"Prologue - Inserted," Doc read.
The Healer's name was Fords Deep Waters.
"Wow. They come up with the craziest names these days," Kyle chuckled.
Because he was a soul, by nature he was all things good: compassionate, patient, honest, virtuous, and full of love. Anxiety was an unusual emotion for Fords Deep Waters.
Irritation was even rarer. However, because Fords Deep Waters lived inside a human body, irritation was sometimes inescapable.
"He seems like a nice guy," Doc commented before reading again.
As the whispers of the healing students buzzed in the far corner of the operation room, his lips pressed together into a tight line.
The expression felt out of place on a mouth more often given to smiling.
Darren, his regular assistant, saw the grimace and patted his shoulder.
"Darren Criss!" Melanie squealed. Everyone in the room gave her a confused look. "From Glee? The lead Warbler? The guy with the dark, overly gelled hair? The one with the angelic voice?"
Still baffled, the rest of the room gave her blank stares. Melanie made a noise of frustration before continuing, "No one? Gosh, what did you people watch on television?"
"Oh," Ian eventually said with a tone of recognition. "He's the one with, um... what's-his-face... the really flamboyant guy. Calvin?"
"Kurt," Melanie corrected, "but kudos to you for knowing at least something about him. Unlike the ignorant imbeciles surrounding us."
"How the hell do you even know that, Ian?" Jared asked.
The man in question simply shrugged. "My mom used to watch it. I'd join her for an episode or two every once in a while."
"Wait. Is that the show with the choir nerds who pranced on stage the whole time?" Kyle implored condescendingly. Melanie rolled her eyes.
"First off, they do not prance on stage the whole time. There's an actual plot to the show. Second, even if they do prance on stage for some part of the episode, it's still incredible. Their singing is spot on, and Darren Criss is hotter than a freshly brewed cup of coffee."
"Hey!" Jared cried with indignance.
"But he doesn't hold a candle to you, Jar," she amended, placing a hand on his arm.
"Now that you've settled that, let's go on," Jeb announced, gesturing for Doc to keep reading.
"They're just curious, Fords," He said quietly.
"An insertion is hardly an interesting or challenging procedure."
"But it was for us," Jeb mumbled, but Doc ignored his comment and continued.
"Any soul on the street could perform it in an emergency. There is nothing for them to learn by observing today." Fords was surprised by to hear the sharp edge marring his normally soothing voice.
"They've never seen a grown human before," Darren said.
"But aren't they grown humans?" Jared asked.
Fords raised one eyebrow. "Are they blind to each other's faces? Do they not have mirrors?"
Everyone in the room chuckled.
"You know what I mean - a wild human. Still soulless. One of the insurgents."
Fords looked at the girl's unconscious body laid out facedown on the operating table. Pity swelled his heart as he remembered the condition her poor, broken body had been in when the Seekers had brought her to the Healing Facility. Such pain she'd endured...
Melanie and Wanda both winced at the memory.
Of course she was perfect now - completely healed. Fords had seen to that.
"She looks the same as any of us," Fords murmured to Darren.
"We all have human faces. And when she wakes up, she will be one of us, too."
"It's just exciting for them, that's all."
"The soul we implant today deserves more respect than to have her host body gawked at this way. She'll already have far too much to deal with as she acclimates. It's not fair to put her through this"
By this, he did not mean the gawking. Fords heard the sharp edge return to his voice.
Darren patted him again.
"It will be fine. The Seeker needs information and - "
At the word Seeker, Fords gave Darren a look that could only be described as a glare. Darren blinked in shock.
"He glared at him. So what?" Kyle wondered.
"They're souls, remember, Kyle?" Jared asked, slightly annoyed at the older O'Shea's stupidity.
"Oh. Right."
"Idiot," Ian muttered, but Kyle heard him anyways.
"You got the brains, I got the looks. Remember?" Kyle said while running his fingers through his hair dramatically.
"Actually, I think Ian got both," Wanda stated teasingly.
Everybody else in the room laughed while Kyle glared at Wanda. Ian then pulled Wanda into a kiss.
"Get a room you guys!" Jared exclaimed.
Wanda blushed and Doc continued.
"I'm sorry," Fords apologized at once. "I didn't mean to react so negatively. It's just that I fear for this soul."
His eyes moved to the cryotank on its stand beside the table. The light was a steady, dull red, indicating that it was occupied and in hibernation mode.
"This soul was specifically picked for this assignment," Darren said soothingly. "She is exceptional among our kind - braver than most. Her lives speak for themselves. I think she would volunteer, if it were possible to ask her."
The color of Wanda's cheeks darkened.
"Would you volunteer, Wanda?" Jeb asked curiously.
"I'm not sure," Wanda replied. "Probably."
"Who among us would not volunteer if asked to do something for the greater good? But is that really the case here? Is the greater good served by this? The question is not her willingness, but what it is right to ask any soul to bear."
