Day 57: Cafeteria

[gald_digger]

Edgar's charming company had raised Anise's spirits enough that not even the Head Doctor's voice could bring them back down. Besides, she was feeling pretty sure that Landel wasn't actually around. To begin with, it wouldn't make sense, and secondly, his announcements sounded suspiciously like ones she'd already heard before. While Anise wasn't very familiar with Earth technology, she'd seen the little devices in the Music Room that could play recordings of people's voices. This had to be something like that.

It wasn't long before Anise was escorted to the Cafeteria, and then to the section where edible food was being served. As she filled her plate with waffles, fruit, and sausages, she looked to the other side of the counter with a look of sympathy. It was hard to enjoy her own meals while knowing what the other patients had to suffer through.

She wasn't about to refuse her meals just out of guilt, though. Anise needed her strength for tonight. There was still a bit of a nervous twist in her stomach whenever she thought about what could happen down in the basement... but she wasn't going to back down. Not after promising her friends they'd go together.

With her tray in hand, Anise seated herself at an empty table in the middle of the room. She preferred to have company while eating, but it looked like she was one of the first patients there, so there was no one to sit with. Maybe if she minded her manners and tried to look her cutest, she'd attract someone handsome! Holding her utensils delicately, she began to cut her waffles into smaller pieces.

[For Battler.]

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[doneinthree]

"Would you accept a gut feeling?" he asked wryly, only half-joking. Okay, yes, Kirk understood where the doctor was coming from —— when it came down to it, Bones was a scientist too, and facts and evidence were the providence of the blue shirts —— but the first thing anyone had taught him about command was that, over and over, he would be forced to make decisions based on insufficient data. His suitability as captain hinged on his willingness to make these choices. Intuition, however illogical, was recognized as a command prerogative.

A wordy justification for what Pike had deemed a Kirk family trait after seeing Jim laid out on the sticky floor of a bar. That instinct to leap without looking.  This was a leap. He knew it. He didn't trust Martin Landel for a second, but he felt that this was all leading somewhere. Maybe he was searching for answers where there weren't any, maybe he was desperate to make sense of their circumstances, maybe he was just... being impulsive as usual. But what would they gain by shying around this? Fine, if Kirk listened to instinct, he couldn't honestly say that he thought it was a good idea. However, it was their only idea, and even a scientist couldn't rightly rule out this avenue without first exploring it for himself. 

But that wasn't what Bones was asking for. He sighed. "I've read bulletin notes from people who've apparently gone through whatever's down there, or are working on it now. From the sound of things, the basement's pretty difficult to get through, but I haven't yet heard of anyone dying."

Never mind that the people who'd experienced the whole thing for themselves were unable to speak of it except to imply that everything was rigged and everyone should stay away. As if staying out of danger was even a possibility in this place. Kirk's breezy tone hinted at none of these misgivings.

"As for the other part..."  He shrugged.  "I talked to someone who said he was a former 'patient' of Landel's. He said he'd gotten 'better' and returned to... a normal life. Obviously, they could've just brainwashed him to believe that, same as they brainwashed him to believe his name was... something else, but... Is it impossible that when the nurses talk about people getting released, they're actually getting released?" What was the risk in it, considering how total the Institute's control over them appeared? Jim had experienced for himself the thoroughness of the brainwashing, how utterly convinced he was that James T. Kirk was a lie. Maybe this was just a different stage of the experiment — still prisoners, but prisoners of a different kind. 

Kirk couldn't hide the hope in his voice. He knew himself too well to deny that he was clinging hard to this possibility because it made losing Chekov easier to bear. To believe that the young ensign was still out there somewhere, that he could be saved after they dealt with Landel's... "It's not hard proof, but it's somewhere to start."

[hes-deadjim.livejournal.com]

McCoy folded his arms across his chest, looking a hell of a lot less amused than Kirk was at the idea basing everyone's lives on a gut feeling. He cocked his head and just let his silence speak for itself to the first question. It wasn't as if his own Kirk didn't do the same thing, or other Captains for that matter, but this was about other people, other lives in his hands than just one reckless, aggravating bundle in a gold shirt.

It wasn't like Kirk was the only one that did it. Acted on gut feelings. McCoy had too before. But he'd usually kept the wild leaps and actions to himself. He hadn't gone injecting patients with an untested vaccine, he'd used it on himself first.

And why the hell was Kirk even asking him his opinion, as if he were part of the crew still? Curiosity had McCoy resist pointing it out for now. The doctor wondered just where he was going with it before he finally remembered, and part of him hoped that he didn't for this shift at least, because he preferred not to have Jim blow him off again. He kept his mouth shut on the matter.

"I guess," he grumbled. He wasn't anywhere near reassured, despite what Kirk thought about the bulletin notes. Maybe no one dying yet and being publicly announced was a good sign, but there was a first time for everything. "It's not impossible, I suppose. When did you meet this patient?"

He was just thinking to bring it up now? McCoy frowned, instantly suspicious. Maybe he did meet someone. Maybe he didn't, maybe he was just feeding him a load of bull in the hopes that it would reassure him. Although come to think of it, it sounded a lot like Joanna thinking she was Leanne, but she couldn't have been a former patient. There was no news she'd been missing. She had to have been kidnapped at the same time or after.