TEMPUS TWO CHAPTER EIGHT
Whenever a doctor cannot do good, he must be kept from doing harm.
Hippocrates
“Do you know where a man could get a cup of coffee crewman?”
“Yo Cristian, I mean First Leader.”
“Tiny, how are you?”
“I got a job on a Starship helping the man that got me and my family back together and got me out of jail. I am good, sir.”
“Drop the sir shit, Tiny. Where is Maria?”
“She is at the counter, she helps with the meals.”
“I am going to say hi. How is counselling going?”
“Good Cristian. I have a request, Cristian.”
“Go ahead Tiny?”
“I want to fight, I want to be a soldier.”
“Tiny, can you hold this for while I go say hi to Maria.”
“Sure.”
He walked up to the counter and asked the woman standing there, “Is the coffee here any good?
“OH First Leader” Maria jumped over the counter and gave him the biggest hug.
“Thank you for what you have done for Tiny, and the kids and me First Leader.”
“Tiny has just asked me if he could become a soldier.”
“That is awesome, he is no Janitor.”
“Good to see you again, Maria.”
“Cristian his anger was caused by a small tumour, the bots have it almost gone” Watcher reported.
“Cristian, I am not angry anymore, what happened?” said the very big man.
“Tiny, sit down for a moment.”
“Watcher, make him the warrior.”
“Tiny, you had a tumour that was causing the anger. It has been repaired. You also have some new fighting skills. I want you to report to Sargent Major Helm, Tell him I sent you down for a black uniform and Armour. He is your new boss.”
“Watcher, why hasn’t the crew been inoculated with nanobots?”
“Most have, some were missed.”
“We need that remedied immediately. We also need to add everyone the comm system and given instructions on how to use them. Everyone on the ship right now”
“This is First Leader, Wolf, I need everyone who does not have a comm link to immediately show up at the Med Bay.”
“Doctor Clayburn.”
“Yes First Leader.”
“Some of the crew have not had nanobots or the neural interface added to their bodies.”
“That is correct, I don’t believe they are necessary.”
“That is interesting?”
“Watcher send the data from Tiny’s interface to her medical station.”
“Oh my God, I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t know that the strongest man on the ship with a history of violence and anger issues had a tumour that caused the behaviour.”
“I will step down First, Leader.”
“No you won’t, you will however hold my watch.”
“Cristian the doctor was suffering from Huntington’s. Bots are repairing.”
“Doctor, did you notice that your hand has stopped shaking?”
“What did you do?” Tears flowed from the doctor’s eyes.
“Olivia the bots cure. They repair damage from injuries and disease. There is also a communications interface included in the deal, so we can all talk to each other.”
“If they cure, why do you need me?”
“They are just another system of treatment Doctor. The crew needs a Doctor. The nanobots take time.”
“I understand First Leader.”
“Call me Cristian Olivia. We need everyone on the ship to have them.”
“Sit on the bed and look at the monitor.”
“Watcher, give her all the medical knowledge for all the beings were are currently involved with.”
“These are all of my vital signs and body functions. It shows where the bots are repairing damage in my brain.”
“It does? Looks like a bunch of numbers and pictures, I don’t understand it.”
“This tells me that my gene sequence is being repaired.”
“If you say so, Doctor.”
“Thank you, Cristian.”
“No problem Doc. Let’s get everyone on board through here, including the children.”
“Just do me one favour, don’t call me Bones.”
“Got it,” Cristian said, laughing.
“Nicely handled Cristian.”
“Thanks Watcher.”
“Sargent Major.”
“He is already here, Cristian. I am glad he is on our side. What do you want me to do with him?”
“Let’s put him on the bridge, the bridge crew should have a security presence twenty-four, as should the vital systems of the ship.”
“That is good news that will keep the men occupied.”
“Cristian out.”
“Watcher has the crew been taught to fight?.”
“No.”
“Lorelei, what is our status?”
“We are in transit to the Reticulan Home world.”
“Sweetie, could you stop the ship.”
“What’s up Husband?”
“Our crew can’t fight.”
“What? How can that be Cristian?”
“We were not here to make sure that it was done. There are some that have not had bots either. Including our Doctor. I remedied that. The fighting thing though, we need to fix that now.”
“I agree Cristian. Stopping the ship.”
“Olivia, how many more crew don’t have the bots.”
“I have thirty more to get done.”
“How much time do you need?”
“I need ten, Cristian.”
“Keep me advised.”
“Watcher are these people trained in their jobs aboard the ship?”
“Some?”
“All right now, I am getting pissed off.”
“Watcher, how can we get this done quickly.”
“I have to access the cube.”
“How do we know it’s safe, Cristian?”
“We don’t.”
“Gracie, Alfred, Callahan, meet me in the ready room”
“Captain, could you meet us in the ready room.”
The Mechanicals and the Captain were waiting in the ready room when Cristian arrived.
“Watcher gave us the details, Cristian.”
“Gracie, back up everyone’s data. One more time. I need all the Mechanicals including the E series to firewall no data in or out. The ship AI needs to be completely shut down. I need the reader for the cube.”
“There is a reader built-in into the wall behind you.”
“Watcher, you get to receive all the knowledge. You will have to scan it for malicious code as it is opened.”
“Cristian, there is a port for me beside the cube.”
“Last request old friend shutdown all neural interfaces on the ship as soon as the Doc is ready.”
“Doc?”
“Last one is done now, Cristian.”
“Watcher go to work audio-only” Cristian put the cube and Watcher into the data ports and waited.
“Cristian the interface is beautiful, so much code, so much knowledge. I need ten minutes to assemble what I have assimilated.”
It was the longest ten minutes Cristian had ever gone through.
“Cristian, I have it. I have the complete knowledge of the Gray. I know everything. It is safe. No malicious code.”
“Activate all the neural interfaces. Fire up the ship’s AI. give the information to the AI .”
“On it, Cristian,” said Watcher.
“This is the First Leader you are all about to be given the skills you need to do your jobs. You will also be given fighting and weapons skills. I would suggest that you sit down. You will receive a lot of data in a very short time.”
Let her rip Watcher let’s get the crew trained and cross-trained, so they can do jobs on other parts of the ship if they are needed. Everyone except the children on board. The children should be taught basic safety in space.”
“Captain IT here, the processors are running at 125% they are running hot.”
“Ramp up the cooling. Steve, the heavy use will be over soon” said their Captain.
“Aye. Andy, you heard her more cooling.”
“Cristian, the crew is trained.”
“Captain, I believe we can continue our Voyage.”
“Thanks, husband.”
“Sargent Major can we arm the crew, do we carry enough weapons.”
“There are enough small arms to go around.”
“Come up with a condition system, so we can get the crew ready in a short amount of time.”
“Understood First Leader.”
“As soon as we are ready, we need to do trials and rate the crew.”