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CHAPTER 8

The next morning, Armand Devereaux went with Arnet to get a primer on the future medical gear. He was in awe.

They’d perfected the autodoc. Well, maybe not perfected, but they had autodocs.

They were in another part of the hangar/dorm/transfer point, at what was apparently a support gear warehouse with learning aids. Everything had a slot, but it was wide open generally. On the other hand, he knew a frame or visual block could be asked for and appear in seconds.

With a training dummy for demonstration, Arnet explained, “Immediately control any bleeding. Apply the mask to the victim’s face like so. Attach these sensors to any pulse point or, if none are reachable, the center of the bare chest.” He ripped open the clothes on the dummy.

“The system will treat for shock, ensure breathing. If in doubt as to cardiac function, apply these to the chest here and here. You are familiar with defibrillation?”

“Yes, that part is familiar.”

“Then apply this module over any vein. Attach using these straps. If necessary, it will provide IV medications, fluids, plasma, or simulated corpuscles. Then proceed to seal any damaged vessels. This is the linear knitter, this is the cross knitter for amputations or deep lacerations.”

One carefully moved the probe through the flesh, a bit like cutting soft cake so as not to break it, and the tool sealed the flesh as it went. He practiced several times on the dummy that seemed to be actual flesh, and possibly was. It had no head, so he assumed it wasn’t actually a person, but it certainly seemed as if it was lab raised for practice. That was a bit creepy.

“The readings are pulse, respiration, blood pressure, ECG, EEG, and NCC.”

“NCC?”

“Neural continuity check, from the remote probes to the central nervous system.”

He thought he got it.

He said, “If I understand correctly, that advises if there’s any significant trauma to the spinal cord.”

Arnet nodded. “Correct. There are limited nano restructuring measures in the unit. Beyond that, stabilize and evacuate to the best available facility, which will be here at the end of the duration.”

“Better than permanent paralysis. I assume any damage is repairable here?”

The man replied, “Neural disconnections? Trivially. The important thing is to ensure circulatory integrity for the CNS, integrity of the CNS, and function or support of the cardiovascular organs. All else can be managed.”

Wow. Impressive. “Awesome. You’ve automated half my job. The important part.”

“There are plenty of other field medical tasks.”

He agreed, “I wasn’t complaining, my man. I’m thrilled.”

Here, at least, everyone including the Cogi was aware of his field credentials in medicine, and wouldn’t denigrate him. Better tools just meant more lives saved, if it came to using them.

Which always brought him back to the dichotomy of wishing everyone well, and hoping to do his job.


Kate Sheridan felt strain. She knew she was too gregarious, and really couldn’t be here. She was tasked with finding real data for the contemporary science community, and its source would have to be disguised and carefully presented. The data was critical for disease vector study, though, and for potential spectrum cures. That was easy enough.

The second part was finding out everything they could about the Cogi, to try to pin down where and when they were, and what might have happened genetically between her time and theirs. Raven was critical to that, more discreet, and would be trying to acquire that data, also. Which meant Kate’s duties included being gregarious and harmless appearing for their hosts, without actually letting anything slip, and without contrasting too much with the younger woman and her functions.

Growing up she’d always loved stories about spies, and that drove her into investigations. She adored finding and sequencing data, and felt accomplished when it helped with either criminal apprehension or scientific discovery. Being an actual spy, though, even at this low level, was mentally challenging and hard on her sense of humor and self-control.

She was also sure Raven had yet another purpose, based on her background. She couldn’t ask. Even if there wasn’t complete surveillance in progress.

Sitting in the common area of the dorm, getting familiar with the Cogi phone and her laptop, she tried to make a point about their official bio research.

She asked Raven, “You have their pre-deployment charts, yes?”

The woman looked up from her own screen. “Pre-deployment, in theater, and now post-arrival. I’m logging all of it. I’ve also already got their previous event’s data, and their baselines before that.”

