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Characters: Oliver Day (

oliverplus) and OPEN
Location: Your reality!
Time: After Oliver's fairytale has ended, and during or after yours, as you prefer
Summary: Oliver goes on an involuntary reality-hopping tour of the multiverse~
Warnings: Oliver is a geek, and depending on your reality, he might just show it. Possibly a lot.

Tag in if you'd like Oliver to visit you! Prose-style or action tags are fine; just tag in the way you feel like playing.

"Samwise! Don't go under there!"

Oliver had learned a long time ago that "getting lost" and "going somewhere in the TARDIS" were basically synonymous, so he'd long since given up on getting annoyed when it happened. Instead, he usually just looked at it as another adventure to conquer--plus, you never knew what sort of cool things you might find in the meantime. And that was all well and good when he was alone, but this time he'd made the mistake of bringing one of his pets along. Watching a dwarf rabbit run off to be lost in the TARDIS was not the sort of adventure he'd had in mind for today.

He crouched down by the random large machine that was sitting by one of the walls of a room that otherwise appeared to be some sort of study. Aside from the hulking metal contraption, the room was lined with comfortable sofas and armchairs, the lighting coming from lamps on sidetables. Fancy rugs were scattered about on the polished wooden floor, although the area around the machine was bare aside from some telltale scuff marks. And while the space underneath the machine was large enough for a rabbit to fit, Oliver doubted he could even get one of his hands in there. "Come on, come out! I'll get you some nice greens?"

As he leaned down to look under the machine, he just caught sight of a furry ball shooting out and across the room. "Samwise!" He jumped to his feet, realising now that he'd been so intent on the rabbit that he hadn't even thought to close the door to the study when he came in. And, of course, he pet was making straight for it. Oliver ran after him, hoping to grab the door and shut it before Samwise could reach it and disappear into the corridor. It was going to be a close thing. He grabbed at the side of the door--

--and missed. Oliver skidded to a stop, almost falling over in his surprise. Because it was immediately apparent that he hadn't simply missed in his grab--the door wasn't there anymore. The study wasn't either, nor was the familiar hum of the TARDIS.

"What...?" Oliver breathed, looking around him in confusion. "Where am I?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He accepted the clothing, looking down at it in some degree of awe. A real uniform! "Can I keep the badge?" It probably wasn't the most appropriate question in the current circumstances, but he couldn't help himself. This was much too exciting.

Her description of an orderly's duties, on the other hand, while a relief in that it sounded like he wouldn't have to be close to injury, did not help his deep-seated fear of the location in which those duties were performed. "Okay..." There was still uncertainty in his tone. He had a feeling he was going to have to fight against himself very hard if he was even going to manage a semblance of belonging in a hospital. "I'll keep trying to go back to the Plane, too, like you said," he added. He wasn't very hopeful it would work.

"I guess so," she answered, forgetting the seriousness of the situation for a moment and smiling. He was really too funny sometimes. She found the place where the badges were kept and picked a medical one.

"Usually we activate these chips in them so the computers can locate us, but for you it has to stay blank since you're not officially crew."

"Fantastic!" he declared rather gleefully. "Um...give me a minute." He moved around a shelf, quickly changing into the uniform. He had a feeling Christine must have programed the machine with a setting related to his height or something because, surprisingly, it fit quite well--it was a tad loose, if anything, which was unusual for him.

"This'll work," he said, fiddling with the fabric of the shirt and still marvelling that he was in an actual, official uniform. Looking down at his discarded clothing, however, he frowned. Normally it wouldn't be a concern, but those trousers had the dimensionally transcendental pockets the Doctor had given him in them. Thinking about how to keep them with him in as non-obtrusive of a manner as possible, he stuffed the shirt and his trainers within the trousers, then attempted to stuff as much of the trousers as possible within the pockets as well--without creating some sort of transcendental loop, although the move did make him wonder if it would be possible to do so. But that would be something to look into when he wasn't a fugitive in some other universe, he decided.

"Yeah, probably a good idea that they can't track where I am." His words were somewhat absent, although he definitely meant what he'd said. But the truth was, as Christine was discussing more important matters, he was focusing the majority of his attention on leaning toward her to try to get a look at the badge that was about to become his. "What's the badge of?" he asked curiously before he'd even seen it properly.

