Page 144 of Trove’s Purpose

Goldie, to her surprise, blushed, as she reached up to touch them. In doing so, she moved her hair back, allowing Chee to see the almost jewel-like earbud in her ear. It was a piercing that she had turned up and put in her ear. It didn’t look weird though; it looked like it was designed to do so.

“Alred made them for me,” she said, touching it like a girlfriend showing off a piece of jewelry. “It’s so he can talk to me without everyone else hearing.”

“Sexy,” Chee smirked.

“Not like that,” Goldie protested, her face pink.

“Why not?”

“He doesn’t feel desire like that.”

“But you do.”

Goldie shook her head. “It can’t be like that between us. And it’s okay. Even if this is all we ever have, I’m happy with this. Just this.”

Chee smiled back at her. “He’s playing music for you, isn’t he?”

She started. “How did you know?”

“You were humming.”

“I was?”

Chee laughed. Goldie just continued to blush. They were cute. In a really weird way. Chee didn’t think she’d ever be able to give up sex like that. Especially now that she had experienced it. But Goldie obviously loved Alred enough that, to her, it didn’t matter. But hopefully, if they were successful in getting Alred a body, Goldie wouldn’t have to surrender that intimacy either.

“Hey, Goldie. How long does it take claws to regrow?”

“Hm? Oh, there are multiple different factors.” Goldie looked up as she thought. “The age of the injury. Whether there’s any cells left in the matrix to recreate the germinal layer or if you have to convert already differentiated cells into-”

“You’re losing me here, doc.”

“I’m not a doctor,” Goldie shook her head.

Chee popped a brow. “Aren’t you? Seem pretty doctor-y to me.”

Goldie bit her lip, not really accepting the title but not fighting it either. Instead, she just said, “All the cells in your body are already differentiated into their specific purposes. But technically, they also have all the DNA needed to be any other cell type. On Earth, we have no way of de-differentiating cells that have already specialized, but medirings can. It just takes longer. So, if his nail matrix needs germ cells, they’ll have to essentially create them. Then, there’s the process of actually growing the nails itself. That will honestly be the fastest part. But you have to be careful, because the energy and resources for that growth is still coming from your own body.”

“Which means…?”

“It means that if, say, someone had to regrow an arm, they could do it, but you’d need to provide them with all the calories, minerals, vitamins, etc that all make up an arm. You can’t just grow it out of nothing. The basic components still have to come from somewhere. Luckily, claws are pretty simple. They’re just keratin, basically, so that won’t take much. Hopefully.”

“Okay, so the time frame I’m looking for here is…?”

Goldie thought for a moment before shrugging. “Anywhere from half a mark to two marks? Depending on how good their healer and machine is.”

Chee frowned. “How long has it been since Trove left?”

“I don’t know. When did he leave?”

“He left with Tanin when he went to go inspect the shipment.”

Goldie frowned with her. Because that was easily two marks ago. The inspection and claiming process had taken time as it was. Then, they had to get the storehouse workers to bring them a couple hovercarts, then they had to start bringing the boxes. The storehouse wasn’t exactly right next door. They had a decently long walk to get each load.

“Trove should have been back by now,” Chee said, standing straight.

“Well, maybe not,” Goldie frowned. “It could just be taking them a while.”

“Tanin!” Chee grabbed the rail, calling down to the captain who was watching as Sorbet led the next hovercart up the ramp.