Chapter 43 - You Get a Checkup, from neck up.

You sort out in your head what you intend to ask. The most pressing matter is the memory reprogramming and the pain you're feeling whenever you *try* to remember something. Sure memories come in flashes, here and there, but whenever you start to dig, you hit a wall of pain. Was what that frozen memory was regarding? IVORI 'layering' over your memories, maybe with pain?

Tomoe is at her machine, and as she cackles and works the console's controls, you see the rings stabilize, and the lighting draw into the rings. Soon, a constant flow of electricity was arcing into the rings and they spun in the middle of their chamber.

"And, charging." She says, a satisfied look on her face. "So, Captain." She turns to look at you with a smile on her face. "How've you been?" She grins wide. 

"Got Fucked in the head a bit," You understate and tap your temple with a gloved finger. "I *could* use a check up, clean out whatever junk the Empire stuffed in there."

"You want me to scrub out your brain wrinkles?" She asks, as she pulls her jumpsuit from the floor, and slips it on. "Well, I suppose my Vacation had to end some time." She smiles and snaps to a salute, which causes her pert breasts to jiggle and her plump ass to shake in the tight material. You nod to her and step aside so she can lead the way to wherever the check up is going to happen.

On the way, you explain in greater detail the pain you've experienced, the layered memories, and your loss in muscle mass. 

"Well the muscles are probably an effect of the cold sleep." She responds as you return to the entrance area. "If you were put under while you were injured it would cause you to lose a lot of your bodily strength, same as someone locked in a coma for too long without muscle stimulation." She leads you down the hallway marked with the blank blue sign. After a security door with the same code, which Tomoe whistles a tune when she punches it in.

"Really, that ancient song?" You chuckle. She shrugs as she leads you into what is a more medical wing to the facility. It had much the same set up as the experimental labs, a modular design structure you realize. However here, the smell of antiseptic is in the air, as she leads you into an examination room. In particular, a massive machine that has a circular opening. You see an examination slab start to slide out as Tomoe hits a key on one of the devices panels. It looks... foreboding, and you feel an anxious pain in the back of your head.

"Okay then, Strip naked and lay on the slab." She pats it, with a beckoning grin.

"Ah, Doc?" You ask, wincing as the anxious feeling grows. "Are you sure we should be using something that big to start with? I mean... maybe we should start slow," You blink at how you phrased that. "I mean... maybe just a hand scanner or something with less power?" Where'd that come from?

"Not very subtle is it?" She asks as she steps away from the machine. "Yeah, they didn't have time for any fine tuning. We called the party crashers before they could. Good, that means they won't have had time for their more problematic tricks. Okay!" She walks past you, out the one room, across the hall to another. "Come on!" she calls and you look to the other women who've been watching with interest.

This room looks more like a totally normal, and not at all suspicious examination room. "Ah, Anagyros, sweetie?" She addresses your mechanical companion, as you step inside. "Could you please wait outside, with the ladies?" She asks with a smile. You look at the little mechanimal and nod when it looks at you for approval. It squeaks as it jumps down and goes back outside. The doors shut out Zoraida and the others and you hear a locking sound. "Don't worry about the window, it shifts to a privacy mode." You hear Tomoe say as you see the women walking into view. Zoraida turning her head to look toward you with.... near accuracy. You feel her reach to you and reach back.

"No connecting please." Tomoe says. You turn around and see her holding a rather plain looking medical scanner. "Captain." She says and you feel Zoraida's understanding as you dial down the connection to the minimal passive state. "Okay, please sit on this stool and face the door." She orders and you take a seat. "Don't move." You hear the whirl of machinery and occasionally see some lights on the edge of your peripheral vision.

"If the programming wants a light scanner, are you even going to find anything?" You ask.

