Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 11:00:02 -0400
From: Ron <wolfwalker2@alltel.net>
Subject: TEEP Chapter 06

Aaron looked up from the center station where he had been working on
answering emails and studying the replies of the first phone interviews that
he had sent to Joe, it seemed that roughly half of them would be on their
way to San Francisco for a face to face interview, in fact it looked like
the interviews would take two days, seeing Kenny sitting next to his brother
quietly whispering to him, Aaron noticed the time, it was time for them to
get a move on. Standing up, he made his way to Kenny's side, "You know three
of these guys are going to be released tomorrow afternoon, so you will have
some new neighbors upstairs, well, at least in the beginning, until they
decide if they want to stay here or go back and take their chances with
other family or on their own."

Kenny smiled as he looked over to the three younger boys in the bio-tubes
"Do you think they might want to be friends, father never allowed us to have
friends" leaning forward, he whispered, "I think he was frightened about
what might happen if anyone found out how he treated his own sons." Standing
up after looking up at the clock, Kenney leaned over the bio-tube and kissed
the plexi right above his brothers face, "I will see you tomorrow, big
brother, right now I am going on an adventure to help some little boys, just
like the stories that you used to read to me before bedtime."

Rubbing his eyes before the tears had a chance to take hold, Aaron silently
followed Kenny out of the trauma pod as he led the way to the arrival area.
Stopping outside the doorless entry, Kenny looked around and spotted the
crest, built into the ground and pointed, "that is just like the books David
used to help me read, the ones we snuck into the house, telling stories of
magical places and people with special." Kenny's eyes got real big as he
glanced up and stared at Aaron who had his arm held out for him to grab
onto. Placing his hand gently on the arm he blinked as they ported, "Maybe
that lady writer had the real story to begin with."

Aaron chose not to answer or comment, as he ported them directly into his
office and walked over to the only chair in the whole circular room, and
instead of sitting down, he reached to the side of the chair and pushed a
button, exposing two flat metal plates near the end of the arms, placing his
hands on the ends, he felt the power start to build in the fusion reactor
deep inside the mountain, "Now might be a good time to hold onto me, Kenny,
I have almost pulled enough power so I don't have to use any of my own to
get us there, after all, it is halfway around the world." Aaron smiled at
his tired joke as Kenny quickly jumped over to where Aaron was standing next
to his chair, placed both hands around Aaron's waist, and in a blink of the
eye, the only sound in the room was the covers once again hiding the metal
panels as they ported out of the room.

Arriving in his cabin on the Alteran Prince, Aaron smiled, as he had used
none of his own power and surprisingly found it had energized his levels, he
felt invigorated, hopefully it would cut down on his recovery time, if so,
he knew he would be installing small fusion plants in key locations in the
future, might be a good idea anyway, he thought. "Welcome to my cabin
onboard the Alteran Prince," Looking at the awe on Kenny's face as he walked
around the cabin, "let's go to the bridge where you can meet Chris again,
this time when you are awake," He chuckled before sending a brief mental
message, "Chris, Kenny and I are on board and on our way up to the bridge."

Kenny, who was at the window looking out at the ocean at night, nodded his
head and followed Aaron to the door.

Stopping outside his door, Aaron pointed to the blank black panel on the
wall next to the doorframe, "If you place your hand on the panel, it will
light up with a map of the Prince so you can find your way around."

Kenny moved over so he could put his hand on the panel; reaching up he
placed his hand on it and smiled as it lit up, showing the passageway with a
you are here flag blinking, tracing a finger along the path of the ship to
the bridge he nodded his head in pleasure at how simple it was to work the
controls, for as his finger moved along the map the picture changed, showing
him the new decks as his finger went upwards.

"The stairs are over this way and we have to go up three decks to reach the
bridge," Aaron pointed over his shoulder before turning and following Kenny,
who had taken off in the direction he pointed.

Kenny stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked behind him, "man look
at all of these steps, how come we did not just teleport to the bridge?"
thinking for a moment, he answered his own question, "is this more of that
it is rude to do it that way stuff?"

"Except in an emergency, it is bad manners to just port in where ever we
wanted; what if by porting in, we distracted someone on the bridge at the
wrong moment? Aaron smiled back at the puzzled expression on the youngsters
face, "plus, if I ported everywhere I wanted, I might become lazy and get
fat." He pinched his sides to check to see if he had gotten fat, causing
Kenny to giggle before running up the stairs screaming back "me too."

Aaron started up the steps smiling, on the surface, Kenny seemed to be
adjusting well, unfortunately, he knew that he still had a lot to work
through, after all, he had nine years of that bastard training him. Picking
up the pace and taking the steps two at a time, he had to work to keep Kenny
in sight, luckily when he reached the top of the steps, Kenny was standing
there looking through the door, he had waited for him, instead of running
right in. placing a hand on Kenny's shoulder he escorted him onto the bridge
"Hey Chris, how long until we go to station keeping?"

Having been warned ahead of time that Aaron was on board, Chris was not
surprised when the little tyke walking in along with his boss separated from
Aaron so he could gaze in wonder at all the controls, "your just in time, we
are two minutes from station keeping and there are two choppers inbound; the
first has the boys, while the second contains the parents and the doc you
invited.I think the guy's boss is on it also." Shrugging it off as
unimportant who was on the choppers, as they had the correct pass codes,
"Carl is already down at the med bay getting a couple of gurneys to the
elevator." Looking over towards Kenny who had climbed onto the
communications station chair so he could gaze out the window, "Hey sport,
what's say you help me out here while the boss goes off to help in the med
bay, afterwards we will make our way down to see everyone?"

