Eye of the Ocean Book 3 Ji'jin Station

Eye of the Ocean – Book 3: Ji’Jin Station
“As you said, Lord. It was the dust.” Warm hands were touching him. No spurs
on the middle fingers. Rit looked away.
The red scanning disk was slipped into a pouch on a cord around the medic's
neck, the man bowed again before speaking. “The problem is more than the
cough.” Fingers touched just below the base of his throat. “Your lungs were
injured by the strong energy fields you have been subjected to, many blood
capillaries were ruptured...” He paused. “Did you cough blood?”
“No.”
“As you say, Lord. Besides the immediate physical damage, your body finds
the dust to be an irritant. The lungs will heal in time. You need to rest.”
“So I've been told.”
“If you do not rest until you are well, with the degree of pattern that you are
exposed to, the injury may become chronic. What can happen is a weakening of
your lungs that will make you susceptible to repeated illness and which may
eventually affect your heart.”
“And the treatment besides resting?” Alicia said.
Silassic looked at Alicia first, then back to him. “I will leave medicine but you
must also rest.” He hesitated.
Alicia cleared her throat. “And...?”
“The Salin Strom needs nourishing food...”
Alicia sighed. “And he needs to lose weight.”
The medic looked away from them both. “As the Lady Strom says.”
Rit coughed when he tried to laugh then signed the thanks along with the
Closure that the medic so obviously wished for. Alicia saw him out but returned
several minutes later carrying a tray.
“You should have rehearsed him more,” he said, getting up on his elbows to
see what she had brought.
“He was nervous.” She poured something dark from a carafe into a bowl then
sat on the edge of the bed. “The problem is that all the icons have you as much
heavier even than you are now. I think that confused him.”
“The what?”
She smiled and held the bowl for him to take. “The icons. Really quite good
likenesses considering the length of time involved and that Allykh was describing
someone of a different species without any Net or crystal backup. I suppose to his
eyes, compared to the way the Zimmer are built, you were huge, so it was easy
for...”
“Alicia...,” he interrupted. “Who are you talking about?”
“Drink this first,” she said firmly.
He did. Mint flavored and very sweet, not bad compared to what she had been
giving him earlier. “Allykh,” he said, leaning back against the pillows. “From the
Ladybug.”
Laurel Hickey www.2morrow.bc.ca