A weird, chirping noise roused me from unconsciousness, a sleep deep enough that even the parts connected to Galatea and her systems had been inactive. For a few moments, I barely even knew my own name, let alone where I was, but the familiar scent of Sophia that tickled my nose helped to bring my mind up to speed. However, that scent did not explain the weird noise, nor did it explain why there was another arm in my field of view, slender, with dusky skin and, for some reason, secured around Sophia’s chest with a pair of zip-ties.

A wordless, pained groan caught my attention, coming from the same direction the chirping came from, the noise obviously rousing more than just me from sleep. Behind me, I could hear a solid thump, as something heavy landed on the floor, eliciting a vile swear, delivered in Karen’s familiar voice.

At that point, my brain had booted to the point that I remembered the track back from the club, with Sophia somehow managing to carry Nisha on her back, thanks to the zip-ties, while balancing Karen in her arms. In contrast, I only had to carry Tanisha, but from the blurriness of my memories, I was reasonably certain Galatea had refrained from using the nanites in my body to filter out the alcohol I had drunk, leaving it to make me, well, drunk.

At the time, dropping Tanisha and Karen into Tanisha’s bed had seemed like a reasonable idea, as had letting Nisha sleep in the same bed as Sophia and I, though I could not, for the life of me, remember why we had not removed the zip-ties.

“Where’smyphone?” a muffled, almost incoherent moan came from behind Sophia, who was now awake as well and visibly amused, her powers coming without an off-switch, meaning no evil AI had been able to let her get drunk. At least not using simple alcohol, I might have to find out if there was something that could do that for her and if not, I might have to make something.

“There you go.” Sophia somehow managed to fish the still chirping phone from the purse Nisha had carried the evening before, wiggling out from between Nisha’s still tied arms in the process and handing it to her. Just from looking at Nisha, it was obvious that her mind had yet to come awake and register the situation.

“Hullo?” she managed to thumb her phone in the right way to accept the call, clumsily holding it next to her ear, her eyes still closed.

“Hello, sweetheart. I’m afraid I have to ruin your holiday-plans, you need to come home as soon as possible.” a mature, male voice came out of the phone, easily loud enough for Sophia and me to hear.

“Huh?” Nisha muttered, before there seemed to be a spark going off in her head and she recognised the voice. “Dad?” Again, she paused, her face scrunched into a frown. “What’s going on?”

At this point, her eyes opened again and I realised the question had not only been addressed to her father, but she was asking Sophia and me at the same time, her eyes flickering to the ties holding her hands.

“Please, just come home quickly.” her father told her, his voice almost pleading.

“Dad?” she asked again, now sounding a little scared, “What’s going on?!”

There was a moment of silence, stretching for what felt like forever, all my previous amusement at the situation gone as things seemed to suddenly be serious. With Galatea's help, I started to check the international news, just in case something big was going on, but we came up empty. In the meantime, Sophia carefully gripped the zip-ties between her fingers, her strength easily able to tear them without impacting Nisha’s arms.

“Your mother.” the voice finally admitted and I was fairly sure there was a suppressed sob, “Her headaches have been growing worse and worse and when I finally got her to see a doctor, they found out it wasn’t just stress, she’s got cancer.” the voice explained, the words coming out in a single rush, maybe to just get it all out of the way.

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I could see Nisha turn pale and in an impulsive decision, I reached out, gripping her hand and trying to project strength and calm, something her empathic sense would pick up and that might help her.

“Ask him for the detailed diagnosis.” I asked, aware that her father could hear me and a small part of me wondered what he would think. Nisha’s eyes widened a little, when I inserted myself into the situation, and I had a feeling she likely had simply blanked the whole sleeping-situation, ignoring it to focus on her phone-call.

“Dad, the details?” she relayed the question, prodding her father at the same time to reply.

“Who was that?” he asked instead, only for Nisha to prod him again, until he finally replied.

“It’s bad, the tumor is in her brain and it has formed metastases. They already started chemo, but their diagnosis is…” he stopped, his voice breaking, “They don’t think she’ll be with us for much longer.”

As I was listening, the part of me that was joined with Galatea considered the issue and we quickly came to the realisation that while modern medicine might have made great strides in micro-surgery, what we could do together was so much more. The question was, should we act, could we act? Should we show that we had the ability, potentially inviting trouble on our head, possibly even harming the valued neutrality of the Guild by selectively helping a major political figure, which might be construed as taking sides?

But at the same time, having the ability, could I simply turn away and let Nisha’s mother die?

“You do not need to buy a plane-ticket.” I told Nisha, making the snap decision that I would help, hoping that Technica would accept my resolution. Using my connection with Galatea to the fullest, I pinged Technica’s communicator, quickly explaining what was going on and that I was going to help. At the same time, I was directing the robots in the lair to begin readying the plane for launch, as I was reasonably certain there was no quicker way to get Nisha home. And no better way for me to travel.

“What’s going on? Who is with you, Nisha?” her father asked, concern for his daughter pushing away the anguish at his wife’s condition.

“I’m not sure myself, I was partying with friends last night and your call woke me up.” Nisha explained and right on cue, another grumble came from Tanisha’s bed, protesting the noise we were making.

“We will accompany you home, I can get you there faster. And I will be able to help.” I explained, not giving out details but simply staring into Nisha’s eyes, willing her to understand and believe my words.

“Dad, I’ll call you back, as soon as I know when I’ll be home.” Nisha told him, giving me a nod and quickly terminating the call before falling onto her back, tears streaming down her face. Sophia gave me a quick look, before gathering Nisha into her arms, giving her a supportive hug into which I joined. Luckily, Technica gave the okay to help, even going so far to tell me I could take as much time as needed. If necessary, she would introduce me to the rest of the Council next year. She also suggested that I might want to inspect the area damaged in the tsunami a few months ago, adding some legitimacy to the journey, which it otherwise might lack. A public reason for going, so to speak.

“Nisha, it will be okay.” I tried to assure her, getting choked noises in response as the situation finally hit home for her.

“Love, it seems I will be travelling to India soon. Come with?” I asked Sophia, after exchanging a quick look with her. Without even a moment of hesitation, she simply nodded, gently untangling herself from Nisha and standing up.

“I’ll be packing my stuff, do you want me to pack yours as well, so you can take care of her?” she asked and I nodded in response.

“Please. But would you mind taking care of her for a minute or five, I want to get a quick shower and I think we should tell the love-birds over there what is going on.” I replied. Only the somber situation and the crying Nisha still cradled in my arms stopped me from laughing out loud when I glanced over my shoulder at said love-birds, one of whom was now trying to fall asleep on the floor after falling out of the bed earlier, the other trying to make a nest out of the bedding and settle in for the winter.

“Let’s get to it.” Sophia nodded and both of us started to prepare. Suddenly, we had plans for the break.