Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Two

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(Starts on day 15 at the Guild, I believe)

Rigel nodded to all they said then touched his temple in a wry salute before heading out. Yeah, even he doubted the dragon queen was dead, just missing.

Asher smiled gratefully at Rigel as he left, then looked to Kay. "You should go rest," he said softly. "And you should go get yourself fixed," he added to James, "I can look after the med bay for a while."

Kay looked hesitant. [I need to check on Esk first.] Yeah, he was worried about his little brother as well. Esk hadn't let him get very close but Kay knew he was in a bad way.

Asher nodded. "Okay. Do we have documentation on everyone's condition? If we do, I'll read that over while you check on Esk."

Kay had managed to grab most people's medical notes, Sawna and whoever else had been looking for people had probably been given a lot of them when they'd discharged people from hospitals. Hopefully they'd handed them over.
Kay gave Asher what he had.

He held onto Esk's, he wanted to read through it. He hadn't had a chance yet.

[Anything urgent, call me alright?] He looked at Asher sternly, but his expression faltered and he smiled weakly. He was just too relieved Asher was alive. [I can work on very little sleep, you forget, this sort of chaos is what I have the most experience in.]

"Of course," Asher smiled affectionately at Kay. "I'll call you if I need help, but I probably won't. My legs may not be working, but my hands are just fine. Besides, no matter how well you function without sleep, you'll function much better with some rest." He looked over at James, "Shoo, go get your shoulder fixed. Maybe Mourn can help you. He's okay, right?"

James nodded. "Mourn is okay, yeah."

"Then ask him to fix you up. Shoo!"

James shooed. He didn't like being in the med bay with the hurt people, anyway. He went to look for Mourn.

Mourn was in his room, tinkering with Amity's drone. He'd taken most of the chassis off and he had a laptop hooked up to the thing's insides, trying to determine how much actual internal system was damaged and if he could recover it.
So far it looked like the external structure had taken most of the force of the fall and gunshot, leaving the data systems and actual AI parts mostly intact.
So far...

---

Kay nodded and went to find Esk, reading over the discharge notes as he walked.
Oh dear, this didn't look good.
He took his medical scanner out just to confirm this and knocked on Esk's door.
When he got no response he tried again, then tried the door and found it unlocked.
He was worried, so he peered into the room and tapped again on the doorframe.

Esk mumbled something incoherent.

Esk? Stellan wake up. Kay stayed in the doorway in case Esk woke up aggressive and tried to throw something.

Instead Esk just rolled onto his back and groggily asked "What d you want? get outta my head.. "

Kay looked relieved. I'm a medic remember? I'm here to make sure you're not going to stop breathing in your sleep.

Esk managed a weak snort and opened his eyes. "No such luck brother.. "

Kay ventured closer. Can I scan you?

"Whatever..."

The scans confirmed what the guild medics had already written down. Kay frowned.

Esk watched him dully. "The look on your face tells me it's not good news."

Kay looked away.

"What is it? Am I dying or what?" Esk insisted, looking faintly annoyed and pulling himself into sitting position.

What happened? Kay asked. He was trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

Esk frowned, trying to remember. "Keeper appeared, big ass axe.. fought for a bit.. caught me in the side. " Hmm, things got a bit fuzzy after that. "Skye came, and then I don't.. I don't know.." Hmm, he didn't like not remembering, it was really disorienting.

A keeper? Did you drain them? Maybe that would explain these readings.

"I don't remember okay? I was kinda busy bleeding to death." Esk snapped.

Kay exhaled deeply.

"What's wrong? Why do I still feel like shit then doc?" Esk folded his arms, watching Kay.

Kay shook his head. I've never seen anything quite like it, it's like... your body flash healed. Sure it's stopped you bleeding to death immediately, but Esk... you've lost a lot of blood, you have a massive blood clot that the hospital's been trying to break down with that IV He indicated the drip. three of your ribs are damaged, I mean they've healed but they aren't moving like they should and then.. you've pretty much lost a kidney and your liver appears to be struggling through massive scar tissue.

"Pretend I don't have a medical degree." Esk spoke flatly.

Kay nodded. You probably need a blood transfusion, if not multiple ones. You'll need surgery to repair what's not healed correctly, we're going to have to try to see if we can cut out the damaged portion of liver and hope your healing ability can regenerate it correctly and that clot... if a piece of it breaks off it could block an artery, it could travel to your heart, it could go to your brain.

"And that's bad right?"

You'd be dead before you hit the ground. Kay looked grim.

"So basically, i'm fucked yeah?"

