Vengeance (Confluence Book 5) by Jennifer Foehner Wells

Author:Jennifer Foehner Wells [Wells, Jennifer Foehner]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blue Bedlam Science Fiction
Published: 2018-08-30T22:00:00+00:00

Darcy arrived in the infirmary and made eye contact with Hain, who was being dressed by the staff in sterile surgical garments. The ferny fronds on top of her head were covered with a large hood, cinched around her face. “Her vitals are too low for general anesthetic,” Hain said. “We’ll have to use local only. Connect with Do’Vela for communication.”

One of Hain’s assistants, a higitch named Dar, tapped off Hain’s vocal air flow and fastened a fabric mask just below her eyes, then seated a transparent face shield over that.

Dar was somewhat humanoid-looking, and yet he also looked an awful lot like a naked mole rat, though Darcy hated thinking it. His skin was a mottled grayish-pink and loose with lots of wrinkles and folds. His eyes were small and set close together, and his nose was a flattened pink stub. What little hair he had was transparent and protruded from tiny dark pink freckles. It created a shimmery halo around his head. His teeth, however, did not fit the profile. They stayed inside his mouth, and Darcy couldn’t remember ever seeing them.

A hymenoptera steered Darcy to a nearby station to swab her hands and arms with a disinfecting sponge. Then they put long rubbery gloves over her arms and affixed the same garments over her body that they’d just placed on Hain—boots, pants, apron, everything. Once those were set, she joined Hain and her attendants.

Inside the makeshift surgical room, Wahndis was thoroughly draped, lying on her side. The lighting was intensely bright. Several machines were attached to Wahndis’s body—monitors and something that looked like a pump. Other equipment was waiting around the perimeter. Tables had been set up around her to hold trays of surgical instruments. Hain approached Wahndis’s abdomen, one of her assistants at her side. A couple more stepped into the tent, one of them to monitor vitals, another standing at the ready to leap in as necessary.

Through Do’Vela’s mental connection, Hain instructed Darcy to stand on the other side of the patient in case her hands were needed. “This is relatively unusual. Most modern surgeries are done robotically with sentient supervision. However, for a species like the Hymenoptera who are not well documented medically, a more traditional approach must be taken.”

Hain rubbed an anesthetic gel over the surface of the exoskeleton and spoke again through the mental link as she gave it a few moments to do its work. “This species does not utilize a circulatory system to carry oxygen around the body. They have an open circulatory system. Their blood, more properly termed hemolymph, flows freely within the body cavity, infusing the tissues with nutrients. The dorsal vessel acts as a rudimentary heart through peristalsis. Our goal will be to conserve the hemolymph and supplement only if needed, with a synthetic substitute I have created.”

Hain made the first cut. “The cuticle of the patient’s abdomen is uncharacteristically soft due to malnutrition and the rapid expansion caused by extreme fecundity. But I am confident that will reverse upon the next molting cycle, with adequate nutrition.

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