The room cleared out in less than a minute, despite the grumbles of the retreating white coats. Dr. Rame looked at Weston in gratitude. Normally, he was in full command of his medical facility. To lose control to a mob had obviously flustered him severely.

“Thank you, Captain. I assume you’re here to check up on our guest?” The doctor wrapped his tongue deliberately around the word guest, as if trying it on for size, then shook his head, as if the word didn’t quite fit.

“Yes, Doctor. How is she?”

“Human,” Rame snorted, the word slipping out before he could stop it. “I mean, she’s fine, Captain. Slight case of dehydration and some unusual cellular damage, but that seems to be healing quickly. Other than that, she’s in great shape.”

“When will she wake up?” Dr. Palin asked.

“I don’t know for sure; probably within a few hours. She’s also shown some signs of extreme fatigue, so it’s best to let her rest at this point. We have an IV drip administering fluids, so she can sleep as long as necessary.” The doctor picked up a tablet computer and jotted a note down with a stylus.

Odd habit, Weston thought and then just shrugged it off. Some people didn’t like dictating to computers. Stephanos was one of them, though Weston knew that his former wingman had always used a standard keyboard rather than a stylus, claiming that he felt like a complete idiot talking to a computer as if he expected some intelligent response.

He, himself, was a technophile and didn’t have that particular problem, let alone understand those who did. So he just shrugged it off and turned his attention back to the situation at hand.

As he considered the doctor’s report, Weston glanced between Rame and the motionless figure lying in the isolation chamber. “All right, Doctor, but I want to be informed as soon as she wakes up, and you’d better inform Dr. Palin here as well. He’ll be in charge of all communication attempts with her.”

The chief medical officer (CMO) looked over at the quiet man in the corner, noting his vacant expression with some puzzlement, but nodded his assent. “Yes, sir. I’ll be sure to call you both.”

Weston left, hooking a right out the door and heading for his cabin. Dr. Palin followed his lead.

Dr. Rame watched them leave, slowly shaking his head. At least he didn’t try to have her interrogated immediately…or give her to those ghouls down in the bio-lab.

He shuddered. As a medical doctor, he didn’t want to think what it would do to his career if he’d had to lock the ship’s captain out of the med-lab.

Even so, Rame couldn’t decide whether he trusted that odd little doctor. And so, still shaking his head, he turned back to his terminal and began to correlate the data he had gathered while treating his impromptu patient’s injuries.