After everyone aside from his patient and nurse had left the small operating "room" Doc Valentine and Lillianne began to strip the wounded alien of her top, since it'd just get in the way of his operation, and hooking her up to the machines sitting on the wall. Then he took a syringe full of clear liquid, the woman may already be unconscious but the anesthetic would make sure she stayed that way while he worked on her. After all, he didn't want her to wake up while he was in the middle of rummaging around her insides trying to fix everything. It shouldn't be a particularly difficult operation, after all he'd done plenty of gunshots wounds in his day. The only issue was that they usually weren't closed up around the actual damage like this one, and that was what worried the Doctor a little bit. He was going to have to cut her open just to find the wound, and he didn't want to screw it up. Not that he actually believed he might screw it up.

"Alright, Lillianne, let's do this," Doc Valentine said, "Scalpel."

The nurse didn't reach for any of the tools lying on the table, but rather for the bottle of alcohol. She opened it up to reveal that while it was indeed full of very strong alcohol, it also had a number of surgical tools sitting inside it to sterilize. She carefully pulled out the scalpel and handed it to the Doctor. He didn't start cutting right away, instead taking a long look at the injured alien, trying to decide where it'd be best to start the operation. Then he nodded to himself, and began to operate.

---

Meanwhile Jericho, the only male nurse, had finished up with the former patient who hurried out of the clinic, who was still whimpering a bit as he pushed past Ana and Arus. Zuzen himself acknowledged Ana and Arus's entrance with a simple nod. At the moment he was too focused on Noki to make small talk. Then Jericho came up to the group, glancing back at the 'room' where Valentine and Lilliane were operating on Noki before speaking. "So, she a friend of yours?" he asked curiously.

"Jericho, you know the deal," Nina said, her irritated tone of voice making it obvious she'd had this conversation with the man before, "No questions."

"What? It's not like I asked what they were doing when she got shot," Jericho protested, "And it was kind of, um, rhetorical I think. I mean, why'd they bring her here if she wasn't their friend? That's something only an offworlder would do." At that last statement he laughed it off, making it obvious he was just joking around. But then he stopped and blinked, "Wait, are you offworlders?"

"Jericho!"

"Sorry, they don't have to answer if they don't want to..."

------

Aethel was currently making her way through the corridors of Rectja's Palace, doing her best to seem completely normal. Which wasn't all too hard when she had half of her face covered by a respirator. She'd unfortunately had to sit through even more of dances done by Rectja's slave girls, which hadn't brightened her thoughts much. But she had to stay so that she could see when they were taken back to their cells; or rather, when the Princess was taken back to her cell. Eventually the dancing had ended after what seemed like forever to Aethej, though she was aware it probably seemed like longer to the slaves themselves; not that he planned on ever finding out for certain.

But as she made her way through the palace, her mood improved and she didn't need to pretend. After all, now she had a concrete plan on how to escape from this wretched place. Granted, she'd always planned on escaping somehow but now the opportunity had presented itself and Aethel was willing to seize the initiative. She knew someone would eventually be coming for the Princess, it was only a matter of time before it happened. And Aethel didn't want to be on Rectja's side when it happened; so she wa currently heading down to the woman's cell in order to strike a deal. Plus it'd be no good if the Princess ended up broken before help came, and knowing she had help on the inside would probably be a big help in preventing that from happening.

Eventually she arrived at the Princess's cell, though it took her longer than normal because she didn't head straight there. Instead she'd taken a roundabout route, not wanting any of Rectja's thugs to report to him that she was down here. She hadn't cared when she had come down only to break the monotony with conversation, but now that she was going to be conspiring against the fat alien slob that ruled this place, she figured some caution was warranted. She noticed that the cell was guarded, which was to be expected, but thankfully it appeared to be Shalizar like before. That was good, since when they talked he didn't seem to be as bad as the other thugs Rectja had working for him. So she bounded on up, a peppy grin on her face beneath her mask, and waved at him, "Hey Shalizar! Wassup?"