Kenny looked over towards Aaron pleading with his eyes to be allowed to stay
on the bridge, Laughing, Aaron smiled, "Go ahead and stay with Chris, Kenny,
he can even teach you how to park this tub" he laughed at the pained
expression on Chris's face, as Chris yelled, "Hey," before winking at him as
he noticed Kenny trying to hide his giggles behind his hands.

Seeing the blinking lights in the distance approaching, Chris touched a
control and the Prince lit up like a Christmas tree, while the landing pad
became bathed in light with a circle of lights blinking around the edge.
Looking back up to tell Aaron that they were almost here, he saw he had
already ported out.

Porting directly to the landing pad, Aaron walked over towards Carl who was
inside the elevator, doors open waiting for the chopper to land, extending
the mic down, Aaron tapped it twice opening a channel so he could listen in
on the radio traffic.

"Med Evac two nine to Alteran Prince on final approach; be advised this will
be a hot landing." The voice crackled over the channel.

Reaching up to tap the side of his head where the communicator was, Aaron
glanced at the panel near the door, "Med Evac two nine, this is the Alteran
Prince, wind is two five miles out of heading three seven nine, I repeat
wind is twenty five miles landing is confirmed to be hot. Please advise are
you coming in code patients." Aaron crossed his fingers as Carl inhaled
sharply.

Another voice was heard over the radio, "Negative on code patients," then
more informally "But it is only a matter of minutes."

Motioning for Carl to grab the second cart, Aaron saw the chopper hovering
off to one side "Med Evac one, land that thing NOW!  The pad is stable."

Even before the chopper had fully landed, Aaron followed by Carl, was
pushing the carts out of the elevator towards the back hatch on the medical
helicopter, heads down to avoid some of the downdraft form the rotors. They
made it to the back hatch, just as the wheels touched down. Banging on the
back hatch Aaron was impatient for them to open it and practically ripped it
open as the hatch clicked after the locks were released. Finding the latch
to the stretcher, Aaron released it just as the onboard medic dropped the IV
bags on the stretcher and motioning for him to follow the stretcher out,
Aaron started to pull the stretcher onto the gurney, slow enough that the
medic could keep up with the artificial ventilations of his AMBU bag.
Pushing the gurney along the chopper so as not to get close to the tail
rotor, Aaron handed the gurney off to Carl and pulled the empty one over, so
he could repeat the performance with the other stretcher. Once the toddler
was secure, Aaron quickly joined Carl in the elevator and elbowed the door
button closing the doors and starting their rapid descent two decks to the
med bay.

While they were descending, Aaron and Carl worked to quickly apply the
sensors while pulling off the leads and pads that the hospital had used, by
the time the door opened, they had both boys stripped and were working on
applying the gel to the boys' right elbows in preparation for the IV setup.
As soon as the door opened, they rushed the gurneys over to the two prepped
bio-tubes, leaving behind a trail of equipment on the elevator floor.

Mandy, the flight nurse that was providing artificial ventilation on the
toddler was about to make a scathing comment about removing all the
monitoring equipment, but when a panel at the foot of the gurney popped up,
and started scrolling information that was more detailed then what their
equipment was capable of, she held her tongue, seeing the BIOX level was
only eighty two, she increased the timing of her ventilations,
hyperventilating the boy in the hopes of increasing his blood oxygen level.

Stopping the gurney near the open bio-tube, Aaron looked at the flight
nurse, "we need to get him in the bio-tube, and leave all this shit behind,
once he is in the bio-tube the ventilator connection is to the left side of
his head, once it is connected, move out of the way of the lid as it will
seal itself pretty quick, once I get the new IV line in."

Waiting until she nodded her head, Aaron quickly ripped the IV line out of
the boy's arm, trying to be as gentle as possible, so as not to cause more
damage, while locking eyes with her, counted down, "On three, one.two.lift"
lifting the boy off the stretcher, Aaron and the flight nurse gently lowered
him into the bio-tube and he quickly snapped the open elbow collar around
the right elbow as the nurse attached the ventilator connection, before
moving back a step and calling out "Clear."

Uncovering the red button, Aaron pushed it home, causing the lid to slide
back and seal as the bio-tube rapidly flushed the air out replacing it with
the regen fluid, within seconds, the tube was filled and the boy was
floating gently in the middle of the tube, completely surrounded by the
fluid. Moving to the monitor, Aaron started to scan the reports on the wall
as he tapped out commands on the small screen between the tube end and the
wall. Increasing the regen fluid being injected along with the fluid in the
IV, Aaron tapped the command administering a second unit of nanites, while
listening with half an ear so to speak, as Carl talked his way through the
procedure.

Carl had his toddler in the tube and started the cycle and knowing that this
was the first time he had done this on his own, started to verbalize
everything he was doing "Cycle initiated, emergency scan complete.Heart
stressed and functioning at eighty percent...Brain mostly undamaged, just
slightly hypoxic according to the readouts."

By this time, the parents of the two boys, along with the others had entered
the med bay and were standing just out of range, watching in amazement as
the two worked while the boys floated in something out of the movies, and
science fiction movies at that.

Carl looked up at the warning beep as the screen changed on the monitor,
"SHIT I have a liver fracture.no, check that, the lower lobe of this kid's
liver was being held together with hope, it is mush, and bleeding out, the
spleen is also bleeding out." He called out, letting a little panic enter
his voice.

Glancing over his shoulder and seeing the bio-tube was prepped just like
his, for surgical intervention, Aaron stepped around the flight nurse
hovering by the console, and made his way over "Switch patients, Carl,
concentrate on tracing back the pulmonary blockage, his lungs are not
getting the blood flow they should be getting, that is the cause of the
decreased blood oxygen level, after that, concentrate on rib repair." Aaron
pulled the gloves off the cart as an older gray haired man moved to the
other side of the tube from him and offered to help, "I can glove up if you
need another hand, oh, Dr. Theodore Myers at your service, Dr. Stranton."

