Chapter 37: A Resolution
His eyes were giving him unpleasant impressions: two Tellarite nurses, two air-hypos, two sets of hands turning his head to the side when he was wretchedly sick to his stomach. In all his life Cranston Pike had not felt so awful. His head pounded despite all the drugs he was sure they were giving him. Finally, the world seemed to resolve itself into one of everything, and there seemed to be sunlight on the wall from an open window. Daryann Tol stood at his bedside, her pink crest flaring in relief.
"Ah - Cranston. You are awake. I shall get the nurse." When she reappeared, she was accompanied by a different nurse – not the Tellarite – who checked his dressings and nodded sagely.
"W-what's happened? Did everyone get out all right?" Cran was only vaguely remembering how he got here. He was ready to jump out of bed in his agitation to know. He realized it might be days after the flood, for all he knew. "What day is it?"
The nurse said, "Why don't I let your visitor in? You can ask him all the questions." He took the readings from the diagnostic bed's display above him on the wall, spoke a brief entry into the audiochart, and gave him a broad smile as he left.
Tor Srimandan rushed in, relieved. "Whoa, Cran, you had us going last night, but it looks like you'll live, you old space bum." He perched on the edge of a cabinet and gave Cran a professional once-over glance.
"Is everyone all right? Everyone from the Grub? I don't remember anything after…"
"Sure you don't. You got clonked by a falling piece of something hard when the Grub came apart. Everyone got out, yeah. Looks like they'll all be O.K." He briefly told him about Stebit's arm which, under treatment with human orthopedics and Vulcan healing techniques, was already mending well. The healer Sunek had, unfortunately, not been at this infirmary but at another one on the planet. "But we had Shules, his assistant, and T'Lemmi got to help some, too, with the healing trance." Tor sounded proud of his friend and Cran grinned, knowing that anything about T'Lemmi was admirable in Tor's eyes.
Then Tor gave the story of Paul's rescue, not omitting the part that he had heard from Sovian and a few others – how Dibrat had seemingly prolonged Paul's struggle in the water to the point where the younger boy had nearly drowned. "He was pulled in by Tesat and Saavik, and it looks all right for him. He was mostly just scared half to death."
Tor then explained how much work there was to be done, now that the rain had stopped and the warm sunshine was bringing out the rescue crews in Science, Social Science, and Arts complexes, hunting for some people who were still missing. The same search was in progress in the Business and History complexes further north, where flash flooding had also put many lives in danger. As far as Tor knew, there were perhaps forty to fifty people unaccounted for. Almost everyone had some major cleaning-up to do as well. After locating missing friends, getting some part of Akadem back to normal was on the top of everybody's list for the day.
Cran Pike pronounced himself ready to get up and join in some useful activity. "No, you don't," Tor said in alarm. "I'm not a doctor yet, but I say you don't move. Dr. Saines said maybe tomorrow. Or do you want me to go get that nice nurse Dassi to come and give you an enema?"
"You drive a hard bargain," grumbled Pike. He settled his throbbing head back onto the pillow.
"There are more people who want to see you. I'll send them in. Just stay put."
--
Saavik and Luine satisfied the medical staff that they had suffered no ill effects, and immediately called Carinne at Jenner House to report that they were safe. There was still a waist-deep river between the infirmary and their dormitory, and no boats available just for casual travel. Carinne persuaded them that there was no reason to come back that morning. Since the girls, like everyone else from last night's rescue party, were feeling quite tired, they joined their fellow-students on light salvage detail. By Dr. Saines' orders they had all been kept in bed until 1000 hours and then fed an enormous breakfast. Thus fortified, the students set to assessing damage and starting to clean up a bit, since the water had receded about a meter overnight and during the course of the morning. It was a welcome change from classes for most of them.
They donned coveralls and safety hats and set to work under the direction of an Akadem civil engineer who had been dropped at the building from a hoverpatrol. "We're checking every building from top to bottom as soon as possible, to make sure the water hasn't undermined the foundation and make sure all the stress factors have been well handled." Zack Borras was all business. He and his engineers were spread pretty thin under these circumstances; he was glad for some willing hands, even if they were only students. He had plenty for them to do, especially these bright science complex kids… after they cleaned out all the mud. That came first. He would check back after all the water was out of the ground floor.
Saavik and two others helped to check power packs and wall circuits, and to record damage to electronics that they had not been able to move to safety. Selena Dombratty was in charge and gave them the engineer's directions. "Borras said to go ahead – he gave me access to the circuit and power-load data, said we'd probably have it done before the official maintenance engineers get here." She grinned, loving the responsibility. The girls worked side by side. Saavik did not find the notorious Selena quite as outrageous as school rumor had depicted her; what she saw was an extremely competent engineering student. She did talk far too much, but she worked as she did so. They were soon joined by Tesat and Gus and Corvei, whose assignment was to salvage equipment, and by others who were scraping mud from the walls.
Inevitably, the students talked about their common experience of the night before. The doctors' prognoses for Stebit, Cranston, and Paul were recounted in detail; then someone asked, "Hey, anyone seen Lefty?"
Gus snorted. "I have. He's acting insulted, staying over in the nurses' station… as if he'd be any use there."