"I'm not looking for anything the Imperials did. I can't fix that." She says in a cool motion. You start to turn but her hand grabs the back of your head and keeps it looking forward. "Don't. MOVE." She orders. Damn Medical officer privilege. "You were frozen while in a wounded state, after being shot in the head. I want to make sure they did a proper job of fixing you before they fucked you up. That I can do without messing with what they put into you, hopefully."

"Hopefully." You respond dryly.

"Trust me." She asks, in that same medical tone of authority.

"You are my Doctor." You assent, and feel your head being rustled and felt up, the cool metal of the sensor touching your ears now and again. Occasionally there's a soft prod or a pinch as Tomoe asks you to remain still as she checks for scars. You obey your Doctor's orders, and feel more pinching, poking and the headaches start to fade away. Was she mixing a massage in with the examination. 

"Keep facing forward." She orders again. That, again. What was she doing that needed you focused directly forward? You should turn around and look.

"There!" You hear her and feel a pinch that hurts, then there's a soft sucking sound. "GOT IT!" There's a kick in your back and you pitch forward. You stumble and roll and turn around.

You're jaw drops as you're staring at a massive machine. It takes up the entire room, and the totally normal examination room has slid away, leaving a construct that looks more like a giant insect with a tapered mouth and a face of needles and probes. Your hand goes to the back of your head, but you feel no pain, and when you check your hand there's no blood. Tomoe is standing beside the machine's 'head' and looking at something wriggling in a small glass jar.

"Tomoe..." You breath and look between the machine and her, "What the fuck?"

"I had to surprise the thing, it was using your senses." She explains and taps the glass jar. "Come on, look at it." You stand up and step closer to the small jar attached to shifting machine. It's small and white and if you flattened it out, you think it would barely cover your thumbnail.

It wriggles and snaps back and forth. That thing was inside your head?! You look to Tomoe. "Yeah, it's in riot mode now. It WOULD be doing that inside your brain, if it had recieved the command.

"Why didn't Ivori just use that to kill me?" You ask. "It said it would if I forced it to do so." 

"Well, maybe you're still considered a 'capture alive' sort of target, or maybe it didn't have the right command programs to trigger it. Fortunately, its out of your head, so you wont have to worry about that." She smiles as she pats the monstrous looking machinery that must have been poking and stroking the back of your head.

It really does look like a massive insects head, now that you have a up close look at it. You frown wide and look back at Tomoe. "So... what about my memories? Will they start coming back."

"Probably!" She smiles. You frown. "What? I still have to actually examine you, you know." She points at the window. "Feel nervous about the other machine now?" She asks, and you look, past where Zoraida, Olivera, and Felisa are talking to the large scanning machine. It looks totally normal compared to what you're standing next to, and you don't feel nervous at all now, or any kind of pain.

"I'm fine with that, Doc. Just so long as it's not going to have something like this," You gesture to her extractor, "waiting for me inside."

"Captain, I'm hurt." Tomoe gasps and spreads her finger over her sternum, "These adorable machines are my personal creations. They'd never hurt you or any other member the crew." She says, rather specifically, actually. 

"Oh Yeah, so what if some Imperial or a Pirate got too close to them?" You ask with a dark curiosity. 

"Hamburger meat." She deadpans and you cover your face with your hand to hide your reaction.

"God Damnit, Tomoe." You sigh. "Just... let's just get this over with." You shake your head as Tomoe smiles and opens the door. Zoraida steps up to see what's happened, and gasps when she sees the horrible, mechanical, extractor machine.

"It's so cute!" she gasps and you look between Zoraida and the extractor. Oh-kay. You sigh and give Zoraida a hug as you pass her, and a kiss on the cheek. You enter back into the first examination room, and Tomoe stops to face you.

"Okay, Captain. Strip naked and get on the slab." She says with a smile, and realizing that this time it's for real, you oblige her. "Wow, you really did get worked over. She sighs as she walks around you. She runs a hand over where your scars where, as if she can tell even with the healing Zoraida's loving has brought. "Zoraida's done good work, but that bug might have been holding back some of your own recovery..." She nods and points at the slab.

