Juna walked home with a bag full of groceries, reviewing the day’s disastrous events. She still vibrated with anger when she remembered how Moki clung, cringing and terrified, to a small tree in a planter, trying to hide in its inadequate cover. Even with Ukatonen’s help, it had taken several hours to get a coherent version of what had happened.
And then there was Ukatonen. Juna rubbed her free hand across her forehead. The doctors should never have asked him to heal someone so seriously ill, especially not as a first attempt. She understood that medical protocols required that any experimental technique be tried on terminally ill patients first, but—
“Dr. Saari?”
Juna looked up, startled out of her reverie.
It was a woman close to her own age. She was thin, worn, and nervous; her clothes were shabby. Juna’s security escort moved to cut her off.
“Please, Dr. Saari, I need to talk to you about what Moki did to my daughter.”
“It’s okay,” Juna told the security man. The woman looked too spent and tired to be a threat.
“Dr. Saari, I really don’t think— ” the guard began.
“It’s okay,” Juna insisted in a voice that did not invite argument.
“Yes?” she prompted, looking back at the woman.
“I’m Loreena Richter, Shelley’s mother.”
“What did Moki do, Mrs. Richter?” Juna asked a bit sharply. It had been a long day, and she wasn’t really up to dealing with another problem.
“I wanted to thank him. My daughter, he— ”
Juna realized the woman was on the edge of tears. “Here,” she said, guiding her to a park bench, ignoring the protests of her guard. “Sit down. Tell me what happened.” She put her groceries down, fumbled out a clean handkerchief, and handed it to the woman.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Saari. It’s just that it’s all so sudden and unexpected.”
“Yes?” Juna said, and waited.
“My daughter, Shelley has— I mean, she had, a hole in her heart. She was on the waiting list for a transplant, but it’s such a long list, and the older she got, the harder it was for her heart to keep up with her. The doctors gave her another six months if we didn’t find a heart. I was beginning to give up hope. I mean, the list is so long.” She paused, fighting back tears.
“Moki healed her this morning. The doctors haven’t seen anything like it. She could leave the hospital today, and live an ordinary life like any child, but the doctors want to study her.” The woman took a deep breath and looked up at Juna. “I came straight from the hospital. I wanted to thank Moki for saving my daughter’s life.”
“Come with me,” Juna told Mrs. Richter. “I’ll take you to see him.” She looked up at the guard, challenging him to make another protest.
“It’s your life,” he said with a resigned shrug.
When they reached the apartment, Juna asked Mrs. Richter to have a seat while she saw if Moki was awake. The guard stood by the door, watching Mrs. Richter war-ily.
Juna went into her bedroom. Moki was lying on the bed, his eyes hooded by his nictitating membranes.
“Moki, the mother of the girl you healed is here. She would like to see you.”
Moki got up slowly, and pulled on his shorts. “Is she angry at me?” he asked, his skin flaring pale orange with fear.
“It’s all right, Moki. She wants to thank you. Come and talk to her.”
Mrs. Richter hesitated slightly when Moki came out of the bedroom, but she conquered her uncertainty and stood.
“Moki, this is Mrs. Richter. She’s Shelley’s mother.”
“Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Richter,” Moki said. “Is Shelley all right?”
“She’s completely healed, Moki. I came to thank you for giving me my daughter back.”
Moki nodded.
“My husband died in an accident a couple of years ago,” Mrs. Richter continued. “My family is back on Earth, so Shelley is all I’ve got. I thought I was going to lose her too.” She bowed her head, blinking back tears, then looked up. “But now she’s going to be all right, thanks to you.”
“Does this mean you’re not angry at me?” Moki asked.
Mrs. Richter looked startled. “Moki, why would I be angry with you? This is a miracle.”
“The other woman was angry,” Moki explained. “I was healing a boy with”—he paused, searching for the word—“leukemia. A woman broke the link. She was yelling at me. I don’t know why. It isn’t good to break a link like that. The boy could have been badly hurt.”
Mrs. Richter turned to Juna. “I don’t understand.”
“Moki got bored while Ukatonen and I were discussing a case with some of the doctors,” Juna explained. “He wandered off by himself, into the pediatric ward. That’s where he met your daughter. After he healed her, a little boy came up and asked to be healed. While he was in the middle of a link, a nurse came up and saw him with the boy. She ripped Moki’s spurs out of the boy’s arms, breaking the link.” Juna paused, trying to stanch the anger that welled up in her. “Moki is still young. He isn’t fully trained yet. Breaking the link like that threw him into shock. He panicked and ran.”
“Is he all right?” Mrs. Richter asked.
“He is now. Ukatonen helped bring him out of it. But the hospital isn’t very pleased with us, I’m afraid. Moki was healing those children without permission. And— ” Juna paused, uncertain about what to tell this woman. “The first patient that Ukatonen was asked to work on was so far gone that he died while Ukatonen was linked with him. I don’t think we’re going to be here much longer.”
“Oh no! That’s terrible! They can’t send you away! Think of all the good that Moki can do!” Mrs. Richter said. “Please, let me help you. Shelley’s been here so long, I know the hospital administration backwards and forwards.”
Juna thought it over; she was a stranger here, and didn’t know the system. They needed help.
“We’d appreciate any help you could give us, Mrs. Richter,” Juna said. “Thank you.”
“Dr. Saari, it’s you, and Moki, who deserve the thanks. Without you, my daughter might have died.”
“We’re here to heal people,” Moki declared. “Besides, healing Shelley was easy. It was just one simple thing. The boy with leukemia was much harder to heal.”
Mrs. Richter shook her head in amazement. “I’ll call the hospital administrator first thing tomorrow morning.”
Around the middle of the morning, Juna received a coram call from the hospital administrators, asking her to meet with them in an hour.
The hospital’s chief administrator, a round, rather jovial-looking African, called the meeting to order.
“Dr. Saari, I wanted to apologize to you about yesterday’s misunderstanding. According to Mrs. Richter, your son performed a miracle yesterday. Two miracles, actually. The doctors can find no trace of leukemia in Ian Mcln-tyre. He appears completely cured. Clearly the Tendu are capable of great things. We very much want you to stay here. However, we do need to set up some rules for the Tendu to work under.”
“Thank you, Dr. Andraia,” Juna said. “The Tendu have a very different view of health and medicine than conventional human doctors. I agree with you. The Tendu and your doctors need to have a better understanding of how to work together. Ukatonen and I have discussed this, and we have two suggestions. First, let the Tendu choose who they can heal. Second, give each of the Tendu a medically qualified escort, someone who can explain the nature of the medical problems they encounter, as well as what human medical ethics are in these situations.”
“These seem like good procedures,” Dr. Andraia said. “Are there any other suggestions?”
“If the Tendu are going to just wander around the hospital and heal people, how are we going to monitor what is going on?” one doctor protested. “And how are we going to keep this classified?”