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options?” I flung a hand toward the open cavity. “I mean, show me what doesn’t have a hole blasted through it!”
    Vlaav cleared his throat. “Doctor. Vitals are falling into red range.”
    “Right. Plug them together for now, Squilyp.” I trotted back around the table to perform the cardiac graft. “Suture laser.”
    Several hours later, Squilyp and I trudged out of the surgical suite, both of us liberally splattered with Dhreen’s blood. Although he was out of immediate danger, we had a real problem on our hands.
    Dhreen’s lung/heart had been badly damaged, but his liver was basically totaled.
    “Even with the TriVAD in place, those sacs may atrophy,” the Omorr said as he cleaned up at the scrub unit beside me. “The anastomosis won’t keep his liver functioning more than a few days. How long to clone a new organ?”
    “A week. Maybe two.” I stripped off my gloves and splashed my face with cold water. “He won’t survive that long, which means we have to find a transplant.”
    “With the ship two weeks away from Oenrall? Unlikely.” Squilyp shook off his membranes. Someone made a polite sound behind us, and he straightened. “What do you want, resident?”
    “Some manners,” I muttered as I brushed past Qonja and headed for the Omorr’s office.
    The Senior Healer conferred with the psych resident for a minute before he joined me. “It’s a shame you couldn’t bring back one of the hypercellular injectors from Terra.”
    “Yeah, I know.” I thought of Reever. “You should have seen how those cells rebuilt Duncan’s kidney.” I decided not to tell the Omorr about my little chat with the resident. Though the Boy Shrink and I might need to have another one. Soon. “Why don’t we try to construct one ourselves?”
    Squilyp finished fastening his fresh tunic. “I can biopsy your husband’s organ and perform a micro-cellular analysis. The device itself would be simple to duplicate; all we need are the organic components of the replacement cells.”
    I tried to imagine Reever agreeing to that. My husband was only squeamish about one thing, and it just happened to be surgery. “I’ll talk to him.”
    My boss left to check on Dhreen, while I stayed behind and wrote up the surgical notes. Xonea came in when I was about finished. Flanking him were two armed security guards. All three appeared mildly distressed. “Problem, Captain?”
    “Ilona Red Faun claims you shot Dhreen.”
    “Did she?” I went around him and sat behind the desk. It was better than kicking it across the room. “I didn’t know she had X-ray vision. Or is that shuttle’s hull transparent on the bottom? Because she was inside it when Dhreen was injured.”
    “Cherijo.” Xonea made a gesture of frustration. “Tell me what happened, and all will be made simple.”
    I sighed. “I’m not sure. Dhreen was working on something, and asked me for a laser welder. When I handed it to him, the ship tilted, and I was knocked off balance. Who rocked the ship, by the way?”
    “A stabilizer failed. The problem was corrected immediately.”
    “Not soon enough for Dhreen.” I thought of the hole I’d burned in the hull. “It’s possible I triggered that welding tool by accident. I’m not sure.”
    “The Terran female claims she heard you threaten Dhreen just before the incident.”
    I recalled my threat to strangle him. “It was a joke, Xonea.”
    Xonea seemed really miserable now. “Cherijo, in light of Dhreen’s condition, I must treat the threat as serious.”
    After everything we’d been through, he really thought I’d shot Dhreen. “For God’s sake, I was handing him a tool! Besides, if I wanted him dead, why would I spend the last six hours working on him in surgery?”
    Squilyp came in, carrying a stack of charts. “Cherijo, I have a-” He skidded to a halt when he saw the armed guards and Xonea. “What is the meaning of this?”
    “Stupidity should be painful, and I should get a job in the galley.” I