In over his head (OOCS fan fic)

First

Inside the mess hall Sasha was waiting, still seated at the table on the far right. At the opposite end August stood by the window looking at Jenna and Cistene as they entered.

Immediately Cistene’s thoughts turned to her task. At first glance he looked fine. Slightly taller than your average Tret, dark blonde with a slightly elongated build.  His hair was about chin length, and his face was showing a hint of stubble indicating a couple of days since last tended to. He was wearing a pair of baggy pants with a knot in the front serving as a belt, his top, or what was left of it, was made of the same material and pattern, likely pajamas.

Visually she would estimate his age at mid-twenties, appearance wise that is. Outside of using a high-powered scanner found only in large hospitals there was little anyone could do to determine someone’s true age thanks to regenerative techniques.

He had no visible bruising on the skin she could see. So far, a good sign and a wing membrane thickness closer to disproving the captain’s theory. Though the handheld scanner in her bag would tell her if there was muscular trauma where her eyes couldn’t see. Without next of kin, treating a bruise or abrasion in more… delicate areas might be difficult.

Unfortunately, when some women decided to take rather than ask they usually didn’t care to be gentle especially with the more sensitive areas. Oddly the face was usually exempt from rough treatment. You wanted something nice to look at after all.

A lesser woman would have gagged at the thought. Cistene, however, was a consummate professional, one who had to put more than a few eyes back in their sockets, or that one time some idiot had a rather large metallic skin graft peeled off by a particularly strong magnet. The sound of tearing paper would never be the same. Darn it, why did she have to remember that now?

Sasha stood up when Jenna and Cistene entered the mess hall. “Captain.”  She greeted.

“How has he been?” Jenna asked   

“Good, I think, he has been looking out the window for almost the entire time. Though he drank a lot of water after breakfast.”

“Not too surprising, Gudrun likes her spices. How much did he drink?”

“I’m not sure that’s what it was.”

“What do you mean?”

“He drank a little over seven cups.”

“SEVEN?” Jenna gaped

“And a half.” Sasha corrected

“That cant be normal in one sitting.”

both women looked at Cistene for an answer.

“A tret drinking that much water usually means they are dehydrated. Probably not lethal, though a medical scanner should tell us more.” The short woman answered squirming slightly under the combined gaze of the two highest ranked crew members on board.

“Right.” Jenna said turning to Sasha “Anything else?”

“Nothing else from him, he has been quiet since breakfast.” Turning to Cistene Sasha continued “I need a dose of PBB while you are here.”

“Sure, Lemme just…” Cistene set her bag down and began digging through it, almost being swallowed before coming back up with a small white bottle.

“Here.” She said handing Sasha the bottle.

“Thanks.”

It was fairly simple, A nasal spray with the label reading ‘Pair Blocker’ on the front and the instructions on use printed on the back.

‘How long has it been since I had to use one of these’ she mused, maybe someday she wouldn’t have to worry.

A quick sniff later and her head started to clear, the young man was still there but in a more subdued way. Gone were the invasive thoughts, back was a clear head. Much better.

‘There’s that giant woman in the white coat again. And. Wait, is that a child wearing a lab coat with her?’

August was fairly confused. When the giant shark woman walked in, she was followed by a tiny blue girl. She could not be more than four feet tall at the max, if not for the obvious curves of maturity he would have easily continued thinking she was a child. And even more confusing, she had a pair of disproportionately small bat-like wings attached to her back. It was possible they were part of some outfi- never mind they twitched when she talked. To call them black was an understatement. They were so dark they appeared to be 2 dimensional, regardless of the angle he looked at them from.

His staring was broken by more of that language that sounded oh-so-close to being understood while at the same time being utter gibberish.

Slightly embarrassed at being caught staring at a woman’s body, (even if it was just her back) he looked towards the giant of a woman in the skin of a fuzzy shark. She was calling out to him and beckoning with her hand in a gentle ‘come here’ motion.

Warily he ventured closer. The short woman gave him a polite smile and began to mime what he assumed she wanted him to do, talking through the whole demonstration. He stared for a moment before mentally shrugging. ‘Nothing risked, nothing gained.’

Firstly, she extended her hand to him still babbling. An awkward moment passed before August figured out what she wanted. Extending his arm he gave her his hand. Another smile and a nod. Next, she pulled out a bulky tablet and said something to the shark woman who promptly stood straight with arms extended to either side. It beeped once, and when she showed him the screen more gibberish, but this time it displayed an anatomical breakdown of the larger woman with what appeared to be highlighted areas coupled with foreign text. Interesting. She then repeated the process with the human woman, with similar results. Lastly, she pointed the odd device at herself. A beep. Turning the gadget so the screen was facing him, he saw the same type of readout, but now it was the short winged woman herself on the display.

