Futuristic Starfall Initiative: Eons Apart

[APrimevalWorld]

 

[APrimevalWorld]

Mira Volkova was and still is not xenophobic, yet she could recognise - despite being in a different galaxy - that there were rising tensions in September of 3258.
The reports she had received wrote of an unremarkable bipedal species of mammalians, based on a log from a downed vessel hidden amongst an asteroid belt. Xenolinguists had been practically clamouring over themselves to see if one of the artefacts - a linguistic machine - left behind by the Omnipotent could comprehend the words of the new species, to get a glimpse at what could have possibly happened on board that ship.
The xenolinguists were horrified, and when the alien scavenger teams reached the ship, they quickly noticed that the log was missing it seems, and approached the science ship in the area.
Before first contact procedures could get any further, they decided to board the craft. By the time a small armada from the Guardian Flotilla got to the scene, both of the vessels were gone.
That was the reason Mira was on her way back prematurely from a break to see her family. The Opal Imperium could be under threat, and if the ship was destroyed, it would be on her records. They would no doubt blame her for the destruction of the ship. They could even execute her, claiming falsely of treason!
'I'm getting ahead of myself. The ship won't have been destroyed in under twenty-four hours.' Mira quickly thought as she attempted to silence the voice in her head that screamed doom and gloom. The thoughts could resurface another time. But now? She needed to regain composure for the crew. She needed to be the one they could look up to, and she needed to pull their defiant asses together so they can solve this looming threat before it becomes a crisis.
Mira craned her neck outside the safety of her seat, looking towards her companion and the cockpit. “How far out are we?”
Her companion, Axiom, a lockheed of Spanish descent, quietly relayed the message. He turned his head back, and repeated the words. “Ten minutes. Look, I understand your concern but-”
“Axiom, we don’t know the capabilities of these xenos and they have access to a translator we cannot reverse engineer. That alone is problematic, is it not?” Mira stiffened, her eyes narrowed. The Vegarian of Russian descent had a look that could kill, and if Axiom did not know any better, he’d say she’d be using it now.
“I don’t see what they could do with it that would be fruitful.” But Axiom and Mira were amicable with one another, having spent a lot of time fighting the Red Star Riders together. Despite their rocky start, they grew close, and even though scars run deep, there is respect for one another.
“That’s where the problem lies.” Mira ran a pale hand through her short, sandy blonde hair, her baby blue orbs for eyes as empty as ever.
Axiom sighed, taking a moment before speaking again. “Just don’t blame yourself for something out of your control, Mira.”
“But I could’ve helped-”
“If you hadn't taken a break. What difference does it make if you were here at the time of the incident?” Mira froze.
“You have a point there.” She muttered. Mira relaxed back into her seat, her hands dramatically falling limp on her black trench coat, which served as yet another reminder of her duties, which she got lost in.
She only noticed this when a hand was placed on her shoulder. “Come on, they’re waiting.”
They were here, and Mira wasn’t half ready.

 

[GraySkyl]

Gyanna looked at herself in the mirror, making sure her hair was “up to code” – well, not the official code, but more her personal one. Always smart, always neat and tidy, always perfect. Speaking of neat and tidy, she looked down at the uniform of the diplomatic corps of the Opal Imperium, something she wore like a medal in and of itself. It has always been her dream to one day be an ambassador, and she did everything that was necessary to achieve this goal as soon as possible; she was not ashamed to say, that she accomplished this goal, and was already nearing her 5th year as an ambassador. Always perfect.

A last breath, a final check, and then she started making her way down the corridor, to conference room 3. She enjoyed the walk to all the many meetings she attended. She liked the butterflies in her stomach, that only got more and flew around wilder every step she took towards the room. That’s why she never took the “better situated” office, that would have been part of her promotion to ambassador; in fact, if she could, she would take a room, located somewhere behind the engine rooms, just so she could have a longer way to walk.
Walking around on the Opal Imperium and coming ever close to all the meeting rooms, auditoria and offices of the high-ranking officers, she saw many faces she knew, not all of them personally. Nevertheless, there was a lot of nodding going on, until she was almost at her destination. The excitement was almost too much to handle right now, like always. She took out her datapad, ready to take notes. Gyanna lived for new information she could come across, note down, organize and re-read at any time. That’s why she attended every meeting she could, even if they didn’t involve herself, just like this one.

 

[APrimevalWorld]

Upon collecting herself, Mira rose to a height that remained unmatched by any pure human. Her vibrant yet empty baby blue eyes darted to Axiom, who noticed her gaze and looked down onto her trench coat disapprovingly. Mira took that as a signal to dust herself down now, before pivoting to face the exit.

Hard steel-like alloy walls greeted her gaze first, but then so did the blinding teal light of a button panel. This was adjacent to a formation in said wall, which Mira immediately recognised as the door. With long strides, she reached it in no time, elbowing the panel, and watching the mechanical hinges roll the door down into a ramp.

The sight of motionless soldiers greeted her as they lined up perfectly, the only signal of them being alive being the rise and fall of their chests from behind their vests. Before she could even speak, someone hollered. “Admiralty present!”
At that moment, they all jumped to life. They faced forward towards Mira, awaiting their next order. “Salutations!”
Now they saluted her. Proud of the group, she waited patiently for a second before announcing the next order. “At ease.”

Then she took her first hesitant steps back onto the Opal Imperium for the foreseeable future, eyes centre and looking towards the officer leading this display; Lieutenant Vasstok, a traveene. The traveene’s amber mammalian eyes were focused solely on Mira, that being the mainly distinct feature considering his coat of fur was pitch black.

But what was different between a lockheed and human became quickly apparent in the following moments. It all started when Mira dismissed the accompanying guards, approaching Vasstok.

Vasstok was small for a traveene and had to look up to meet the lockheed’s gaze.

“Are you alright, Lieutenant? You look afraid.” Mira suddenly blurted, before he even looked down again in terror. There are no obvious factors that would have made any pure human jump to a conclusion like that, but yet a lockheed - a subspecies of human - could spot that a mile off.

Mira even noticed him gulp before speaking, something only someone with a keen eye could notice through thick layers of black fur.

“Yes, sir.” Mira did not have time to chat anyway, and based on Vasstok’s response, he knew that too. She needed to make her way to conference room 3, which Axiom would also be attending in place of one of the department heads.

She came to the usual conclusion; Vasstok was afraid of her, so she made cautious steps to not scare the Lieutenant. She then promptly left the shuttle bay through another steel door.

Like with Vasstok, she caught people staring and glared in retaliation at those who dared to defy her. She did this all the way to conference room 3.

Before she even spotted the ambassador at the door, her footsteps could be heard a few corridors down.

