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+--- Thread: Guess whose coming to dinner. (/showthread.php?tid=54057)
Guess whose coming to dinner. - HuggieSunrise - 01-29-2011
An older gentleman accompanied by one of the more advanced nurse automatons stood on a corner in front of a rather large home. His room.. as he went to check on its balcony had gingham sheets of fabric blowing in the wind.
It had freshly rained... and it was still threatening to downpour.
'Tinny.. you have that umbrella.. and your waterproof right?' the old man said.
:Sir, this unit is weather proofed to your specification. Umbrella is available for deployment.: The automation emits.
'Oh that's right.. I keep forgetting your price tag.. .. need to work on your speech though.. its an umbrella, not a nuclear missile.'
:sir?:
The man exhaled...
'Deployment... Pick another word for.. .. Listen you should learn this crap on yer own.' stated matter of factly.
:Acknowledged... I got the damn umbrella sir.:
he nodded.
'That's more like it.'
He looked up and down the street. It had looked as if the roads where more of a gravel mixture then the paved streets of the house space.
The old man wondered what Doctor Holidays limos actually looked like. Half expecting a purple donkey.
Guess whose coming to dinner. - Doc Holliday - 01-29-2011
As the man stood waiting, a civilian model Rheinland military vehicle approached.
![[Image: 74_watermark_570x500_2581439257_8c81c5fee8.jpg]](http://45k.me/wp-content/gallery/cache/74_watermark_570x500_2581439257_8c81c5fee8.jpg)
After stopping near him, the driver got out and approached him, "G'day, Mate," the well dressed man in his thick, Bretonian accent, "I am Grady McCue, Doc's Estate Manager, please.." He then opened an umbrella and opened the back door.
He thought a moment, "Uh...forgive me, Sir, if this is rude but Doc did say that you had a bad back. I brought some extra padding and such for your comfort." He also offered his assistance to getting into the vehicle.
Once done, he made the short trip to the front gate where the guards stood at watch.
"Here we are," said Grady, getting out to open the door and offer a hand.
Guess whose coming to dinner. - HuggieSunrise - 01-30-2011
After getting into the "limo" James was appreciative for the extra consideration given to him. The suspension of the land monster was a surprise. He hadn't been in many vehicles with wheels that didn't kill his lower back.
"Aye Mr. Grady I fell off a cargo container when I first started working cargo... I figure I woulda been washed up iffin I hadn't had the learning to fall back on.. Anything to get back into space... back pain be damned."
The scenery distracted him the most. Tinny.. the robot carrying jims bag and cane stared faithfully ahead as robots do momentarily checking jims vitals with passive techniques.
When the vehicle arrived at the estate jim slid out with Mr.Gradys hand.
"Thank you.. " he looked back. "Common Tinny."
He made sure the robot had his things before following the estate manager.
Guess whose coming to dinner. - Doc Holliday - 01-30-2011
"Sir," Grady said as the doctor got out of the vehicle, "I believe Doctor Holliday is out back. He instructed me to take you there." In the distance, from behind the huge house, some gunshots were heard.
When Grady brought the Doctor there, John was shooting at flying targets.
"Pull," he yelled at which two discs flew into the air.
"Boom,"[i]"Boom,"[u] was heard as he destroyed both of them. After that, he opened the breech of his shotgun and approached.
"Forgive me, Doctor, for getting some much need sport in but I was in need," he expained, the nickel plated weapon before him, "Dr. John Holliday at your service," he said, "I trust you got here somewhat comfortably?"
To the doctor, the Estate was huge. It sat at the beginning of some 15,000 acres, most of it unspoiled. In distant treelines, wild animals could be seen and the wind was perfect. He escorted the Doctor to his back deck and gave him a comfortable chair in which to sit. At that point, he turned to Grady, "That will be all for now. I'll call for you if I need you."
"Yes, Sir," he said. He then left the two men together.
