‘A bit.’ I examined the skin on my hands. It looked unnaturally smooth and slightly shiny.
‘You needed 98 per cent dermal regeneration. You know it takes a few days outside a tank for new skin to harden off properly.’
I frowned at my left little finger. I’d been in the tank three days. Had some interfering doctor decided to take the opportunity to amputate and regrow it? If they had, then I’d …
I forgot my little finger. Something more important was wrong. ‘Where’s my ring? What did they do with my ring?’
‘Calm down, Jarra,’ said Candace in her best soothing voice. ‘It’s right here.’
She handed me the crumpled golden blob of metal, and I frantically forced it back on my finger, ignoring the stinging protest from my new skin. I’d fought against wearing a ring, but now it was an important symbol that linked me to Fian.
‘They took off my ring!’ I wailed my outrage.
‘They had to do that, Jarra,’ said Playdon. ‘The skin needed to regrow on your finger and …’
I cut in before he could finish the sentence. ‘I want to see Fian.’
‘I don’t think they …’
I cut him off again. ‘I want to see Fian.’
Playdon glanced at Candace, and she stood up. ‘I’ll ask someone, Jarra, but …’
She went out of the room, and Playdon gave me a worried look. ‘Fian will be out of the tank in another day so it would be better to …’
A day? After what had happened with Joth, I was supposed to wait around, sick with terror, for a whole day? I didn’t say a word, I just glared at Playdon and he shut up.
Candace returned with a male doctor.
‘We don’t allow visitors when a patient is in a tank,’ he said. ‘It can be disturbing to see the regeneration process in action.’
I told him it one word at a time, so the most complete nardle could understand. ‘I. Want. To. See. Fian.’
‘Yes, but I’m afraid we don’t allow visitors.’
I got out of bed and flourished my ring under the man’s nose. ‘Fian and I are Twoing. I’m his next of kin. I have a legal right to see him and satisfy myself he’s receiving adequate medical care.’
The doctor took a nervous step backwards. ‘Well, yes you do, but I’d still …’
I headed for the door, and he scampered after me. Left or right, I wondered, as I went into the corridor. I turned left, didn’t recognize the name on the door of the room there, turned back and found the one tagged with the name Fian Eklund. I reached to open it, and the doctor physically jumped in my way.
‘Please let me warn you,’ he said. ‘Fian had internal injuries to liver and kidneys. Successful regrowth of organs involves exposing them to tank fluids. His side is still open while internal organs and ribs complete the regeneration cycle. There are also life support tubes and …’
‘My best friend is on a Medical Foundation course,’ I said. ‘She’s done her three week practical introduction to regrowth and rejuvenation techniques, and babbled to me all about how half the class, including her, fainted the first time they saw someone in a regrowth tank. I accept that what I see may not look nice, and I’m not going to dramatically faint. Now, let me in that room!’
He meekly opened the door, and the view of the clear glass tank hit me. It was against the far wall, and looked smaller than I expected, just large enough to hold the floating body inside it. There weren’t any bubbles either. I’d somehow pictured streams of air bubbles, but that was stupid of me because someone in a tank wouldn’t be breathing.
I walked up to the tank and touched the cool glass with my right hand as I looked at Fian. His eyes were closed and his face seemed relaxed and peaceful with his long hair drifting around it like golden seaweed. There were a lot of tubes, and his side looked like one of the anatomy vids they showed us in school. I should know which bit was a kidney, the ribs were obvious, the …
I’d promised I wouldn’t be a nardle and faint, so I pulled my eyes away from the gory stuff, and concentrated on the fact Fian was alive and would soon be well. I saw they’d taken his ring as well, nuke them, but he’d get it back. We’d wear our rings again. We’d be together again.
I’d had two warnings now. First Joth dying, and now this. I wasn’t stupid enough to need a third one when that alien sphere was hovering above Earth Africa. I didn’t know how much time Fian and I would have, so I mustn’t waste a single precious minute.
I turned around and went back to my own room. Candace and Playdon watched me warily as I got back into bed. There was a long silence before Playdon opened his mouth. He was probably going to ask …