Chapter Eleven
The New Guardians, And Meeting The Family
Upon returning to Larkon’s house John looked at Leslie. “I’m so glad I met you today Leslie. You too,” he said, looking at the two Krinars. “Okay, now for the question: What can I do to help you?”
“Holy shit,” Leslie grinned, “the very last words I ever expected out of you John!” She continued, “Larkon’s reason for allowing Sornan to train me was a human expression, ‘There’s no one like an X one.’ He understood that no one wanted to learn K technology and become part of the K society more than the Resistance who were willing to fight us for it. All they needed was an invitation. And now, you have one. They need us, John, they need the N.Y.C. Division, They need all the Divisions across the Country and around the world. They need us to become Guardians, to apprentice in K technology and to shepherd all of humanity into a society that includes us all. So John, you can do a lot!”
After discussing plans to bring in more former members of the Resistance, John agreed that he would stay with Leslie and Sornan, for a couple of days, until the Arizona K Orientation Center was finished. It would now look like any other Krinar building and fully embraced Krinar technology. The Compound’s purpose had been to offer prisoners a familiar environment. The purpose of the Center was to shepherd students into a new one.
During the day, Leslie and Sornan would bring John to New York to contact members of the Resistance, both shined and those still not compromised, telling them about the opportunity to work peacefully with the Krinar to achieve the very thing they had been willing to fight and die for. Maybe even become Guardians, as Leslie had.
After John was settled, in his hastily formed guest room, on his second night with them, Leslie and Sornan went to their own bed. They lay facing each other and talked about their upcoming wedding. There was no doubt in either of them that too much else was going on to have the wedding now. However, they could attend to some preliminaries.
They had taken a virtual trip to Krina on their last rest day, to visit Sornan’s parents, Navita and Kelon, and introduce Leslie to them. They had been delighted with Leslie. Navita had seen her story as a grand adventure. Getting captured on a desperate mission, and in turn capturing their son’s heart! Finally making a speech in front of the Council itself! Leslie decided she liked her future mother-in-law quite a lot! Maybe despite the losses, the fear and anxiety, she still came across as a pretty cool chick!
Navita was thrilled that her son had found a mate when he was still short of his fourth century! “When did the two of you get together?” Leslie asked, her curiosity aroused by the discussion. “Four hundred years ago.” Navita was a history expert, with a specialty in Earth history and very fond of showing off. “Both of us are much older than that, I was born at about the beginning of your bronze age, in the Middle East. Kelon is a bit older, a contemporary of your first pyramids in Egypt.” Leslie gaped at the couple, who looked about the same age as their son, who looked somewhat younger than John.
Kelon was as Sornan had described him, He knew a little (Quite a bit actually.) about everything. He could easily switch from topic to topic in the course of a conversation, then pull the lot of them together into an amazing conclusion. Leslie hoped that someday Kelon would teach a course at Columbia, and she would be able to attend. She scratched that idea. He would teach at the Orientation Center. The students would come there and their lives would be transformed!
Navita and Kelon were very excited that Leslie and Sornan were having a human wedding. They had gotten into Mia and Korum’s Wedding. And they were very much looking forward to their son’s
Eight days later they were doing a much more ambitious family get-together. Ten minutes before the planned event, they drove up to the Robertses home. The house was immaculate as if George and Susan were expecting important company, which they were. “How will they arrive?” Susan asked.
Sornan replied, “I’ve set your living room as their target. As I told you, you can see, hear, and touch them, as they can you. They could also eat and drink with us. This isn’t ever done, however. They are virtually, not physically here so the result would be a mess on the floor!”
Sornan’s wrist computer gave a soft chime. He smiled. “Let’s go in. They're here.” George and Susan found a Krinar man and woman, dressed in the tightly fitted formal wear they remembered from Lenkarda. Both of them looked to be in their mid-twenties, no older than Sornan. Sornan said formally, “Susan and George, these are my mother and father, Navita and Kelon.” Leslie then spoke, “Navita and Kelon, these are my mother and father, Susan and George.”
“Hello,” Navita smiled, “I’m so happy to meet the two of you! We met Leslie two rest days ago in our home. We’re so glad the two of them are together.”
