Page 50 of Alien Mercenary's Wife
"And if we don't find anything?"
"Then we keep looking." Tal nodded slowly, though he didn’t look happy about it. "What about Reese? How much do you want me to tell her about her prognosis?"
He hesitated. Reese deserved the truth, but learning she had months before paralysis might crush her when she was already struggling.
"Tell her the treatment is ongoing," he said finally. "That we're exploring options. Don't lie, but don't give her specifics until we have more information."
"And if she asks direct questions?"
"Answer them honestly. But don't volunteer details that would just create despair."
Tal nodded. "She's stronger than you think, you know. Military training doesn't disappear just because the body fails."
"I know how strong she is. But knowing you're dying and knowing exactly how long you have are entirely different things."
"Fair point." Tal began shutting down the medical displays, and the data streams faded to darkness. "I'll research everything I can find."
"Good. And Tal?" T'Raal paused at the door. "This conversation stays between us until we have concrete options."
"Yes, boss."
13
Reese's left leg buckled without warning as she rounded the corner toward her quarters. She caught herself against the corridor wall. The comm session with the other veterans had drained her more than she'd expected. Seven survivors out of fifty-three who'd started this fight. The numbers felt like a punch to the gut.
Her quarters were just ahead, offering the privacy she needed to process everything she'd learned. Hughes's trembling hands, Ryans' bitter laugh, and Mason's scarred face twisted with fury. All of them were still clinging to hope that was fading fast.
The soft murmur of voices from the medical bay up ahead caught her attention. T'Raal's voice she recognised… mixed with Tal's more careful tones. She slowed down as the conversation reached her.
"—Empire has treatments that could reverse the neural damage completely."
She stopped dead. The words hit her like ice water, jolting her fully alert. Neural damage… Treatments. She and Eris werethe only two people aboard with neural damage, and Eris was healed.
"Neural pathway reconstruction, cellular regeneration protocols, genetic repair sequences."
Her heart hammered against her ribs. They were talking about her condition. About treatments that could fix what the defective implants had broken. Imperial medicine that could give her back her life, everything she'd lost.
"No." T'Raal's voice cut through the air. "No Imperial involvement. Find another way."
The world tilted sideways. She pressed herself against the corridor wall, knowing she needed to hear this conversation.
"There might not be another way," Tal argued, sounding frustrated. "The Empire has been researching neural interface technology for decades. They understand this type of damage better than any other medical establishment in the galaxy."
"Then we find someone else who understands it. No Imperial entanglements."
"This isn't about politics. This is about saving her life."
Saving her life. The words echoed in her mind while T'Raal rejected Imperial help outright. As if decisions about her life, her body, were his to make.
"There has to be another solution."
Her hands clenched into fists as anger flared white-hot in her chest. Another solution. While she deteriorated day by day, while other veterans like Hughes and Ryans suffered through progressive paralysis, T'Raal was dismissing proven treatments because of what? His objections to the source.
The conversation continued, Tal explaining anonymous research papers and treatments being developed by someone called Laarn. Imperial medical establishment. She shook her head. More politics. More barriers between her and the help she and the others needed.
"Tell her the treatment is ongoing. That we're exploring options. Don't lie, but don't give her specifics until we have more information."
She gritted her teeth so hard she was surprise they didn’t snap off at the root. Yeah, right. Keep her in the dark. Manage her like a child who needed to be protected. Feed her bullshit while making decisions about her future behind closed doors.
