightened state of alertness for anything. As Miyoko attempted to ascertain what went wrong he tried to come up with some sort of plan.

"All I saw before you removed it was the heat signature of the reader jump so it probably would have exploded or something. Maybe you should try and get a brain scan on her now while the pain still manifests. If there is damage it would be better to catch it sooner. I could carry her to an examination table while Leutre continues to investigate the device. He needs to find the reason for the malfunction." Nyton replied. He then looked up (again despite knowing better otherwise) and addressed the Miharu.

"Miharu, review all data you have of the event. I want to know what made the device heat up, whether it was a shorted wire, a power spike, anything. Let Veressis-Hei review the data so he can get some insight into this." Nyton said.

"Oh for Fortuna's sake," Leutre huffed angrily. "I swear by her ample bosom, if I find one more electrical problem on this damn ship I'm going to hijack it at gunpoint and force it into the nearest shipyard myself!" He moved over to the ST Backup device and inspected it. "Hey, hey, hey!" He snapped his fingers several times. "Claymere, come here and pay attention, or we'll have two patients here! If there's a stray charge or current in this thing I'll someone to pull me back before I cook, neh?"

Leutre reached for the casing of the ST backup device, then paused for a moment. Let's see, let's see. The Deadman and then Claymere were just in the device, so sabotage is very improbable. I would usually rule out faulty wiring, but given the sloppy work of the construction crew ... wait a minute. If Claymere was the last in the system... his train of thought picked up speed as his mental gears began turning. He turned back to Claymere a moment and gave him a curious look.

"Say Claymere, you were last in the device before it started malfunctioning, no? I'm not familiar with either Yamataian or Nepleslian neurotech, so don't take my presumptions to personally. But do you..." He paused, choosing his words carefully as to avoid offending Nyton any further than he already had. "Do you, by chance, have any...implants? If there's any foreign objects linked to your nervous system, could it perhaps have caused a malfunction of sorts? An incompatibility, perhaps?"

Kotori's breath whistled out as she closed her eyes a moment and the extended one hand to Nyton. "Please."

In her condition it was obvious she couldn't go anywhere on her own yet and she wasn't so proud as to not realize something was very wrong. Even though she knew her self-diagnostic software was trying to mend things it was better to make sure.

Meanwhile, volumetric diagnostic windows opened so Leutre could look at the archived logs of previous backups in regard to how the reader had functioned. though he wasn't exactly an expert with medical equipment, one thing immediately jumped up to his eyes.

The device had been working fine and as was expected of it in all the other recordings. It only messed up when it began taking its reading of the Taii. As for what exactly went awry... it looked like the probing signal had just bounced back on itself and quickly fried the reader... in just the same way a microwave oven forced to function without anything to cook would eventually damage itself.

"Hello Juni. I'll get to outfitting the suits right after I'm done with the meal."

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"Thank you, Mara-san," Masako replied and opened her mouth to say something else before Hinoto spoke up.

"Mara, hush. We aren't supposed to talk while we are eating."

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Then all three sprites began to debate, making Masako listen intently as she finished off her first sandwich. The raven-haired neko briefly looked over at Nimura, who was being fairly quiet. Is she always like that? Masako couldn't help but think before Mara's outburst.

"I don't love the custodian!"

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Startled by the outburst, Masako stared at Mara for a moment before the corner of her mouth twitched. Then a stifled giggle came from the shorter neko as she covered her mouth. "Mara-san....*snicker*...you don't have to protest so boldly. People will think you actually do like Sigurd-san," the warrant officer giggled teasingly before clearing her throat. "Besides, you're scaring Nimura-san." Masako said with a smile still upon her lips.

After deciding to add another sandwich to his plate, Takuma headed for the table where everyone else was gathered. He heard the sprites arguing about something he couldn't quite make out and then one of them ducked behind a tray. Half expecting to see something flying across the room, he sped up and took a seat at the table before anything could hit him.

He grabbed one of the sandwiches and took a bite. Delicious was too weak of a word to describe it. Definitely better then the food on the Odori no Umi. You cannot cook well for over 200 people.

"Oh please," Tom said out loud to the apologetic computer. "It may be bothersome, but it's not like you had a choice on the matter. Same for surgeons and whatnot when they used to operate on bodies with crude technology. Things get complicated."

Satisfied with the readings his console was giving out, Tom began the long process of refitting the covers onto the Fold Drive. It was easy but terribly tedious work, as each piece fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

"But I must admit, I don't know WHY anyone would go to the trouble of making your fold drive's covering so layered. It's not like the extra layer of shielding would prevent the entire system from malfunctioning or exploding if it were overwhelmed."

"Actually, the fold drive might be one of the most ordinary, standard-issue piece of equipment you'll find on me," Miharu pointed out to Tom. "As far as I've heard, it was tested technology... I suppose they don't usually completely end up stir fried like this."

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Mara snorted and took her ire out on a sandwich, savagely consuming it.

The crisis averted, Nimura replaced her tray and continued eating.

Nyton took Kotori's hand and gently lifted her up. He brought one arm around her back and lowered himself slightly to bring his other arm around her legs in a cradle style carry. Nyton slowly picked Kotori up and tried to keep her as stable as possible to reduce the discomfort from her condition before he began to walk over to the nearest examination table and lay her down. While he did this he listened to Leutre's suggestion.

"I don't find it likely that my implants could have caused this. I have had several ST backups made before without complications. Even if my implant could have a negative impact, the system is aware of them and should be able to compensate for them." Nyton replied as he slowly walked.

Miyoko crossed over to the examination table as well, pulling down a few scanners from the ceiling. She concentrated for a moment before deciding just what to set them to do--she opted for a full scan of Kotori's head for the moment. The bells and whistles could wait. Additionally, she requested, "Miharu, please monitor her and let me know if you detect any cardiac arrhythmia or irregularity in her breathing."

"The Taii's readings still remain in the green. I don't read anything that should indicate that her life is in imminent danger." Miharu reported after a moment.

"Saito-Hei," the computer continued, "I would recommend probing only lightly, seeing what the rather invasive ST backup probe did."

Kotori looked at the instruments with something like exasperated irritation, mostly aimed at herself. At least she didn't look too anxious or uncooperative.