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Post by elizar on Nov 17, 2008 22:28:26 GMT -5
"Always good to be prepared." Aron said. He worked pretty well with detachment. While he couldn't really handle open human wounds, wounds in cars, airplanes or boat didn't bother him at all. "Good thinking."
"I guess I will have to know more before I can comment on that." Babel said. With her bonds with Al Din broken, she had become much more open in discussion about possible strategies Al Din would have deployed.
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 17, 2008 22:48:23 GMT -5
"My dad always told me to figure out what I thought I'd need, and get three times that amount." Clyde cracked.
The six nurses shanghaied from the nearest hospital and the vet from the Auckland Zoo stared in horrified awe at the ship's wound... for perhaps ten seconds. Then they donned the odd combination of scrubs and hard hats, climbed the scaffolding and asked where they could make their first stitches.
"And Jeffrey almost bought the farm." Zoe sighed. "Shayla blocked two rockets from getting to him. He was a bit over-eager after being grounded for a week, but she was still some ticked off at him."
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Post by elizar on Nov 18, 2008 8:31:55 GMT -5
Aron quickly set their tasks before going back down. The diesel generator and computer had arrived. Instead of relying on radio contact to know Rachel's vitals, a computer running the necessary software along with a long Ethernet cable would mirror the vitals readout to the computer.
After setting things up, Aron quickly radioed to Tom and Clyde. "She's still going strong, and it will be still some time before the sedatives kick in. First wave of painkillers are fading."
"Rocket launchers?" Babel asked. "Were they trying to invade again?"
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 18, 2008 15:00:29 GMT -5
"I think it was a probe, to test our readiness." Zoe answered. "It was a miracle that there were no fatalities on the scene. It pointed up some weaknesses of ours and showed us what we are going to have to do."
"She's a big girl, she'll hold steady." Clyde reminded them. Rachel, like most of her kind, had been subject to military-level discipline from childhood, and would hold still for whatever needed to be done. "Some of her on-board people will stay on and keep talking to her."
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Post by elizar on Nov 18, 2008 17:40:35 GMT -5
"I guess then there is a difference between boats and cars." Aron said. "Few years ago Ebony was near our ranch and had cramps that really worried her. She wanted Delfina to check on it, but she wasn't around. Instead of our angel here, she really didn't want relaxant from my clinic, but instead figured thrashing around would do the trick, breaking my arm and knock me out cold in the meantime." Aron and Ebony never managed to click back together, instead Aron looked at her as a friend of his wife while she looked at him as the husband of her friend.
"Don't let her do any more border patrols?" Babel asked.
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 18, 2008 17:49:59 GMT -5
"I think Rachel's learned her lesson about doing sonar sweeps first." Zoe shrugged and sighed. "But even a frigate can't be everywhere at once, which means we'll have to put out detection systems, whatever we can do in that area."
Clyde continued to work, doing the more complicated stitches and things that really did require a specialist. "Funny thing, the larger they are, the less likely they are to move around. Even without the training, they know on an instinctual level that it's better to stay still and let others help."
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Post by elizar on Nov 18, 2008 18:25:37 GMT -5
"Can they actually approach from the south?" Babel asked.
"It certainly seems like that." Aron said. "I've never gotten used to how much you 'leap' in the genetics. Futuremod, Outmod and that."
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 18, 2008 18:42:48 GMT -5
"It's less likely, but possible." Zoe said. "No area will be overlooked here."
"When's the next big intake?" Laurie asked.
"Could be anytime next month." Zoe said. "We'll know for sure the day before."
"To say nothing of the throwbacks." Clyde said. "Everbody knows at least one. Some have a theory that our genetics respond not just to environmental stresses, but social ones as well. You have your opposable thumbs, we have our jumping genes. The relative stability of humans and animals over here is something that just fascinates the genetics people. Of course it helps that humans, being highly adaptable all-arounders, coped with changes in their environment by changing their tools rather than their phenotypes."
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Post by elizar on Nov 18, 2008 18:47:37 GMT -5
"I think I read a paper that made the comparisons like that." Aron said. Written by Ronald Maelstrom, a year after the Captain Picard was born." Nearly all humans old enough to know the cultural reference, and having read upon space shuttle history had begun to name the space shuttle that name, even though he had been given the Picard as a middle name unknown to the parents of the character with the same name.
"You're really trying to get as many here as you can." Babel said.
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 18, 2008 19:41:08 GMT -5
"Enough to make aggressors think about going somewhere else." Zoe nodded. "But these aren't already affiliated with any existing force in our own universe, so they will have a greater incentive to bond with this place. The "carsverse" has its share of restless people who, for one reason or another, feel marginalized. In the case of second and third-generation offspring of "obsolete" lines, and you're talking to one now, those feelings are quite valid." She paused to glance towards the shipyards, where screens were being erected to afford Rachel some privacy during her recovery. "Thing is, what others forget is that our own potential for producing futuremods and outmods is just as much."
"I read that too." Clyde finished up another row of stitches, and inspected the nurse's work, making sure that the tension was right. "I'm impressed, these folks didn't need as much hand-holding as I'd thought they would."
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Post by elizar on Nov 18, 2008 19:48:17 GMT -5
"But wouldn't it be mods that are only fitted for this place, not their own?" Babel asked.
"There are actually several similarities once we get past the metal coating." Aron said. "For instance, we have a thin wall of tissue that is between our muscles and skin. The innermost metal skin, according to 2017 anyway, has the same purpose."
"Scott, our own doctor who came with us, is still trying to get me to be a nurse for humans. I've already gotten some experience with soft tissue, and he is fairly certain that it will also help with learning about the soft tissue in humans."
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 18, 2008 20:03:57 GMT -5
"It could happen." Zoe nodded. "But they're like the pioneers that ignored the "here be dragons" warnings on the old maps and went on into what was to them a vast unknown. They left behind a country where they couldn't get ahead in favor of a destiny where they could build their own future."
"And how is that new apprentice of the doctor's coming?" Clyde asked. He moved back a little and surveyed the work, which was progressing as well as he could hope in the circumstances. "Didn't you mention that Mia was also training some?"
Tom, in the meantime, was showing the pressure-form plans to the work crews and preparing to take over the metalwork when that time came.
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Post by elizar on Nov 18, 2008 20:09:28 GMT -5
"At least when things didn't work out, they could return home." Babel said in a slightly morbid tone.
"No, Mia's now training others alongside with Scott. She's been in the job now for over fifteen years." Aron said. "But the apprentices are doing well. We are going to need them to come over here to have some hands-on experience. There is only so much happening to humans in carverse."
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 18, 2008 20:43:13 GMT -5
"Our genes are a bit more flexible than that." Zoe replied reassuringly. "It's like Clyde always says, humans have opposing thumbs and a knack for tools, our peoples have constant evolution to do the same for us."
"Makes sense." Clyde nodded. "Ah, the sedatives are starting to kick in, finally."
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Post by elizar on Nov 18, 2008 20:48:11 GMT -5
Babel decided to change the subject. Laurie had had some interesting reaction when she had told the news of twins to her. Babel had been around enough pregnant women to know that the news of twins wasn't that uncommon. About one in ten had been carrying twins in the early stages, but one of them just somehow 'disappeared' from her senses in most cases. Absorbed or somehow miscarried.
"How common are twins in carverse?" She asked.
Aron whistled sharply to Tom, a signal for him to get prepared for the pressure form.
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