The hand that heals

[jxie93]

"Report!" An unusually harsh commanding voice could be heard from the small crowd of Cryer inspection team, which members were still offloading the equipment from their transport.

The liner's main mooring service cargo bay was in a state of chaos. Members of the liner, medics, ExoGeni and Cryer hurried around, carrying supplies and equipment as well as arguing with each other.

Felix was the last to arrive, right after the inspectors' transport. Upon arrival, he'd only spoken to the Captain Frial briefly regarding the requested medical supplies, before disappearing in the fury of lab coats and hazmat suits to attempt to at least bring discipline and order to his colleagues.

A few minutes later, Cryer's corner of the cargo bay has organised itself significantly. There were no more workers bumping into each other, no more juvenile bickering between different groups and the team ascended from total disorder to almost harmonic.

Emerging from the lower platforms of the cargo bay was two figures fully outfitted in reinforced containment suits with external oxygen supplies and shaded re-breather masks. The taller figure had an elegant and shiny looking sidearm in a well decorated holster at its waist. The thinner figure was busy tapping away at its data pad clumsily with chunky, gloved fingers. After a low hum by the cargo lift, the two reached the upper cargo bay platform and approached the small group containing the official representatives.

"Now that, Ashley, is the power of superior management." The taller figure said, whilst pressing a touch sensitive button on his re-breather. The reflective tint, designed to enhance the visor's radiation protection, lifted and a smart looking, suave and middle aged man's face was revealed

"You never cease to amaze me, Felix." The suited female also revealed herself as Ashley, the man's assistant, with features fit to be an actress and a pair of deep, blue eyes.

"Gentlemen, I'm H&S Executive Coordinator Felix Cabulb. I'll be in charge of the entire quarantine process from beginning to end." Felix smiled and introduced himself, "I believe you've seen me in communications before, pleased to meet you."

He extended his hand, expecting a customary handshake.

Everyone in the group looked uneasily at each other; Felix quickly retracted his hand with an awkward smile.

"I must apologise on behalf of Cryer's late arrival, our response teams have gotten rusty in emergency quarantine preparation procedures." Felix explained, "I assure you that some incompetent fool will be fired at the end of the day."

"Alright, I believe my colleagues have already covered our terms and conditions with you? Excellent. However, I'm rather uncomfortable about the weapons. Our riot suppression… I mean civilian pacification team are armed with non lethal weapons at most, I specifically issued an order to keep lethal weapons back at our cache on our transport. Ashley, provide the captain with a full list of our weapons and their specifications."

"Coming right up, sir." Ashley started tapping her data pad hastily again.

"Just in case you might want to ask, gentlemen." Felix said and drew his sidearm from its holster.

The liner security guards around the men tightened the grips on their weapons in alarm.

"CVX-20SK Cyclic Neutron Pistol, handcrafted second collector's edition, customised carbon fibre grip and trigger guard, Iridium composite barrel, diamond decorated mode dial and third generation CVX micro particle dissipation trajectory calculator. Totally harmless, at least, without a power cell." He showed the guards the empty compartment on the pistol, where the power cell is supposed to be. "I assume I can keep this status symbol of mine, captain."

Just as the captain was about to reply, a sharp bleep was heard from Ashley's data pad and she muttered to herself, "Bingo!"

Ashley politely handed the pad to Captain Frial and said, "All the information you need on our registered armaments are included in this current file. As you can see, they comply with the latest Sirius legislations as well as being in mandatory company policy in a situation like this."

"I sincerely hope we can all resolve our misunderstandings and cooperate in harmony," Felix added, glaring at the medics' leader, "after all, we're here to save lives right?"

"Let the quarantine begin."

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