Page 14 of Kiss of Fury

“This is a waste of time. I don’t need a doctor!” said the injured one. “Tell her, Doc!” The creatureappeared to be peering at Dr. Twygg, but Verity couldn’t tell because it had eyes all over its face.

“It’s not a bad idea to minimize the blood loss,” Dr. Twygg said.

“I told you so!”

“Come this way,” Dr. Twygg beckoned and then looked at Verity. “You’ll want to observe. If this happens again, you can handle it on your own.”

A severed limb? She considered herself to be a damn good nurse, but reattaching body parts was beyond the scope of her training.

He focused on the aliens again. “Willa, George, this is my new nurse, Verity Vale.”

“Hello,” she said.

“Nice to meet you,” the aliens responded.

“How did this happen?” Dr. Twygg asked as he led the couple to an exam room.

“Willa slammed my arm in the conveyance door.” Multiple orbs glowered on George’s face.

“It was an accident! I thought you’d gotten inside.”

“Obviously, I hadn’t!” The patient crawled onto the exam table.

Dr. Twygg stuck his hands under a sterilizer, and she did the same.At least there’s one piece of equipment I recognize.

“This is a coagulator,” he explained as he pulled an unfamiliar machine attached to a swinging arm over to the patient. “It’s used to staunch bleeding and close external wounds instead of suturing or cauterizing.” He tapped a screen on the device. “You input the patient’s species from the pull-down menu. George is a polypus. You need the species name to adjust the concentration of the beam because what is a serious injury for one species may be minor for another.”

A robo scooted into the room, cleaning up the trail of blood.

“What if you don’t know the species name?” She had no idea what anybody was.

“Ask them.”

“Are there species not listed in the machine?”

“Many.”

“What do you do then?”

“Use your best judgment.” He pointed to a number icon on the screen. “You can adjust the strength of the beam here. The system recommends a one point five for George, since his injury is minor.”

“Like I said!” The patient glowered at his wife.

“Yeah, but now we have another kid.” Willa held the wiggling limb.

“And whose fault is that?” he countered.

“Put junior on the table, too,” Dr. Twygg said.

Junior? What the heck was he talking about?

Willa placed the wiggling, oozing tentacle next to her husband. With the coagulator, Dr. Twygg closed up the bleeding end of the severed limb before training the beam of purple light onto George’s injury. Within a minute, the bleeding ceased, and the wound had closed.

“The area will still be tender for a few days, so treat it gently,” Dr. Twygg said as George slid off the table. The doctor passed the severed tentacle to Willa. “Congratulations!”

“Thanks, Doc.” Willa cradled the squirming limb.

The tentacled couple left the infirmary, arguing about names.

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