[video]

[greyaria]

[Emily isn't wearing the ugly blue jumpsuit. She is instead wearing ugly blue scrubs, and judging by the background, she's in the Infirmary. And she's smiling. Emily is always. Smiling.]

Is there anyone out there with an injury or chronic medical condition that was untreatable in your home universe? I have robotics lab and medical access now. Come on by and we'll see about sorting that out! Or just come by for a checkup! I don't discriminate!

[She should probably set expectations properly, huh? Her good cheer goes from disconcerting to almost normal as she adds her caveat.]

The equipment is, hmm, vintage and I don't promise I can fix everything, especially if your biochemistry is out there compared to humans, but it seems like I'm from the future [she makes wiggly finger gestures, which are apparently supposed to signal...something] relative to quite a few of you, so that's an extra few centuries of medical knowledge. Might as well put it to good use!

Comments

[greyerrant]

That is correct, although he is more... temporally advanced than I am.

[ His brows knit when she says there's only one of her, and asks. ] Am I given to understand you are our only medical technician? This is not to insult your skill, but rather, I am worried we may not have enough people dealing with a large casualty event.

[greyaria]

[Well, she's the only one who's any good besides that one nurse who isn't actually a nurse, but even Emily's not tactless enough to say that out loud.]

There are a handful of MDs. It's just that medicae is the nominative plural!

[Sigh. Jokes aren't funny when you have to explain them.]

[greyerrant]

A joke. I see. [ He tries to smile. It's clear he hasn't done it in a while as his scars move around on his face. ]

I'm sorry. I used to be more inclined to joke. When would you be free to examine me?

[greyaria]

[Emily appreciates the effort, anyway, and smiles back. It turns out her war trauma made her really good at it.]

Now? I might get called away for surgery, but that's always going to be true. Most days people manage not to fall into the turbines or impale themselves while assembling office furniture.

[greyerrant]

I shall be right over then. [ And so he shall, the sounds of his heavy tread proceeding him as he heads into the Infirmary, ducking his head a bit so he doesn't brain himself on the doorway. ]

[action]

[greyaria]

Captain Loken! Hello!

[Emily is very perky and also reads other people's network threads.]

We're not scaled for you, I'm afraid. I have a work order in to modify one of the beds, but I expect that will go through sometime around when the sun enters its red giant phase.

[Or when she takes things into her own hands with a welding torch.]

Re: [action]

[greyerrant]

I see. Will I need to lie down or will an examination while standing be sufficient? [ He looks at the floor placidly, obviously not worried about the idea of lying on it if she needs him to ]

[greyaria]

That depends what you're here for and just how many aftermarket parts they stuffed into that chassis of yours.

[Emily waggles a finger at him, and is not flirting. Probably. It's hard to tell with her.]

[greyerrant]

Quite a few extra organs. 19, to be exact.

[ He looks at the finger without much expression, assuming it is a colloquialism of one human culture or another.]

[greyaria]

Fascinating!

[If Loken was worried about how she'd take the revelation of his transhumanness, he should...probably stay worried, because she lights up like a Mechanicus in a Best Buy.]

And that explains all the "probable cancerous growths" on your initial scan. [She drops her voice conspiratorially.] I think one of the radiologists got his degree in a cereal box.

[greyerrant]

Of course. [ He bluffs a bit here, as he doesn't have the frame of reference for prizes in a cereal box. ]

My implants... should be stable. If any of them appear to be rapidly growing that would be a problem.

[greyaria]

[It's okay, even though that's the wrong response to what she said, Emily sucks at reading people she's not close with.]

On that note, are there any conditions you're subject to that...unimplanted humans aren't? I assume cybernetic rejection isn't likely to be a problem?

[Emily goes to one of the holographic diagnostic displays and pulls up Loken's scans from his initial examination. The file is extensively marked up with arrows pointing at his various extra organs, labeled with numerous permutations of "cancer?" and "wtf???" Some have had other notes added in loopy cursive, like "spare kidney, silly" and "probably a venom gland!" with a doodle of a snake under it.]

