“He’d better be,” Pyo responded with surprising darkness in his tone. He emitted a high-pitched series of clicks and then listened for something likely outside the range of Eleri’s own hearing. As they waited, it became clear Pyo hadn’t received the answer he was seeking. His wings fanned and then snapped shut with what Eleri was quickly coming to recognize as annoyance.
“Nowhere in range, that useless ravik.” Pyo’s wings cracked again in an ominous gesture of frustration. “No helping it. I’ll take you myself. Then I’ve got some business to attend to.”
“I can walk over myself if you give me directions.”
“What kind of host would I be if I made you walk in this heat?” Pyo’s wings relaxed against his shoulder blades. “None of that now, you’ve done an honest morning’s work, the least I can do is take you down to the clinic.”
When they arrived at the clinic, she hopped off the back of Pyo’s levibike and resisted the urge to wave. Instead, she settled for a head nod, only to have Pyo wave farewell with his three-fingered appendage.
“I’ll see that Minio is here to collect you at the end of the workday.”
“I’m sure I can find my way back on my own.”
“You city folk always have trouble adjusting to the way things work here. We’re glad to help, so let us. I’ll make sure that good for nothing is waiting for you when you’re ready to leave.”
“Thank you, I’ll wait for Minio to pick me up.”
“Good. We’ll see you for the evening meal.” Pyo restarted the engine and sped off back toward his farm.
Eleri turned away quickly to hide the embarrassment blooming on her cheeks. Her gran had always said she couldn’t hide her emotions if she tried. Her rose red blushing always gave everything away.
Eleri was grateful to step inside the clinic and away from the heat. Once inside, the sterile environmentreminded her she’d been crouched on her knees and sweating in her body suit all morning. Not exactly the cleanliness required for nursing. She stood awkwardly in the entry way, not wanting to track dust through the building.
“Hello, Eleri of Gaia. You are here; this pleases me.” Aglao’s soft voice came from behind although she hadn’t heard them approach.
She turned to face Aglao with a relieved smile. “You can just call me Eleri.”
“Yes, Eleri. Are you ready to begin your training?”
“Absolutely.” She wasn’t sure she could keep the excitement from her voice, and she wasn’t sure she minded.
“Please remove your boots and then proceed to the hygiene chamber, and I will have a clean uniform prepared for you.” Aglao floated down a narrow hall and opened a small door at the end. Eleri might have melted with joy when she saw the real, water shower. It had been so long since she’d been properly clean.
After taking her time in the shower scrubbing all the dirt from her scalp and from under her fingernails, Eleri emerged and stepped into the brand new, forest green scrubs Aglao had left in a basket outside the door.
The clinic was almost unrecognizable when she returned to the treatment area. Aglao had activated every machine and workstation possible, most of which she recognized, and some of which were totally unfamiliar. Eleri’s fingers twitched in anticipation as she repressed the urge to touch everything.
“Come and start here.” Aglao motioned to the central interface console which had unfolded to lay flat. “Tell me what you know about zoa anatomy.”
“Zoa?” Eleri frowned as she crossed the room to stand at the corner of the interface. A strange diagram lay in front of her, and she fanned her fingers over the screen to get a more in-depth view of the anatomy on display.
“I’ve never learned about the zoa,” she admitted. “My training was interrupted before we could cover any species outside of the consortium planets.”
“That is not unexpected,” Aglao burbled and turned a lovely shade of indigo. “We are rare, and we do not have a home planet in the way you would understand it. I ask because I may ask you to demonstrate treatment protocol using my anatomy as an exemplar. Would you like to learn?”
“Anything you have to teach me I want to learn,” she responded earnestly. Eleri squinted to try and understand how the form on the screen could align with Aglao’s anatomy. They seemed fundamentally different, but she couldn’t judge what she was seeing until she had more information.
Aglao bobbed up and down in what seemed to be a motion of approval. They reached for a nearby console with one of their arms and a holographic display appeared on the table in front of them. As they began to reorient the image, Eleri realized that what she was looking at was actually an entire pod of zoa, and not an individual like Aglao. “This is the pod I came from” Aglao said. “It was rather a feat of photography to capture us in motion, but one of the younglings is very talented with technologies.”
“It’s beautiful.” Eleri stared with rapt attention as Aglao swiped the interface with a tentacle to reveal a more familiar form of a single zoa on the holopanel. They walked her through the remarkably versatile and flexible anatomy of the zoa. Each tentacle could flatten or stretch to five times its normal size, and the central body node could flatten or bend into nearly any angle.
“Are many of your people healers?” Eleri asked, although she realized Aglao probably caught the question even before she spoke it.
“Some of us. We are not like the fleyeli who can change their shape at will, but our bodies can change sizes very well after we complete our first hibernation.”
“But you’re not a part of the IA?”
“We are nomadic. The zoa swim the great expanses of space between worlds in pods, and we prefer it that way. Some of us settle on a planet in need, but we only stay for as long as there is a need. Cassiaq-IV has need of physicians, so I will stay here.”
