A Broke Promise, A Broken Heart

Finding One's True Self: Part 23

By Xan Steel

With Julyna and Iris being the only ones in Medical, they continued to give Daniel a warm and loving welcome. To finally meet and touch him made their hearts leap with joy, as they shared it with him mentally. He was overwhelmed with their feelings as he returned them, making sure they got equal treatment from him. He gently caressed their cheeks as he looked at them, to him they were the most beautiful creatures he had ever laid eyes on and was happy beyond words to know them so intimately.

After a time when the excitement slowly relaxed, Mortora came in to update them with information that she had. She turned to look at Daniel, "Welcome to our galaxy Mr. Tavar." She said smiling at him. 

"Thank you, Doctor." he replied.

"So to give you an update. I've removed about thirty percent of your cranial fluid, and it seems as though your new third hemisphere has stopped growing. So the good news is, you're not going to die from cranial pressure. However, the bad news is, if you take a severe enough knock to your head, it will cause brain damage because you lost a lot of that cushion you once had. So be extra careful from now on." Mortora finished as Daniel thanked her. "Also..." She continued, "I need to run a series of tests, and I'll need to repair your muscles as you do have atrophy in your arms and legs from having been in stasis for so long, so you're not getting out of that bed until I say so. Understood?" Mortora ordered.

"Yes Ma'am," Daniel replied with respect. 

The amount of testing that Dr. Mortora put him through lasted a few days. He was getting more and more anxious with wanting to see Maria and the others, but every time he was about to ask if he could see them, Mortora took him off for more testing. Almost as if someone was telling her too. Though none of the tests ever repeated themselves, which would have been a dead give away. He still couldn't help but wonder if that was the case. 

By the end of day four, Mortora walked in looking tired and strangely nervous as she came over to him. "Mr. Tavar I need to ask you something if you don't mind?" She asked. 

"Sure, and please call me Rubicant." He responded. 

"I would like to take a blood sample. There's more testing I would like to do on your DNA. You don't have to agree if you feel uncomfortable," she finished.

Under normal conditions, he would have agreed, but something nagged at him about this request, and he wasn't quite sure what it was. He didn't have a reason to deny her request, but something was off. "Under one condition," he stated.

"Of course, anything," Mortora answered.

"Do the studies on a computer that is not connected to any database that can be accessed from anywhere, leave it disconnected and hand transfer any information you need to it." He firmly said. 

She looked at him for a moment thinking he was being overly cautious, while she had no intention of sharing the information with anyone other than the Captain and perhaps Iris. "Of course," she answered.

He spoke softly, "Forgive me, I come from a very private people, and personal privacy is something we take very seriously. Only because we've had other people take our information and use it for nefarious purposes," He finished. 

Now she understood him better and why he made his request. She placed a well trimmed clawed hand on his shoulder gently. "I understand and only considered sharing it with the Captain and possibly Lady Iris," she finished.

"They are authorized to know any information about me." She nodded and began to take a sample of his blood.

Iris came in around ten at night by his estimation and greeted him with a warm nuzzle before she began to clean up the area. After a few minutes, Daniel spoke up. "Iris?" 

"Yes?" She said with her back to him straightening up some vials. 

"When can I see my Te'dar and friends?" he softly asked.

At this point, Iris dropped a glass vial, and it shattered as it hit the floor. She stood still not wanting to answer him, even though she knew he would ask at some point. "Wow, I am such a klutz." She said as she started to clean up. Daniel came up behind her, and as she turned to take the broken glass to a container, she jumped seeing him stand there, causing the glass go all over the floor again. She was terrified to answer him, he sensed, which lead him to believe something bad had happened.

He carefully and gently took the items she was using and cleaned it up for her. "I'm sorry." She softly said. 

Daniel dumped the glass into the container before speaking softly with his back to her. "I take it something has happened to them?" He felt her handpaws on his shoulders, which caused him to feel his eyes begin to water up. 'No.' He thought sternly to himself while fighting back to urge to weep. 

"Come, I know Dr. Mortora wanted you to stay here until she was ready to release you, but I know how important this is to you." She said taking him by the hand and walking him down to Cargo Bay 3.

On the way there she reached out to Julyna. 'Captain?' 

'Ah, Iris how can I help you?' Julyna asked.

'I need you to meet Rubi and me down in Cargo Bay Three, please.' There was a short unnerving pause. 

'I understand. I'll be there shortly.' Julyna said. 

Iris hated what she was doing and how it would affect him, but keeping it from him she felt was also wrong. As they entered Cargo Bay Three, Daniel saw Julyna standing near his ship looking it over. He looked at the ship and saw the extent of the damage for the first time. 

