Race For The Cure


To get all her 'musts' done before she goes, at least another 14 days from where [Hannah] is now. This is, essentially, giving the city the shove she wants to give it and educating the staff to keep that going - and finding someone who can fight to go with her and Gerard. She's willing to have along a non-family fighter or two. She just wants extra hands in case of a real problem.

Gerard plans on sailing out on a small boat, so he recruits some promising junior officers from the Naval and handful of docksiders to staff the ship. Because of the limited number of berths shipping out right now, and because of his own reputation, he has his pick of sailors and officers. If Hannah wants a lady companion for reasons of propriety, Gerard will be happy to suggest some ladies who might come with them.

At first Hannah is resistant to the idea that she needs a female companion to guard her honor, just like she used to be back home when she was in finishing school. After some thinking, though, about a trip on a ship full of men... she decides a companion may not be such a bad idea after all. She'll follow up on any suggestions Gerard wants to give.

After some discussions with Hannah about what she would like to pursue, Gerard explains his plan to her. They'll sail the little boat to a shadow where there's a mix of lower and higher technology, with him teaching Hannah to shift along the way. They should be able to find such a place that has strong medical tech for those who can pay, and Gerard is more than capable of paying.

Hannah's only concern with the shifting is learning how to stay out of spirit lands. The spirit realm is too full of curious creatures who might hold them up, but it's the only place she's ever traveled to on her own, and she's worried she'll go there instinctively. So she warns him of that habit and hopes he can help her past it. "If the seabirds start talking, we're in trouble."

"I don't know this spirit land you're speaking of," Gerard says as they sail out of Amber harbor. "If we slip into any strange shadows where the birds talk, you tell me if we're in that realm and I'll shift us out. Sometimes as children we slid through shadows near Amber on our own; it's no surprise to me that you've done it too."

"I was taught to do it, and it wasn't like... what I understand shadow shifting to be. But I don't really know if it exists as a shadow. But it must, I think. But I don't think we'll get there - that'd be directly connected to home. While home is growing so fast, the inventions and discoveries, there's nothing there like what we're looking for," she explains. "This is the first time I'm going to have even been to sea, you know. Just warning you. This may be old hat for you, but I'm not used to it."

"We'll get your sea legs under you, no worries," Gerard tells her confidently. "And shifting, well, we'll see whether what you know is similar or different."

"Oh, I saw a portrait of your father when I was in Amber," she remembers to mention. "I definitely saw him on my walk."

"As himself? In which part?" He furrows his brow, probably trying to remember everything Hannah told him before.

Hannah squints out at the water. "As himself? How would I know? I mean, he wasn't... he was my father, but was I me? Probably not. It was the first part after walking through my past - it was after the first veil." She shakes her head at the memory.

"I was trying to leave and he was in my way. I had to go, but he didn't understand, and he was angry at me. He said, "I told you not to follow your brother. Why did you disobey me?" And he was going on about rules and the good of the House and peril," Hannah says sarcastically, and then stops. She takes a deep breath.

"He was concerned, and I was so angry," she says more calmly, "but he wouldn't let me go and I had to, of course - I had to whenever that was, and I had to just then, because I'd die if I didn't keep moving. I was trying to tell him it had nothing to do with anything but my own path. And then we talked about death and consequence. Finally he let me go. It must have been the castle, you know? I haven't seen but a part of it since I've been here. But where else would it be?"

Gerard looks increasingly disturbed by the tenor of Hannah's story as she continues. "Aye," he says. "It must be the castle from the sound of things. I don't know the story you're telling, but many such could have been told of my own sister and they say the same of Deirdre. But I don't know what rules or what good of the house or what peril he might have meant. If it was truly he you saw and not some phantom of your own mind--which I don't say it was, but there's no telling with the Pattern sometimes."

He shakes his head. "I'm no redhead, to fathom this mystery. I don't know what to tell ye."

Hannah shrugs. "I don't know either, but I haven't seen him before, I don't think. He sure looked like that painting. Anyway, what I'm guessing it was telling me is that I come from a stubborn line. I always figured. It's not every woman that can just up and leave her baby." Hannah looks at him and grins. "I don't mean that as a condemnation or anything, but it's true. I know a lot more women that have taken their babies with them when they left places, even when that meant they might not make it themselves.

"But my father, you know, he's... maybe the kind of man you think can do anything, or at least she'd think he could handle a baby by himself. Or maybe that's why she chose him to begin with. It's hard to... stupid to speculate, I guess."

She looks around with a frustrated sigh. "So, when we get these... images, do you want to see them, or do you want me to just figure them out and give you the low-down?" Hannah asks, looking back at him, concerned.

"These spirit images? Tell me, show me, if ye can, but if ye canna, do what ye must. Ye're a woman o' sound mind. If I trust ye wit' me legs, I can trust ye with the spirits," Gerard says firmly. "Or d'ye mean when you see things from when ye walked the Pattern?"

"Oh, no," she says, shaking her head and turning her attention away from the distractions and on to Gerard. She braces with her hands against the taffrail and doesn't worry about what all the wind is going to do to her braid. "I mean, these images we're going to have done of your legs, hips, spine, and whatever else they can give us. Do you want to see them? Or I should ask, are you really prepared to? I'm prepared to let you avoid that, if you think you need to. But if you want to confront it, I'm ready to be there with you for that, too. I just think it's something you should consider. After all you've been though, I'd think you'd know yourself real well, but there's a chance you've disconnected in the places you had to so you could survive. This is asking you to look inside yourself in a whole different way, and I just... I'm to thinking there won't be any way to stay disconnected from that."

Gerard falls silent. His expression is one of deep contemplation, which from the facial contortions involved is a physical effort on his part. After about half a minute he says, "I suppose I'd best not. Because the more I learn about my injuries, the more convinced I become they'll never be right again, and that's the surest way to make sure it never happens."

