Free Space Trippers Book 1: Trippin' by A. Lightbourne Page B

her appearance by changing, among other things, her hair, eye and skin color.

    Lola patted her candy-pink hair satisfactorily. "No, not yet. I think I have decided I like this appearance best, I am going to keep it. Don't you just love it?" she asked Valesque, her eyes sparkling with glee.

    "Yeah, it's...uhhhmm…" Valesque looked her over as she searched for the right word, taking in her bright pink and blue hair, green eyes, fresh pink complexion and silvery blue uniform, "it is very...colorful."

    As Valesque and Lola left the patient treatment area of the Med-room to access the main computer terminal on the lab side, Sanic went over to chat with Tim who was still sitting idly on the edge of his exam table flexing his treated hand.

    The Med-room was a very large rectangular area that was used for initial exams and minor injury treatment. More severe injuries or long-term care was provided in other rooms on the medical deck.
    The Med-room had a large open doorway onto the corridor; just inside the doorway was a medical call button to summon medical help if no one was in the room at the time. From the doorway, looking to your left you could see three aisles, each aisle having a row of three exam tables.
    The tables were spaced wide apart allowing plenty of room for medical personnel to get around them and access each bed's medical controls. The medical controls were located in the large arm that hung over the head of the bed and could be pulled down and positioned over the patient, as well as in a standing tower console that housed all kinds of medical devices, including the finger cuffs Lola had used earlier on Valesque.

    Behind the rows of beds was a giant window that showed a panoramic view of space.
    Tim and Sanic were sitting on the first exam table in the last aisle, just in front of the large window.

    Across the room on the right side was a large table console for the medical teams to use for research and patient records.

    The door Lola had entered from earlier was beside this console. The door led into a smaller room that was meant to be used as a Doctor's break-room, it contained a desk with a computer terminal, a bed and a food duplicator. The main access panels to the medical computer core were also located in this room.
    In the main Med-room to the right of the main doorway from the corridor was a large 'L' shaped counter area with all kinds of beakers, glass slides, digital microscopes and other lab materials. There was also an island counter that housed the sink and decontamination devices.

    Built into the large 'L' shaped lab counter was the main medical computer terminal where Lola was waiting as Valesque worked to set up a way for her to send a message to her parents.

    As Valesque tinkered with her hand held computer that was always at her hip, faint voices and sounds riddled with static were occasionally heard.
    "I am looking for a sub-space signal that I might be able to send your message on. The people who receive the signal will have to relay the message on to Saturna 3." Valesque explained as she continued her sub-space frequency scan.

    “This one should work." she said, finally deciding on a certain signal. "It is a sub-space music signal. Someone who receives this program should be able to forward the message for us."
    Valesque now reached forward and attached her Vid-screen mini-computer to the main medical console in order to boost the signal and hopefully get the message out clearly. Now all that was left to do was to record the message, pirate the signal long enough to send it out and then hope someone listening will be nice enough to relay it.

    "I sure hope this is a program signal a lot of people actually listen to." the Engineer remarked as she finished her calibrating. "Ok.. now we start the recording, get ready." she told Lola as she pressed the console's voice log recording button.
    "This is a personal sub-space message for the Tech-Labs on Saturna 3. Our ship's communications are