The nurse lowered the lead and regarded her with puzzlement. And with something else. There were questions in his eyes, fusing with sympathy into a peculiar tension his professional facade couldn't quite hide. He glanced away from her, eyes darting for just a moment to the intercom panel, and Alicia swallowed a groan. Idiot! Of course they'd left the com open! What must he think after hearing her half of the insane conversation with Tisiphone?
"Shall I take the memory of it from him?"
"Can you?" Alicia spoke aloud out of sheer reflex, then cursed herself as the nurse took an involuntary half-step away from her.
"Can I what, Captain DeVries?"
"Uh ... can you tell me how long I've been here?" she improvised frantically.
"Three days, ma'am," he said.
"You need not speak aloud for me to hear you, Little One," Tisiphone said at the same instant, and Alicia wanted to tear her hair and scream at both of them. The concerned caution in the nurse's voice vibrated bizarrely in her ears, cut through with the amusement in that silent mental whisper.
"Thank you," she said aloud, and "Could you do that? Make him forget?"
"Once, certainly. Now ..." She felt the strong impression of a mental shrug. "I could try, if you can touch him."
Alicia glanced at the wary nurse and smothered a totally inappropriate giggle. "No way! The poor guy's convinced I'm out of my mind, and he called me by my rank, so they must know I'm a drop commando. I'm surprised he's still here, and he'll jump out of his skin if I try to grab him. Talk about a dangerous lunatic—! Besides, they probably had a recorder on it."
"Recorder?" Mental fingers plucked the concept from her mind. "Ah. It seems I have much yet to learn about this "technology." Will it matter?"
"How do I know? It depends on just how balmy they think I am. Now be quiet a minute."
A sense of someone else's surprise echoed within her, as if Tisiphone were unused to hearing orders from a mere mortal, and she suppressed another manic grin in favor of a reassuring smile.
"Thank you," she repeated aloud. "I wonder ... I can see it's the middle of the night, but could I see the duty doctor?"
"Captain Okanami is on his way here right now, ma'am. In fact, I was waiting for him when— that is ..." His voice trailed off, and Alicia smiled again. Poor guy. No wonder he'd already called in the big guns. There he was, listening to the prize booby blathering away to herself, and then her vitals went crazy. Too.
"I see. Well, in that case—"
The opening door cut her off in mid-inanity. A Fleet captain came through it, his stride brisk but measured, though something suggested he found it difficult to keep it that way. His Medical Branch caduceus glittered in the dim light, and he paused as if surprised to see her sitting up. No, not to see her sitting up; to see her looking rational. Odd, she didn't feel as if she looked rational One of his hands made a tiny shooing motion, and the nurse tried to hide his relief as he vanished like smoke.
"Well, now," Captain Okanami said, folding his arms across his chest as the door closed, "I'm glad to see you with us again, Captain DeVries."
Yeah, and surprised as hell. She hid the thought behind a smile and nodded back, watching him while she wondered what he was really thinking.
"You're lucky to be alive," he went on gently, "but I'm afraid—"
"I know." She cut him off before he could complete the sentence. "I know," she repeated more softly.
"Yes, well." Okanami looked at the floor and unfolded his left arm to tug at an earlobe. "I'm not very good at expressing my condolences, Captain. Never have been— a failing in a physician, I suppose—but if there's anything I can do, please tell me."
"I will." She looked down at her own hands and cleared her throat again. "I take it you've figured out I'm a Cadrewoman?"
"Yes. It came as quite a surprise, but, yes, we figured it out. It leaves us with a bit of a problem, too, medically speaking."
"I can imagine. I'm just glad you didn't hit any landmines."
"Actually, we did." Her eyes flicked up, and he shrugged. "Nothing we couldn't handle—" she had the definite impression that remark was sliding over slippery ground "—and we've got partial specs on your augmentation. I don't anticipate any more problems before the Cadre med team gets here."
"Cadre med team?" she asked quickly. "Coming here?"
"Of course. I'm not competent to handle your case, Captain DeVries, so Admiral Gomez called them in. I understand there was a Cadre detachment at Alexandria and that they're en route aboard a Crown dispatch boat."
"I see." She chewed on that thought. It had been five years since she'd seen a fellow Cadreman. She'd believed— hoped—she never would again.
"We really don't have a choice, I'm afraid. There are too many holes in the data we've got."
"I see," she repeated more normally. "And in the meantime?"
"In the meantime, I'm keeping you right where you are. We had to do a lot of repair work, as I'm sure you've already realized, and I want someone versed in Cadre augmentation to check it over." She nodded, and he cocked his head. "Are you experiencing any discomfort? I wouldn't want to get into any fancy meds, but I suppose we'd be fairly safe to try old-fashioned aspirin."
"No, no discomfort."
"Good." His relief was evident. "I wasn't sure, but I'd hoped your augmentation would take care of that. I'm glad to see it is."
"Uh, yes," she said, but a quick check of her pharmacopoeia processor told her he was wrong. "Are you doing that?" she asked the voice.
"Of course." "Thanks."
"What's your prognosis?" she asked Okanami after a moment.
"You've responded well to the surgery, and to the quick-heal," Okanami said. "In the long term, you'll probably want to consider replacement for your spleen, but you're coming along very nicely for now. The bone damage to your leg was extreme, and the repairs there are going to need several weeks yet, but the rest—" He waved a dismissive hand and, Alicia noted, carefully did not discuss her mental state. Tactful of him.
He moved a few strides to his right, glancing at her monitor displays, and made a few quick notes on the touchpad, then turned back to her.
"I realize you've just waked up, Captain DeVries—"
"Please, call me Alicia. I haven't been 'Captain DeVries' in years."
"Of course." He smiled with genuine warmth, eyes twinkling with just a touch of sadness. "Alicia. As I say, I realize you've just waked up, but what you really need more than anything else just now is rest. Even if you're not feeling it, this kind of surgery really takes it out of you, quick- heal or no, and you weren't in very good shape before we started."
"I know." She eased back down in the bed, and he pursed his lips.
"If there's anything you'd like to talk about," he began hesitantly, then fell silent as she waved a hand. He nodded and began to turn away.
"Touch him," a voice said in her mind, so suddenly she twitched in surprise at the intensity of its demand.
"Uh, Doctor." He stopped and looked back at the sound of her voice, and she held out her right hand. "Thank you for putting me back together."
"My pleasure.' He gripped her hand and smiled, and she smiled back, but shock threatened to wipe it from her lips. Her hand tingled with the power of the spark which had leapt between them at the moment of contact. God, was the man nerve-dead? How could he have missed that flare of power?!
But that was nothing beside what followed it. A column of fire flowed down her arm and licked out through her skin. She looked at their joined hands, expecting to see flames darting from her pores, but there were no flames. Only the heat ... and under it a crackle that coalesced suddenly into something she almost recognized. A barrier went down, like an opening door or a closing circuit, and the fire in her arm flared high and faded into a familiar intangible tingle. It was like smelling a color or seeing a sound, indescribable to anyone who had never experienced it, but she had experienced it. Or experienced its like, at any rate.