Tani's Destiny (Hearts of ICARUS Book 2) (12 page)

“We can do that, Tani,” Steel said.

“Yes, just tell us what where and how,” Marbic said.

“How’s that annealer coming, Astra?”

“I think it’s ready,” Astra said hesitantly as she held out the annealer.

Tani took it and checked the status panel, then reviewed the data Astra had entered.  She smiled and handed it back.

“We’re going to start with the femur in your left leg, Naran,” Tani said, moving to the scanner control panel and making a few adjustments.  The scanner shifted position, and a moment later a close up view of the broken bone in Naran’s thigh was displayed on the screen.  Tani swung the view screen around on its adjustable arm so everyone could see it.  “Steel, you have the biggest and strongest hands, so I need you to place one just above the break, and the other on Naran’s hip, and hold him in place.  Try not to touch the wound though, and don’t squeeze too tightly, but don’t let him move, either.”  Steel nodded and placed his hands exactly where Tani indicated.  “Marbic, I want you to put one hand on each side of his ankle.  Get good solid grips, guys, and make sure you’re comfortable.  When I say so, Marbic, I want you to pull his leg straight back toward the end of the bed, but very slowly and carefully.”  Tani looked at Naran.  “Do your best not to move, Naran, all right?”

“Don’t worry about me, Tani, just do what you need to do,” Naran said.

Tani noted that his eyes looked a little glassy, and was glad of it.  She placed her hands carefully on either side of the break and got a good grip.  She felt the muscles tighten beneath her hands and waited a moment for Naran to relax.  “Pull, Marbic, very slowly,” she said.  Marbic pulled, surprised at the amount of resistance he felt even though he hadn’t doubted what Tani had told them.  He put more effort into it, his eyes glued to the view screen.  The bone moved very slowly as he exerted pressure on the muscles and tendons of Naran’s leg.  “Stop,” Tani said when the lower portion of the bone cleared the upper portion.  She carefully shifted the bone so that it lined up, checked the view screen carefully, then nodded.  “Okay, Marbic, release the tension so the bones meet.  Very slowly.”

Marbic did as she instructed, still watching the screen, while Tani held the two halves in place.  When he’d released almost all of the tension and the bones touched, he smiled, thinking they were done.  But Tani continued to stare at the view screen with a frown between her brows.  Even though it appeared to be right, she knew that it wasn’t.  Not quite.  She closed her eyes and let herself feel the bone beneath her sensitive fingers.  Using all the strength she had in her small hands, she shifted the lower portion of the femur just a bit more.  The muscles and tendons relaxed into place and she smiled. 

“That’s it,” Marbic said, feeling the muscles relax beneath his hands.

“Yes, it is,” Tani said, sweat rolling down her face.  “But don’t release your hold yet, either of you.  Astra, stand between Steel and Marbic with that annealer.”

When Astra was in place, Tani gave her an encouraging smile.  “Now place the annealer directly over the break, resting it lightly on his skin, but without pressing down on it.  Check your position on the view screen, and then press that little green button.  Once you start the annealer, don’t move it.  If your hand jerks unexpectedly, which can easily happen, don’t put the annealer back in place. Take it off altogether and we’ll reset it before starting again.  Can you do that?”

Astra nodded, her mouth dry.  “I can do it.”

“Everyone ready?”  She got nods from Astra and Marbic, then looked to Steel.  He leaned over the bed so he could look directly into Naran’s eyes.

“Ready,” he said. 

“Now, Astra,” she said, still holding the bones together.  Astra immediately placed the annealer directly above the break, then looked at Tani for confirmation.  “That’s perfect.  Go ahead and press the green button.”

Astra pressed the button and they all watched the view screen, even though there wasn’t anything to see.  “What’s the control screen say?” she asked Astra a few minutes later.

Astra bent over, careful not to move the annealer.  “Twelve percent,” she said.

“When it gets to thirty, let me know.”

