Subjects

32- Learning How To Heal

At 7:15 sharp, Patch walks into storeroom 214B and unlike most days, today Ben isn't up yet. It took him hours to fall asleep last night and when he finally did, he had a nightmare where a horrible creature attacks all of his friends and he tells them not to run away, and they listen.

"Good morning!" Patch calls out to the residents of the room. Slowly, they open their eyes and realize who woke them up. "The captain wants to talk with you all," Patch says. "Be in his office by ten-thirty."

As lovely as this wake up call was, the four don't seem to appreciate it, Angie doesn't seem to care. She goes straight back to sleep when Patch leaves the room.

"We should probably let her sleep," Roger says. "We can fill her in later if he says anything important."

And they do have quite a bit to fill her in about.

Before the talk with the captain, after a quick trip to the kitchen to grab some of Linda's cinnamon rolls, Ben and Eva head to the infirmary again to check on Jeff. This time he is way more focused, they can tell.

"How are you doing, man?" Ben sits next to Jeff's bed.

Jeff tries to appear calm but he is hurting way too much. "Great, the nurse says I'll be running around in no time." He tries to wink at the said nurse but even this seems to be too much of an effort.

"I wanted to give him more pain killers," she says, "he just doesn't want them."

"I need to be able to think straight," Jeff explains himself.

"What you need is to rest," Ben puts his hand through his hair. "You shouldn't make it any worse than it already is."

"I don't think it can get much worse. In a few days I won't have a -" Jeff cuts himself off. "Never mind, how are things on the ship? Does anyone know how this thing got in here in the first place?"

Ben says nothing and so Eva answers, "actually, the captain said that it is some sort of confidential weapon that only he knew about. He did a whole speech about how we can't tell anyone what we saw and that the cover story is a... Misfunctioning explosive..." As she speaks she can see Jeff's expression changing from pain to total disbelief.

"Confidential weapon? You mean he knew this thing was on the ship and didn't think to, I don't know, warn us in any way?" Jeff breathes out in pain before he continues. "I can't believe this, are you telling me that I lost my leg because of some, some- because of..."

Jeff's head drops back as he takes another breath.

"I think that it's time for your painkillers, Jeff," the nurse says.

"No," he still leans back, closing his eyes. "We're still talking."

"It's time for us to leave anyway, Jeff," Ben says.

"You should rest," Eva adds. "We will be back later."

Jeff tilts his head slightly in what can be considered a nod and so Ben and Eva leave.

The captain's office is located at the back of the main deck, right below the access to the bridge. The four subjects find it easily but have more of a problem in the part where they need to actually come in.

"Do we knock, or...?" Emily hesitates.

Ben looks at his watch, ten twenty-nine. He shrugs and knocks on the door.

"Come in," they recognize the captain's voice.

The office is amazing. It has so many cool things to look at and Ben has trouble not gazing around the room excitedly and focusing on the person that called them. There are only two chairs in front of the captain's desk so the four just keep standing up.

"I am sorry that it had to be under such horrible circumstances, but I've been wanting to talk to you for a while now," the captain somehow manages to radiate his authority even though he is sitting and they are towering over him. There is something in his look that just makes them feel that he is in charge.

"As guests on this ship, you are obligated to the same rules as all of the crew. I mean that the confidential weapon you have been exposed to is not to be discussed. You are not to speak of the nature of this weapon or the circumstances in which you where exposed to it. In doing so you will be committing treason."

The four are silent. They understand how serious the matter is and they don't intend to disobey the captain's orders. In fact, they will be glad if they never have to talk about what happened ever again.

As they walk out of the office, they feel lighter. Like they no longer are burdened with the thought of what they saw. Ben especially feels the difference. For the first time in weeks he thinks that maybe he can start to let go.

Maybe.