After I visited with everyone who wanted to see me, I went for a long run in Piedmont Park, but felt guilty, so I didn't run as long as usual. By myself, I knew progs still monitored me. I hadn't mentioned that I have bulimia nervosa. If I binge on pastries and make myself throw up, healers will know. So, I didn't. I just went for my run. Sooner or later, I'll have to talk to Suma about it. Not now!
I waved up a full-length mirror and looked at myself. Becky says I'm not fat, but she's just being nice. Can't find a single nice thing about the way I look. After my run, I'm shaking. Can't be this way in front of healers! But I have an excuse. Keiley. What'll I do when he's awake more? Our minds are linked! Later. I'll think about it later. Or, I'll just find something to do. Maybe I can volunteer as a healer helper. Oh, I felt guilty for going for a run when I should be seeing about my husband! Kept seeing his death, over and over. At least I can just run hygiene to freshen up.
Came back to the yellow Rainbow building, and healers kept asking me questions. What is Earth like? Are there mines? Slavers? I realized they were wondering if Elsie was a slave. Her healer worried about her. “She works so! I tried to get her to walk in the festival, and she wishes to wait! Did one train her so?”
Oh, it was hard not to laugh! I showed them how I worked at jobs and how scared I was of losing that one and having to job-hunt again. Totally foreign to them!
Then I talked to Elsie. "You are taking breaks sometimes, aren't you, Girl? Healers are worried about you."
"'Bout me?" Elsie laughed. "I'm havin' the time o' m'life out here! I love my work, an' it's important, makin' folks feel better! An' I can eat while I do it an' I won't get fat! Calories self-adjust. Ella said dey had it in Rainbow, so somebody wrote it for Alb. It's runnin' on all the worlds! Pirad used people's memories to write 'em, but dese programmers dey had on de ship, made 'em better! All of us had ideas, too." But she lost the happy smile as she looked at all the sleeping people. "I guess I could go see th' festival if I wanted. But Elshar Zheien, dey can get bad fast. I watch everybody's progs with one I wrote. If dey readings get off, I can get Ella to look. Hopin' I'll figure out what she does, soon, so I can do it, too."
Ella didn't even take time to talk. She had a line of programs waiting. A red icon blinked, and she went pale! Stopped what she was doing and passed it to Elsie, who got busy. I looked at the two records. One was King Nitomahan, and the other was Tom. Their readings went down by a lot until Ella did something. All of the records waiting were council members! Another prog had a list of former slaves. They had a column of numbers indicating the number of times a parameter dropped below 50%. Most were in the double digits today.
She and Ella are saving lives. She’s scared if she takes a break, someone will die. Whoa.
Kind of like me. Every time I walk out of here, I’m terrified I’ll come back and that bed’ll be empty, like Micansen. But I need to do something. I'm not saving lives, just sitting here watching them.
But, Elsie looks at her husband every time he groans in his sleep, and that fear in her eyes—it’s not just fear of someone dying, it’s him. It’s his brother, who has a very worried healer. He got hurt at Sigan Mas, and there went his dream of being a diplomat with Nes.
Fa woke up crying. “Bae! O!”
Keiley hugged him. “I am here, Fa.” He has beautiful blue eyes. I stroked his blond hair, that has shades of blonde to brown all through it. Soft hair. He smiles, and my heart just melts!
“I dreamed I lay in the mine and you were nae!”
“Keil, take of bis tia.”
“Must I?” Then, he saw me and inhaled ‘em.
I rubbed the back of his head, and he flinched like I was going to hit him! “Fa, I am your sae. I will nae harm your head.”
“I am a coward, to fear my sae!”
“Whoever hit you was a coward, because nice people don’t hit!”
Several people stared at me. Then, talked to their healers.
“He who hit me was wrong?”
“He who struck me should nae?”
A chorus of ‘em rose, and healers comforted all of them.
