Chapter Two: A Whole Old World

[Akirapryde]

A frown crossed the doctor’s face, “I am sorry” he said with a great deal of sadness. “We searched and searched around the shuttle and only found a small number of pods. There was only one that belonged to a Comstar vessel. And we only stumbled upon that one by accident. From our best efforts, you were the sole survivor of the Comstar ship.”

He drew in a deep breath, “you had a bad head wound. You have to understand that this is not a hospital. In fact, Ms. Kato and I are the only medical personal aboard the ship. There were so many wounded that we couldn’t save them all.” He walked towards Suki with a frown, “I am so sorry. We didn’t have the facilities or the medical staff to conduct the kind of surgery you needed to save your eye sight. The best we could do was save your life from the head trauma.”

On that, he turned back to Eric and Jake and returned to the center of the room. “Please understand that we did our best in an impossible situation.” He took a moment to collect his thoughts before adding, “do you have any other questions?”

[aipsylon]

"We understand the dangers of space travel, and thank you for your attention to our people thus far. I know first-hand not everyone would have been so humanitarian in your situation." Eric said, in response to the man. "We appreciate both your help medically and what you have done for us since."

Eric gave the man a friendly smile before slowly pushing himself to his feet, careful to appear non threatening. He headed over to where the instruments were scattered around the floor and started to pick them up. Sorry about the commotion, she panicked a little when she woke up." He put a couple more instruments onto the tray. "Have any food in the kitchen available to us. I think I must have lost my breakfast and I am starving."

[Aria Blackthorn]

Suki smiled as heard others speaking around her. Hearing the voices around her helped ease her emotions as Eric continued to talk. Suki wondered where the other voice was. That Jake guy seemed to be silent over there. She wondered if he was still in the room. As Eric thanked the doctor, Suki realized that she still held her weapon tightly (tongue depressor). She tried to hide her weapon being her leg. 'Sure they were talking friendly and all but I am not about about to lower my defenses, just yet' she thought to herself.

As she heard Eric close to her, Suki stumbled as she move away a bit. It was clear that she still did not completely trust the strangers around her. Her hand felt her way along the bed while she continued to cautiously keep distance between herself and the others. Her mind still raced with possible reasons why she was here. “Tell me Doctor, why are you so far out here in the Deep Periphery.” She had heard stories of the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere but she had never had first-hand experience. Maybe they were behind the attack on her ship.

[Akirapryde]

The Doctor smiled and nodded, “yes, yes we have plenty of food available for you. I think it’s best though that you and your friends move about. You have been bed ridden for several days. Getting your bodies in motion will help with your blood flow and work your muscles. It is my suggestion that you guys take the short walk down the hall to the lounge where you can find food.”

As Suki fumbled around trying to move she drew the room’s attention upon her. The Doctor appeared genuinely confused, “Deep Periphery?” He paused a moment as if he could answer the question. He decided to go ahead and answer, “We are three and a half days from arrival to New Earth, within the Tau Ceti system.” Aside from Suki who never traveled within the Inner Sphere, everyone realized that New Earth (aka Tau Ceti system) was within the Core of the Inner Sphere. Nearly a thousand light years from where they were in the Deep Periphery.

Alice listened carefully to what was being said as a look of concern spread over her face. She knew that it was impossible for them to have traveled this far in such a short period of time. Alice’s fears were staring to be realized. She needed only one more piece of information to prove her theory. She motioned to the picture on the wall, “Doctor, that is a good likeness of the Coordinator. He’s what, 62 now?”

The Doctor turned and glanced at the picture as he laughed, “no no. The Coordinator is 64” he corrected Alice.

[CarcerKango]

Jake's blood went cold. How could this have happened? He quickly understood the implications of the Coordinator being 64 now...He nearly freaked out right there but managed to hold it in. He needed time to process this...he acted casual and with an effort sat up, then rose to his feet unsteadily. "Welp, time to go for a walk," he said shakily.

[aipsylon]

Eric listened to the line of questioning, not trusting the information that they had gotten thus far. The Coordinator being 64 wss simply impossible. "Say doctor, you don't happen to have available any daily informational allotments, a newsletter anything like that? Keeping up with the day-two-day happenings over breakfast is something of a habit for me." It would give Jake time to put some distance out of the room. Eric would join him shortly. His eyes then looked to Suki, for a moment poor girl.