If we do nothing? Yes. But we aren't going to do nothing. I'm going to keep you on the anticoagulants, they should help the clot break down safely. You'll need close monitoring though. We need to keep an eye on the clot, on your liver and kidney function and your blood count. You need to stay in bed alright? I'll have James or Asher check on you throughout the night. Kay chewed his lip.

Esk rolled his eyes. "Fine." Not like he had the energy to get up anyway. "So how long have I got?"

I don't know, there's too many variables at play. Esk, i'm not going to let you die. We WILL fix this.

Esk closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the wall. "How are the others?"

A lot of them are hurt, but they're recover. Matt's unlikely to be walking for a few weeks, Asher's lost the use of his legs, we don't know where Starr is... He was starting to worry about Starr now.

"Dawn?" Esk asked.

She's resting. According to her notes she overdid it, overexertion was their prognosis but we'll keep an eye on her just in case. Kay smiled softly, Esk's fondness for Dawn was sweet. He was capable of caring about people. Esk, right now you need to be looking after yourself. Rest. Please.

"Yeah yeah, sure." Esk sighed. "Goodnight Kay."

Kay nodded, Esk was being actually civil, which worried him all the more. Truthfully Esk was just too tired to throw his walls up or be a jerk, but Kay found seeing him like this extremely concerning.
Goodnight Esk.
He left his brother to sleep, heading back to the medical room to give Asher the report and tell him to keep an eye on Esk.

it decided to triple post... argh

"Vestia, announce my presence?" James asked.

---James is here--- Vestia told Mourn.

~~
Back in the med bay, Asher started reading medical reports after Kay left.

Ethan poked around, trying to be useful.

Asher looked up at Ethan with a frown. "You should go get patched up too. Your shoulder must hurt a lot."

Ethan shrugged, then hissed in pain. Right, shoulder wounds and shrugging didn't mix. He knew that. "You shouldn't be on your own in a wheelchair with a fuckton of patients," he pointed out. "And I'm fine. I've had much worse."

"Relax, the patients aren't going to attack me or something," Asher attempted to joke. "Besides, I can always call someone if I need help. I'm fine."

Ethan looked uncertain.

"Go on, you don't need to be here," Asher said firmly. He frowned, "Ethan, are you okay? You're acting... different."

"I'm fine," Ethan replied defensively. "It's been a weird day, okay?"

"Fair enough," Asher said. That was a good point. "You still need your shoulder fixed up."

Ethan looked disgruntled, but nodded. "Fine, I'll go." He headed out the door.

Asher returned to his reading, only looking up when Kay came in. "How's Esk?"

Kay looked grim. [Stable for the moment.] He handed Asher the scan data and the medical report from the hospital. [We need someone substantially more qualified than me to help him.] He admitted. [With everyone stretched so thin, he could be waiting a while.]

Asher looked over the information with a frown. Yeah, that looked pretty bad to him. "He needs that taken care of as soon as possible, and surgeons are few and far too overworked at the moment. We may want to consider contacting the closest technologically proficient neighbors of the Guild, and seeing if they can help him sooner."

Kay nodded. [I'm also concerned about his blood loss, if his numbers don't come back up soon, he could be in a lot more danger. We have some blood, but not nearly enough to replace what he lost and finding a matching donor is not going to be easy. ] He looked deeply worried.

"Getting more blood that matches his will be next to impossible," Asher agreed. "I don't think we're going to be able to find anyone with his genetic makeup. And I doubt even a donor like his own father would work, since Esk is half hexenfolke. Not to mention they might have incompatible blood types..." He had no idea. Esk's species was weird.

~~
James asked Vestia to alert Mourn to his presence. Vestia told Mourn in Morse that James was there.

[It doesn't help that we know so little about his father's race] Kay shook his head. [Still, keep an eye on his tonight, or get James to. I'll sleep better knowing he's under observation.]

--

Mourn set down the parts he was tinkering with and called "Come!" He swivelled in his chair to see the door.

"Yes, that makes everything a great deal more difficult," Asher said. "I'll check Esk regularly, and I'll ask James to do the same when he comes back." He gave Kay as reassuring a look as he could manage. "And we'll tell you if anything changes, of course."

~~
James opened the door and peered in. "Hey, man! Asher told me I should come see you about getting my shoulder fixed up."

Kay nodded. [Take it easy Asher, please. You may not get physically tired, but even androids need to rest mentally.] He kissed Asher softly on the head, it was kinda weird looking down at him. Hmm. [Wake me if you need me alright?]

---

Mourn tilted his head, then held up his screwdriver. "Yes yes! come, sit.." He looked around for where James could sit, kicking some stuff off the bed and gesturing to it. "let see!"

