In a galaxy far far...(you get the idea), a ripple forms in space, and in a very ungraceful looking manner, a solar system seems to pour out of it, and after a few minutes it looks like it always belonged there.
Voices can be heard outside of Melora's hospital room. One of them is quite angry and growls, "How can you say he "saved" us LaGrange? We're in the wrong galaxy because of your son!"
LaGrange Skygazer has apparently had enough and growls, "Listen Starblaze, you know what was happening to our world. Can you think of ANY way we could have kept from being ripped apart? Can you?"
LaGrange nearly roars as he looks at the group with their complaints, "Can ANY of you think of anything that would have kept us from losing Tharhome? ANYTHING?"
Silence falls as several pairs of eyes avoid LaGrange's. When no one responds, the elderly Chirr'T'Thar purrs, "Fine then. We're in a different galaxy. We can just look at it as a new market to develop. Our world and our people are safe. And my foolhardy son paid the price."
Starblaze looks less than satisfied, but concedes the point. However, he's not about to let up and purrs, "Maybe he did save us, but the question remains, what is he? He's no Chirr'T'Thar. When they found him on the mining station, they thought it was someone's lost cub. After they picked him up, he was suddenly Copernicus again, and now...now he's ...that thing! He's no Chirr'T'Thar, and he should be removed from the regulator position! He's a freak!"
The other felitaurs do not even get a chance to respond, with a speed and strength unexpected in an elder, LaGrange whirls and with an incredible anger, slams Starblaze into the metal walls several times in a matter of seconds, then hamstrings the arrogant males back legs with his wingspurrs and roars, "My son nearly died to save your worthless hide! Even the council says he is a Chirr'T'Thar, and if you ever say otherwise again, I'll show you how I've kept this position for so long, and your mates will have to contract out for another male!"
A female voice cuts through the seconds of quiet that come afterwards. "Gentlemen, must I remind you that this is a hospital, not a debate ring...." then a pause where she must be eyeballing the work just recently done, "Nor a fighting ring either." Annoyed and concerned, certainly.
Starblaze lies there, battered, bruised and bleeding from the back of his hind legs, the rest of the felitaurs sufficiently cowed now. They also realize, that as much as they hate being in a new galaxy, the alternative was worse, so they file away.
LaGrange calms a bit and purrs somewhat calmly, "I'm not about to let a challenge to my son's right to stay on Tharhome and be Chareka's regulator go unanswered. Not after everything he and his mate have gone through."
Starblaze passes out at this point, having learned that being younger is not always an advantage.
Imbri frowns a bit then lifts her chin a bit. "That is understandable, however, this is not a place for ... " A short pause as she bends down to access the damages and attempt to stop the bleeding. "Medic team, to my position. Gurney, clotters and level three med-sys provisions. Stat."
LaGrange hmmfs, "It's not that bad, his healing factor should be able to handle it. More importantly, how is my son, and his life mate, Melora?"
Imbri checks the team as it arrives then brushes her hands off on the white apron on her front. She says quietly, "Your son is recovering well, probably systematic shock. Melora... she's.. we're not sure. Stable, but that's all we can tell."
LaGrange nods and purrs, "Can I go in to talk with them for a bit?"
LaGrange notes with some relief that the nurse is kind enough not to make any freak comments.
Imbri nods her head, "For a short time. He still tires out somewhat quickly."
Imbri pulls a chart datapad from the entry way as she enters, leaving room for the patient's father to 'enter' first. She glances over it and nods a couple times, marking a couple of spots as she nods.
LaGrange nods and pads into the hospital room, whose floor is one contiguous mattress. His son's mate is lying there, naked in a way no felitaur of any sort should be, and his son, or what's left of him, is sitting there watching her. He clears his throat and softly purrs, "How are you cub?"
A large winged snow leopard, still missing most of his fur and wing feathers, turns to look at LaGrange with very tired and resigned eyes. After a moment he purrs, "Other than being stuck in this form again and having flushed my home system to another galaxy and having the love of my life in a coma, I guess I'm OK."
The elder felitaur's whiskers twitch at that and he hmmfs, "You saved the lives of 1.8 million Chirr'T'Thar and fixed space so warp drives work again. Your form...well, with the type of things you had to do, it could have been worse."
LaGrange looks at Melora and purrs, "And I promise you, we'll do whatever we can for her."
LaGrange hesitates and then purrs, "What will she think when she..sees you this way?"
Imbri pads quietly over and unobtrusively tends towards the silent female form on the floor. Vitals, stats... and notes to the chart of course. Routine at this point.
Copernicus's ears flick a bit and he purrs, "She's seen me this way once before. I'd rather have her alive and leaving me than sitting like this."
LaGrange nods and purrs, "Well, you realize you are in a rather odd position?"
Copernicus nods, "I did end up keeping the solar system from being destroyed, but we're now in a very distant unknown galaxy. I used Uncle Otto's books on magic and his leather pouch to save us, and now my form is..unstable. I assume this is giving the council fits?"
