Where on Earth is Xacio 555?

[tachyon]

Kei grabs Urufu by the scruff of his neck and hauls him up with a surprising amount of strength for someone of her size and gender. She looks at his paws and then hers, comparing them. Hers were distinctly less canine like.
"Jeez, if I could do it I don't know why you couldn't, oh mighty Weremonkey." she says with a slight smile. After releasing him she pointed to a nondescript storefront across the small alley. It's windows had long since been covered over by metal sheets, which themselves had been covered with layers of graffiti. A small flight of stairs lead below street level to a steel-plated door, above which a holo-sign displayed a message written in Galactic Standard. The message then changed to another alien language, then another that looked like Mandarin Chinese, then into Vietnamese, then finally into English.

_{"DR. HUY TRAN NGUYEN MD, MEDICAL CLINIC, ALL SPECIES WELCOME."}

"This is it."

[Ash]

"Law of the Cosmos,hm?Worth a try.But first I have to get someone out of the EDF."

Ash makes a few steps toward the building and reads the sign.

"Dr. Huy Tran Nguyen...",he mumbles.
"And what exactly are we doing here?"

[Machaeus]

"I think, judging by the slime on my paws, I couldn't grip prope-OH GOD is that what I THINK it is?!" he gags. He wipes whatever it was off on the side of a building, forgetting that his claws are out. The sound reminds you of a chalkboard and claws. "I hope this doctor has someplace to wash your hands. With lye."

(In case it isn't obvious, I'm trying to make him a sort of Comedy Relief by having bad stuff happen to him. As for what was on his hands, that's up to your imagination. ;D)

[tachyon]

((The comic relief is more than obvious, it's what I've come to expect from Urufu. ))
"We're here beacuse you wanted to know about Ze-, uh, Xacio." Kei says to Ash, "The Doc's the one guy around here that's known him longer than... most others."
Kei descends the stairs to the doorway and presses the call button on the intercom. After a few impatient seconds she presses it again, drumming her claws agains the steel-plating of the door. She was just about to press it a third time when it crackled into life. But instead of a voice there was a strange mechanical warbling, however Kei did not seem surprised.
"Labrat is that you?"
The intercom warbled again, but more excitedly.
"Labrat it's me, Kei. Be a good boy and open the door."
There was a loud buzz and mechanical clunk as the locking devices disengaged. The door swung open and almost immediatly came a cresendo of warbles as what apeared to be a flying robotic crab flew into Kei's arms. The little droid cooed and buzzed like an excited puppy while she shook it playfully.
"Good boy Labrat! Good boy!" she said as she pushed it gently aside. Labrat then spied the others and floated slowly over to and around the group, a pair of robotic eyes studing them curiously. It then grabbed Machaeus robes and pulled him gently towards the door, after which it stoped to buzz around Ash's head a few times. Kei was already inside the small medical centre.
"'Think we should go in then." said Gordon. Labrat, now sitting on Jackie's shoulder, warbled in agreement.
((Jess feel free to post whenever you want, your still in this too.))

[Ash]

Ash glares at the little robot Kei called "Labrat" before he enters the building.

"If this Doc can´t tell me anything I new about Xacio,I´m going to cry...
Which reminds me.What´s with Xacio and you?The big guy at the Deathwatch HQ said that he´s your friend."

[tachyon]

The Khorhali flattened her ears slightly at Ash's question.
"It's...in the past now. Look, just ask me some other time."
The inside of the clinic was lit by glowpanels in the celing, some of which were flickering, others not working at all. There was a small waiting room with a well-worn yet comfy looking couch and a table with magazines in a host of alien languages. Most seemed a few years out of date anyway. The place smelled faintly of disenfectant, but mostly of ozone from unseen electronic equipment in a room marked "Phòng Khám Bệnh".
"Hey Doc!" yelled Kei, "You in here?"
The sound of equipment being put down in a hurry came from the other room.
"Keiralena, is that you?" came a very professional British accented voice. The door opened, and a short asian man in a light-green surgeons jumpsuit came hurriedly out. He was about 50, with neat grey hair and a thin moustache. He grabbed Kei by her furry arm and pulled her towards the back.
"Quickly, you have to get out of sight. I don't know what you've done young lady but your face is all over the newsnets. My word, if your...I say, who are your friends?" he said, noticing the others standing in the waiting room.

[Ash]

"Ash.From Earth.",Ash replies shortly.
"Looks like the whole situation changed from complicated to really bad.If you face is all over the...what did you call it?Newsnet?Well,then we probably have the whole station against us."

[Machaeus]

Urufu and Machaeus barge in, closing the door after they haul Ash, Jessie, and Jackie in. "Ugh," Machaeus snarls, "This thing has gone to H3ll in a handbasket."
"No kidding," Urufu sighs. "Basically, we were trying to find this guy that Ash had a chip on his shoulder with. Goes by Xacio. Suffice to say, we ran into a real problem considering that there's a group of nasty, powerful people who placed a BOUNTY on Ash's head. So us waltzing into a f*****g BOUNTY HUNTER'S OFFICE was a mistake on all our parts. B@stards."