George asked, “So, do you two know when this wedding is going to happen?”
1Leslie spoke up. “Probably about a year from now. Dad, you know they’re calling me ‘the Guardian’s First Human.’ That’s not just a nickname, they want Sornan and me talking with recruits and lecturing the public. And, oh yes, training me to actually be a Guardian. In the meantime, everybody is trying to work out the role of the new Guardians. We’re no longer a Krinar military and intelligence force to protect the K Centers and monitor the Resistance and the human governments but a mixed force of Krinars and members of the Resistance trying to mediate between the Centers and the human population, for the benefit of both.”
Kelon rescued George from his daughter’s lecture by asking him about the contents of his bookshelf. George latched onto the save and talked about being a professor of economics at N.M.U. Kelon had heard about Earth’s educational system, but had never met a professor. So, he listened avidly as George talked about his role in the educational system, and the role of the “dismal science” in the functioning of society.
In the meantime, Susan started a conversation with Navita. Susan was a social anthropologist and an amateur archeologist with a wide interest in the region’s Native American heritage. She was salivating at the chance to talk to a three-thousand-year-old Earth historian. And what she might know about the history of cultures that had been subsumed by European settlement. Navita knew more about that subject than all the scientists and historians on Earth and she was very happy to share!
Leslie and Sornan grinned at each other. The parents clicked!
The next day the two of them went to the red-brick town house. The Resistance had abandoned it as a meeting place after Mia told them that Korum knew about it. That was no longer an issue. John had asked his friend, the homeowner, if they could use his living room again. He had convinced nine of the ex-Resistance members to meet with them there. Leslie was delighted to see that her friend Rose was there, the only other woman in the leadership group apart from Professor Mason. The former fighters stood as the two of them entered the room. John said, “Everyone, you all know Leslie I'm sure. This is Sornan, her fiancé and a Guardian. They would like to tell you about the changes in the Krinar society that have occurred because the Non-Interference Mandate is no longer in effect.
“This will mean huge changes for everyone on this planet. And they would like to tell you how you can help them!” Rose rolled her eyes at John’s catch phrase, but said nothing.
Leslie gave them what most of them probably saw as a most un-Leslie-like smile. “While I was being held in the Human Compound at the Arizona K Center, Korum took his charl, Mia, and her entire family to Krina…”
A lean, very muscular young man, who’s blond hair was shaved into a military haircut, looked disgusted. “Are you talking about our so-called spy?” Jeff had been part of the assault on Lenkarda.
“Yes, Jeff. She actually was a spy, a real one who tried to help, it's just that Korum was on to her and fed her false intelligence. Look, It's really not important anymore. What is important is that their relationship managed to survive all that, and she and Korum managed to convince the Elders that humans had arrived. Our evolution is now complete! As a result, the Ks are free to share their technology with us.” She said this with another smile. Then she continued in a somber tone. “There are going to be huge disruptions in our society. This will happen in their society as well. The Ks need our help and we need theirs.
“So you might be wondering what I’m doing here? Larkon, the leader of the Guardians in Arizona, payed attention to how well Sornan and I were getting along. He talked about me with Sornan, then said he could ask me to become a Guardian and train me. Sornan and I were his proof of concept.”
“Leslie,” Rose said, “do you mean that their leader wants all of us to become Guardians too?”
Sornan spoke up, “Not all of you. There are only about twenty thousand of us on Earth. He would not want your numbers to exceed those of the Krinar, but, up to that number yes. His goal is for human and K Guardians to work as teams. However, there will be other things, for those of you who are so inclined to do. Our experts and apprentices in various fields will be opening slots for interns. For those who complete an internship there will be an opportunity to become an apprentice in that discipline. Human biology is the prime example of a discipline that humans have to learn. There are seven human biology experts on Earth. Right now those seven are the only people on this planet who are considered qualified to do the procedure to make a human biologically immortal. Trying to use these seven experts to extend the lives of seven billion humans is a lot like draining the ocean with an eyedropper.” Sornan paused to let that sink in. “Fortunately,” he continued, “there are over three hundred human biology apprentices. Some of these, like a good friend of Leslie’s and mine, Jaymira, are working toward the expert level. Others simply gather experience in many different fields as they go through life. All of them however can be brought up to speed with life extension fairly quickly. Complexity was never an issue, just that it was not commonly done. The experts were considered enough. That has changed.” Sornan looked around the group. “So, now we can drain that ocean with a cup.
