missing in action
They closed the door on their way out because they didn't want Erhard and Youngman to hear them.
"We should go check on Dr. Stormer." Lori was worried about their new symbolic 'father'.
Aggie shook her head. "I imagine Margie Youngman meant what she said. Two people dead, one of them high-ranking Air Force? You think Dr. Stormer's safe? We need to do what Margie said."
Lori deferred to Aggie. "I see your point. How are we going to handle Devereaux?"
"She's not our first objective. We need to get to Leon, like the not-so-nice lady said."
Lori stopped Aggie at the junction. "How be you keep going to the main entrance, I'll duck down here and go in the back way?"
Aggie issued a grim smile. "It's always the back way with you isn't it? Good idea, though."
"Yes, I put the 'anal' in 'inspirational', if you don't see me in five minutes, get back to Margie & Erhard, okay?"
Aggie finally got back her full grin. "You're really getting into this, huh? Yeah, okay, good plan."
Aggie proceeded down in the direction they'd been headed, and Rails turned down the left hallway, actually trotting to get pumped up into action if need be.
Aggie arrived at the entrance, smiled and nodded at the Air Force woman manning the desk. "I'm Aggie Brooks, You're .. ?"
The woman smiled. "Sergeant Pettigrew. Good to meet you."
"Been busy?"
Pettigrew laughed. "No, thank God. Odd how few people get sick or die when good news comes out, isn't it?"
Aggie pushed towards normalcy. "Yeah, we notice that, too. Good that it's quiet, though, we still have a lot of organizing to do. Is Suzanne around?"
"Yep, somewhere. I saw her a few minutes ago. She may be in with Freedman." She looked up. "Am I relieved?"
Aggie shrugged, edging towards the curtain. "I don't know, I'm not Air Force."
Pettigrew raised her eyebrows. "Well, you must be something. I just got word not two minutes ago to treat you as my C/O when I'm on duty."
Aggie opted to minimize. "You can help out by sticking around five minutes while we get settled in, if that's okay."
Pettigrew chuckled. "No C/O I ever had ever said 'if that's okay' to me before."
Aggie placed her bag on one of the four chairs in the foyer. "I've never been in command, just call me Aggie."
To her surprise, Pettigrew shook her head. "You don't want to do that, MedTech Brooks." She raised her eyes from the form she was fillng out. "With all due respect, Command structures are there for a reason. Off duty, I'll call you Aggie and you can call me Eileen. On duty, I'm Sgt Pettigrew, you're MedTech Brooks."
Aggie looked at the woman with more resepct. "Thank you, Sgt."
"You're welcome, MT." When Aggie looked at her in puzzlement, Pettigrew smiled. "I know, I didn't make it up. I'd never heard of the rank until the phone rang."
Aggie smiled broadly. "Cool. I'm just gonna check on Mr. Freedman."
"Yes ma'am. Look around the corner too, Mrs. Devereaux seems to have extended your zone of control at the expense of four Air Force workstations."
"Sounds like Suzanne."
Aggie had already sensed the bed would be empty. She could hear none of Leon's or Suzanne's noises during her conversation with Pettigrew.
Leon's had been the closest bed to the curtain. What she hadn't anticipated was that the Air Force would amalgamate their patient load. Eight beds on each side, five occupied on the left, four on the right. She nodded at the patients who were awake, introuduced herself as MedTech Brooks.
She looked at the charts in the slot at the base of each of the beds. A broken leg from an accident involving a fuel cell loader for the S7R. An emergency appendectomy perfomed by Dr.Leela Shamata. A radical mastectomy courtesy of Dr. Richard McTavish, the woman on largactil as well as physical medications.
No chart with Leon Freedman's name.
But the bedclothes were in disarray, and Suzanne had made a note that he'd had nightmares and she'd sat with him until he fell back to sleep. 0430. Five hours ago.
And no sign of La Devereaux.
She reached the corner around which Suzanne had expanded. Four beds each side, all empty, all the overhead lights dim. Beyond that the entrance Rails should have come through.
And that's who she could sense - scent maybe?
The smallest of movements caught her eye, and she looked down to the floor without changing her posture, senses alive and tingling.
Rails, under the first bed on the left, finger to her mouth as if to shush her, eye gestures directing Aggie to be aware of danger behind her. Aggie barely nodded confirmation, and Lori faded from sight.
Aggie decided to wing it. "Sergeant Pettigrew?"
"Coming!"