Hannah nods, and meets his eyes with a calm and hopeful look. "And the more I see, the more convinced I am something can be done, so this works out just fine. So tell me more about your mother, will you? Does it bother you to talk about her?"

Gerard shakes his head. "Nae sae much talkin' o' her. She died bearing my sister and I worry about the women in our line for that. Neither seems inclined to bear any bairns just now, but what we do here leads to Vere marrying Robin, and there be a risk there."

Hannah purses her lips and looks at him suspiciously. "This is going to sound cold, but women die giving birth every day. I've watched women I thought were too weak to carry a baby to term do it five times over, and women I thought tougher than nails not live long enough to hold their newborn. And the opposite too. I am, actually, right more than I'm wrong,' she smiles briefly.

"And mothers who had seven with daughters who couldn't survive one, and the opposite of that too. Just because your mother and sister died in childbirth - and that's so broad, it might be helpful to define how or why - doesn't mean your niece or daughter will. No pregnancy is really a safe and assured pregnancy. I know you know that, so are you just worrying to worry or is there something else?"

"I know all that," Gerard says, his accent thickening slightly. "But I also watched me sister die the same way. You look at me, see my legs, and tell me if we die easy in our line. Except for my sister, I've nae heard of any of my father's kin dying of illness. Murder or mischance, yes. Failing the Pattern and dying in flames, yes. But I lived through a castle falling on me head, and me sister and mother both died? When Flora, who hasnae got breeder's hips, spat out a bairn, and Fiona bore two? No, there's some reason."

He leans in and says, "I think they're bonded to the Isles, the women o' my mother's line. And I think if they bear away from their native soil, they die."

Hannah leans in too. "But I thought you and your brother were born in Amber and your mother went home to have your sister? Or was it the opposite of that? And... was your mother kin to your father?" she asks.

At that last question, Gerard frowns quizzically. "Not that I know of," he says. "Why?"

Apparently his train of thought has been derailed.

Hannah laughs. "Sorry, it's me. You mentioned having never heard of anyone of your father's kin getting sick, and then two sentences later you were talking about your sister and your mother. I'm just trying to piece everything together. This family is very... confusing to me, relationship-wise. It doesn't follow any of the conventions I'm used to. But... back to this - were you and your brother born in Amber?" she asks.

"Aye, we were, and the births both sapped her. O' course, I canna know what she was like before I was born, but I've heard. It was why she went back to the Isles to bear my sister. And my sister said the same curse was killin' her as she lay dying with her lastborn," Gerard says grimly.

"Did you feel the curse?" Hannah asks. "You know, that... you can feel it's not right, but there's nothing physical to it?"

Hannah has seen thunderclouds less black than Gerard. "My sister had so many curses on her when she died that I couldna kennet which wa' which."

Hannah's face falls, and she reaches out to take Gerard's hand. She starts to get tears in her eyes. "I wonder why," she whispers. "What did she do?"

Gerard bows his head, but he doesn't pull his hand away from Hannah. "She led the Witch Queens against the folk o' the Isles. They turned her head with the promise o' power, and freedom from the laws. She walked among them as a goddess, and did her own will, and many things she might hae lived to regret."

"The sacrifices," Hannah whispers, completely unable to hold back the tears despite her best efforts. "Oh, Gerard, I'm so sorry." She squeezes his hand.

Gerard squeezes her hand back. It seems very small in his large one.

Hannah sniffs, and takes a deep breath. Her tears dry away quickly enough in the wind. "You know, I do believe curses can be broken. We just have to figure out how. You have told Solange you think there is a curse, right?" Hannah asks.

Gerard shakes his head. "I told her my mother died o' bearin' too many too quickly, for it's all I know for sure. And she knows what her own mother did, and that she died bearing Solange. And I told her what her mother did. She kenned the rest herself, I'm sure."

"Sometimes we're not so good at hearing the things we don't want to hear," Hannah says with a little sad smile. "But next time I talk to her, we'll have some ladies chat, just to be safe. Just as well I never got pregnant, I guess," Hannah sighs. She looks out over the water a minute, thinking about all that.

When she looks back at Gerard, she says, "You let me know if you need me to rub out your shoulders and arms. How are your muscles adjusting to the ship?"

"Well enow. I've lived as many years on board as on land. This is coming home for me," Gerard says. It's obvious to Hannah that the new subject pleases him.


Over the next few days, Gerard takes a stronger hand in the active shifting of shadow. Hannah can see the boat change a little through his efforts--there are more "modern" conveniences, resembling the ones they saw in Xanadu.

In time, they arrive in a harbor. There are ships of all sorts in the harbor: small junks, boats like the one Hannah is on, steamships, and giant vessels that are larger than any Hannah has ever seen before. Gerard explains to her which are ocean liners and which are cargo vessels, and describes some of the difference between steam engines and gasoline engines.

She's facinated.

But it's on shore that Hannah can see the most extreme differences between this place and any she's ever known. In the eastern cities, she's heard, there are buildings of ten or twenty or even thirty stories, maybe. The people say they scrape the skies. The buildings here, though, are faced with glass, and they're sixty or seventy stories if they're a one.

Gerard laughs at the expression on Hannah's face. "Ye said ye wanted medical technology, lass. It's in a place like this that we'll find it."

The crew produces a lightweight wheelchair for Gerard, and he settles into it. His clothes have changed into some sort of stretchy material, but he still has a homespun blanket across his legs. Hannah's own clothes have changed into similar material: practical loose trousers in a dark color and a jacket of something that ought to be leather but that Hannah suspects never graced the body of a living being. Her boots are of the the same cut.

