"What the hell do you mean he's 'caught,' Mr. Beale?" It wasn't so much her words really, that betrayed the little woman's unspeakable rage, but the deathly quiet way she spoke them: quick, clipped, and barely above a whisper.

[i]"Caught,[/i] Major. Locked up like a computer with a nasty virus." The red-haired man in the navy blue jumpsuit looked serenely at the top of the little woman's dark head, taking a single deep breath and letting it out with a long, beleaguered sigh. Harris had warned him about the Major, the new medical officer for Third Shift - and in some pretty colorful language at that. He almost laughed, remembering the laundry list of expletives the Lieutenant had used to describe Major Wilkes-Lane, but caught the guffaw in time to keep it inside, deciding it really wasn't worth making this little pain in the ass angrier than she was already. [i]Technically,[/i] she outranked him, and could still make his life uncomfortable is she really put her mind to it. Everything Lieutenant Harris told him about the Major said she'd probably make it a life's mission.

"And you did not think to tell the on-duty medical personnel first." This was a statement of course, and not a question. Hands on her slender hips, Devika glared up into Beale's face, her upper lip curled in a barely perceptible snarl.

"No ma'am, because there's nothing you can do," Beale answered, oblivious to the fact she hadn't really asked him at all. "That tech is dead, brain dead. Sad, but true." The boredom in his voice and the far distance in his eyes actually told her he was anything [i]but,[/i] and Devika fought the sudden urge to kneecap the NI engineer. The only thing Mr. Beale didn't do was shrug. That probably saved him, his ability to walk away.

"No, he's [i]not[/i] brain dead." Her small hands clenched into small fists at her side, though somehow, some way, she managed to force her visage back into something almost passive. Devika took a deep breath, her hand hovering over the console as she pulled up the display for Sung Pak's brain waves - not that it would tell the NI engineer anything, but she still felt some better confirming her own words. 

"He's likely in a coma, a fugue even, but he's not brain dead and we need to get him out of there. I know the band cannot be removed prematurely without frying the temporal lobe." She did not tell Beale that it was Hob who had told her this; she somehow suspected if he knew, he'd have dismissed her out of hand. But as much as she hated to admit it, the NI engineer's words were coalescing into something that was beginning to resemble a cogent thought, and the words were at her lips before she even realized they'd traveled from her brain.

"Why don't we reset him?"

That got Beale's attention. "Reset him, ma'am?" For the first time during this whole encounter, the NI engineer's hazel-green eyes looked down into the dark mahogany eyes of the nurse, the first cold inklings of horror creeping up his spine.

"Reset him, a hard boot so-to-speak, like a computer that's seized up. Pull him out of the tube, but leave all the leads hooked up. Power down his chamber, then reboot, restart the equipment and put him back in long enough to regain consciousness." 

[i]'I only pray... '[/i]

Those words were spoken with a determined conviction she did not feel in the least, but she spoke them nonetheless. They could not leave Sung Pak as he was, his consciousness glitched into their virtual world, a torturous sight every time the others logged in - 

"No." Beale shook his head vehemently, his already pale face turned an unhealthy ashen grey. "No, that's... No. Major, you don't understand, the exquisite sensitivity of the equipment that goes into the creation of those NI tubes. My boss is already going to have a fit when he wakes up, when he hears about those restraints you ordered removed. A complete shutdown, and a start up? That could fry an entire chamber - "

"You don't know that. And did you just tell me 'no?' Really? Mr. Beale, you must be out of your mind." Devika was merciless, pressing her bluff with all the conviction she had in her fiery soul.

"Ma'am, if a chamber is crisped, do you realize the damage that could do to our navigation systems? How important this equipment is just to get us safely through a universe filled with black holes and supernovas and the molten, pressurized cores of innumerable stars?" Beale's hands had fallen to his side, wide open and pleading with the little woman to understand the gravity of what she was asking, the danger she was tossing all the NI chamber equipment.

"Do [i]you[/i] realize, Mr. Beale, that our NI techs are dropping like flies? Who knows which one will be horrifically injured next?" Deep brown eyes full of misery and suspicion and yes, even rage, flashed through her thoughts, her heart sinking with the thought of yet another sorrow added to the dead weight he already carried. Devika steeled herself. She had to do this, for him at the very least. She [i]had[/i] to, for Hob. 

"Or when? A day from now? A week? A [i]year?[/i] We've only got just so many of these people left to us Mr. Beale, and we are only in the third year of our fifteen year journey! At this rate there will not be a single one left to see us to New Canaan. Your equipment is expensive as hell, no doubt. But those NI techs? [i]They're[/i] the priceless ones." 

"And so you, Mr. Beale, are going to follow my direct orders, [i]this very minute.[/i] I am the Chief Medical Officer here, my purview falls over these NI techs and their health - and if I have to? I will have First Sergeant Larson and her MPs escort you out of here, and I'll replace you with someone who actually [i]can[/i] follow a direct order. [i]Do you understand me, Mr. Beale?[/i] If this man dies because you refused every measure at hand? I will make it my personal mission to see you court-martialed for dereliction of duty, and involuntary manslaughter. [i]I promise you that."[/i] 

There was a veritable mountain of bluff and bullshit in Devika's words, but the diminutive woman had long since learned that whatever she might lack in height, could easily be made up for in conviction, determination and sheer audacious presence. And she smiled - inwardly, of course - as the NI engineer's face went from grey to a very satisfactory shade of green.