Giving it a brief thought, Aaron nodded his head as he removed the tray of
surgical instruments from the airlock at the end of the bio-tube. Glancing
around, he noticed the flight medic still standing off to the side as Dr.
Myers moved to stand across from him. "Not to be rude or anything, but if
you are going to be sticking around, I can use your help to be my eyes on
the monitor while we are busy." Seeing the man jump as his eyes locked with
him as he realized he was the one being spoken to, he rushed over to the
side of the bio-tube nearest the monitor."Thanks, I will talk you through
what needs to be done; you just need to keep your eyes on several different
readings for me," smiling at the serious nod he received he added, "just
relax, everything is going to be fine, as long as the heart and brain are
fine, we can re-grow or fix the rest."

Myers looked up suddenly at that statement and narrowed his eyes, as he
heard the indrawn breaths from the parents and the whisper of "Prometheus"
from the father of the two toddler's boss.

Glancing back in time to see Dr. Stranton push a button on the top of the
panel over the tube, he noticed the movement of servo's inside the tube and
glanced back up as he noticed that as Aaron, if he remembered correctly,
flexed his fingers, so did the artificial hands inside the tank.

"Ok flight medic, the first thing you have to learn to recognize is this: on
the same line as the word nanite, there are two numbers separated by a
slash. If the second number drops to five thousand or below, you need to use
the stylus, which you should pick up and hold onto, and tap the word Nanite
gently once, that will administer another unit of nanites into the
bloodstream, ten thousand per unit. The screen is laid out in three main
sections with the far right being the pharmaceutical side and underneath the
listing is the word 'administer', which is the command, so if I tell you to
administer something, you tap the command then the action you want to
happen." Changing students, Aaron glanced at Dr. Myers "Dr. Myers.can I call
you Theo, oh and call me Aaron."

"Of course, my boy, or Aaron, I agree; let's not be stuffy it takes too
long, especially as it slows down the work." Dr. Myers grinned.

"Fine with me; now the first thing you need to know." Aaron glanced over at
the medic who was busy watching the monitor screen on the wall and looking
back down at the terminal, 'we use instruments slightly different than you
are used to using," Aaron picked up the cellular scalpel and made a large
reverse Y incision, to the raised eyebrows on Theo's face "skin is easily
and quickly repaired, but I need room to work in here. This is a cellular
scalpel, and unlike your bladed variety you are used to using, this one
breaks the cellular bonds cleanly, so when we go to fuse the skin back
together, it will be without any scaring." He instructed as he opened the
flaps of the abdomen up, to a wash of pink as the regen fluid hit the
abdominal cavity and mixed with the blood leaking out of the of the
fractured and ruptured organs.

"Carl, how goes tracing back the blockage?" Aaron asked, as it had been
awfully quiet over at the other bio-tube.

"Dr. Stranton, the BIOX levels are dropping fast," the medic called out as
he looked at the main screen.

"Listen carefully and tap in this order," Aaron said, as he grabbed another
instrument and dissected the damaged section of the liver from the healthy
section, or at least the section that did not look like mashed potatoes.
"Administer, then meds, then choose IV and hit the letter R."

"Right, 'administer'," John tapped the screen and saw the word become
highlighted before going to the top and tapping 'meds', which changed the
screen to an alphabet "meds and then.R.done."

Concentrating on sealing the blood vessels, Aaron floated the damaged
section of the liver out of the abdominal cavity as he quickly sealed the
rest of the tiny bleeders with concentrated nanites, programmed for blood
vessel damage and nothing else. "Scroll through the list, until you find
Regen Fluid three percent oxygenated, and then tap on that one, a new screen
will pop up and give you the option of activate or cancel; tap
activate..Carl, what is the BIOX reading on that little guy?"

Mandy, who was standing to one side watching closely spoke up, "Ninety one
percent, it is up three points." And Carl, with a smile to the flight nurse,
"I found three sections of pulmonary artery that are at least seventy
percent blocked, it is going to be at least another twenty minutes before
the blockages are eliminated and blood is flowing without hindrance."

"Nurse, if you relocate to the center console, you will find a station that
is slaved into the Bio-tube Carl is working on, and you can help out by
giving him a hand, administering the medications so he can concentrate on
the blockage." Aaron, satisfied that the liver was at least under control,
moved over to the spleen and continued to demonstrate the advanced tools to
Theo.

Mandy moved over to the center desk and, seeing that the right station was
the one slaved to the bio-tube she was watching; she sat down, picked up the
stylus and called out that she was ready and her eyes roamed the screen as
she followed the rapid fire instructions, issued by Dr. Carl, as she eagerly
tapped away the instructions into the computer.

"'Right then, medic, you need to find the center screen on the console, it
will have an image of the abdominal cavity on it and underneath, the word
'procedure'." Aaron then explained to Theo, "the second tool I am using is
filled with pre programmed nanite's who's only job is to seal off blood
vessels, they do it in such a way that later, when we re-grow the damaged
sections they are able to match the sections up for a perfect fit."

"Sir, my name is John and I have found the section you asked me to, and the
BIOX level is now stable at ninety five percent." John told him, as he
glanced at the readouts, before his hand hovered over the touch screen.

"Ok, John it is, now what you need to do is touch 'procedure' and then as
tight as you can, draw an outline around the liver on the screen, before
tapping, inside the outline, once that happens, another menu will pop up and
you will need to chose the option that says 're-growth' instead of
'regenerate', then activate it. If a screen pops up warning that you do not
have enough nanite's, tap 'administer' then 'nanite', twice, since you are
in the process of a command routine." Aaron glanced up at the main screen
and nodded his head towards it, so Theo would follow along.

A loud beeping could be heard form Carl's station, and the nurse called out,
"I have a warning of a thoracic aneurysm lower, descending Aorta."

