" "Amanda?" "Huh?" "Uhm." "Amanda?" "Huh?" "Uhm... where?" "Ohmifa, I forgot. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Over... to your right. There's a table in front of you. Go around it and there's a couch for people." I laughed, and tugged on Voll's harness. It led me easily around the table and I found the couch. It felt slightly overstuffed when I sat down. "So, how are you?" "I'm fine, really. I've got my hearing back, and Dr. Merta said I'm in... in... top-tip shape?" "Tip-top. That's an old expression." "Yeah. Well he said everything healed perfectly, and I'm in better health than I was the day before the accident. How are you?" "I'm better. All that's left is my eyes. Everything else is just as healed as yours." "I'm sorry about your eyes." She was moving about. I heard the common 'suck' sound of a refrigerator door, and she asked, "Is there anything you want to drink?" "How about a carmel soda?" "Yuck. I can get it." "No, that's okay. Apple juice?" "I've got that." "I'll have that. And I won't be hurt if you don't give me glass." "I trust you." I heard the sound of her hooves as she walked over and handed it to me. "It's in front of you. Here." She took hold of my hand and let it to the glass. I heard her settle down to the carpet, and her voice now came from a lower angle. "Father..." "Amanda," I said, interrupting her, "please don't call me that. I hope you won't be angry with me, but I checked your lineage, and the earliest point is four away. At best, I'm you're great-great-great- grandfather." "Okay, Kennet," she said in a very small and girlish voice. "The crew in sickbay told me that, if you hadn't come, I'd be blind just like you are now. I would also have been in a lot more pain when I woke up. Because you wear your uniform all the time, you took a lot of the laceration from the ceramics without getting hurt, but I would have been a lot worse, and I could have died. |