“I know, I just get antsy and like reassurance.”

“That’s fine. But that’s all confirmed and we don’t need to rehash it.”

Raven was telling her not to keep bringing it up. Fair enough.

“Got it. We’ll track what you find here, about everyone.”

“Obviously, and we don’t need to discuss that, either.”

She sighed. This was utterly fascinating, and she couldn’t breathe a word until they were home, then only in their study group.

“I may ask, just for clarification and to refresh at each stage. You know I can be forgetful.”

Raven gave her a glance, interpreted the message correctly and said, “Sure. That’s fine.”

Kate didn’t forget anything technical. Regular attention on their safe data, though, might help keep the clandestine research unmentioned and out of sight.

Remembering to think about people as people, she asked, “How are your headaches?”

Her associate smiled. “Fantastic. Whatever they dope the coffee with shuts them right down. That, and I think they have at least some weather control. Smoothing out the pressure drops reduces the triggers tremendously. I’m aware of changes, but not hindered by them.”

“Good to hear. If that’s something usable, think you can get on the list for Mars?”

Raven half frowned with a twisted lip.

“Not with my leg. Even if that’s fixed, not with my metabolism. I am good at what I do, we both are. But they’re only taking top physical specimens first.”

“Hopefully they can get to us soon enough.”

“Hopefully. I’m probably eligible, past those issues, for another fifteen years. You?”

She shrugged. “Maybe ten. I have no expectation of making it.”

“Neither do I, but goddammit, we have to try.”

“We do.”

At least they could agree on that, and work well enough professionally. Though the woman’s default arrogance and apparent hatred of people generally made her hard to deal with.

The end result was lots of good data, and they both knew it. Then, possibly a paper that would get them more recognition.

They were interrupted by Devereaux returning.

“Ladies!” he greeted.

“Hi, Armand,” she replied.

“How were things here?”

“More science administration.”

“Ah, the fun part of your mission.”

She smirked. “Yeah. Not.”

Interested as he was, he was a potential risk since he would understand a lot of the data. He should be solidly on their side, but her orders were to trust no one. It wasn’t the catchphrase it had been on TV. It was a real thing.

She wondered what it was going to be like when they were actually in the Paleolithic.


Shug had no idea what these other people were up to, nor what Dan and the Amercans were doing here. He knew none of their language, and didn’t recognize any of their magic tools. This was inside, but the most huge lodge he could imagine, even bigger than the great one the Amercans had. Even without fire the temperature was perfect. It also wasn’t hot from the sun. The food was cooked somewhere and brought here magically.

The others were all off doing magic things and he was alone. He had pictures to watch and he could ask about them.

He sighed. He knew there was everything to learn, but they knew more than the wisest elders in the village. There was nothing they needed. They had shelter, water, food, sweets, clothes, more clothes, fancy clothes, shoes that would stop any rock, moving huts that could travel anywhere very quickly. The beds were more comfortable than he ever dreamed of, softer than twenty well-tanned elk hides. There were no predators. No one was sick. Everyone had all their teeth. It was a paradise, but they were so urgent about taking him back home, and about other things he didn’t grasp.

Kate and Amalie had a title that he interpreted as meaning they were shamans. They both looked around as he did, but seemed to know what they were looking at in this strange land. They had to be exceedingly wise. Armand had the same title, and obviously knew a lot of things. He was from somewhere else, with that dark skin. No one Shug ever met looked like that.

He was bored. There was nothing for him to do until they took him back. The shaman with the magic voice provided him samples of every food and drink he could try, and he was too full for more. There was nothing else to do here. He tired of looking at paintings of outside, without being outside. He joined the Amercans when they exercised, though it was very little exercise, really. Then he had answered two questions and off they went. He sat on one of the chairs and let his mind rest, just like when hunting. If something happened, he’d alert. Until then, he’d wait. He did find the tame smallcat to be interesting. It didn’t seem as useful as a dog, but it was friendly.


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Framed