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“Then you wait for the readout,” he told her quietly.
Ranvir knew he shouldn’t be touching Taly like this. The cybernetic part of his brain kept telling him to stop, but his human side kept overriding it.
Taly was hurt, and it had his protective instincts rising. They’d been bad enough when he thought she belonged to Nas. Now that he knew she was his sister, they were entirely out of control, especially after kissing her, something he wanted to do again. Tipping his head down slightly, he inhaled her unique scent, filing it away in his memory banks.
A beep from the console pulled his thoughts back to the task at hand. Straightening, he read the list of what the bed had discovered, arranged from most life-threatening to least, and heard Taly’s shocked breath. For a child this size, the list was longer than he expected. Still, it was the arm they needed to repair right now.
“You then select what you wish done,” he told her, touching only where the bone fracture in Sasha’s arm was listed. “Then press initiate.”
Before he could do that, Taly’s hand stopped him. Frowning, he looked down at her.
“Why aren’t you selecting everything?” she asked quietly, her gaze still fixed on the list of things the scan had discovered.
Malnutrition. Lung congestion from the dust all D-Twelvers had to deal with. Skin irritations from the same dust. At the top of the list was the detection of the presence of the Onkex virus, a devastating disease that would grow and kill Sasha within the next few years if left untreated.
“The fracture is the immediate concern,” he replied just as quietly.
“But the rest needs treating, too,” she hissed.
“It will take more time and use resources we may need later.”
“She’s a child.” She glared up at him. “She deserves every chance we can give her. The resources can be replaced.”
“It will take more time,” he warned her.
“How much more?” she demanded.
Ranvir quickly calculated the time difference. “Five minutes. So a total of seven.”
He wasn’t surprised at how Taly’s eyes flared with anger or when she slid her finger down the list, selecting every item before pressing initiate.
“Is there something wrong?” Sasha’s mother asked, concern filling her eyes as she looked from Ranvir to Taly.
Taly gave her a reassuring smile. “No. I was asking Major Somerled how long he thought the bed would take.”
“And how long is that?” the mother asked.
“Seven minutes. In seven minutes, your daughter will be completely healed. Can you hold out that long, Sasha?” Taly spoke louder so the little girl who had tilted her head back could hear her. “You can talk if you want.”
“I can do that,” Sasha told her.
“Good.” Taly looked back to Ranvir. “Does the other bed work like this one?”
“Yes.”
She turned to Vujcec. “You saw how to run the bed?”
“Yes, and yes, I’ll handle it as you did,” letting her know he agreed to ensure all the colonists’ ailments were treated.
“Good,” she nodded.
“The readout for the remaining treatment time is here.” Ranvir gestured to a decreasing number in the upper right-hand corner of the console as Vujcec moved to the other bed.
“Got it.”
Nearly two hours later, the last of the colonists who had come to medical had been treated and were on their way back to the concert hall.
“Now you,” Ranvir growled, lifting Taly onto a med bed.