Christine watched in amazement as he stuffed the pockets of his pants. It was almost like there was a black hole inside them or something. Maybe another dimension.

"That's incredible," she breathed out in a hushed tone. Only someone like Spock or Mr. Scott would be able to explain just how that was possible, and it wasn't like she could present Oliver to them and ask.

Smiling at his question, she showed him the badge. "Medical badge, same as mine. Shows a cross on it. All the medical staff have the same, except Dr. McCoy. He wears the sciences badge because he's the head of the medical department." Reaching for his shirt she continued, "I'll put it on you. It's tricky the first few times."

"Huh? Oh!" Oliver grinned, amused by her amazement. He was rather proud of those pockets. "Aren't they? The Doctor got them made for me. You wouldn't believe how much stuff you can put in there!" He folded up the remaining bit of trousers and, eyeing his boots, decided he could probably get them in there. He proceeded to do a bit of old-fashioned stuffing. There. Now he wouldn't have to worry about his clothing at all!

He took the badge eagerly, looking it over with a very wide grin before he nodded and offered it back to her. "Cheers." He couldn't resist adding: "This is so cool, Christine! Does the badge just track people, or does it do anything else?"

Clipping the badge in place over his chest, she stepped back and gave him the once over. He looked the part, now he just had to get the attitude down.

"Just tracks people, though last I heard back at headquarters they're thinking of making a model someday that also works as a comm device." Clapping her hands together, she gave him a friendly smile.

"Now! You are Ensign Day, Orderly to the Medical Bay, Science Division. You just switched from Delta shift to Alpha, and if anyone asks you anything beyond that, say you're sorry but Nurse Chapel has set you up with a ton of work to do and you don't have time to chat. Sound good?"

Oliver looked down, fiddling with the badge. This was one of the rare moments in his life when he wished he had a mirror handy. He was definitely going to stash the badge somewhere safe when they were done because it was too cool to risk losing.

"Wow. That'd be like something out of a film!" he said, poking the badge again and imagining how much more amazing it would be if he could talk into it. Not that this wasn't like something out of a film already. Uniforms, a badge to track people, a ship exploring space... It seemed to him that it was everything the show within the show of Galaxy Quest would have been.

"Ensign!" Oliver smirked at that. There was something exciting about pairing a title with the uniform. "Okay, got it. But um...you're sure I'm just, like, changing sheets? I...I don't really like hospitals." He tried to sound casual about the statement, but the more he thought about it, the more worried this situation was making him.

"You might have to bring patients their meals, but I'll show you how to do all that. And you'll mostly be in recovery and exam rooms stocking things, so you won't see much of the emergency area. Should be ok until the Plane lets you back." Giving him an encouraging smile, she started for the door. She always got to her shift early, but today she'd be cutting it close.

Oliver nodded, still trying not to show his nerves. "Okay, thanks." He gave her a nervous smile back. He didn't want her to think he wasn't grateful for all her help, and he was still very excited to see the ship, but he needed to get himself to stop thinking about hospitals before his normal grin was going to come back fully.

For a second, he closed his eyes, picturing the Plane again, but it was still to no avail. He sighed inwardly and, taking a deep breath to steel himself, followed Christine to the door.

Walking briskly down the corridor, Christine led him towards the med bay. The main exam area had two entrances; one was just a doorway that opened from the corridor, and the other was the turbolift that opened directly there. It was into this lift that Christine brought Oliver and once the doors were shut and the med bay level selected, she took a deep breath.

"You're gonna be great, Oliver. I know it."

The doors opened on the med bay and luckily, everything seemed quiet and peaceful.

Oliver nodded, grateful for her confident sentiment. "And I'll get to see more of the ship," he said, trying to bring back his previous excitement at the prospect. He took another deep breath, reminding himself that he was just visiting and it wasn't like he was in hospital again. This was just another trip, not another disaster. And he was with Christine, who had already saved his life once, so everything was going to be okay.

As they entered the medbay, Oliver dropped behind her, letting Christine take the lead.

