Hale slipped into a booth on the verge of collapse... -- Starbuck Rugby

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Date Posted: 21:13:16 01/11/02 Fri
Author: Mark Hale
Subject: Hale slipped into a booth on the verge of collapse...

...even as Javier jubiliantly skipped to the counter. The soldiers shot Mark a glance, and he managed to blink the appropriate coded response informing them everything was proceeding fine.

"But it's not fine, not by a longshot, is it? My head....still pounding. The feeling in my body is indescribable. Like being completely exhausted and not being able to sit still, like the flu and pneumonia blended together. My ears....still a faint ringing...and more.

At the counter...Javier making small talk with the waitress...bragging about his ship and his 'business'...if she only knew! In that corner...that couple's breaking up. Poor guy, the tears are already glistening in his eyes! Of course he's no worse off than that kid working the Energesspresso machine. The heat coming off of that, it's going to short out in---whoa, there it goes! Now his supervisor is yelling at him....nice perfume she has at least...

This booth...I feel so cramped in here! You'd think on a primarily Cybertronian Starbase a human like me'd have no problem with room! Whoever designed this place...no sense of human proportion apparently. Eh? A convict did they say? They're here for an escaped convict? How the hell did--

--wait. How the hell did I hear them? They're way across the damn room! And Javier? The Energesspresso machine?! What the hell's happening to me?!

The juice. Not diluted in some beverage. And not your run of the mill untreated energon, which would be poison to us in pure form anyway. It's the other stuff. Has to be. Lord, I can actually feel each individual bead of sweat on my forehead! That crackpot really found Hydrus-4! The number of Cybertronians who still know the location I can count on one, maybe two hands. And some two-bit coffee merchant gets lucky, probably that Decepticon he mentioned!

So hard....to stay focused...under a dozen people in here but hard to focus....too much incoming competing stimuli! Becoming background noise...I have to clear my head....have to complete my mission. If nothing else to find out what the substance is doing to me, what it does to humans! And how it's affecting Javier, if he's taken anywhere near the dose I got. Because if that irregular rhythm I just heard is my own heartbeat, there's more to it than overstimulating my senses.

It's also killing me.

I can't leave Rugby like this and yet, I'll definitely die if I stay. Have to see the mission through to the end, can't let the RSO down. I knew when I signed on there'd be days like this...just have to rest my head....focus Hale, focus...."

Hale folded his arms and lay his head upon the table, shifting and fidgeting left and right as he struggled to get comfortable, unable to remain still for more than a few seconds. As Javier returned with a full thermos or three, Hale shivered even as an unbearable itch claimed his skin. The merchant trader checked his pack and smiled, sipping from a thermos scrutinizing his new partner....

One way or another, 'Dr. Hastings' was providing Javier with the confirmation he needed. And once the pair reached Hydrus-4, a casual 'accident' would definitely be in his future...

"Originality is the art of concealing your sources."
-Unknown

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Replies:

"Feeling alright, doctor?" -- Javier, 20:19:51 06/30/02 Sun