"A drink, Doctor?" he asked him, "Mrs. Holliday is finishing up a meal for us so let us have a drink before hand."
Guess whose coming to dinner. - HuggieSunrise - 01-30-2011
Jim nodded. "Ill definitely need something to shut up these nerves." at the proposition of a drink.
"Feel free to call me jim.. erm ... Scotch, Brandy, or Whisky... Not much of a mixed drink man. I am afraid." Jim sat down making an "ughfph" Noise.
He gave his cane to tinny after sitting the robot faithfully near him it checked his posture and a annoyed jim barked at it.
"Tinny for gods sake the chair feels fine just stop crowding me and go stare at birds or those moose with fangs er sump-thin." directing the nurse bot to "get lost" it took a position off the deck looking outward at the wildlife.
after getting settled down he took another good look around him. "It really is a beautiful spot you have out here. Often wanted the same but, there just something about space keeps calling me back out there."
Looking at john. "Something about space soothes the mind.. and thats part of what I am purposing."
Guess whose coming to dinner. - HuggieSunrise - 02-01-2011
"I dont need to tell you that we need someone looking at healing minds out here in space, the greatest volume of individuals.. alone.. aboard star ships in infinite black space SHOULD technically hold the most vast populations of psychopaths predominant in the human population. Some of us have an affinity and ability to be fine..alone in space... but the working man... hopeful for better pay and better prospects cannot always be prepared for the stresses it brings."
Jim shifted his position in his chair.
"Also.. many factions.. lawful and unlawful.. and even just the populations of spacer culture dont have many professionals out here. Now i Admit ive used my knowledge to soothe egos and form bonds.. thats a survival tactic.. But most importantly. While I perpose Captaining a Zoner registered Cruiser for this initiative. The deeper truth is beyond being a mobile therapy center. ... Though I wont be shrugging off that part of the Estiums mission."
he seemed to take care in wording he next few thoughts.
"Ive been in space for almost 35 years. My Earliest years was an assistant for a small division in a corporation that was contracted by house government to study and refine the process of indoctrinating pacifist tenancies into prison populations. ... The method of this however was a.. well... little more then ancient torture techniques involving brainwashing and mind control."
Again he took time.
"I was barely 25 years old. practicing my clinical skills on an array of subjects who came from..the worst luck .. to.. the most sadistic.. and somewhere down the line I got involved with something called resonance casting. ... basically its a form of graviton fields that play on your inner ears like ..sub sonic tapping that can induce sleep or theta wave states of consciousness. and while this device was no more dangerous then a 4 credit meditation CD... it did have visual effects in 90% of the prisoners. Too big of an impact to ignore and basically I was the only one who could operate it to do so."
He looked at at doc for a moment. wanting to get to the point with relevant information intact..
" The reports get to my supervisors and the next thing I know im sent to an LSF building in New York somewhere. Seemed like Pittsburgh.. This time.. using the device to indoctrinate LPI employees into loyalty... Which was the single scariest thing I ever witnessed because.. the employees or suspects though of doing anything wrong would have.. literally emotional breakdowns int he test environment.
The breakdowns were telling but the graviton field cause it in 90% of subjects.. again from criminal moles to secretary's who stole pens... Again long story short. A new generator comes along... its smaller.. more discreet.
My assignment was to...as a temporary asset of an lsf operative.. was to compel a section chief to turn himself in..
I kept pulsing the guy.. from across the street into his apartment to "persuade" him to call himself in.. this went on for a good 12 hours.. then my operative tells me.. "Try and get him to put a gun in his mouth." .. I though he was joking.. ..
He wasn't. It was.. modifying to see how.. doing the right thing.. versus.. kill yourself interacted in this device. The tone.. was like a mournful.. terrible song.. and while i was distracted I saw the section chief gun in hand ready to do it.
I quit.. right there. .. Lsf.. and my Bosses where livid. Since well supposedly I was the only one who could get the device to perform."
