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Post by Brie on Jul 9, 2005 12:54:33 GMT -6
As Skyler entered the room Brie couldn’t help but smile. “Hello, Captain.”
Skyler returned the smile. “Hi, Major. It’s good to be able to officially call you that again.”
“So I guess you heard,” Brie replied. “Sorry about the demotion.”
“I’m not,” Skyler said, approaching the bed.
“Come here, I’m not going to break,” Brie said. “And after all that’s gone on lately, I think you owe me a hug.” Skyler tentatively embraced Brie before sitting down in the chair next to her. “Before I forget, there’s something I need you to take care of for me. I need you to inform Commander Sheba that I’ve just made Captain Hawke acting Gold Squadron Third Officer.”
“Hawke?” Skyler repeated. “He’s, um, been spending a lot of time at the Officers’ Club lately, if you know what I mean. Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” Brie told her friend. “He told me everything that’s been happening, and I think he needs to find a sense of purpose. It will be good for him. And working WITH him instead of against each other will certainly be a chance of pace.”
“Okay, I’ll let the Commander know.” Skyler paused. “So how are you? I heard you were shot three times.”
“Four,” Brie replied, holding up her fingers. “Three times by Pierce, once by Trula. Plus the agro workers decided that I was on Pierce’s side, so they didn’t help matters any. Logan can fill you in on that, she was there. But I’m feeling better now. A bit tired since the heart attack...”
“Heart attack?” Skyler said again.
“Nothing to worry about,” Brie said confidently. “I was fighting with Charybdis at the time. I’m still trying to figure out if I should blame him or not. Probably not. But enough about me. What happened on the Livestock Ship? I want to hear every detail.”
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Post by Brie on Jul 10, 2005 12:50:59 GMT -6
With a spare micron or two, Doc Bkj returned to her office and locked the door. She decided to run every test that she could think of on the sample of Brie’s blood. One of the first results was the negative pregnancy test, proving that the blood that she had analyzed before hadn’t been Brie’s. Other tests would take more time.
While she waited Bkj continued to review Brie’s file. Something wasn’t right, but she couldn’t place her finger on it. To anyone else the file would have looked fine, but Doc knew that something was different. She just couldn’t figure out what.
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Post by Brie on Jul 12, 2005 8:48:42 GMT -6
Doc Bkj continued to pour over Brie’s chart. The heart attack still didn’t make sense. Brie had been recovering nicely before it, and by all indications her heart had since returned to normal. There was no damage from the attack, which seemed next to impossible for someone who had gone into cardiac arrest three times since returning from the Agro Ship.
Bkj shook her head. It didn’t make sense, but she thanked the Lords of Kobol that her friend was recovering yet again. She just wished she could figure out what was different about Brie’s chart.
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Post by Brie on Jul 13, 2005 13:36:01 GMT -6
Before Skyler had a chance to answer Brie’s inquiry, the intercom crackled. A micron later commander Sheba’s voice come through loud and clear. "Attention, all Warriors aboard the Callisto. It is my duty to report that Colonel Charybdis is leaving for the Medical Frigate where he will be stationed. I will have further information about the Second in Command position at a later time."
Brie shook her head. “I don’t believe it. Things get a little bit rough, and Charybdis goes running home to his parents? I wish the rest of us had that luxury.” Brie sighed. “Okay, Captain, the Livestock Ship. Every detail.”
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Post by Skyler on Jul 14, 2005 8:51:44 GMT -6
The internal pain he felt at seeing Brie hurt was almost more than he could handle. He should have done something...anything to have kept her safe. He should have ripped Pierce's head off when he had the chance. Sure the secert survival whatever wouldn't have been uncovered, but when word of that daggit's death spread, his mindless followers would have killed them selves anyway. Looking down for a micron to focus his thoughts he cleared his voice.... "The livestock ship... every detail.. if you insist, but there are easier ways of making yourself sleepy, like medication... I can check with the Doc if you want?
"Being stuck in here is boring.... now get on with it."
Skyler leaned forward in the chair.... "Ok, you asked for it....Well, once we landed we found the main landing bay littered with bodies. No signs of a fight, just bodies. After taking a closer look, we found small vials that contained a poison. I decided to split up, with Brik and Ike heading towards the bridge to secure it, and I took Wraith with me to the engine room to find the bomb. It was about that time that Wraith stepped in a huge pile of Bovine..."
Skyler paused as Brie interrupted him. "Ow.... don't make me laugh, the ribs are still tender..... Now, who is Wraith and how did he take that...?"
"That’s right, he transferred over right as the mission started and you had turned over command to me..... He is a transfer from the Galactica, he came over with Lt's Ike and Logan, and he was like a kid from the cities on Caprica on their first visit to the agro communities on those awful school trips. It was priceless."
"What part of don't make me laugh did you misunderstand?"
"Sorry"
"So, where was the bomb?"
"On one of the fuel tanks. Tricky little bugger, made me think about it. I haven't looked over the list of the Pierce's followers, but whoever made that bomb is or was Colonial Military. I can make several educated guesses about who."
"Wait, you disarmed it? I didn't know you knew how."
"Oh...yeah.... haven't you read my file... Colonial Infantry."
"I don't remember anything about being able to disarm bombs in there."
"I took a few classes here and there. They liked to have us cross trained on everything. You know, if one dies, the one next to him can step up and take his job, right on down the line. "
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Post by Brie on Jul 15, 2005 8:55:31 GMT -6
Brie looked at Skyler sadly. “Please don’t joke like that. I’ve seen enough death caused by Pierce.”
“I’m sorry,” Skyler replied. “I’ve told you my story, now tell me yours.”
