By Joe and Cassie.

        Heather Shane, veteran of PPC's Medical department, had snatched a bit of time to actually relax now she was on her break. It had been a somewhat hectic morning, but the rush of accidents had quietened down after a while, and she decided to take the opportunity to fix the blouse she'd been meaning to mend for the past week. Settling down in one of the empty rooms with her sewing kit, she was just about to start work when there was a knock at the open door. Stifling a sigh, she turned to the newcomer with a polite smile - and jumped slightly on seeing the state of him.

"What happened?" she asked wryly as she put her work aside and stood up quickly.

“That would be a long story,” came the reply. The man raised his eye to meet hers--and waved it back and forth slightly with his hand. Despite having one eyeball hanging by what appeared to be cabling, there was a grin plastered across his face, as though he was enjoying the sheer horror his condition had been causing on the way to Medical. “I don’t suppose you have any experience with high-density optical electronics?”

“I’d have to take a closer look,” she responded, nodding to the bed. “Take a seat. And seriously, what happened?”

“Well, I’m guessing the socket cracked, or some kind of weakening of whatever adheres this thing to yonder cranium,” the man replied, hopping up onto the bed and waving his eye around at the room. “Damn, this is trippy. These things aren’t supposed to do this, ever, but apparently getting mule-kicked in the back of the head by a photon accelerator is too much for the cheap ones.”

“What were you doing near a photon accel- oh.” Heather was halfway into a cupboard, rummaging for some diagnostic equipment, but a glance over her shoulder had brought his flashpatch to her attention. “Can’t you T&A people get some actual safety equipment?”

“What, and miss out on all this fun?” If it was possible to do so, the man’s grin got wider. “Narcolepsy, by  the way, Technician Second Class.”

“You can call me Heather.” She straightened up with her arms full of equipment and piled it neatly on the bed. “And I suppose your brand of fun is better than some, but a little reduction in our workload is always welcome,” she added pointedly.

“Yeah, well, fun lasts as long as it doesn’t inhibit work.” Narc grabbed the dangling eye with his off hand, dropping his arm down. “And I can’t work while I’m holding my own eye up. Not that this is the only problem the thing’s been giving me.”

“What else has it been up to, then?” The Nurse was fiddling with one of the diagnostic tools, sparing him a glance every so often.

“Well, a lot more than you’d expect an eye to.” Narc let the eyeball down, ticking off points on his hands. “Got smacked in the face the one time... electrocuted, that was fun to deal with... then there was that party two years back, took a champagne cork to I think it was this one... before that I got genderbent and they had to completely reboot the system...”

He stopped, taking notice of her raised eyebrow, and shrugged. “Doesn’t really hurt, I mean, the thing’s made of shatterproof ceramic and some kind of titanium alloy. But the electronics in it are kind of wimpy, and so’s the connection back here.” He tapped a point on his head just behind the peak of the skull. “Microcompact computer. Nothing really spectacular--”

“Aside from being a supercomputer mounted in your head,” Heather cut in, straightening up and attaching a power reader to the eye’s cables.

Narc snorted. “Well, yeah, that. But it doesn’t do much. Drives, ethernet and CyberNet taps, runs ICEbreaker, some minor storage, coordinates all the other junk. The top of the line stuff is downright terrifying.” He bent the eye around, looking at the meter’s screen. “Anyway, you know how these things are built at all?”

“Funnily enough, I wasn’t given direct training in rebuilding electronic eyes -” She paused and moved the eye away from the screen politely but firmly. “But we’ve worked with enough replacement body parts that I have a decent idea. Just stop jiggling it around.”

“Ah, spoilsport.” Narc let the eye go, leaning back on the bed. “Fair warning, though, this thing is kind of specialized. It works like a normal eye, with a twist--there’s a thin membrane in front of the retina, with a toggle mounted under the skin here.” He tapped the side of his head just behind the eyes, and his grin weakened a little. “Huh, nothing.”

“Are you sure it’s a medic you need, and not somebody in your own department?” Heather couldn’t help asking dryly, though she continued her checkup nonetheless. “In any case, I’m sure we can get this fixed one way or another.”

“Well, I’ll confess I don’t know, they’re technically medical equipment,” Narc replied. “The, uh, thing is that I’ve been kind of customizing these. They can detach normally for like maintenance, it’s just annoying as hell. They came with thermal implants, but I’ve added...” He tilted his head back the barest bit, thinking. “X-ray, psionic, radiation detection... couple of others, maybe?” He leaned back forward as Heather took the wires off. “Point is, they’re not stock anymore, that’s for sure. And they’ve been blinking on me.”

“...Well, I don’t think the customisation has helped things.” She put the latest bit of tech down and examined the eye a bit more closely.

“Yeah, I don’t really qualify as a tech shop or a nano-assembler,” Narc admitted. “At least not on my own.”

“What do you mean by ‘blinking’, by the way?”

“As in they flicker on and off sometimes, can’t figure out why or when. Sometimes when the implants are on, sometimes not.” Narc’s grin all but vanished. “Flicker off for a few seconds, like an extended blink. Sometimes this happens when I’m in my room reading, and it’s annoying. Other times it happens when I’m doing repair checks on a photon accelerator, and then it gets a liiittle more than annoying.”

“Would that be what got you hit on the head, by any chance?”

“It was part of it, at least.” The grin returned, and Narc tapped the back of his head, wincing slightly. “Nothing got broke, besides the eye anyway, but I’m going to have a bee-yoo-tiful bruise soon enough. I think I’ll sleep on my stomach for a few days.”

“I’ll take a look at that as well, then,” Heather said firmly, putting the eye down. “I can manage basic electronics all right, but you’re going to need a specialist to fix these. Head injuries, on the other hand...” She rolled her eyes expressively, indicating just how experienced she was with those, and gestured at him. “Turn round so I can get a proper look.”

“Sure thing.” Narc twisted on the bed, picking up his eye again. “I’ll talk to M-T about it, he might know a thing or two.”

“Talk to Doctor Fitzgerald as well,” she advised, poking lightly at the back of his head.

“Ow. Ow.” Narc’s grin stayed where it was, but there was a pained look in his still-socketed eye. “You know what the main difference between scientists and doctors is? Scientists don’t try the same thing twice for a different response.”

“I’m trying to see how big a dent you put in your head,” Heather retorted. “This doesn’t look too bad... I think we can rule out concussion. Regular bruise treatment should do fine. I have some arnica cream around here somewhere... all this technology and I’d still rather use herbal treatments,” she said with a wry smile as she dove into one of the other cupboards. A few moments later she handed over a small pot. “Apply that twice a day, it’s the best thing I’ve seen for bruising.”

“Thanks a bundle,” Narc replied, hopping off the bed. “I’ll go talk to Fitz while I’m here, I bet he’ll be real thrilled to see this.” Picking up his eye from the slack with his free hand, he hefted it, waving it at her as he walked out the door. “Be seeing you!” And with a cackle, Narcolepsy was gone.

Heather quirked a smile and shook her head as she went back to her sewing. She didn’t even flinch when, seconds later, a shriek of absolute shock echoed up the corridor from the direction in which Narcolepsy had gone.

“Some people have far too much time on their hands,” she muttered, and settled into her chair.