Aggie listened as Pettigrew parted the curtains, then turned quickly.
He was right behind her.
She could have touched him.
Pettigrew arrived with a curt "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
The man was pale, with red hair. He smiled far too easily, Aggie thought.
"I'm Dave Bellamy, my ID's in my pocket. I'm going to reach for it now, okay?"
Both women nodded.
Aggie said "Show it to the Sergeant, if you please."
He complied.
Pettigrew read it aloud. "Communications Director, United States Department Of Health." She held it out to Aggie. "Do you want to see it?"
"No, thank you Sergeant, you can return it to Mr. Bellamy." Aggie addressed him again. "What are you doing in my MedLab, Mr. Bellamy."
He maintained a low-key smile. "I'm just doing my job, MT Brooks. You're in the Health business, you've made a lot of changes in the last couple of days, my job is to make sure you're in full compliance."
Aggie smiled. "Oh, I see, so you oversee the protocols Jack Redstone set in place."
He smiled. "Exactly. I don't walk around rousting patients out of bed and scaring them and I just want to do my job in peace and be on my way."
Aggie grinned. "I'm Aggie Brooks, as I guess you know this is Sergeant Eileen Pettigrew."
He smiled winningly. "It's a pleasure to meet you both."
Aggie said "We're just expanding into here, we're still a bit of a mess, but I think we're in full compliance with SOMPIS."
The man was a walking oil slick. "It seems so. I also think it was a bit unfair for me to do my inspection under these circumstances, so I think I'll come back when the expansion and move is complete if it's all the same to you. I see no issue as it is, but it's why they pay me."
Aggie patronized him so much Lori nearly heaved under the bed.
"Thank you for your understanding, why don't I call your office in a day or so when we've had a chance to hide the evidence?"
He laughed. "Excellent, call 3274529, that'll get me, I'll leave the number with the good Sergeant here." He began to back away as Sergeant Pettigrew kept him in range of her combat knife. Pettigrew already figuratively had his number.
Aggie watched him walk away, heard him leave his number with Pettigrew, heard the foyer door open and close.
Pettigrew called out. "All clear, MT."
Aggie called back "Thanks, Sarge."
In a low voice, she added "It's okay, Rails, you can come out now."
Lori rose from behind the nearmost left bed. "He had a silenced .22, ready to go."
"Shit! You're kidding!"
"No, plus no Leon, no Suzanne." She sighed, letting the tension go. "Five minutes we've been apart. I have squat, you have a title, a Sergeant, a ... what? a sompuss? and a near-death experience."
"We're MT's now, it seems to be an official rank but I don't know in what, Sergeant Pettigrew is a major asset I think and I have no idea what SOMPIS is. Standard Operating Medical Procedures In Space is all I could think of, so now we have a SOMPIS. What else do we know?"
Lori shrugged.
Aggie closed her eyes. "And now we have to tell Youngman, Stormer and Erhard, Leon and Suzanne have gone missing."
Lori nodded. "I was going to volunteer for that but after your impromptu performance versus the stranger I think I'll defer to your Royal Streepness."
Aggie smiled. "You have more charm and distracting beauty."
"Perhaps, but you have the big IQ and equally big bazongas."
Aggie scowled."Is there really such a word as 'bazongas'?"
"Sure, it's like SOMPIS & MT, it's ad hoc truth management. It's onomatopeia."
The Brooks scowl carved deeper. "That means the word sounds like the noise itself, like 'buzz'."
"Your tits do that when I bat them around, you just can't hear it because they're your tits. I go 'biff, bam, boom', they go 'bazonga'."
"You know I almost believe you?" Aggie looked at her.
Rails looked sad. "I know. It's been a long morning already and now we're going to get shot, I can just feel it."
Aggie said it softly. "Wanna go fuck in the washroom?"
Rails nodded as well. "Yes, I do, very much in fact." She turned and placed her arms around Aggie's neck. "I just don't think that's what we ought to do under the circumstances, do you?"
Aggie leaned her forehead down into Lori's. "No, I guess not."
"No, I think now we go back and do our duty and risk being shot."
"I love you."
"I love you too." Lori had her moments. "That's part of what we're fighting for, the freedom to say that and be unashamed. We'll be in hot water, but Erhard & Youngman aren't going to shoot us. We just have to make things right by finding Leon and Suzanne."
Aggie didn't want to let go. "I actually really like Suzanne."
