"Neither did I," I said."Neither did I," I said. I cued the biocybe in my head, seriously in doubt as to the presence of an AI cell site anywhere near here, the middle of nowhere. Brainstatic. She was starting to shiver, and her eyes were glazing slightly. "Okay," I said, stripping off my jacket and handing it to her. "Put this on. I'm gonna have to carry you out of here. It's going to hurt, but we need to get you into warmth fast." She nodded. "Brave girl," I said. I returned to my skis, snapping them on quickly and easing over to her. "Ready?" "I think so," she said. I bent down and eased my hands under her knees and shoulders. "On three," I said. "One, two-!" I hoisted her into the air. She gave a low, painful whimper right next to my ear, then began sobbing, gently. "Okay?" I asked. "No," she said, shivering. "Get me home, quickly, please?" I nodded and headed out of the woods, slowly and carefully. Without my poles and with added weight, I was having trouble navigating, and I didn't want to think of what would happen if I dropped her. She put her arms around my neck and held on tight while I snowplowed most of the way to the SDisk. When we hit it I said, "Lodge." We blinked to directly outside the lodge. The first thing out of my mouth was "Medical emergency! Help!" We were almost instantly surrounded by people taking her out of my arms, telling her she was going to be okay, easing her into a stretcher and whisking her into the infirmary. The head of the team was a Ssphynx who identified himself as Leoni. "Don't worry. We'll have her on her feet in about a week." "That bad?" I asked. "Hard to say," he admitted. "But Mustel bones take a long time to knit... a lot of mass to crossknit with, you know." "I know," I said, smiling. "Oh... I'm sorry, Vatare'... I didn't mean to imply..." "Leoni," I said. "I'm standing out here without my jacket, slowly freezing to death. Go take care of your patient and allow me to go and get something warm into me." "Of course... I'm sorry." "Leoni?" "Sir?" "Don't call me sir. And stop apologizing." He smiled and gave me a mock salute. "If that's the way you want it. Should I tell you when she's ready to go?" "'Twould be nice," I said. |