“We can't do it. That's the bottom line. We need humans to learn those skills in numbers consistent with the needs of your population.”
Leslie took over. “We want to give you our technology! It's just that there are too few of us to do it effectively. What we can do is train the trainers, they go on to train the next trainers, and so on until we have enough.”
At the end of the meeting everyone wanted to become a Guardian. Sornan gave them a week to get their affairs in order before he and Leslie returned to New York to pick them up and take them to the K Orientation Center in Arizona.
Before they left, Rose took Leslie aside. “I almost didn’t recognize you today Leslie. I don’t know what the Ks have been doing with you, but you look fantastic. That’s not what I’m talking about, though. You were always so angry. You would snap at people over the least little thing. And I could see how sad you were underneath. Leslie, I'm so happy to see you like this. What happened?”
Leslie smiled. “Sornan happened. He was the one who captured me. No, that's not right. Actually, I got Mia so pissed that she flipped. She took away the gun I was holding on her and knocked me out with it. Sornan was the one who found me. He was always kind to me and friendly. After I got over being afraid that I was going to be killed, I did my very best to piss him off. None of it worked however.”
Rose said, “Yeah, I can see you doing that Leslie. So glad you didn’t succeed.”
“And there was something else. When he listened to me tell him Joe’s story, he apologized to me like he was apologizing for himself and all the Ks on Earth. And I yelled at him and ran back to the Compound. He came to see me the next day. He wanted to know more about Joe and what he had been trying to do. Then he said, ‘I wish I could have known your brother.’ I cried my eyes out when he said that. And then I let it go. Just like that. His death was the last thing Joe would have ever wanted me to remember about him.”
“Oh my God, Leslie, I thought he was a cop of some kind. He’s like this amazing therapist, healer something.”
Leslie laughed, “Not to mention my best friend and the love of my life. Yeah, the Guardians are a lot more than soldiers and police. They do a lot.”
Rose said, “I never really wanted to go to grad school, not after the Resistance, Leslie. I really want to be a Guardian.”
Leslie hugged her. “The second female Guardian and both of us human. All those hot K girls have some catching up to do.”
Rose grinned at her, then looked hesitant. She was quiet for a bit, then asked shyly, “Is it true what they say about sex with the Ks, um, is it really fantastic?” Rose looked wistful.
Leslie smiled. “It is. Not that I knew that until about a month ago. He never touched me that way until after my anger over what happened to Joe got resolved.”
“Wow, Leslie. Now, I'm even more impressed. They do say sex and psychotherapy don't mix.”
Leslie laughed. “Spoken like a true psych major! I hope, now that you're joining us, that you and Mia can get together. You’ll have a lot in common.
“Wait,” Leslie said. “I’ve got something I bet you’ll enjoy.” She brought up the virtual screen on her wrist computer. For the next half hour, the two of them were mesmerized by scenes from Mia and Korum’s wedding. They admired Mia’s gown and all the amazing Krinar formal wear. Leslie told Rose that the human woman officiating at the wedding had actually been a judge, before meeting a K and becoming his charl. She lived on Krina now. Then Leslie casually translated the ceremony from Krina to English.
“Did you have a good time?” Sornan asked a little too casually as he and Leslie left the town house.
Leslie’s eyebrows went up. “Of course we did. We’re girls.”
During the week, Dana arrived from Krina. She was now settled into the Orientation Center, and ready to begin teaching humans about the K society and how to navigate it.
On Saturday they met the former Resistance fighters back at the town house. As per Sornan’s instructions, everyone had a single overnight bag. Mostly containing personal items they didn't want to leave behind. Leslie grinned at them. “There will be plenty of everything when you get there.”
A pair of stretch limos pulled up in front of the town house. Before people got in, Sornan explained, “The limos are taking us to JFK, a fenced in area, that is labeled,
HALT! SECURE AREA AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED!”