Christine led him through the main area, where biobeds sat in a circular pattern, wall screens above them ready to take a patient's vitals as soon as they laid down. But no one was currently a patient there. She headed over to a computer console and signed in, looking a little tense. She relaxed, however, when the computer indicated that she wasn't late to her shift. Looking around, she made sure no one was about to see that Oliver wasn't signing in himself, and once she was sure, she nodded in one direction.

"We'll go down here to the supply closet and I'll set you up with a cart and bedding. Then we'll go the the empty recovery rooms and I'll show you the ropes, ok?"

Oliver watched as Christine used the computer terminal, waiting for her to signal if he needed to do anything. She looked nervous, and that wasn't a good sign, but thankfully her relief when she finished was obvious enough even when he wasn't looking her in the eyes.

Trying to swallow his own nervousness, he nodded. "Yeah, okay. I can make a bed." Not that he did so very often, but it wasn't exactly the sort of skill one tended to forget. Chloe would be proud of him, really--and she would never let him live it down. He'd have to save this story for when he was old and infirm, he decided. The thought almost made him want to laugh, but his stomach was too full of butterflies for that.

"So um...what else can you tell me about the ship?" Admittedly, the question was as much to distract him from the very clinical smell of this area as it was out of his own curiosity. But he had a feeling that going through with this would be a lot easier if he and Christine could keep talking for now.

She led him towards the supply closet, trying to put him at ease. "Of course you can."

That wasn't to say she wasn't nervous about this whole thing herself, but as long as he stayed out of the way, everything would be fine.

"Well, as far as the more technical aspects, I'm no engineer. I can tell you the ship is Starfleet's flagship, Constitution-class, with a warp core so we can go faster than light speed. Beyond that, what would you like to know?"

They were at the closet now, and she rolled out a cart, loading it up with blankets and pillows.

He was definitely not planning to get in the way if he could avoid it, especially in a medbay. But instead of thinking about that, he focused in on her explanation about the ship, even if not all of it really made sense to him.

He'd seen impressive space travel while living in the Earth Empire, but Christine's world of venturing into the frontiers of space somehow struck him as more amazing--perhaps because he wasn't seeing a dirty, backwater frontier world full of war refugees. "Faster than light speed--fantastic! Have you been to any neat worlds lately? Or is there somewhere specific you're going?" He took hold of one end of the cart, ready to push it when she was done loading it.

"There was a world where nearly everything was built out of crystal. I didn't get to see it, but the away team said it was beautiful." Finishing with the cart, she bobbed her head. "There we go. Follow me." As she moved for the door, she added, "We're on course to a Federation planet now, to pick up a shipment of dilithium crystals. Pretty routine stuff."

Oliver frowned at that description. "You don't actually get to leave the ship too much, huh?"

He nodded, pushing the cart after her as she went. "What are dilithium crystals for?" he asked, lowering his voice in case anyone in the area would wonder about the silly questions.

"Not too often, no. I'm needed here. But sometimes I get sent down to inoculate the local populace, so I get to see new worlds, and that's nice."

She led him down the twisting corridors to an empty recovery room, punching a few buttons on the console outside the door before she led him in. "They're what power the warp core. Without them, we can't travel far at all." Now she began stripping the bed as she continued.

"We released the patient in here about an hour ago. So the bedding needs changed. It goes over here." She pressed a red button on the wall and a waist to shoulder high door slid open, revealing an empty space in the wall. She tossed the bedding in, hit the red button again to close the door, then hit a green button. There was a light humming noise and she explained. "Dematerializes the bedding and rematerializes it down in laundry where it's cleaned."

That really wasn't the answer Oliver had been hoping for. He frowned, unable to picture what it would be like to be travelling all over the galaxy in a fantastic ship like this but only rarely able to leave it. "All right, one day, I'm taking you to visit the TARDIS," he said. "For real this time. And a planet and everything!"

That decided, he watched, nodding at the proper moments, as Christine explained about stripping and making the bed. He had to be neater about it than he was used to, but that was no surprise. He helped her to make the one in the room and did a decent job of it, at least, if not quite up to par with an orderly who was used to quickly and efficiently making a neat bed. On the bright side, keeping busy was helping him to ignore the sterile environment and its unmistakable smells that usually sent him into a near-panic at proximity alone.

"Okay, I think I've got that," he said, hoping that she would agree. "What else?"