[tachyon]

The Doc lead them into the next room. It was full of diagnostic equipment and strange instruments, all perfectly neat and santized. The walls gleamed white and the smell of disinfectant was even stronger than before.
"Well, time for introductions I suppose," said the doc, "I am Doctor Huy Tran Nguyen, but most of my aquaintances simply call me Doc. I was from England, originally, but I have spent the majority of my life on other worlds studying the pysiology of non-humans. I'm a Xenobiologist you see and, oh my," Doc held his nose, finally becoming aware of the horrid stench comming from the group. He turned to Kei.
"Where have you been girl, the sewer?"
She shruged. "Yeah, pretty much."
"Good Lord. Labrat, level 1 sanitization sweep if you don't mind."
The little droid beeped and took off from Jackie's shoulder. It went up to a keypad in the wall and punched in a code with its two main pincers. There was a low humming as a device that looked like a disco ball lowered from the ceiling, its facets glowing red. Suddenly the room was bathed in light, everyones skin tingled as the laser sanitizer vapourised the contaminants from their bodies. It stopped as suddenly as it had started, and the unit retracted into the ceiling again. Labrat settled beside Mach's feet this time, seemingly entertaining itself by his tugging his robes.
"Well now, that's much better isn't it?" said the doctor, visibly more relaxed, "Now, what can I do for you?"

[Machaeus]

Machaeus picks up Labrat, intrigued. "Been a while since I've seen a robot this complex. Usually magic and technology don't mix."
"Kei," Urufu says, "YOU brought us here. Are we hiding out, or what?"

[tachyon]

"Hiding out you say?" says the Doc, "Well any friends of Miss Latienfa are welcome here for as long as you need. I am much better off than most here in this place, and... Kei dear, whats the matter?"
Kei had shifted to the side, and was looking a little depressed. She lifted her head slightly.
"What? Nothing, I'm fine."
Doc rasied a finger to her. "You can't lie to me girl. For one thing I'm an old man, I know all the signs. And for another I'm and old man who is also a Xenobiologist, so I know all the signs of your species. And right now you body language would suggest that you are keeping something from me. Well, out with it then"
"They're here about Zeke, Doc."
The old man's expression wavered; this was obviously not something that he was expecting. He sighed and looked at the others.
"Well then, I suggest that we all sit down. I have quite a story to tell. Labrat," the little robot, who was hovering around Machaeus in a slow circle humming happily, stopped and saluted Doc, " get me the data from file CL-U5-EX555."
Labrat warbled and flew over to a storage unit on the far side of the room.

[Ash]

Ash leans against the wall and crosses his arms.
"A whole file about Xacio?Or "Zeke",how you call him?Fine.Now that we´re no longer safe outside,we have time.
Even though I really want to get back to earth as fast as possible...I think I don´t harmonize with space."

He looks over to Kei.Obviously her mood changed since Xacios name fell.
"Hey.Everything alright?You don´t look to well.", he asks her.

[Machaeus]

"Zeke?" Urufu echoes.
"They're about to tell us," Machaeus snaps. "Quiet."

[tachyon]

Kei held Labrat close to her, stroking it as if he were a cat.
"Zeke was just what I- we called him. Xacio 555 just sounded to... robotic,"
Labrat squawked indignantly. Kei patted him reassuringly. "No offense."
"Yes, well anyway," said the Doc. He turned over the datacard that Labrat had retrieved in his hand before inserting it into a holoprojector. With the remote control in hand, he dimmed the lights and a 3-D image of a bulky non-descript cargo spacecraft appeared in the centre of the room.
"Approximately 20 years ago, the civilian cargo ship Shizuhara Maru was traveling through mostly uncharted space in the vicinity of NGC-1904 when it encountered another vessel which matched none of their records."
The hologram changed to another ship, this one smaller but far more elegant in design. Two things stood out; one was the total lack of windows, airlocks or doorways, the other was that its hull was glowing and gently changing colours from white to blue to purple.
"This ship was like nothing that had ever been seen before. Further investigation by the crew revealed that the ship had a single occupant; a child sealed away in a stasis pod."
The centre image changed again, showing a poor quality digital photograph taken by one of the Shizuhara's crew. It was of a child, a boy, entombed within a long, grey pod. The lower part of his face was covered by a very familiar looking respirator. The image faded as the lights came back on.
"I won't bore you with the details, in short the ship was towed to the nearest planet, whereupon it and the child were transfered to a secure research facility owned by Cirtech Industries. And that is where I first met Xacio 555.
"Oi hang on a tick," pipes up Gordon for the first time in a while, "weren't they the lot who got themselves inta all kinds of strife with the law an' such?"
The old man noded.
"I was always interested in alien life, which is why I am what I am. But in my youth I was a little to rash, to bold for my own good. I would bend or break the rules when and wherever I could just to get a specimen first." Doc sighed, "Unfortunately by the time I was old enough to know better I had blacklisted myself with just about every company from one side of the galaxy to the other. But CI was willing to have me, not in spite of what I'd done but because of it."

[Machaeus]

Urufu nods. "So you liked physiology (sp?). A little much."
"That alone should have been a red flag," Machaeus sighs, "But someone like you looking for work...I guess beggars can't be choosers."