“What's in there?” Rose asked.
Leslie answered, “Asphalt. It’s the landing and takeoff area for Krinar ships.”
Rose frowned at her. “But if there's nothing in there, why are we going there?”
Leslie took pity on her. “We make and unmake our ships as we need them. The secure area is just there because otherwise our activities could cause a distraction, that could cause an accident.”
Rose gaped at her. “You ‘make’ and ‘unmake’? How do you do that?”
Leslie called her fabricator and showed it to her. “We make things using rapid fabrication, out of essentially nothing, individual atoms, in a pattern. This,” holding up the small oval object in her hand, “is a fabricator. It stores designs, created by a designer, such as Korum, and puts individual atoms together according to the design you select.”
“Holy shit!” Jeff had been watching their exchange. “How the fuck did we ever think we could fight you guys?”
Something in his tone made Leslie feel that now she was included among said “guys.”
Sornan walked through the gate which had opened automatically on his approach. “The gate was already keyed to Leslie, John and me. When you pass through it with us, you will be as well.” He looked at Jeff. “You thought you could fight us because you thought you had to do it. You ran toward our shields as one of fifty thousand soldiers and fighters, hoping that when the shield went down we would surrender. But knowing we very well might not, and if that were what happened, almost none of you would live to see the victory.
“And that, Jeff, is how you thought that you could fight us. And that is why we, Krinars and humans, who want to make it work for all of us, want you on our side!”
A few minutes later, Leslie gestured toward a clear area of asphalt with her fabricator. “Make a Greyhound bus.” There was the familiar buzzing hum of nanos at work. A large, ivory-toned, tubular object with rounded ends started forming in front of them. The former Resistance members were looking expectantly from Leslie to Sornan and back. Sornan explained, “This is one of the larger transport ships we have. Fabricators are flexible. We can make our requests in any language and call objects anything we like. We can do that because our thoughts matter as much as the verbal command. Leslie chose that name because it is the name of a familiar human vehicle that serves the same purpose.”
Rose looked intently at Sornan. “A fabricator can read your thoughts?”
Sornan grinned at her. “They won’t be doing that any time soon Rose. Think of fabricators and some of our other interactive technology as being like one of your intelligent, loyal and well-trained pets, it picks up on the countless signs you give off, and is likely to know what you want better than you know yourself.”
Rose stared at him for a moment and then said, “Wow.”
Leslie walked toward the new ship and the wall in front of her dissolved. She grinned over her shoulder. “All aboard!”
She spent a few minutes letting everyone experience floating planks and enjoying their blissful expressions. Then she said quietly, “Take me to the Arizona Center, the Orientation Center.” Less than three minutes after that, the “greyhound bus” landed on the ground outside the Orientation Center.
Jaymira met the group in the hall outside her office. “Hello, my name is Jaymira. I am a human biology apprentice. I am going to give each of you a brief examination. Should anything come up that looks as if it might be a problem, I will see you again for a more thorough procedure to correct that problem.”
After Jaymira finished with them, Leslie told them, “The mind expert here will meet with each of you to implant the same universal translator that everyone both here and on Krina already has. You could say it's the most basic badge, making you a part of our society.”
After the translators had been inserted and tested, Leslie led them to a small classroom.
Larkon, with Dana standing at his side, was waiting for them. As the leader of the Guardians in Arizona and the leader in overall charge of the Human Partner Program, this was a big moment for him. He looked over the nine humans. Speaking in Krinar, he first introduced himself, then said, “Over the next three days you will train with a variety of different Guardians. Part of that process is to impart basic information to you. We will also be looking for a suitable partner for your long-term training. Leslie might have told you about that training. It's five hundred days under a mentor. A fully trained Guardian, who may, or may not, become your partner for the rest of your career. As I did with Leslie and Sornan, my goal is to make up teams of a human and a K. That is how we integrate more humans into our society, and it is how we let the humans know that we are working for their benefit, as much as for the Krinar.”
It was Dana’s turn to speak. “Hello. I’m Dana, John’s sister. I’ve spent the past three years living on my own on Krina. My job is to teach you to negotiate the Krinar Society and avoid making faux pas, a job which I should be good at, having made most of them.”