The only thing left was the main fuselage. The cockpit windows were blown out as well as the main hatch that he exited and entered from when he checked on the EM Drive. There were long black scorch marks that ran the length of its hull, and in some places burned through the metal making a hole in it. "Wha, what happened?" He asked in an astonished tone. 

Julyna turned to look at him. Her tone stated her sadness. "You entered a Quantum Vortex. It's similar to a Wormhole except it's more turbulent and highly dangerous." Julyna's voice grew quieter. "You are the first ever to survive going through one." 

He looked at her and the sadness in her eyes while stepping back and shaking his head, while his voice began to strain. "No, no." He said.

"I'm sorry Rubi." She said trying to reach out and pull him into an embrace, only he ran off to the hatch and climbed into the ship. 

He came around a corner where the stasis units were and met with a gruesome scene. All three units had ruptured killing them. As he walked over to Maria's unit and looked in, she was completely unrecognizable, as the lack of a pressurized system caused her body to explode. 

He couldn't stop the pain from making him weep uncontrollably, as his anger built up. Outside the ship, both Julyna and Iris heard him hit something hard and yell out in anger. "NOOO!" They heard more pounding as they started to move in on him. "YOU! YOU PROMISED ME!!" Once they got him, as they observed him pounding on a unit with all his strength, repeating the words 'You Promised.' His anger subsided after a few minutes as he broke down. They went to him and pulled him into their arms to try and comfort him. All he could do was wail in pain, for the only family he ever loved had been taken from him. After a moment he spoke one last time, "I never got to say 'Goodbye.'" 

His breathing suddenly became very shallow while a horrified look came over him, as a pain in his chest hit making him grab at his chest. 

Iris leaned back and looked at him her tone denoted her worry. "Rubi, what is it?" 

His breath was too short to answer and just pointed at his chest. Iris gently moved his hand and put hers there to feel his chest. A worried look came over her, "I'm not feeling a heartbeat." She said looking at Julyna. 

Julyna pulled out a handheld communicator and hit a few buttons. "Transporter room." a male voice answered. 

"Hyron I need you to transport Iris, Rubicant, and myself to medical pronto," Julyna commanded.

There was a short pause, "Sorry Captain I can't, as there is a type of radiation I've never seen before blocking transport. You'll need to move outside the cargo bay before I can transport." Hyron replied.

Julyna grabbed him and carried him in her arms and started to head to the hatch when Daniel pointed weakly at a nearby handle. He spoke mentally saying to pull it. She had Iris pull the handle as the rear ramp released and slammed into the floor of the Cargo Bay. They ran down the ramp and moved out into the corridor, as Hyron transported them to medical.

Julyna put him on a bio-bed as Iris began to run scans on him to find out what was happening to him. They watched as his skin started to turn a light shade of blue as he tried gasping for air, but didn't know what was preventing him from breathing. Iris did the only thing she could think of an activated a stasis field around the bed to keep him from dying right there, as the scanner started its work. 

It was at the point Dr. Mortora walked into the room with her arms crossed over her chest and quietly watched Iris work. She was running several different scans at once. A Mirco-cellular scan, Cardiovascular scan, and a neurological scan and waited for their findings while moving Daniels body into a more relaxed position. Mortora was also mildly impressed at Iris because of how much she was fighting back her emotions to keep her head clear and focused, but only just so. 

The only scan she missed was the internal organ scan to make sure there was no damage. Mortora started that one for her and watched the scan come through, and what it showed, unfortunately, left her speechless. She went over to him and pulled up his shirt only to see a redness covering a good twenty-five percent of his chest. Iris lost her composure at the sight of his chest. 

Her voice cracked a bit as she spoke. "What's happening to him, why is his chest red like that?"

Mortora ignored her for a moment because Rubicant was safe for now in stasis, "You both disobeyed a  direct medical order by allowing him to leave this room," she said calmly.

Iris just looked at her confused. "What you didn't think I was watching?" Her voiced raised to show her anger with them. 

Iris started to plead with Mortora, "Doctor can we please..." 

"NO!" Mortora yelled.

"DOCTOR!" Julyna yelled back. 

Mortora voice was quieter but still full of anger. "I'm not just the Doctor on this ship. I'm also a psychiatrist. Neither one of you brought him down first before letting him see her. We didn't even have a chance to clean up their remains. He was completely unprepared, and didn't know how to handle it." She finished breathing angrily. 

Iris spoke again as her tears slowly rolled down her cheeks, "But we have the means to heal him." 

"Heal him?" Mortora questioned as she put the image of his chest on a larger screen for them to see. "I CAN'T FIX A BROKEN HEART!" She yelled pointing at the image. 