Fa looked up at me. “Please, Sae, touch me.” He tried to relax as I used an even gentler touch. Wulai put tnshey on my hand. I rubbed in a lot.
“Eae, sae, you are nice! I should nae fear.”
“Fa, you should listen to Napah. He is a nice healer.”
Napah smiled at me and his eyes turned light blue. Keiley's don't change. Maybe he's too worried about Fa. I held his hand and he gripped it!
Fa’s blue eyes went light, too. “Eae. Napah, you were always nice to me. I love you, Napah!”
“I love you also, dear friend! Did bis tia help you?”
“My sae help me! I love you, Sae!” We hugged, and Keiley hugged both of us. The whole family got in on the act!
Including Daddy and Mama, who came and added their arms. Daddy sighed. “I love living with Zheien! I’m a lot happier here. Keil, I’m happy to share my sae with you!”
“Eae? Beh is your sae? She is a very nice sae, ah—”
“I am Lucas Stone, but you can call me Lucas.”
“Lukas. Lucas. Eae.” His eyes turned darker. Zheien think in spellings, at least, diplomats do.
“If you need help, just ask. I won’t get mad. I’m Lucas.”
“Lucas. Healer.” Is this my grumpy father, just joining in a group hug like this? It felt good.
“Well, if my telepathy would just happen, then I can earn my white robes.”
Fa rubbed the left side of Daddy’s face. “I sorry. You lost?”
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“I never had it yet! I’m Earthan, so we aren’t born with it. I’m not hurt.” But, I had mine immediately when I got recloned! He doesn’t?
Fa spread his fingertips across Daddy’s forehead.
Napah took his hand off. “He is nae injured. I am his healer also. Lucas, I think yours comes today.”
“Nap, when will I wake? I sleep too much! My bae needs me!” He sobbed.
“O, but you need much rest while I must give you nesfa. Fear nae! This is your second day—”
“Second! O, is too long!”
Napah hummed. Fa looked very sleepy.
“Please, Nap! I nae—Beh, Sae!”
I held his head and rubbed it. “Fa, you need to sleep to be well. Everybody’s having to sleep a lot, and they all hate it, but you are very tired. You had to work too hard. Now, it’s your respite. You—”
“Respite? Now, Sae?” His eyes went light.
“Eae! You can get some good rest. It’s your respite.”
He nodded. “My respite. Bae, we can rest now.”
“Eae, Fa. We always wished for rest, on our respites, eae? We can rest together.”
“Together! O, I wish I could see—Lucas! Know you Konaris? He is my dearest friend! I fear to look for him. Will you?”
Daddy waved up a map and the arrow pointed to our left. “Oh, he’s on that bed! With Farleikon and Ella.”
Ella looked up. So did Farley. “Fa, there is Keil!”
“Keil? O, help me!”
Their healer picked him up and jumped onto our bed. I expected a big bounce, but the bed didn’t move. “Keil! O, I feared to ask! Keil!”
“Kon! O, happiness!” They hugged and both of ‘em fell asleep. Their healers put ‘em in a leiwege and fed ‘em ice cream while they snored.
“Won’t they choke?” Daddy stared at ‘em. Both of 'em have brown eyes, but hers are darker.
Ella hugged Farley and took a bite of a pastry he offered her.
Wulai shook his head. “Nae. We absorb. This must seem strange, for Earthans and Elshars can nae. We have absorptive chambers where you have lungs, stomach and other areas.”
“That’s interesting. I need to start learning this, now that we’re settled in. Can I apprentice to you, Wulai?”
His face turned orange. “You must speak with Napah. I think he can nae release me to a student for a month, perhaps longer. But, ah, Risa?”
A middle-aged healer bounced over to sit by Daddy. “Wulai, I am Risentah, and I can take a student! I hoped an Earthan might have interest in healing.” This healer didn't look sleepy. Orange skin. Oh, his record says Risentah, Master Healer Of MarKu. They sent a lot of healers here from other worlds of Alb. He's yellower than other orange Zheien.
