damned_institute | Nightshift 49: Homeworld

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Nightshift 49: Homeworld - Calnus (c. SD 346)

((From here.))

But instead of getting pelted by rain, Claude was met with perfectly dry air. Instead of sinking into puddles or mud, his feet touched a surprisingly metal surface. A sinking feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. As much as he hated the thought of being stuck in town, getting transported meant he was still trapped in whatever maze Landel was running him through. Which meant no easy way to find help, and no easy way out of this mess.

More disorienting was the fact he had absolutely no clue where he was. His first thought was that he was in Landel's again, but that didn't seem right. Even through the haze that clouded his senses, he could tell the area was well lit. The hum of machinery and computers reached his ears, startlingly familiar, yet unexpected just the same.

"Is...anyone here?" he called our hoarsely, uncertain. When he received no answer, Claude ventured in further until he felt himself brush up against something. He ran his uninjured hand across the top, feeling a variety of buttons and what seemed to be some sort of screen. What the hell? Claude's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he tried to piece together what all this meant. No, this couldn't be in Landel's. Could it? It felt more like a starcruiser than anything he'd seen since he'd been captured.

Claude shook his head a little at that realization and wiped at his blood-crusted face. A ship? No...it couldn't be. Unless Landel had space-faring technology just lying around, but that didn't make much sense, either.

Not that it made much difference now. Claude's body was growing heavier as the experiments, the injuries, and his stubborn attempts to find others began to catch up to him in full force. Without even being fully aware of it, the jacket he'd been using to shield himself from potential rain fell from his grasp and landed on the floor behind the station he was leaning against.

The constant whirring of the equipment around him may as well have been a deafening silence with all the good it was going to do him. After everything he'd done, he hadn't managed to find anyone. And though he'd tried his best to leave such thoughts back in the lab where they'd done those damned experiments on him, the knowledge that no one was even going to look for him finally closed in on him.

He was alone.

Throat constricting, he swallowed hard and turned away and tried to locate the door. He just needed to keep moving, he told himself. If he stopped now, he wouldn't be able to get up. And yet the further he pushed himself toward the edge of the room, the greater the panicking feeling in his chest became. Where was the door? His fingers ran against control panels, buttons, screens, the backs of chairs, but he had no point of reference to find the exit.

Tears stung at the back of his sightless eyes. Lost -- was he seriously lost? What was going to happen? Where were his friends? Where was anyone, for that matter?

Leaning his forehead against the wall, Claude's ears began to ring, and the heaviness was too much to bear. He felt his knees give out beneath him. Faintly aware of the weight of his body slumping against the floor, Claude wasn't even sure whether his eyes were faced toward the floor, wall or ceiling. There was only the cool feeling of the metal against his clammy, moist skin, and the fluttering of his heart against his ribcage that vaguely reminded him of a butterfly trapped in a net.

This was it. There was no escape except for the unconsciousness that closed over him. Though Claude struggled to keep his eyes open, it was a fight he couldn't win. Head falling completely against the floor, he grew still and submitted to darkness.

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[From here]

Prussia's head was spinning after he went through the door, and to his embarrassment, he nearly tripped over his own feet, stumbling forward several steps. Once he caught himself and straightened, he decided dizziness was the least of his problems.

This couldn't be part of the hospital. No matter how he looked at it, it just couldn't. He wasn't sure exactly what it was, other than being laid out in a fashion reminiscent of a ship, and pretty damn shiny, and...

"Are those stars?" he muttered, eyes drawn from the screens and equipment to the windows. They'd have to be looking up to see the night sky, but here it was in front of them... Maybe they weren't windows at all; it could be television, maybe, but why someone was broadcasting pictures of the sky was beyond him.

He hesitated, and then took a few steps in the direction of the screens and windows. It wouldn't hurt to check...

The first that that he saw once the dizziness died down was the very very familiar vastness of space, star and planet dotted, and, as it had done the first time he'd gone into space, it took his breath away. There had never been anything to compare to it, and once you'd seen it, there was always a part that longed to see it again, to be reminded of how enormous the universe was. "Holy..." He blinked, rubbing his eyes as he took in the rest of his surroundings. Gleaming metal and flashing lights and he knew it all like the back of his hand.