Carl looked up with panic in his eyes towards Aaron, who nodded his head and
smiled in a reassuring way, "well Theo, you wanted to get your hands wet,
now's your chance, as I can't be in two places at once." Aaron gazed at him,
to see him smile and nod his head.

Walking quickly over to the other station, Theo looked at the cart next to
the panel and pulled on the gloves, once they were on and secure, he hit the
same button he had noticed Aaron do earlier, and smiled when he saw the
Servo hands follow along with his flexing fingers he reached over to the
airlock door, like he had seen Aaron do and opened it, to pull his own tray
of instruments out, and picking up the cellular scalpel, he opened the
toddlers chest and lower abdomen with a very large double Y incision, he
agreed it was better to have full access than not enough room, especially in
one so small. Seeing Carl relax, He concentrated on exposing and finding the
aneurysm, so it could be repaired.

"Procedure activated, BIOX Now at ninety seven percent, though blood glucose
levels are at the lower end of the range indicator and the white count is
rising," John sounded confused as he studied the readouts.

"Alrighty, let's administer some dextrose. So just like before when you
administered Regen fluid, just choose dextrose bolus, twenty five
milligrams, once that is activated let's work on administering some gamma
goblin, to help fight the infection, while you are at it, what is the
numerical percentage next to the liver status readout?" Aaron asked, as he
tried one last time to seal the spleen before deciding to remove it and
re-grow it later.

Quickly tapping the sequence to administer the dextrose, John glanced up and
scanned the screen quickly for the information, not finding it where he
thought it should have been, he looked from left to right on the screen and
finally found it in the lower left hand corner, "Forty nine percent."

Finished and capturing the section of free floating liver and placing it in
the basket with the spleen, Aaron looked up to see the quizzical expression
on the flight medics face, "I removed almost half of the liver and it is
stressed out and bruised deeply, so it is to be expected to be that low."
Placing the instruments on the tray, he waved his hand to move the regen
fluid around the abdominal cavity, to flush any stray debris or blood out of
the way. "Now, before I get any further, I want you to program the system to
automatically administer nanite's as needed, because after I close up, I am
going to give a hand to Theo, or at least let him borrow my mind and you can
move to the center console and its slaved controls, so you can sit down."
Aaron instructed, as he picked up the cellular fuser and started to close
the wounds.

"In the upper left hand corner, you will see the word 'Autodoc', tap it
once, then the word 'administer' then 'Nanite', after that, a numerical
touch pad will pop up, then tap in five thousand, then 'activate'. What that
does is have the computers monitor the nanite's and automatically administer
another dose when the threshold level of five thousand is reached. Once the
command is accepted, tap 'Autodoc' once more and the system will be in
control until you override it from the center desk, or this console." Aaron
looked up as his hands moved to the second side of his incision and started
to close it.

Hearing John mutter to himself as he tapped out the commands, he heard
footsteps quickly walk away, and glancing up, he noticed the station console
was empty, he smiled before thinking it odd that an active duty Med Evac
team was still around, "not that I am ungrateful, but shouldn't you guys be
on call and back at your base, I mean the extra eyes and hands have made the
difference of hours in the stabilization of these two, but what about your
job?"

"That would be my fault, or doing, Sir," Bob Miller spoke up from the back
of the room, "I hired an air ambulance service for the transfer, as it was
easier to convince the attending physicians we were serious about
transferring the boys to another facility.I just, carefully and
deliberately, neglected to tell them which facility."

Shaking his head with a chuckle, Aaron looked up after sealing the last of
his incision, before deciding to fix the others which had been done by the
surgeons that stabilized the boy, before he got his hands on them. Picking
up the scissors, he quickly removed the stitches and staples and started
running the fuser along the skin, knowing that he would be leaving scars, as
they were not as precise as the ones done by a cellular scalpel. "Very good
thinking Bob, it shows me that you are the right man in the right position."

Placing the instrument tray inside the airlock, and starting the cycle to
flush the airlock dry so the spent tray could be removed, Aaron tapped the
button shutting down the surgical system, removed the gloves and placed them
on the cart with a sigh, as  he stretched his muscles. "Ok John, in the
lower left hand corner, tap 'diagnostic' and then activate a full system
scan. I'll worry about fusing the bones tomorrow, once we are assured the
organs are healed; while you are in the system, let's administer the gamma
goblin."

Aaron walked over to the youngest child's bio-tube and noticed that the
chest and abdomen were still open, and Carl was softly answering questions.
"How goes it over here?"

"Full body scan activated, how long does that take?" John wondered out loud,
as he prepared to administer the gamma goblin, he remembered seeing it as
one of the first options listed when he administered the other drugs to the
boy. "The screen pops up with gamma goblin twenty seven already checked
off."

"That is a good general all purpose immune booster, so go ahead and accept
that one, after the full scan, we can change it to one of the more specific
ones if needed." Aaron saw that the repair had been taken care of, and
noticed the wire wrapped ribs "While you have him open, let's remove all
that metal from his chest and Carl can fuse the bones while you are closing,
leave the chest cavity opened until last, in case you need to hold one of
the ribs in place until the field can do it, everything else looks clean."
Dropping his voice so it would not carry to the back of the room, "if not a
little to abrupt for my tastes, but hey, they were trying to save his life
and did not have the tools we do."

Walking away, Aaron informed Theo, "Carl is getting pretty good at fusing
bones." It was time to talk to the parents before sitting down.

