Goldie continued to look uncertain. It was both rather endearing and annoying, in its way.
Tanin needed access to standardized human scans. If he was going to do a proper, in depth analysis of their bodies in search of a tracker, his mediring needed their biology uploaded. But he needed a registered medical officer to request them, or they wouldn’t be delivered. Humans were protected, as was the information regarding them. If he were a normal sponsor, he would have an actual, credentialed medical personnel to bring them to who would do the requesting.
But he didn’t.
The closest thing he had was Goldie. She’d already taken the unofficial position anyway. She was the one who bandaged both Garnet and Rok, sealing the latter’s wound with the mediring’s automatic skin healing function. She might not be able to fix all the bone and ligament damage yet, Rok would need to use a professional for that, but she could at least close the skin. She had organized all the medicine out of their boxes. And Alred told him she was poking around the scanner, trying to learn it without breaking the thing – though at this point, it wouldn’t make much of a difference since they rarely used it anyway.
As far as Tanin was concerned, it was already done. Even if she only knew Earth animal medicine, that was still more than the rest of them. Rik-Vane wasn’t much concerned with medicine or healing. Oh, sure, there were people there with those skills, but they were very quickly subsumed into gangs to work for them, or they were mad scientists in their own right and were as likely to remove your hand as fix it if they got ahold of you.
In order to make things official, Alred was doing a few tricks. He couldn’t get human scans without being flagged. There just weren’t enough people getting those scans to hide Alred sneaking them without permission.
However, there were hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of people becoming certified healers all over the Coalition. New healers getting their first cert, old healers transferring their certs to work in new places, even healers getting recertified. It was much easier for Alred to fake credentials for Goldie to get her certification the ‘correct’ way.
Which he had just done.
And with her certs, she could be legally classified as the official medical officer of the Humility. Which made her the official healer for the humans who were part of the crew, including herself. And that meant that she had the right to request the human scans they needed.
Alred was doing all that work while they waited in medbay. Tanin didn’t know that he’d call it a quick process, but it was certainly faster than getting Goldie certified the proper way.
She would learn, he was sure. She was too interested in the topic to not at least try. And the more she learned, the more useful she would be to him.
Both of the females were excellent additions to his crew. The bridge hadn’t been this clean for as long as he had it. The rest of the ship looked better than ever too. Garnet might not be as specialized in her skillset as Goldie, but she was still useful.
And he enjoyed having her around. Tanin couldn’t recall ever feeling like this. Not just enjoying the environment he was in, but this strange sense of purpose that filled him.
He had to protect her. He had to make things better for her. She gave him not only a direction, but a motivation far beyond the need for survival that drove him before.
He liked the changes she was making. Not just in his ship, but also in him. And he was willing to do whatever it took to keep that, to keep her, safe.
Goldie might be uncomfortable lying about her certs – and he admired her sense of honor. But it was one he completely lacked. It was more important that he get those scans. A foolish sense of honor would only hold him back from his ultimate goal.
Protecting his female and securing their future.
“Scans successfully downloaded,” Alred said, popping up beside them, looking quite smug just in the way his light form was standing. “Uploading to the scanner now.”
“Great.” Garnet beamed, pushing her sister. “Goldie first.”
Goldie was still frowning, but she didn’t resist as Garnet moved her towards the scanner bed then helped her up. She laid down and, under Alred’s direction, the rings began moving over her. Much slower than they had done in the past.
Garnet returned to his side, smiling, giving him a look that didn’t fully hide her concern. She was acting upbeat and joyous, but he realized now that it was a falsehood for Goldie’s sake. No matter what, Garnet didn’t want her sister to worry.
“You two are very close,” Tanin said, speaking softly so that he didn’t interrupt Alred and Goldie – he was explaining to her what he was doing and everything he was scanning. She might not be very comfortable lying about her certs, but she certainly wasn’t passing up this opportunity to ask a lot of questions.
“We’re super close,” Garnet confirmed, smiling at her sister, something surprisingly bittersweet in her gaze. “We’ve always been close. Mom and dad used to say that when we were little, I was constantly reaching for Goldie. And when I learned to crawl, I was constantly on top of her.”
Tanin couldn’t help but grin. He found he wasn’t opposed to the idea of tiny little younglings crawling about.
But then he realized what thought he just had, and his grin dropped.
“Of course, my parents didn’t consider that a good thing,” Garnet continued, not realizing the sudden rush of disbelief going through him. “The way they told it, I was constantly trying to smother Goldie or crush her. If you heard them tell it, I was a little baby serial killer out to commit baby murder.”
Tanin frowned. “You’ve told me this before. That your parents did not love you as they did your sister. It started so young?”
“From the first ultrasound, really,” Garnet laughed, but there wasn’t much humor in the sound. “Twin B was the bane of their existence. Growing up, I was the family’s personal scapegoat whenever anything went wrong. They were constantly yelling at me and putting me down and treating me like I was unwanted. Which, I mean, I guess I was.”
“I’m surprised,” he confessed. “I don’t see you as the type to tolerate such treatment. You’re so very outspoken.”
“I amnow. I wasn’t always. When we were little, Goldie stood up for me. She protected me from my parents. Sometimes, very literally by throwing herself between us. I really think that the only reason I’m alive today is because of Goldie. I might not have been strong enough to survive adolescence without her. My parents spent years tearing me down, but she’s the one who always built me back up again. I love Goldie. More than anything. Whatever she wants, that’s what I want too. We’re together forever. No matter what.”