“It’s no big deal,” Brie replied. “I was just drugged and kidnapped out of the brig, dragged to the Agro Ship where the Chief Opposer from my Tribunal was trying to take over the fleet, shot by the Galactica’s head chef and the same Opposer, and attacked by agro workers who didn’t trust me because of my false conviction. You know, the usual. Although I didn’t try to disarm our bomb, we just placed it on a shuttle and blew it up in space.”
“And destroyed a perfectly good shuttle in the process,” Skyler teased.
“That’s okay, I told them to take it out of your pay.” Brie paused. “Back, before, in the brig, Pierce had admitted to me that he was trying to ruin my life. He told me that he had killed Turner and so I decided to try to push away...”
“Brie,” Skyler interrupted, “this is me. I knew what you were trying to do, so don’t say another word.”
“There’s one more thing I want to tell you,” Brie said. “Zerra, on the IFB, had reported that Amy is my...”
The door flew open, and Doctor Ellis walked in. “You’ll have to leave now, Captain,” he said. “Brie’s scheduled for surgery.”
“Now?” Brie asked, surprised. “I thought that had been pushed back.”
“No time like the present,” Doctor Ellis replied. He looked at Skyler. “I’ll send word when she’s in Recovery, you can come back then.”
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Post by Brie on Jul 17, 2005 0:03:45 GMT -6
Knowing that test results take longer while waiting impatiently for them, Doc Bkj decided to do a little bit of inventory. She unlocked the drug cabinet and started to count. They would soon need more verticillin. Verticillin. Taken orally or shot directly into an injured area, it was a powerful antibiotic, wiping out or preventing infection after infection without any side effects. The only problem was that a small percentage of the population was deathly allergic to it. A safe, simple test to check for the allergy was performed right after birth, and if the child was allergic to verticillin it was noted in his or her medical chart.
Bkj stopped, realizing what was missing. She knew for a fact that Brie was allergic to verticillin. She raced back to her office.
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Post by Brie on Jul 18, 2005 8:08:53 GMT -6
Back in her office Doc Bkj called up Brie’s chart once more. There was no mention anywhere of her verticillin allergy. Bkj knew that it had at one time been there, she had written an awful lot of Brie’s medical file herself. While she tried to figure out what had happened there was a soft beep, telling her that the test results that she had been waiting for were in. Doc stared at the results in disbelief. There were trace amounts of poison in Brie’s system, a powerful poison that when administered would mock the symptoms of a heart attack. It was becoming pretty obvious that someone had tried to kill Brie.
“Oh, frack,” Doc said as she noticed something else had changed on Brie’s file. At that very micron, Doctor Ellis was prepping Brie for surgery. Without the allergy noted in Brie’s file...
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Post by Brie on Jul 18, 2005 8:09:29 GMT -6
Brie was trying to stay awake. She hated the last few microns before an operation, a time when the medications were making her drowsy and her mind would always start to wander. She could see Doctor Ellis talking with a med tech who was checking Brie’s numbers yet again. Doctor Ellis said something quietly to the med tech, and she left. He then approached Brie’s right arm and started to apply the restraint to her wrist. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“In a surgery like this one I like to use the restraints as a precaution,” Ellis explained. “We can’t risk having you move in the middle of it.”
“Oh.” Brie also hated the restraints. Her mind flashed back briefly to her time in the Catharsis Center. At least with the truth coming out about Tuner’s death it was finally known that she hadn’t been crazy. She lethargically watched as Ellis applied all four restraints. He then pulled out a needle and shot something into Brie’s arm. “What was that?”
“Just something to help you sleep a little bit faster,” was Ellis’ reply. He leaned over her and spoke very quietly. “So how does it feel to know that you’re about to die, Widow?”
Brie tried to answer, but was unable to make a noise before drifting off to sleep.
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Post by Brie on Jul 18, 2005 23:59:23 GMT -6
As Doc Bkj was about to run out of her office something made her stop. She called up Doctor Ellis’ file. She wasn’t sure why she did it, time was short, but she was glad that she did. She typed in her security code and started to skim. She had read many similar profiles in the past few cycles since Pierce’s takeover attempt. The possibly preventable death of someone close, a reprimand for a public display of disenchantment with the current system, followed by no more trouble and throwing himself into his work. Bkj would have bet her last cubit that Ellis was one of Pierce’s followers. She shouldn’t have been all that surprised. He had shown up unannounced right after the failed takeover and immediately declared that he should be the one to perform Brie’s surgery. His reputation had made Bkj agree.
Upon leaving her office Bkj knew that she couldn’t go alone. Ellis was potentially a very dangerous man. Since no one was outside of Brie’s room she checked in the waiting room. Both Enoch and Jared were there, sitting down, eyes closed. “Come with me, I need you,” Bkj said to them.
“Ah, Doc, it’s the first time we’re been able to sit in centars,” Enoch protested. “Can’t it wait?”
“Brie’s in danger,” Bkj said quietly.
Both men sprang to their feet. “We’re coming,” Jared said. No matter how hard they tried to earn a reputation as being cold and heartless, they had both developed an affinity for Brie. “What’s up? I thought she was just having minor surgery.”
“She didn’t have a heart attack before,” Doc explained, leading them towards the operating room. “She was poisoned. I didn’t know that earlier because her blood sample had been switched. And someone removed her verticillin allergy from her chart. There’s no doubt that they’ll use verticillin during this operation unless the allergy is noted. It could kill her.”
“Is there an antidote?” Enoch asked.
“Yes,” Bkj answered, “I have some right here but unless we know the amount that she was given it might not help.” She guided them into a small room. “You’ll also need to scrub, if the surgery has started we need it to be as sterile an environment as possible.” All three of them washed and put on protective clothing. “Okay, follow me.”
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