PINA - THREE DAYS LATER - MIDMORNING

Life has finally settled down. Everyone is working and it's nearly lunchtime. I sigh in contentment. A moment later, I'm nearly taken off my feet when something rocks the castle. If I didn't know better, I'd think that we were under attack and that was an explosion. Explosion - uh oh.

Quickly, I leave the infirmary and head for Tommy's lab, praying to the powers the whole way. Unfortunately, I realize that my prayers are for naught when Zedd and Dar join me. Between Tommy not joining us from the other direction and the stressed look on Zedd's face, something has not gone well. We all break into a sprint, only to stop short when we turn the corner into the hall where his lab resides.

Smoke billows around his lab door. We launch ourselves down the hall. Before we get there, the door opens and Tommy crawls out, coughing as he pulls the door shut behind him. Zedd grabs him and pulls him away from the door. As I kneel beside him to check him, he tries to scramble away, reaching for something. "Hold still, Tommy and let me check you."

"Dar" he croaks and then breaks down in a coughing fit.

I look around to see my mate reaching for the lab door. "Goldar, don't you touch that door."

"But if something's on fire, it needs to be dealt with" he protests.

Tommy grabs my arm, shaking his head. "No fire."

"You're sure?" He nods firmly before he starts hacking once again. "Stay back, Dar." I look at Zedd. "Let's get him out into some cleaner air."

Zedd picks Tommy up and, not surprisingly, the former human protests. "Can walk, Zedd."

"I'm sure you can, Thomas, but-" Zedd stops short as Tommy's eyes roll back and he passes out. "Pina!"

"Outside, Zedd, now!" He takes off quickly and I turn to Dar. The acrid smoke is lessening by the minute. "Dar, you're quicker than I am as far as running goes. Go get my bag and a scanner and meet us outside. Quickly please." With one last look at the door, Dar takes off like a shot for the infirmary as I head outside to meet up with our other companions.

Tommy's half conscious and is coughing again. Suddenly, he pushes away from Zedd, rolls to his knees and vomits. Hells, I hope whatever he's inhaled isn't toxic. He spits the last out of his mouth and says hoarsely, "I'm okay."

Dar joins us and hands me a scanner. As I run it over him, Zedd says, "What the hell happened, Thomas?"

"Not sure. The reaction shouldn't have been that - energetic." As I'm scrolling through the information, Zedd holds his mate close as he continues. "Have to check my figures. The Tyrannodrones that we fought before I got hurt are somehow different from the one I recreated, but I can't figure out exactly how. Mesogog/Anton had to have made changes to my original design."

Dryly, Dar asks, "And how much of the lab do we have to replace before you can get back to work?"

"Not much." Slowly, he pulls himself off the ground and turns toward the castle. "I need to get back to work."

Quickly, the three of us surround him. "No, Tommy. You need to stay outside for a little while longer and let your lungs clear" I instruct.

"I'm fine" he insists. "See?" He takes a deep breath which triggers another coughing fit.

"Sure you are" I answer. "Let the smoke die down a little more before you even think about going back into the lab, please. In fact, nobody's going into that lab until at least after lunch." The last directed at Dar and Zedd, knowing that curiosity will have them wanting to go have a look. Reluctantly, the three males agree, much to my relief.

"How about this" Zedd suggests. "Thomas can lie down until lunch to make sure that his system can rid him of all that he's inhaled. Then, after lunch, we'll check the lab. If he can work, fine but if not then we'll grab his notes so that he can work somewhere else."

Dar frowns. "Actually, if he's put his files on the computer, we can access them remotely and he can work anywhere."

Tommy sighs. "All but the last few pages and I can recreate those."

A COUPLE HOURS LATER

We all troop down to Tommy's lab. Tommy heads in as if nothing had happened while the three of us stop just inside the door, staring. Where there was a worktable, now there is a pile of rubble and black smoke marks going up the wall and across the ceiling. Tommy's sigh breaks us out of our stupor.

"Now I have to start all over" he grouses. Really? That's what's going on here? He sighs. "At least the lab's cleared out so that I can get started."

"Thomas, perhaps you should contact the female and see if you can find out what's different about their current foes so that your tests go better next time." Good idea.

"No, I can figure it out and they're probably busy. They don't need another distraction."

"That makes no sense, Tommy. Why waste more time repeating the same steps when contacting them could help?"

"I can do this. I just need a little more time." The three of us exchange looks as he moves his notes to the desk and begins cleaning up the mess. "I'll just build it on the floor this time. That way if something goes wrong, it won't ruin another table."

"Thomas, you can't just keep-"

Suddenly, he looks up, guilt flashing across his face. "Oh, right. Dar, would you keep a tab on what I owe for all this stuff and whatever else I need? Once we settle my affairs on Earth, I'll convert whatever money I have left to credits to start paying you guys back. Whatever I still owe after that will have to come out of whatever I earn working with your business. Oh and I still want to give something to that girl, Pina."

"Wait, what? Thomas, what are you talking about?"

"I don't expect you to support me, Zedd. I'll pay back everything - I just need a little time." He's kidding, right?

"Even if I did expect you to reimburse what's been spent - and I don't - but even if I did, there's no rush, Thomas. And what girl are you giving something to?"

Quickly Pina, before Zedd loses his mind. "My informant, Asa, helped us find you. She saw what happened, told us and gave us a description of the ship."

"Then, as it was my life that she helped save, I want to give her something too."

"When Dar went to get your ship" I inform him "I sent her some credits, with a promise of more next month."

"How much?" Zedd asks.

"I sent the fifteen hundred I had on hand."

Dar fidgets. "I might have given her some too. I told her that Pina would bring the rest next month as agreed."

"How much did you give her?" I ask curiously, feeling his nervousness. I'm surprised when he shuts me out.

"It doesn't matter. No matter how much it was, it was still far too little for all the time she saved us. Without her-"

"I'd be dead" Zedd finishes.

Tommy stops what he's doing, crosses to his mate and holds him close, no doubt reacting to whatever he's feeling through the bond. "How do you possibly put a price on someone's life? I could give her every credit I earn from now until I die and still not feel like she's been paid enough."

We're all silent for a long time before Dar speaks again. "The value of a life seems to depend greatly on whether one wants the person in question dead or alive. Zedd's had bounties on his head that range from a hundred thousand to several million credits."

Tommy kisses Zedd quickly. "Man, you're expensive to keep" he teases. He returns to his prior chore of clearing the mess. "Well, if you're not going to see her until next month, we have plenty of time to make a decision."

He stops short as he moves a large piece of debris, releasing a large cloud of smoke right in his face. He gasps in surprise, inhaling a good amount. Immediately, he starts coughing to rid himself of the noxious fumes but after only a moment, he passes out again, falling to the floor and his head hits with a loud crack. "Thomas!"

Oh for hells sake. One time he has the best of luck - like with the flu and Vesirokko - and the next he has the worst luck in the universe, I swear. "Zedd, bring him to the infirmary."

In short order, I'm scanning him. Hmm, we have three different genetic make ups in the castle now. That'll keep things interesting. It's almost amusing that I'm the link between the males - genetically speaking. I frown as I watch the screen. What the hell is going on?