relentlessly. This is the first time weâve used this in years, Mann thought. In fact, he recalled, the last time they worked through this particular protocol was with the mother of the girl now lying tranqued on the podium.
âCortex activity?â
âAcceptable.â
Dernan Mann shook his head. He didnât like to remind himself about that last one. Not after everything that happened afterwards. Bringing her in had marked the beginning of the bad times â Eynaâs obsession, Larinanâs birth, the increase in subject decline â all that and everything that flowed from it was put into motion the night they pulled that last girl out of her stinking hovel in Woormra.
âMuscle response?â
âAcceptable.â
Mann watched his eldest son work, wondering if the boy had any idea how much this was going to change things. For all of them. The entire Mann family. Now that the excitement of discovery was wearing off, the enormity, the gut-wrenching significance of that skinny little sack of bones lying on the table was just starting to set in and Dernan Mann had to work to ignore a slight queasiness.
Janil reached out and made a small adjustment to the IR-gain and the scanner chattered new data straight back at him. Heâs so good at this, Dernan Mann thought to himself. Better than I ever was.
âBone density?â
âAcceptable, for a subject.â
âOcular sensitivity?â
âAcceptable.â
Watching Janil reminded Dernan Mann so much of himself at that age â young, brilliant, self-assured. But with Janil, of course, thereâd always been something underneath. Thereâd always been the rage, the anger.
âMuscle density?â
âAcceptable.â
âGood, then.â Dernan signed off and pushed his interface aside. âEverything pretty much in the green. A textbook recovery.â
For a couple of minutes the two men stood looking at the girl stretched out on the padded sleep mat.
âItâs incredible, donât you think, son?â
âWhat is?â
âHer. Finding her after all this time.â
âIt was always a possibility.â
âBut never a probability. You knew that as well as I did.â
âWeâd better get the inscan out of the chamber.â Janil said.
âAnd ourselves, too.â
âWeâll be fine. Itâs barely first shift. The sunâll only just be above the low horizon. Besides, the suits should â¦â
âThese daysuits havenât been used in years, Janil.â
For a moment he thought his son was going to argue, but Janil clearly decided it wasnât worth the bother. He was like his mother that way.
âFine, then.â Janil picked up the inscan and headed for the lock. âLetâs go.â
Theyâd left the inner door open. With nobody to monitor them from obs, it was the only safe way. With the two of them and the inscan, it was a tight squeeze. Once the gas exchangers had run down, Janil opened the outer hatch and they stepped into the locker room beyond.
âPhew.â Janil wasted no time pulling his helmet off. âHavenât worn anything this heavy in a while.â
âItâs better than the alternative.â
âTrue.â
They started removing their heavy, shielded daysuits, occasionally having to assist one another with the more bulky sections.
âSo what are we going to do with her?â
Dernan threw Janil a sharp look.
âYou have to ask?â
âIâm curious. Do you really think thatâs the last great hope lying in there on the table? Are you prepared to throw your whole reputation away in a gamble on that ⦠girl?â
âItâs not a gamble if thereâs no other option, Janil. Itâs scientific logic. When you have no other course of action open to you, all you can do is take whatever path is presented. You of all people should know that.â
âOur
M. R. James, Darryl Jones