ANH. Rebel Medical Frigate Main Medbay. Swampy Squishes

[astrotechmech]

"Wait, don't hurt it!" Smokescreen steps forward and scoops up a small frog from the ground before the nearest bot can act on their 'squish it!' impulses.

"D'aww,' Smokescreen says, taking a closer look at the animal. "It's a green-eyed tree frog."

"A Hutt Chomper? Smokescreen, you're not keeping the frog. Do you WANT Liftor angry at you?" Arcee scowls up at the husky mech. "Keeping dangerous animals for gambling is stupid!"

[What dangerous animal?!] Liftor goes from being by the door of the medbay after walking in to being on Smokescreen's shoulder faster than a person could sneeze. He looks down at it briefly for a moment before turning to Smokescreen and flatly beeping, [We are NOT keeping that thing.]

Smokescreen frowns. "They're only dangerous if they're trained up to be. I've always liked these little guys but I don't have the spark to make 'em into the killers the gambling rings make them. And this guy's too old to get the full training. He's too far past his egg stage."

Random meanwhile is sitting up on the medical table with an open panel, trying to recover from the shock of having a live organic in him. "How? When? I--" had thought he had been thoroughly cleaned out after the Bespin adventure. . . . Did he pick it up at Jabba's? But then why would he imagine he felt something in him before that? Sigh. He just came here to make sure the abuse he received in Jabba's Palace hadn't permanently damaged him. "Where did it come from?"

"These little guys make their home in hollow trees in swamps mostly," Smokescreen says, absently, as he feels the frog.

That has Random's attention. "Swamps?!"

"Oh, hang on. Not as old as I thought. 32 standard days, I'd say."

Random stops as he realizes that the mech just said that the frog was as about as old as the days it's been since he was on Dagobah.

Liftor looks at Random and then pokes his big friend. [Smokescreen.]

"This guy's had good eatin'," says Smokescreen, unheeding.

"Eating?" Random looks a little pale.

[Smokescreen.]

"Yeah." Smokescreen proceeds to name all sorts of things you can find in the water of a swamp and Random slowly realizes that all of the squishy movement he thought he felt inside him before he got cleaned out was this pesky little frog eating everything that was living inside him. Random feels nauseous and then he feels faint and then he feels nauseous again.

[Smokescreen!]

Smokescreen finally turns to Liftor impatiently. "What?"

Liftor points at Random emphatically and Smokescreen instantly realizes his mistake. "Oops."

Well, it's a good thing that Random's not standing because he just fainted.

Comments

[random_xtras]

"No. The frog made sure you were nice and clean. He protected you from all the stuff that could have happened." Kia glances toward the wall and then points. "There are your internal scans. All I see is a crumpled piece of flimsy in your back pocket."

[astrotechmech]

Random turns slowly to look down at Kia, doubt on his face, but he remembers what Smokescreen had said about the frog having "good eatin'." He squirms absently again, readjusting his hold on Kia before looking in the direction she's pointing.

He starts when he sees his internal scans on display--despite hearing Kia say they were there--and wills himself to look them over.

. . . No, doesn't appear to be anything else in him. But then, how was the frog missed in the first place?

Now, he's wondering what that flimsy is and how long it's been there.

[random_xtras]

Fixer jiggles him very gently. "Do you want that room or not, exhaust for brains?"

Kia stops studying the scans and directs a scowl toward Fixer, then realizes the tone those words were said in and gives her mentor a confused and questioning look. Is Fixer being mean or not?

[astrotechmech]

Despite Fixer's gentleness, Random still starts when she moves him. He looks up at her for a few, long moments and then nods. He better have that room. Finding that . . . creature in him took a lot more out of him than he would have thought.

He eventually senses Kia looking at him and sees her look. It takes him a moment to realize that Fixer gave him her usual insult. It wasn't something he necessarily liked, but it was what she did. To people she liked. He's heard about what she does with mechs she did not like. But how to explain that to Kia without saying that insulting people is okay? "Uhh."

[random_xtras]

Fixer nods, then notices what Kia's doing and Random's response. It takes her a moment to realize what the problem is, and then she makes a little sound under her "breath" like a verbal face palm.

"Sorry. It slipped out. Let's get you to that room. Can you move to my back, Kia?"

Kia looks up at her, then back to Random.

[astrotechmech]

Random looks back at Kia and then gives her a nod. He then realizes that he probably needs to let her go and somehow manages to extract his arm from around her so that she can move.

[random_xtras]

The little silver lady gives a tiny snuggle, and then she's turning and shifting around so that she can get behind the doctor. A moment later she's peering down at Random from Fixer's shoulder.

"There we go." The powerful medibot shifts Random back to laying position. "Ready, Random?"

[astrotechmech]

Random's attention is caught by watching Kia move to Fixer's back, so he startles when the medic lies him down.

After a few moments to be sure of himself again, Random nods.