Chapter 28S - Meanwhile, Back in Callisto Med Bay

[Captain Hawke]

I feel myself quietly awaken from my coma. I find 2 guards around my bed,the doctor conducting business with Sheba,a Froderian seated at a monitor (how did I know he was a Froderian?) and various nurses around. How long have I been out? It doesn't matter...I immediately focus on Sheba. The guards notice movement from my position. the draw their sidearms and stay a good distance away from me. "Commander, he's awake!!!" one of them say. "What? How can that...... be?" she asks as she comes over from talking to the doctor. I leap off the table and lunge for Sheba. As I'm leaping I notice Sheba has something in her hand. I feel my body go limp and I hit the floor like a knocked out bovine. I start twitching and making grunting & groaning noises."Thank the lords that implant you made worked Doctor. I want a brain scan of him immediately. Notify me and only me of the results as soon as you get them. Keep it quiet. I'll be on the bridge." Sheba says as she leaves. I give into darkness.

[LucianG]

In the Med Lab, Fallel continued his investigation of the disks. It didn't take long before he an idea started to grow....

* * *

After leaving Major JustinB to conduct his squadron meeting, Lucian headed toward the Brig to see Brie. He’d never been particularly close to her during his first yahrens aboard the Callisto. In fact, when Lucian had headed Black Squadron, their squadrons often competed and he’d frequently wanted his squadron, the “junior squadron,” to out do Gold Squadron. However, after becoming Senior Flight Officer, he had to work closely with both squadrons, and Silver Spar, now Bronze, as well. He had come to know Brie fairly well during that assignment, and his respect for her had grown. Following the tribunal, he had become increasingly concerned for her welfare. As far as Lucian was concerned, the Tribunes, all of whom were his friends, had had serious lapses in judgment, or intelligence, and he wasn’t about to let a squadron leader, or former squadron leader, be forgotten. With Solon’s comment regarding his connection to Dr. CureMode, the accuser, Lucian hoped he’d come up with the grounds for an appeal that would have Brie back on duty in no time.

BEEP—“Fallel to Major Lucian, Fallel to Major Lucian,” sounded the comm unit.

“Go ahead, Fallel,” replied Lucian.

“Lucian, there are some computers on that Cylon Cruiser that we should be able to utilize to cut down on the amount of time it takes us to figure out these disks. Can you get an engineering team down there with some equipment? I think if we can link our equipment to theirs, we will have a better chance of deciphering this information, and possibly helping Captain Amy. I’m transmitting the list now.”

“I’ll be right on it,” replied Lucian. His visit with Brie would have to wait….

* * *

A little later, Lucian and several Engineering Techs boarded the Cylon Cruiser with three carts filled with equipment.

[Captain Hawke]

"Commander Sheba to the Med Lab.. Commander Sheba to the Med lab,please." The doctor paged. After a few centons Commander Sheba comes walking in. "Yes doctor, what is it?" she asked. 'You wanted to know when we got the test results for Captain Hawke." she says. After several microns Sheba says, "Well?" "Oh, sorry Commander." he says.
"I have a hypothetical situation here. Please bear with me. What if the Cylons had created an ordinarily
undetectable organic device, basically part of the human brain, that had been modified by experimentation on hundreds or even thousands of human prisoners over the yahrens? Implanted in his brain, it would activate
periodically and cause Hawke paranoia, delusions, and extreme actions. With Hawke's personna, they have used the image and voice of Iblis as the mechanism to cause him to do what he did. He fought this at the subconcious level, sometimes winning, but in recent times, often losing." he says. "You have my attention." Sheba says.