‘Sick. Looks like they have some sort of safe-to-use x-ray device in the future.’ He thought.

The short blue woman spoke some more incomprehensible phrases while motioning to him.

‘Ooh, my turn now.’

August did his best T pose making sure to remain still. The short woman smiled and waved the device over him in a sweeping motion. Beep, BEEP.

‘Huh. That sounded different than the others.’ He thought.

The short woman’s eyes went wide.

‘That probably is not good.’

Her smile died.

‘I am officially concerned now.’

The two women in the back hurried closer, trying to look at the device Talking in urgent tones.

‘Maybe I should run.’

All three were now on the verge of shouting. Clearly something in his x-ray was not good if the three women’s demeanor's was anything to go by. Before he could think of anything else the towering shark woman had picked him up like a rifle and was running for the door, the other two following closely behind.

For the second time that day he let out a yelp of surprise.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

(about 30 seconds ago)

‘Well, he caught on quick enough.’ Sasha thought watching as Cistene treated the language barrier like a suggestion. In quick order she had obtained the permission to touch his person and then demonstrated the medical scanner on the three women present, demonstrating its use and safety. though it still bothered her to see a male unfamiliar with modern medical technology. Maybe he was from some frontier world that shunned advanced tech? that still wouldn’t explain how he got on the Rapacity though, even if he was kidnapped.

“Alright, now it is your turn.” Cistene said motioning to the male. He seemed a bit excited to be scanned, which was kind of cute.

Standing still with his chest out and arms outstretched he looked rather silly. Needlessly, stiffening in order to remain still and flexing his upper body more than necessary. His half-bare torso drawing her eyes. She blinked the thought away. She may not be affected by his pheromones anymore, but she was still a woman.

Then the scanner chirped twice, a critical condition warning.

Both Jenna and Sasha’s heads snapped towards Cistene.

“What is wrong?” Jenna said worry spilling into her voice.

Ignoring her Cistene spoke to herself “That can’t be right.”

Sasha joined in. “Let me see it.”

Both Captain and First Officer converged on the doctor in an attempt to see the results of the scan.

-High strength acid in chest cavity detected.

-Combat stimulants detected.

-Excessive organ material detected.

-High concentration of sex hormones detected.

Were just a few of the alarming notifications displayed.

“What happened to you?” Sasha whispered

“We need to get him to the med bay. These numbers can’t be right.”

“How is he still moving?”

“Why are there combat drugs in his system?”

“How should I know.”

“You’re the DOCTOR!”

“What do we do?”

“Can we perform a long range teleport, and get him to Nest station?”

“No, too far, and he might die any moment.”

“The acid doesn’t seem to be hurting him, maybe it’s in a capsule or something.”

“Why would it be in a capsule?!”

“I don’t know! I didn’t put it there! But what if it ruptures when we try to remove it!”

“We can put him in a healing coma!”

“Stop! We take him to medical and do all we can, I’ll carry him, you two, follow me.  GO! NOW!”

The captain practically leapt at the poor boy hoisting him up like a sack of tubers and sprinting at full speed towards medical. Head swimming, Sasha followed, while Cistene brought up the rear.

‘How is he not dead with the amount of acid and drugs in his system? And what sick freak would do all that to a boy? And what about the extra organ material? Was he being ‘harvested’? Was the acid some sort of obedience collar?’

 Dimly she registered the sound of his screaming, and she knew. Deep down she knew, his insides must be burning.

She ran faster.

(30 seconds ago.)

This was why Cistene got the job all those years ago, despite her lacking appearance. Jenna thought, remembering the day the small Metak had come to her looking to fill a vacancy on the Rapacity, help wanted paper in hand.

She had made good progress forming a working relationship with the odd boy in spite of the language barrier. It was a wonder how she remained single. With social skills like that a woman should be married by now. It didn’t make a lot of sense, at least until you saw the way she kept herself and her room.

A crit-con tone sounded from the scanner.

‘Oh… no…’

A brief explosion of activity later and she was running for the med bay, past the bewildered looks of her crew and guests.

Whatever happened, Jenna Sercher, captain of the Rapacity, was NOT going to let a boy die on her ship. She couldn’t even remember what was said only that they needed to get him to medical for a chance at saving his life. Out went ideas of modesty, of decorum, of personal space. Now was the time to act. And act she did. She sprinted for the medical ward, with the poor soul in her arms still screaming. All she could do was wonder if she was doing enough to save his life.

‘Please be enough.’

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