Night Shift

Volume 3, Episode 6

Tuesday, November 23rd, 1999.  Lt. Therius puts in more paperwork, this time for a subpeona for Decepticonvalescent Hospital and for travel authorization to Parallel 9.  Meanwhile, Detective Segama barely has a couple of hours of rest between finishing a frustrating day as spokesperson for NeoPD in the A.S.T.R.O. Labs crisis, while The Voice handled the animal rights activists, before coming back on for the night shift.  She is able to report to Lt. Therius that she successfully isolated nanites from victim Rachel Pryor's body.

After another quick and subdued encounter with Leandra at TransWorld, Lt. Therius takes Mortis, Landsen and Segama to Parallel 9.  Poor Segama is required to wear a full-body hair net, but Nitro discovers that the machines here find her very congenial.  The team is greeted by a cheerful little robot called Parchesi, who takes them to meet Sgt. Jumbotron, a cooperative individual.

Examining the nanite strain isolated by Eulalia against the local database, Sgt. Jumbotron deems it to be modified from a very respected strain, a collective which works part-time at Decepticolvalescent Hospital as Dr. Shimmerian.  The paperwork in order, they head for Decepticonvalescent Hospital, escorted by Officer Parchesi and his intimidating partner, Officer Mike Metabaron.

They first meet with Dr. Shimmerian, who turns out to be an urbane and helpful "individual", and the progenitor of intern Ruby Blouse (who was created from a modified version of his strain).  Shown the evidence, he immediately recognizes the nanite trace as modified from his own strain, and appears alarmed and outraged.  He offers to help the team in any way he can.

Next, they head for the Cybernetics Department and meet its director, Dr. Mortulus.  He was a heavily modified human, and clearly a self-centered individual with little regard for patients.  Dr. Mortulus had personally attended to Senator Valerianus during his stay at the hospital.

With skillful teamwork, they interviewed him and examined the (incomplete) records, caught him in his own lies, and forced him to confess several grave ethical breaches, including stealing some of Dr. Shimmerian's nanites and experimenting on them, then implanting them in Valerianus as a little off-the-books extra on his bone replacement and augmentation treatment.  The nanite augment allowed the Caligulator to extend his control to other bodies by making physical contact.  But they also learned that the new upgrades needed occasional maintenance and that Dr. Mortulus had a channel to contact Valerianus...

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