After thirty minutes of sitting, thinking, and praying, Dr. Cooper got up and searched through the room for a clipboard and paper he could use. After locating one at the bedside stand, he returned with it to his chair and began to take notes on the morning's activities. Every small detail was written down, no matter how meaningless it seemed. Diagrams were drawn of dial and button positions in the control room. The Transporter STILL must be a success .(and made that way with no more accidents!) This went on for a few hours until the doctor could not concentrate any more. He leaned back in the chair to write more, but to his disgust, found himself nodding off to sleep.
About an hour later he was awakened by the ring of the security installed door buzzer. Shaking his head, Cooper mumbled something, checked Mike quickly, then stepped out from behind the curtain to see who wanted him. It was Officer McCree and Larry Daniken looking for Dr. Horton. Larry appeared drained and dizzy. He was having trouble standing. The Security Officer braced him with a hand around the technician's shoulders.
"Dr. Cooper!" The Guard was trying to yell softly. "What the devil's been goin' on here? Here's a wee lad that needs seein' to. Terrible sick he is. Here, boy," he added to Larry while ushering him to a chair, "sit down and take it easy, now. The Doc will have ya fixed up in no time. Wait and see!"
Larry held his head in his hands. "I'm sorry, sir, but I feel like I've had the flu for a week. Do you suppose that's what's wrong, sir? Oh, my stomach!" he gasped in pain, and bent over at the waist.
"What's been your problem, son?" Dr. Cooper asked. "Dr. Horton is out for the moment. I can have him paged, but I'll do my best to help you until he arrives."
I'm sure it's nothing serious, sir, just nerves or something like that, but I can't seem to settle my stomach, and I can't seem to stay out of the men's room."
"Hmmm," Cooper frowned, "severe vomiting and diarrhea."
Larry blushed as he checked his pulse, blood pressure and temperature. "You've got a slight fever. Are there any other problems? Did this start after the accident?"
"Yes, sir. I did the best I could to clean up the lab, and it looks almost as good as new, now. Mr. McCree helped me. He called another security officer to take his place so I could come here. My legs are so weak I could hardly walk. If anything goes wrong in my absence, sir, I'm willing to take the responsibility. If there's anything you're not pleased with, I...." he coughed a bit.
"Easy, son," Cooper soothed, rubbing Larry's shoulder. "I think you HAVE got just a bad case of nerves, but if you