FORTY

After the ship dropped back into normal space, Kay found a com message waiting. She initiated the callback.

The SSC connection was bad, but good enough so Kay could see and hear her Eldest Brother, who had been three litters ahead of her own. They spoke NorVaz, the most common of the dialects on Vast, and there was no frippery, he got right to it.

It didn’t take long, the conversation, and when it was over, Kay sat for a moment, pondering her course of action.

No question what she had to do; only how best to go about it.

She left her quarters and went to find Wink Doctor.

He was in the infirmary, working on his computer.

“Kay,” he said. “How are you?”

“I am well personally; however, I have spoke to my Eldest Brother, Drocmasc, on Vast, via SSC. There is a medical problem on the homeworld with which he needs my assistance.”

“Anything I can do to help, I will.”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

He furrowed his brow. “Just curious, why did your Eldest Brother call you?”

“Before I left Vast and joined Cutter Force Initiative, I was a Healer.”

He blinked at her. “You were a physician?”

“Yes.”

He shook his head. “Why didn’t I know that?”

“I had no need to mention it before now.”

“Son of a bitch. Like calling home to talk to my mother—only way to find out anything is to ask a specific question; otherwise, she doesn’t bring it up, just says everything is fine.” He looked at her again. “So what is your brother’s problem, medically speaking, if I might ask?”

“He is also well; however, several score Vastalimi have died recently. Our Healers have not been able to discover the cause.”

“And he thinks you can?”

“I was considered an Adept Healer when I practiced. And I have the advantage of having been exposed to extraspecies medicine. My brother thinks I might bring a new perspective to the problem.”

“What can I do?”

“I will shortly have test results from our Healers. I thought perhaps you might see something in these they missed.”

“Sure.”

“I will be taking leave to space to Vast as soon as we make planetfall. Perhaps with information that I can apply to the situation.”

“You could just send it to them.”

“No. Among the sufferers are my parents and a number of my siblings. I need to go home and help them. A matter of personal responsibility.”

“Okay. Let’s see what we can find out.”