Imbri turns the prone felitaur now, moving the limbs and wings as to keep them freely moving. She wraps blankets and pillows about her torso for stability then marks a few lines more on the data chart.
LaGrange closes his eyes and nods, "Officially, you are a hero, and even Uncle Otto's name has finally been cleared. Unofficially, folks are becoming scared of you and don't know what to do with someone who can punt a solar system this far."
Copernicus nods, "And of course the fact that very little of that was me is not being believed? That and I think I burned out what little abilities I ever had to manipulate those energies? Surely that should calm them down."
Imbri mutters quietly under her breath. "I'd worry more about keeping him on my side.." Yes, a nurse with attitude and opinion, and lack of subtlety.
The snow leopard blinks and looks rather sad, "I am Chirr'T'Thar, and regulator of Chareka. When it comes to my fellow Chirr'T'Thar Imbri, there are no sides. I would never go against them."
LaGrange just watches Imbri quietly.
Imbri looks up then twitches both her ears forward. She says, "Perhaps it is what you know. All I say is that they're too busy looking for a burr in their loins to notice that they've just been helped out of the thistles." She shrugs, indifferent and moves to start rubbing a salve into the wings spread out before her.
Copernicus nearly smiles at that, though his face is less flexible in this form. He also watches Melora and Imbri intently.
LaGrange chuckles, "Well put Imbri. Copernicus, as soon as you two are able, it would be best for you to go off world for a while. We need new trade routes anyhow, and as Regulator it would make sense."
Imbri nods her head just a little and glances towards the open doorway a moment. She continues rubbing oil after that moment.
Copernicus nods, "Make sense to get me out of sight for a while, but of course."
LaGrange sighs, "I know it's not fair, but it will blow over. Oh, and here, I thought you'd like this back. Further tests show that the only special property it has left is that it's impossible to hurt it." And with that, he flips a small leather pouch to Copernicus.
Copernicus picks up the bag in his mouth and puts it down in front of him and weeps a little, "Poor Otto. Kicked out because he worked magic, and now he turns out to be our savior. I'll keep your ideas in mind dad. Tell my moms I'm going to be OK?"
LaGrange nods and pads over and gives his son a hug as best he can and pads out of the hospital room, a worried look on his muzzle.
Imbri finishes the salve and checks another item on the datapad. After a moment's glance at the woman she brushes off her hands then levers up to go hang the data chart near the doorway again.
Copernicus leans over and nuzzles Melora's side with his nose and purrs, "Imbri, has anyone found anything to help her yet?"
Imbri glances back again then finally turns all the way about. She looks almost thoughtful for a moment before speaking. A fairly long hesitation. "We've.. I've been seeing and assigned to her medical case. Can I be blunt with you?"
The snow leopard nods, "Please, I have to know if there is any hope."
Imbri reaches over and slides the door to the care ward shut. With a nod she says, "Bodily, at least in functionality, she's stable. I don't think there's much chance of losing her at this point... however... bodily, she's still unstable. She's gained considerable mass with glucose infusions, and it seems her fur is just starting to come back in, stubble all over. Her wings too... have shown some repair. But... I don't think it's going to stop there. I've... theories...
Copernicus blinks, "What theories?"
Imbri looks towards the door then hesitates again. With a sigh and a lack of the attitude she'd held earlier she says, "They aren't popular with staff, but no one else has anything better. I think she's ... her entire form, is evolving at an incredibly high rate of speed."
Imbri says, "What would normally take a species millennia to change, she's doing in the span of a few weeks. I, well, have no idea what's causing it."
Copernicus looks startled, not so much by what Imbri said, but his memories of what Melora said, how the dark howlers took the children away because they were..changing? Evolving? With a tired swallow the snow leopard purrs, "Evolving into what? And any idea how to stop it? Should we stop it?"
Imbri holds both hands out in front of her. "Into... I don't know. The new fur showing through is stark white, and the scales harder, more mineral than the samples we retrieved. Almost a metal, in a way. Should we stop it? I don't know.. what happens at the end of a species evolution? Does evolution have an ending? Her cells can't handle it, that's certain. We're barely holding those together as it is..." She seems to leave something out for the moment, obviously.
Copernicus blinks, "We? With that level of cellular change, what could you possibly be using to hold her cellular integrity together?"
Imbri holds both hands out, "Twine and glue, I'd wonder. The .. intricities are a bit difficult to go through. We're doing our best. As for theories," she says quietly, "I think... I might have something."
Imbri adds, quickly, "I think."
The scraggly looking snow leopard starts struggling to his feet as he growls, "By the first mother's libido, what? Tell me, she can't wait much longer!
Imbri holds both hands up, defensive as she says, "In her state, she *could*, she's stable. But... what I'm aiming at is so, well, logistically speaking improbable it's possible it won't do a thing. But it's that there's too much co-incidence for me to leave it alone. Settle *down*."