Spotting who he assumed was the mother sitting in a wheel chair with her arm
in a sling and her leg in an air cast "'Mr. and Mrs. Stevens greetings, I
wish it was under happier circumstances, but things happen." Aaron told
them, as he shook the offered hands "your sons will be running around the
yard falling all over themselves in about ten days, they most likely will be
in the bio-tubes for a week, as we will have to re-grow some organs like the
spleen, and there is the partial liver that needs to be re-grown in the
oldest one, but all in all, until the full scan is complete, assume a week
to ten days before they can be taken home. Come on over, you can look in on
the older boy now, and shortly you can assure yourself your youngest is fine
too."

They followed Aaron in a daze and he led them over to the bio-tube so they
would not be able to catch a glimpse on their younger son as he was still
being operated on, and he led them to the side that had their backs to their
youngest and Carl made a good door. He glanced back to the parents when he
heard their inhaled shock, "the stitches.his skin looks whole."

"Well, you just had a firsthand demonstration of the new technology that
would be announced next month, unfortunately for you, the demonstration was
on your sons, but at least you have the comfort of knowing that they will
make a one hundred percent recovery." Aaron tried to be gentle.

Frank Stevens, the boy's father, turned with tears in his eyes, "Whatever
you want, it is yours, just say the word; we can never repay you for what
you are doing."

Shrugging, "If I had to decide again on keeping all this." Aaron waved his
arm around the room, "A secret for another month, or saving the life of a
child and letting the secret be known ahead of time.I would chose saving the
child every time." Piercing the other with his gaze so he could see he was
sincere, "you had an unfair advantage over most other parents out there
today, in similar situations, you work for me, so I found out what happened
and did what any ethical person would do.I came to help," clasping the man
on the shoulder he started to move away, "oh Mrs. Stevens, once your boys
are stable, Carl will fuse your broken bones."

Catching Bob Miller's eyes, he motioned for him to follow him to the side,
once they were alone, he whispered harshly, "If I hear you mention
Prometheus once more to anyone else, before it goes live next month." Aaron
left the threat open ended as the man paled, "make sure everyone else that
has talked to you about it knows I am not happy that it is even being
thought about." He left him standing there shaking in fear with the simple
words.

Walking over and standing in front of the center desk, Aaron smiled as a
grinning Dr. Myers walked over, after closing up the youngest boy, "So how
does it feel to get a hands on taste of future medicine?"

"Amazing.it is simply amazing; I left Carl to close up the normal incisions
from the earlier surgery. It is simply unbelievable that even those, closed
up so quickly and the things Carl told me that this technology can do.I have
only one thing to say to you about all this," Theo smiled as he leaned up
against the counter "When do I start?"

Laughing, Aaron shook his hand shaking his head in wonder, "I suppose Carl
told you about the plans to unveil the new hospital on Altair minor next
month, one of the smaller tropical islands in my kingdom. The hospital and
facility are complete; the only thing I need to do is find the staff, I have
a long list of interviews starting next week, but the staffing of such a
large facility will take a month, before we can start accepting patients on
a limited basis and then it will be at least another month if not longer to
get the staffing levels up to where we can really hit our stride."

Leaning against the counter, Aaron looked around the room before looking
back to the very eager faces next to him, "to tell you the truth, it has not
been a priority, I have too many other fires clamoring for my attention, I
had hoped to open the emergency facility with a small core staff and let it
snowball as it becomes more known, after all, most people would give up
their left nut, so to speak, to get hired on." Aaron laughed. "My main focus
is and will be, the rescue of endangered gay youth, hell, the last six teens
we rescued had been tortured to try to change them and the hospital is just
a way to hopefully change people's opinion over time, but mostly, it is for
the youth we rescue that dream of becoming a doctor to have a safe place to
find their dreams came true; plus I was not planning on building on the
island anytime soon, so it was there, so."

Smiling in glee when his offhand comment about working for him was not
refused, Theo knew a way around the problem, after all, he was an old hand
at getting things done and he had a secret network of likeminded colleagues,
"four weeks, that is plenty of time for me to get a dozen of my colleagues
together, as senior staff, most, like me, are finding that while it is
rewarding to be teaching the up and coming physicians of the future, it is
boring as hell. Some of them would be able to bring out of retirement,
several of their core staff, plus their favorite students."

Theo knew he had won the argument, as Aaron really looked like he was
thinking about what he had offered, and when he looked behind him at the
eager faces of the Med Evac crew, he could see the wheels turning as the
ideas were forming.

"I never gave a thought to buying a private service to provide the
transportation needed, that will take a load off my hiring woes, as they
only will have to get used to the new technology of the faster planes."
Aaron took in the eager expression on the flight crew's faces, before
turning back, "If, and I do mean, IF, I agree to this, every single person
involved would have to be accepting, not tolerant, but accepting of gay
people and couples showing affection in public, just like straight couples.
You have to understand this project grew as a result of the main hospital, I
felt we could offer treatments to the world, and at the same time let it be
known that we were a safe place for those that were gay and persecuted to
make their way to us. In the scheme of things, this project is not even
fourth on the list of things I am juggling, as it is sitting empty at the
moment, but.alright, if you can assure me you can get me the staff in a
week's time, so they can spend the next three, working on learning how to
use the new technology."Stopping because Aaron noticed the frowns on the
once eager faces, "Is there a problem, you were all smiles and bursting,
ready to ask for a job, until I mentioned the accepting of gays."

"Not with us accepting gay people," Mandy started out, "but it was sounding
like you might buy our company out, I know old man Wilson is getting on in
years, and his kids want nothing to do with the company, and he would be
open to an offer."

"But half the staff is severely homophobic, as old man Wilson blames gay
people for the loss of his second born son to AIDS. So he surrounded himself
with top execs with those less tolerant attitudes, and I doubt he would sell
to anyone who was gay or accepting." John finished the explanation, a sad
expression on his face.

Frowning, Theo looked at the two like they were making something out of
nothing, "well, unless you are under contract for repaying tuition, give
your notice. It sounds like there is already a fleet of craft that just
needs people."

