{Enki}
Ross finished helping Pablo make Para comfortable on one of several dozen pallets which Lynn, Twenty-One, and Bones assembled. Those beds were like tombstones in a graveyard. She sat down on the glass floor and pressed her back against a glass wall—all of it surrounded by Dyson’s Sphere tech.
“Do you think we’ll need them all?” Jack’s voice was sad, but not hopeless.
He sank down beside Ross, folded his arms on his knees, and then rested his chin on his arms. Jack’s side profile looked handsome against a pool of Cascading Light. Earnest and sincere.
Ross realized he’d asked her a question. “I hope not. Para is stable, though. Xelan isn’t sure how to wake her.” Now wasn’t the best time to tell Jack Ross woke up and saw the potential in him, but she was doing it, anyway. “Jack, I like—”
“We got an emergency here, Doc!” Korac and Sagan Seamswalked into the makeshift medic corner. The latter was holding a bundle—Holy shit, the bundle was bleeding.
After laying the woman out, Sagan opened another conduit. “I’m getting Xelan.”
Usually perfectly collected, a slight edge strained Korac’s otherwise smooth voice. “Thank you.” Sagan nodded to him as she left, and Pablo approached. Korac explained, “She’s bleeding from this side of her head. She said a few things to us before she passed out.”
The Doctor gaped at the woman. “That’s T.a.o. Is she free? Oh, wow.” He switched into professional mode and checked the bleeding injury.
Andrew called, “She’s free. I can feel her intentions are her own and aren’t hindered by Celindria.”
Ross stayed put as Lynn and the others came to verify for themselves it was the first Seamswalker. Jack remained sitting with Ross, and this was good. They were better off out of the way.
Sagan Seamswalked out of thin air again. This time she brought Wingmaster. He took one look at the woman on the table and slipped his medical hat on. Xelan asked, “What are her vitals?”
Pablo packed gauze around the wound on her head and answered, “Thready pulse. Her nacre is healing the damage too slowly. Xelan, I—I think she tried to cut something out of her brain. See here, and here…” He indicated points along her skull which Ross couldn’t see from over here.
“Of course…” Xelan started with his thinking and pacing. Talking to himself, he said, “And a drill… Yes, she would know where in my lab to find those things…” He went on for another minute. As he often did in these trances, Xelan nearly bit his thumbnail until he saw it was covered in her blood.
Sagan watched with bated breath.
Korac glared at him and said, “Do you mind sharing your findings with the rest of the class?”
Pablo licked his lips. Lynn’s eyes flicked to them as the doctor said, “It’s a theory we’ve been discussing about Para or anyone else inflicted with the Tenements of Volition, but I cannot imagine the horrors which drove T.a.o. to attempt brain surgery on herself.”
“Brain surgery?!” Sagan cupped a hand over her mouth. Ross always thought she looked pretty when she did it, even in distress.
Korac pulled Sagan against him and chafed her arm in a comforting gesture as he continued to look Xelan upside the head. “Elaborate.”
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Xelan answered while turning T.a.o.’s head for a better look. “She cut into her motor cortex and…” He swallowed. “Carved out the voluntary motor function. Her nacre isn’t healing because Celindria would think of this. Fail safes.” He tossed a nod over his shoulder at Para to indicate a second example of such precautions.
Jack called from where he and Ross sat on the floor, “What about Gargantuan Tritan blood? Tumu cured my disabled nacre with it.”
“I’m happy to volunteer.” The spoken of devil walked into the room. “We can try.”
Ross asked, “If it works, will we try it on Para?”
Xelan turned and gave Ross a proud smile. “Very quick. Yes. If it works. Tumu?”
Korac stepped out of the way to let the Tritan next to the bed.
Lynn removed a wet rag from where she was tending T.a.o., soaked in her blood. She and Pablo shared a hopeful look.