It doesn't smell right. She ignores the clothes and focuses on the wonders.

From under the blanket, Gerard produces some papers, and together, they roll down the gangplank toward the sign that says "Tyrell City Customs/Immigration".

"Have you been here before? Did you just 'make' those papers?" Hannah leans over and whispers to him.

"Nae, and nae, or sort o' nae. I had papers from a place like this for mysel', but I made yours. Mine will be right," Gerard says confidently.

She follows along with bright eyes and a ready smile. She is obviously thrilled to be in Tyrell City.

Gerard brings his niece through Immigration, explaining that he was in a serious accident some time ago and has come to Tyrell City for medical treatment. The officer inspects the papers with some sort of device with lights that Hannah doesn't recognize, and lets them pass.

They're able to obtain transportation to a hotel in the city. It's a nice place, with lots of chrome and glass in the lobby. They have to show their travel documents to get in.

Perhaps half an hour later, they're ensconced far above the neon streets, with the only sounds the rain against the window and the soft tap of Gerard's meaty fingers against the keyboard of what he calls a data terminal. He shows Hannah how to use it, how to look up information, explains keyword searching, and lets her loose.

But before he does so, he shows her the place he wants to go to have the imaging done: Terranova Hospital.

"So you're comfortable we can buy services and buy privacy? Because I know I'd want to poke at you and figure you out," she grins, just like that's not what she's doing. "Unless you don't care if they do that. If the scientists here could figure out what gives the family its healing abilities, maybe we could pass it on to everyone."

[She knows not what she says.]

"In general we don't allow doctors to poke and prod at us, but this case has proven to be an exception to all our rules," Gerard says. He frowns, though.

Hannah looks through all the information she can find about the hospital on the machine. Names, faces, departments, charitable organizations they work with, who fundraises for them, what kind of services they offer and what they cost - more information on what all those words actually mean. And then, actual images of the kind of imaging that's available, including any kind of study guide on how to read these things. Information about DNA too, or whatever they call it here.

And then she's eating at the machine, looking for medical schools, women's organizations, doctor's organizations, 'world' maps, information on medical schools and other schools in other countries (if there are other countries), images of what degrees look like, what they're offered in, and on and on. There will be (I have little doubt) the occassional noise that might actually be a squeal. Hannah is enthralled, and as she figures out which keywords work best, she just gets more excited by the possibilities.

The shadow that this city exists in is made up of megalopolises. The authorities seem to be less nation-states, although those exist, than companies. Terranova, Panstar, ITF, and Mitsutomo, to name a few, have their names all over everything. Credentials seem to be stored in the data system, and she'll need a key to verify any information about a specific doctor.

There don't seem to be women's organizations, although there are a lot of women in all fields of endeavor.

After a while, Hannah notices that there's a running total of some sort at the bottom of her data terminal. She watches it for a while as she gets more information and eventually realizes that she's paying for the use of the data. Or, rather, Gerard is, since he seems to be handling the bills.

"They're somewhat squirrelly about their information here. I don't think I'm going to be able to claim to be a doctor or anything, if someone with the right access can just go and check up on it," Hannah scowls. "I do wish I trusted other folks' opinions more.

"Gerard, how much does this data, uh, searching cost, in terms I can understand?" she asks.

"To us? Nothing. It's all data, not hard cash on the barrelhead. It's probable that my credit voucher will cover anything ye spend within reason. Don't go mad buying jewelry and the like, is all I ask." There's a bit of a twinkle in Gerard's eye at that last.

"Mais je désirer les bijoux, mon amour," she giggles.

"Well, then, we can pick up a few, I suppose. It's likely we can afford some nice things. "It's also probable that we can get the correct credentials for you. All it will cost is money, and with the Pattern, we can effectively make that here."

Hannah just shakes her head. "This is such a change in thinking. I'd rather avoid deceit where I can, and what they call a doctor here, I'm not sure I am. A nurse, maybe?" she suggests.

"When we 'make' the money, it doesn't take it from someone else, does it?" she asks worriedly.

Gerard shakes his head. "More like we went into an account book and changed some numbers. What we do makes it likely that no one will ever notice that accounts don't balance. In a Shadow this size, there's so much in the accounts, and so many of them, that rounding errors would more than make up for what we spend, anyway."

After a moment, he adds, "There's a trick to forgetting what's in your pockets, and what you're wearing, as you travel. Once you master it, you'll always have money and you'll always look like you belong. The shadows will always lie for you, for your clothes, but this way has its own advantages."

"Like not having to think too much about it? I tell you what, I'm ahead on this trail. When I went off for school with Sus, and we got off the train, the housemother didn't recognize us. She was looking for Indian girls, I guess, not visiting princesses. Our mothers spent all summer on our dresses, because father understood impressions. But it was really what he taught us about people and how to hold your head up with the best of them that, I think, made us hard to pick out of the crowd. All the rich western girls were going east for finishing school, all the same with the young men who were sent off to military schools, although there were more of those closer to home. We should have looked lost, or something, I know, but I'd had directions from the judge's cousin's wife who used to run the boarding house down the street, so I figured, if they decided to forget us, I could get us there. I almost wanted to, but they didn't forget us, of course," Hannah says, pausing to think about that. Then she realizes she's been going on and blushes. "Just to say, I think I understand what you're saying."

Gerard rolls slowly over as Hannah speaks, ending up beside her. "Yer ma and yer pa prepared ye well to come to Amber, Hannah. Never doubt you're doing fine; more gracefully than many who've come. Ask my ward Folly about how your cousins did during my Regency sometime and you'll see that you have a lot to be proud of."

This just makes Hannah blush more.

He changes the subject. "We can come up with foreign credentials if we need to, or paperwork that we can flash at them. Do you want me to teach you how to do that?"