 

[GraySkyl]

Gyanna took a peek into the conference room. Exactly 2 minutes and 23 seconds until the meeting was scheduled to start. Every chair was already filled, with two exceptions. She looked at her datapad to check who was missing. It was custom to be in the meeting room at least 15 minutes early to have a chance to synchronize all the audio, video and text materials. This made it quicker to start with the “meat and potatoes” part of the conference. Sure, it wasn’t required by the regulations, technically, but it felt like an unwritten rule to Gyanna, and definitely one that should be added to the written ones. “I should make a suggestion to that end”, she thought, and quickly jotted down her plan.
She compared the people already in the room to the names and small profiles on her datapad. The two missing attendees were Admiral Volkova and her companion Axiom. It certainly wasn’t unusual for high-ranking officers to not take part in the pre-meeting check in, but it still was part of good manners; at least, that’s how she felt about it.
Gyanna had a conflicted relationship with military personnel: on one hand she just couldn’t understand why anyone would rather use violence (especially when not sanctioned by the regulations) than just talk stuff out, while at the same time being a bit envious of all the adventures they got to go on. She always chastised herself whenever those thoughts came up, because it was no way for a diplomat and staunch pacifist to think. And yet, she was never able to completely get rid of the desire to follow them into conflict for the right cause, and maybe, just maybe, also a bit of personal glory. Gyanna also couldn’t deny that there were quite a few times in her diplomatic career so far, when she would have preferred just to give the person opposite of her a good slapping.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the noise of heavy footsteps not far away from her, just down the corridor. The first thing about the admiral that caught her eye were the scars all over her body. Maybe she was intoxicated by thoughts of glory and fighting the good fight, but the scars and muscles impressed Gyanna. Not that she would be particularly fond of being alone in a dark alley with her, but still there was something undeniably intriguing about this woman. The closer she came, the taller she got, and Gyanna couldn’t help thinking, that she’d probably burst through the hull of the Opal Imperium if she continued like this. She also never felt so small herself than at the precise time Mira Volkova stood right next to her.

“Admiral”, Gyanna said and clumsily tried her luck at a correct military salute, which probably looked ridiculous to the one now looking (disapprovingly, as Gyanna thought) at her. She instantly felt thrown back into her childhood to the few times she did something naughty and her mother stood in front of her just like that.

 

[APrimevalWorld]

As she approached, Mira could hear someone rustling about and slowed her pace, eager to not scare them. She peeked around the corner, cautiously spotting Gyanna before approaching the conference room. Seeing Gyanna attempt a salute caused Mira's attention to slip away from the conference room door panel, and focus on what Gyanna was doing. Now, she was up close, still as a statue, and staring straight at the ambassador. Then came a respectful nod, no words to break the silence, and the elbowed the panel to head in.
Much to what would be Mira's surprise, Axiom had come in through a different entranceway. 'He must've gone around the back of the block and walked in, surely?' Mira knew Axiom had his ways, but it still struck her as odd that in the time it took for a brief exchange between her and the ambassador that Axiom managed to appear, in his seat, without warning.
That thought caused Mira to look around the room, and she quickly realised she was the last one to join as the room fell silent and its occupants were now facing her. Some couldn't look her in the eyes.
Without a second more thought, Mira approached her seat. Everyone sat on chairs with extremely tall backs, which were designed for everything from a traveene, valtyorx, and human to davonire, revach, tulvaroan.
And speaking of the tulvaroans, they were the ones who raised concern a month ago.
What was strange was the fact that Mira had no notes, nothing on her. Just a hologram ahead of her, a screen behind her as she sat at the head of the table. She spent the next minute or so not really thinking about what she'd say next.
And just like that, the meeting began, and this one was juicy!
Firstly, Mira addressed the two elephants in the room. Firstly, Axiom was onboard to temporarily take over from the now-deceased Aaron Fynada, a valtyorx who served as the chief of the engineering department.
Secondly, why she came back prematurely from her break. She explained how some gut instinct told her to come back.
"That's what you're going off of? A gut instinct?" One davonire named Seiza Pollak commented.
Mira glared, but respectfully answered. "My guts haven't let me down yet; shoot me if I'm wrong."
Axiom tried his best to contain a chuckle. "Anyhow, let's focus on the topic; the Tulvaroan Psionix."
Mira's demeanour became serious again. "In case someone somehow doesn't know, the tulvaroans have seized one of our science ships and with it? An Omnipotent gift. We need to find where that ship went, whilst not raising tensions any higher."
"Omnipotent gifts have tracking devices implanted within them. We could not use this prior; perhaps there's a factor inhibiting tracking?" That was Deputy Chief of Spec-Ops Beau Mako.
"That's not very helpful, Lieutenant. Anyone could come to those conclusions..." And that was Mira's only superior, Admiral Veronica Perez.
The meeting went on like this for two whole hours. Two hours were spent discussing ways to find that ship, but nobody could settle on any one idea. It took up until this point for someone to actually propose an idea that may be suitable.
"Hold on, if we can reverse engineer most smaller pieces of technology, why can't we hunt for a null spot on the sensors?" Axiom suggested.
"Theoretically, that would work, but you'd need to upgrade the Opal Imperium's sensors to match. It'd still be trying to find a needle in a haystack, but it might be a possibility." Admiral Perez admitted.
Seiza Pollak did not seem fond of this idea though. "This could take months; the crew might not have that long!"
But Mira, seeing the sensibility in Axiom's response. "Let's work with what we know, Lieutenant Pollak. I call a majority vote; all in agreement, please raise your hand."

 

[GraySkyl]

Gyanna wasn’t the only one in attendance at this meeting. She was certainly the only one still listening and watching until the end, however. By the 90-minute mark, she was alone in the audience section of the conference room.

The vast majority lost interest one after the other, when the discussion turned from the recap of the things that happened to the minutia of what to do about it. That was, in contrast, the point where her interest was only growing rapidly.
It was not like Gyanna necessarily looked down on the people that left early. More to the point, she didn’t really like the norms of being somewhere just to be seen and look good in front of other people. The only times, in fact, when a diplomatic assignment of hers actually bothered her, were the times she was expected to just “show up and make a good impression”. She knew this was part of diplomacy, but, in a rare case of her secretly disliking a rule, no one could ever explain to her, why “wasting time” was considered a good use case of her mediatory skills.

This conference did, surprise Gyanna, though, something that wasn’t really common anymore, considering the hundreds – or was it thousands by now? She’d have to count all of her meeting notes after this - of meetings she sat or actually participated in. The admiral Volkova got even more impressive and interesting.
One thing, that Gyanna deeply respected, maybe due to her position as a mediator, was people standing up for others, who were weaker, or simply had less authority. The second she heard the admiral defend her right-hand man’s idea against Seiza Pollak, she knew, she had to try and talk to her after the conclusion of the meeting. Sure, it may not have been the most risky defence, considering the company, but still, she knew some people on the Opal Imperium, who’d berate their subordinates’ ideas as soon as there was any kind of opposition, just to make themselves look better.

