trans_9 | Avenues That Reek of Time to Kill [Closed]

Howard made sure they arrive to Med Bay early, not just because he doesn't want to be late but because if he impresses on Orc to hurry up, Orc might not have time to get completely smashed before they do this thing. Howard would rather not deal with blackout-drunk Orc, but at the same time he doesn't want Orc sober enough to be obstinate or miserable, so they did a stop at the beer tree before coming here.

He invited Barbara and Ian because they were very game for the food excursion, despite is propensity for total revulsion. He invited Anwei because he wants to be close with her again, at least, as close as he gets to people who aren't Orc. And because she brings a new perspective to Stacy, one that's been proven to be more viable than he presumed.

He wanders through the hospital beds and sets up the coffee pot. No reason not to go into a brand spanking new adventure caffeinated. The Medical Bay is large enough that meeting here doesn't even register on the people working actual shifts.

"You want coffee?" He fills up a mug for himself and glances over at Orc. He hopes they aren't waiting long enough for Orc to get impatient or lose interest.

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Orc would have offered to help, but those vials looked delicate and delicate was one of the most difficult things for him to do at his size. So he watched and waited and contemplated the pulley mechanism. Apparently curiosity won out because he tugged at it gently.

One of the curtains of vials lowers into a trench through the floor - god only know where that's going. More vials are lowered from the ceiling, as well as...a music box? An antique wood one that looks as if it's made on Earth, with tiny ballerinas carved into it and a rusted metal clasp.

Anwei leaned over, but couldn't see what sort of take-up mechanism might be in the trench to make sure all the tubes didn't end up in a heap.

She stares at the music box with the concentrated gaze of a mongoose examining a cobra. "Based on the previous box we found, I don't think we should play with that. It hardly looks like laboratory equipment - more likely it's something the people here were experimenting with. Or on."

Or maybe the music box was experimenting on them, ha ha.

"Or someone left it here," Ian said, looking at the box. He was sorely tempted to examine it more closely, but Anwei was right and they probably should leave it alone. "We can always come back another time and with more equipment."

Orc seemed thoughtful as they discussed...or maybe he was just staring. They both look the same.

"Just don't push any buttons." He spoke slowly. "If we leave it might be gone next time." because that sort of stuff happened. "Or someone else will get hurt with it." He moved to reach for the box suddenly feeling that if anyone was going to risk being hurt...it ought to be the guy who felt like he had nothing left to live for in the first place.

The box is just that - a music box. A tiny ballerina figure pops up and twirls in slow motion.

It has three tunes, lullabies from the childhood of each of them. Almost as if it was made with them in mind...

Anwei thought of butterfly bombs. "Careful, Orc, careful! Don't drop it, don't start it-"

Then music started to come from the box, and a clockwork figure spun on it. Too late! She put her hand on Orc's neck, as high as she could reach, and of course couldn't detect a pulse through the stone.

"Ian, can you see any different kinds of liquids? Maybe we should take one sample of each and then go back to Med Bay." Med Bay, where hopefully they could figure out what the first control-box had done to Orc, and how to stop it from happening again.

Ian vaguely recognised the tune the music box was playing, although it was one he hadn't heard since before the war. But nothing seemed to have happened to Orc from touching it, so Ian looked over the vials again.

"They could be different and look the same," he pointed out. It made it difficult to tell which might be different. "I'll start with the ones I've got and see if I can get back here again another time."

Orc was listening more intently and swayed slightly mumbling the words.

"In a cabin in the woods, a little old man by the window stood..."

He stopped when he realized there were still other people here and trudged back for the exit holding the music box. He'd wait till they were done playing with their vials. Howard wouldn't be happy if Orc came back without them.

Anwei twitched when the music box started playing a tune that sounded like teeth tinkling on steel. She remembered that - sort of. From when she had been small and fast and non-sentient; her mothers had played that, over and over again, which is why it had remained in the strange striated recall she had of her youth.

She took a few test tubs for herself, prudently holding them between outstretched fingers, ready to hurl away if they started doing something - actually, if they started doing anything.

Ian followed Orc back the way they'd come. At least the liquid in the vials didn't evaporate or something, the way the leaf had died when he plucked it.

Avenues That Reek of Time to Kill [Closed]

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