“Well! I’m Lucas Stone, but you can call me Lucas! On Earth, I’m a surgeon but I did rotations in a lot of different specialties before I decided to do surgery. I did a year of cardiology, a year of radiology, and a year of pediatrics.”
Risentah blinked. “Oh, a learned one! I am sure Pirad would want to speak with you, before I take you as my student. He wishes to know more about surgery, but the other subjects might also interest him.”
Pirad just appeared on the bed, and Daddy startled badly! “Hello, Mr. Pirad. I am Lucas Stone—”
“Yes. I saw all of your memories. They are very helpful to my research. If you would agree to clones, I could do much more for the Earthans coming to Alb. I can add much of Earth’s knowledge to each of them, and give them Dosilian bodies.”
“I thought Dosilians were the enemy.”
Pirad looked at me. “Not all of them! The mind is more important than the species, though the species can add capacity to the mind.” His appearance was less skeleton-like to me and more aliens from movies. That dark green skin's not like in Close Encounters--and his huge eyes are interesting. Green with yellow whites.
“So, you don’t want me, you want me in a more suitable form, is that it?” Daddy laughed.
“Yes. I can make your brothers better.”
“Can you make me better?”
“I can, but not without changing you so your family will not like it. Dosilians are very different. I have better success with Elshars, but they have not the capacity for much greater intelligence.”
“So, I should choose to be Elshar? What’s the advantage to that?”
“Greater intelligence and physical strength—”
“No! Lucas, I don’t want you to change that much!” Mama looked horrified! With progs, it's like the beauty parlor, with a wave. Now, every blond curl is neat like she always wanted.
“What if I also gave you an Elshar body? Then you would be more the same, as you are now.” Pirad looked at Mama, who flinched.
“I think we should stay Earthan!” Mama got her exasperated look!
Daddy laughed. “But, we could be geniuses! Don’t tell me you don’t want that, Bedelia Heather Candler!” He teases her with her full name. She didn't take Stone when they married because her boutique was already famous.
“We’re already members of MENSA!”
“The average Elshar could easily join it, if he stayed sober long enough.”
Several artisans on the beds got dark eyes. Artisans don't usually like fostok. Mashai do on other worlds, but not in Alb? My server educated me. My memories are full of drunk Elshars, but they cure 'em here in the Alb System. Nice! But Pirad's probably speaking of Elshar worlds not in Alb.
Daddy smiled and raised an eyebrow at Mama. She shook her head. I wanted to laugh, but I didn’t. His hair was the rust color of mine in pictures, as a kid, but it's brown now. His receding hairline doesn't show since we got here.
“Okay, I guess we’ll just stay Earthan. For now.”
She just frowned at him. Pulled at her blond glory.
Pirad clicked his face into that smug expression. “There is no hurry. My lab will be here. But, the sooner I can have clones, the better my work for Earthans.”
“Go ahead! I always wanted brothers.”
“I can make 6 for you now. Think of traits you want them to have.” Recloning made both of 'em look a lot younger.
“No! They’ll be after me!” Mama looked horrified! Tucked her curls behind her shoulders.
“I can remove memories of you from them. And I can make them look different. I already have your Elshar clones on Earth living in your home. They are eager for revenge on Atherton.”
Mama slowly nodded. “I did agree to those. But they all stayed on Earth, didn’t they?”
“One couple moved to MarKu. They do not resemble you.” I have an aunt and uncle?
Finally, Mama agreed for Daddy to have Dosilian clones, but she didn’t want herself cloned again.
Daddy let Risentah teach him how to give Keiley a massage with tnshey. Mama went for a walk. Probably, for a run, the way she was shaking. I thought about what Becky said, and shuddered. Keiley didn't look like he has twisted limbs, but maybe he's hiding from me, even as he sleeps. Can I learn to see through it? Maybe Risentah can teach me.