Chapter Ten #3
Diena looked at him. “No. You are eight, and the requirement is twelve. You can run the course, but you can’t use the guns.”
Vaken frowned. “Why not?”
She brought up the image. “Our guns are set to a certain body size, and the splat of the paintball would injure you if you aren’t the right size yet. So we are looking for size or density to let you play in it.”
Keska grinned. “So what you are saying is that you and I could play.”
Diena paused. “I suppose.”
Kessie got excited, and Sorooth grinned. “Is there an observation area?”
Keska nodded. “Of course. Diena, I challenge you to a paintball match.”
Diena looked at Ithal. “Should I?”
He grinned. “For the honour of Khaskik.”
“Oh, well, in that case, I will do it.” She laughed. “After lunch.”
Keska grinned. She had made the paintball guns.
They chatted during their meals, and Diena had a fruit salad. Ithal asked, “You don’t want more potatoes?”
“Nope. It is going to be a bit of running, bending, and getting shot. The potatoes can wait.”
He chuckled, and she prepared for battle.
* * * *
Alody smiled at the replicas and said, “I can give general instructions for the repairs, but I can’t actually heal a digital image.”
The administrator frowned. “How can we tell your activation is still working?”
Alody looked at Eskin. “Silver Storm, care to wound yourself?”
He didn’t hesitate. He lifted his hand and used a silver blade he generated to cut it open.
She could feel the injury and pulled him into the scanner area. “Simple laceration.” She held her hand over his, and the silvery blood ceased to flow.
He grinned. “Will you kiss it better?”
“Not here.” She smiled.
The machine indicated that healing of the simple laceration had occurred in under three seconds.
The administrator blinked. “Oh, right. So you really are Katta.”
“I am really Katta. I live in Aksalla. I live with my daughter and son ten minutes away.” That last one amused her. She and Diena had registered their household over pancakes.
One member of the panel said, “You have children?”
“Yes. One by cloning, and one by acquisition after a battle. His mother passed and has been recorded deceased. She wasn’t the one I fought.” Honesty was best. They had a minder tiptoeing around her emotional output.
Apparently, her energy signature confirmed her identity.
She returned to her seat, and Eskin took over his interview. She chuckled. He looked at her. “I forgot your name was Gaireth.”
He grinned, and the panel stared at them. One of them said, “You two are a couple?”
She was going to obfuscate, but the minder chuckled. “They are working on it.”
Alody sighed. Eskin took her hand.
They had been spoken to for hours, and finally, one of the panel asked, “Katta—”
“Alody.”
“Yes. If you were speaking to a new healer, what would you tell them to look for?”
“First, I would have them do a complete assessment of their patient, and then, an assessment of themselves to see what they had to give. Never more than half of operating energy levels.”
There were notes made. “Why not complete healing?”
“Because you just want to get them safe. You don’t want to kill yourself to get them back to full strength; they charge back to battle, and the healer dies. Then you are down two team members, have no healer, and no one goes home alive.”
There was silence.
She explained. “Healers are there to get you home or to see the following morning. Med centres are there for long-term, in-depth care. I have been in thousands of fights, and I have never depleted myself to the point where I couldn’t haul my team members to safety.”
One of the panel members brought up a greatest hits of her in her armoured suit running to get team members out from under vehicles, enemies, or other team members when a rescue lift didn’t go as planned.
Alody leaned to Eskin. “Stop watching my butt when I lift.”
“No. I have made my choice.” He was grinning.
She elbowed him.
The panel spoke and then stood. “Healer Alody, we are happy to invite you to our faculty.”
She grinned and looked at Eskin. “Better luck next time.”
He laughed. “I was already invited. Now we can commute together.”
She snorted. “If you want to join the household, you are going to have to ask Diena.”
The panellists were amused. “We have your contracts ready. Do you have to have legal representation look it over?”
Alody paused. “I believe I do. My daughter is a paralegal.”
One of the men smiled. “How old is she?”
“I think she’s around forty. How did you not realize that I knew Eskin when he was a teen?”
They checked their files and stared at her.
“I was one of the first healers of the first programs, purchased from my family, and sold to the capitol. I was lucky. Uradda had started to buy the girls twenty years later.”
They looked horrified. One rallied quickly. “Would you be willing to help our counselling department as well?”
“Sure. For an additional fee. I also have a child to take to and from school, so my hours will not be negotiable unless previously arranged.”
One man asked, “How old is your son?”
“Eight. He was the reason I ran to the bus and flew it out of the river.”
The third man asked, “What is the mechanism of your activation?”
“Need. I answer need.”
“I am unfamiliar with that mechanism.”
She shrugged. “That is your problem.”
Eskin chuckled.
“Are you averse to it being examined?”
“I already know how it works, but I can demonstrate as needed. As can my daughter, the Khaskik Empress.”
Eskin smiled and held out his hand. She slid her fingers along his, and he kissed them.
She laughed and said, “You are counting this as the first date?”
He nodded. “We are together. No children. Discussing common interests, and I plan to take you for food later.”
She laughed.
One of the men asked, “Did you meet through the BDC?”
“No. We met before the BDC was even a business plan. When I was too old and he was too young.”
Eskin smiled. “Now, things are just right.”
Alody looked at him. “Moron. Wait. Junior moron.”
“Ah, call me that until we are old and grey.”
She looked at him. “You are already silver.”
“Excellent, then don’t stop. I can take whatever you choose to call me as long as you stand near me when you do.”
Alody looked at him and nudged him with her hip. “Flirt.”
The first chair stood and said, “Um, would you like to see your lecture halls?”
They shrugged, nodded, and went for a walk. Time to see their new jobs.