[ooc: Let me know if you don't like the skipping ahead!]

Christine quirked a brow, but looked pleased. It would be an adventure to go off with him in that crazy TARDIS and get to explore new places.

"It's a deal."

His bed making skills weren't immaculate, but she doubted anyone else on staff would notice besides herself. She really was a stickler for order, but she wasn't going to point out to Oliver that the corners could be tighter when he was being held on the ship against his will. At least he was taking it well.

"Well now you just go to all the empty rooms and change as many sheets as you have with you. It'll say on the console outside the door whether the room's occupied or not. After that, just go back to the storage closet and hide out for awhile, and I'll find you with the next task. And, you know, don't touch anything."

Oliver grinned, starting to feel excited about this plan now. He'd have to talk to the Doctor so they could come up with a really good location that Christine would enjoy. Maybe somewhere with really neat medical advances? Then again, he had a feeling maybe it'd be better to get her away from all that and just bring her somewhere really beautiful. Maybe Auroris. Its sky looked like a constant sunrise, and they'd landed in a field of pink-petaled flowery shrubs last time. Christine might enjoy something like that.

"Oh. Okay." He couldn't help sounding a little disappointed by Christine's directions. They were definitely sensible given the situation, but...well, it didn't sound like it was going to be the most exciting day on a starship ever. Then again, if he was going to be stuck in the medbay, he didn't want it to be exciting. "Yeah, sure. I won't." He gave her a nod and a smile that was more cheerful than he felt in the given situation, then moved behind the cart and pushed it out of the room.

He just hoped he didn't run into anyone who was too curious about his presence. Part of him thought that would be a nice way to make things more exciting, but he still didn't want to get Christine in trouble. And he figured he'd seen enough jail cells for a lifetime already.

"'Kay, I'll leave you to it." She was reluctant to leave him alone, but there would be questions if he was shadowing her all day. Trying to convince herself that he could handle changing sheets, she moved towards the door.

"Remember, just come to the storage closet when you're done."

"Yeah, I've got it," Oliver said, though he was less-than-enthusiastic about it himself. "I'll see you there." He gave her an encouraging smile. Disappointed or not, he didn't want to worry Christine, as she surely had enough to be getting on with already. So to help her feel better about leaving, he turned away and started pushing the cart toward his next destination.

Christine headed off into the main area of the med bay, expecting to find it as quiet as she'd left it. Unfortunately, there was a group of doctors and nurses surrounding a biobed and when she pushed her way through, she saw an Ensign with the nastiest looking rash she'd ever seen. Add in the swelling and he looked pretty bad.

After being filled in on his condition -- apparently one of the sentient plants in the greenhouse had attacked him -- she turned away to let another nurse handle it, only to see another crew member come through the turbolift doors, his cheek swelling rapidly and sporting an interesting shade of blue.

"Got another one!" she announced, hurrying over to him. Once he was settled on a bed, she was instructed to get cart loads of supplies from the storage closet. She hurried off, Oliver momentarily forgotten.

After separating with Christine, Oliver started to go about making beds just as he'd been instructed. Thankfully, most people were much too busy with their own work to pay him much mind beyond a question or two about when he'd gotten there, and Christine's cover story worked well enough for that. He was actually rather impressed by how smoothly it was all going, as he was far more used to visiting places with the Doctor and having their cover go anything but. No one even seemed to be watching closely enough to notice that his bed-making skills were a little under par, which was a relief.

The hospital smell did bother him as he worked, but he put it out of his mind as best he could do. It helped that visiting empty rooms meant he didn't have to see any actual patients, and the one time he saw a stretcher coming his way in the corridor, he had enough time to duck into an empty room before actually encountering it. He tried to comfort himself by thinking that at least Christine wasn't watching his embarrassing fear. But that was the point at which he decided it was time to go back to the storage closet. The last thing he needed was for any of Christine's colleagues to see his discomfort.

So he wheeled his cart back to it, ducking inside to hide. When the door very soon opened, however, he tried to cram himself into a corner as tight as he could do, praying that whoever this was wouldn't spot him. His mind raced with possible excuses, but beyond the old trick of claiming he had been looking for something, he was at a loss. He closed his eyes, trying again to go to the Plane. Why wouldn't it work!?