"Yes, please do. Though I fear someone's going to ask something and next thing you know I'm going to be all caught up in some web of a lie I can't keep up with," Hannah worries.

"If we had time, we'd enroll you in teaching here, and you could learn enough to fake it." Gerard frowns, then looks at Hannah. "Would ye like to do that, lass?"

"No, I think you're right, we don't have time. I want to see what there is to see, find a safer pain med, and figure out what we're doing next from there. If I think I need to learn more then, well, then we'll see if there's time. This place just makes me a little nervous, is all. I'm not used to..." Hannah just gestures around and wrinkles her nose.

"It's the synthetic materials," Gerard explains. "Fibers that ne'er graced the back of a beast. Some people love 'em. Others hate 'em."

He looks at the terminal. "Hm. What's that, I wonder?" A window is flashing: _Alert about recent research subject: Terranova Hospital. Read? Y/N_

Gerard stabs the Y key with a thick finger and the news begins to scroll by. Apparently there's some kind of terrorist incident going on in the Hospital. Terranova security has responded and order will soon be restored.

When Hannah catches sight of the running total, she realizes recent news is quite expensive.

"Huh," she breathes, pointedly working on ignoring this money thing. "What do they mean by terrorist, do you think?" She starts searching for other terrorist incidents in hospitals here. If this is 'normal' she wants to be prepared for it.

"People with don't agree with whoever's in charge, I reckon." Gerard sounds very cynical.

"What they mean by terrorist here is probably 'violent person who disagrees wi' our way of running things'. Or a coverup for an attack by some enemy. This place has no government, you see, no king or chief to make things right. So it's all the strong against the strong, and the weak hide or beg the strong's protection."

As Gerard talks, Hannah is able to pull up some other incidents of terrorism in Tyrell City. Generally it's some sort of bombing, either a vehicle bomb or a suicide bomb. Very occasionally it's a kidnapping with ransom demands.

Most terrorist incidents end with a lot of dead people.

"A hospital though?" she sighs, and turns to look out the window. She points to the building she saw the picture of on the data terminal. "That's it, right?"

"Aye," Gerard says. He rolls over to the window to get a better look, as if he could somehow tell what was happening inside.

Another news alert comes up for Terranova Hospital.

Hannah turns back and hits 'Y'. "You know," she says to Gerard while she's reading, "I think part of my problem is that we're so high up. They just don't have... haven't learned to make places like this yet back home..."

Gerard is looking out the window, trying to see what's going on. "I wish I had my spyglass," he mutters, then adds by way of reply, "The value o'land here is so high that they've nowhere to go but up. Too many people, not enough land." Something catches his eye and he leans forward. "I should have brought my spyglass."

According to the news alert, there's a terrorist bomber in the hospital and they're evacuating patients.

Hannah's brow furrows. "So if I wanted to make it probable that no bomb goes off in that hospital, could I do that? Now?" she asks.

"I don't think ye ken how hard it would be. That's a large set of things to make happen, or not happen, and ye know so little." Gerard glances back at her, "Why? Is there about to be a bombing in the hospital?"

"The.." she waves at the data terminal, "says the terrorist is a bomber and they're evacuating. I don't like it. How much would I have to change?"

Gerard says, deadly serious, "How many ways d'ye know to make a bomb? Can you find it? I couldn't do it in ten minutes if I knew what kind of bomb it was, not in a building that size. A point comes when you're not deciding what might happen or no, you're changing the rules o'the shadow. Some of us can do that, and some better than others, but it takes more knowledge and skill with the gifts than you have to do it. For these?" he gestures at the building through the window. "There's nothing you can do in such a short time. Not with the knowledge you and I have. I know it's not what ye want to hear. I'm sorry." He bows his head.

Hannah sighs. "Sometimes there's nothing for it," she admits. "Can't save the whole world, doctor."

Gerard shakes his head mournfully.

She glances back at the data terminal to see if there's anything else, then back at the building. "I'd go down there to help, but I'd just be in the way. Do you have another plan if this bomb blows up the machines we need?"

"They'll have them in other hospitals here. We'll just decide which is second-best for our purposes and carry on," Gerard says firmly.

Hannah heads into her bedroom, making it highly probable that someone left a nice telescope tucked neatly into that bottom drawer of the wardrobe, or maybe they even provide such things here, considering the view. While she really knows very little about how spyglasses work, she does know what telescopes are about, and if Gerard wants to see over there, one of those should work.

What she finds is a device with lenses that appears to be designed to be put up to the face for both eyes to look through. It's a complicated device, moreso than the ones Hannah is familiar with from home, but it looks like it will do the trick.

Hannah smiles briefly before it fades away. She takes the new toy back into the other room and offers it to Gerard. "Here, try these," she says, her expression a strange mix of satisfaction and dread.

Gerard takes them, looks them over, and puts them up to his eyes. "Thank ye, lass," he says. Then, after a moment, "Digital zoom," and he fiddles with some small controls with his thick fingers. "They're evacuating the building."

He hands the device to Hannah.

She holds it up like he did. Zoom with the digits, right. She looks first through the settings he's already fixed before she tries to play with it.

She can see a lot of movement inside the building. As Gerard says, it looks like an evacuation. Most of the people seem to be soldiers.

"Well, that's good, but how do you evacuate a whole hospital? Some people, it'd kill them to move them," she mutters. "Is this... helplessness... making you as frustrated as it's making me?"

"Aye," Gerard says, clipping the word a bit shorter than Hannah expects.

Hannah watches for a couple of minutes before she sees it. It happens at a level above where she's looking, on one side. There's what almost looks like a puff of smoke, except for the window-rattling BOOM! that accompanies it.

Gerard pushes himself slightly out of his seat next to Hannah to get a better look. He mutters something under his breath about the building hopefully not falling.