"The detailed brainscan you ordered was the key. I found that he DOES have an implant. It was so small that normal scans don't detect it. When he's under thier the Cylon's control, the tissue implant swells when activated, and might be detected at that time. Then,the
tissue could be removed by surgerey." the doctor says. "Lords help us. One of our warriors under Cylon control? Are you absolutely sure?" Sheba asked. "I am Commander." the doctor says. "How many other people know about this?" "Only you & myself. You told me to keep this quiet and I have done just that." she says. "Excellent work. Is there any other way to remove the implant besides surgery?" Sheba asks. "No ma'am. No other way. There is one catch. It's not as easy as it sounds. The implant is intertwined in his spinal cord at the base of his neck.. I fear any attempt to remove it may either kill him or make him paralyzed." she says. "Oh my god." Sheba says. "When they had him on the table they knew what they were doing. It's impossible for me to keep this quiet any longer. My staff HAS to know if we are to attempt ANY type of extraction. And quite frankly this is a bit out of my league. If there's anyone else on the Callisto or in the fleet that's qualified to do this operation I'd really appreciate it if you could get him or her here." she says. "Of course doctor. And thank you for telling me you feel uncomfortable doing this type of operation. I'll see what I can do. Is there anything else? " Sheba asks. "No Commander." she says. "I will let you know my decision." Sheba turned on her heel and walked out.

[Captain Hawke]

Get up!! Get up, damn you!!!! Kill Sheba!!!!" Iblis says to me. "I can't. She's using something to disable me." I say. He just glowers at me.
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Two centars later Commander Sheba comes back into the Med Lab. "I have some bad news for you Doctor. There is nobody available to do the operation. So you have two options. One- You can do the operation yourself. You'll have all the resources I have available to you. Two- We can wait until we can find someone. He's stable enough to stay the way he is. What is your choice?" she asks.
The doctor sighs and says "I'll go ahead and do it. Let me bone up on a few things." she says. "Take your time." Sheba says.
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After Doc BKJ "boned up" on the things she needed to, she thought something ironic. Six sectons ago, she secretly wished Hawke dead for what he tried to do. And now here she is trying to save his life. How ironic is that? "This is going to take awhile." she says to herself.
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Twelve centons into the operation Sheba is sitting in the operation viewing room. "C'mon Hawke, you've got to make it." she says. Then, Sergeant Winculas walks into the viewing room. Sheba looks at her and asks "Sergent, what are you doing here?" "I heard about what happened. I came down to see how he is. How is he?" she asks. "So far he's doing ok. If you'd like, and you're not on duty, you can sit here with me." Sheba says. "Thank you, Commander, I will." Winnie says.
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Thirty centons into the operation: "No! I'm not finished with him!!! You will NOT get me without a fight!!!!" Iblis says. He roars in rage and disappears. "Iblis!! Iblis!!! Where did you go?" I lapse into unconscienceness.
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I start to convulse on the table. "Oh Lords, he's going into cardiac aresst!! Get the paddles!!" The paddles come and the doctor hits me with them. I see myself looking at my parents. "Again!!" Again the paddles hit me. I see Iblis and he says "You shall pay for your insolence!!!" "He's stablizing." the nurse says. "Thank the Lords." Doc says. The warning sensors go off on the monitor. "What now?" the doc says. "He's stroking" the nurse says. "What?" Doc asks. "He's having a stroke!! it's now or never!! Get that implant out of him!!!" the nurse exclaims. I start groaning. "Just about got it.....There!!! Gotcha!!!" She pulls out a pea size implant. Very non-descript looking. She wipes the blood off of it and puts it in a tray. "Get this under a microscope now and let the boys in the Med Lab look at it." Doc says. Just as she says that they hear an audible hiss. "Don't tell me..." Doc says. "I'm afraid so. The implant just self-destructed. Nothing left." "Frack!" Doc says. 'Ok, we still got a patient to deal with. Let's close up."