Gyanna’s plan to strike up a conversation after the meeting’s conclusion was helped by the only part of conferences and meetings, she actively despised. Every time, the other people at the meeting tried to do small talk. An effective tactic to make interpersonal, and therefor diplomatic, relationships easier, for sure. Still, the amount of time people spent on this rather small part of ambassadorial tools, was quite frankly exhausting. Gyanna usually couldn’t take more than 10 minutes of this and had, because of this, a reputation for being a bit unapproachable outside of work. This came back to haunt her from time to time, which was probably the reason, why she didn’t make the ambassador’s position in record time – at least in her opinion.
This time, the tedium did help her, though. She got up uncharacteristically quickly after the session, forgoing re-reading her notes this one time, and situated herself at the doors. As soon as the admiral exited the room, she tried to match her walking speed, which, like most of the things about this woman, was impressive, and said:
“Admiral Volkova, may I have a word? I think I could be of some assistance to you”
Gyanna had to admit to herself, that she didn’t quite know, how to actually be of help to an admiral. Someone, who probably had an impressive administrative staff, but she just had to take a chance and learn more about and from her.

 

[APrimevalWorld]

The conference concluded after the majority vote, with Axiom's idea in favour. They would proceed down this route first before exhausting other options, which Mira wondered about. As she thought about the steps required, she subconsciously began moving towards the door, like she had done a thousand times before.
Except, unlike a thousand times before, when she stepped out, the sight of Gyanna greeted her, vibrant purple hair as noticeable as expected. Mira was not sure how to respond, continuing a stroll straight past. When Gyanna followed, a mediocre voice in her head screamed, 'What could she possibly want from me?'
It was a question that left Gyanna's mouth, but phrased in a way that struck her too close to the heart for the wrong reasons. Mira stopped in her tracks, taking a long thoughtful pause to internally debate about what to do.
When did anyone ever want to approach her? 'The last time this happened was... Eilleen...'
Mira turned to face Gyanna, her eyes as empty as ever. Or so it seemed, yet there was the slightest tremor in her voice, suggesting that she did feel emotions.
That she was human, in some sense.
"Hello, a-ambassador." Mira had noticed the insignia by now. "What do you wish to speak to me about?"

 

[GraySkyl]

Something in the way the admiral answered her question, threw Gyanna off momentarily. This hulking woman, whose shoulder muscles were seemingly wider than Gyanna was tall, just showed some real vulnerability. Nevertheless, you didn’t have to be a particularly skilled diplomat to recognize, that the corridor in front of conference rooms, with dozens of people around, probably wasn’t the best place to dig deeper on that.

The more pressing problem right now, would be to find something to offer to Mira. Gyanna cleared her throat: “I was impressed by you in the meeting. I know, it probably doesn’t mean much coming from one of many ambassadors, but I did want to express my admiration. The way you defended your right-hand man in there…you’re a great leader.” She had to catch herself from falling into professional habits. When trying to connect with another person outside of a meeting room, you don’t want to sound like the hard-boiled stateswoman. “That’s why I wanted to offer my services to you. I want to learn from the best, and, by all accounts, you definitely belong to that group. I’m great at handling personal correspondence, if I do say so myself. You can check my records and performance reviews. Although, maybe –“, Gyanna stopped for a second. Was it wise to show her hand, namely all the research she’d done during the meeting? Did this maybe come off as creepy? In diplomatic conferences, everyone knew that everyone else at the table researched every bit of information about the others. It became painfully obvious to Gyanna, that, while she was a great diplomat, her skills in making friends or even acquaintances in the real world, were somewhat lacking – and that made her feel deeply ashamed. She decided to go for it. “Maybe, I could help you in your conservationist efforts? Being an ambassador to nature, you know?”, was the only half-baked joke, she could come up with in the moment. She so hoped the answer would be a positive one.

 

[APrimevalWorld]

Mira hadn't even comprehended where both of them still were. She just listened attentively, but also watched Gyanna for any signs of discomfort with every word she spoke. Nothing really did she pay full attention to until, after a pause, a certain word was spoken. "Conversationist..." she repeated quietly. Now, most of her records were redacted to the highest degree. The fact she conserved some animals was not one of those things that were redacted thankfully, or else there'd be an entire investigation into how this random ambassador knew Mira's past.
Either way, Mira's eyes lit up at the word, an uncharacteristic display of emotion. Then she went back to an empty, soulless beast and crossed her arms. "Idekli, daz eedi igakelo monsazak."
It hadn't crossed her mind that Axiom had not appeared yet, too interested to see the response to a lockheed speaking Vegarian.
Mira did not know a lot about this ambassador; there were far too many people on board the Opal Imperium to be knowing names. Mira remembered people who she interacted with frequently, but had nobody really to speak to. Perhaps this would be a good thing to change?
Mira equally, though, did not want to grow too attached, yet seeing that youthful innocence that reminded her of Marqui, it gave her the courage to decide that she would give this a shot in its entirety.
Though she did not laugh at the joke - in fact, it went straight over her head - a respect for Gyanna had formed, a rare commodity when talking to someone like Mira.

 

[GraySkyl]

The moments between Gyanna asking the question, and the lockheed’s answer, felt like hours. The last time she experienced that sensation, was right before she was told, if she had passed her final exams.
The shift in the admiral’s eyes, if only for a second, was the first good sign. The actual reply, however, was a tough nut to crack. She naturally recognized the language admiral Volkova spoke, as Vegarian, but, to her dismay, she’d never taken any lessons in Vegarian. She wished the translators could already handle Vegarian, but alas, she had to scrape together all the few words she knew. It wasn’t much, and that was almost a euphemistic phrasing of the matter. In this moment, all she could hear were the words of her former language teacher, Mr. Corrigan: “You won’t always have a translator at your disposal you can depend on”. She and her classmates all laughed at that notion, but right now, she would’ve loved to be able to kick her younger self.
She definitely did recognise the first word out of Volkova’s mouth as the word for “yes”. The rest of the sentence was a puzzle she couldn’t crack in real time, however. She really needed to brush up on her languages, maybe take a course or two. Vegarian would be priority number 1 on this list. The admiral would, hopefully, appreciate the effort.

“Bellos devas”, Gyanna said, with probably the worst accent, anyone had ever produces. “I hope you can forgive my quite rusty Vegarian, Sir. I’m really happy to get the chance. Just tell me where to be and when to be there.”

The quick panic, that had set in, when she desperately tried to translate the answer, had passed. Only now did Gyanna realize, that she had never heard a lockheed speak any language that the translators couldn’t handle. Admittedly, she had never had much contact with lockheeds in the first place until now. Still, the change to a language, that needed her to translate, was a sign of humanity, that really didn’t mix very well with the picture of lockheeds as unstoppable battle machines. She had to admit to herself, that there still were quite a few parts of life, where Gyanna hadn’t overcome stereotypes. This revelation stung the woman, who prided herself on her openness.