The Healing students were discussing the hibernating soul as well. Fords could hear the whispers clearly; their voices rising now, getting louder with their excitement.
"She's lived on six planets."
"I heard seven."
"I heard she's never lived two terms as the same host species."
"Is that possible?"
"She's been almost everything. A Flower, a Bear, a Spider - "
"A See Weed, a Bat - "
"Even a Dragon!"
"I don't believe it - not even seven planets."
"At least seven planets. She started on the Origin."
"Really? The Origin?"
Wanda blushed even more.
"Seems like we got a celebrity here with us," Jeb teased.
"I'm not really a celebrity. I'm just a normal soul," She mumbled, looking down.
"You're my soul," Ian said as he kissed the top of her head.
"Quiet, please!" Fords interrupted. "If you cannot observe professionally and silently, then I will have to ask you to remove yourselves."
Abashed, the six students fell silent and edged away from one another.
"Let's get on with this, Darren."
Everything was prepared. The appropriate medicines were laid out beside the human girl. Her long dark hair was secured beneath a surgical cap, exposing her slender neck. Deeply sedated, she breathed slowly in and out. Her sun - browned skin had barely a mark to show for her... accident.
"Begin thaw sequence now, please, Darren."
The gray - haired assistant was already waiting beside the cryotank, his hand resting on the dial. He flipped the safety back and spun down on the dial. The red light atop the small gray cylinder began to pulse, flashing faster as the seconds passed, changing color.
Fords concentrated on the unconscious body; he edged the scalpel through the skin at the base of the subject's skull with small, precise movements, and then sprayed on the medication that stilled the excess flow of blood before he widened the fissure.
"Remind me to get some of that on the next raid," Jared said.
Fords delved delicately beneath the neck muscles, careful not to injure them, exposing the pale bones at the top of the spinal column.
Melanie shuddered at the description. After all, it was her body he was sticking his hands into.
"The soul is ready, Fords," Darren informed him.
"So am I. Bring her."
Fords felt Darren at his elbow and knew without looking that his assistant would be prepared, his hand stretched out and waiting; they had worked together for many years now. Fords held the gap open.
"Send her home," he whispered.
Darren's hand moved into view, the silver gleam of an awaking soul in his cupped palm.
Fords never saw an exposed soul without being struck by the beauty of it.
"Who wouldn't be?" Ian murmured.
This brought back memories for Wanda, and probably Ian, too.
I held you in my hand, Wanderer. And you were so beautiful, Ian said to her when she was first inserted into Pet.
She smiled at the memory.
The soul shone in the brilliant lights of the operating room, brighter than the reflective silver instrument in his hand. Like a living ribbon, she twisted and rippled, stretching, happy to be free of the cryotank. Her thin, feathery attachments, nearly a thousand of them, billowed softly like pale silver hair. Though they were all lovely, this one seemed particularly graceful to Fords Deep Waters.
Ian wrapped his arms around Wanda.
He was not alone in his reaction. He heard Darren's soft sigh, heard the admiring murmurs of the students.
Gently, Darren placed the small glistening creature inside the opening Fords had made in the human's neck. The soul slid smoothly into the offered space, weaving herself into the alien anatomy. Fords admired the skill with which she possessed her new home. Her attachments wound tightly into place around the nerve centers, some elongating and reaching deeper to where he couldn't see, under and up into the brain, the optic nerves, the ear canals. She was very quick, very firm in her movements. Soon, only one small segment of her glistening body was visible.
"Well done," he whispered to her, knowing that she could not hear him. The human girl was the one with ears, and she slept soundly.
It was a routine matter to finish the job. He cleaned and healed the wound, applied the salve that sealed the incision closed behind the soul, and then brushed the scar - softening powder across the line left on her neck.
"Perfect, as usual," said the assistant, who, for some reason unfathomable to Fords, had never made a change from his host's human name, Darren.
Fords sighed. "I regret this day's work."
"Why?" Doc and Jeb said simultaneously.
"You're only doing your duty as a Healer."
"This is a rare occasion when Healing creates an injury."
Darren began to clean up the workstation. He didn't seem to know how to answer. Fords was filling his Calling. That was enough for Darren.
But not enough for Fords Deep Waters,
"Why?" Doc asked again.
who was a true Healer to the core of his being. He gazed anxiously at the human female's body, peaceful in slumber, knowing that this peace would be shattered as soon as she awoke. All the horror of this young woman's end would be borne by the innocent soul he'd just placed inside her.
As he leaned over the human and whispered in her ear, Fords wished fervently that the soul inside could hear him now.
"Good luck, little wanderer, good luck. How I wish you didn't need it."
"Thank you," Wanda said as if Fords could hear her now.
"That's the end of the chapter. Who wants to read next?" Doc asked.
"I'll read," Jared answered, grabbing the book out of Doc's hands eagerly. This should be fun.