Today’s prompt and DeviantArt link. The VA OT Group topic for today was urgent care.

When the nurse entered the room wearing dark green scrubs with name badge, stethoscope, watch, pager, and the other tools necessary to do her job attached to and hanging on her scrubs, it reminded me more of ornaments on a Christmas tree than medical equipment readily at hand. I tried to recall exactly what it was that I did to end up here. In the military, urgent care treatment is never pursued out of choice, but rather the follow-on action of doing something stupid, even if the stupid thing seemed like a good idea or the best option at the time.

My right leg hurt when I moved it. But I wasn’t sure if the pain came from the ankle or the knee. Both hurt. Did those injuries happen at the same time? Or did one happen before the other? While I was contemplating my right leg, the nurse said something I didn’t quite understand and then promptly stuck a hypodermic into the IV bag. She blurred out of the room and I closed my eyes for a moment.

When I opened my eyes again, the nurse and some other guy in dark blue scrubs were both moving me from the gurney onto a horizontal surface that looked like a conveyor belt feeding into some kind of stargate looking thing. I said I didn’t want to go through the gate because I’d seen that movie. But they didn’t seem to hear me, or chose to ignore me and put me on the conveyor belt anyway. I thought I should resist, but sometime during my stay, my body switched sides on me and wasn’t in the mood to cooperate. Besides, I’m a little tired. I’ll just close my eyes for a

I opened my eyes and discovered that if they’d put me through the stargate, the nurse went with me. She was hovering over my leg with a doctor next to her. I guessed she was a doctor because she was wearing a lab coat over her scrubs. Whatever they were doing to the leg, it didn’t hurt. But they both appeared surprised when they looked at me after I asked, “how’s it look?” The nurse used the hypo again and I promptly

When I finished the blink, I was in another room. This time both the doctor and the Christmas tree nurse were gone. I stayed still for a minute as I mentally attempted to gather information about my surroundings. White room. Bright lights. Sterile. Lots of drawers and cabinets. Still attached to an IV. I looked toward my right leg, it was covered, but otherwise still appeared to be there. As I was taking this in, another nurse, purple scrubs no lab coat, walked into the room. When she saw I was awake, she pulled out a hypo and said, “get some rest, Captain Rand”. I started to say I’m pretty sure I was a lieutenant when I came in but my eyelids fell before the words reached my tongue from my brain.

When my eyelids rose again, the nurse in the purple scrubs was there, but so was some lady general I’d never seen before surrounded by an entourage of people wearing officer ranks and looking completely lost outside of an office setting. I think I recognized my squadron commander among the brass. There was the one guy who didn’t look lost, I’m pretty sure that was him.

A female lieutenant started reading something. My ears seemed to be at the bottom of a well and I didn’t really hear it. The general walked over to where I lay, pinned some purple ribbon with a metal object attached to it to the pocket of my scrubs, pinned a set of captain bars next to the first item, and promptly disappeared when I blinked as I was saying, “thank you, ma’am”.

When the blink ended, the nurse in the purple scrubs had returned and was joined by a guy in tan scrubs and they’re telling me it’s time to go. I’m still not sure where I am or how I got here. All I know for sure is I ended up in urgent care, fell asleep several times, and woke up with a medal and a promotion. The fun part will be figuring out what happened before that.

Yesterday’s prompt and DeviantArt link.

The wild life of Themis was in many ways similar to wild life back on Earth, although most of the similarities shared between Themis wild life and Earth wild life was mostly along the Australian lines. Most of the larger species on Themis are lethal and would eat a humanoid at the first chance.

Fortunately for the non-native crew members of the Aldrin’s crew, military vehicles tend to fly higher, move faster, and otherwise avoid the larger animals.

Today’s prompt and DeviantArt link.

There are several legends about the 10mm socket among the many users of the tool since its introduction. Somehow, no matter what happens, when using a set of tools, if there is a 10mm socket in the tool kit, it will fall out and disappear. No one on Earth knows where they go, but many stories and legends have evolved around the possibilities.

Some mechanics, usually involved in military aircraft and ground vehicle maintenance, believe that the 10mm is made out of a metal of non-terran origin that causes them to vanish at their first opportunity just to allow the company that makes them to make more money from the selling of replacement tools. Part of the source of this belief is that no mechanic has ever met another mechanic who has ever heard a 10mm socket hit the floor. They always disappear between when they are dropped and when they should be hitting the floor.

Another legend about the 10mm socket states that the tool does not actually exist and is made of a material that makes it appear real until it is actually needed or needs to be accounted for. The fact that post job tool inventories of tool boxes can never identify the 10mm seems to be the most common source of this story.

After we discovered what actually happens to the 10mm socket, we discovered there was also a legend that had suggested as much. Since they’ve never been seen or heard to hit the floor, there’s been speculation that there is some sort of space anomaly that causes the 10mm socket to be transported to another place, probably on the opposite end of the universe, anytime someone drops one.

The one thing we know for sure is that somewhere in the universe there is a mechanic whose won a bet and is owed a drink for his theory of where the 10mm socket goes, but since he or she is not part of the crew of the USSC Aldrin, he’ll never know he won and can never collect on that bet.

Monday’s prompt and DeviantArt link.

When does a forest become a jungle? At what point is the undergrowth of a forest determined to be overgrown jungle? Those are questions that cross my mind as we follow our elven guides into the thick growth of trees that serve as a secure border to one of their remote villages.

There is but one road in and out, but our guides have taken us on a different path that avoids the obvious route. One of our guides has explained that this village is actually their primary outpost on the edge of troll lands on what they call the Dark Continent.

Dwarves are rumored to also have an outpost on this continent but the elves have never been there and the dwarves are reluctant to confirm its existence. While neither enemies, nor allies, the dwarves and elves seem to share an uneasy tolerance of one another because of their common dislike of the primal trolls.