Hannah just makes a growling noise, and hands Gerard back the goggle-thingies so he can see. She turns around so her back is to the window and crosses her arms.

Gerard watches and mutters a couple of thickly-accented things about explosives and building construction. Then he wheels over to the terminal and begins searching for information.

[This could go on for a while. Unless there's something you want to do here, I'm inclined to advance to what I think is your next decision point, involving looking for a new hospital. I'm game for other options if you have somewhere you want to drive.]

[I'm good for looking for a new hospital. She has Victorian instincts about wandering a strange city as a woman alone, so she'll be sticking close to Gerard until she's got a better feel for the place.]

Gerard researches for a time, during which Hannah is able to alternate between reading at the terminal along with him and watching the building with the binoculars. Despite some concern on Gerard's part, the building doesn't collapse, and the locals are able to evacuate it with minimal loss of life, which is to say in the low hundreds instead of thousands.

Ugh.

It takes them another couple of days to arrange for an appointment at their second-choice hospital: Panstar. One of the things Gerard wants to do by the time they see the doctor is to have a credible cover story about how he was injured. Since Hannah will have to do a lot of the talking, Gerard wants her input on the story.

She keeps it as simple as possible, giving them both lots of room for not knowing much about each other, beyond what they've had time to learn. She finds someplace here that had an earthquake right about five years ago, someplace a little wild if possible, without the kind of access to medical care he'd have here. Hopefully not someplace with a language different from Tyrell City.

That's where they're "from", originally, as much as they're from anywhere, although Hannah's been traveling around some these last ten years, not in touch much. (Obviously, they're monied. Maybe not in the most ethical of ways - since they've got no affiliation to a corporation. What her crazy uncle was doing out in the wilds you'd have to ask him. They were never close - he's a little... off, she thinks. She's a bit of a snot, he thinks.) She memorizes a spate of cities and landmarks and foods. After the earthquake she was told he was dead, but came back eventually and found him, unbelievably, alive. He doesn't remember much about what happened early on, just that he was cared for.

Since then he figured there wasn't much could be done about it without med-tech or whatever they call it here, which he won't have because of old family superstitions. They've come over here at her insistence to see what, the damage really is, and to get him off this black market morphine and on something that won't kill him.

Obviously, they're paying for a lot of service and not a lot of questions, and that's what they expect.

Gerard can play surly eccentric uncle very well. He explains that they'll believe he and Hannah are criminals of some sort (to the extent that there's law) but that as long as they can pay, that shouldn't matter.

[Let us know what else she does over the next couple of days]

She tugs her companion (and Gerard if he'll come) out during the daylight hours for a touristy look-around on the concierge's advice. Food and shopping and the wonders of Tyrell City. She stays as far clear of the bombed hospital as she can without being silly about it.

Gerard will come shopping. There's not much in the way of "tourist attractions"; people seem to use the terminals to entertain themselves during their leisure hours.

She does shop. She looks for 'eccentric' clothes that perhaps contain more natural fibers, but barring that, more of this synthetic material cut in a flattering way. She doesn't go overboard, but she does buy a few more expensive pieces of jewelry that say, "yes, I'm very rich, but not showy."

Anything made of natural substances is extremely expensive and rare (both jewelry and clothing). Gerard is dubious of most of the gold and jewels here, although the titanium and platinum meet with his approval. He's got a good eye for synthetic gems.

Hannah's glad one of them does.

One of the stores they visit has a section where the purchasers can buy animals. Very expensive small animals. Artificial animals.

Hannah wants a drink for the first time in her life. She masters the urge and manages to be merely horribly worried that Gerard has brought them to this horrific place and she hopes he knows what he's doing.

While out, she tries to pick up the cadence of the city. What expected behavior is and what accepted behavior is.

This place is very strange. It's even more crowded than the Eastern cities of Hannah's homeland. People are very unmannerly. There's no sense of personal space and they don't speak to each other much, although that's probably a function of crowding. Money seems to buy a lot of the social lubrication and personal service she and Gerard would take for granted in Amber.

They almost never go outside, and very rarely go low to the ground. The upside is that they occasionally see the sun, which Hannah suspects is a rarity for those too poor to live in the upper reaches of the city.

On the appointed day, clad in their new clothes, Gerard and Hannah make their way to Panstar's hospital, another tower not unlike the Terranova building they saw damaged (and can now see under reconstruction) from their hotel room. They're hustled through security, which involves wand searches and detectors of some type, and which they pass through handily, and then they wait in a waiting room with what look like department store catalogues to pass the time.

After about an hour, they're ushered into an examination room where they meet Dr. Sebastian, a wizened fellow in a lab coat, and his associate, a tall blond fellow named Dr. Chew.

Gerard outlines the story as he and Hannah have agreed. They then turn to Hannah for further details and for some idea of the treatment she's looking for.

"The short of it is I want the full run of non-surgical tests. I don't have your knowledge, gentlemen," she smiles, "but I've done my research." She hands Dr. Sebastian a list of tests she's compiled using the data terminal and quizzing Gerard. It is perhaps longer than it needs to be, but it should answer her questions, and many of the questions the other tests are bound to raise.

Chew takes the list and begins looking at it.

But since it won't answer all the questions, she says, "I'd like them done as quickly as possible and as to minimize the poking and annoying of my uncle. He gets cranky." She keeps going to run over whatever comment this might get from said uncle. "I want it done quietly. I want to be there as the results come in and I want you to be there explaining them to me. If you can't explain them, I want you to say so, and why. Don't make something up. I'll find out later and our family will be angry. I want to see the damage, and know its extent, from every angle possible.

