Page 30 of Healing the Leonid Doctor's Heart
“You’re going to have Durga-knows-who on board this ship with my wife and child?” he thundered.
“Bastet curse that boy,” Marcus sighed. “Wendy, you’re healing up beautifully. Before you know it, you won’t even have a scar. Talos, I was going to tell you about that...”
“Doc?” Dax squawked.
“I’m with a patient!” Marcus roared back, not bothering to use the intercom, and holding his breath when he realized he and Talos had just been shouting over the sleeping cub.
Wendy sat up, glared at them both with as much severity as her gentle soul could muster, and motioned for Talos to take the heavy little bundle. “We’re leaving, Marcus. I’m fine, and it sounds like things are about to get busy.”
“I’m just trying to help other families have this chance. We need more Chandras, Chances, and Alanas in this universe,” Marcus said with a plaintive note in his voice.
Talos’ grim expression softened. “Well, that I will agree with.”
“It should mean you get a supplemental credit payment, as well—if all of my crazy ideas work out.”
Wendy smirked and took his paw with one hand, the other one resting lightly on her daughter’s flowered blanket. “I hope they do, Marcus. Before Queen Fever, how many were aboard this ship?”
Marcus stopped and thought back to the faces he hadn’t seen in so long. About half the crew had been Queens, and there’d been young Knights, but then quarantine orders had come, and deaths had increased...
He blinked. Something that he refused to name came back, haunting him, as he remembered the deaths that had happened aboard, deaths of the Queens he’d known, eaten with, ridden through asteroid storms with, watched planetary elections with, peace treaties with...
“We shouldn’t bring it up, perhaps,” Talos said with a surprisingly soft voice, a paw laid briefly on Marcus’ shoulder.
“Over a dozen officers and permanent crew, almost all of us young or unmarried, a few with families back home. They didn’t all leave at once. The Queens first, and the ones who had to make it planet-side during the last emergency shuttle clearancesbefore planets were locked down. And as the virus raged and kept changing... We lost more and more when respites were offered to those seeking passage back to their own planets and systems. At last, it was just Ru. It was his ship, and he was going to try to keep flying alone—freighters were allowed to fly, after all. And every ship of this size and class had to have a medical officer, so... I stayed. I had nowhere else to go.” Marcus stopped speaking abruptly. It was a lie, that last bit. He could have gone home—to pompous relatives who would tell him he was better off without a Servali Queen and half-breed cubs. “This ship is home now. Rupex is... Well, he’s family, whether or not he admits it. It all depends on the day.” He managed a shaky smile. I’ve made that clear to those who are offering me positions planet-side. I’ll be grounded when theComet Stalkeris.”
Talos lifted his chin. “Wendy and Layla have been apart too long. We’ll visit my family on leave, but we have no plans to leave, Marcus. Our cubs will grow up together, go to school here together. Some of the bigger ships have instructors on board.”
Marcus nodded, confused for a moment at Talos’ assertion that their cubs would grow up together.
He doesn’t mean your child. He means Layla’s cubs and Wendy’s cubs. And before long... Nessa and Kamau’s, or I’ll eat my hemoanalyzer.“It’s good to know you’ll be here. I know Wendy has her heart set on teaching the young ones.”
“Well... As a nursery teacher.”
“You could easily get your primary certification while working part-time in the nursery. You’ll see. Things are going to keep moving forward, folks.” Marcus smiled and clapped his paws together. “Now, I bet that little lady is about to wake up and want her milk. Off you go.”
As soon as Wendy and Talos opened the door, Dax was shoved forward under the pressure of Kaylie and Abigail. Therewas a pause for hushed adoration of little Chandra, and then they all but tackled him to his spinning chair.
“What happened? What contract is this?” Kaylie demanded, jabbing at the computer on her wrist.
“This clinic is being established here? How can that be? Does Rupex know?”
“Wait, I didn’t get a new contract!” Dax looked around, bewildered. “Am I out? Did I fail? How can I fail when I just passed my last exam, Doc?”
Marcus ran a paw through his mane. “If you’ll all listen, I’ll give you the shortest answer possible. The Comet Stalker is a long-haul freighter ship that also has classification as a passenger ship. With the allocation of additional quarters for patients and additional medical and medical support staff, Rupex and I, with backing from Bastet Mercy, are going to seek a tertiary classification.”
“A what?” Dax frowned.
“Third,” Abigail interjected, eyes not leaving Marcus’ face.
“Thank you, athirdclassification. We are going to seek medical/mercy class status, and we’ll probably get it, with a bunch of addendums, like we’re not to be sent into conflicts for medical treatment, etc. I believe my contact at Bastet Mercy said it was called a ‘Specialization Rider.’”
Skyla walked in, the tall Dholian Canid waving her lavish tail around, her head cocked in puzzlement. “Jax, Lycen, and I were on a ship like that. First response military support. The rider said we were not a surgical ship, more like first aid, assessment, and triage. Why are we talking about this?”
Marcus almost whimpered. “I don’t want to start this all over again.”
“We’re going to get classified as a baby-making ship, I think,” Dax said—and then, hearing how it sounded, blushed wine redand clapped his hands over his mouth. “Oh, shit. I mean! Arh. Doc, help!”
“Yes,” Marcus said steadily, not giving into the urge to laugh, “with the right adjustments to support staff and quarters, we’ll be given classification as a ‘baby-making’ ship. Or, as I would have phrased it, a mercy ship with a specialization in hybrid reproductive medicine. To get the classification, I’ll need a qualified medical assistant or nurse—Skyla,” he pointed to her, “and a certified medical assistant,” he nodded to Dax, “and someone to help handle the recruitment, screening, and matching of surrogates with my guidance.” He turned to Abigail and Kaylie.
