Requiem (10 page)

'Could you
relax a little, please? I'm not going to hurt you'. His voice was
surprisingly deep. 'There are rules against that sort of thing; and
like it or not, I have to follow them.'

'Then what do
you want?' she asked.

'We need to get
you looked at.'

'Looked at?
Why?'

She could hear
the others return to their conversation.

'You may need
medical attention.'

'I'm fine. I
don't need anything.'

'Aboard this
ship there's only one person who can tell you when you don't need
anything. And th-'

'Let me guess,
that's you?'

'Don't
interrupt me, please. There's only one person aboard this ship who
can interrupt me, and that's-'

'You?'

He cleared his
throat. 'No. The only person who can interrupt me is Tialus – the
captain. Now would you follow me? You're creating a scene.'

Seline looked
at the others. Everyone was preoccupied, listening to one of the
female Yurrick standing with the group around the console. She
spoke with an air of authority, forceful yet quiet; so much so that
Seline could barely hear her voice. She noticed Sear standing
within the group. He looked up at her and nodded as if to reassure
her.

She thought for
a moment. 'Fine,' she said.

As she came to
face the jittery figurine of a man, he stepped back and pulled a
large syringe away, hiding it behind his back.

'What the hell
was that?' asked Seline.

'It was
nothing.' He ran his eyes over her over before straightening his
shoulders. 'You must be wondering who I am. Everyone around here
calls me 'the Doctor'. You may as well do the same.'

He stood before
her as if waiting for a 'thank you'. Seline stood, looking at him,
wondering why he was staring.

'So...?' she
asked. 'Don't you have tests to run on me or something?'

He turned
abruptly and began walking away. She followed behind him,
struggling to keep up as he led her through the sparse control room
and down another thin corridor. Seline thought it was a dead end
until the corridor's back wall pulled away, letting a bright, white
light pour into the ship. She squinted and followed him down the
ramp, realising that they were now actually inside a considerably
larger vessel. Aside from a few small maintenance drones securing
the ship, there was no other life within the dock.

'Where is
everyone?' she asked.

'They're still
on the ship.'

The room was
like a large warehouse. Big enough to fit the ship and two smaller
vessels inside. At the far end of the room, flush within one of the
walls was an elevator they were walking towards. There was a glass
strip going up the wall, following the path of the elevator.

Seline looked
back at the ship she'd just departed. It took up about a third of
the space in the dock. In the light of the dock she wondered how
she'd confused it for a NeoCorp ship. They stepped into the
elevator.

The Doctor
pressed a number on the elevator's display panel. The doors shut
and the small lift pushed upward. Seline could see everything
through the glass doors as the lift passed through the different
levels as if she were seeing a cross section of the entire
ship.

They exited the
elevator on the third level she counted. It was a large open floor.
Spotless and perfectly ordered, the room smelt of antiseptic and
chlorine. All kinds of machines for which she didn't know the
purpose occupied their own individual space within the room.

The Doctor
guided her to the far back wall of the medical bay and instructed
her to stand beneath a large robotic arm that hung down from the
ceiling. The Doctor took a seat behind the screen of a large
console. The machine beeped loudly before shining its light
directly into her eyes. It dropped to the floor, rose again, beeped
once, twice, shone its light, beeped a third time, then descended
once again, running its scanning lights over the length of her
body. This time the Doctor's console beeped. The Doctor pressed a
button and peered from the side of the screen.

'Have you been
to the planet Karjun at any point in the last five months?'

'No.'

The Doctor
pressed another button.

'Have you
engaged in sexual intercourse with an Ordonian in the past two
years?'

'What? I don't
even think that's poss-.'

'Yes or no,
please.'

'No. Fucking
no.'

'Interesting...'

'What's
interesting?'

The arm swung
back to its resting place against the wall. Seline sighed in relief
before another arm flung out from above her. It circled her head,
making a high pitched whirring sound as it picked up speed. She
followed it with her eyes but began to feel nauseous.

'Hold still
please. You might damage the machinery.'

'What is this
thing supposed to be doing?'

'Remain quiet
please, you're interfering with the tests and damaging the
machinery.'

'Well, if you
just explained what in the hell these tests are I might be more
wil-'

'You do realise
that you have an iron deficiency don't you? And here you are saying
that you don't need any medical attention.' The whirring machine
stopped. 'Alright. Step to the side please.'

'Wh-'

'The tests are
complete.'

'Thank
God.'

'Now, please
step to the side and remove your clothing.'

She stared at
the back of the console until the head appeared again. Black,
vacant eyes stared at her, carving off moments of awkward silence
until yet another beep came from behind her. She turned to see a
compartment emerge from the wall. Inside the small box was a piece
of clothing. She pulled it out and held it in front of herself.
Plain white overalls that looked about five sizes to big for her.
She looked back at the patient, awkward eyes.

'I suggest you
put that on,' he said. '3 G’s gets uncomfortable after a
while.'

'Not as
uncomfortable as getting changed in front of you. Can I have some
privacy at least?'

He pulled his
head back behind the monitor and began pressing more buttons. A
thin pane of black tinted glass appeared from the floor in front of
her. She could still see the doctor trying to peer over the screen
as it rose towards the ceiling.

'Interesting...' she heard him mutter.

She didn't
entirely trust the opacity of the glass so slipped her jersey off,
dropped it on the ground and undressed as quickly as possible.

'Please place
your clothing in the receptacle provided,' said the Doctor,
absently.

'What are you
going to do with them?'

'They will be
cleaned and returned to you upon arrival.'

'Arrival
where?'

'Saranture.'

After stripping
down to her underwear and placing everything in the receptacle she
pulled on and zipped up the overalls. She had to hold on to the
collar to stop them from sliding off her shoulders.

'It's too
big.'

