“Yes,” he said simply.
She only laughed, that bright smile beautiful on her face.
Chapter 30
Haven
It was tempting, oh so tempting, to mess with the medscanner. There were so many parts, so much to learn, so much to investigate.
How did those rings float? The three, gently glowing ones that rotated around her body and the bed she was laid out on. How was it scanning her? Was it like an MRI or a CT? Goldie told her it wasn’t radiation, but that left so many things itcouldbe. Even possibly something she didn’t know about. It probablywassomething she didn’t know about, and she wanted to know that even more.
The entire wall at the head of the bed was actually the computer that the medscanner was attached to. All of that, though it looked so innocuous and unassuming, was this incredible piece of technology that was building a 3D render of her body inside and out that could be then broken down and isolated by system or tissue or whatever Goldie wanted.
Haven’s fingers were itching to break it down. Figure out how it worked. She wanted to challenge herself by seeing if she couldput it back together again. Then, when she mastered that, she wanted to see if she could make itbetter.
But she restrained herself. She wasn’t a child anymore, breaking open printers just because she could without thinking of the consequences. They all relied on this medscanner and Goldie’ ability to use it. If she broke it and couldn’t repair it, they’d be without a vital piece of medical equipment.
Oh, but it was tempting,so tempting, to try.
But besides the fact that she did havesomecontrol over herself, Haven also couldn’t do anything because she was actively being scanned. And while she wasn’t really into the wet and squishy sciences, she couldn’t deny that it was really cool to see her 3D holo being built in the air.
It was just her and Goldie in the room so she could have privacy for her medical exam. She supposed that Alred was here too, since he was everywhere, but he was staying quiet and out of the way, letting them maintain the illusion of seclusion.
“So, how long have you been doing this?” Haven asked in English, since it was just the two of them and she didn’t have to fight through Standard to be understood by everyone.
“Not long,” Goldie admitted, her brow furrowed as she studied her console. “I’ve been practicing on everyone. I’m notsupergood at it yet, but I can do some basic healing and I can do smaller imprints and I can focus to the cellular level. Which, this machine can get to the DNA, so that’s not really impressive.”
“It’s impressive to me,” Haven assured her, drumming her fingers on her belly, one of her feet bouncing to music that wasn’t playing.
“The advanced ones can go molecular. Thereallyadvanced ones can go atomic, or even deeper,” Goldie smiled like she was imagining something fantastic.
“I bet I can upgrade this one until it does.” Haven said, the thrill of excitement and eagerness rising up in her throat.
“No,” Goldie sighed, her smile dropping. “We don’t have any need for something like that. And it would take a lot of power to run one like that. More than we should be forcing our old engines to be outputting.”
Haven pouted. Not just because she wanted to take on that challenge and Goldie didn’t seem as interested, but also because she actually felt defensive over their engines being called ‘old’ and their power output being doubted.
And sure, yes, the enginewasold. And yes, it was patched together like an old quilt. And okay, it was being held together by tape and wires in some places.
But it was a damn good engine!
She and Vytln put a lot of work into that thing. In making sure it was constantly running smooth and strong. Being old didn’t mean being useless. She loved that engine. She loved this ship. She defied anyone to say anything bad about either one!
Goldie, focused on her task, didn’t notice Haven sitting there, fuming at the shade being thrown at their engine. It didn’t last long before Haven was distracted by something else – the 3D holo again as Goldie pulled back the skin and musculature so she could investigate her internal organs. And yes, it was totally gross. But she was watching her heart beat and her guts writhe in real time. It was as viscerally unnerving as it was fascinating.
“Do you have any medical conditions you know of?” Goldie asked, fully focused on her task.
“Er,” Haven made a face. “I don’t really go to the doctor. So, I don’t know. You tell me.”
“Oh, nice. A game of hunt and find. Love it.”
“Can it see anything? Like genetic diseases or something?”
“It can. But that’s deeper than I can get right now; it’s subcellular. If you start experiencing symptoms though, I can try to hunt them down,” Goldie beamed. “People who are actually fully trained on this machine know how to spot genetic diseases before they even manifest, and can correct them by altering the DNA so that the defect is repaired. I, er, I’m not that good yet. But I’m working on it. I’ll get there. I want to be able to watch everyone’s babies as they grow up.”
“Their babies?” Haven repeated.
“Yeah. Garnet and Grace are both pregnant. They’re taking bets on how long until you’re pregnant. I think it has to be some kind of nesting instinct for both of them. It’s actually really common. A lot of alien species have females that prefer to brood and rear together. Humans have it a bit too, just not as strong. I don’t think the lvtl do though. So, you’ll have to tell me how you’re feeling whenever you get there.”