[Captain Hawke]

For the first time in yarhens I slept peacefully. No dreams, no visions of Iblis, nothing. I start waking up slowly. I vividly remember the horrors from the past yarhen. Did I do all of that? I remember being on a Cylon basestar being tortured.. I remember being dressed in civilian clothes, being put back in my fighter and being towed by 2 raiders and dropped off.. But I wasn't me. I remember it all like I was an observer, but couldn't do anything.(OT: See the archives starting with Chapter 26) I remember going into battle in my own viper and blowing away another viper, being taken into custody, being locked in the secure section of the Med Bay, me taking Sheba prisioner and escaping the Med Bay. I remember grabbing stuff from my quarters and escaping to the Celestial Chamber, testing out the personal cloaking device I got from one of my black ops missions, trying to kill Sheba. I remember getting captured and being kept sedated, my battles with Iblis. He suddenly disappeared. Where's Iblis?
I remember this over a course of several microns.
I become fully awake and I look around. The duty nurse looks at me and pages the doctor. The doctor comes and asks to be alone with me. "Hey,Hawke. How ya doin?" she asks. "I.. feel.. like.. I.. went.. through.. a.. triad.. game.. with.. a.. Cylon." I say. But I noticed I spoke slowly and had to think about what I needed to say.. "What happened?" I asked. "There's alot that has happened to you. First of all you've been in the Med Bay for six sectons. Do you remember anything before that?" she asked. I had to think about that and nodded. "Felt.. like.. I.. wasn't.. in.. control..of.. my.. actions. Just.. an.. observer.. Why.. am.. I.. talking.. like.. this?" I asked. "Well, let me take you back to six sectons ago...you were becoming rather violent.. You had been re-captured after you tried to kill Commander Sheba. We had to sedate you. We found an implant at the base of your brain attatched to your spinal column. It was controlling your actions. A couple of times you were talking to someone. We think it was Count Iblis. Is this true?" I nodded. "Ok, we think the implant was giving you orders in the form of Iblis. In the process of removing it you went into cardiac arrest and had a stroke. The stroke is making you talk like this. We're going to have to put you through a rehabilitation program. We don't know what effects the stroke had on you. So you'll have to tell us what's wrong. But not today. Just rest and we'll start tomorrow. In the meantime, would you like a couple of visitors?" I shook my head. "Tired.." "Ok. You sleep." I give into darkness.

[Col. Charybdis]

I had been given permission to leave the bridge. I immediately went to the one place I knew I had to be at that moment: Amy's bedside.

I entered the Med Lab and went over to her room. She was alone in the darkened room. Blinking lights from the instruments that seemed to be keeping her alive bathed her in strang red, green and blue light.

I walked over to her side and sat down next to the bed. She looked so peaceful. "Amy...you went through all that to come back and now...look at you. You always had style, didn't you?" I sort of chuckled.

I grabbed her hand. It was cool to the touch but very soft. Just as I remembered it. I thought back to our last meeting before the mission. We had made love, giving ourselves to each other and ironically, said goodbye to each other as well. I wondered if all that made a difference. Brie was convicted because of her orders putting Amy in charge. By reason of Pierce's prosecution, I played a part in that by "subverting" Amy's mental capacity to be on her game during the dangerous mission.

I shook my head. Pierce was a delusional nutcase who smoked plant vapors! Anything he said now was highly suspect. He concocted that prosecution because he was after Brie. Amy and I did nothing wrong. I loved her. If you can blame love for all the things that had gone wrong, then we truly are not a race worth saving.

I squeezed her hand tighter. "Amy, I love you. You've got to come back. You have to..." my voice trailed off as I sat in silence just holding her hand...

[Captain Hawke]

"Captain Hawke...Captain Hawke, please wake up...." I feel shaking... I cough and begin to become awake. "Uhhhhh..." I say. "Captain, I'm Doctor Brahms, your physical therapist. Today is the first day of the rest of your life,so to speak. Today we see how bad the stroke was. whenever your ready we'll go over to the rehabilitation services and start your regiment." Great. Just what I needed.... more doctors. i imagine I'll be seeing alot more of them.
(Continued on thread DD "Hawke's Rehab")