The next day Leslie and Sornan went to the Career Development Placement Office at Columbia University. Professor Barbara Mason paled at the sight of Sornan. Leslie smiled at the other woman, besides Rose and herself, who had been a Resistance leader. “Relax, Barbara, the war’s over and everybody won!”
“Leslie?” The older woman sounded uncertain.
She laughed. “It’s me. I’ve been captured, fallen in love, been through counseling with our spy, Mia Stalis, who deserves an A by the way. After that I spoke in front of the Krinar Council at the K Center in Costa Rica, got engaged to Sornan here, also I’m being trained as a Guardian. Rose and some of the guys are doing that too.”
“So, I’m not in trouble?” Barbara sounded like she was in a more than mild state of shock. But she needed to make sure that was the case.
“Nothing at all like that,” Sornan said speaking for the first time. “We are actually here to talk to you about placement opportunities for some of the students.”
Professor Mason took a deep calming breath, putting on a more professional manor. “Okay, what kind of placements are you offering?”
Sornan said, “Recently our Elders decided to end something called the ‘Non-Interference Mandate.’ The result is we are now able to share our technology with humans.”
Barbara stared at the two of them. “You… you're serious. After more than five years, we’ve asked you, we’ve begged you, for some of your medicine to help those we couldn’t help. Finally, we risked everything in an all-out attempt to fight you and all you did was shine most of us like naughty children and tell our governments to come get us and take us home… Do you know how I feel right now? Do you, you fucking K bastard?”
Sornan said, “I do know, Barbara. We had no choice about that, but I’m still so very sorry.”
Leslie stepped up to Barbara taking the older woman’s hand. “Please sit down, Professor Mason. I felt like you do, until they explained it to me. I know it’s a shock. Please let Sornan and me explain it to you.”
Leslie told her how Korum’s petition to the Elders on behalf of Mia’s family had resulted in them lifting the Non-Interference Mandate for everyone. The Krinar were now permitted to freely share their technology. And they very much wanted to do so.
Sornan picked up the story, “The problem with doing that is we have a very small population on Earth, in fact generally. Therefore we need to start training humans to understand our technology, so they can share it with others. The internships we offer do not have a direct connection to anyone's course of study. Though they do bare relationships with some of them.
“For example, human biology covers the same area of knowledge that a pre-med, or a medical student might learn, but with a very different approach. In a similar way, design covers the same type of knowledge as one of your software engineers, but in design it’s about working with placement of individual atoms in patterns at the atomic level rather than computer code. Neither internship would have any direct application to the field your student is pursuing. However, I don't think your students’ career would be harmed in any way by taking that internship. Provided they still wanted to pursue that career. After they see how we do things.”
Professor Mason looked uncertain. “Why wouldn't they want to pursue a career they came here to study for?”
“Because,” Sornan said, “we want to teach humans our technology. More we want humans to teach our technology. There are too few of us to do it alone.”
“See, the war’s over, everybody won!” Leslie grinned.
Professor Mason looked at her. “I get that, Leslie. So, can the two of you tell me how this is going to work?”
Leslie said, “We would like to set up a Krinar Career Day, here on Campus. Larkon, the Guardian Commander in overall charge of the Human Partner Program, has a team of apprentices knowledgeable in ten major technical and societal disciplines. Both of which will be critical as we try to bring our societies together.
“They will set up tables with literature and make themselves available to talk with students. The two of us,” she indicated Sornan, “will help with that and provide security along with campus police, should there be any need for that.”
The older woman said, “I am sort of worried about that, Leslie. The Resistance isn’t going to attack. But there are groups of crazies out there who would love to go after a group of Ks. They can take care of themselves, but you’re not a K.”
Leslie smiled. “Thanks, Professor. I’m not a K. That’s true, but I am a Guardian in training, and equipped as one. Something could happen, it’s true. But the way I’m equipped I could face down a platoon of US Marines, and make them all take a nice nap. We will be okay, and we’ll keep the students okay as well.”
She paused. “Barbara, I want you to know that all this is available to you and your family as well.” The older woman thought about what Leslie was saying. “I’m already middle-aged, it’s late to start learning a K technology isn’t it?”
