Stars Uncharted by S. K. Dunstall

Author:S. K. Dunstall [Dunstall, S. K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2018-08-13T23:00:00+00:00

* * *

• • •

There were worse things than running, Nika decided. Waiting to run was one of them.

“You ever had to bring a patient out of a machine early?” she asked Snow.

“No. I hope you’re not thinking about it.”

“Of course not.” A good modder wouldn’t. But it might be prudent to work out what they could do, and when, if they had to. Nika didn’t want to stand around waiting. She’d rather have something to do, even if it was contemplating nightmare what-if scenarios.

“If we had to take her out early, what can we do?”

“Why are you asking the question if you’re not planning on doing it?”

Snow and Doctor Jack were both looking at her, and frowning.

“Because I’m twitchy, and I need something to occupy me.”

And because it might be a matter of life or death for Josune. For all of them.

She knew what she’d sacrifice. It wouldn’t be the eye. She wanted that whole and working, and she’d bet Josune would, too. Right now, the way she had set up the machine, the eye would be the last thing finished.

She checked through her program to see what she could change. The hair was done. The dermis was mending nicely, although the machine hadn’t started on the epidermis. The eye—halfway through. If she switched the processes around, so that the machine concentrated on the eye first, the lower layers of the skin next, and the epidermis last, she’d add half an hour to the final build. An unfinished epidermis was not life-threatening, it only looked bad. Josune would shed dead skin for a week. Was it better to simply let the process go through as fast as it could?

Snow put a hand over the screen. “Nika. You don’t change a program halfway through.”

“I know.” Although she had, when she found something wasn’t working. “But, Snow, let’s pretend for a moment that we have to. What would you do?”

“But you—”

“A theoretical exercise. We have enemy coming. They’ll be here before she’s out of the machine.”

“They won’t be. You heard the doctor. No one will know. Not until we’re gone.”

“Theoretically.”

Snow chewed at his bottom lip. “The skin enhancements,” he said, finally. “To cover the pink. That could go.”

“Good.” Some modders Nika knew would be more horrified at leaving the pink, but you couldn’t prevent it with a Dietel; all you could do was enhance it, make it look like it was supposed to be there.

“Her eye. We’ll never be able to fix that in time. She’ll have to wear a patch until we get her to another machine.”

Not if Nika could prevent it. “The eye is important to Josune.”

“But her skin.”

“You ever heard of sunburn, Snow?”

“Of course I have. Planet-bound people get it. It’s common on worlds where the sun emits high ultraviolet radiation and newly landed visitors forget to cover up.”

They didn’t go to a modder to get it fixed, they went to a doctor. But Nika had one client who participated in extreme outdoor sports. His skin burned regularly. He had a standing appointment with her when he came back after a session.

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