The proposals dealt with, Juna got herself a cup of coffee and settled in to deal with the rest of her mail. She dispensed with several dozen trivial messages, and composed a personal letter that went out to another twenty-odd friends. Another batch was sent to Analin to deal with. There was a note from Mark Manning, to her and Moki.
I went to Snyder Research Hospital, and had my lungs checked out by the doctors there. They said that my lungs were in remarkably healthy condition. You know, I really think the Tendu should consider working with some medical researchers. If you’d like, I’ll pull a few strings to get you posted to Snyder. There’s several beautiful parks with lots of big trees for Moki and Ukatonen. And you could do so much good for so many people.
Juna smiled, and printed the letter out for the Tendu. They would be glad to hear from Manning. And working at Snyder sounded like a good idea, at least until they had a chance to work out a more permanent assignment. Healing people would improve the Tendu’s public image, and she would be near the courthouse where her Pop Con hearing would be held. It was definitely worth thinking about.
There was also mail from the Survey. They wanted to discuss her next assignment with the Tendu. Juna sent back a polite request for a conference with the Survey personnel in charge of the Tendu, and suggested Snyder as a possible short-term assignment.
That done, she turned off the comm unit, and headed out into the bright autumn sunlight to show Manning’s letter to the Tendu, and to discuss her plans with them.
“Well?” Toivo asked after Ukatonen finished his examination.
“The bones have set nicely. We’re ready to do the final work on your spinal cord. Is that all right with you?”
Toivo nodded, his throat suddenly too tight to speak. He had believed Juna when she said that Ukatonen could work miracles, but now that the Tendu were almost done, he was terrified. He’d held his hope in check before, but now it was soaring out of control. If this didn’t work, he was in for one hell of a fall.
“It will take some time for this to work,” Ukatonen reminded him. “Your nerves will take a week or two to grow together after we link.”
Toivo held out his arms. “I’m ready,” he managed to say.
“Teuvo?” Ukatonen asked, turning the light purple shade that Toivo had learned meant polite inquiry. “Are you ready?”
His father nodded. Toivo saw him swallow nervously, and smiled at how alike they were.
Ukatonen glanced at Moki and the little alien flickered a response that must have meant yes.
“All right then, let’s begin.”
Ukatonen sat beside him and grasped his arm. Moki took the other arm, and reached out to his father, who sat next to Ukatonen. Toivo felt their^spurs prick his arms as the link was made and then he was plunged into the now-familiar sensory landscape of linking.
Toivo felt Ukatonen’s presence in the link, and through the enkar, the warm, reassuring presence of his father, familiar and human. His presence reminded Toivo of all the times he had fallen asleep as a child with his father sitting on a chair beside the bed, watching over him, keeping bad memories and the demons of the imagination away from him. Toivo relaxed into his father’s reassurance and love.
He felt, distantly, the Tendu working on the border between feeling and not-feeling, where his nerves were severed. They flickered in and out of existence like shadows, as they crossed over into the part of his body where his nerves no longer functioned. He felt a warm tingling all along the boundary between feeling and not-feeling. Then the Tendu broke the link.
“Well?” Toivo asked. This link was over so quickly, and he felt almost the same as he had before. There was a barely discernible warmth along the boundary of feeling, but no other change.
“We’re done. Your nerves are beginning to grow back and reattach themselves.”
“How long will this take?”
A ripple of purple flowed over the Tendu’s body. “We don’t know. It will be at least a month before your nerves are fully functional again. But you should start to regain some feeling after several days.”
Toivo nodded wordlessly. He had irrationally hoped, despite all of the Tendu’s warnings, that he would be able to leap out of bed and dance across the room.
“How— how much better will I be?”
Ukatonen rippled purple again. “We don’t know. Much of that will depend on you. Once you regain feeling, you will need to relearn to use your body and regain the strength you once had. That will be hard. For now, you should get out of bed and move around as much as you can.”
At first there was no change at all. Several days passed before Toivo realized that the boundary between feeling and not-feeling had moved a few inches farther down his body. Then, as he was helping Juna fold some laundry, he felt a sudden pang, and realized that his bladder was full.
“Juna, I need to piss!” he said excitedly.
“Just a minute and I’ll help you,” Juna said as she finished folding a shirt.
“No, Juna, you don’t understand,” he said. “I can feel that I need to piss. It’s working, Juna, I’m really getting better!”
Juna squeezed his shoulder. “Of course you are, Toivo. Ukatonen does good work. Now, let me help you.”
“You know, back before the accident, I never dreamed that such a small thing would make me so happy,” he confided. “But now…” He shook his head. “It’s the simplest things that matter the most. I never knew how much I’d miss them. And now you’re giving it all back to me.”
“Toivo, the Tendu were the ones who healed you,” Juna pointed out.
“But they wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”
“Thank you, little brother,” Juna said. She bent over and hugged him.
“I’m glad you’re my sister,” he told her, feeling a rush of love and gratitude.
“I wish I could stay longer,” Juna said wistfully. “I want to be here to see you walk again.”
“Actually, since you’re going to the medical research center over on Snyder Station, I thought I’d go to the rehabilitation wing there for some physical therapy in a couple of weeks. It’s a wonderful facility. If anyone can help me get back on my feet, they can.”
“Really? Oh, Toivo, that’s great! But this is just a temporary posting. The Survey hasn’t figured out what they want to do with us yet. I don’t know how long we’ll be there.”
“Juna, once they find out what Ukatonen and Moki are capable of, the trick will be getting the doctors to let go of you.”
“Toivo, what about you? Once the doctors find out what the Tendu did to you, they’re going to try to turn you into some kind of lab rat.”
“Let them. Maybe they’ll learn something that will help other people.”
“It can be a pretty demoralizing experience,” Juna cautioned.
“Then I’ll go home. They can’t make me stay against my will, Juna. I want to help, if I can. Do you want me there?”
“More than I can say, Toivo. I’m going to feel very alone on Snyder. And it’ll be hard on the Tendu, too. They’re going to miss all this green.”
“The park area has some big trees, and there’s a really nice garden designed by Motoyoshi. I bet the Tendu will like that. It’ll be all right.”
“I suppose, but it’ll be good to have you there.”
“Thanks, big sister. I wish I knew how to thank you for all you’ve done.”
Juna squeezed his shoulder. “Just get better, little brother. That would be the best present of all.”