I guessed we’d knocked loose a reserve of the waste products, or hidden toxins now exposed to the Trigeneris, with our first round. This was not expected. I’d thought the second round would go easier than the first. That I could use the same approximate timing I’d used before and be safe.
I’d been wrong. The question was, wrong about what? Additional toxin? Additional waste? Which was I countering? Because the answer to the first wasride it outand the other waspush the neutralizer now, and the wrong call would kill Jackson before I could correct the mistake.
“Shouldn’t they clean out his blood now?”Randall again.
“They’ll make that call.”
Dropped.
Dove. Rallied.
Dropped.
Doctor Flannigan reached for a syringe. “Fuck this. I’m pushing the neutralizer.”
“No!” I barked. “Leave it! This is stored toxin. We have to let the Trigeneris kill it.”
“It’s going to killhim!” the doctor barked back.
But he put the syringe down.
Anxious energy swamped my palms inside my gloves and threatened to vibrate out through my limbs. I breathed in, licked my lips. Tasted sweat. Breathed out.
Vitals dropped.
Dropped.
Dove.
One-thousand-one. One-thousand-two.My gut shrilled at me to act.
“Pushing the neutralizer.”
“Too late. He’s crashing!”
“He’s not.”Please, Jackson. Please. Fight. Fight and stay alive. Two seconds. Please. Hang on for two seconds.
His vitals stabilized after three of the longest seconds I’ve ever lived through.
Doctor Flannigan groaned. “Starting hemofiltration. You have nerves of bloody steel. And a good instinct.”
“Thanks.” I flopped into a nearby chair for a couple minutes of spool-down time.
Once he had the hemofilter whirring, Doctor Flannigan plopped into his chair, too, and shot an evaluating gaze at me. “You ever think about going back to school? Finishing your residency, getting your license?”
“I did. My hip wouldn’t let me.” I patted the offending part of my body. “I’d never make it through a traditional residency. Not with the ability to walk. Mars is oddly helpful in that. Less gravity to strain my hip and back. I recently found a couple programs back on Earth that would take me, but they’re not close to where I live now. Maybe after.”
“Where do you live? Colorado Springs?”
“Yeah.”
Doctor Flannigan rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve got an old friend who lives out that way. Works at one of the hospitals. If you want, I will call him, and I will vouch for you. Remind him that he owes me one, and tell him he’d be a damn fool not to help you get your license. And… If you ended up on another launch to Mars, and found your way to my medical bay again, I wouldn’t mind teaching you myself.”
Surprise percolated in my chest. I blinked. “Really? Weren’t you just complaining that I give you coronaries?”
“Yeah, but you do it in agoodway,” he said. He flashed a grin. “You’re talented, Sebastian. A little crazy. Got ice in your veins. But you’regood, and you want to learn. The world needs doctors like you. Hell,twoworlds need doctors like you. Think about it, all right? I hate wasted talent.”
“I- Yeah. I’ll think about it. Later.” I tugged off my gloves and exchanged them for a fresh pair. “Once more unto the breach?”