Jaxon

Adjusting

     Hace knew he had to get back to work tomorrow. He had to make money after all. But was he just going to leave Ardent in his cage? Or should he move him to the playpen for a few hours? Maybe he'd bring him into the study with him, keep him on his lap while he worked? He hadn't figured that out quite yet. Hace gave out a yawn so big he could feel the air hit his second set of teeth.

     'I'll worry about it in the morning.' He laid down and immediately passed out.

     "What!?" Hace sat up quickly. His phone was going off. He heard yipping coming from the other room after he screamed. 'Crap. I woke him up. I was hoping he'd sleep a bit longer.'

     Hace reached out in the darkness of his room and felt around for the item that broke his dreams. He finally found the phone and pushed the button.

     "Hello?" He answered as he got up and went to get Ardent ready for the day.

     "Hace Terth?" It was the vet's office.

     "Yes. That's me." Hace had unlocked the cage and picked up Ardent. He took him to the changing table while he talked.

     "We have the results of your Inchoate's tests. It doesn't look good." Hace had moved into the kitchen and was still listening. He had the phone up to his ear and balanced Ardent on his hip while he started cooking.

     "There seems to be something strange lodged into the base of his spine, it almost looks like several pieces of metal."

     Hace went a bit pale. Ardent must have noticed. He was looking up at him with such curious eyes when Hace stopped making breakfast.

     "What... is that..." Hace couldn't imagine what must have happened to cause this. He was having trouble making a complete sentence.

     "I'm quite sure it's what's causing him to be paralyzed. We can fix it with surgery. But..." Hace held his breath a moment when the vet said 'but'. It felt like forever before he talked again. "There is just a few things. First is the cost, this is not a cheap surgery. Second... is the pain. Your Inchoate will be in intense pain for a long time... and third, there's no guarantee that it'll work. He might still be paralyzed."

     Hace had put Ardent in his highchair with a bowl of oatmeal and fruit. He watched the little guy slowly pick up the spoon and try to eat. He couldn't help but smirk at how hard Ardent was trying to use the spoon, while making a mental note to pick him up some smaller silverware. Maybe child size?

     "Do... do I have to give you an answer now?" Hace wanted time to think it over. This was an important decision that he didn't want to just jump into.

     "No. Of course not. As he is now, unless something works itself loose, he should be fine. I just wanted to give you the update."

     "Thank you."

     Hace sighed and looked at Ardent with a smile.

     Jaxon had finished his food and wanted out of the chair. He didn't like spending more time then he needed to in anything that made him feel like a child. Mint picked up his bowl and came back out with a rag. Jaxon moaned as Mint washed his hands and mouth before taking him out of the seat.

     Jaxon couldn't help but wonder who was on the phone. Mint had seemed quite troubled. He hoped it wasn't bad news...

     'WAIT! What is wrong with me?' Jaxon thought. 'I shouldn't be worried about him or anything that happens to him. He's the enemy right now... isn't he? His kind crashed our ship... didn't they? But... he has been so nice to me... ARGH!' Jaxon's head was starting to hurt him with his thoughts fighting each other.

     Mint carried Jaxon back upstairs and into a room Jaxon hadn't seen yet. He started to wonder how many rooms were in these living quarters. The more he thought about it though, he remembered that humans also used to live in places that had many rooms in them. They were called... houses. This was Mint's house.

     Jaxon was actually glad for the thought change. Mint turned on the light and Jaxon looked around. It was about the same size as his roo... the room he stayed in... The window was covered with a very thick shade that didn't seem to let any light in. Along the back wall was an impressive computer setup. It had three large monitors in front of a single keyboard.

     Mint pushed a button on a small black box on the floor, and everything came to life. There was so much color! The keyboard lit up blue and so did the mouse next to it. Each monitor had a different picture on it... but all three pictures seemed to make up one large one.

     "I knew it!" Jaxon could help but say out loud. "With this many monitors you must work some kind of security job. That's why you don't live on a base isn't it?" He looked up at Mint and got a bit embarrassed when Mint just smiled at him and pet his head.

     'That's right.' Jaxon thought as he put his head back down. 'You don't understand me.' He felt a bit silly, but he also felt a bit sad. He had no one to talk to anymore. He'd never been alone like this before. He wished he had one other human to talk to.

     Mint sat in a chair with wheels and set Jaxon carefully on his lap. He pulled himself a bit closer to the desk and reached an arm around Jaxon as he started to use the mouse. He opened something on the middle screen and looked down at Jaxon. Mint laughed as he said something to him before he started to use the keyboard.

     Jaxon couldn't help but lean his head back into Mint as he watched his long fingers quickly run over the foreign-looking symbols on the keyboard. It seemed to be a much bigger keyboard than normal. Jaxon counted the keys and found it had six more than normal ones.

     Jaxon started to study the symbols and wondered if they were set up similar to human keyboards. The odds of that would be incredible. He was so involved with Mint's fast-moving hands that he almost missed the amazing things happening on the screen.

     When Jaxon looked up, all three screens were now in use. The far-right one was where Mint was typing. The middle screen had pictures... no... not pictures... schematics! Building schematics. Jaxon looked them over and a huge smile came across his face. He didn't even bother to look at the third screen. Jaxon quickly looked up at Mint and saw that he had headphones on now and was hyper-focused on what he was working on.

     'He's not in security... he must be a builder...'Jaxon was still trying to figure this guy out. Jaxon looked over the schematics and it hit him... 'This... this is all I need to start figuring out their language! Once I can figure out these numbers, I'll be able to tell the numbers from the letters. Then from there, I can...'