Astra nodded, her eyes on the screen.  Before long Tani’s arms began to scream in pain but she ignored the discomfort and stiffened her resolve not to move.  Then the dragon pendant beneath her shirt began to grow uncomfortably warm against her skin, which was much more difficult to ignore since she neither expected it, nor understood it. 

“Thirty percent,” Astra announced after what seemed an eternity.

“Lift the annealer straight up and away,” Tani said, then watched as Astra did exactly as she’d instructed.

“Very good,” Tani said, relaxing.  “We can let go now, but do it slowly and don’t move him.”  They all slowly released their holds on Naran and straightened up.

Tani turned to face the view screen, then reached up to pull the pendant out from beneath her shirt.  It no longer felt warm, and neither did her skin where it had been resting.  She frowned, not understanding what had happened.  She released the pendant and turned her attention to the view screen.  After studying it carefully, she smiled.  “That’s perfect.  How’re you doing there, Naran?” she asked, surprised to find that he appeared to be completely relaxed. She hadn’t heard him scream or yell either, but that didn’t surprise her since she’d been very focused on her task.

“Good,” Naran said.  “It didn’t hurt much at all, actually.”

“No?” Tani asked.  She looked at Steel, who shrugged. 

“He never struggled or even tensed up much.  He breathed hard there for a moment, but that’s it.”

“That’s…remarkable,” Tani said, shocked.  Astra was staring at the control panel on the annealer.  “Something wrong?”

“It’s got a flashing yellow light and I don’t know what it means.”

Tani took the annealer from Astra, checked the screen, then handed it back.  “It’s warning you to run a recalibration.”

“That’s right,” Astra said, blushing.  “How could I have forgotten that already?”

“This is your first time, Astra,” Tani said.  “We’ll write all this down later, okay?”  Astra nodded.  “Go ahead and run the recalibration, then we’ll finish healing this bone.”  She turned to her patient.  “Naran, I need you to stay really still, all right?”

“No problem,” Naran said.  “Could I get a drink of water please?”

“Yes, of course,” Tani said.  She turned to go find a glass and water, surprised to see at least a dozen men and women standing along the wall, quietly watching.  Drya smiled at her and gestured that she’d get the water, so Tani turned back to the view screen.  By the time the second recalibration was complete, Drya had returned with water for Naran and helped him drink it through a straw so that he didn’t move.

“It’s ready, Tani,” Astra said, offering her the annealer.  But Tani didn’t take it. 

“Good,” Tani said.  “Now, watch the view screen carefully just like before, and place the annealer right above the break.  Then keep an eye on the panel.  If anything changes, let me know.”

“You want me to do this?” Astra asked.

“Yes, I do.  Doing is the best way to learn.  Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere and I’ll let you know if you make a mistake.”

Astra nodded, then took a deep breath and placed the annealer carefully before turning it on.

“Thank you, Tani, for doing this,” Steel said from beside her.  “For helping Naran, and for teaching Astra.”

“I’m glad to be able to help, Steel,” she said, her eyes still on the view screen because it was easier to look at than Steel’s face.  She couldn’t quite figure out why his words earlier had hurt so much.  It wasn’t like he’d been deliberately rude or mean, and even if he had been, she wasn’t the type to let things like that bother her.  She sighed inwardly, too tired to figure it out at the moment, so she asked a question that she’d wondered about since entering the little clinic. 

“May I ask, how is it that you have all of this equipment but no one knows how to use it?”

“We had one med-tech, and two women who were learning from him, but they were taken along with everyone else a year ago,” Steel said.  “We moved all of the equipment here, and set it up exactly as it had been in the village.  We hoped we’d get him back, but one of the men who escaped told us that he died in a cave-in shortly after the mine was reopened.  The women are still there.”

“I wish I knew more than I do, Steel.”

“You know enough.”

“That depends on what’s needed,” she said.  “If he’d had internal injuries, there wouldn’t be anything I could do to help him.  I can’t diagnose or treat serious illnesses or administer medications beyond a few basics.  I don’t even know enough to sedate Naran for this.  ”

“True, but you took his pain away, so he didn’t need it.”

