Writer's Block: Health Care
Sep. 24th, 2008 12:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wytchcroft[Error: unknown template qotd]
Shepherd Solomon Face had been on Serenity for some time now, seen more than a few strange things; shady things, shiny things and just plain THINGS...
The last came mostly c/o Jayne and, like the man himself, were best left unclassified.
Been with the crew through scrapes aplenty.
Hell, after the Abbott sent him to find Captain Malcolm Reynolds, turned out the only way of actually meeting the man was by busting him out of the gaol house on Seleni moon.
And since then?
Well, there had been Saffron and diamonds, River going all public Ouija and getting the folks on Regis steamed up some. There had been Jayne (again) AND his mother, with the son taking a bullet for her too.
Just recently, Serenity had been hijacked while the Doc' was delivering contraceptives to the working girls at the floating trailer park.
That was Xmas.
Helluva present.
And that was about the size of it...
...Uh, yeah there was the little matter of Face pushing a fella out the airlock, but he was not one to dwell.
Anyhow, the fact that he hadn't got shot up himself till now - well, that was a blessing sure, but nothing else 'cept good luck and a matter of time.
Time having run out just now as found himself falling (in as dignified a manner as possible) in a somewhat agonised heap with three bullets in him.
He did make a fairly righteous noise as he hit the deck, literally, that was some consolation.
He couldn't really hear too well of a sudden - but he was fairly certain that Kaylee's voice was yelling out.
"Hey - now why d'you shoot the Shepherd for?!"
The rest of the conversation passed him by - but he could imagine how it would have gone...
It had been the passenger that shot him. Short, little pasty. Quiet too. Seemed reasonable enough early on, he got his passage.
Things got nasty after he revealed he had Lank's syndrome. Quick and nasty - hangover from the war munitions.
Man was in the terminal stages - so he needed treatment fast, before his nerves turned to mush.
"Why? Coz I'm SICK - remember!" The fella, name of Chester apparently, was reminding Kaylee of the essential details right then.
"Sick, yes?!" Chester was bellowing and wheezing at the same time, no mean trick. "And you know, SICK people do crazy things! Sick people -"
"Talk too much sometimes - which is mighty useful if you're trying to sneak up behind them, kinda like this."
Situations like that, Reynolds could be relied on.
"Aw crap."
"Now a sick fella - I got some sympathy for and thats a truth. But a man putting holes in my crew, I start to regard a little different."
"I said aw crap already! You want it in Chinese too!!?"
"Wouldn't hurt none." And the click of a hammer on a pistol, surely.
And then some fair fluent Chinese.
Kaylee's voice came again, "Capt? He's hurt real bad."
And that was just unfair, if he was dying, would it hurt the big fella any to lay on a little pretty at least?
Apparently so, the only face he saw staring down at him was Mal's. How'd he get there already?
"Yeah," the Captain was saying, "he's back again."
Did I go someplace?
Reynolds must've seen something in the Shepherd's eyes because he leant down and said firmly. "I know you aint real minded to talk right now, but I advise you to not be thinking so hard, that can hurt you some too."
There was a laugh somewhere in the gurgle Face made.
"What?" Reynolds caught the injured man's meaning plain enough. "Hey now... and you want me to save your sacred and somewhat dying self, you best be nice."
Face kept his mouth shut, weren't much use to him anyways right now.
Another voice cut in. "I'm dying too remember! And I have - I HAD a gun! I'm gorram desperate here Reynolds. You get us both to a hospital, I figure you'll be happy for the saving of two -"
That must the sound a man makes when he hits the deck without bullets in him thought Face, struggling to stay conscious.
Reynolds must have grabbed a com speaker because his voice had that echoey sound; "Ok, people we got ourselves a - not unfamiliar situation here."
Zoe's voice came back from the flight deck and quick about it too. "What, someone get shot again?"
"That would be the honest of it, yeah."
"And I was just thinking how dull life had become without the constant mortal injury to us crew."
"Hey, don't be leaving me out of it - I get shot up plenty too."
