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Fixer Upper

Fixer Upper

About twenty minutes later, one of the royal doctors came in to check on Alex. He asked about pain levels, if there were any issues with breathing, and did a bunch of tests to ensure the undersized heart was providing a reasonable amount of blood pressure. Checked the thick protective gel dressing glued to Alex’s chest, ran some scans of the incision and stab wound while he was there, and adjusted the drug dosage by a few micrograms. He was professional though unsettled, and tried to leave just as soon as he was done with his tasks.

Neya stopped the doctor and got him to swear that it was safe for her to step out of the room. Alex had requested some sort of entertainment, and she had immediately relayed that to someone via the tablet she had dropped when he came to, with updates when he had settled on something to read, something to do with their history - they had cinema as he was used to it, and even television, but the idea of watching those felt weird. He wanted to save that for when Carbon was back. That was their thing. History books felt like the perfect way to spend an indeterminate length of time while recuperating after open chest surgery.

Neya had been adamant about not leaving him until one of the doctors had given her the all clear - Carbon had personally requested that she keep an eye on him. So yes, she was probably the Neya that had come up during Carbon’s fight with Eleya. He still wasn’t going to ask about it. Not until he’d gotten things cleared up with Carbon.

This conversation had been carried out in hushed tones and as far away from him as possible without leaving the room, which was really only a few steps. They did so next to his external translator, which had been placed very neatly on the table in the corner. It was still connected to his wireless, so he got a front row seat to it anyway. There were sensors in the bed and buried in the gel dressing connected to the sickbay’s network, and since ‘the human’ was conscious again, he could summon help on his own with the push of a button.

The most alarming thing he learned was that he had been unconscious for well over a day. He did an admirable job of not reacting to that, given that he actually was eavesdropping. Look at that, he was actually doing spy things. Argueta would be... based on their last conversation, mad. She could go to hell, they were talking about his health like he wasn’t there.

Once finally assured that she wasn’t going to be shirking her duties, Neya said goodbye and left to go find him something to read. As she walked out the door, Alex noticed she had a tail. Until now she’d been standing too close to the bed, and further away the long cut of her jacket had covered it. Cat-like, curling low above the ground, carrying the same inverted color scheme of pale lavender fur with dark purplish stripes.

None of the other Tsla’o had tails. Weird. Having the time to reflect on it, there had been a sentence in the primer about Tsla’o with that fur color, labeled contra in the book, noting that it existed. There had been nothing more substantive, let alone details about physical differences.

The doctor followed her out - no tail peeking out below the dark purple coat he wore. He’d have to ask Carbon if they docked them or something - and left Alex with the quiet hum of the life support systems. The adjustments the doctor had dialed into his pain management dosages seemed to be working, at least. The incision ached, but it was mostly ignorable now. Sitting up didn’t make it feel like it was trying to rip open.

Now that he didn’t have anyone to talk to, he dwelled on how annoyed he was about the whole ‘we’ll do this on our own’ thing going on. Real fucking shitshow so far. This was the exact opposite of what he needed to be doing right now. Maybe he could grab a nap. The internal clock on his Amp said it was almost midnight UTC, so it was about the right time. Sure, he’d been unconscious until recently, but that wasn’t the same as sleeping.

It wasn’t, right?

Trying to get comfortable and rest with the light on was a fool's errand, but he ran it anyway, to the predictable outcome: it wasn’t happening. He wasn’t actually tired and the crisp overhead light wasn’t helping. A mental glance at his Amp’s internal clock let him know it’d been eleven minutes since everyone left.

He appraised the handful of buttons on the rail beside him, all of them marked with symbols. The visual translator didn’t do a single thing for those symbols, which he thought was a huge oversight now that he was dealing with it. Some of them did make sense, at least. The up and down arrows next to what he thought was a pillow raised and lowered the head of the bed, for instance. Neya had pointed out the one that would give him more pain meds, a line running into two parallel lines. He could kind of see that, a very deconstructed syringe.

The triangle with the swirly line in it? Not a single clue. Nothing in the room was triangle shaped. Maybe it would summon chips - he knew it wouldn’t but the thought did make him smile. The four rounded squares were equally nonsensical. The one there at the end was an arc with a few lines radiating away from it.

He gave it a poke, and the overhead lights turned off. Filing that one away for later.

Alex was still mentally celebrating that victory over Tsla’o iconography when the door shushed open, a dark figure in the hallway behind tsking softly. “Why is the light off? Did you not just leave?”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

If it wasn’t his favorite aunt. “I’m in here, you know. You can just say, ‘Hey Alex can you turn the light on?’ And I will.” Maybe. He did turn the light on, this time.

Eleya filed in, an enormous book in her arms. It was about the size of her torso, black leather bound, metalwork over the corners and a latch the size of her hand holding it closed. “Very well. Though I hope this is not a recurring event.”