Tani shook her head.  “I did nothing of the sort,” she said.  “I think it probably has more to do with his
mahrac
physiology.”

“No, that’s not it,” Steel said.  “If anything, we feel pain more intensely than normal.”

“Well, I don’t know how to explain it, Steel,” she said tiredly.

“Tani, the last time a man injured both legs, all we could do was make sure he had pain medication and antibiotics.  Eventually the bones healed, but they were no longer straight.  He couldn’t walk at all any more, and his injuries were nowhere near as extensive as Naran’s.”

Tani shook her head.  “That’s terrible, Steel.  I’m afraid that I don’t have the skills to re-break and set bones that heal wrong, but when my parents get here, the physician onboard their ship will be able to do it.”

“The man died, Tani,” Steel said sadly.  “But it’s good to know that something like that can be corrected.  I will remember that.”

“This thing is flashing blue and green, and it says it’s at one hundred percent,” Astra aid.

“Lift it up and away, then check the battery life,” Tani said. 

The battery is at twenty five percent,” Astra said a few moments later. 

“Put this one on a charger and take the other one down and run a recalibration on it,” Tani said.  Astra nodded, then turned away.

“Now, let’s get a good close look at this femur,” Tani said.  She reached for the scanner control panel again and made some adjustments.  After a moment the view on the screen changed, but no one other than Tani knew what it was they were looking at.  No one wanted to ask, either, when they saw how intently she was studying the image.  She turned a knob and the image changed, then again and again for several minutes.  When she relaxed and smiled, everyone else did too.

“Good job, guys,” she said, smiling.  “You can’t even tell where the break was.”

Naran smiled with relief.  “One down and how many to go?”

“A few,” Tani said.  “But that was the hard one.”

“The pain isn’t bad, and even if it was, I wouldn’t care,” Naran said honestly.  He’d gone from thinking he would die, to thinking he would live, but not be able to walk which was worse than dying in his mind.  Now, he would not only live, he’d walk, and in a day or so rather than weeks.  He truly had no complaints at all.

A couple of hours later all of Naran’s broken bones were healed.  The fine bones in his hand had given Tani the most trouble because it was a small area with several breaks, and Tani insisted that the breaks were lined up perfectly before healing them.  By the time they were finished she was exhausted.  Much more tired than she should have been, she thought. 

“We can stop now and do the rest in the morning,” Steel said, but Tani shook her head. 

“Absolutely not,” she said.  “I’m not stopping until I’m finished, but if any of you want to go rest now, that’s fine. I can do the rest on my own.”

“No,” Steel said.  “Tell us what you need, please.”

“First, the steri-lamp,” she said.  “While I’m using that, if someone can lay out the sutures on a tray and get me some more sterile gloves, as well as bandages, that would be great.”  She thought a moment.  “Do you have a laser scalpel?”

“Yes,” Marbic replied.  “You need that?”

“I might,” she said, accepting the steri-lamp from Astra.  “If the edges of a wound are jagged, I’ll need to even them up before I suture.”

“I’ll get it and make sure it’s charged,” Marbic said.

Tani turned on the steri-lamp and held it over the gash on Naran’s thigh.  Using her other hand, she spread the edges of the wound open so that the light could reach inside, and frowned.  She gave her head a little shake, spread it wider.  Her frown deepened.

“What’s wrong?” Steel asked.

“I’m not sure,” she said, turning off the steri-lamp.  She went to the scanner control panel and pulled up the images she’d taken earlier.  “See here,” she said to Steel who’d come to stand beside her.  She pointed at the image. 

“I see it but I don’t know what I’m looking at.”

“This is muscle tissue,” she said.  “See how the wound goes deep into the muscle, here?”

“Yes, I do,” Steel said, feeling a little sick as he realized what he was seeing.  “What’s the problem?”

“One minute,” she said, then tapped on the control panel.  The scanner lowered from the ceiling and moved into position above the thigh wound.  “Remember when I scanned Astra’s wound when she was in the hibernation tube, and I thought the muscle was injured?”