"We all do." Lori led Aggie to the foyer by the hand. "That's what she does."
"We should go check on Dr. Stormer." Lori was worried about their new symbolic 'father'.
Aggie shook her head. "I imagine Margie Youngman meant what she said. Two people dead, one of them high-ranking Air Force? You think Dr. Stormer's safe? We need to do what Margie said."
Lori deferred to Aggie. "I see your point. How are we going to handle Devereaux?"
"She's not our first objective. We need to get to Leon, like the not-so-nice lady said."
Lori stopped Aggie at the junction. "How be you keep going to the main entrance, I'll duck down here and go in the back way?"
Aggie issued a grim smile. "It's always the back way with you isn't it? Good idea, though."
"Yes, I put the 'anal' in 'inspirational', if you don't see me in five minutes, get back to Margie & Erhard, okay?"
Aggie finally got back her full grin. "You're really getting into this, huh? Yeah, okay, good plan."
Aggie proceeded down in the direction they'd been headed, and Rails turned down the left hallway, actually trotting to get pumped up into action if need be.
Aggie arrived at the entrance, smiled and nodded at the Air Force woman manning the desk. "I'm Aggie Brooks, You're .. ?"
The woman smiled. "Sergeant Pettigrew. Good to meet you."
"Been busy?"
Pettigrew laughed. "No, thank God. Odd how few people get sick or die when good news comes out, isn't it?"
Aggie pushed towards normalcy. "Yeah, we notice that, too. Good that it's quiet, though, we still have a lot of organizing to do. Is Suzanne around?"
"Yep, somewhere. I saw her a few minutes ago. She may be in with Freedman." She looked up. "Am I relieved?"
Aggie shrugged, edging towards the curtain. "I don't know, I'm not Air Force."
Pettigrew raised her eyebrows. "Well, you must be something. I just got word not two minutes ago to treat you as my C/O when I'm on duty."
Aggie opted to minimize. "You can help out by sticking around five minutes while we get settled in, if that's okay."
Pettigrew chuckled. "No C/O I ever had ever said 'if that's okay' to me before."
Aggie placed her bag on one of the four chairs in the foyer. "I've never been in command, just call me Aggie."
To her surprise, Pettigrew shook her head. "You don't want to do that, MedTech Brooks." She raised her eyes from the form she was fillng out. "With all due respect, Command structures are there for a reason. Off duty, I'll call you Aggie and you can call me Eileen. On duty, I'm Sgt Pettigrew, you're MedTech Brooks."
Aggie looked at the woman with more resepct. "Thank you, Sgt."
"You're welcome, MT." When Aggie looked at her in puzzlement, Pettigrew smiled. "I know, I didn't make it up. I'd never heard of the rank until the phone rang."
Aggie smiled broadly. "Cool. I'm just gonna check on Mr. Freedman."
"Yes ma'am. Look around the corner too, Mrs. Devereaux seems to have extended your zone of control at the expense of four Air Force workstations."
"Sounds like Suzanne."
Aggie had already sensed the bed would be empty. She could hear none of Leon's or Suzanne's noises during her conversation with Pettigrew.
Leon's had been the closest bed to the curtain. What she hadn't anticipated was that the Air Force would amalgamate their patient load. Eight beds on each side, five occupied on the left, four on the right. She nodded at the patients who were awake, introuduced herself as MedTech Brooks.
She looked at the charts in the slot at the base of each of the beds. A broken leg from an accident involving a fuel cell loader for the S7R. An emergency appendectomy perfomed by Dr.Leela Shamata. A radical mastectomy courtesy of Dr. Richard McTavish, the woman on largactil as well as physical medications.
No chart with Leon Freedman's name.
But the bedclothes were in disarray, and Suzanne had made a note that he'd had nightmares and she'd sat with him until he fell back to sleep. 0430. Five hours ago.
And no sign of La Devereaux.
She reached the corner around which Suzanne had expanded. Four beds each side, all empty, all the overhead lights dim. Beyond that the entrance Rails should have come through.
And that's who she could sense - scent maybe?
The smallest of movements caught her eye, and she looked down to the floor without changing her posture, senses alive and tingling.
Rails, under the first bed on the left, finger to her mouth as if to shush her, eye gestures directing Aggie to be aware of danger behind her. Aggie barely nodded confirmation, and Lori faded from sight.
Aggie decided to wing it. "Sergeant Pettigrew?"
"Coming!"
Aggie listened as Pettigrew parted the curtains, then turned quickly.