"And once we've run all the tests, I want to sit down with you and figure out how to get him off this dirty drug he's using to control his pain and get him on something better. I want that transition to be delicate. What's the word you people use - oh, yes, 'clementia'. Finally, I want you to understand that I expect, when we're here, that you work for us. Us, not your mega-corporation-conglomerant-brands. Us. We're your customers, not your test subjects for whatever new pain treatment you want to 'monop' the market with, or whathaveyou. I want a small team that can leave the country for an extended period of time if I ask them to.

"I expect silence on the fact that we're in the city, and working with you. If we can't get that, we'll take our credits over to Kea Ares, or we'll wait until Terranova regroups. I'm not unreasonable, or at least you wouldn't think so, if you fully understood the worlds we move in. As it is, I'm prepared to discuss terms if something comes up we need to discuss. So, do you both agree, or are we leaving?" she asks, and smiles again. It's a sympathetic smile; she seems to understand what she just asked them to do.

Chew looks up and starts to say something, but Sebastian interrupts him. "I think we can provide what you and your uncle need, Miss Corbeau." He smiles at the pair of them. "We can start the preliminary tests today if you like. Basic blood work and the like."

Gerard purses his lips and looks at Hannah and shrugs.

Hannah frowns. She looks between Chew and Sebastian, but settles on Sebastian. "Not reassuring doctor. I don't want to know what you 'think'. You can do better than that." Hannah looks at Chew. "So can you. I find your lack of resistance to mean you plan to completely ignore what I just asked of you, since it's neither easy nor something your... managers might like much. So either you'll need to explain your own motivations, or I'll need something that gives a girl a little more assurance of agreement than a nod and a wink. If you check the file, you'll see there's lots of paperwork with nullifying declarations written on it, instead of signatures.

"Assuming we can actually settle this, you can also move the schedule around and get a lot more done today than bloodwork. Or we can come back on a day you can. I'm not doing this in trickles, as I believe I already explained." Her stubborn look indicates she might be elsewhere in the meantime that can get done what she wants. This time her eyes settle on Chew. More quietly she says, "Don't be nervous, it's risk-takers who make the biggest gains, doctor."

Chew starts to say something--from his expression, probably something indignant--and Sebastian actually lays a hand on his arm.

Hannah smiles, and gives Chew a repentant look, but her eyes twinkle.

"Miss Corbeau, you're not the only person to come to us with requests for 'special needs' care. We've both seen a variety of _extremely confidential_ cases to their logical conclusion. Most of them haven't had all of the complications that your uncle's case involve--" he glances at Gerard's shattered legs "--but we've handled all sorts of dependency cases with absolute confidentiality. You watch vids and listen to poppers, I'm sure. I could give you names, but then you'd hardly trust our confidentiality, hmm?"

Hannah looks unimpressed.

Sebastian looks at Gerard again. "I can do the bloodwork and other preliminary tests of that sort today. I'll need to schedule all the imaging work, and that will take a few days to arrange. I can have it done on one day, but that can't be today, especially not with the confidentiality you need. If you prefer to wait to have all the tests done at once, we can do that. It'll take longer to have all the blood work done. But unless you have a sample of what your uncle has been taking for pain relief with you, we might as well wait. Unless you're going to wait and go back to Terranova or Kea Ares."

Hannah sighs, and pulls from her purse a sample of the morphine, in its glass vial, but with the labels stripped off. She keeps it in her hand, though. She speaks to Sebastian. "We have a rare blood formulation. My other uncle tried to give blood in the field for a transfusion and it killed the patient - we've got some very good evidence our blood can't be given to others. We may be universal acceptors, though, but I've no proof of that. I only mention this to get it out of the way, and because I won't release the 'rights to research' without significant financial incentive - we may be willing to take that in certificates of ownership. Is there someone you need to talk to before we move ahead?" she asks.

Sebastian moves to take the morphine. "Not about this. Rights to research will have to be discussed with the appropriate authorities, on a theoretical basis, of course. But by the time we can schedule the imaging you want, we can have agreements ready for you to imprint. We'll need both of your chops for that, of course. We should also have analysis done on what's in that vial and some suggestions for better options."

"Alright, then. We call it dreamers tears. I don't know what you call it, or what it's medical name is. Should be pretty pure, I'd bet. Perhaps you should talk to them about how much of it you've been taking, uncle, so that they understand how your tolerance has built up," Hannah suggests, looking at Gerard.

[Does Hannah let Sebastian take the vial?]

[Oh! yes.]

Hannah hands over the morphine to Doctor Sebastian.

Gerard and Sebastian and Chew discuss the amount he's been taking and how he's been taking it for perhaps ten minutes. It seems to be a very fruitful discussion. Chew writes down information on a tablet of some sort--electronic, not paper--and occasionally nods. Gerard tries not to give away how experienced he is with medicine, but Hannah's pretty sure he failed at that. Sebastian and Chew don't seem to notice, though, or perhaps that was covered in the agreement.

Hannah's fingers itch for the tablet, but she holds them together in her lap instead. Hannah bites her lip and does not offer her opinion on anything. "Well, Uncle Gerard, if you're ready to... get your blood drawn, let's get this over with," she says, and gives Gerard an eyebrow.

She turns back to the doctors. "Will someone be in touch when results are in, even if we don't have imaging set up yet? I'm worried."

"We'll be in touch," Sebastian says agreeably. "All these things take a little time to arrange with the confidentiality you need. But we'll keep you apprised of every detail. We have your contact information, and before you leave I'll give you my direct netlink, so you can reach me if you have any concerns or think of any additional information. Is that acceptable?"

"Yes, thank you," Hannah agrees.

Gerard wheels off with the two of them and has his blood drawn before he and Hannah depart for the day. "Lots of it too," he tells Hannah at dinner afterwards. "Bloody vampires."