Leslie smiled. “Not if you get young again, Barbara. K human biology is superior to our medicine in every single respect, but the most amazing one is that it reverses any aging that occurred since you reached physical maturity, and you become biologically immortal!”
Barbara stared at her. “Are you… you’re saying…” She could not get the words out.
Leslie extended her right hand and brushed her knuckles gently over Barbara’s cheek. “Yes, I’m saying that. In a few decades the human race will be as long lived as the Krinar. Larkon, the Guardian Commander of the Arizona K Center has us working as hard as we can to find people who can learn K technology in general, but especially human biology. People will die before everyone’s life can be extended, and we can’t go back for anyone who does.”
Barbara nodded. “When you pick up the summer interns to take them to their placements, my husband and I will come with you.”
Leslie smiled. “Good!”
After their first twelve days of orientation, John and the other former Resistance fighters returned to New York. They had used their intervening free days to go outside of the shields and call their friends. When Leslie sat down with them to compare notes on the expected crowd, she realized they would greatly exceed the capacity of the town house.
She called Barbara Mason for help with this. Barbara suggested a teacher’s union hall that would hold a large crowd. She provided Leslie with contact information for the union secretary.
She reserved the hall for this coming Saturday.
This coming Friday was the Krinar Career Day they had set up with Barbara. Professor Mason told them they could land their ships on the roof of the conference center.
In the room downstairs the maintenance crew had set a row of tables, going down the right side of the room and looping around the back.
Snatching pride of place, Jaymira promptly sat down behind the first table. A tall, slender, very attractive black woman who looked to be in her early twenties sat down in front of her. “Hi,” she said. Indicating the sticky label on her blouse. “I’m Amanda.”
“Hello, Amanda.” She smiled. “My name is Jaymira. I’m a human biology apprentice. My human friends think of me as a doctor.”
“Really? I’ve come to the right table. I’m in pre-med!”
“That’s wonderful. What we can teach you won’t help you with what you’re learning here, but it’s always good to see another path.” She grinned. “And should you ever…”
”DEMONS AND DEMON WORSHIPERS!
GO TO THE HELL THAT WAITS FOR YOU!”
There was a sudden, overwhelming sound of full automatic gunfire. Three bizarrely dressed men, armed with AK 47s had suddenly stepped out of a storage room. They were now firing into the crowd, with efficient short bursts.
Leslie was already running to put herself in front of the guns. Bullets were striking her shield, contributing their kinetic energy, and dropping harmlessly to the floor. There were a lot of bullets. Probably the idiots were especially offended by the sight of a human girl dressed in the garments of the hated demon Guardians, she thought. Their hatred of her was also preventing a lot of damage! Leslie noted with the corner of her eye that Sornan was also blocking the fanatics. She extended her finger to end this. But, as she watched, Sornan quickly stunned all three of the sick bastards.
She heard the campus police running up behind her. She turned seeing that all of them had weapons drawn.
Leslie shouted, “They are secured! Put away your guns, we need them handcuffed and arrested.”
She started back toward the Krinar Career Day crowd. The students were bunched at the far side of the room. The Ks were with them, trying to calm the situation and tend to anyone hurt.
Then she spotted her friend. Jaymira knelt over a young black woman, whose blouse was drenched with blood. Jaymira was holding something to the woman’s neck. With a second look, Leslie saw that not all of the blood was from the woman Jaymira was helping. The right side of her face was bleeding profusely. The bones in her jaw clearly broken and out of place.
“Oh my God!” Leslie started to kneel in front of Jaymira. The K shook her head. Willing through her pain to force her broken jaw to obey her, she managed to mouth, “Help humans.”
Leslie nodded. “Alright. I'll check back with you soon.” Leslie found two students with superficial injuries. One had scrapes and bruises from a fall. The other student’s upper arm had been grazed by a bullet. Both of these were quickly treated with her jansha device.
The police had been called and had arrived, wanting to take statements. To their pleasant surprise, Sornan and the apprentices were perfectly willing to offer statements along with the students.
Leslie made her way back to Jaymira. By this time, Jaymira had healed, but she hadn’t moved. She was still holding her healing device against the young woman’s neck. Jaymira said, “This might take a little time.”
