{Enki | Medical Bay}

“The terminal recognized her DNA, but I can’t believe it. You said the father was an Aegis?”

Qas understandably balked at Triss’ results.

Pablo was doing some balking himself at the machine that stabilized her with ease after his significant efforts to do so until this far in her term. He nodded at the Tritan doctor’s question. “The last one. We’ve figured the baby’s physiology is dominating her. That it’s converting her mother’s blood to yellow Aegis plasma and her bones to nacre ore. It started with the womb and spread out from there.”

Across the multi-tiered room, Lynn, Twenty-One, Caedes, and Miy made the unconscious Tritans more comfortable, hoping they’d wake in a mood willing to listen.

Bethany’s quick thinking had surprised them all. The Progeny with memory gifts were truly exceptional.

As if sensing the trajectory of his thoughts, the quiet young girl caught his eye and nodded.

Qas adhered a patch to the back of Triss’ hand. Pablo watched as tiny, nearly microscopic wires from the machine connected to the patch. The Tritan explained, “These will feed her nutrients and anesthetize her. See this reading here.” He pointed to a line chart on the three-dimensional projection.

“Yup.” Pablo guessed at their purpose. “Is that…” He frowned and narrowed his eyes at it. “Pain? You can measure pain?”

Qas nodded solemnly. “It’s spiked. She’s been suffering for a while.”

This brought all kinds of conflict for Pablo. On the one hand, he listened to the entirety of Korac’s Verse. Triss didn’t come out looking so good. Truly, with every atrocity she had committed alongside Razor, she was a villain. But Pablo hated to see any patient in pain. Especially one as dedicated as Triss to bringing a rare and special life to this world.

A half-Aegis, half-Lyriki baby. One with a wonderful childhood ahead of her, with Sagan and Korac as her parents.

Pablo asked, “So, we’re reducing her pain with the patch? And feeding her? She needs Aegis blood. We brought intravenous bags of it.”

As if already ahead of him, Qas pointed to the projection. “That reading is here. Yes, she’s low on blood cells.”

Pablo turned around to ask for them and nearly ran into Lynn, who held an entire arm full of bags. The smile she gave him made him want to marry her all over again. Lynn didn’t like Triss, but she liked the way Pablo took care of people and would never stand in the way of that. She understood him.

As he took a bag, Pablo planted a kiss on her soft lips and turned back to Qas, who was watching intently before looking away. But not before Pablo caught the grief in his eyes. Pablo was moved by Tumu’s story about the females dying while some of these “lesser” Tritans slept. It moved them all. It certainly brought the Tritans’ attempts to recover their species into perspective.

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Qas was no different from that.

The Tritan cleared his throat and pointed to a cylinder connected to a chute attached to Triss’ machine. “Open one and pour it into there. It will sanitize it first before sending it through the patch.”

Cool. Sanitizing blood before exposing the recipient to anything carried by the donor. Why didn’t Pablo think of that? He emptied the bag into the cylinder, saying, “This is some amazing technology. To think, I ran a lab kitted-out with a few gadgets and gizmos from Enki, but nothing like this.”

“They gave you Tritan devices. These are Aegis works. They’re far more advanced. The Primaries and the Eminents try to copy it, but they don’t allow any fresh minds into the engineering labs.” Qas peered about the facility as he spoke with such admiration.

Pablo was grateful they found someone with such a passion for medicine to help with Triss.

“What should we do in the meantime?” Miy called from below the multi-tiered room.

Twenty-One and Caedes stared at Pablo as if he were in charge. Even Chief Lynn gave him a similar look with a shrug. “You’re the boss, Doc.”

Pablo liked her saying that entirely too much.

Twenty-One must have noticed because he chuckled in that sizable chest of his.

Right.

“How many more machines like this are there in this bay?” Pablo asked while checking some of Triss’ readouts.

Without a word, the Tritan stepped up to the dark glass beyond the readout projections and flipped a switch. Bright perimeter lights illuminated one identical bay after another and another in a growing circle of medical facilities. Qas said, “There are one hundred beds in each bay, and several more facilities like this one around Enki. Are you expecting company?”

Pablo stopped gawking to answer. “More like an army. How do you feel about joining the Shadow, Qas? We won’t restrict you from our research. In fact, I’d welcome another doctor.”

Qas pointed at the knocked-out Tritans. “The ‘soldiers’ you have unconscious down there are like me. We’re not soldiers at all, but scientists, engineers, one of them is a comedian for Elden’s sake—”

Elden.

Lynn caught the slip, too.

Pablo smiled. “Are you a fan of the Verses?”

Black blood flushed the Tritan’s face as he flustered over his mistake. “It’s an executable offense here.”

Miy called with a heavy note of sarcasm, “Well, we obviously don’t mind.” She even folded her arms and rolled her eyes. With the orange streaks in her black hair, she’d pass for a sullen teen girl on Earth.

Caedes gave his signature “humph.”

Qas tried to explain something that really didn’t need explaining to the Shadow. “Elden, and now Nox and Korac, are like your Robin Hood on Earth. They’re stories to lift the spirits of the oppressed. But the difference with the Shadow is that you’re all real and really declaring war on Enki. We don’t want our Primaries to die—Any of our people to die. There are so few of us…”

Bethany appeared from nowhere and took his hand. He startled a bit and looked down at her as she reached out to Pablo, who took her other hand—

And fell down into a rabbit hole of memories. Ones Bethany already knew and easily led them to. Qas likewise witnessed the making of the Shadow.

When they returned to the here and now, Bethany let go and gazed up at both men expectantly. With an ability like hers, the Shadow could bring anyone to their side. At least, that was Pablo’s hope, as Qas recovered across from him.

Both doctors stared at each other for a long time before the Tritan spoke first. “Imminent is real.”

“It is.” Lynn said from the level below. “And they want control over the entire Vast Collective.”

Pablo ventured further. “You’ve been through enough, Qas. We’re not asking you to join our crusade. Just help the wounded like an objective physician should.”

Qas stared at Triss when Pablo said, “objective.” The much older doctor blinked back water from his voids. A tear. “Yes. The others, if you can show them the way you showed me when they wake, will help anyway they can.” To Twenty-One, Miy, and Caedes on the lowest floor, he called, “Prepare the bays. You’ll need one of these patches in each device. We can activate the other facilities as needed.

“And you will need them.”