John shrugged, "ok with me, I am just a part time temp, I fill in for
special details like this, while working full time at my parents' catering
service, that way I can do both of the things I love to do, emergency
medicine and cook." He smiled as he realized that a hospital needs. "Hey do
you need someone to run your catering service for the hospital, I can easily
hand over the reins to my younger brother when he graduates in six weeks
from the culinary academy."

Theo laughed as he turned to Aaron, "Well, that fills two positions and
solves another empty department, as long as he does not get all healthy on
us, one of the biggest complaints by patients is that the food tastes like
shit."

"Too true, healthy eating can be tasty, but so many dieticians take the easy
way out so there is less work, so even those who are not on a restrictive
diet get the same foods as if they were." John thought about it for a
moment, "I think a lot of it has to do with how they approach the kitchen in
the first place; they run it like an assembly line instead of a restaurant."

Theo looked at Mandy to see what she would say, "I have no problem with gay
people, my brother is gay and I think it is cute when they visit and end up
cuddling on our couch, my husband just laughs and teases them. I am
definitely interested, but unless I could be based out of L.A. it might not
work, my husband is a pilot for one of the major..." Mandy's eyes got big as
she realized what she had just said, "Kevin is a pilot." She grinned.

Chris walked in, carrying a sleeping Kenny in his arms and smiling; Aaron
took him from him and told Chris to show Carl how to work a bio-bed so he
could fuse Mrs. Stevens broken bones while he got the little one back to bed
and checked on his patients, he also told him to get those three in touch
with Joe, to make travel arrangements for the group to meet him Friday
night.

Walking back to the excited group, Aaron interrupted the conversation while
Chris went over to explain the differences in the bio-bed, if Carl had not
already dug the information out, "Ok I need to get this one back to bed, it
has been a long exciting day for him, after being released from the
bio-tube" seeing their looks of confusion he simply told them, "he and his
brother are one of the rescues I mentioned earlier, his brother is still
undergoing treatment for the next four days, so I am watching out for this
little guy in the meantime. Chris.Captain banks will give you contact
information, and a meeting place for next Friday night, we will talk again
then, make final arrangements and go over salaries and such, though you
pretty much can plan on them being better than your current ones, I do pay
top scale for loyalty. I am off to bed. Theo, there are plenty of empty
cabins on board, so if you want to stay, ask Chris to show you to one, you
too, if you need to stay. I will be checking in by video conference at
morning rounds. So I will see you then."

Waiting only long enough for their good nights, Aaron walked out in the
passage and ducking into a room around the corner, he ported back to his
house, walked across the common room and placed Kenny in the spare bed,
before moving to his bedroom and glancing at the monitor screens across the
plasma terminal in his room, set to mimic the hospital screens before
stripping down and going to bed himself, relying on the automatics to wake
him if anything should go outside set parameters.

Sensing movement in the room with him, Aaron opened his eyes to see the
morning sun streaming in the plasma screen that doubled for a window,
showing the view from topside, one of the island farms. Rolling over in bed,
and snuggling the blanket closer to his half awake body, Aaron spied the
cause of him waking up, there in the chair by his desk, sat Kenny and he was
staring at him quietly, "hey there, you're up early." Aaron folded his
pillow in half so he could prop his head up.

"I thought I was dreaming, then I woke up in a strange bed and no one was
around," Kenny told him that stoned faced and without emotion, which set off
alarm bells in Aaron's mind, waking him up instantly. "I walked around and
then remembered where I was and came in here and watched you sleep, to prove
to myself that it was real."

Patting the top of his bed, Aaron scooted back, "Climb up here, remember me
telling you that if you needed a hug, just ask?" Aaron patted the bed again,
as Kenny slowly made his way to the bed and gingerly sat down close enough
to the edge of the bed that he could jump away if he needed to. Slapping a
pillow down in front of him, "Hey it is kind of hard to hug you when you are
all the way over there, and I am buried under the covers.come here, Kenny, I
don't bite."

Kenny stiffly scooted back and then lay down next to Aaron, who pulled him
in close and hugged him tight. While he did this, he tasted the thoughts
going around in Kenny's head and sent reassurance and comfort towards him,
hoping to relax him enough so they could work through what was causing this
bout of retreating into his shell. "You're safe here, you know?" Aaron
whispered in Kenny's ear, as he held on tight, listening with both his mind
and his ears.

Worried when he did not sense anything from Kenny and he did not move, Aaron
checked and smiled when he found that the boy was fast asleep, throwing part
of the blanket over him, he curled up around him and went back to sleep
himself.

A little before eight, Kenny started to stir, waking Aaron up. Confused, he
felt the arm around him pulling him close to another warm body behind him,
glancing around the room without moving, he realized where he was and he
felt safe, especially when his hand went under the covers and he realized he
was on top of the bedspread and fully clothed, he was in Aaron's bed, but he
had no idea how he got there.

"Awake, Kenny?" Aaron quietly whispered, as he shifted in the bed, the young
boy's thoughts had woken him up, they were quite different from earlier,
abruptly different, he realized. He would have to give this some thought and
maybe quietly ask Theo if one of his friends he was inviting to the meet and
greet was a child psychologist, as this was definitely out of his league.

"Yes sir," the quiet shy voice responded to his whispered question. "I think
I need to remind you that I am not your father." Aaron hugged him briefly to
his side, before scooting back trying to get out of the tangled covers after
all, he had to pee. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom
before I have to change my sheets." He smiled as Kenny giggled and bounced
on the bed throwing the blanket off of him.

Kenny jumped to the floor and froze when he noticed Aaron getting out of
bed; looking at him, he saw he was naked. Mouth hanging open, he blurted
out, "Gosh you are not wearing any clothes.my father would have beat us
until we could not walk if we did that, or even if we saw him without a
shirt on."