[greyerrant]

No. We were crafted to be proof against age and disease. It's rare for one of us to even have greying hair, without some genetic anomalies of the particular geneseed. I do have some augmetic implants, but they are non-functional without access to my power armor, or some equivalent thereof. To a mortal, it looks like I just have funny black cords coming out of my skin at the interface points. Or so my friend Mersadie when she saw me practicing without a shirt.

[ Those were more words than he normally is willing to part with, but it is better to be as forthcoming as possible with the closest thing this rig has to an apothecary. It may just save his life. or at least his progenoids. ]

[greyaria]

[hdu, she's better than an Apothecary because she actually understands what she's doing]

Ooh, direct neural interface. Nice.

[She only wants you for your body, Garv. ]

If they're not going to give your armor back, I'll see about throwing together a set for you. The tech here is terrible--it's like trying to do surgery with a butter knife--but I managed the neural stuff okay for Guts. More latency than I like, but what're ya gonna do?

[greyerrant]

So you've already done neural interface then? Was this person Guts injured in some way?

[ He doesn't really like the idea of a non-mechanicus building him another set of powered armor. It feels wrong to him. ]

[greyaria]

[we'll just pretend Loken didn't rank the innovative technical genius beneath the cargo cultists]

They're standard for prosthetics...where I'm from, anyway.

[She can't help other people's benighted centuries.]

Teeeechnically this is a violation of doctor-patient confidentiality, but he was already public about it and it's obvious if you look at him, so I'll stretch a point. Guts was a straightforward below-the-elbow amputation, already healed. If I had a credit for every missing hand I've dealt with, drinks would be on me! Ha!

[greyerrant]

My sergeant had a similar injury. Self-inflicted, though. His hand was mangled during a fight with foe known as "the Invisibles" and he removed it with a chainsword before continuing the battle.

[ He nods. ] So I'll look for the fellow with an augmetic hand then? What did you use? Brass? Steel? I doubt they'd give you aurumite or gold here.

[greyaria]

[Emily's eyebrow goes up at "chainsword." What she's imagining is basically accurate, just not as skull-covered as the genuine article.

Her eyebrow stays up when Loken's completely wrong about what you build prosthetic limbs out of.]

Mainly titanium alloy and ceramics, actually! Carbon fiber weave covering the bits you don't want to get all crudded up. Various rare earths in the circuitry--boy was that an exercise in retro-computing!

[He doesn't care, Emily.]

Anyway, I can jazz it up with cladding that matches his aesthetic--I'm guessing something black--but of the three of those I recognize, none have the properties you want in a prosthesis.

[greyerrant]

A lot of our augmetics are as much about aesthetics as functionality, at least amongst non-astartes. What you mentioned sounds a lot more like what I'd get, were I to lose a limb.

[ Maybe with some fancy filigree on it in High gothic though. He IS an officer after all. ]

Have you considered enhancing it with digital weapons?

[greyaria]

Astartes is...you?

[Big, solemn, stuffed full of extra organs?]

[greyerrant]

Yes.

[ Not all of them are solemn. Some of them are sassy or drunk or both. Some are weird in other ways. ]

[greyaria]

Right.

[She turns back to her note-taking, since they got a little sidetracked from Loken's physiology.]

If by "digital weapon" you mean "build a laser into his finger," as hilarious as that would be, I don't think they'd go for it.

[She points at a Jorgmund logo screensaver on an unused display.]

[greyerrant]

Why is that hilarious? It is perfectly practical single-use weapon, the sort of thing you use in close combat as a pivotal moment.

[ He looks at the screensaver. ] They do appear to be.. ah, economical with their human resources, rather than investing in them, true.

[garmr]

[A few things clatter to the ground right in the middle of their conversation - it's laserfingers himself regaining consciousness.

Guts is sluggish and a little wobbly, using a wall as support as he stumbles forward to follow the voices nearby. He looks right at Emily.]

Hey. Your healing magic's gotten really good... I didn't feel anything at all.

[ He takes another step forward until he feels a tug on his arm, and looks down at his forearm. His gaze follows the IV line from its insertion point all the way back to the stand he knocked over.]

[greyaria]

Why are you awake?

[As if Guts' state of consciousness is personally offensive.]

I gave you enough anesthesia to drop a horse!

[She rushes over to his side to make sure he doesn't fall over or tear out his IV.]