Neya came in behind her carrying another book with the same binding, looking somewhat chastised. She set it down on the table with a muted thump and immediately took a seat. The light furred Tsla’o studiously ignored them, paying very strict attention to her fingertips worrying against each other.

“Same. So, what brings you down to sickbay? Just a book delivery for little old me?” He managed to keep a snide tone out of his voice, even though he was really feeling it right now. There would be time for that when he was more sure he could actually walk away without his chest popping open.

“That is part of it, yes.” She pressed a button on the outside of the rail and a small table unfolded and laid out across his lap, the book hefted onto it. Closer to it, the leather looked real, the imperfections of a natural hide visible. The metalwork had the same hammered finish as the engines on the Kshlav’o did, and it smelled like the archival section in the university library. “There is more information that I thought would be best delivered in person.”

“Alright, lay it on me.” Alex eyeballed the book, realizing that he was probably the only Human that had seen this, the only one that knew it existed. That felt like pressure. “Also, do you have anything a little less fancy? I figured you’d have something on a tablet... Or at least some gloves?”

“You will read these. They are important.” Eleya glared at him for a moment, distinctly displeased by his rejection of these tomes. It softened quickly, the Empress moving on to the actual matters at hand. “Neya informed me that you have been apprised of Carbon’s attachment to a diplomatic team overseeing the acquisition of Human mediboard technology.”

“In less words, but yes. Tsla’o can’t just walk into a medical supply store and pick one up, huh?” His mind wandered, wondering how they would even pay in that situation. Just slap down some gold bars and tell the cashier to keep the change? Did the Empire have a bank account somewhere?

“The Confederation has offered to sell us this before. A few decades ago when they first developed it, and then more recently after the Disaster.” She rested a hand on the rail, claws clicking against the hard polymer. The jacket she wore this time was different, a dark blue that reminded Alex of the sky just after sunset, a hint of details woven in with silver thread. “We have been... prideful about such technology, in the past. Now, as we see the fallout from the disaster on Schoen, as we work with Humans more and more, it is time to stop ignoring it. The ongoing project means more interaction with Humans, which means we should be equipped to help them, as well.”

“I’ll give you, it sounds a lot better than the events that lead to this conversation.” A little bit of contempt slipped into that one.

“It should. I regret what has happened to you Alex. Rest assured that the Royal doctors are hard at work cloning you new organs should the Confederation not come to a decision quickly.” She said it like that was a good thing.

He supposed it was. Really didn’t matter how his organs got put back in place, just as long as everything was in there at the end of the day. “Well, thank you. I do appreciate that. Even if I would rather have had an ambulance summoned so all of this could have been avoided.” He gestured at the raw scar under the protective gel.

“You are welcome, dear nephew.” Eleya gave him a little nod, ignoring that last comment. “Have you been made aware of your assailant’s status?”

“Not yet. Only been up for like an hour, maybe. How’s he doing?” Alex wasn’t sure that he wanted to know. Neya had said that he’d been taken into custody, and that was good enough. He already had an inkling that the outcome was going to be something that he was uncomfortable with.

“He admitted what he did, and stands by his actions. I am displeased to find that he has had no direct contact with any rebellion cells. A significant amount of their propaganda was found in his effects, but his actions appear stochastic. He saw an opportunity to strike a Human and took it.”

“He was in my parents house.” Alex tried to keep his voice calm, the words still coming out clipped.

A hint of concern touched Eleya’s features, “how did he...”

“He escorted Carbon when she was on the Arcology. Stood there in the entryway, stiff as a board. Escorted us both back to the shuttle, back to the Sword of the Morning Light.”

“Is it so.” Her eyes narrowed, gears turning behind them. “I will look into the events that put him on that detail. Someone in his command should have been aware that he was not fond of Humans, given how violent his reaction was.”

Alex was becoming unsettled by the way she referred to Humans. He was one, sitting there in front of her, no matter what her little marriage scheme said. “I gotta say, ‘not fond of’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.”

“It is. He hated so strongly that he took a risk that led to his capture, when he could have done much more damage if he had worked in secrecy for years.” She regarded him directly, fixed cool blue eyes onto his. “Do not think that your actions to protect Tashen have gone unseen - he is a tremendous asset, and a close friend. I appreciate it deeply, and his wife sends her thanks for your selfless act.”

“Yeah, well...” He rubbed the back of his neck, the movement pulling at his wounds and teasing a wince out of him. “He was already unconscious when he hit the ground. I couldn’t just... watch somebody get beat like that. I didn’t even know he was married.”

“A kind choice in a hard moment. A rare thing to see these days, I am afraid.” A wry smile curled the corners of her mouth, and she set a warm hand on his shoulder. “It does make her admiration more understandable.”