 

[APrimevalWorld]

Vegarian is an interesting language; Mira knew that all too well.
As stated on a news piece once, 'Although derived from some parts of Russian, 99% of the words used were words put together from other languages, or places.' For example, the word Polamis - meaning 'little' - is a reference to Polaris, a star that from anybody looking out from Vega, seems smaller than what a human would see on Earth. 'Amis' means 'bright' in the language of the traveene.
There are words like that all throughout the language, which Mira knew plenty about, amongst other languages. It was said that lockheeds had to know basic instructions for 18 languages, 5 of which they could speak fluently. And that does not even include the part where lockheeds still were constantly learning languages for missions, or to represent where they were from.
So hearing Gyanna try her hand at Vegarian made Mira snicker, knowing that this particular 'bellos devas', or thank you, had not been flagged by her translator because it simply did not recognise it!
"Technology is great when it works!" was the phrase often cracked by her comrades when things simply bugged out; sometimes in anger, sometimes in jest. Mira found herself wanting to say that phrase, but decided not to, saving the younger woman from a boatload of embarrassment.
"Meet me at 5pm this Friday at the primary conservationist wing. If you want, I can teach you more Vegarian whilst we do some work there." It was Monday now, and Mira just had to hope Gyanna knew where she meant; inside the personnel-only zone of the primary laboratory onboard the Opal Imperium. This is situated on the fourth deck of the ship, and even goes down into the third deck where others can view some of the alien creatures that are being rehabilitated and ethically studied.
It was also worth noting that Axiom still had not materialised. That was uncharacteristic! "If you wish, you can also accompany me for the moment as well. I'm going to check in on my right-hand man; if we are working together, it's worth you meeting him."

 

[GraySkyl]

Friday, 5pm, primary conservationist wing. Friday, 5pm, primary conservationist wing. Friday, 5pm,…
It would be really embarrassing if Gyanna would forget, when or where Mira, or rather admiral Volkova, they certainly weren’t on a first-name basis, yet, expected her to be.

Luckily, the times, when people had to rely on their, often pretty spotty, memories, were long gone. The quick taps on her small “personal assistance pad”, PAP, had long become part of her muscle memory. Sure enough, the tiny recording device saved the last 5 seconds of the conversation. No way she’d forget now.

“I’d be happy to meet Axiom. Do you have an idea where he could’ve gone?”, she asked her new…boss? Co-worker? What exactly was admiral Volkova to her now? A question, that, while certainly interesting, would have to wait until later to be answered.
“Does he vanish like that often?”. Gyanna tried to make it sound jovial, although she was the slightest bit concerned, why the right-hand man of an admiral would suddenly be missing; especially, right after a meeting. The conference room, being an enclosed space, wasn’t a typical place for people to vanish from.

 

[APrimevalWorld]

And with her first words, Mira spun around carefully, aiming to not whack Gyanna unconscious with her strength. "I'm not sure. Push comes to shove we can analyse the surveillance footage, not that it's much help in a ship this size."
Hearing the next question from the curious ambassador, she chuckled. "Lockheeds can vanish. When we do, there's no trace of us or where we were." Mira was not wrong. Lockheeds excel at a number of different things, with different classes of lockheeds for different roles. These classes had different genetics to one another, but were still all trained similarly; the core principles always stay the same, keeping their lockheed nature the same between one another. At the end of the day, they were all killing machines; Gyanna knew that. The myths, the legends... Cutlass, in particular, whom paraded the dead first leader of the Red Star Riders - the Prism at the time - Aragnos Decrepingy's head around the nearest occupied city and murdered a few thousand Red Star Riders in the process. Civilians, for the most part, were too scared to even leave their homes, and those who did often got caught in the crossfire between both sides. Rarely did they live to tell the tale.
"You never know where a lockheed goes unless you fight alongside them, and even then." Mira had reached the conference room again by now, and quickly elbowed the panel to open the door.
She found Axiom still in his seat. "Axiom? What are you doing here?"
No response. Axiom stared emotionlessly at the wall. 'Well, something's up with him..'
Mira kept repeating his name ever few seconds and snapping two of the fingers on one of her hands, hoping this was not some kind of trick. The other hand reached around slowly for the concealed holster on her person, her approach slow as she prepared herself for whatever horrors she may face.
As Mira got closer, she paused her approach and suddenly blurted. "DEUS, talk to me."
When there was no response from either, she had an inkling of what was going on. She stopped clicking her fingers and silently, approached Axiom.
All it took was the swipe of her hand over a sensor, and the hologram exploded, forcing the room into lockdown - containing whoever was in it.

 

[GraySkyl]

Everything happened way too quickly for Gyanna. At first, she thought Axiom was just pulling a prank. It would have been a weird one, that’s for sure, but who can really understand the humour of those, whose purpose in life is to kill or be killed.

This assumption was proven wrong rather quickly and, if it wasn’t so tragic, spectacularly. The explosion completely disoriented Gyanna. So intense was the blast, that she assumed she was already dead, and everything that she could still perceive was only a hallucination created by a body desperately clinging on to life.
Despite this, she instinctively pulled her small gun out of her holster and held it out in front of her, with trembling hands. This made it crystal-clear to any attacker, real or imagined, that she wasn’t actually a threat and that this gun was only there to scare people, who didn’t know better, off.

Gyanna couldn’t fight off a coughing fit any longer and lost the last bit of control she had over her body. She had to sit down on the ground to regain composure, still grabbing on to the pistol as if it could make this whole thing go away.

Only now did she realize that she was stuck in this room and couldn’t get out. She was caught in here and there was no way to escape. Panic started to rise up and threatened to take over. She knew, that she had to do something radical, something that wasn’t “proper” and something not befitting a self-controlled ambassador.

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!”

She screamed out all of the pent-up surprise, panic and fear for her life. The first time anyone on this god-forsaken ship had heard her swear.
All of the terror of the last few minutes turned into anger now, and that was what helped her to finally compose herself for good.
She looked Mira dead in the eye and said:
“Now what’s the plan, admiral? I may not be much of a warrior, but I will not die in this shithole of a conference room!”

