Sana leaned back in her chair and stretched. It was time to take another break. The human doctors, Doug and Kabir, were understandably driven, but it was starting to get annoying. They seemed to have no concept of balancing effort and relaxation. She got Kabir to bury himself in educational materials, but Doug was persistent, and if she heard What does that do? one more time today she was likely to say something intemperate.

She spoke to the UMP often, making sure that it did not translate those private conversations into English or Hindi. She had grave concerns about how medicine was being handled in Nick's country. He had spoken of it as being a leader among nations, but it was clearly lagging in many areas. Finally, she took some time to herself and placed a call.

It was only a few moments before the human at the other end answered the call. His eyes widened for a moment, then he visibly gathered himself and greeted her politely. "Hello, Dr. Vickall."

"Hello, Steve Holton. You are Nick's friend, yes?"

"Yes."

"You are the one he turns to for advice in business?"

A thoughtful pause. "Yes."

"I have created cures for several human diseases. I want to make them freely available to all, but your...legal structures...leave much to be desired. I have no intention of allowing some individual to claim control over my cures, and withhold them from some people or demand payment."

"I see."

"How should I proceed?"

The human fell silent for a few moments. "I would have advised you to patent the cures, but since you are not a human, and not an American citizen, lawyers would dispute your claim. You'll need a human to hold the patents for you. I would suggest Nick, except I know he wouldn't want to deal with it."

"Would you file the patents and hold them?" she asked, probing.

Another pause. "No. I'll be taking care of the neural interface business and some other matters. I would ask Vanessa Harburg to do it. She is one of our close friends, and she would very much want cures to be available to everyone. She doesn't have expertise in it, so I would hire a lawyer to set things up for her. Would that be acceptable?"

Sana nodded. "Yes. Start to set it up, and I will send details of the cures when you are ready for them."

"Thank you. Can I contact you by returning this call?"

"Yes."

"I assume you have lawyers in space. Shall I send up the agreements for examination before filing?"

"Yes, please."

The human nodded. "Very well." He paused. "Doctor, thank you for taking care of Nick all this time. His friends...we care about him. It was a pleasant shock to find out that he was alive. I'm sure you helped with that. So...thank you."

Sana smiled. "Nick could have killed me, but did not. He defended me when others wanted to kill me. We have helped each other."

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Holton smiled. "That's Nick all over." It took Sana a moment to get the idiom, then she nodded. "Well...I need to call some lawyers and get things started. Was there anything else?"

"That is all for now. Thank you, Steve Holton." She waited for his nod, then cut the connection.

Well, we'll see how that plays out. She got back to work, finishing the comparisons of what healthy humans looked like, and identifying differences and reported sicknesses. They really are remarkably similar to us. I wonder where they lost the horns during their evolution?

* *

A while later, she was examining John Throckmorton. The human had some wrinkles in his face, and his hair was mostly gray instead of black. The man was clearly intelligent, and seemed to be watching everything.

"Doctor, may I speak with you privately?" Sana raised an eyebrow, but quickly programmed walls around the man and herself, still separated by a transparent barrier.

"We have privacy now."

"I heard a rumor that aliens can modify their own brains to become more intelligent. Is this possible for humans?"

Interesting. Sana wondered how he had found that out. "I've just finished the comparisons to get a baseline for your species, so yes, it is now possible. Your brains are similar enough to Goldaskian brains that there were only minor changes required. It is routinely done for us at the onset of puberty."

"I would like to have my intelligence increased."

The man proceeded to ask a fairly long list of hypothetical questions and asked for many details. He seemed determined to secure this advantage for himself. Sana found herself getting annoyed with this human, but was willing to let him be the first human augmented. In the highly unlikely event that I still missed something, this man can serve as a guinea gopher before I treat Nick.

Throckmorton kept asking her whether she had any desires that could be fulfilled on Earth. He would be happy to arrange almost anything for her. I'd ask for a sampling of their finer males, but I would not trust this man enough to place myself in his care, power, or reach.

Besides, I'm exotic. I'm sure there will be plenty of volunteers.

* *

She spent a while with Captain Trent, showing him diagrams of the surgery she would be performing.

"The actual attachment will only take an hour or so, but before I start building your new legs, I wanted to know your preferences."

"Can you actually regrow my legs just like I had before the crash?"

"Yes, that is the base option. I was wondering whether you wanted any improvements."

"Like what?" the human asked, sounding wary.

"Oh, a wide variety of options exist—if you wanted hooves or talons instead of feet, for example, that would be doable with a bit of work."

The man's eyes widened. "No, thank you."

"Understood. Would you like the bones to be stronger than before? I can use more modern materials that would give greater flexibility and strength while being as light as your natural bones."

Captain Trent gave a wry smile. "No, thank you. I wouldn't want anyone to be tempted to kidnap me and cut my legs off again so that they could study your medical technology."

Sana was speechless for a moment, then offered, "I could include spares for examination."

"They'd still fight over those, and the losers would still be tempted."

Fucking barbarians. Sana did her best to keep her feelings from her expression. "All right, we'll keep the structure the same as you were born with. Any changes to the appearance? More or less hair? Freckles or moles? Skin tone?"

"Ah...I don't need any freckles or moles. I guess I don't need much hair, just enough to match the rest of me. The skin tone can start out pale if that's easier, I can get my own tan."

"Oh, the skin tone is trivial. Want to try Goldaskian red? You could be a trend placer."

The man grinned. "Thank you, your skin is very lovely, Doctor, but I'll stick with my natural coloring."

"Very well. Would you like modest optimization? All within your natural range, I mean. Thicker bones, improved placement of arteries, things like that?"

"Would it look any different?"

"No. It's just how you might have turned out with optimized exercise and development."

"Then yes, please."

Sana made a few notes. "Very well. Thank you for answering my questions. I'll start creating your new legs later today, and they should be ready for attachment in about three days."

"Thank you, Doctor." His eyes looked as if they were tearing up a bit.

"You're welcome." Sana excused herself and left the man alone. Humans could be sensitive about the oddest things.

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