Solomon broke his silence to gurgle again, and Mal heard him. "Right, right - well, I know you ladies up there probably enjoying your usual musical chairs over the pilot seat, but we need some real flying now. Can we even GET to a hospital?"
"I knew we shoulda kept the Doc on-board." Jayne's gruff tones came up from the engine room. Simon having elected to mostly stay on Independence as the new Mr Universe.
"Yes," Zoe sounded sympathetic. "I believe your very words were, 'Doc's staying down there? Aint that worth getting drunk for'."
Zoe could be waspish, but now was really not the time.
"There's an Alliance hospital," the sick man spoke up, "pretty good one, Axiom, near the moon of -"
"Templeton." Zoe had found it. "Apparently."
"I'm not going," the unseen River Tam was firm.
"Sweety, no-one's gonna make you go inside." Kaylee reassured.
"Best set a course then," said Mal, "Whiles we figure some method of entry. Not to say payment."
"Didn't think you had to, not in a Core Hospital."
Technically that was truthsome enough but, life was complicated. Alliance had created the single health initiative a long time back; a way to prove unity and get one over on the Rim.
Healthcare for all. If you were with the Alliance. 'Course, reality was that if you were nobody you had to wait in line... and the Core was full of nobodies, even if they were clean and well dressed nobodies at that.
Other hand, you were a someone, you had rank, influence, (coin even, if it came to that) then queues seemed to just vanish away and you were in and right quick about it.
That left a lot of sick nobodies - but who worried over that.
Just more nobodies.
Not everyone was set against this though or against the alternatives.
Folk like Reynolds saw the Rim as harsh, sure, but a little competition, that was just fair play.
Not to mention the moneys as could be made off a decent medical cargo.
Mal was glaring down at him of a sudden. "Quit that!" he was urging. "Y'hear me? Stop wriggling around, dong mah? You'd think you wanted to get them wounds opened up."
Shepherd Face wondered how hard it was to get blood off a man's dreadlocks. I must be far gone he thought. Aint nothing but foolishness in my noggin now.
But he was still wriggling... and... there! He pulled the palm ID from his pocket.
Captain Malcolm Reynolds leapt to his feet almost as fast as his eyebrows were jumping.
"Oh, you have got to be funning me!" he yelped. "Tah ma Duh! Not again."
The Shepherd had absolutely no idea what the man was raving about - and waved the ID as wildly as he could.
Mal snatched it. "Parliament Agent 1f5X underscore T," he read out. "Well now, Mr... Underscore, don't that change things a deal."
Solomon shook the small part of his head that he could still feel. "URGGHGRRH..." he croaked.
"What now?"
"Unnnn... dergggh... round..."
"Sounds like 'Underground'," Kaylee, ever helpful.
"Huh." Said Reynolds. No doubt folding his arms, Face imagined. "The underground.. wuh de mah."
A pause.
A little frownng maybe.
Kaylee said it first. "You think then... you know that... that maybe Shepherd Book...?"
Whatever the girl was talking about, that was the moment Shepherd Solomon Face decided to tune out of this particular episode and wait for the next one.
He was not disappointed. He didn't die - and was therefore free to catch up with the adventures of Serenity about a week later.
After the Hospital had discharged him.
The only real harm done, far as he could tell, was that Mal had managed to keep hold of his fake ID, which would likely rile the Abbott some, Solomon had no doubt.
apologies for earlier typos - don't ask. Also - this is fiction already.
Shepherd Solomon Face had been on Serenity for some time now, seen more than a few strange things; shady things, shiny things and just plain THINGS...
The last came mostly c/o Jayne and, like the man himself, were best left unclassified.
Been with the crew through scrapes aplenty.
Hell, after the Abbott sent him to find Captain Malcolm Reynolds, turned out the only way of actually meeting the man was by busting him out of the gaol house on Seleni moon.
And since then?
Well, there had been Saffron and diamonds, River going all public Ouija and getting the folks on Regis steamed up some. There had been Jayne (again) AND his mother, with the son taking a bullet for her too.
Just recently, Serenity had been hijacked while the Doc' was delivering contraceptives to the working girls at the floating trailer park.