A team of paramedics came into the room with a stretcher. They headed for Jaymira and her patient.
One of them said, “Thank you for caring for her, ma'am. We can take her from here.”
Jaymira said, “No, you can’t. Amanda’s spinal cord was severed, and her jugular was cut by the same bullet. I have her stabilizing, but if she is moved, she will probably die, and she would definitely be paralyzed.”
One of the paramedics took a step forward, Jaymira said, “Leslie, please protect us.”
Leslie stepped in front of the paramedic. “The last thing I want to do is stun you guys. I want you to back off now.”
The man took a step back. “Listen. I know Amanda Burke. Her dad works with us. Can I call him?”
Leslie nodded. “Of course. Just don’t interfere with what Jaymira is doing. Krinar medicine is so far ahead of what we humans have that it’s hard to imagine. She’s in good hands.”
Less than five minutes later, a tall black man, dressed in a paramedic’s uniform, who seemed to be in his mid-forties, ran into the room. His anxious face turned to grief at the sight of his daughter and all the blood. “Amanda! Baby! What happened? What happened? Oh my God, my God.”
Leslie stepped in front of him. “Amanda is going to be okay, Mr. Burke. The K who's treating her is very good at what she does. She assures us that Amanda will be fine.”
Still staring at his daughter, but a little more composed, the man said, “Who are you? What's going on here?”
“My name is Leslie Roberts. I am a Guardian in training. The K is Jaymira. She is a human biology apprentice and one of my oldest friends among them. She says that Amanda will be fine. She would not say that if it weren't true.”
“Wha… what happened?” Amanda’s eyes were flitting around. “Dad?”
Mr. Burke pushed past Leslie and sank to his knees in front of his daughter. “Are you alright?” He put out a trembling hand to touch her as if to assure himself that she was real.
"I'm okay, Dad.” She looked up at the K. “What happened, Jaymira? Oh man, you look like shit!”
The K grinned at her. “Like you can talk girl! Showers and new clothes for both of us, soon!”
Jaymira said, “Mr. Burke, you can join us for this also, let's find some chairs so we can sit down and talk about what happened.”
Over the next half hour, the K explained how the bullet had shattered the vertebrae in Amanda’s neck, nicked her jugular and severed her spinal cord. Using her advanced jansha device, most of that damage had been quickly fixed. However, reconnecting her spinal cord had been a delicate and time-consuming process. However, Amanda was now quite literally as good as new. Jaymira said, “So, Amanda, this was more of an introduction to our medical technology than you expected. Are you still interested in an internship?”
The girl looked at her. “I'm interested,” Amanda said, “in doing nothing but this for the rest of my life.”
Jaymira grinned. "Don't say that so easily, Amanda. The rest of your life is likely to be a very long time indeed!"
Close to a dozen students had managed to get interested in K technology prior to the attack by the fanatics. Barbara Mason planned to have a follow-up Krinar Career Day for the following week, since so few students had actually been interviewed.
The following day, the meeting at the union hall for former members of the Resistance was a massive success! Letting trainees call their friends from the K Centers turned out to be a very useful technique!
The murderous attack by the fanatics, even as ineffective as it had been, had none the less, painted all of the anti-K groups with a very sticky brush. All the more so, given a cell phone video of Jaymira, clearly in agony from a bloody disfiguring facial wound, ignoring her pain while working to bring a wounded human girl back from the brink of death.
Not to mention the stunning news that the Krinars were willing, in fact eager, to share their technology with humans!
Larkon’s efforts to supplement the Guardians, and recruit human trainees for the various K technologies had influenced Krinar thinking across the planet. Orientation Centers were built in Hawaii and Thailand as well as in Lenkarda itself. The other six K Centers were planning Orientation Centers as well.
Leslie and Sornan lay together in the relaxed tenderness that generally followed their lovemaking. Sornan said, “Things are moving faster, a lot faster than we ever expected. Aren't they?”
Leslie smiled. “Are you about to ask me what I think you're going to ask me?”
“If you think I’m going to ask you if we should get married now, then yes.”
Leslie pulled him closer. “Yes, my love, yes!”