They stared at the screen and saw that his heart had started tearing between the right and left atriums through all three layers, the Epicardium, the Myocardium, and the Endocardium. Which was causing the internal bleeding that was showing on his chest. 

While at the same time, with the amount of blood that had leaked into the chest cavity, it was putting more pressure on the rest of his organs crushing his trachea.

Mortora continued in her angered tone, "I had two final scans that I needed to run with him active, NOT in stasis! Those scans would have allowed me to build the medical equipment I would need, one being a Vascular Regenerator!" She calmed her voice again before speaking. "There are twenty-two species on this ship, and each one has their own vascular regenerator. I can't use the one for Derlenians even if his DNA is a close match. The risk is too high with not having all the information I need to care for him. I can't even put you two on report for this because he's a special case." She finished.

Julyna had managed to keep her composure throughout Mortora's tantrum as she sat in a nearby chair. "Why haven't these scans been done yet?" She only asked because she didn't know. 

"These tests are reserved for new species, and each one takes roughly ten hours to complete as they completely map out the species cellular structure and brain wave patterns. I planned to do the first one in the morning, and have Iris with me to learn how to do them." Mortora said looking back at Iris and seeing that she had gone over to a sink to clean herself up. 

They both watched Iris go over to the cabinet and with shaky handpaws take out the Derlenian regenerator. She started to speak out loud but softly to herself. "If I set the output to its lowest level it should work, even if it takes a while." Her handpaws were shaking so badly that she couldn't adjust the settings, only causing more of her tears to flow as she tried to blink them away still trying desperately to hold herself together. 

Mortora watched her trying to do anything and realized she had been defeated with her emotional determination. She watched Iris fumble with the device and sighed inwardly as she slowly walked over to her and gently took Iris's handpaws in hers and removed the device. She then gently turned Iris's head and had her look at her, as her emotions started getting to her. Mortora gently spoke to her, "You're going to be a great doctor one day Iris. I know you're hurting and trying not to let it get to you, but this patient is to close to home for you." Iris nodded softly. "You did the right thing putting him in stasis, so for now he's safe." Mortora pulled Iris into an embrace and continued. "Now I want you to go to your quarters and have a good cry, and then clean up and come back here so we can figure this out together. Okay?" 

Iris nodded and was about to leave when Julyna fell out of the chair on to the floor crying out in pain. "Captain?" They both exclaimed and went to her. 

Julyna cried out to someone to stop, what felt like and assault on her mind, but after a few second she began to realize she was being shown something important. "Slower, slower please!" She cried out. Mortora questioned who she was talking with, "I don't know, but there's something important on his ship. Damnit, go slower!" 

Iris touched her head to comfort her only to feel a thin layer of frost. "Julyna your head is freezing!" She said excitedly. 

"I know, and it hurts... Wait, yes, that's it, slowly. I, I think I understand now." Julyna grabbed her communicator and urgently spoke into it. "Feros!" 

"Yes, Captain?" Feros replied.

"Where are you?" Julyna asked.

"I was just about to enter Cargo Bay 3 with my engineering team to try and get this ship powered up and see if there's any data we can retrieve. Is there something you need?" he asked. 

"Yes, I need you to retrieve an item and bring it to medical for me," Julyna said to him.

He agreed as she explained step by step where to find this item. Feros finally reached where she wanted him to be. "Alright, I'm at the desk in question in the medical room. There appears to be a drawer. Attempting to open it." A short pause. "Hmm it seems to be sealed, wait, there's a small lever on the side of the handle." They heard a popping sound. "Aaah, now that's clever. Ok, the drawer is open, and there are a number of objects in here," he said.

Julyna spoke up, "Ok what you're looking for is a device that looks like a small energy pistol, with a small screen, and what looks like a crystalline cone on the front." Julyna explained.

"Well that was easy enough, that's the only device in here that looks like that. I'll bring it to you now." He said as he closed the communication channel.

The frost on Julyna's head began to melt as her head warmed up. "Glad that's over." She said slowly sitting up as Mortora was running a diagnostic scanner over her head. 

"Well, the good news is there's no permanent damage, and the temperature is rising again, but I wonder what caused that to happen, and where you got all that information from?" Mortora questioningly said.

"I don't know, but the implied importance of it was overwhelmingly strong. Something about how you would understand when you saw it." Julyna said to Mortora.

It didn't take long for Feros to get to medical and hand over the device in question. Feros is the Chief Engineering officer on the Kestrel, and his species is Amarok. Something akin to a wolf-like species. He was of medium build and gray in fur color, with piercing silver like eyes, and his head and neck fur was thick and long, almost a mane. After handing over the device, he left to return to his work. 