He was right behind her.
She could have touched him.
Pettigrew arrived with a curt "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
The man was pale, with red hair. He smiled far too easily, Aggie thought.
"I'm Dave Bellamy, my ID's in my pocket. I'm going to reach for it now, okay?"
Both women nodded.
Aggie said "Show it to the Sergeant, if you please."
He complied.
Pettigrew read it aloud. "Communications Director, United States Department Of Health." She held it out to Aggie. "Do you want to see it?"
"No, thank you Sergeant, you can return it to Mr. Bellamy." Aggie addressed him again. "What are you doing in my MedLab, Mr. Bellamy."
He maintained a low-key smile. "I'm just doing my job, MT Brooks. You're in the Health business, you've made a lot of changes in the last couple of days, my job is to make sure you're in full compliance."
Aggie smiled. "Oh, I see, so you oversee the protocols Jack Redstone set in place."
He smiled. "Exactly. I don't walk around rousting patients out of bed and scaring them and I just want to do my job in peace and be on my way."
Aggie grinned. "I'm Aggie Brooks, as I guess you know this is Sergeant Eileen Pettigrew."
He smiled winningly. "It's a pleasure to meet you both."
Aggie said "We're just expanding into here, we're still a bit of a mess, but I think we're in full compliance with SOMPIS."
The man was a walking oil slick. "It seems so. I also think it was a bit unfair for me to do my inspection under these circumstances, so I think I'll come back when the expansion and move is complete if it's all the same to you. I see no issue as it is, but it's why they pay me."
Aggie patronized him so much Lori nearly heaved under the bed.
"Thank you for your understanding, why don't I call your office in a day or so when we've had a chance to hide the evidence?"
He laughed. "Excellent, call 3274529, that'll get me, I'll leave the number with the good Sergeant here." He began to back away as Sergeant Pettigrew kept him in range of her combat knife. Pettigrew already figuratively had his number.
Aggie watched him walk away, heard him leave his number with Pettigrew, heard the foyer door open and close.
Pettigrew called out. "All clear, MT."
Aggie called back "Thanks, Sarge."
In a low voice, she added "It's okay, Rails, you can come out now."
Lori rose from behind the nearmost left bed. "He had a silenced .22, ready to go."
"Shit! You're kidding!"
"No, plus no Leon, no Suzanne." She sighed, letting the tension go. "Five minutes we've been apart. I have squat, you have a title, a Sergeant, a ... what? a sompuss? and a near-death experience."
"We're MT's now, it seems to be an official rank but I don't know in what, Sergeant Pettigrew is a major asset I think and I have no idea what SOMPIS is. Standard Operating Medical Procedures In Space is all I could think of, so now we have a SOMPIS. What else do we know?"
Lori shrugged.
Aggie closed her eyes. "And now we have to tell Youngman, Stormer and Erhard, Leon and Suzanne have gone missing."
Lori nodded. "I was going to volunteer for that but after your impromptu performance versus the stranger I think I'll defer to your Royal Streepness."
Aggie smiled. "You have more charm and distracting beauty."
"Perhaps, but you have the big IQ and equally big bazongas."
Aggie scowled."Is there really such a word as 'bazongas'?"
"Sure, it's like SOMPIS & MT, it's ad hoc truth management. It's onomatopeia."
The Brooks scowl carved deeper. "That means the word sounds like the noise itself, like 'buzz'."
"Your tits do that when I bat them around, you just can't hear it because they're your tits. I go 'biff, bam, boom', they go 'bazonga'."
"You know I almost believe you?" Aggie looked at her.
Rails looked sad. "I know. It's been a long morning already and now we're going to get shot, I can just feel it."
Aggie said it softly. "Wanna go fuck in the washroom?"
Rails nodded as well. "Yes, I do, very much in fact." She turned and placed her arms around Aggie's neck. "I just don't think that's what we ought to do under the circumstances, do you?"
Aggie leaned her forehead down into Lori's. "No, I guess not."
"No, I think now we go back and do our duty and risk being shot."
"I love you."
"I love you too." Lori had her moments. "That's part of what we're fighting for, the freedom to say that and be unashamed. We'll be in hot water, but Erhard & Youngman aren't going to shoot us. We just have to make things right by finding Leon and Suzanne."
Aggie didn't want to let go. "I actually really like Suzanne."
"We all do." Lori led Aggie to the foyer by the hand. "That's what she does."