Even with his back to her, Ross still knew what Tumu was doing. Cutting a black vein and feeding his ultra special blood to T.a.o. Ross looked over to see Jack had closed his eyes as if praying. Shoring up all of her nerve, she reached over and took his hand. He opened his eyes and stared at her with a grateful and astonished look. Within one squeeze of Jack’s hand, Tumu stepped back from the table, finished.
Xelan kept his hand on T.a.o.’s pulse. Pablo and Lynn returned to cleaning her. Better to see if she was healing without all the mess in the way. Sagan took Korac’s hand and squeezed it. They all knew after listening to his Verse that Korac shared a special friendship with the endangered ancient Progeny in question. And everyone couldn’t wait to see if they could save Para and the others this way—
“There.” Xelan sounded elated. “T.a.o.’s pulse. It’s stronger.”
Lynn cried, “Her wounds are knitting.”
Tumu stepped back, and Korac touched his arm. “Thank you.”
With his lipless mouth, the Tritan smiled warmly. “No tiny women are dying on my watch. Not if I can help it.”
Tameka stood in the doorway, leaned against it out of the way. She glanced over at Jack and Ross, who couldn’t miss the warming of her eyes as she took in their hand holding. A smile touched her lips. Lam appeared behind her, watching over her head. Twenty-One and Bones even stopped mid-construction to watch.
Everyone held their breaths.
One heartbeat.
Two.
Those surrounding the table relaxed and let out their breaths on relieved sighs. Xelan muttered, “Thank Elden.”
“Korac?” T.a.o. croaked.
He positioned himself in her line of sight once more. “I’m here. I never left.”
“I cut her out of me—Father?!”
Xelan leaned over and did something Ross couldn’t see. Probably kissed her forehead or something very Wingmaster-y.
“I got you.”
Yup. Wingmaster-y.
Jack smiled at the catch phrase—No. The entire room lit up at it. So did Ross.
It was a sign of hope. Of making the impossible possible. And it wasn’t going anywhere.
T.a.o. sounded beyond traumatized as she told her story. “When she called, I couldn’t say no. Unless in the Seam. The bones of the old ones protected me. But only there. Still, I knew. I watched over all of you. Forgive the stolen. They are burdened with her ways. But it was the boy. I could bear it no longer—”
“My son?!” Tameka rushed to the table.
Xelan placed his hands on her shoulders, gently restraining the woman known as Fury.
T.a.o. possessed enough strength to sit upright and face Tameka. “Trains and bears. Bear the burden of this born soul. He waited so long… Longer than the rest of them.”
Tumu moved up behind Tameka. Korac flanked her other side. They looked ready to grab her. Ross couldn’t see, but the woman’s shoulders trembled, either with tears or rage. Or both.
“What have they done to Pax?”
T.a.o. searched the other woman’s eyes. “So long without the others. Won’t let Remorse touch him. Shines with love at Karter, Chris, and Para.”
That seemed to soothe the room.
“And sister.”
The comforting moment ended.
Xelan whispered something in Tameka’s ear which made her shake harder, and when she spoke, sobs strangled her voice. He said, “Please, T.a.o. Have they hurt him?”
“Never. No one would ever hurt your cub.” Without reservation, T.a.o. reached out and cupped Tameka’s cheek. “You will find him… when it’s time.”
Ross felt the heartache from over here as Tameka slowly lowered her head into her hands and cried. What did it say about their lifestyle that Ross thought it was a good thing Sagan hadn’t done her makeup yet?
Activity overtook the room once more. Xelan and Pablo rushed over to Para’s bed. On the way, Wingmaster said, “We’ll get more clarity from Para. Let’s start immediately.”
Sagan pulled Tameka into her arms, and Korac stayed with T.a.o., who looked at him in an interesting way. Like Korac was a beacon in a dark abyss. Twenty-One and Bones went back to work. Tumu and Lamassau hung out, waiting to treat Para post-operation.
And Ross was still holding Jack’s hand.
Crushes, war, and brain surgery.
The Shadow excelled at everything.