Mortora looked over the device and then compared it to the Derlenian Regenerator. "Well now, this is interesting. This may every well be a primitive vascular regenerator. I need to study it thoroughly to make sure though. Iris, please return here in two hours time." Iris nodded as she helped Julyna up off the floor. Julyna went to Iris's quarters wanting to spend some alone time with her, because of how close they were to losing Rubicant due to their own carelessness.

Two hours later, Iris returned to medical as Mortora had ordered her too. She entered and saw her looking over Rubicant, and it appeared she was running some tests. Mortora turned and looked at Iris with a smile. "Oh good right on time. Go ahead and prep for surgery." She said as Iris went and did so, by getting cleaned up, putting on a set of sterile gloves, as well as a muzzle mask. Once she finished prepping she went over to help Mortora get started. 

"Alright, as it happens this is exactly the tool I needed to repair his heart, and having studied the damage for all scans, I can safely say it's not as bad as I had originally thought. The tear is roughly twenty centimeters so we should be able to bring it back together and then restart his heart." Iris nodded and watched how Mortora moved her hand with the device over his chest and the results on the screen. 

After which Mortora gave her the device and had her take over. "Now remember, slow sweeping strokes over his chest." Iris nodded and continued while watching her handpaw and the screen to make sure she was doing it right. Mortora went and got another device that Iris had never seen before. 

"What's that?" Iris asked.

"This device is called a blood transfuser. I'm going to slowly remove all the blood, and plasma from the surrounding area and store it until we finish repairing Rubicant's heart, and then put it back in him." Mortora answered.

An hour had gone by, and progress was slow but good as the tear had decreased by three centimeters and the red on his chest was down by twenty-five percent. Iris had started humming a tune that Mortora had never heard. It was quite pretty she thought. 

"Iris?" 

"Yes, Doctor." She replied usually happy. 

"That tune your humming is quite beautiful, where did you hear it?" Mortora asked.

She didn't answer right away only continued to hum, as Mortora noticed her concentration was rather strong on what she was doing. She finally answered. "I don't know. It just seemed to pop into my head." 

Mortora found it odd and decided to scan her while she worked. She grabbed the medical scanner off a nearby table and began to examine Daniel and slowly moved around to his other side and started to scan Iris. This was when she noticed a layer of frost on the back of her head, and the scanner revealed something disturbing. Aurorian Radiation. Mortora stepped back stunned, but she now saw that Iris had changed the motion of the regenerator to a crisscrossing pattern, and she was looking at the tiny screen on the device only now. She stepped around to the side to watch her more closely.

The screen on the device had been turned on by her, and it was showing the tear in red. Even the part that they started healing, but the crisscrossing pattern that Iris started using was slowly removing the red and indicating that the cells in the area were becoming more tightly packed. Mortora recognized it as a stitching pattern that was used in the old days when they would sew up large gashes in the skin with a needle and thread. She was completely baffled as to where Iris would even get this knowledge.

After another hour had passed, both the blood transfuser and Iris had finished. It surprised Mortora because she was expecting this operation to take much longer, but looking over the work they both did, it showed no signs that a tear had ever existed. 

Iris then stepped back and collapsed to the floor. "Ow, my head!" Mortora went to her and got her to sit up. This was when she noticed a few good centimeters of ice on the back of her head. 

Iris reached back there to feel and was frightened. "Why is there ice on my head?" she cried out.

"I don't know, but you were also humming a tune you had never heard before." Iris touched the ice and tried to remove it, only to have it break and fall off. Mortora took some of the ice and put it in cold storage for study later, as Iris started feeling better. Mortora also hummed a part of the tune to Iris to see if she remembered it, only she didn't.

They took a moment to recover, then they finished up their work and shut down the stasis field. Daniel's heart wasn't beating so they applied a small device called a cardio-stimulator to his chest. After two jolts his heart started pumping again, as he took a deep breath and began to breathe again. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at Iris and Mortora standing over him. "I'm not dead?" He asked. 

Mortora leaned in, while showing off her pointy teeth, and spoke in a snarky tone, "Oh no Mr. Tavar. You are very much alive." 

He replied in a scared tone "For how long?" as he reached for Iris causing her to stifle a laugh. 

"Iris?" Mortora began.

"Yes Ma'am?" 

"Would you report to the good Captain that Rubicant is going to make a full recovery," Mortora said.

"Yes Ma'am." She started to turn as Daniel held on to her. 

"Um, can I go with you?" He asked. 

"I'm afraid not Mr. Tavar as you and I need to have a talk, and they can come and visit you later." Mortora finished still baring her teeth at him. 

Iris left the room and did not envy him at all, as she heard Mortora lay into him about following orders as the door closed behind her.