<div class="floatleft">(http://[url=http://i.imgur.com/0RqZCHU.jpg]http://i.imgur.com/0RqZCHU.jpg[/url])</div><br/><strong>Name:</strong>Dr. Alexander “Xander” Crawford (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=173794.msg8375682#msg8375682)<br/><strong>Occupation/Status: Foundry Neurologist</strong><br/><strong>Location:</strong>Medical Bay/Briefing Room<br/><strong>Action Summary:</strong>Treating Wire, Informing the Squad<br/><strong>Tagged Characters:</strong>Wicked, Shade, Maybelline, Seer, Valkyrie, Commander Montgomery, Dr. O’Rourke<br/><strong> Open to Others?:</strong>All<br/><br/><hr/><br/>“Dr. Crawford, are you sure you know what you’re doing? There are so many ways that the subject could respond to this treatment.” Xander turned to give his assistant nurse the most confident smile he could muster. He could understand her skepticism, and she had every right to ask that question.  Because in the moment, Dr. Alexander Crawford had very little idea of what he was doing, and if his desperate gambit could be a success. Perhaps he should run through it all one more time. He looked back down at the patient on his table, a young girl with aubern hair and the palest skin he had ever seen. The way her eyes lolled back into her head, and her mouth hung open limply, sent shivers down Xander’s spine. He could blame the Foundry all he wanted, but ultimately he could never shake his responsibility for what had been done to her, for what had been done to all of them. He shook his head, as if to physically shake off those thoughts, and nervously adjusted his spectacles.<br/><br/>“First of all, remember what I told you, Alice” he said, speaking to his assistant in his typical British school master tone “We don’t refer to them as merely “subjects”, not when they are here before us. We refer to them by name. I know subject or patient is more convenient. But here I’ve decided to reverse the medical practice. We at the Foundry spend enough time dehumanizing them, it should be the times when we have to make harsh decisions that we at least acknowledge that they are individual people, just like any of us.”<br/><br/>Xander saw Alice roll her eyes at his moralizing, she had heard it a dozen times already and Xander was sure she must be getting sick of him by now. But she was also a consummate professional and rolled onwards with ease. “Ok then, there are so many ways that Wire could respond to the treatment, don’t you think the stability we’ve managed is good enough for now?” Xander looked back down at Wire glumly. Perhaps Alice was right. After all, it was meddling that had landed poor Wire in this situation as it was. Some bastard in Research and Development had conceived the brilliant idea to have Wire attempt to absorb the electromagnetic frequencies of a computer which was reading her own brain scans. The man had known that when she scanned the computer, it would cause a change in the EM frequencies of her brain, which would in turn change the frequencies displayed by the computer, which would force her Sach’s Lobe to readjust with new information, which would cause the scan to again readjust, onwards to infinity. Off course this would just trap the brain in an infinite feedback look, which was exactly what the scientist wanted, he thought it would be a shortcut to some kind of infinite power source.  When the idiotic scientist had finally realized that was not going to happen, after a good hour and a half, he had attempted to wrench her away from the machine, causing an electric shock which has left him hospitalized and Wire utterly comatose. What was worse was, that the scientist had totally lied to her about the nature of the experiment and she had failed to catch the lie in time, otherwise she would have known it was a stupid idea.<br/><br/>“The problem with having a brain that is receptive is that it can become impossible to shut off, Wire is still caught in her little loop, her brain is constantly trying to scan and readjust to stimuli that might not even be there anymore.  The Faraday drug is the only way I know how to stop it, but only if we can find a way to safely get it into her system again. I agree that the last couple of attempts backfired, but I think we have the mix correct his time. No, I don’t totally know what I’m doing, and yes it might be a mistake, but the alternative is letting her become a vegetable for the rest of her life, and I’m not satisfied with that. So if you have not further questions, Alice, please administer the drug cocktail as per my instructions”<br/><br/>Alice shrugged and threw her hands in the air, “Well don’t say I didn’t warn you Dr. Crawford.” She set about her work diligently, just as Xander knew she would. He took one more sad look at Wire. He checked his watch, and realized that a mission briefing had already started, he would have to head down and let them know that Wire would not be recovered in time to take part. “You handle the first part from here Alice, page me if there are any complications, I’ll be back in a jiffy.”  He noticed her roll her eyes again, this time probably at his insistence on using old fashioned pagers for communication. They were harder to hack and had fewer distractions than a modern day cell phone, but Xander was not in the mood for arguing his point at the moment. He paused a moment before leaving, he leaned in towards Wire and whispered “If you can hear me, we’re doing the best that we can to help you. Everything is going to be ok.” Slightly embarrassed by that show of sentimentality in front of his staff, he jerked up and headed off towards the briefing room.<br/><br/>That poor young woman, what had been done to her was unacceptable. Anyone with an ounce of care and respect would never have attempted an experiment like that. Off course Xander knew that there were others who felt guilty about the treatment of the Prototypes, but every time he spoke to them on the matter they seemed to chalk it up to “the cost of doing business.” The fact that they could use such a banal phrase to justify moral atrocity made Xander’s stomach churn. Perhaps he should tender his resignation immediately. But then who would be left to treat Wire, or whatever other problems came up?<br/><br/>He sighed, no easy answer was coming to him. Before he arrived at the briefing room, he paused to readjust his lab coat, sweater vest, and tie, as well as smooth out his rumpled hair. He had spent the last couple of days sleeping in the lab, too much work to do and Wire’s condition was to serious. He suddenly realized that he had not had a shower in a few days either, these things never seem to be so important until the prospect of social interaction reared its ugly head. With a great degree of awkwardness and apprehension, he knocked twice on the briefing room door, and shouted “Dr. Alexander Crawford here with an important update on Wire’s condition!” Normally he was allowed in during briefing, but there were a couple of times he had almost stumbled onto something above even his clearance, so he made it a policy to knock first. When there was no response, he shouted again “OK then, um, I’m coming in now…”<br/><br/>Inside he found Commander Montgomery and Dr. O’Rourke, and five of the Prototypes. Xander gave them all a warm smile. He turned to talk to the Prototypes directly, technically he should have gone straight to Dr. O’Rourke with the news but he felt he owed it to them and Xander was not feeling much for protocol at the moment. “Wicked, Shade, Maybelline, Seer, Valkyrie,” He gave them each a polite nod. He had worked with them all before and considered them friends, which was making the next part very difficult. Normally he would want to talk to them individually, but they were pressed for time as it was. “I’m afraid, well, I have some very bad news, for everyone” Xander glanced at Dr. O’Rourke and the Commander as well, he started to fidget nervously as he realized all eyes were on him “You may or may not have been informed already, a few days ago Wire was, well I suppose the best word would be damaged by the last experiment which was performed on her, and it has left her in a comatose state. I’ve recently learned the problem might be deeper than I first expected. I think I can fix her with time, but it will require effort and risk, and she will not be participating in missions in the immediate future. I’m very very sorry, I want to apologize to the five of you personally,” He said nodding to the Prototypes “I am trying the best that I can, I’ll give this every effort I can give it, please believe me.” He looked to their faces wondering how they would react. He turned to lock eyes with Dr. O’Rourke, trying with his expression to show his disapproval and disappointment with what happened. How much longer could he go on like this?<br/>