You know as well as I do why I stardive.You know as well as I do why I stardive. You even went with me on one. You know how intense it is. How incredible." "Look what it cost you!" "I can get it all back. The medicine's good enough. P'nyssa says they'll be ready to start poly-r'ing me in a few days. I'll have my arm back in two years. My ear'll grow back even faster." "It's not worth it." "It is to me. Just like Pendor is worth it to you." "Pendor didn't nearly get me killed." "No. Just Donna." "Vy dol moria." It was the best curse I knew in Old Sind. "No, you listen to me, Ken." He closed his eyes for a second, then opened them again. "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here. Okay, here I am. Back from the very brink of death. Speaking through a computer because my throat is full of tubes feeding and breathing for me. Spending half my days in someone else's cyberspace fantasies because the real world is this hospital bed. But I made my decisions. The Crystal Ball broke up because of bad design. I'd been thinking of a new ship, anyway." "Nance..." I stopped, and put my hand over his remaining. "You're family, you know. If you die, P'nyssa will be lost without you. I'll be lost without you." "I didn't die this time, and I'm not going to die anytime soon. You know that." "I don't know that. You came pretty close this time." "Yeah, well. It won't happen again." "So, how are you feeling?" I asked. It was late at night, but Nance's sleep rhythms are so screwed up he's not sure when bedtime is. "Fine," he said, now with his own voice. "Better, now that they're letting me eat solid food. I'm still on dialysis, but Rhys came by to tell me that my GI tract is fully healed, so they let me have meat." "Bet that made you feel better." He smiled and said, "Yah. Real meat. I never want to taste another plastic tube as long as I live." I laughed. "I'm still not used to the arm, though. |