Starfish

Nine

Waiting in the infirmary for most of the morning, Nina read through one of the articles Doctor Ardus had assigned to her during her at-home recuperation. Athe had come by to visit earlier, showing her a stack of books and notes she would have to review before she and Doctor Ardus could begin planning for her first round of field work. The article had come with a note attached instructing her to familiarize herself with the general terrain and climate of the area so she could begin preparing for the trip. She kept shoving down other ideas about what might happen as they occurred, relegating them to a part of her mind she would not explore until after they returned.

After his visit yesterday, her thoughts had been almost as scattered as the first few hours after she woke from paralysis. Fortunately reading distracted her long enough to stop thinking about his forearms, their size and shape and how much bigger they were than she'd realized. The morning dragged on, Nina assuming that Dean Reda was wrapping up the inquiry into the incident, and she wondered how Doctor Ardus was faring. She'd only met Dean Reda once, and briefly, but the russet-skinned and red-eyed Dreen woman had a formidable, inviolable presence that made even the huge, dark, severe Doctor Ardus seem as gentle and silly as a kitten. She flicked through the pages of one of the books, I kind of feel bad for him, amusing herself with the mental image of him cowering behind his desk. It's not his fault, I hope Reda goes easy on him.

Nia checked in with her, as did Doctor O'Connell. Martin O'Connell had come to Dreenai some months before to work with Nia's team on some of the medical research projects Nina had heard about before the sand-skimmer bit her – her foggy brain had cleared up to the point where she remembered feeling the cool, slimy skimmer mucus seep into her glove. Doctor O'Connell, being the closest thing Dreenai had to a human physician, checked Nina for lasting signs of paralysis or nerve damage. He had her stand flat-footed and on her toes, bend and touch her fingertips to the floor, raise her hands to the ceiling and walk forwards and backwards along a straight line. "Any weakness? Vertigo?" he asked in accented Dreen, holding Nina's hand as she stood on one foot and touched her nose.

"A little weakness, but it's more like what you'd feel the day after a hard workout."

Doctor O'Connell nodded. "Understandable. How about dizziness?"

"No, not at all."

"All right," he gripped her hand. "Give me a good squeeze." Nina squeezed as hard as she could, her knuckles whitening. "Good! I'd say you're all right. Nia," he turned to the Dreen, "if you don't mind, I'd like to see the data you gathered while Doctor Ma'atanoa was down. If that's all right with you, of course." He flashed Nina a friendly smile, only once giving her Dreen clothes a second glance.

"Sure, tell me if you find anything interesting."

It would be another hour before Doctor Ardus showed and Nina worked hard to keep herself occupied until she heard his voice outside the infirmary door. "I see you have begun the reading." Nina looked up, the heavy thump in her chest freezing her hands around the open book. For a moment her mouth and brain didn't cooperate, and for one second too long she stared at him. After refreshing her memory of what a human man looked like, Doctor Ardus seemed sixteen feet tall instead of eight and a half. "Um...yes?" Oh god, you moron.

"Good, that should save us some time when it comes to deciding what necessities we will be bringing with us." He crossed to her and brought a chair with him. "Doctor O'Connell tells me you can stand on your own."

"Y-yes, and walk too." She watched him sit and couldn't understand why the cool infirmary suddenly felt twenty degrees warmer. Sweat crept up her back and chest.

"He also told me he agrees with Nia in that you should not walk long distances for a few days. That is fairly common advice for sand-skimmer bites, at least for Dreen. Since you will be spending the next few days in your apartment, I trust you will not be doing much traveling. I have asked Athe to check in with you and bring you anything you may need, whether that should be materials for work or otherwise." He smiled, his eyes squeezing narrow like a contented cat.