 

[APrimevalWorld]

Blood.
That's the next thing Mira remembered seeing, whom had managed to keep herself upright throughout the whole ordeal. She must've closed her eyes, which was incredibly uncharacteristic of a supersoldier, but maybe she couldn't bear the thought of seeing the shrapnel embed in her. She too had been caught by surprise.
Mira glanced over to Gyanna at break-neck speed, glancing over to make sure she was okay. Her ear-piercing scream caught Mira by surprise, but she could not find the words to speak, all the air knocked out of her.
Then came the realisation. She was bleeding from her chest and felt like she couldn't breathe.
By now, the hologram was gone. She had never expected that, yet there were warning signs! But then again, when have holograms ever been a bomb threat?
Mira now lowered herself down to the floor, the adrenaline the only thing concealing the pain.
The smell of electrical fire was all over the room; had the explosion been THAT bad? Mira knew the answer to that.
Half the conference room was in ruins. Some wires had been cut through, taking the main lights out with it. The emergency lights took a moment to kick in, and the only sign of Mira was glowing blue eyes, which she was using to show Gyanna where she was. By now she was trying to catch her breath, but not really panting.
Without Axiom and DEUS, there was no way of knowing how bad it was. They'd have to wait for the on-duty captain or commander to give permissions to override the lockdown. Then they'd have to wait for help to prepare to clear the department before finding them.
By this point, Gyanna had already asked her question, and Mira managed to speak one word. "Fuck!.."

 

[GraySkyl]

Hearing the admiral swear instead of immediately giving orders on what to do, created a pit in Gyanna’s stomach; if a lockheed, an admiral no less, didn’t know what to do, what chance did they have? She hated being unable to work on fixing a problem. This was the exact reason she became a diplomat in the first place. Sure, one single meeting never resolved an interstellar problem, but you could, at least, do your best to take things in the right direction.

Gyanna looked around, desperately going through all the rules and training on what to do after an attack has taken place. As much as she racked her brains, her, admittedly basic, training in self-defense and crisis response, usually hinged on the assumption, that there was an attacker to deal with. She wasn’t trained in search and rescue, or any other branches of the civil and/or military services, that usually deal with the aftermath of an attack.
She almost went into a full-on panic attack, when, luckily, her brain did spit out the phrase of “securing the perimeter”; usually, this was a tactic for soldiers on a battlefield, of course. Gyanna, however, took it to mean, that she should make sure any potential hazards were blocked off, so neither she, in her frantic state of mind, nor the admiral would accidentally electrocute themselves. Gyanna had to admit, that the chances of a battle-hardened admiral walking into a dangerous zone by accident were slim to none, and she realistically only did this for her own sake. It did make her feel better pretending they were both in the same boat, though. It definitely made her feel less useless and stupid.

Halfway through “securing the first hazard”, she suddenly realized that the admiral was injured. She couldn’t believe that she didn’t think of actually giving first aid to Volkova sooner. That was a field, where she actually did have some semblance of expertise, at least.
She walked over to the admiral, squatted down next to her and carefully took a look at the shrapnel, that was buried deep into the body of her companion.
“Can I take a look? I’m trained in first aid”, said Gyanna, before quickly adding, “I’m sure you are as well, of course. In my experience having someone else help you, makes it easier, though”
Then she looked up at the injured woman and smiled at her. Yes, she certainly was no fighter, but she did know, how to make people feel calm in stressful situations.
“You can’t be killed, can you?”, she added, failing to fully suppress a laugh of sympathy and relief, as the realization set it, that the attack seemed to finally be truly over.

 

[APrimevalWorld]

Mira had a dilemma.

With it being hard to earn a lockheed’s trust at times, and even irregardless of trust, Lockheeds were stubborn when it came to medical care.
They are the kind of human to walk off a missing arm and then die a few moments later because they did so.
Mira was less stubborn than her comrades for sure, but still some degree of stubborn.

It was times like these she wished for her assigned seeker, Kat, who does not make her feel quite as weak. Equally though, there was no knowing when help would turn up, let alone Kat. It could take a while, and Mira was struggling to breathe. It made it hard to talk to Gyanna, as well; the Lockheed personally suspected a puncture to the lung (pneumothorax), explaining the symptoms. That is also a big problem though; nothing other than inserting a needle or chest tube between the ribs to remove the excess air from the affected area would improve the situation, and given how short Mira’s breath was and the pain, it needed doing soon. Though the shrapnel does need to be removed, it’s up to Gyanna whether she does it there.

She just wanted to breathe normally again, and that overrode any other motive at that time; suffocation is a painful killer.

Mira was slumped on a piece of furniture now, aware of Gyanna waiting. So, instead of speaking, she gave a thumbs up. Mira needed emergency care due to the nature of the pneumothorax, no doubt; the shrapnel was deep in through her trenchcoat and skin, past the ribs and into the affected lung by a small amount.

Mira works hard internally to compensate for the lack of air by breathing more quickly - despite pain on inhale - and her heart beat fast to also try and make up for the lack if oxygen to other organs.

 

[GraySkyl]

The atmosphere became very intense again. The admiral’s conditioned worsened quickly, too quickly to wait for help to arrive from the outside. Nevertheless, Gyanna pressed the emergency button on her communicator, which, in hindsight, was probably unnecessary, considering, that they were in a conference room, that had just been locked down. In case anyone who was trained to help wasn’t aware of and on their way yet, it would almost certainly be too late now. Still, better safe than sorry.

Gyanna looked around for a first aid kit, since every meeting room had to have one per health and safety regulations. She found it, on the other side of the room, which meant leaving Mira alone for a few moments. To be as safe as possible, even if it was just a moment, she placed her in the recovery position.
She then sprinted, as fast as possible while also keeping an eye on all hazards in her way, to the other side of the room. She ripped the first aid kit out of its case, very much not in accordance with the regulations, and made her way back to the injured woman.
The first aid kit wasn’t exactly a treasure trove of medications and other medical equipment, but the contents were still extensive enough to completely overwhelm Gyanna. The only help accessible was the ship’s AI, which meant activating the backup access point. So, once again, she had to leave admiral Volkova, who seemed to get paler by the second, alone. It had to be done, she would need some kind of guidance, since she wasn’t exactly a paramedic, who was used to traumatic injuries.

With the AI activated, Gyanna started the first aid process. Giving Mira an injection of painkillers, and then getting to work putting tourniquet, as per the AI’s instructions, on those injuries, where it was possible. The biggest wound in her chest, had to rely on her exerting pressure on it by hand.
Gyanna wasn’t the type to faint at the sight of blood, but having a human bleed all over her hands and forearms wasn’t really what she was waiting to experience.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of her trying to keep the admiral alive, did she see a group of first responders running towards their conference room.
“Please, please, PLEASE come in here quickly”, was, what Gyanna was meaning to say, but all that she managed to get out was:
“Please, please, please, please,…”

 

[APrimevalWorld]

The group of first responders included a Seeker; Kat, Mira’s assigned medic. A triad of armed security guards pried the room out of lockdown manually, like they had to do with all rooms in the department, and quickly saw the devastation and the two women. “Is there anyone else in here?” One of the security units asked the two. Even with the lingering question, they started searching and communicating hazards that were not able to be cleared with just their metal boots, such as exposed wires that are live, before motioning the triad of medics in.