If he had his drink he finished it right there.
"I was destitute after that. Couldn't even get a wire to Leeds for my uncle. I even changed my named from Smith back to Mckenna.. took awhile to realize LSF didn't care so here I am with two ID's and.. spaceflight experience.. In one of the largest scrap fields... in the sector..
Junker life was dirty.. but it was honest. Until I ran out of money from time to time.. Id get fast cash running contraband to malta in these.. horribly put together freighters.. Took me forever to afford a mule. But it was in this time.. That I met the Slavers guild..
And.. they had a piece of discarded equipment. That looked... familiar to me. Me? I used it once and I was hired.. and was..compelled to create technology of brainwashing and indoctrination. The money was too good to pass up at the time.. not to mention..back then the slavers had.. a bigger reach then junkers and rouges at that time. So keep from being cattle yourself.. you became useful.
I succeeded in the first generation of mind wipe chambers for.. god know what use. I never saw the generators again. They where like coffins... The central part or.. crux of this technology though is the graviton field. Since my...invention.. the technology's gotten away from me.. until now.. I got one after a junker said he came across a blown apart base.. In Inverness with a strange coffin. Ive spent the last 5 years looking at what they did to the persuadertron technology."
*he took out a small finely and personally fashined moduel*
"This disruptor can remove all the programming levels these mind wipe chambers have done in 30 years... I have reason to know that the guild. in its current state of disarray is producing more and more wiped slaves because they eat the least and do the most. And full fill the most expensive demand for slaves.. Mind control is an ugly business.. One my.. own half brother.. has suffered.. Ive spent a long time putting him back together."
he put the disruptor down
"Removing the layers of indoctrination is hazardous because whats left after such a formatting is.. ..pain.. and.. confusion.. violence..acting out.. The only environment I found that soothes this was deep space... something about the void soothes them.. Also.. theta wave recordings of... Solomon Khara singing.
And thus my.. design specifications.. for therapy chambers and barracks for doctors on board a corvo cruiser.. Is my proposition... to earn my way.. back from walking so far into hell as an ignorant and opportunistic young man.
If she can be built here or under a team of men and women you trust.. is what I need. My name? can only invite corruption in to the project.
After the ships been sailing.. and special IFF and ID's are available.. I can bring her to out of the way places like peurto rico and humbolt for the families there... as one of my fleet ships...
but for right now? Id like to captain her as a Zoner ship with your blessing and in concert with Med.Force.Ones. operations."
Guess whose coming to dinner. - Doc Holliday - 02-02-2011
Just before Jim went on his speech, Doc had handed him a glass of Brandy. Taking his own glass of the same, Doc sat in a chair next to him, both of which overlooked the rolling fields that met a very distant tree line miles away. Doc said nothing. He found the talk of a mind control device disturbing but reserved his comments until he was finished.
He took a sip of his brandy, "I must admit, Jim, that while I find a mind control device intriguing, I also find it morally wrong. Granted, you saw the same and ceased it's use. To me, it's just another item that would have good intentions that could and would find it's way into the wrong hands and turn into a weapon of sorts."
He took another sip and picked up the disruptor to examine it, "Interesting," he said, pausing a moment, "the very thought that one could wield so much power in such a small device is disturbing."
He put the disruptor back where it laid beforehand, crossed his feet and made a speech of his own.
"Jim, I've had some of the worst clients with some of the worst mental problems and worked amongst what some people would consider the most hostile of groups. I've even studied the things that people fear most or consider a taboo. Not once in my time have I forced a treatment or the results of my work on someone or something without them asking me first or wanting me to do it."
He took yet another sip of brandy, "Do you remember the Joker? The man liked me for some reason and never once even spoke badly of my people, even in a time where he hated other Zoners. I studied him and learned much. Behind the insanity was a man of great intelligence. He knew exactly what he was doing and I made quite a case study of him."