Copernicus glares at Imbri and purrs, "It's my mate who's suffering here. I'm tired of having people tap dance around me cause they're afraid I'll turn them inside out again."
Imbri turns about to pull the datapad again and pads over toward the two, nearly pushing the male back into at least a sitting position. "You're the burr, remember? I'm not afraid. I figure anything that we come out in one piece from isn't something I'm going to worry about."
Copernicus takes a deep breath and sighs as he finally lies down again and purrs, "That's rather forgiving of you, but it doesn't help Melora."
Imbri shrugs, "This might not either. Here, take a look at these numbers." Deft fingers dance on the datapad, pulling up numbers from her first day. "We tried a few things, but nothing helped. Here.. " and she points to a time very close to the moment the solar system was flushed, "Is where the line suddenly stabilizes." A pause then she glances over for a moment, "We hadn't applied any attempts at that moment. She, by all rights, shouldn't have suddenly stabilized."
Copernicus nods, "Her race is a magical one, and the excess of magic she's been exposed to may be causing the mutations. It makes sense that it slowed down when the local space was stabilized, but why hasn't it stopped?"
Imbri takes a deep breath and says, "I _think_" stressing that phrase, "that somehow .. well.. I'd heard that there was a special name for the things you did.. a type of magic?"
Copernicus nods, "Like my uncle Otto, I have, or had, the tendency to attract chaotic magical energy. Chaos magic."
Imbri nods her head, "That's what I thought I'd heard... but, I wanted to hear it from you." A glance at the sleeping felitaur and she says in a softer voice, "I think that her cure is that type of chaos. Her body is building and rebuilding at a continuous rate. Order, in a way. Chaos is the opposite, a randomization of sorts. I think.. and feel free to correct me, that whatever magic that is what she is, is restructuring her."
Imbri is looking away, almost ashamed for coming up with such a concept. She may be open-minded, but this is culturally hard for her to actually say out loud.
Copernicus ponders for a moment and nods, "That tends to make sense somewhat, especially from what little I know of her race. But where do we get chaos magic? I'm lucky to be alive, and I'm pretty burned out otherwise."
Imbri flicks both her ears back a moment then shakes her head, "You've got me there. You're the expert on that type of thing... I was hoping, maybe you..." she trails off then puts a hand over her muzzle. With a sigh she shakes her head, "day dreams... I don't know what's fully causing it. Theories and daydreams are all I can give you."
Copernicus blinks and purrs, "You were hoping I might what?"
Imbri swallows then shrugs, "I don't know... irradiate her or whatever it's called with that chaos stuff?"
Imbri gets up and returns the datapad to it's place on the wall. She looks at it a moment then says, "it was a guess, in any case. I'm sure we'll find something to work." She looks at the pad for a few more moments.
Copernicus scritches behind an ear with his hind leg and purrs, "Well, I'm going to need to be in much better health before I can even try something like this, and the more traditional methods have not been used with me, for obvious reasons."
Imbri says, "Well, not too many have had to deal with, well, body depletion by magic..."
Copernicus tilts his head and looks at Imbri, "It's like any other form of exhaustion, it wears you out, body and soul. And through all of this, I've had almost no physical contact with other Chirr'T'Thar, and you know the effect that has on our health."
Imbri frowns a bit then nods her head. "I do... We, well, weren't sure of a lot of things with your, well, health concerns."
Imbri lowers her head a bit and adds, "and, well, some of the staff members were just as afraid as the council members were. I'm not... but.." She looks, once more, ashamed.
Copernicus looks at Melora for a bit and leans over and kisses her, "I need my health to even try and help her. Am I truly so horrible in this form? Chirr'T'Thar have made love to numerous species, so it must be the fact that I should have a Chirr'T'Thar form that is scaring people? But what?"
Imbri shrugs, "I might be higher up on the technical staff here, but I don't have the tenure or the push other staff do. Staff majority felt it best to wait on that method..."
Copernicus wrinkles his nose and hmms, "Well, seeing as I have yet to be impeached, my authority exceeds theirs. You are a very beautiful female, and my other mates are off working on repairs to their mining station, and Melora is beyond reach right now. I have used this form before, so you have no need to fear me hurting you."
Copernicus pads up and nuzzles Imbri's side, "And Melora needs me healthy if I am to have a hope of helping her."
Imbri glances back over her shoulder then finally laughs. "Now... that helps. I was trained to do my best, now I can." She turns about again, away from the datapad and over to her patient. She then glances towards Melora, thoughtful before brushing her hands over Copernicus' shoulders and flank.
Imbri glances once more over, a frown wrinkling her expression.. 'If only this method would help *her* as well right now..' before turning her whole attention back to the one she can help.
Copernicus spends a pleasant night in the traditions of his race. The love making with Imbri marred only by the regular worries about Melora that cross the young mel's mind. Both his spirits and his health improve as the night progresses.
And from down darkened corridors of the night shift, the sound of both healing and love making echo in the near deserted hallways. No one checks, of course, but then the sounds are normal. As passes late into the night.