"This is the Calnus," He said, eyes widening as he stared around himself. There was no mistaking that this was his ship, just as he'd left it when they'd returned to Roak after stealing it. He'd know it anywhere. "And yes," he added, glancing at Prussia. "Those are stars. We're in space."

He took a step to follow Prussia when something caught his eye; a bit of material that was so out of place that he couldn't help but notice it. And a leg and torso and... "Claude?"

Ronixis's eyes widened and he moved swiftly over to the prone form of the young man. He was bloodied and battered and unconscious. He was so still and so pale and for a moment, Ronixis feared the worst. He crouched down, holding a hand over Claude's mouth and, much to his relief, feeling breath puff across his palm. "Gilbert!" he called, glancing over at the other man. "Over here." Damn it! What had happened to the kid? He gave him a quick look over, relieved that the blood seemed mostly to be from his nose rather than some terrible injury, but at least one finger was broken and he was bruised with dark scabs forming up his arm. That made him frown more darkly, but he ignored it for now, more focussed on trying to make sure that there were no more serious injuries.

Why why why wasn't he a healer?

They were in space? Sure, people had started trying to send things up there, but there was a big difference between testing rockets and science fiction. Next thing Ronixis would be telling him there were actually machines disguised as men.

...Of course, if all that stuff about people being from the future really was true, space travel and robots wasn't that far-fetched. Staring out into space, Prussia was being forced to reconsider his disbelief. He still didn't want to believe it, but it was getting harder and harder to dispute.

Prussia glanced over his shoulder when Ronixis called his name. It seemed like Ronixis knew where they were, so maybe he'd found something useful. He hadn't quite expected to see some kid laying on the ground, bloodied and bruised, instead. Forgetting the stars for the moment, he joined Ronixis, dropping into a kneel on the other side of the body.

"He alive?" he asked, giving the blonde a once-over before glancing at Ronixis. Whoever he was, it looked like he'd been on the wrong end of a something; the injuries looked a little too concentrated to specific areas to have been from a fight.

He barely glanced up at Gilbert as the other man came to kneel down next to him, to absorbed in making sure that there were no more serious injuries. His hand would need to be supported and he was wary of moving him in case there was some kind of internal damage that he hadn't noticed, but he doubted that they'd have a choice in the matter. "He's alive," Ronixis agreed, but that was about the best that he could say for the situation. "Broken finger, and he's been bleeding from the nose which could mean a whole raft of things, and his arm has been hurt. I wouldn't worry but he's unconscious and that would suggest that there's a deeper problem." And they had no idea how long he'd been unconscious.

He checked Claude's pulse, immensely grateful for the basic medical training that everyone received during their basic training, although he really would have killed in that moment for Milly and her Heraldry. It was strong at least, but not as strong as he would have liked. Shock was probably the most dangerous problem now. He glanced over at Gilbert again. "Could you raise his legs?" he asked while moving to take off his swea- He blinked in surprise as his fingers met a tight collar and thick leather running across his chest. "What the...?" His clothes? The clothes from Roak that he hadn't seen since arriving in this place!

Never mind. It wasn't important at this moment. He unfastened the belt and pulled it off along with the quiver then pulled off the jacket, laying it carefully around Claude's shoulders and wrapping it around his torso to keep him warm. He had nothing better on hand but if they were on the Calnus... "The medical bay," he murmured, looking over at the door. But would they even get there or would the door send them back to another place the instant they stepped through? "Do you think we should risk it?"

"Sure," Prussia answered, scooting towards the kids legs to raise them up. He looked back at Ronixis once he did, noticing now that the clothes that he was wearing now weren't the same as the ones that he'd been wearing when they'd met earlier that night.

...And now Ronixis was starting to strip. Prussia wondered briefly if the man was French, but the thought was dismissed when his stripping turned out to have a purpose and he wrapped his jackets around the kid.

When Ronixis mentioned a medical bay, Prussia followed his gaze to a door. He was about to ask what would be a risk about going, but then it struck him: it was a door. Every time they'd gone through a door they'd ended up somewhere unexpected. He still wanted to brush it off as being someone's weird taste in buildings, but this... Teleportation was something straight out of tales of magic or science fiction, but if they were really in space now... He couldn't come up with an argument against it. Going through the door really could be risky.

