Here We Stand, page 21
Commander Haine, Dr Mendoza, and men and women in both blue loose-fitting tunics and ordinary clothes crowded around the table. Some wore transparent masks. There were projections and screens on the walls; a three-dimensional anatomical image of a teerik, numerical displays with flat lines, and things that Hredt couldn’t even identify. Dr Mendoza was trying to examine Epliko, holding a medical instrument with two hinged parts, but the teerik was struggling too much.
“Damn, how much blood can this guy lose?” Mendoza muttered. “Logan, if we’re going to try that stuff, do it now.”
“Epliko, can you hear me?” Haine leaned over him. “We need to stitch you up to stop you bleeding. We can give you something so you don’t feel the pain, but we don’t know how safe it is. Do you understand? Will you let us do it?”
Hredt interrupted. “Is he going to die if you don’t?”
“Unless teeriks have some auto shut-off circulatory system we haven’t noticed, then yes, he might bleed out.”
“Please do it then, Commander.”
“As long as you realise this is informed guesswork on our part and we might end up killing him by accident,” Mendoza said.
“You didn’t kill Dieter, Dr Mendoza, and I hear you saved Chris. We trust you.”
Mendoza gestured to someone to step forward, a woman in civilian working clothes who looked like she’d just come from one of the farms. “Lorna, can you intubate if I can get a line into him?”
“Let’s find out,” she said, wiping her hands with some kind of liquid as she studied the anatomical image. “Not so birdlike inside, then.”
Hredt was reluctant to look away but too scared to watch. He shut his eyes as Epliko made some awful noises and feathers rattled against the metal table. Piecing together the sounds to work out what was going on only made things worse.
“Okay, he’s breathing... and yeah, we’ve got his vitals,” Lorna said, nodding at a screen on the wall. “I have no idea what’s normal, but it’s a start.”
“Okay, everyone got a good grip? Then roll towards me... now.”
“There you go. Yeah, hang on to that wing. So... if we go in here, I think we can clamp that.”
Hredt forced himself to look.
He didn’t know quite what to expect, but it was a lot less gory than he imagined it would be. The anatomical image was now superimposed on Epliko, who was turned towards one side, surrounded by a tight group of humans all doing inexplicable and separate things and yet not getting in each other’s way. For someone used to seeing machinery and knowing exactly what it did, it was a sobering moment for Hredt. He could see the superimposed image acting like a map of an anatomy the humans didn’t know well enough yet, and the objects over Epliko’s beak and trailing from it were probably concerned with his breathing. Apart from that, the technology was beyond Hredt’s analysis. The blips in the illuminated traces on the wall were impossible to interpret.
“Damn, I’m magnificent,” Haine said suddenly. “He’s stopped leaking. Okay, let’s see what we can do about repairing the vessel.”
“Is his heart rate okay?”
“Probably,” Lorna said, watching some read-out. “Terrestrial birds have way higher heart rates than us. Flight, you see. Teeriks probably do too.”
Mendoza turned around to talk to someone, gloved hands bloodied. “David, can you plug Fred in so we can get some idea of the numbers we’re aiming for? BP, heart rate, oh-two sats. I know some of it might end up being irrelevant but it’s the best we’ve got. Fred, is that okay with you?”
“What is?”
“We want to take your pulse and check a few other things so we know what the healthy numbers are for teeriks,” Mendoza said. “It won’t hurt. It’s non-invasive.”
“But I’m old,” Hredt said. “Old isn’t as healthy.”
“You’re alive and you can fly,” Mendoza said. “That’s close enough for us.”
Hredt wanted to help Epliko, so he submitted to having a device clipped to his right hand. It was painless, as Mendoza had promised. But now he could see the numbers changing on one of the wall displays, and he began to understand what the read-outs meant. That green line was his heart, those red bars were something to do with oxygen, and those numbers were marked BP, which he assumed from the conversations going on meant blood pressure. The distraction of seeing himself as a machine for a while was quite soothing. Machines were predictable and reassuring in their constancy. His heart rate slowed a little.
“You wouldn’t happen to know about blood types, I suppose?” Haine asked, not looking up from what he was doing. He seemed to be clicking something inside Epliko. “We might need to top up your friend. Blood loss, I mean. Can you transfuse teerik blood?”
“No need, he seems fine,” Lorna said. Most of the humans were watching machines or displays, not the patient. “Probably safer not to risk it.”
“I don’t know,” Hredt said. “I know nothing about how our health is maintained.”
“It’s okay. We’ll work something out.”
“Will he die?”
“Well, he’s not haemorrhaging now, so we’ll make sure we haven’t missed anything and then see how things go over the next day or two.” Whatever Haine was doing, Mendoza was watching it closely, occasionally reaching over to hold something for him without saying a word. “Just as well I’ve handled a few stab wounds in the service of His Majesty. There. Sorted. Let’s close.”
“I declare you guys honorary trainee vets,” Lorna said. “Next up, you help me out with Liam’s crazy bull.”
“Sounds fair.”
It felt like things had happened fast, but when Hredt looked at the clock on the wall, the surgery had taken forty-five minutes. He wanted to wait to see if Epliko woke from the anaesthesia, but he now had another problem to deal with, and that was what to do about Pannit.
