Star Wars - 198 - Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster

Author:Alan Dean Foster [Foster, Alan Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General, Science Fiction, Science Fiction; American, Comics & Graphic Novels, Skywalker; Luke (Fictitious Character)
ISBN: 9780345320230
Google: OCSp8moImNcC
Amazon: 0345320239
Publisher: LucasBooks
Published: 1978-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

VIII

AFTER replacing the marrow, the doctor had heat-sealed the bone, then folded muscle, flesh and skin around it to reform. An epidermal flush concluded the operation and assured that the new skin would take and not fall off in fragments and flakes in the near future.

While powerful, the local anesthetic the doctor had used was beginning to wear off. Captain-Supervisor Grammel still had no sensation in his right arm, but he could see it. He used his left hand to lift the rebuilt limb toward the light, turned it over for a look at the obverse side. Experimentally he tried flexing his fingers. They reacted only slightly, but they reacted.

"There is no permanent nerve damage," the doctor informed him as Grammel slid out of the infirmary surgery booth. Grammel continued to study his arm. "The nerves were easy tolay back in and the bone sealed smooth. Your arm is good as new. It will feel andact like it in about five days.Only one thing." The Captain-Supervisor looked at her! "You'll never sweat from that arm again." As the doctor continued putting away her instruments, she continued conversationally, "If more than your forearm had been equally destroyed-let's suppose the entire upper half of your right side-then we'd have had to equip you with at least one series of artificial perspirators. But with radical reconstruction restricted to your right forearm, your body will compensate for the lost area easily enough."

With an exploratory hand she reached out and touched the right side of Grammel's face. "How is your hearing on this side?"

"Adequate," Grammel replied curtly. "You're an efficient mechanic, Doctor. I'll see that you're suitably rewarded."

"There is a way to do that."

"What would you like?"

She slipped out of her stained robe and returned to arranging her instruments neatly within the proper cabinets. She was an old woman and her eyesight and hearing were not what they once were. Certainly not as good as Captain-Supervisor Grammel's, even allowing for the new timpanium she'd installed in the rebuilt ear.

An unlucky woman, she'd permitted her modest talents to be used by the Empire. Such was often the case with people who no longer cared much about living or dying. She hadn't cared since a particular young man had perished in a fiery landspeeder crash some forty years ago. The Empire had stepped in and given her, if not exactly a reason to live, something useful to do in lieu of dying. She squinted up at him. "Don't execute those six troops.The ones from the rear restraint detachment."

"That's a surprising request for a reward," Grammel mused. "No," he added somberly, seeing the expression on her face, "I suppose it's not. Not coming from you. I have to refuse." He ran a hand over the dark suture that ran from the upper part of his partly shaved skull down by his rebuilt ear to disappear like a fishing line into his lower jaw. There was an organic suspension implanted along that line. It would hold his jaw in place and allow it to function normally until that side of his face knitted properly.

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