"I told you everyone that lives here is a nudist, no reason to wear clothes
when the whole city is a girl free zone." Aaron was flippant, but once again
reminded of the underlying training that bastard had done, and wondered if
this morning was a result of that and maybe add in sleepwalking. "Well, I am
going to shower and I have to pee, so after I get dressed..." saying the
word dressed in disgust to more giggles by Kenny, "We will just have time
for breakfast before going over to the med bay to check in with the Alteran
Prince, about the two new patients."

Sensing Kenny was following him into the bathroom, Aaron touched the shower
control and waited for the steam to start, before walking in and feeling
flesh brush up against his leg, as the door closed behind him, he saw a
naked Kenny scoot by him.

"This is so cool," Kenny giggled as the warm water hit his body from all
angles as he danced around the large circle.

Aaron looked down at the naked boy dancing around him and placed his hands
on his shoulders stopping him off to one side, "Stand there for a minute, if
you would, please." He told him as he turned to the side to let fly.

"Why?" Kenny looked up confused then "OOWW you're peeing in the shower." He
giggled, seeing the light yellow stream through the fog, several feet in
front of Aaron's body from the back.

"What part of shower and pee did you not understand?" Aaron chuckled, as he
shook the few droplets off the end, before turning around.

Scrunching his face up, Kenny thought about it for a moment before turning
to face away and giggle as he followed Aaron's example and peed in the
shower, aiming to one side away from Aaron.

Shaking his head, Aaron pressed a button on the panel, stopping all the
water except what was coming from above and grabbing the soap, he started to
wash, not saying anything as he passed the soap to Kenny, very aware that he
was watching him closely. Hearing the mental question on why he washed
himself like that, Aaron thought about it, after all, Kenny was circumcised
before, so he would not know anything about proper hygiene, so he carefully
explained how to keep himself clean.

Kenny watched Aaron clean himself, and blushed when the frank discussion on
how to keep himself clean came up, and even though he was blushing, it was
fascinating to see Aaron pull the skin back and clean around the head, but
he winced in imagined pain when he heard what could happen if he did not
clean himself every day, turning to the side and peeking to see if he was
being watched, and seeing Aaron's back was to him, he quickly pulled the
skin back and using soap, washed himself down there, with his father's
hatred of anything naked and the punishment for asking questions, Kenny just
knew if he had this extra skin back when he was with his father, he would be
in some serious pain as the wicked old man would never have told him how to
clean himself, let alone take him to a doctor if he got infected.

"Ready for the rinse cycle?" Aaron asked with a smile, as Kenny handed the
soap back to him and he reached forward and tapped the panel starting the
Omni directional shower once more. Listening to the giggling coming from
next to him, Aaron lifted his hands so the water could get under his arms
before touching the panel one more time, turning the water off, "Okay, now
for the dry cycle, you might want to hold on for this."

"Onto what?" Kenny looked around frantically as Aaron touched the panel once
more and powerful warm air jets swirled around them "FU.DGE" Kenny changed
the word at the last moment, as the powerful air jets almost blew him off
his feet, after the surprising shock, he decided he liked it.

Silently laughing, Aaron waited until he was dry and gave Kenny a moment to
get used to the dry cycle before shutting it off, opening the door and
stepping out, "Do you want me to port you back to your apartment so you can
brush your teeth and get some fresh clothes, or wait until after breakfast?"
Aaron gave him the choice as he pulled on a shirt and shorts before picking
up the clothes he wore yesterday and put them in the laundry bins,
separating by type, an old habit from his college days he had done that so
that once a bin was full, it went into the washer then later into the dryer.

Kenny once again paused, he was given a choice, and he was not used to
having the option to do what HE wanted, stomach growling, he grinned, "Food
first, please."

Nodding his head, Aaron walked out into the bedroom and started for the
hall, "Bob Evans' sausage gravy and biscuits along with hash browns sound
good?" not hearing any reply, he looked back and saw Kenny smiling while
rubbing his belly and nodding his head. Laughing, he made his way to the
kitchen, pointed to the chair over by the counter and pulled the ingredients
out of the freezer then started to prepare breakfast. Twenty minutes later,
Aaron was pouring chocolate milk into a glass for Kenny and serving him up a
big helping of hash browns topped with biscuits and smothered in sausage
gravy. "Dig in, and if you want more it is over on the counter, just help
yourself; remember, eat as much as you want."

Nodding his head, Kenny dug into the food, all smiles, while Aaron thought
about three more mouths to feed come lunch time and how to best handle three
more traumatized kids; the only good thing is his three would be out of the
bio-tubes this afternoon and hopefully they would be a help, in fact, he
would make sure they were released before the other three; that way, they
would be on hand to help him with their adjustment, that put Gordon being
released tomorrow, and then the next day he would.no that would not work, he
needed to start the alteration as soon as Carl returned, if they were to be
finished by the time Carl's parents were released. Finishing his double
portion, He placed his plate in the sink and washed the dishes real quick
and pointed towards the food, offering Kenny a third helping if he wanted
it.

Kenny, declining more food, looked at the rest of his plate with a frown, he
was full, but there was still food left.

Aaron, hearing the inner debate, placed the leftovers in a container and
placed it, and the lid in front of Kenny, "Here, scrape what's left from
your plate into the bowl and we can put it in your refrigerator for
tomorrow, or a snack later, if you want." Seeing the hesitant look on his
face, Aaron tried a different way, "Remember, I am not like your father, so
until you have to walk sideways to go through doors, you can eat anytime you
want, as much as you want within reason, meaning we do not have all kinds of
junk food here on the island, what we have is a lot of good tasting food."
Getting a nod and a small smile, Aaron smiled back as Kenny hesitated as he
scraped the food into the bowl before putting the lid on it.

