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Cipher Nine came to slowly, deliberately masking his return to awareness so that he wouldn’t be found out. It wasn’t the first time he’s woken in an unknown place and been restrained while unconscious, but it’s been some time. At least since the whole Hunter and Star Cabal debacle, if not before.
Thinking back, Cipher Nine tried to piece together what had led him to being restrained. He opened his eyes slightly.
He was restrained to a bed.
Lids parted a little further.
He was restrained to a bed in the infirmary.
Ah.
Lokin’s doing, likely, given the cuffs had no visible seam and were magnetized to the rails.
Cipher Nine had likely been fighting with the various medics in the base for Lokin to go to such lengths, unless the old doctor was just being a contrary old bastard and Cipher Nine had annoyed him recently.
It still didn’t explain why he didn’t recognize the infirmary’s ceiling, and his anxiety ratcheted up a tick. The last thing he remembered was discussing something with Minister Beniko and Agent Shan before a rumble had shaken their location and his hearing had cut out.
That would explain why Cipher Nine would have lashed out at anyone who had the gall to attempt to touch him, conscious or not.
Air movement had Cipher Nine looking over to the doorway, where the door opened.
Havoc Squad’s CMO stood in the doorway, exhaustion clear on his face. Cipher Nine watched warily as the man walked over and checked the ‘pad at the end of the bed. He flicked through it for a bit before focusing his attention on Cipher Nine.
Cipher Nine’s hackles raised, even as the doctor checked the various tubes hooked up to him.
“What do you want?” he snapped, hating the way his voice sounded to his own ears when his implants were on the fritz.
The doctor, whose name Cipher Nine knew to be Henryk, or Dr. Sclafani, (or neither, since the man was a grouchy bastard on the best of days and Cipher Nine was a contrary asshole who had so few things to look forward to) looked at him and said something that Cipher Nine couldn’t catch.
“My implants haven’t been regulated yet, Doctor,” Cipher Nine said. He shifted slightly, so that – despite the magnetic cuffs that certainly weren’t Standard Pub Issue – he could potentially get out of the infirmary if he needed to, damn the consequences.
The doctor’s remaining blue eye visibly twitched which soothed some of Cipher Nine’s raw nerves. The longer he was in the infirmary, under the care of a man who Cipher Nine knew had done retrieval missions against the Empire that Agent Shan couldn’t access, the more stressed he was getting. Especially with the thought that the Minister and the Agent were likely just as injured as he was.
“Calm down,” the doctor signed. Cipher Nine’s impression of him increased a tick. It was Republic Standard, which Cipher Nine knew, but still. He was secretly pleased that the doctor had made the effort. “You kept moving and tearing your stitches.” He tapped one of the cuffs with his prosthetic arm. The cuff released, and the doctor swiftly tapped the other one, repeating the process.
“Beniko is waiting for you out in the meeting zone.” There was a hint of a smirk as he signed the next bit. “Get the kriff out of my infirmary.”
Cipher Nine shoved himself out of the bed, ignoring the twinges of pain and the way his head swam slightly with the sharp movement.
He made an inappropriate gesture at the doctor, Cipher Nine’s one petty indulgence. Dr. Sclafani merely responded with a more inappropriate gesture and Cipher Nine smirked at him. The doctor had to be Cipher Nine’s favorite of Havoc Squad, despite their engineer doing his damnedest to worm his way into making Cipher Nine less hostile towards the rest of his squad. (Cipher Nine would never admit to it working, lest he give the Zabrak ideas.)
Cipher Nine swiped a calibrator on his way out, not even bothering to hide his actions. He could have a meeting with the Minister while he recalibrated his implants.
It wouldn’t be the first time.