“We’re grateful,” Hredt said. “Thank you.”
“Our pleasure.” Mendoza dropped his gloves in a bin. “You have no idea what a buzz it is to be the first surgeons to operate on an alien patient.”
“Never mind him, Fred,” Haine said. “I’m the sensitive, modest, and caring one here.”
“Thank you again.” Hredt felt a little shaky, but Haine and Mendoza had gone from grim to triumphant about the operation, which gave him hope. “Now I have to work out what we can do for Pannit.”
“Good luck.”
Solomon’s quadrubot head peered around the door as if he’d been following what was happening and knew the best time to interrupt.
“Captain Ingram would like a word, Fred. Can you spare a few minutes?”
“Of course.”
Outside in the narrow passage, Hredt found Ingram walking slowly up and down, hands on hips. She looked around.
“Fred, I’m so sorry. Is he okay? We’ll do all we can for him. What started this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Pannit’s still pretty agitated, so we haven’t released him yet, not until we know what the problem is. Do you want to speak to him now?”
“It’s not like him to be aggressive. He’s always been rather meek, but he’s been getting more assertive lately.”
Ingram beckoned Hredt to follow her across the courtyard at the rear of the main building. The back entrance opened onto the security suite, and a recess in the main corridor led to a room with an impressively large handwheel on the door.
“I’m sorry we had to put Pannit in the vault,” Ingram said. “But we had no idea what started him off or what he was capable of doing, and we don’t have a secure cell to detain anyone.”
She turned the wheel to open the door, which didn’t appear to be locked. But Pannit wasn’t in a position to escape. He was still trussed up, lying on his side on a bedroll on the floor, either exhausted or restored to his senses. Chief Jeff sat on a packing crate next to him, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees, talking to him. They couldn’t have been having a conversation because Pannit’s beak was still tied shut. Nobody seemed to be taking any chances. But at least he’d been made comfortable.
“Sorry, mate.” Jeff stood up slowly and put his hand on Hredt’s back. “We’re just trying to avoid any more injuries. I’ll release his beak if you want.”
“Let me talk to him first.”
Jeff stepped back and stood at the door with Ingram. There was no point in berating Pannit. He looked like he’d given up. His eyes followed Hredt.
“Pannit, if I untie your beak, will you promise not to attack me?” Hredt asked the question in English so Chief Jeff and Ingram would know he wasn’t hiding anything. “I just want to know how this happened. Dr Mendoza and Commander Haine have treated Epliko’s injuries. He’ll probably heal, but he’s quite badly hurt.”
Pannit shut his eyes for a moment. Hredt took that as a yes. The only way they were going to solve this was to talk. Hredt reached to release the ratchet on the strap, half-expecting to get a sharp beak stabbed into him, but Pannit just took a few deep breaths. He seemed deflated. He even looked smaller.
“I’m sorry,” Pannit said. “I got really angry. He kept getting in my way and I chased him out of the house. I don’t know what made me hurt him. He’ll hate me now, won’t he?”
“He’ll be scared of you for a while, but he’ll get back to normal.” Hredt hoped that was the truth. He didn’t know how the commune would cope with one of them killing another. “We’re all very bad-tempered. Perhaps we need to talk and work out what’s wrong.”
“I know I’ve been different.”
“We all have.”
“Can I get up now? I won’t hurt anyone.”
Hredt looked around at Ingram for an answer, but she was on the radio, talking to someone in a hushed voice while Jeff listened in. Hredt waited for her to finish. When she turned back to the room, she had a baffled expression, wrinkling the skin at the top of her nose in a way that didn’t seem to be anger or disapproval.
“Hredt, one of the biomed researchers has been studying that substance we tested you for,” she said. “He’s got a theory. It’s odd, but it might explain something. Can we have a word with him and the doctors first before we do anything?” She looked past Hredt. “Sorry, Pannit, can you hang on? If the medic’s right, we might be able to give you something to make you feel a lot better.”
Hredt owed it to Ingram to at least hear her out. He felt awful leaving poor Pannit where he was, still tied up, but if he was having aggressive impulses he couldn’t control, then letting him loose at the moment wouldn’t help. Hredt left him with Jeff and followed Ingram back to the medical centre.
The treatment room was clean and tidy again and Epliko had gone, presumably to recover in another room. Haine and Mendoza were talking to Lorna, then both men stood back and bumped fists, seeming pleased. There were adhesive labels now stuck to their tunics that read TRAINEE VET. It was obviously a joke, but they turned to look at him, smiled awkwardly, and peeled off the badges.
“Epliko seems to be doing okay, Fred,” Lorna said. “You can see him later. He’s started to wake up. There’s a nurse with him, so he’s perfectly safe.”
“And we’re waiting for Dr Tomlinson,” Mendoza said. “If he’s right about what he’s found, the problem’s probably solved.”
“What is it?” Hredt asked. He could hear someone hurrying down the corridor. “What is this substance?”
“Ah, here he is. Ask the man himself.”
