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Episode 02: Cosmic Imperative / Re: PRO: S [D01|0500] Sleep is overrated, coffee is king
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“Shampoo works on normal hair grease created by your scalp or whatever, not the stuff we work with down in engineering. Industrial cleaners make my head itchy. And it’s not an allergy or anything, skin isn’t rated for that kind of solvent. You have to do it in small increments over a couple of days.”
Azrin explained it all matter of factly, all while reversing her earlier efforts and redressing until her coveralls were back in place. She had a dirty job, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t know how to clean up when necessary. But she was working so consistently right now that it wasn’t worth irritating her skin to remove grime that would only find its way back minutes later.
Out of interest, she rubbed her forehead on the injection site, feeling for… any difference really. She’d never thought much about hyposprays until a minute ago. Dezra had understood the basics of how they’d worked, but she’d focused on the medical applications. When Azrin thought back to it, her interest was on the mechanics of the hypospray itself. She plucked her current object of fascination off the bed where Arven had dropped it, popping out the vial of medication, then quickly started to deconstruct the whole thing.
She might have remained fully engrossed in that, until receiving the totally out of the blue offer of stimulants. Azrin’s head snapped up to stare at him, mouth open in shock. Wasn’t this the doctor who wanted to heavily sedate her? How did he go from that to offering stims? Especially since he still didn’t seem to understand why she absolutely could not be sedated right now. The quick snap of his fingers brought her back into focus. “Really?” she blurted out, the word coming far too late after a long baffled silence. “That’s– yea– wait– Is this some kind of test? Because I already told you that I’m all good to go once you fix the shoulder stuff. Well, and the nose. But that’s new, and way less annoying than not being able to use my arm. I’m not going to fall asleep during the most exciting moment of my li–” Why was it that bodies always decided to yawn at the most inconvenient times? Was there some sort of biological imperative for it?
Could she program it out?
“Ok,” she relented, “A stimulant might be nice. I just need–” another yawn interrupted her mid sentence. “I just need to be in engineering at 0900. Important engineering things are happening. My project. Ship either goes really fast or explodes. I’m the one who makes sure we go fast.” Azrin could also dumb things down to people who didn’t understand. But while Arven had sounded like he was talking to a child earlier, Azrin tended to act like she was talking to a Pakled. She’d always liked Pakleds. Going fast was an excellent and admirable goal.
“You’re supposed to tell Commander Arnold,” she waved the comment away, still preoccupied with the stimulants. Unfortunately, she tried to physically wave the comment away with her injured arm, which was feeling much better thanks to the pain meds, but apparently not good enough for that specific movement. Azrin winced, arm jerking back down to a better position, and completely dropped all the little odds and ends of the hypospray that she’d disassembled and was holding in that palm. “Oops!” But the word was almost lost amid the tiny plinks of metal hitting the floor. “I can clean that up. And put it back together.”
“But can I have the DTR first? I put my sleeve back on and everything.” Azrin turned at the waist, giving him a better angle on her shoulder to place the bandage wherever was best.
“And I agree to stims only if you swear that this isn’t part of some secret plot to get me to sleep. I have my whole life to sleep! After we activate the slipstream drive in…” Azrin trailed off, a slightly panicked look crossing over her face. She had time right? How long had it been since she’d checked? “Thea, what time is it?”