Asher tried to smile up at Kay. "It's been a long day, but I can wait a while longer to rest. Long enough for you and James to recover a bit, certainly." He wasn't even trying to deny how mentally exhausted he was, but it that could wait a while longer. "Go on, get some rest. You've been working long enough for one day."

~~
James came over and sat, and started trying to remove his armor, which he hadn't taken off yet because he had been busy. It was hard with one arm not working, argh. After some struggling, he managed to pull it off so he could get his shirt off. "There." He said finally. "That was way harder than I expected."

Kay nodded. Asher was right, his feet ached so badly and his back hurt and eugh..
He shot one last look back at Asher, and reluctantly went to bed.

He was so tired, despite all his worry, he'd sleep like a rock.

---

Mourn cackled. "yes, hard do thing one handed." He wriggled his fingers. He had rather limited dexterity in his cyber arm after all, and did do almost everything with his left hand, the organic one.
"Get used to." He nodded. "but I fix. " He moved to grab his tool kit and hefted that up onto the bed beside James, sitting in his chair in front of the android he examined the shoulder to see what was actually damaged.

"Good night, Kay."
Asher found somewhere to plug himself into the wall, which was harder than usual because he had to set the brakes on the wheelchair and lean over really far to reach the power outlet, all while holding onto the chair so he didn't fall on his face. This was going to be rather inconvenient, wasn't it?
Oh well.
He went back to reading the notes, trying not to think about all the dead, and the people who had killed them. It was going to be a long night.

~~
James grinned. "Thanks, Mourn. The medics want me to be able-bodied and fit for duty, which I don't want, but I guess I gotta help out anyway." He had brought some adhesive, and the stuff to dissolve it. He started applying that to the seams on his shoulder so he could get the skin off.

Sawna would be kept out all night, helping where she could as she searched the medical buildings. She was allowed to drink blood as she needed it in exchange for helping heal the priority patients. It would be nearly dawn the next day before she would return to Vestia, still without word of Starr. No one even remembered seeing her after she came down to the city.

Rigel would return that night, frowning at his fruitless search. He would let Vestia know then head for bed himself.

Mourn examined the damage, getting out a few tools to try to repair the tear. he made tutting noises. "Silly robot."

"I'm not silly," James grumbled.

With the skin off, it was clear that the main alloy "bone" of James's arm had snapped near his shoulder, making all the wires and cables that allowed his arm to move hang uselessly. A few wires had ripped free entirely under the strain. Mourn would need to repair or replace the arm "bone" before anything else could really be done about that mess.

James looked curiously. "Wow, I've never done that to myself before."

Someone knocked on the door.

"Come in!" James called.

Ethan came in. "Hey guys." He stared at James's arm. Whoa.

Mourn turned around. "Hello other robot!" He waved. "Robot brother break arm." He frowned back at James' shoulder. "Stress metal too much. Need parts. Can maybe weld support, fix wires, but need get new part to be strong again. Metal too stressed." He ran a finger along the snapped part thoughtfully, then jumped down and started rummaging through his boxes and piles of junk. "Can make plate, hold edges, but no be as strong. No heavy lifting. No fighting." He looked back to Ethan. "What other robot want? Broken too?"

"No lifting, no fighting. Got it." James grinned. "I'll try to be careful." He watched Mourn's search.

"Clawed shoulder," Ethan said. "Mostly just skin damage, but there are a few wires that need to be soldered back together too, and I'd rather not have to repair those myself."

Mourn nodded, then went back to digging. "sit, I fix when finish Brother. AHAH!" He held up a metal scrap victoriously.
"Hold." He handed it to James and dug out his soldering equipment. He planned to use the scrap of metal to bolt and weld a support to the two pieces of bone and keep them together. It would be a temporary patch, but he hoped it would hold up long enough to get replacement parts. They needed to get a lot of spare parts. Hmm.
"You help." He told Ethan. "Hand tools yes?"

James held the metal scrap obediently. "Yes, sir!"

Ethan nodded. "Sure. I can do that," he told Mourn. He wasn't a skilled mechanic or anything, but he did know how how to tell some tools apart. He went over to James to gawk at his injury. "Glad I'm not you right now, James," he said dryly.

James poked at his arm "bone" and looked pleased. "And I'm glad I'm not you. This way is better."

Ethan winced at the sight of James poking his injury. Geez, that was nasty.

"No feeling helpful." Mourn agreed, pulling on a half goggle thing to protect his good eye and reaching up to click his optic into magnification mode. "I make order for part later." He set to work, drilling out little holes for the bolts, yanking the bone back into position, clamping it and bolting the metal plate to it. He'd then weld it as well, just to make sure.