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Grace moved the predator collector to the lab. Whilst he was unconscious, it had sat in the control room, clipped into the seat. Exactly where he had left it.
It felt like years ago to Grace that the incident over Adrian occurred. Of course, Grace knew it had just been less than a day. He had been patched up by Armando, and built Rocky a heat lamp in the hopes that it would help him. Then he had to turn off the temperature controls in the lab to ensure Mary didn’t try to cool the room back down too much in response.
Now, he could sort out the predator collector and see if the fishing trip was actually worth it. Or if Rocky had risked his life for nothing.
As Grace lifted the predator collector, his right forearm felt as though it was struck by lightning. Grace cried out in pain as he dropped the collector back onto the chair.
He looked at his arm. The bandage wasn’t red with fresh blood or anything but his arm was twitching uncontrollably. He could see the epimysiums, or fibers of the muscle for the non-biologists, of his forearm muscle moving under his skin. He had never really found that weird or off putting before but now, now it made him a little nauseous.
Grace rested his forehead against the head of the chair for a moment. He focused on his breathing as the pain went from electric shocks to burning through his arm.
He knew the pain would pass, but he needed to move the collector. If he tried to pick the collector up again, chances are the pain would return.
Once Grace gathered himself and the spasming had passed, he looked at the collector. It would be just his luck that the one thing he needed, he wouldn’t be able to move because of his own body. But he had to move it.
Grace wrapped his arms around the collector. He figured if his right arm failed him, at least he could take most of the weight with his left arm. He braced his back and legs before lifting.
As expected, his arm began spamming again. He could feel the electricity shooting up and down between his elbow and hand but he did his best to fight through it.
He managed to get to the door of the control room before his right arm completely gave out. Grace leaned against the wall, the collector balancing on his left forearm. He shook his right arm out for a moment, not that it did a whole lot but it distracted him from the pain for a few moments.
Grace rebalanced himself and put some of the weight of the collector back on his right arm. It was still too much though as he lost his grip on the collector. He winced as the thud echoed out across the ship from him dropping the collector. He just hoped he hadn’t damaged it.
Then again, if it could survive everything that happened over Adrian, he was sure it could survive being dropped a few feet.
Grace decided to just roll it to the lab. He wanted to stop the centrifuge so he could just push the collector along but he needed the gravity right now to use the lab. Plus he wasn’t sure if turning the centrifuge off would help or hinder Rocky so he chose to leave it as is.
Grace used his left arm to push the collector along, his right arm did its best to balance him as he shuffled along. His left hand misjudged where the collector was though and Grace’s right hand could not grip the handles on the wall at all. He had completely lost the use of his muscles from his right forearm to the hand.
Grace fell head first over the collector. He managed to just about get his left hand out ahead of him to stop him hitting his head. All of his weight instead went onto his left wrist.
Grace groaned as he opened his eyes. He wasn’t entirely sure when he had closed then but now he was looking down through the grate on the floor. His legs were bent at the knees against the collector and his chest was pressed into the grating on the floor. His left arm was cushioning his head thankfully saving his head and glasses from smashing into the grate.
He pushed himself up on his left arm but his wrist now screamed in pain. So both of his arms were pretty much useless now. Grace rolled onto his side instead, his legs sliding off the collector with a thud each as he let them hit the floor. Instead, Grace sat up, not putting any pressure on either of his arms. He awkwardly got his feet under him and stood up.
Given he didn’t feel dizzy. Grace took that as a good sign. However, his left wrist was throbbing now so he figured he should actually get it looked at.
Grace looked back at the collector again before sighing and heading to Armando. He kept both of his arms at his chest in hopes of not jarring them anymore. Once he was below Armando, he slumped on the edge of the cot.
“Mary, scan and diagnose me.” Grace held out his arms in front of him as Armando whizzed around him. His right arm started to spasm under the bandage again.
“Doctor Ryland Grace. Sprained left wrist, treatment: ice pack and no heavy lifting. Muscle weakness and muscle spasms, diagnosis: nerve damage.” Grace huffed. Just his luck that he would sprain his wrist on one arm and get nerve damage in the other. Not that he minded the nerve damage since it was that or having been crushed by his chair.
Grace walked back to the lab. He looked at Rocky's depressingly still body.
His little pity party had gone on long enough. He had a job to do.