Ted Alvarez scraped vigorously. "He can't pretend we didn't see him… Sovian didn't, but Fraki and Gobie and everyone in our boat did. He held back, by God, and he didn't do anything. He would've let Paul drown."
"You know how things are between them," Selena pointed out. "It's no secret Dib hates him. I'm just surprised he hasn't tried to do something to Paul before now." There was a chorus of murmured agreement, with only Corvei demurring.
"I don't know how you can be so sure, Ted. After all, didn't you see how good he was at giving orders, how hard he worked rescuing people? He's no coward."
"No, no one said he was," Selena argued.. " Not where anyone else was concerned. Corvei, he froze up and the kid would've drowned if Tesat and Saavik and the others in Ted's boat hadn't been there."
At this point Saavik wished they had not mentioned her name, or Tesat's, either. She wished her own thoughts were not drifting significantly from Dibrat's hesitant behavior, to her own at Tesat's hearing. (Only, you did act, she told herself. You did not let Tesat come to harm.) It was different; there was no logical connection between the two character flaws. She glanced covertly at the Romulan, who was prying warped, loose paneling from a wall where it might present a hazard. Tesat did not look up from her task, nor did she seem at all to acknowledge either Saavik's presence or the conversation in which they had been mentioned. However, it was different now between them…
… Last night, as they waited to be checked by the medical staff, they had sat side by side on a couch in the emergency area. Tesat had said, without preamble, "It was irresponsible of me to allow you and Luine to ride in that boat. You had no rescue work training and could have lost your own lives due to my oversight."
"Everyone participating was in danger," Saavik had responded. She noted Tesat's tone had been conversational if a bit abrupt, with not a hint of contempt or rancor.
The Romulan had pushed wet hair from her face. "You two rowed well. We would not have reached Paul in time but for that fact."
Why, she is complimenting me, Saavik realized, not knowing how to respond. "It was illogical of me to attempt to row; I have done it only twice before. Perhaps I only imitated Luine's much more proficient style and fell into the pattern that way."
Tesat had not smiled, but Saavik had sensed amusement behind her sarcasm: "No false modesty for a Vulcan, remember? People do many illogical things under pressure." Some of the sting disappeared with the almost kind concession. "You will find that to be true in Star Fleet also, I think."
Beside her, Saavik had been more and more at a loss for words. It could not be that after one evening of working together to save lives all dispute and enmity between them could have been washed away. That would be an insult to her intelligence. She was forced to conclude that the difference rested in the fundamental way that Tesat regarded her. The Romulan did not like her any better; but Tesat now respected her, or at least was reserving judgment on her. That, Saavik reflected, was a state with which she could be content, although in her own mind she was not yet ready to forgive herself for her lapse.
Tesat's next words had been in Romulan – not the common speech, but the language spoken between equals. Saavik knew the importance of this, and for a moment sat without turning her head. Tesat expected an answer. It was disconcerting to Saavik to hear the greeting that was a sign of formal reconciliation: "My open hand to you, sister."
She took a deep breath and brought the words over her tongue with great difficulty, words in Romulan, but the phrase Vulcan: "Peace and long life, Tesat'aan". There was an enigmatic gleam in the other's gray eyes at the form of her name that would have been used by a Romulan comrade. No more was said before Saavik in her turn was called in to see the healer.
Shules had told her to sit down while he ran the standard medical scanner over her. There was no obvious need for any special Vulcan techniques, Shules remarked, satisfied that she was unhurt, and got ready to make his log entry. He had given her an odd look, just the slightest hint of confusion over a set of facts that did not fit his expectations. He had run the scan once more, checked the calibrations, run it a third time, then tapped rapidly on the desk computer, as if wanting to satisfy himself by checking some facts.
And of course Saavik had known, then, how Sunek – and now Shules – knew of her Romulan half. It had never occurred to her that a medical record had followed her here from Stanek. She was so rarely ill that she didn't give her health a second thought. Of course those records had been transferred here to Akadem; of course the Vulcan physicians would have familiarized themselves with the medical status of any new Vulcan student. Of course. Anyone checking her metabolic readings must know they were not "normal" for a Vulcan, that there was mixed DNA; the Stanek's chief medical officer had also included in the file, no doubt, an explanation of why this would be so. It made her angry for a moment; it was something more over which she had no control. Still, she should have anticipated it, and the same sort of information was probably in her psychological file as well! How Sunek must have sneered, right from the start! She looked straight at Shules now, and saw no clues to his thoughts in his countenance. He dismissed her politely, commenting only that there was nothing wrong with her.
She had gone out to see whether Tesat was done with her checkup, but the Romulan was still being examined. Luine was there, however, ready to go off to bed. The students were being accommodated in empty patient rooms. Luine stopped her in the hallway.
"Saavik, Tesat is O.K."
"She is not hurt, no."
"What I mean is … she's all right. I don't really hate her. She didn't kill Gien."
… So it was. And Saavik realized that even if she continued to blame herself for her lapse, Tesat was not going to do so. There was so much to being an adult. Saavik felt that she had learned some of it, sometime last night, at the oar of a lifeboat.