A scientist Hredt didn’t recognise walked in clutching his screen. “Sorry to keep you, guys,” he said. “Hi Fred. I’m Kurt Tomlinson. I’ve been analysing your commune’s specimens and I don’t think that substance we couldn’t identify is just a biomarker. It actually seems to be more like a tranquilliser.”
“Bloody hell,” Haine said. “Natural or manufactured?”
Hredt had to remember what a tranquilliser was. He understood the word, but it was outside his experience.
“We were never given medications like that.”
“Well, it might be a nutritional supplement with the same effect, but whatever it is, the models I’ve been running predict certain outcomes,” Tomlinson said. “You know our modelling AI? We can create a virtual body and work out the effect of substances, whether it’s food, toxins, or drugs. It’s the same technology that enabled us to make safe food for you.”
“What does this substance do, then?”
“It appears to latch on to receptors in your brain and affects the part that controls impulses. Some naturally occurring substances in human food can have a calming effect on us as well, so it’s possible you have a similar response to whatever this is.”
“And you’ve worked all this out already?”
“With a lot of help from AI, yes.” Tomlinson looked as pleased as Haine and Mendoza. These were great moments of discovery for them. Hredt was relieved that they weren’t angry at all about teeriks causing so much trouble, just delighted by the science. “Pannit’s level of this substance was much lower than yours, which might explain why he lost his temper with Epliko. I’m going out on a limb here, but if you don’t recall being given medications, then it might have been introduced via your food. Humans do that too. We routinely fortify foods with minerals and vitamins, so it’s not necessarily sinister.”
“So this is to make us feel better,” Hredt said.
“I think so. We can make it because we can see its molecular structure, and then we can treat you with it. We don’t know the dose, but we can work that out by just upping the amount gradually until you feel better.”
“Why didn’t you detect the drug when Nina’s team analysed our existing rations?”
“Probably because they didn’t contain it. They weren’t intended for you, were they? They were for whatever Jattan crew was going to take the ship out on trials. So you haven’t been consuming this substance for months now.”
Humans were definitely a long way ahead of Jattan and Kugin expertise in life sciences. Hredt was willing to try anything if it could help Pannit and perhaps calm down the others as well. But now he had more questions.
“We should do it,” Hredt said. “Thank you. I’m very impressed.”
“Shall we start with Pannit, then?”
“Please do. I don’t want to keep him tied up like that. He’s always been very quiet and respectful. But I have a question. Why would we need this substance to be added to our food in the first place?”
Tomlinson shrugged, but Hredt could see there was a little flicker of doubt in his expression. “Maybe it occurs naturally in the environment of wherever your species originated, but not in Kugad, so your foremen had to add it. We have essential nutrients on Earth that occur in some soils but are low in others, so we have to supplement crops as well as manufactured food in those areas.”
“That would make sense.”
“Do you want to try it? The problem is that I think your levels are continuing to fall. We’ve identified the feather Solomon found at the beginning of the year, and it belonged to one of your grandsons. But his level in the most recent test is a lot lower.”
“Oh my.” Hredt didn’t want anything happening to the boys. “Test it on me, then. If it doesn’t poison me, treat Pannit next.”
Ingram spoke up. “Let’s treat Pannit first. He’s in most need, Fred.”
Hredt thought of Rikayl, who’d never had food from a Kugin source, and he was neither dangerously aggressive nor docile. But that was a mystery for later. He needed to do what he could for Pannit, if only to be able to look Turisu in the eye and say he was doing everything to take care of the commune.
“Very well.”
Tomlinson smiled. “I’ll get right on it.”
If this was the solution to the problem, and the commune returned to normal, Hredt would be able to focus on the work that needed doing. It might even improve Turisu’s mood, although she’d always been more irritable and negative than the others. He began wondering about the dose. Perhaps a little extra would make her easier to get along with.
“You’re always so kind to us,” he said. “Thank you. I never forget how lucky we are to have crossed paths with you.”
“Any time,” Mendoza said.
Hredt went back to see Pannit to give him the good news. He found him sitting with Jeff, restraints gone, playing cards on the packing crate.
“He’s fine now,” Jeff said. “Don’t worry.”
“Dr Tomlinson’s going to make a food supplement for us,” Hredt said. “He thinks we’re all getting bad-tempered because we’re missing a substance we used to eat in Deku. You’ll be the first to get it, Pannit.”
“Can I see Epliko?”
“Tomorrow. Come back to the house and we’ll have something nice to eat.”
“Can we finish the game first?”
“Of course.”
This was the Pannit Hredt knew. Perhaps it was just an isolated incident, but he’d agreed they’d all have the treatment. It would be nice to feel better again. He went outside with Ingram and they sat down on the wall outside the main building, looking up at the stars.
“You sure you’ll be alright, Fred?” Ingram asked. “Pannit can stay here as long as he wants to.”
“Thank you, but we can keep an eye on him until he gets his treatment. We’ll come back and see Epliko in the morning.”
“Command’s hard, isn’t it?”
“I’m not sure if I’m a commander, but I did take over without asking them when Caisin died, so it’s my responsibility to look after them.”
“You’re the best man for the job,” Ingram said.
“I try to be. These are worrying times.”