Then again, he never had much of a problem taking risks.

"We risk it unless you're hiding a medical kit in those clothes of yours," Prussia said. "We could try to take care of the kid right here, but he'd be better off in a hospital." He paused, and then corrected, "Medical bay. But even if we end up somewhere else instead, he can still be treated there."

Edited 2010-06-12 04:18 (UTC)

...think we should risk it...?

Noise pierced the darkness that blanketed his senses. Faintly, he became aware of someone wrapping something around him, providing his clammy body with some much needed warmth. Another pair of hands were grabbing onto his legs, raising them from the floor. But it all seemed fragmented, hardly interconnected at all. More than anything, they were intrusions on the relief he'd finally found when he'd blacked out, and part of Claude just wanted to drift back into unconsciousness, undisturbed. But then--

...up somewhere else instead, he can still be treated there, someone else said. The meaning of the words didn't register at first. Only that they were words. Voices, he realized as the sounds of other people began pulling him into a groggy wakefulness. But he'd been alone earlier, so how...?

Giving a soft moan, Claude cracked his eyes open. He was greeted by bright light and an uncomfortable stinging in his sockets, but little else. He couldn't even make out the faces of the people who'd apparently found him, only that one of the voices he'd heard sounded achingly familiar.

"...Dad?" he croaked.

Ronixis nodded briefly in thanks as Gilbert grasped Claude's legs lightly and raised them. Keep the blood in the important parts of the body because it seemed rather likely that he'd gone into shock if he was in this sort of condition. Even if he hadn't, it seemed best not to tempt fate by ignoring the possibility. Damn, it had been too long since he'd had to do any kind of first aid. Maybe when he returned home he'd suggest refresher courses every year. Assuming that he was in any position to suggest anything when he got back.

He smiled slightly at Gilbert's words, but it was a grim expression, far removed from his usual cheer. "Unfortunately not." He didn't carry blueberries in his pockets either or anything else found on Roak that might be worth trying to use. "But there's no point waiting here for something to happen, I guess," he continued, moving to slide his arm around Claude's shoulder to support him, fervently praying that the wounds were mostly superficial and moving Claude wasn't going to cause grievous damage.

As he did so though, the boy began to stir, a soft groan escaping his lips. Ronixis smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring way, squeezing his shoulder gently. "Sorry kid," he replied a little regretful. Of course the kid wanted his dad in a situation like this. "It's just Ronixis. But don't worry. We'll help you as much as we can."

"Let's be quick about it," Prussia said, getting ready to help support the kid's weight. Ronixis was already moving to do the same, which was good; the sooner they got the kid to whatever medical facilities there were around here, the sooner he could get tended to. It was probably best not to jostle him too much, but letting him bleed to death or just lay here untended would be worse for him.

Prussia was about to ask if Ronixis was ready to start moving him, but the kid stirred then, calling for his father. He glanced at Ronixis when the man responded familiarly, as if the kid already knew who the hell he was. "You two know each other?"

Just Ronixis. That may as well have been a yes, as far as Claude was concerned. He could feel his father supporting his shoulders, his fingers tightening around one of them in a reassuring away. That alone was enough to make him feel 10 years younger. How long had it been since he'd gotten that sort of comfort from one of his parents? Even if it was something of a relief, though, it was also a little unsettling for a variety of reasons. But Claude didn't have the energy to sort through all of that right then, and he briefly closed his eyes.

"Where...are we?" Claude hoarsely asked. As long as his eyes were hurt, there was no way for him to tell. He was going to have to rely on other people to help him through this. But Dad was here, so...he knew things were going to be all right.

When he heard a second voice, he recognized it as the person his father had been talking to a second ago, but little more than that. Claude tried to squint over at him to get a better look, but he was only met with a milky haze that was impossible to see through. "And who is...?" he mumbled. A patient, probably, but there was no way for him to figure it out by voice alone.