As with all Seekers, Kat was equipped with next-gen tech designed for use on lockheeds. She wore multiple different vests on her kit and day while on duty. Each of these vests is equipped with different tools for different situations; this one was the rightfully named response kit. The armour remained the usual grey with cobalt blue accents, including a standard-looking ‘security’ helmet capable of taking X-Rays on the go as one of the settings she could activate. Even then though, she had minimal equipment in comparison to what they had at the seekistry.

Behind the scenes, other Seekers and vehicles were already enroute as Mira had been last seen here, also as it was Gyanna’s emergency button that had activated. They wanted to be safe rather than sorry, like Gyanna had been.

Kat rushed forward towards Mira as another paramedic rushed to check Gyanna over before security ask questions. Everyone communicated with eachother any hazard they found such as broken wires and heavy damaged panels on the floor or tilt. Kat squatted down beside Mira now. “Hey, Mira; can you hear me? It’s Kat.”

In the time it took realising Mira was conscious, she had processed that there was a puncture wound. This just so happened to where the lungs were internally on a lockheed, and also between the ribs, based on her best guess. Given by the fact Mira was trying extremely hard to breathe, Kat immediately connected Mira to a monitor; she needed to act quickly and determine the problem. Some part of Kat guessed pneumothorax given presentation, so she prepared the x-ray whilst sending her assistant to get the portable oxygen tank and mask and also get a endotracheal intubation device on standby, a precaution. She also requested a large-bore needle and a standard catheter. Whilst she waited, she took the X-ray. Then, her assistant came racing back. Respirations and O2 were dropping still, and Kat got her assistant to view the results. Mira’s lips were now a tad bit blue

It was a type of pneumothorax, indeed. The entire left lung had collapsed, but Mira was still getting worse. “I’m going to need an extra hand!” One of the guards immediately rushed to the aid of Kat; she instructed them to maintain pressure.

The assistant was about to put the oxygen mask on…

“I need you to intubate. When I give you the signal, do it.”

Kat knew this was incredibly risky, but O2 levels in Mira’s blood suggested respiratory failure. The heart was doing as much as it could do at this point with a lack of oxygen going through the body. If they collectively did both procedures quickly enough however, it would prevent the demise of the admiral.

Taking the large-bore needle, Kat quickly moved to the other side and palpated Mira’s back for an appropriate spot, before she pushed Mira temporarily on her back once satisfied with knowing where she needed to insert the needle.

A large whoosh sound could be heard as the air that was currently there in the wrong location was removed via catheter. It helped, but it did not solve the problem. Kat looked at her assistant, but in the end, did not give a nod of approval for intubation. Mira’s O2 stats had increased, meaning it was tension pneumothorax.

Around the corner, four Seekers in the same mech kit rushed a Lockheed-sized stretcher to the location, vehicle in tow for quicker transport.

Surgery would still be a requirement, given the presence of not just air, but blood in the lung.

Finally, the crew showed up and immediately began loading Mira onto the stretcher. Kat called it in. “SKR Alpha be advised; got a distinction 31, type D. 54 year old female Lockheed, ETA, 8 minutes.”

“Copy that, SKR-46.” Hearing that, Kat turned to face Gyanna, who had the third paramedic with her.
“Get her to the emergency wing, I want to have a word. Security, you may have a word with the ambassador whilst I write this up.”

 

[GraySkyl]

From the second the emergency rescue teams flooded into the meeting room, everything became dull. Gyanna did all the things she was told. She got up and away from Mira, let one of the paramedics take a look at her and answered all the questions she was asked. It wasn’t really her, who did all these things. She felt more like someone watching a person, that she knew was supposed to be her. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion and fast forward at the same time. She tried to get herself to catch up with her mind and body again, but both seemed to act to fast in a confusing situation.

She saw Mira get loaded onto the stretcher.
“Good, she’s safe now”, she thought to herself.

The paramedic next to her searched her for any injuries.
“Doesn’t he see I’m fine? Mira is the one that needs help”.

Someone came over and gave the paramedic something to wipe off the blood of her skin.
“I’m going to puke”

The one, who took care of Mira first, said something to, or about her. Gyanna nodded without having understood a single word. Not even in the sense of comprehending what was said, but there were so many thoughts sluggishly blocking all the roads to her consciousness. Auto pilot.
“What did they just say?”. She started to panic again. What if they expected her to do something? They were probably all just waiting for her to do something and she didn’t know what they wanted. It felt like everyone was staring and waiting on her to do the right thing.
This, of course, was objectively wrong. Only “her” paramedic looked at her. No one expected her to be the one to take initiative and do something, not this close to such a traumatic event.

Gyanna just stood there, the bloody rag used to clean off the blood in her hands. Staring. Trying to synch up with real time. She could feel her legs getting tired. She wanted to ask for help but couldn’t open her mouth and form words. Someone from security came over and said something to her. Now, it seemed, that not even her autonomous body understood the thing that was just said to her.
“Huh?”, was the only sound she could produce.
The security person repeated their…well, whatever they said. She had no idea if it was a question, accusation or comforting words. That last one wasn’t really the most likely option when it came to security.
Her panicked thoughts were to loud to understand anything. She just missed what was said again.

“I-I think…I think I’ll need to sit dow-“ were the last words out of her mouth before her knees finally gave in and she collapsed on the floor.

Everything was dark. Pitch-black. It was so comforting. She wanted to stay and rest there forever.
Her body had different plans, though. She was pulled back into the overwhelming real world. Lights were pointed at her face. It was way too bright. She just wanted to get away from this floor. She tried to get up, but was rudely held back by wires that were connected to her body and two strong hands. Gyanna realized only now that she wasn’t on the floor anymore, but in a room in the emergency wing.
“Where’s Mira? What’s happened to her? Is she alright?”, were the first coherent words out of her mouth since the rescue teams came to get them.
“Bring me to her. I need to see her!”
In this moment she realized two things:
First, she just used the admiral’s first name, which definitely was not part of protocol and second Mira was lying in the bed right next to her.

 

[APrimevalWorld]

The third paramedic had noticed that Gyanna was in shock, and had continued to check for injuries. This was definitely the wrong course of action, but Kat would only find out the extent of this when the report was sent to her for editing purposes and review.

That and Gyanna was having a panic attack, though at least the medic tried to calm her down from the heightened state. It was unfortunately no use, with Gyanna passing out as a result of the combination.

The paramedic caught her, though she landed hard on her knees as they hit the metal floor. She would definitely have bruises a few hours from now.
The paramedic called for Kat now, whom was just outside the room. Immediately, Kat rushed back over. “Any injuries?”

“Nothing external, sir.” Kat noticed how little the paramedic had done when there was no monitor on Kat at all, meaning they did not know if it was internal. For all Kat knew, it could be the heart not functioning properly; she took the necessary precautions as a result.
Given this could be life threatening, there might not be another 20 minutes for Gyanna to wait for a stretcher. So, with Kat’s help, they improvised. “Spur her down; we need to elevate the legs. I can get the backboard out, but I gave my block to the stretcher crew and we need one for her.”