No response

'It's too
big!'

Still no
response.

'Hello? I said
it's t-'

'Please be
patient.'

The suit began
to fit itself around her body, shrinking and constricting until it
was taught against her skin. Her back straightened as the spine of
the suit became rigid. She actually had to strain her muscles just
to bend forward. The pressure on her chest and legs made it
slightly harder to breathe and walk. The collar ran high up her
neck to just below her chin. The outfit was starch white. She'd
always avoided white clothing, afraid that, without some kind of
bib, she wouldn't be able to hide the food stains. The glass screen
disappeared back into the floor.

'Is it still
too big?' asked the doctor.

'It's too
tight' she mumbled to herself.

'Good. The
tighter the better. Now, if you could please follow me.'

'Does the suit
really need to be this tight?'

'Yes. It's
regulation.'

'No one else is
wearing them.'

'It's
regulation,' he repeated, 'now follow me.'

'Where?'

'We need to get
you something to eat.' He started towards the door. Seline followed
him. The suit made it uncomfortable to walk, the tightness almost
made her feel naked.

'How do you
know I'm hungry?'

'The machines
don't lie.'

'Right. And
then what happens?'

'I believe
Therin would like to ask you some questions'

'Who's
Therin?'

'She's one of
the crew. A pleasant personality. You'll like her.'

They took the
lift up to the next floor. The hallways were dim and only just wide
enough for two people to pass one another comfortably. The floor
vibrated gently beneath her feet as she walked.

'How big is
this ship?' she asked.

'That's
classified.'

'I'm sure I'm
going to find out sooner or later.'

The Doctor
stopped and turned to her, squinting, as if examining her for some
kind of clue. 'That's...'

Seline waited
silently, expecting some kind of explanation. She ventured to guess
what he wanted to say.

'Interesting?'

'No. The door.'
He pointed to the side. 'That's the door. Interesting response
though.'

'Whe-'

'Please step
through the door.'

'Can you stop
interrupting me?!'

The Doctor
ignored her and held out his hand, gesturing for her to enter the
room.

'Just because
you say 'please' doesn't mean you're being polite you know?' she
said as she stepped inside the ship's mess hall. One of the other
crew members was seated near the end of a long white table in the
centre of the room with an empty food tray in front of him. His
skin looked slightly darker than the others and the patterns in his
skin were darker still and much more elaborate. His skull tapered
back to a point. Hundreds of small barbs ran down the back of his
head, their tips a dull shade of red. He reclined in his chair and
placed his hands behind his head. He took a casual glance at
Seline. She couldn't tell if he was smiling or not.

'You can find
some food in that first receptacle just there,' said the Doctor,
pointing to a small panel on the wall just above one of the
counters. 'And if you feel the need, you can get something to drink
from that outlet over there.' He pointed to a line of liquid
dispensers running along the wall.

'Take a seat
and I'll be back shortly. I just remembered there is still one more
test I need to run. The Doctor continued to speak while he moved
excitedly towards the door. 'Mercer here will keep you company
while I retrieve the cerebellum inoculator. Won't be long!'

Seline avoided
making eye contact with Mercer and walked over to the dispensers
and stared at the thin panel above the line of nozzles indented
into the wall. Beneath each nozzle was a place for a cup to rest.
She decided to first try to decipher what each of the colour coded
panels meant then she would tackle the mystery of where the cups
were kept.

'Green means
coffee,' said Mercer, watching from his seat at the table.

'Oh, thanks,'
mumbled Seline. 'How did you know I wanted coffee?'

'That's all
humans drink isn't it?'

'Well, we drink
a lot of alcohol too.'

'That was going
to be my second guess. It's the purple one in case you're
wondering.'

'Where are the
cups?'

'Just press one
of those buttons for the flavour you want. The machine will sort
out the rest.'

She pressed the
button and watched a cup slide out from the panel behind the nozzle
and waited for it to fill. She took a sip and tried to hide the
fact that she'd just burnt her tongue.

'Watch out,
it's hot.'

She nodded,
still wincing slightly from the pain. She placed the coffee on the
table to let it cool. Mercer turned in his chair, stretched his
legs, crossed them and rested his feet on the edge of the
table.

'So how was the
Doctor anyway?' he asked.

'He was fine,'
she said, not quite sure how honest she should be.

'Really? I
didn't think you would've been that eager to get undressed in front
of him.'

'I stood behind
a screen.'

'The black pane
of glass?'

'Yeah.'

'The one that
comes out of the floor?'

'Yeah.'

'The two-way
mirror?'

'Ye- wait...
you mean he could see me?'

The Doctor
strode into the room, a large syringe cradled in his arms and his
face exuding smugness; blissfully unaware. Without thinking, Seline
grabbed hold of the nearest object – a small cup containing some
strange black liquid. She hurled it across the room at the Doctor.
He looked up just in time for it to collide with the side of his
face. Like a dramatic stage actor, he stumbled to his side, falling
against the wall and wailing in pain. He balanced the syringe in
one hand and raised the other to his head and touched it gently.
The liquid formed a thin black strand between his head and fingers.
After seeing the syringe, Seline immediately felt justified with
the act. After Mercer had stopped laughing and the Doctor realised
what had happened he looked directly at Seline, flinging a handful
of the black gunk to the floor.

'What do you
think you're doing? Who throws a twenty-two and half month old cup
of coffee at someone?!'

'Why didn't you
tell me you could see straight through the glass?!'

'What
glass?'

'The glass in
the room where I got undressed.'

'Mercer! Why
didn't you tell me she got undressed again?'

Unable to think
of a response, Seline moved to grab her steaming cup of coffee. The
Doctor yelped and ducked out of the room.

'I run those
tests on everyone!' he yelled from the safety of the hallway. 'It's
protocol. I
have
to do it!'