That was Xmas.
Helluva present.
And that was about the size of it...
...Uh, yeah there was the little matter of Face pushing a fella out the airlock, but he was not one to dwell.
Anyhow, the fact that he hadn't got shot up himself till now - well, that was a blessing sure, but nothing else 'cept good luck and a matter of time.
Time having run out just now as found himself falling (in as dignified a manner as possible) in a somewhat agonised heap with three bullets in him.
He did make a fairly righteous noise as he hit the deck, literally, that was some consolation.
He couldn't really hear too well of a sudden - but he was fairly certain that Kaylee's voice was yelling out.
"Hey - now why d'you shoot the Shepherd for?!"
The rest of the conversation passed him by - but he could imagine how it would have gone...
It had been the passenger that shot him. Short, little pasty. Quiet too. Seemed reasonable enough early on, he got his passage.
Things got nasty after he revealed he had Lank's syndrome. Quick and nasty - hangover from the war munitions.
Man was in the terminal stages - so he needed treatment fast, before his nerves turned to mush.
"Why? Coz I'm SICK - remember!" The fella, name of Chester apparently, was reminding Kaylee of the essential details right then.
"Sick, yes?!" Chester was bellowing and wheezing at the same time, no mean trick. "And you know, SICK people do crazy things! Sick people -"
"Talk too much sometimes - which is mighty useful if you're trying to sneak up behind them, kinda like this."
Situations like that, Reynolds could be relied on.
"Aw crap."
"Now a sick fella - I got some sympathy for and thats a truth. But a man putting holes in my crew, I start to regard a little different."
"I said aw crap already! You want it in Chinese too!!?"
"Wouldn't hurt none." And the click of a hammer on a pistol, surely.
And then some fair fluent Chinese.
Kaylee's voice came again, "Capt? He's hurt real bad."
And that was just unfair, if he was dying, would it hurt the big fella any to lay on a little pretty at least?
Apparently so, the only face he saw staring down at him was Mal's. How'd he get there already?
"Yeah," the Captain was saying, "he's back again."
Did I go someplace?
Reynolds must've seen something in the Shepherd's eyes because he leant down and said firmly. "I know you aint real minded to talk right now, but I advise you to not be thinking so hard, that can hurt you some too."
There was a laugh somewhere in the gurgle Face made.
"What?" Reynolds caught the injured man's meaning plain enough. "Hey now... and you want me to save your sacred and somewhat dying self, you best be nice."
Face kept his mouth shut, weren't much use to him anyways right now.
Another voice cut in. "I'm dying too remember! And I have - I HAD a gun! I'm gorram desperate here Reynolds. You get us both to a hospital, I figure you'll be happy for the saving of two -"
That must the sound a man makes when he hits the deck without bullets in him thought Face, struggling to stay conscious.
Reynolds must have grabbed a com speaker because his voice had that echoey sound; "Ok, people we got ourselves a - not unfamiliar situation here."
Zoe's voice came back from the flight deck and quick about it too. "What, someone get shot again?"
"That would be the honest of it, yeah."
"And I was just thinking how dull life had become without the constant mortal injury to us crew."
"Hey, don't be leaving me out of it - I get shot up plenty too."
Solomon broke his silence to gurgle again, and Mal heard him. "Right, right - well, I know you ladies up there probably enjoying your usual musical chairs over the pilot seat, but we need some real flying now. Can we even GET to a hospital?"
"I knew we shoulda kept the Doc on-board." Jayne's gruff tones came up from the engine room. Simon having elected to mostly stay on Independence as the new Mr Universe.
"Yes," Zoe sounded sympathetic. "I believe your very words were, 'Doc's staying down there? Aint that worth getting drunk for'."
Zoe could be waspish, but now was really not the time.
"There's an Alliance hospital," the sick man spoke up, "pretty good one, Axiom, near the moon of -"
"Templeton." Zoe had found it. "Apparently."
"I'm not going," the unseen River Tam was firm.
"Sweety, no-one's gonna make you go inside." Kaylee reassured.