It was going to be awkward to move him, no doubt about that, but he seemed to be in good enough shape to walk if he could be supported. He was a little large to carry easily. Between the two of them, it should be no problem thankfully. "We know each other," Ronixis agreed. "He's from my world. We only met here though." Poor kid. No-one deserved this.

He helped Gilbert to maneuver Claude to his feet, leaning heavily against his side but thankfully managing to stay upright. That was good. "You won't believe this," he said, as light-heartedly as he could manage, "but I think we're on a starship, the Calnus if I'm not mistaken." And that was just crazy enough to make him disbelieve his own senses a little.

He glanced over at Gilbert as they took the first faltering step towards the door. "This is Gilbert," he replied. "He's ah... we bumped into each other earlier tonight." And he was helping him with Claude which made him at least partially trustworthy in Ronixis's opinion.

"'Your world'?" Prussia scoffed, giving Ronixis a sidelong look as they maneuvered the kid to his feet. "Don't tell me you're supposed to be some kind of alien!"

The two of them looked human enough, and the kid didn't have green blood or anything. But between teleporting all over the place earlier and being on a goddamn starship now, Prussia was willing to believe it. After all, he looked human and wasn't quite.

"Nice t' meet you, kid," he added after Ronixis introduced him. "We're going to take you somewhere better than a cold floor, so try to walk with us, okay?"

"The...Calnus?" Claude echoed as he tried to open his eyes wider in an attempt to take in his surroundings. But the haze from before didn't dissipate. All he knew was that the area they were in was brightly lit. If Dad was able to recognize where they were without any extra comment, though, it was possible they were in the Calnus as it was while he was still a captain, before it had been refitted into the Calnus Claude himself had served aboard. Before it was destroyed, he dimly thought, and he couldn't help but grow a little uneasy.

He closed his eyes, letting that thought wash over him as he was helped onto his feet. The sudden movement triggered a wave of nausea, but Claude kept it at bay as he asked himself whether this meant they were back home. It sounded too good to be true. Yet that didn't stop the tight feeling in his chest from forming once he thought of the friends that were probably still back at the institute.

The alien comment from the other patient -- Gilbert, as Dad had called him -- took Claude by surprise, but he didn't have the energy to respond to it. If he'd been in a better state of mind, he might have worried over whether Gilbert ought to have been looking at a Federation ship in the first place. But as it was, he could only nod at the man's suggestion that he try to get moving. Relying on the men with him for support, he heavily began putting one foot in front of the other.

Ronixis gave him a slightly bemused look. "What gave you that impression?" he asked, a little baffled. Admittedly, a lot of alien races looked entirely human. Even the Roakians looked surprisingly human except for certain things like tails and wings. "No," he replied easily. "I'm human. Grew up on Earth. But the people from the Institute, they're not all from the same worlds. Mention some cities on Earth, major ones, hell, mention Earth at all and they'll never have heard of it."

He looked back down at Claude, focussing on him again after the brief distraction. "Yes, the Calnus. My ship. It's a little odd. Feels like I've never been away." It was empty which was still disturbing though. Not even... well, probably for the best.

It was going to be slow going, but that was fine, they had time, and he'd rather take time than rush and maybe make things worse. He squeezed Claude's shoulder lightly as they approached the door. "There's a door coming up," he murmured, "then we'll be in the elevator and we'll see if we can't get you down to the medical bay for some treatment." The door slid open in front of them, still working thankfully. For a moment he'd thought they were dead in space and the doors were difficult to open manually.

"It was just a guess," Prussia commented, shrugging as best he could while helping to keep the kid on his feet. "With all the crazy stuff like being from the future, I figured aliens would fit right in... And from what you were saying, sounds like I was right about that!" Even if he hadn't been right about them.

Prussia let Ronixis lead; if this was his ship, he was sure to know his way around... Or so he hoped. Prussia wasn't entirely convinced that he did; the door the man said they were approaching didn't look much like a door at all, or at least not one that could be opened from here. He was taken aback when it turned out there really was a door there: the thing suddenly slid open as they approached.

This was the future, he had to remind himself. Of course something like automatic doors would be common, especially on a starship.

He glanced past to kid to Ronixis. "How far to the medical bay?"

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Nightshift 49: Homeworld - Calnus (c. SD 346)

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