"Then," he continued, "I have studied the Nomads. I have communed with them. While most men would have been blown to bits if not possessed by them, I never once showed hostility to them and I was able to learn about them."
"I have also studied the mysteries of cardamine. Curiosity started me on that path and much work remains. I wanted to find a way to end it's addictive grip upon people that wanted it."
He then leaned forward a bit, "Note that I said, people who want it." He then sat back, "While such treatment is in it's infancy, I won't treat someone that doesn't want it. I also won't research someone or something that won't allow."
About this time, a soft, Kusari voice spoke, greeting Jim first. It came from a well dressed Kusari woman dressed in a very fine Kimono gown, "Konnichiwa, Doctor," she said to him with a smile and a bow.
"Dahlin'," said Doc to his bride with a smile on his face.
"John Henry," she said to him still smiling and then spoke to both men, "dinner is ready. I will bring it out for you."
"Arigato," replied Doc, "and do join us, that is, if Emiko will allow it."
Guess whose coming to dinner. - HuggieSunrise - 02-02-2011
Jim got out of whatever slouch he might have slipped into during his long point. Seeing dinner was ready and we being brought out he spoke up to his nurse.
"Tinny. Dinnertime. Need my pills." he barked.
The machine furbished the medication and he took them as he had done steadly for a month since the last major injury he had in an escape pod when his salvager was split down the middle by bandits.
He shooed tinny off with a waving of his hand eager to see what was prepared.
"Thanks for dinner. Mrs. Holiday. It has been a long time since Ive been in a home for dinner." He has a nostalgic smile on his face.
"The joker... Yes... Saw him on multiple occasions... Its interesting to me how sometimes the universe and peoples opinions can somehow gauge great intelligence... and instantly become intimidated." he said as plates where set down.
"Would have loved to have gotten that suit of his." as an aside.
"Solomon Khara... I've digested every conspiracy theory and video footage and documentary there is.. met many morphs.. little children I regret not going into parapsychology but me father would have skinned me alive. bless his soul. Their telepathic powers are...perfect... and im always in awe of it all. The few theta wave "songs" *he used quote fingers there* I have recorded always illicit emotions in the farthest gone patients." he smirked remembering.. though he felt he had to address the "mad scientist" factor.
"Of course im not proposing capture the dregs of society reprogram and release. The cases Im most eager to attempt these therapy's on are what.. the market call.. "blanks" .. In human care and merely speaking to them.. can coax the old mind.. to return.. Sometimes it would require hypnosis like in the case of my brother.. he was the first blank I worked with and healing." he stopped for a moment.
"He calls himself crying-man now.. he has a tiny following of.. militant anti slavers following him.. Hes.. disturbed but in treating him I learned what not to do. Also.. hes the one whos been finding these containers full of these.. erased minded people.. its uncanny..like he can feel them. No terrestrial hospital can.. or.. wishes to help them. hence why I made the disruptor module.. if i can make a therapy.. I can distribute it with a solid treatment model so that im not the only one able to give these victims their life back.
This might take longer then the life I have left. But have to start. Also.. Theres.. the other readily and easily treatable concerns on free ports.. pirate bases and community's out this far... Need help from men like us. Also... Possibly.. Teach hopefuls who can fly a ship and have interest in learning medical and psychological skills. Cause frankly the kids thier drilling out of community college cant hold a pencil correctly.. or dont even know what a pencil is." he ended with a barb.
he hoped he wasn't so long winded that the food was cold. He pondered if Doc was the type to say grace.
Jim knew his own mother woulda fleeced him if he didnt say it at least silently.
Guess whose coming to dinner. - Doc Holliday - 02-03-2011
Doc just thanked his wife with a smile as she stood with a return smile. He took his fork and took a bite and complimented with his mouth full, "Delicious as usual." He chewed it, swallowed it and then added a late, "...Dahlin" to it. He noticed Jim waiting for something and said to him, "What are you waiting for? Dig in!"