"Best set a course then," said Mal, "Whiles we figure some method of entry. Not to say payment."
"Didn't think you had to, not in a Core Hospital."
Technically that was truthsome enough but, life was complicated. Alliance had created the single health initiative a long time back; a way to prove unity and get one over on the Rim.
Healthcare for all. If you were with the Alliance. 'Course, reality was that if you were nobody you had to wait in line... and the Core was full of nobodies, even if they were clean and well dressed nobodies at that.
Other hand, you were a someone, you had rank, influence, (coin even, if it came to that) then queues seemed to just vanish away and you were in and right quick about it.
That left a lot of sick nobodies - but who worried over that.
Just more nobodies.
Not everyone was set against this though or against the alternatives.
Folk like Reynolds saw the Rim as harsh, sure, but a little competition, that was just fair play.
Not to mention the moneys as could be made off a decent medical cargo.
Mal was glaring down at him of a sudden. "Quit that!" he was urging. "Y'hear me? Stop wriggling around, dong mah? You'd think you wanted to get them wounds opened up."
Shepherd Face wondered how hard it was to get blood off a man's dreadlocks. I must be far gone he thought. Aint nothing but foolishness in my noggin now.
But he was still wriggling... and... there! He pulled the palm ID from his pocket.
Captain Malcolm Reynolds leapt to his feet almost as fast as his eyebrows were jumping.
"Oh, you have got to be funning me!" he yelped. "Tah ma Duh! Not again."
The Shepherd had absolutely no idea what the man was raving about - and waved the ID as wildly as he could.
Mal snatched it. "Parliament Agent 1f5X underscore T," he read out. "Well now, Mr... Underscore, don't that change things a deal."
Solomon shook the small part of his head that he could still feel. "URGGHGRRH..." he croaked.
"What now?"
"Unnnn... dergggh... round..."
"Sounds like 'Underground'," Kaylee, ever helpful.
"Huh." Said Reynolds. No doubt folding his arms, Face imagined. "The underground.. wuh de mah."
A pause.
A little frownng maybe.
Kaylee said it first. "You think then... you know that... that maybe Shepherd Book...?"
Whatever the girl was talking about, that was the moment Shepherd Solomon Face decided to tune out of this particular episode and wait for the next one.
He was not disappointed. He didn't die - and was therefore free to catch up with the adventures of Serenity about a week later.
After the Hospital had discharged him.
The only real harm done, far as he could tell, was that Mal had managed to keep hold of his fake ID, which would likely rile the Abbott some, Solomon had no doubt.
apologies for earlier typos - don't ask. Also - this is fiction already.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 02:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 03:07 am (UTC)it's on your personal homepage,
they get set by random people - not me,
i could never think of a question!!:)
anyway say what you want - where you want, i don't mind:)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 05:08 am (UTC)"вашу священную и слегка как бы умирающую особу"! good good good
but...what does it mean fake ID - who the hell are those Shepherds, making fake ID's of Parliament agents?
nobody knows, I believe... and those who know - they never talk :)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 08:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 08:28 am (UTC)""вашу священную и слегка как бы умирающую особу"!!"
it IS fun trying to fit the voices...
thanks again:)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 08:52 am (UTC)if "fit the voices" means that you're trying to let them speak in theirs specific manner, I think, you get this perfectly - as I can see exactly young mr. Fillion as Mal just saying that:)))
what I specifically like in your FF stories is that how you play with the phrases taken out of original scenarios - that is a really good game and adds a lot of very specific feeling of... uh, realism, I'd say.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 09:06 am (UTC)филоолгический вопрос
Date: 2008-09-24 05:01 pm (UTC)is it like "O, NOOO!" or?
:)))
Re: филоолгический вопрос
Date: 2008-09-24 05:04 pm (UTC)Re: филоолгический вопрос
Date: 2008-09-24 07:38 pm (UTC)by the way I've got much faster network connection since, and... I watched that link - Jayne singing Jayne - and that was a real LOL!
Re: филоолгический вопрос
Date: 2008-09-24 07:47 pm (UTC)Great!:) oh, im so glad:)