It takes Sebastian and Chew a couple of days to get the tests all scheduled, and another couple of days before they go in. There are a variety of imaging tests, many of which Gerard has to be helped to take. A series of images of his pelvis and legs in different positions is taken in one room; another series using a different technology in a second room; and still another in a third. One room contains a large, barrel-like scanner that they roll Gerard into, after some debate about whether he'll fit into it. He does, barely, but they were right to wonder. In yet another room, the doctors attach electrodes to Gerard's legs in various places, clearly determining whether the nerves work, where, and how much.

Sebastian explains to Hannah what the tests are supposed to do in lay terms as they perform them, and they all sound reasonable to Hannah.

She asks a lot of questions that may lead him to believe he can talk to her at a higher level, because she believes her lack of understanding of the technology won't give her away.

These questions are mostly like, "Can we see the pictures as they come out?"

Most of the pictures are digital images, and only immediately visible to the technicians, but Sebastian will get some of them printed up for Hannah before they leave. Hannibal is grumpy and murmurs something about security, but Sebastian glowers at him and he shushes.

She adds quietly to Sebastian, "I actually want copies of everything, and I'll cover that, but I don't have to have them today. I know it's a lot - I don't care. We'll sign something saying we won't show them to any other corporation on this planet, if you'd like."

Sebastian agrees to this. He also shows her the lab report on the morphine. It's crude by local standards, and they can replace it immediately with purer local drugs. The upside to this is that Gerard will be at less risk for contaminants and he can take a smaller dosage to get the same effect. The downside is that Gerard is at increased risk for sliding further into addiction.

She's willing to talk to him about it, but they don't have anything to target the nerves as they find out which work? "I had higher hopes. I know he needs to be weaned off, to get him off... I don't want to replace one devil with another, doctor."

"Targeting individual nerves will require the results of the tests we're doing today, Ms. Corbeau, " Sebastian explains. "Impure drugs, however, are an ongoing problem for your uncle."

She nods, slowly. "Can you tell me what these impurities have been doing to him then? Are some of them addictive too?"

Chew shakes his head. "Quite a different problem, Ms. Corbeau. The impurities we're seeing are likely to weaken his overall constitution." As Sebastian starts to shush him, he continues, "Frankly, we're amazed he's made it this long."

Hannah lays a hand on Sebastian to try to get his controlling nature under control, if only for a moment. She meets Chew's eyes, so he can see the truth of what she's about to say.

Sebastian is still glaring at Chew, but he lets Hannah lecture the other man.

"I only came on the scene recently to find him like this. I've been traveling. Once I realized none of the family was doing what needed to be done, I started working on getting him here, even though we don't know each other well. I, too, am frankly amazed he has survived. I would like to see him do more than survive. So, doctor, your help, and not subtle recriminations, would be what I need. I have thought from the beginning the first step would be to get him on something other than the morphine, and if we can do that while we're still in the city, well... that would sit very well with me," Hannah concludes, finally stopping for a breath.

"Can you tell me what these impurities have been doing to him then?" she asks, again.

Sebastian's elbow is insufficiently subtle. Hannah sees it go into Chew's side.

Chew launches into a long explanation about how the impurities are an overall strain on Gerard's system, particularly in terms of filtering them out in the kidneys to keep them out of the bloodstream. In particular, one of the impurities is a known carcinogen in the long-term.

Hannah feels what he's saying may be true, but she'd have to check it out to be sure.

Hannah very slyly slips between these two men. She gives Chew a knowing look, and stands closer to him. She is, effectively, trying to block Sebastian. "And what did all those blood test tell you about his kidneys and how they're doing? Because honestly, I don't understand how he still has kidneys, or a liver. And I want to understand."

Chew shakes his head. "I have no idea why he isn't dead yet from organ failure. If I had to guess, I'd say he's regrowing those organs. That's impossible, but it's the best answer I have."

Sebastian is rolling his eyes.

Hannah ignores Sebastian. She licks her lips, and nods at Chew. "If it were possible, why would he be able to regrow organs, which are complex, but not his legs? I mean, the dead organs would still have to be there, right, just like the legs?" She looks very serious.

"That's an excellent question, Ms. Corbeau, and one I'm hoping this imaging will give us some insight into," Chew replies very seriously. "If it were something like radiation, where the damage is at a cellular level, I'd expect his organs to be affected as well."

Sebastian isn't bothering to try to interfere any longer.

"I'm not sure radiation is a good analogy. I mean, it's a toss up, isn't it?" Hannah sits back down, and doesn't fidget, though she holds her hands together.

"So how did you two end up working together?" she asks, to pass the time.

Chew starts to say something but Sebastian does override him this time. "I was assigned to work with him because his bedside manner is so bad." Chew looks indignant, but doesn't protest verbally.

Hannah can't help but smile at Sebastian. "Tact, bedside manner, why be civil when we're all being honest?"

"Because," Sebastian explains with something of a smile, "It seems to upset the patients and their families when he tells them things like 'It's a miracle he's not dead yet'."

Hannah sighs. Hospital politics. "And who do you report to?" she asks Sebastian.

"I have a report chain, but for cases like this? Directly to the Chief Research Officer. Him too." Sebastian jerks a thumb at Chew, who smiles thinly and a bit long-sufferingly at Sebastian. Sebastian adds, "He's the brains of this outfit, really. I just keep him in line," which seems to mollify the taller man.

[what exactly is Hannah waiting for? the initial reports? I'd like to get an idea of how long I should let this go.]

[Hannah's poking at the doctors to find out who is the best candidate for later kidnapping... uh, I mean... she just wants to know how to best get what she wants. Martin's gonna kill me if I bring Chew to Xanadu, isn't he? But she is waiting for initial reports, too. She hasn't been this antsy since... well, for a long time.]

