Chains of Command

[Boss]

The first guard motioned me inside a small examination room, and once I'd entered, shut the door and left. I checked the physician's console, but it was locked down, and I'd never paid much attention in class about how to break into one. Not that I'd want to here; some of the people looked like they just wanted an excuse to shoot me. I took stock of my surroundings. This room was about twice the size of my cabin on the Grizzly, but furnished with a funny-looking lounge, console, a sink with cabinets above and below, and overstuffed chair. Some kind of abstract artwork was hung on the ceiling above the lounge, but other than that, it was pretty spartan in decor. The door chimed and a man in a light gray suit entered. Fairly diminutive, I don't think he stood much over five feet, six inches. For comparison, I stand around five-ten-and-a-half.

"Mister, er, Jim, is it?" He pushed his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose as he peered at a clipboard.

"That's me." I sat down on the lounge and waited for him to speak. When nothing was forthcoming, I cleared my throat, causing him to jump. "So...What, now?"

"Terribly sorry. Things tend to space a bit once one gets up there in years." Now that he mentioned it, he did have silvering hair and crinkles around his eyes and mouth. If I had to guess, I'd have said maybe sixty or so. He set the clipboard down on the console after scribbling something on it, then went to the cabinet over the sink. "I have here some medication I'd like you to take before we begin. It helps the...process."

I nodded as he pulled a small bottle out of the cabinet and filled a paper cup from the sink. He shook two pills out of the bottle and handed them to me along with the glass. I examined the pills. Depressants, apparently, designed to take major muscle groups offline. I sniffed the water. Pure dihydrogen oxide, such as to be expected in a facility like this, is colorless, odorless, and tasteless. This had the first and third, but the distinct sickly sweet smell of sevoflurane. I realized the pills were placebos. The water wasn't to wash them down. The water was to knock me out, but good.