"I will let you gentlemen talk," said Midori as she smiled, turned and walked inside, Doc all the while watching.
"Isn't she beautiful?" he asked aloud. He then snapped back to matters at hand, "Anyway...."
"In my travels throughout Sirius and even a trip through Gallia, I noticed a common problem. Government oppressing the people to where they have no choice but to rebel. Look at the Unioners. Laid off shipwrights and damned good ones I might add at the hands of the Rheinland government."
He took a bite and continued, "The Xenos are another good example. Most rendered poor due to foreign trade in Liberty." He paused a moment, remember that his guest was a Junker, an enemy of the Xeno, "But I never understood why they made enemies of the Junkers."
"And lastly, the Gallic Council, branded criminals by the Gallic Royals. Why? Because they wanted freedom. They wanted autonomy. They wanted to expand and explore Sirius. And anyone who does anything for them is branded a criminal in themselves."
Doc then grinned, "Aurelia DeFrance, the princess of the Royals, just assume have me dead. How she forgets who gave her power here in Sirius.....I did!" His grin then went to a straight face, "Thirst for revenge clouds her judgement. How wrong I was to give her the chair of the old Council"
He paused momentarily and after a couple bites of food, "That, Jim, is what is wrong. We can change the thinking of these "criminals" but the House governments need to change too. They fight over territory, bullying those who are there. Any Freeport 2, Freeport 6 or Freeport 1 Zoner will tell you that. I mean, isn't all of this fighting the reason why humans came to Sirius? They didn't learn."
He then took a moment to continue with his dinner and simply asked the question to Jim, "Now, doctor, how about that back of yours? I'll have much more success with that than I will reforming the mentality of Sirius."
Guess whose coming to dinner. - HuggieSunrise - 02-03-2011
He ate while doc told him about his impressions of government. and realized he.. wasn't in house space. he relaxed alot more then he was able to for a long time.
"Ive never meant a xeno harm. They see us as.. well.. whores for the system that put them in thier place and I have to agree... Often being a junker is about doing legitimate business.. or .. so called legitimate business the way we want it... Dublin doesn't get gingham from anyone else but me for the past 5 years. but that fabric is still produced in an automated mill...
Our.. black market is still a threat... but the xenos and unioners both subsist on anger and vengeance and its those two things thats cost me the most." he sighed.
sweet lord even the bread and butter was euphoric.
"I guess i do what I do to.. help folks cope with it. its the motto of psychotherapy. to find peace.. and cope. What you want to do int he world after that is.. well up to you."
"My meemaw was from gallia.. back when there were more noble nobles apparently, though from what Ive seen.. her fathers ring isn't worth more then a cracker jack box trinket. All I see over there is history repeating itself. Nobles.. Corporate government.. All off the god damned mess slots the richer apart from the slightly less rich and so on and so forth.... Which is probably why house space is so damn tightly wrapped up in itself. Like its the only part of the black that matters... Id be willing to thank the goddess herself for making sure space stayed larger then our pippin hubris." he straightened his back out. probably what set Doc on the subject.
after eating more ans swallowing and reveling in said meal..
"It first got hurt.. long time ago when I fell off a cargo pod loading a pelican many years ago.. since then the stamina back there has suffered horribly. also.. I think I've had..67 rough ejections.. 85.. or so micro gravity crashes. one of those was after my slipped disc surgery. And recently.. which was.. the worst.. was.. My salvager. got jumped by two kids in New London. She split down the middle.. gravity went out and my wall safe door flew out and slapped me in the side.
It hasn't hurt this bad in 20 odd years... me pa had the same injury on Pittsburgh he had to retire and basically.. In the mckenna clan.. if ye aren't busy.. you might as well be dead.
Ive bought alot of snake oil and paid alot of witch doctors over the years.. some of its worked but.. At this point? I dont know if I can keep up my usuall pace and risks anymore.
Thats whats got me the most frightened." he admitted.