“Yes, sir.” The third paramedic quickly set Gyanna down with Kat and one of the guards had found a torn apart chair in the room, a decent enough size to use as a makeshift block whilst Kat prepared the backboard.

“Will this work?” Kat came over to look and nodded, thus they began moving the piece of chair towards the backboard with haste. Then, they set it atop the end of the backboard and because the paramedic caught her before her back hit the ground, they were able to safely move the ambassador onto the backboard with everyone’s help.

Kat got the paramedic to lift Gyanna legs up as she secured the block tightly down horizontally using a restraint. “We need to watch for that block moving...” Even though Kat said this, she thought it highly unlikely the block would fall off. The guards began securing their hands on the backboard. Kay would be at the front guiding and the other paramedic at the side. “One, two, three!”

And up they went. Kat activated her radio through a command now, shifting the backboard around whilst doing so so they could get Gyanna out of the ruined conference room. “SKR-46, got a distinction 17, type D2. Female, 27, human.”

“SKR-46, be advised; nearby emergency class 1 wings in code back. Take her to the seekistry.” Kat had never taken a human to the seekistry, let alone treated one. However, something had clearly happened within the time it took for Kat to arrive for the nearby emergency wing to be overrun.
Now it was just about maintaining the angle and getting her there, which they made swift work of.

[-]​

Upon arriving at the seekistry, they went straight to trauma one, which was the bay Mira had been placed in. It was a four bed trauma unit designed for emergency cases and had equally kinds of equipment. Two seekers were often stationed per patient as they had almost always been Lockheeds; a human coming in only happened less than 1% of the time, but it was felt as the only option. If she was well enough, they would either discharge her or she’d move to a ward back outside the seekistry assuming a bed is free.
For now though, the seekers helped the best they can whilst they paged any human doctor that could help. The guards sat besides the bed once they moved Gyanna off the backboard, and the makeshift block was replaced with an actual medical grade one.
Quickly, Kat performed a series of tests on the heart to ensure it was working fully, as this could be a cause of shock.
One of the seekers got a handover from the paramedic, and asked questions about what happened, which helped determine a series of tests which would help figure out if the problem was psychological or physical.

Either way, they would keep her in for observation until the doctor arrived, seeker and guards watching.

Mira was only just out of recovery by the time Gyanna woke up.

 

[GraySkyl]

During the time the heart monitor was measuring everything about the way Gyanna’s heart was working, Kat turned to Mira, who just got out of recovery. As soon as Gyanna woke up from her unconsciousness, the monitors alerted her about the rapid change in her pulse. Kat rushed over to the other bed, where the human seemed confused and on edge about the situation she found herself in and quickly calmed down the ambassador.
As Gyanna tried to orient herself, Kat had time to read out the measurements the heart monitor took. The bit of chaos the human had caused, when she woke up, ended up being a blessing in disguise. Kat could clearly see that a state of physiological excitement caused her to have a slight arrhythmia. Not dangerous or even really noticeable in an everyday environment – probably nothing more than a bit of light-headedness and fatigue in stressful situations. Symptoms, that the ambassador probably just had always chalked up to being overworked; from what she could gleam about the ambassador in the quick bit of research she had done into her, an entirely correct assessment. This woman just wouldn’t stop working apparently. In a life-or-death situation, however, where her body was pushed to the absolute limits of physiological excitement and psychological stress, this arrythmia had been aggravated and led to a case of cardiogenic shock.



Gyanna, now knowing where and why she was where she was, took the opportunity to just relax for a second. This day in its entirety had just been stressful and traumatic. She needed to book a session for counselling, part of the rules for survivors of a crisis. She also knew that, apart from the rules, she’d desperately need it.
Her resting period didn’t last nearly long enough, though, as Kat approached her bed and asked her about what and why everything happened. It was a pretty good question – one Gyanna herself felt like she needed a few more and better answers to – that she had no particularly satisfying answers to.
“It all happened so quickly. I know it sounds cliché but I truly can’t remember much. Mir…I mean admiral Volkova and I were looking for Axiom in the meeting room and when the admiral approached it suddenly all exploded. I’m no engineer or soldier, so you have to forgive my less than technical terms, but it seemed like it was a trap, specifically to kill the admiral. Then, after the explosion I wasn’t really sure on what to do, but seeing her” Gyanna quickly glanced at the bed with Mira in it, “like that – I just knew she wouldn’t last until help would have arrived and then I tried everything I could…but I mean I’m no paramedic I don’t know what to do with someone who just stood in front of an explosion. I don’t want her to die!” This was the moment Gyanna couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. All the stress and fear just relieved itself in an uncontrollable wave of sobs.

Kat quickly glanced at the live readings of the ambassador’s heart monitor. It was entirely possible that the shock could have made the arrhythmia more likely to be dangerous even in situations, that weren’t about life-or-death. Luckily it didn’t seem like it, at least right now. Still, the ambassador’s heart would need to be constantly monitored in the coming days, to be able to rule out this possibility completely.
Right in this moment there was a groan coming from the bed next to the one she was standing at right now. Lockheeds really were tough.

 

[APrimevalWorld]

[KAT]

Herself and Zen Dallas had not realised the severity until they’d been walking for about 40 seconds with Gyanna on the backboard. Kat had spent the 40 seconds trying to connect Gyanna to relevant equipment from her kit with only one hand.

Thank fucking goodness she did. The ambassador was experiencing cardiogenic shock, a life threatening condition where the heart cannot pump enough blood - and thus oxygen - through to vital organs. If not treated quickly, it will kill.

Either way, Kat noticed the low blood pressure and slow heart rate almost immediately, causing to realise there was something up with Gyanna’s heart and general circulation thus the throughout the body.

It was now a race against time, and the two medics - backboard in their hands - began a sprint towards the Seekistry.

“SKR-42 to SKR-00, be advised, distinction 17 type D2 is now code 4. Distinction 25 or 26 of unknown type. Most likely to be type 5. Now Class-4b.”



[CHRISTOPHER]

Kat had been out a while, and Chris, with his curious mind, had started to wonder what had happened that caused her to be out for so long. Originally, it was a meeting; Chris knew about that, but then there was a call to the conference rooms which were in lockdown. It was only because she stopped in the seekistry clinic located near the office department that Chris knew what was going on and also that she had any equipment at all for the call, where there was potential for Rear Admiral Volkova to be injured; this explained why Kat was on the move. With some parts of the Mainframe down, which controls the security cameras, nobody knew what to expect.

By now, Volkova had just arrived, and already had an IV. The distinction and type told everyone that it was tension pneumothorax, but Kat had failed to call out the fact there was also blood in with the air. The treatment remained the same, at least; they would insert a chest tube, and so they did that off the bat. It just changed the size of the chest tube.