"I see," Hannah says to Sebastian. "You don't have to yank on his leash for me."

She looks at Chew. "Obviously, if I get unhappy I'll voice my concern. The truth is fine, even when it makes me unhappy and defensive. But not in front of my uncle. He's agreed there are some things he doesn't want to know, and he's willing to let me guide his treatment."

Sebastian gives Chew an I-told-you-so look. Chew makes a harrumphing noise.

"That's wise, Ms. Corbeau," Sebastian says. "You seem reasonably well-educated about this for a laywoman. Patients who don't understand everything that's going on--and I'm not sure your uncle does--are often concerned or frightened by some of the courses of medical treatment available. A more--objective--approach is called for."

Chew looks skeptical at this, but doesn't interrupt.

"Oh, don't be silly," Hannah says to Sebastian, somewhat irritated now. "Gerard knows. He knows far too much for his own mental stability. Do you think that man doesn't know he should be dead, that he might be dying? Imagine your legs were shattered into thousands of pieces under rock, and you lay there, in pain, knowing you're dying. You don't know yet your pelvis is fractured too. You don't know yet you're going to have to hope your wife really loves you. You still hope the numbness seeping in under the pain is just shock, that something isn't really that wrong - that you aren't paralyzed. And somehow they get you out without amputating your legs. Beneath the incredible pain is the spark of hope that you can be fixed - that it will all be okay."

She's angry now, and she leans toward Sebastian. "And then you wake up, and keep waking up, and the best they can do in the emergency is set your legs. But the bones are too shattered to go so easily back together. And the absolute horror of it is, you get to struggle through every day in blazing pain knowing if you take too much of the only thing strong enough to work, you'll overdose and die. You think he didn't know that, every time he injected himself with that drug? Don't be silly. He's not frightened. He's a man who knows himself the way only a man who has looked death in the face and fought him off can. He'll want full control over his treatment. It's the images he doesn't want to see - because he knows himself well enough to know the effect seeing what his legs really look like will have on him."

Hannah takes a deep breath. "And I'm angry. I should not be going on at either of you; you aren't who I'm angry with. Excuse me a moment."

Hannah will head for an exit to try to just get a moment of air.

They let her go, but she can hear Chew lighting into Sebastian behind her.

There's a waiting room where Hannah can go for a while. It has a window out to the sunlit sky, over the clouds that cover the city below. It's beautiful.

She is, briefly, alone. No one comes to disturb her. She could go back to the office where Chew and Sebastian are arguing, wait here for Gerard, or do something else.

Once she recenters she goes back inside.

Chew is alone. Sebastian has vanished.

"This waiting is really getting to me," she tells [Chew].

"How much longer is this all going to take?" she asks, getting a new appreciation for what it's like to be the patient's family.

Chew shrugs. "A few minutes. Dr. Sebastian's gone off to get the preliminary results you wanted and fetch your uncle." Apparently he's not the diplomatic one, because it doesn't occur to him to apologize to Hannah.

"Good, good. I could give you lessons, in the 'bedside' approach. It can be learned," she points out, passing time. "Or do you just not care to learn?"

"My specialty is research," Chew explains. "I'll probably have to learn how to deal with patients better if I deal with them as often as I have been lately. Where did you learn the 'bedside' approach, Ms. Corbeau?"

"Primative nursing, I think you might call it."

Chew nods.

"And I had great men and amazing patients to teach me. When was the last time you were below the cloudline, Dr. Chew?" she asks.

"In Tyrell City?" He arches his eyebrows at her. "Never."

"What's so much worse about Tyrell City than every other city where the poor and disowned live where the rest usually don't have to notice them?" Hannah wants to know.

Chew shrugs. "Nothing. I just haven't been below the cloudline since I got here. Are you a reformer, Ms. Corbeau?"

Hannah shrugs back at him, but she blushes and can't help but smile. "I don't even know what you mean by that. I'm the kind of girl who likes to arm myself, get down where it's dirty, and know that I'm doing real good, as opposed to just being a rich spoiled princess. Would you like to go? You could research what a life of non-privilege does to a body, a mind."

Chew smiles, almost sadly. "Oh, I know that, Ms. Corbeau. I didn't always live above the hundred and fiftieth floor. If you had the choice between doing good for one or two people or doing it and spreading it to everyone, which would it be? If I work in the downbelow, my work will be lost. Above the clouds, though, I have the support of the institutions of Tyrell City, my research is funded, and I can take its results and use it to better many, many lives." His voice has taken on a certain passion, it rises until he stops.

"Except, of course, in special cases where confidentiality applies." Chew's smile takes on a cynical edge.

Hannah's smile mirrors his. "I won't be greedy, but I must be careful. When you figure out why, talk to me first." She sighs. "I fear I'm too impatient for what you do. Even just sitting here waiting has me coming out of my skin. I'm not usually like this. If I don't see some dirt soon, or people who smell like real people..."

Hannah's hands move impatiently, and she looks away from him, searching the room for something to actually do. But it's all too neat and clean, and she bites down on her bottom lip and looks back at Chew. "Can I read your notes?" she asks hopefully.

"Why not?" He passes her the tablet, pressing something at the bottom. The screen fills with data, much of it medical shorthand. She might be able to piece it together, or she could ask Chew for help.

She looks from it to Chew and pulls a chair up next to her. "Come explain this to me?" she asks, and grins at him.

Chew works with her for a few minutes to clarify various bits of jargon and explain what he's doing. It looks like this really is the sort of drug work they were talking about with the morphine and the impurities.

They pass the time that way until Gerard returns, escorted by Sebastien. The doctor has a card with the data for Hannah and a folder with printed copies of certain images, as they agreed.


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Last modified: 12 August 2006