Page 59 of Human Required
TWENTY-FOUR
AEON
I was checking on Helix’s vitals early that evening when the alarms suddenly screamed to life. My head snapped toward her bed where her body went rigid, her back arching off the mattress.
“Olivia!” I shouted, my voice projecting through the open doorway.
Olivia rushed in, her wavy brown hair flying behind her. Her eyes widened as she took in Helix’s convulsing form.
“She’s seizing again,” Olivia said, already moving to Helix’s side. “It’s postpartum eclampsia. Her blood pressure’s through the roof.” Her fingers flew across the monitor controls. “We need to stabilize her now or she could have a stroke.”
My heart thundered. “What do you need?” I asked, already reaching for the emergency medications.
“Magnesium sulfate,” Olivia said, placing an oxygen mask over Helix’s face. “And something to bring her pressure down immediately.”
I handed her the magnesium, watching as she administered it through Helix’s IV. “Our standard antihypertensives aren’t working fast enough,” I said, scanning through Helix’s chart. “Her cybernetic system is metabolizing them too quickly.”
Olivia’s brow furrowed as she worked. “We need something her body won’t immediately process.”
A memory surfaced—something I’d cataloged during a jungle expedition but hadn’t fully processed. “The crimson fern,” I said suddenly. “It grows near the eastern waterfall. The compounds in its roots have vasodilatory properties that...”
“That might bypass her enhanced metabolism,” Olivia finished, her eyes lighting up. “If we extract the alkaloids and combine them with the magnesium treatment?—”
“I’ll go get it.” I was already moving toward the door.
“Hurry,” she called after me. “We don’t have much time.”
I sprinted through the colony’s central plaza, my feet barely touching the ground. The jungle’s edge loomed ahead, a wall of emerald and shadow in the early evening light. I plunged into the underbrush, navigating the familiar path to the eastern falls.
When I finally returned to the medical bay, breathless with fern roots clutched in my hand, Olivia had Helix stabilized but still critical.
“Her pressure’s still climbing,” Olivia said, taking the roots from me. “Let’s hope this works.”
Together we processed the roots, extracting the compounds and preparing an infusion. Olivia’s skilled hands worked alongside mine, our movements synchronized as if we’d been partners for years rather than mere weeks.
“Now we wait,” Olivia said after administering the solution.
I stood beside her, our shoulders touching as we watched the monitors. The warmth of her proximity spread through me, a feeling both increasingly familiar and essential.
Slowly, miraculously, Helix’s numbers began to stabilize.
“It’s working,” Olivia whispered, relief flooding her voice.
Pride swelled in my chest—not just for saving Helix, but for what we’d accomplished together. Human ingenuity and cyborg knowledge, perfectly intertwined.
“We did it,” I said, my hand finding Olivia’s. “Together.”
Her hand tightened around mine, and the connection felt more significant than any medical breakthrough.
The medical bay’s sterile lights suddenly felt too harsh and too clinical for the moment we were sharing. Her green eyes met mine, reflecting something that transcended our doctor-student relationship, and our captor-captive history.
“Let’s get some air,” I suggested, my voice rough with emotion I was still learning to process. “Helix is stable. Laine can monitor her vitals.”
Olivia nodded, her cheeks flushed with the lingering adrenaline of our success. I guided her through the medical bay’s corridors to the front doors. My hand rested lightly against her back—a gesture that felt instinctive rather than calculated these days.
The night air hit us with a refreshing coolness as we stepped outside. Planet Alpha’s twin moons hung low in the sky, bathing the jungle’s edge in silvery-blue light. The colony’s buildings formed a scattered constellation of their own against the dark backdrop.
“It’s beautiful out here tonight,” Olivia whispered, her face upturned to the expanse above. “I’ve been here for weeks, but I haven’t really seen this place until now.”