Ultimately, the decision made would be to remove the shrapnel in theatre, where they would also then be able to examine the extent of the injury. For now though, they wrapped the penetrating injury in an airtight occlusive bandage and then secured a plastic sheet over the top.

Then came an announcement; a human with an ETA of 6 minutes to the seekistry. That wasn’t what got to Chris, but the fact that it was a distinction 25 or 26, suggesting a problem with the heart. And based on the class and suspected type, they had a lot of work to do in determining the problem.

As soon as she arrived, Chris and Kat were now working together. Another seeker had moved Mira for surgery almost immediately after the call whilst a few more were already in the theatre waiting. “Gyanna, can you hear me?” Chris asked as a seeker revealed a cardiologist’s dream machine. It could do many of the tests required without delay… but was calibrated for a Lockheed mostly, apart from the ultrasound and ECG.

The ECG was portable, so that was done first by Chris as Kat worked on getting an IV in the arm. Kat also directed the nurse to get the crash cart on standby as well as a dose of dobutamine for the blood pressure, heparin to reduce risks of clots, aspirin to keep the blood moving in case of a blockage and norepinephrine to help improve heart function. She also requested cangrelor to be written up in case there were any blockages in the heart, hoping to avoid that but if needs be, it would buff the aspirin so that the blood still could flow.

Quickly, the ECG picked up an arrhythmia, one that Kat thought was a sinus tachycardia, but Chris realised it was an atrial tachycardia due to a slight difference in the P waves. However, more tests showed that was not the only problem. It was also a case of dilated cardiomyopathy. Given how there was scarring noticed, there were two causes; either Gyanna has had a heart attack in her history that has not been recorded, or she suffered an episode of potentially quite severe, undiagnosed, untreated myocarditis, which can present asymptomatically until very late stages, by which point it would have caused heart failure. Thankfully, Gyanna did not have heart failure, but it was still quite severe and atop stress? The cardiogenic shock could have been caused by the arrhythmia, which can be worsened by triggers. When Chris asked about what stress, Kat pointed out that Gyanna had been in a traumatic situation. “That would do it.”

But what did seem a little odd was the level of cardiomyopathy versus the level of fibrosis (scarring), suggesting that myocarditis was not the only cause of the weakened heart muscle.

So, before heading to check the medical records of Gyanna at the desk and before Kat observed them both for a bit, Chris had a thought. Over a longer period of time, atrial tachycardia can also cause cardiomyopathy. Not only that but if it were part of the cause, the cardiomyopathy caused by the atrial tachycardia would be reversible if they got the atrial tachycardia under control.

There was no doubt though that her heart would never be a 100% again with the damaged sustained by the myocarditis.

In other words, Gyanna was lucky this was somewhat fixable.



[KAT]

Once satisfied with an improvement in Gyanna, it would be Kat that would watch over her primarily. She also instructed Mira’s two of many guards - Corporal Zavok and one she forgot the name of - on what to look out for and when to call for help. By now, they had also request a cardiologist to double check Kat and Chris’ findings; a second opinion, just to be sure. Chris was a cardiologist for humans before he retrained as a seeker, and that was a few years back. To be honest? Kat had been quite impressed that Chris had remembered all that from so long ago.

With advancements in surgical procedures, Mira was already in recovery. These days, shrapnel removal could be done via local anaesthesia and laughing gas in some circumstances. This was the case here, using many injections around the site to do the job and also dosing Mira up on gas and painkillers. They also cauterised any bleeding and examined everything in that time.

It was just strange Gyanna was still out, half an hour later. Or maybe she was just sleeping; Kat could not make sense of it.

It took until the time Mira was wheeled out from recovery, occasionally groaning that Gyanna was awake again.

The monitor did not like it, immediately alerting Kat. And if that did not, the guards noticed too.

Kat raced back over to the other bed, calling out to another nurse to prepare a sedative. Stressful emotions can also worsen the arrhythmia, so attention was paid to the heart monitors that were still attached. The arrhythmia was also back.

“Easy, easy, easy…” Kat repeated. “You’re safe, you’re in the hospital. Nothing’s gonna happen right now.”

The more Gyanna got stressed, the more likely the arrhythmia would get appear or get worse, but there were still questions to be asked, unfortunately. Kat mustered the courage and asked about the event, listening carefully.

It was a lot for Gyanna, but Jat respected that she cared about the Lockheed. But now she was sobbing uncontrollably, so Kat ran the sedative slowly through Gyanna’s IV line as she talked. “You’re both safe. The Admiral is fine, all thanks to you. I know it isn’t easy, so breathe with me, okay? One, two, three…”

Kat took a deep breath in, guiding Gyanna through some deep breathing. The sedative would kick in soon and hopefully help Gyanna calm down as well, but Kat would need to explain what was going on with her heart eventually.

 

[GraySkyl]

Gyanna saw that something was introduced to the IV, although she really had no idea what it was and, right now, didn’t really care either. Kat tried her best to calm her down and Gyanna noticed that the doctor seemed very concerned about her crying and emotional state. She figured that this was probably due to her traumatic experience and that Kat was probably just concerned about the way that she handled the situation in the aftermath.
Gyanna could feel her relax greatly a short time later. Only now did she put the pieces together that whatever was added to her IV was probably something to calm her down.

She could watch Kat regularly check on her heart monitor, and a while later she approached Gyanna and told her that there were a few things they needed to talk about. Apparently, she didn’t “just faint”, instead there was an underlying cause for everything that had happened to her after the attack; and it was seemingly pretty serious as well.
Gyanna listened to Kats explanations and tried her best to follow them. Something about a myocarditis and cardiomyopathy that contributed to an atrial tachycardia, which in turned had sent her into cardiogenic shock, a life-threatening condition. All those and many more medical terms swirled around in her head, while she was trying to get them into a satisfying order, that made sense. While she definitely didn’t retain everything that was said to her, she was certain that she had gotten the bigger picture. That picture however did worry her.
Gyanna couldn’t understand how an illness that she didn’t even really know she had, had caused so much damage to her heart and almost killed her today. She wondered if it was her own fault for all the non-stop work she was doing. There was one positive part at the end of all of this, though. Correctly managed, Kat explained, much of the damage would be reversible and, while not being a 100% cure, this would be enough to keep her from going into…cardiogenic…shock again – at least that was Gyanna’s understanding.

“So, what can I expect in terms of this treatment? How long will this take? Can I keep working during the treatment? Will I have to take medication for the rest of my life?”, the question flooded out of her mouth before she could even think about or keep them back properly. She looked for her datapad to note all of the answers but couldn’t find it on her or next to the bed. In a weird way, this made her feel naked. She couldn’t remember the last time she was somewhere without it and not being able to quickly jot down notes on her pad would be a weird experience.