*** Temporary Sickbay * USS Chimera *** "Hello Bruce...how are you?" Rangi asked the patient who sat beside Mercedes. "Hi Doc..I'm fine." Bruce Walker replied happily and held up the hypo unit he was holding. " I can fit this for you...want to see it?" Rangi nodded."Yes..please show me." she said with a smile and moved closer. Bruce, pleased to have her attention bent to his work at once. Rangi and Mercedes exchanged a glance over his blonde hair. "It only took just over a minute didnt it Bruce?" Mercedes asked watching him begin to assemble the hypospray. "Yeah.." he said "I'm getting good at it now." He flashed a quick smile at Rangi and went back to the job in hand, exerting pressure on the control unit and frowning with the effort of pushing it against the clasps of the regulator. He bit his lower lip as the two pieces, slightly off centre, threatened to slip past each other and when they suddenly engaged with a sharp 'click' all three watchers gasped, two with the thought that he must surely have trapped his finger and one because he had. "Its ok...." he said quickly, fearful that the two women would rush to stop him. "....didnt hurt." He continued on, fitting the vial chamber into place, his thin fingers working with practiced speed. "You're really good at this now " Mercedes remarked with encouragement. "I know" came the modest reply as he fitted piece to piece assenbling the hypospray and the two women grinned at the super confidence. Rangi watched the progress with mixed feelings. Bruce Walker seemed to be recovering well, though he slept for hours at a time.This was pleasing ofcourse when so many had not made any progress. He seemed to all intents and purposes, to be an ordinary healthy child apart from the fact that he would be he thirty two years old next birthday and was a Lieutenant jg, newly appointed, in Chimera engineering. He completed the task and handed the hypospray to Rangi for inspection, a proud grin across his freckled face."You see?" he said. "Well done Bruce" she replied, taking the instrument and looking it over. "Perfect!" He beamed in pleasure at her praise. "Time you had a rest now." Mercedes said, standing up. "Lets get you something to eat first though shall we?" Bruce slipped off the bed and took hold of her offered hand. "See you later Doc" he said to Rangi and waked happily away with mercedes. Rangi watched him for a moment then laid the hypospray onto its tray and sighed. {When we get back, we'll have to call his parents ...he'll have to go home...and relive a childhood.} It was an amazing, disturbing thought and Rangi wondered how his parents would receive the news. She turned away and saw Ensign Roberts appraoching her. He had become her source of information, decoding all the messages that came via Ens Tereks system of morse code communication. "Message from the Bridge Ma'am" he said, holding out a padd for her to read. "It says command is now centred in Engineering...orders of Commander Guzman." "Thankyou Ensign" Rangi said quietly, accepting the padd and beginning to read the short message for herself. She wondered at what it 'didnt' say. {If Shane is in engineering...and he's moved the command to there...then where is Samantha Palmer...and why doesnt 'she' communicate anything?} It was a mystery she couldnt explain. *** End Log *** LtCmdr Rangi Summers CMO/2XO USS Chimera & Ltjg Bruce Walker (npc) Rangi & Mercedes Carpenter AMO USS Chimera (npc) Rangi this time