She lost the ship she had been on, along with all her friends aboard, maybe even family. It would be hard on anyone. Couple with the usual circumstances by which they came to arrive, and the unfortunate method that they were greeted upon waking, and it was no wonder she was shaken up. His main focus, however, was on Alice. She picked up on things pretty quickly her question well ahead of its time to not be suspicious. If they had all been unconscious then it would likely be attributed to that. His eyes settled back on the doctor as he finished his previous line of thought. "Thanks again for all your help doctor."

[Akirapryde]

At first Alice couldn’t believe her eyes or what she was being told. But now it was all starting to make sense. ‘Phoenix had worked‘ she thought to herself while the others were talking. ‘It worked Professor’ she thought of Professor Angsoth. Instead of speaking, Alice fell silent as she took in the remarkable prospects of what had happened. Her eyes searched the beds of those who still remained unconscious. She wondered what they would think when they woke up in to this strange world of the past. Alice looked at the young man next to her as he slept. She had seen him before aboard the merc dropship. He was a tech or something. She wondered how would he take the sudden information that the world he knew was suddenly gone.

The doctor thought for a moment, “I think you might find a Comstar Newsletter or two in the lounge. I am not sure how helpful it will be for you to keep up with the day to day happenings. We picked up a transfer when we jumped in to system. Because we are traveling through a combat zone, Sho Sho….Oh I am sorry, I mean General Tetsuhara, ordered that we maintained communication blackout……”

Before he could continue, the nurse standing next to him cut him off. She spoke in Japanese and only Suki was able to understand what was being said. “Doctor, remember what Major Tetsuhara said. Only what they need to know. Offer no additional information.”

The Doctor nodded, “yes, but we are not at war with the Lyrans. We shouldn't treat them like the enemy less we want to make them our enemy." Despite the difference in language, it was clear that what the two were talking about was important and nerves were pretty strained. "I don’t think allowing them to have access to Newsletters will be violating that order. Anyway, you heard the Duchess. Treat them like guest until they prove to be otherwise.”

She nodded with a frown, "The struggle between the Duchess and the General will not end well for the rest of us."

"Enough" The Doctor snapped then he smiled as his attention went back to Eric. Once more the Doctor spoke in broken English “I would think what you are looking for, you will find in the lounge.” The Doctor fell silent as he looked around.

The Doctor’s eyes fell upon Alice, who seemed to be distracted with her own thoughts. Alice was just starring off in to the distances as the rest of the conversation seemed to be going on around her. On that note he added, “as I said, you are free to move about this deck. Please do not attempt to leave this deck.”

[Aria Blackthorn]

Suki stood there as her faced shifted about as if trying desperately to understand what is going on. Her eyebrows perked up as she heard Japanese once more. As quickly as she heard the language again, she tried to relax her face so not to tip of that she understood what was being said. ‘Play dumb, Suki’ she thought to herself. But she couldn’t help but find the conversation between the Doctor and some woman interesting. More importantly there were two people with the name Tetsuhara. A Major and a General. ‘strange’ she wondered. ‘Maybe their dialect is off and I am confused’ she continued to think as the two Kuritans carried on their conversation.

She finally spoke up, “Ummm, Jake is it?” she said after the Doctor was finished talking with Eric. “Do you mind if I join you?” She slowly stood up on uneasy legs and walked towards the direction where she thought she heard Jakes voice. She carefully hid her weapon behind her leg so that the Doctor could see the surgical knife (tongue depressor) that she took. In her mind, she moved with grace and confidence. She almost smiled as she thought she could get used to this whole being blind. That all ended when she slammed in to the metal tray/rolling table that Eric had just put back together. “A little help, please?”

[aipsylon]

Eric bent down and started picking up the pieces again. "Thank you Doctor I'm sure I can find something to pass the time with until what is to be done with us is decided." He kept putting the instruments on the table. "So, Alice. Once I finish picking these up want to go grab a bite in the kitchen?" Eric had been known aboard the ship as a bit of a loner, though he talked with some of the other mercs from time to time. "Maybe it will help to get us settled in here." While he had no idea what went wrong he had noticed the other officers very diligently busy rather than panicked, and then there was the armor.

As he looked up to the tray to put items on it his eyes focused around the room, at the walls and corners checking to see if he could spot any discreet cameras around to observe the in infirmary area the glance not long or thorough by any means basically a quick way to see if their med bays were under surveillance there.

[CarcerKango]

Jake headed out the door without a second thought, stumbling slightly, then regaining his footing. He looked around, wondering what he might see in the hallway on his way. This was so much to process....