Beale had been easy enough to cow with the threat of legal action held over his head - well, for the moment at least. Devika didn't even bother with wishful thinking about the score she'd have to settle in the future, one way or another. She'd been feeding him a line of bullshit from beginning to end, and he'd figure that out soon enough, and he didn't seem the kind to be swayed by arguments about the sanctity of human life. Yes, she had certainly made inroads and allies among the like-minded among the people working with the NI techs, good people like Evangeline and the other techs. But no matter how precious they might be, they were far too few and held far too little real authority. 

Beale and Harris however, were a whole other story, and Devi cursed under her breath as she climbed up on a chair, kneeling on the built-in desk before rising shakily to her feet. She reached for the overhead panel the engineer had told her to pry open while he maneuvered into the crawl space beneath Sung Pak's tube. The panel just above her head opened easily enough when she pressed a metal corner, the array of color-coded lights and switches blinking patiently, almost cheerfully at her.

For no reason she could name, this irritated her to no end. 

Devi scowled, her lips pressed into a thin line as she peered over her shoulder. The engineer's booted feet were all she could see, as if the wall had nearly swallowed him whole. She willed herself not to tap her booted foot impatiently as she waited for the word from Beale, to do her small part in all this. 

"Now, Major!" came Beale's voice, muffled by the distance and the machinery, but loud enough. Devi's fingers flashed over the circuits in the order the engineer had given her, her nerves wound so tightly she nearly jumped out of her skin when the entire chamber fell dark, and the clicking hum of emergency lights burst into a golden glow about the edges of the high ceiling.

[i]Within the cyber world traversed only by the NI techs, darkness descended in the space between the ship's vast videologs and the emergency computer back-up, an eclipse nearly as black and formless as the void of space itself, engulfing the damaged consciousness of a single man.

Sung Pak stirred, his dark eyes opening wide as the virtual world suddenly burned bright all around him, his world gone in an instant from cold blackness to an explosion of the senses. Time lost all meaning, and he winced and shut his eyes tight again against the blinding light, his nostrils filled with the acrid stench of ozone and burnt hair and the growling shriek of ancient metal gears grinding - [/i]

"Sung? Sung Pak, can you hear me?" 

Devi had flown into action, leaping from the desk the minute the chamber came back to life, helping to yank Beale from the crawlspace and opening Sung's NI tube. At her shout the techs dashed in with a gurney while she swiftly disconnected the man from all the tubes and wires and catheter. The man's body was rolled to the side, then rolled back again as they slid a sheet beneath him, then hauled Sung to the waiting gurney. 

Devi pulled open one eye, and then another, the scowl disappearing as she watched first one pupil dilate, then another - promising. This was promising at the least, as was the soft moan that escaped the man's lips. It wasn't words, but she dared to hope he was at least trying to respond to her.

"Get him to the surgical ward - the CT scanner is next door - Wait, what... ? No! No, not to the MRI - dear God, with all the metal in him? You'll rip out his brain!" she hissed impatiently at the nearest tech, and then shook her head. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, you couldn't know - please, just take him to the surgical suite and I'll be right behind. "

Devi watched the techs pushing the gurney out of the chamber, stepping briskly to follow behind - and then stopped in her tracks. Her large dark eyes narrowed thoughtfully, and she pulled the tablet from the deep pocket of her white medical coat, small, slender fingers dancing swiftly over its screen.

 [b]"Dr. Brock, you're needed as soon as possible to come take a look at one of our NI techs in the surgical ward. I know this is not your bailiwick, but your input would be invaluable - I'll explain when you get here."[/b]

Devi hesitated for a moment, and then typed just one more message.

[b]"Hob, just wanted to let you know we've gotten Sung Pak from the interface. He's semi-conscious but alive, and at the very least, that's something. [i]- Devi[/i]"[/b] 

She slid the tablet back into her pocket and dashed from the chamber.