It slides you into the empty chamber, and you start to hear the machine boot up. "Okay, Captain?" Tomoe asks, "I'm going to start with a basic body scan. Tell me if anything hurts."  You agree and a light red light starts to pass over you, from top to bottom. Nothing feels odd, though there is a slight warmth. 

You comment on that, and Tomoe replies with "That's part of the scan, that's a good thing." Sounding confident as she worked. The scans continued, looking for dermal damage, muscle abnormalities. Each scan on a different wavelength to ascertain what was happening within you. It went on for maybe twenty minutes before Tomoe stopped to let you stretch your legs a bit.

"Okay, Captain," Tomoe starts, "You're in rough shape, but I've seen worse. Hell, you've been worse off. So I know how to put you back together." She gives you a thumbs up. "The next part will be bit that hitchhiker in your head was worried about, a guided memory recovery." She smiles.

"I thought you said," you blink, and remember she'd said that while the 'hitchhiker' was still in your head, a lie to deceive it, nice. "So I'm going to remember everything?"

She shakes her head. "No." She holds up a glass cylinder with a purple fluid in it. "This is a plant once grown on our homeworld. It was original little more than a local adaptation of Myosotis Scorpiodes. However, something about the planet's existing plant structure caused an change in its genotype, leading to a unique effect. It became a key ingredient in medications to turn back mental diseases,, such as Alzheimer's, and a diluted form could help those recovering from shock regain their memory."

"A diluted form?" You pick up on that and she nods. 

"In its pure form, it can force a person to relieve a recent memory. There were... individuals... who used this for criminal practices; Obtaining trade secrets, security codes, that sort of thing." She explains offhandedly. "Rather smart, one of them actually had a ailing parent, used her to get the prescription and took the extras to extract the core from." She started to pace. "Who'd have thought such a nice guy, with a pretty face, would be so damn sneaky." She crosses her arms. "Right. I don't have MUCH of the stuff, since our planet was taken over completely by the Imperials, they haven't been selling or shipping any of the stuff."

"Wait, so what about that 'greenhouse' you've got."

"That's my personal stash, helps pay the lease." She explains. "I've tried starting a cloned batch of the plants, based on the genome sequence, but it never works out right. There's probably stashes and samples in hospitals and labs all over, but they're going to be rare now, and under lock and key."


"But with it, this machine can help you remember two, maybe three memories and moments. If we get more of the stuff, I can help you unlock more, depending on how much we find. I've tried growing some myself, but the clone genes never work out right, for some reason. It has to be something grown on our world, or with soil from our world. So there might be people who have greenhouses, exotic greenhouses, with the means to replicate it. But again, that's going to be expensive, or... legally... difficult to acquire." she adds.

You sit on the slab, and look at Zoraida as she hands you a glass of water. You've got the chance to get your memories back, piece by piece, but after these three, it's going to cost you just to get the materials you need. And if not you, then you might have to rob hospitals or pharmacies to get what you need. That thought turns your guts as you drink the water.

"Let's focus on that later..." You say, pushing it off. "So three memories?" You ask, and Tomoe nods. "What do I need to do?"

"Just say them out loud, start to focus on them." She looks at Zoraida. "Zoraida knows a lot about your time in the Imperial military, and I kept my finger on the pulse of the Nobility, mostly because your Mother, her Majesty, backed a lot of Medical philanthropy. Even before the 'annexing' became an outright occupation." The memory of leaving your mother flashes briefly. What's happening right now? Was she still alive? "Between us, we can do the math and calculate how 'strong' the machine has to be to reach a memory, depending on how old it is." 

"What memories do you go looking for?" Tomoe asks, holding up the purple vial.

Choose three memories to go looking for; 

And for the sake of participation, each Voter may only suggest one. However, you may support another's suggestion, if there are more than three; if they're aren't at least three suggestions by the TBD time of the votes closing, writer discretion will take effect.