Ok, wash your plate, fork and glass and put it in the drainer and we can go,
Aaron looked at the clock and noticed he was running behind, he would have
to send a message that he was going to be late unless, "I have a call to
make in five minutes to check up on the other two boys from last night, so
while I put the leftovers in YOUR refrigerator, run and grab your toothbrush
and toothpaste and some clothes, if you want to wear any, you can dress over
at the med bay and use the bathroom over there to brush your teeth, after I
finish, you can go along when I visit the farm."

Kenny quickly pulled the drain and rinsed his dishes before putting them in
with all the others and taking off, running for the balcony before skidding
to a stop and racing back for the bowl of leftovers and handed it to Aaron
before running back towards the balcony once more, looking over his shoulder
to see if Aaron was coming.

Laughing, Aaron decided it was either seeing his brother again, or the
mention of the farm that got Kenny all excited and increased the length of
his stride so he would not have to run to keep up. Not even getting a chance
to put his arm out, Kenny grabbed onto his arm as soon as he walked through
the door so he ported them to Kenny's apartment and he had barely arrived
before Kenny took off down the hall. Chuckling, Aaron walked to the kitchen
and put the leftovers in the refrigerator, and walking back, he saw a blur
as Kenny rushed past him heading for the balcony. So, walking out the door,
he repeated the performance porting them directly into the med bay as time
was tight.

Pointing over his shoulder to the door behind the desk, "Bathroom is in
there don't forget to give your teeth a really good brushing." Aaron told
him as he connected the terminal to the Alteran Prince's med bay and started
to download the log reports as he turned on the video conference monitor.
Not seeing anyone yet, he glanced through the reports and logs and compared
it to what the current monitor showed, the med bay on the Prince could be
slaved into the med bay here or his office, it was a way to be two places at
once.

The first person he saw that came into the range of the video pickup was
Chris, who saw him on the conference screen, "Good, I hoped to talk to you
first, I told both Carl and Theo you held rounds at quarter after nine
normally, that way, you had fifteen minutes to review reports before you
started."

"I take it you are underway, what time do you expect to make Altair Minor
harbor?" Aaron asked, as he looked up and focused his full attention on
Chris.

"Sometime shortly after seven tonight, I should inform you that Doctor Myers
and John Stewart stayed on board, and Dr. Myers has been very busy making
phone calls all morning, I think the little get together you are having
Friday night is going to be larger than you expected, I overheard him asking
John if it was too short of a notice to get a party of a hundred and fifty
catered."Chris laughed at the horrified expression on Aaron's face.

"One hundred." Aaron stared to say, in horror, as Chris chimed in grinning,
"And fifty. Joe finally broke down and started chartering a couple of planes
to make the rounds to pick up everyone."

Staring out over the pod, Aaron finally let his eyes settle down on Kenny
who was once again sitting next to his brother, chatting away, telling him
all about the adventures he had been having. After a few minutes, Aaron
turned back to the pickup, "Where the hell did he find that many accepting
people in what amounts to a few hours?"

Walking into the med bay with Carl, Theo heard the question, "Simple really,
it is amazing how many of us that have reached the top are secretly gay, in
a profession that outwardly says it is acceptable, but privately shuns us,
most, end up in academia teaching when we would rather be doing."

Aaron blinked at the smiling face on the monitor screen for a moment, as his
words sunk in before he could say anything, Theo rushed on, "Seventy percent
of those invited are gay or lesbian and the other thirty percent are parents
or siblings and very accepting, we have our own secret network and all I had
to do was put the word out. I even found two mental health professionals,
the best in their field, that are jumping up and down at the chance to work
with at danger gay youth, both had reservations made with the airlines
before the conversation was over."

Ignoring the information for the moment, as it needed to sink in, Aaron
looked at Carl who looked a little nervous, "Relax Carl, I am not going to
bite your head off, that's not what morning rounds are supposed to be."
Aaron smiled at him, "Morning rounds in my hospitals are a chance for me to
test your knowledge, while it might seem as if I am questioning every
decision you made and are about to make, it all boils down to me finding out
if you understand what you see and your proposed treatment is going to do
what you think it is. It will be intense and leave you feeling like you
chose the wrong profession, until you get used to them and how they can help
you be a better doctor, so let's start with the younger boy."

An intense hour later, Aaron signed off and Carl, sweating profusely, leaned
against the counter, glad it was over, Aaron was good to his word that was
one of the most intense things he had done, even his examiners at school
during their mock runs of morning rounds so they got a feeling of what they
could expect at morning rounds had not come close to the real thing. He
needed to sit down and make a few notes before some of the things they went
over slipped his mind.

Theo, who had watched on in silence, was at first appalled at the anatomy
lessons that seemed to have no bearing on the patients, then as the
questioning and planning went on, he realized how easily tunnel vision was
created early on with specialization, evidently, Dr. Stranton expected his
emergency residents to be masters of none, and experts of all, only handing
off patients once they were totally healed and only for follow up if needed.
And that excited him, even though as a top general surgeon, ninety percent
of the conditions he would have normally been called upon to perform his art
could now be performed without surgery, the ten percent that was left would
test his abilities, and he could not wait.

Glancing at Carl, who was busy putting notes into that wonderful device
called a P.A.D.D. Theo thought of the brilliant smack down given to his
student when he mentioned the onset of type one diabetes in the oldest boy
and needing to schedule a follow up for the gene resequencing needed to fix
that minor problem, and asked, "Explain to me this ability to restructure
DNA on a whim."

Aaron turned off the video conferencing mode and glanced down at the monitor
with a smile. Carl did good for being put through the wringer, now he needed
to check Kevin, Pete and Tim deciding that they would be released before the
rescued boys, they could help him with getting them to adjust to being free,
and settled in the apartment up above Kenny and David.