2234 work in progress

Jeffrey

Jeffrey (a oversized Stenos dolphin resulting from having Orca genes) finally slowly woke up. He needed a few moments to process what had happened, there seemed to be gap in his memory about everything that had happened before he fell into deep sleep. His head as well as his body were aching, it wasn't that bad, but definitely not enjoyable. Hesitating, he opened his eyes only to be blinded by the bright light of one of the lights on the med station's ceiling, only moments later he finally realised where he was, strapped to one of the beds to keep him from floating away in the anti gravity which was currently being active. A painful grunt escaped his mouth when he realised his back was completely covered in bandages. As if on cue the dolphin nurse Kih'ri appeared over his head looking at him concerned, apparently she'd been waiting for him to wake up."Ugh... how long wasss I gone?" "Only a few hours sssince the recovery t-team found you near the beach wit-th the recon team", Kih'ri responded while helping him out of the straps."... what happened to me?" he said while motioning to his bandages."You sssuffered a sunburn, nothing t-too bad, some others got it-t worse, but you need to ressst for now. Order's from Doct-tor Benning."Jeffrey looked at her uncertain what to make of that information."Fine, I'll be in my room if anyone asks." and with that he left the med station, leaving behind a Kih'ri complaining about how he should've at least thanked her for her help.But first he'd finally set things right with a certain dolphin that annoyed him since the first day simply by his presence: Dart. The last thing he could remember was that this excuse of a dolphin was the one who was the cause of his injuries. He didn't care anymore if Dart was a superior officer or not, now he'd really voice his opinion to that nuisance in his life. Oh, how badly he would want to give him a good smack with his tail for everything he did too. With these thoughts Jeffrey reached Dart's room and without any second thoughts he entered."Hey! We need to t-talk you little-" he cut off in the middle of his sentence realising he was staring at a confused Ik'hi, Dart's roommate."Uhm... is everyt-thing okay?" through his Sonar Jeffrey could tell Ik'hi was obviously intimidated by his sudden appearance, even when she acted though."Oh yeah, sssorry, I expect-ted someone else here." "You mean Dart-t? Do you want me to leave him a messsage from you?""No, no, it's fine, but thank you."He left the room much to Ik'hi's relief, he decided to go look for Dart elsewhere. The Quasimodo was a big ship, but a turquoise dolphin stood out like a bug on a bright surface.Neither cafetaria nor the lounge could give him any information on where he was either, was this yet another one of that dumb fish's tricks?Focused on what he'd do to that dolphin if he found him, he suddenly bumped into someone, that poor dolphin, who was a lot smaller than him, got thrown against the wall completely flabbergasted as to what just happened to her. Jeffrey shook his head and then looked at the dolphin who had just ripped him out of his thoughts, Marina! He scurried over to help her."Oh god, I'm sorry, didn't-t see you t-there." "Oh uh, i-it's okay, I'm fine." she took a moment to regain her balance."T-that's a relief", suddenly a light lit up in Jeffrey's mind."Do you by any chance know where Dart isss? I need t-to have a serious t-talk with him about how badly he messsed up this time!"Marina's facial expression suddenly switched from confusion to disbelief to anger in the blink of an eye."He messed up?! Do you have any idea what he did to keep you alive despite the fact you treat him like you do?! Now he's in critical condition because of that!"Marina smacked him in the side with her tailfin and immeadiatly darted off.Jeffrey was completely taken aback by the medic's sudden emotional outburst, she never stood up for other dolphins in a way like that before, something was troubling her, but what? And damn, he never knew she could hit this hard, the suburn only added to the pain. He'd apologize to her later, now he wanted to know what she was talking about, was she emphasising Dart was currently in medical treatment? There was only one way he could find out.When he entered the med station he carefully looked around, it seemed like the nurses seemed to have taken some time off and no doctor was there either. He could only find the radio-fin John strapped to one of the beds still asleep, he too had suffered a light sunburn. Luckily synthetic skin could heal that quickly. Next he went to check the anti Gravity tanks where dolphins with more serious injuries ended up. When he approached the tanks he already noticed there were 2 dolphins inside of them, one was floating upside down with a strange support device on his tail and waved at him while he approached, of course, the Stenos dolphin Mikiko managed to break his tailfin again. He imeadiatly turned his attention towards the second dolphin, floating almost lifeless in the second tank. It was Dart, he had barely recognised him with all these bandages. "Hey, you!", nothing "Look at me!" Mikiko was about to say something but Jeffrey already swam in for a closer look.Dart's eyes weren't like normal, they looked tired and distant, It didn't need much intellect to get that the tubes attached to him were administering some seriously strong medication to him. He was awake, but too far off.Jeffrey didn't knew his situation was that bad, only now he realised the sunburn that Dart had was somehow much, much worse than his or any of the other's. Too badly he'd like to know what happened, but in this state, it'd take a long while until Dart would be able to respond again, even with synthetic skin.With a sigh he let off and swam away, he didn't have any direction, just away. He felt bad, no, even guilty. He'd have to set things right, but first he'd have to find out what happened.