I stared at the status notifications. HEAL ADVANCES TO LEVEL 10. TARGET RECEIVES +75 HP. COST: 30 MP. CLEANSE TOXINS ADVANCES TO LEVEL 10. REMOVE INTOXICATION (50 MP), FOOD POISONING (50 MP), SEPSIS (100 MP), BACTERIAL TOXINS (100 MP), BASIC VIRAL TOXINS (200 MP), VENOM (250 MP), COMPLEX VIRAL AGENTS (500 MP). YOU HAVE MET THE PREREQUISITES TO UNLOCK CURE. QUEST ALERT: TREAT ONE PATIENT OF ANY ILLNESS WITH A DRUG SYNTHESIZED BY YOUR POWERS TO UNLOCK CURE. THE COMPLEXITY OF THE ILLNESS TREATED WILL GOVERN THE LEVEL AT WHICH CURE IS UNLOCKED. REWARD: +500 XP, UNLOCK SKILL: CURE AT A LEVEL DETERMINED BY DEGREE OF SUCCESS IN THE QUEST. HINT: FIRST, LEARN THE BLUEPRINT TO CREATE THE DRUG. Okay. So I have to figure out how to create a drug for an illness with my powers, then create the drug using MP… and then treat a patient with it…. Why did my power make me jump through so many hoops? “You okay, Belessar?” asked Fraser. I nodded. “How many more patients today?” “We’ve got two more wings left - about a hundred more. If you’d like, we can take a break.” I nodded. “I’d appreciate that.” The cafeteria on the U.S.N.S. Comfort was relatively quiet. No swaying, fortunately. “Does being on the water affect you?” asked Fraser. I shook my head. “I was a little surprised at being on a ship. Actually, I didn’t know there were hospital ships.” “The Mercy-class hospital ships are some of the most advanced in the world,” nodded Fraser, “but not too many know of them. The U.S.N.S. Comfort is a grand old lady - she’s helped fight the coronavirus pandemic of 2020.” I nodded. “It’s a privilege to be here. The ship doesn’t feel sixty years old, though.” “Actually, she’s a hundred years old. Launched 1975.” “Wow. That’s impressive.” “What happened there, Belessar?” inquired Fraser gently. I shrugged. “I … just needed a break. A few minutes to reprioritize.” I paused. “Does the Comfort have any patients needing treatment for an illness?” “Like what?” “I’m… not sure. Anything that gets treated with a drug. Or a pharmaceutical.” “That’s a pretty wide area. The Comfort carries everything from Tamiflu for H1N1 to remdesivir for Ebola. You have to give me a context.” I paused. “I need to see if I can duplicate a drug being used to treat a patient with my powers and then administer the duplicate to that patient.” “Understood. You do realize that by doing so, you’d be breaking several laws.” “... Kind of. It’s important.” I paused. “The more complex the drug and the more dangerous the illness, the more useful it would be.” “Let me see what I can do.” Dr. Geneva Thompson, Captain of the USNS Comfort, drummed her fingers on her desk as the Major and I sat in front of her. “You’ve presented me with an interesting problem,” she commented. “Medical ethics aside, what’s the benefit to us to do this?” “Potential cost savings,” suggested Fraser. “Which aren’t really that great. You’re saying you’ll reverse engineer one dose of this drug and administer it to a patient of mine. Any drug, any patient.” “Yes.” “That poses a problem, you see. The most expensive drugs are the ones used to treat the most at-risk patients. So, the greater the reward, the greater the risk to my patient.” She shrugged. “Now I could authorize this for the common cold, and there’d still be a risk.” “We understand, ma’am.” replied Fraser. “Whatever you feel is appropriate.” Dr. Thompson frowned, then seemed to make up her mind. “I have a patient with a progressive pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour. Everolimus tablets. We had a quality control problem with them, so we have a sampler that checks the quality of each individual tablet.” She stared me in the eye. “The tablets are expensive, though.” “Let me take a look at them,” I suggested, “and I’ll pay for any I use and can’t reproduce.” “Use?” “I carry out a … sort of destructive analysis on them.” “He doesn’t eat them,” clarified Fraser. “His power breaks them down.” “He’d better not,” grumbled Dr. Thompson. “Side effects include diarrhea, cramps, fever and headaches. There are cheaper ways to get them than a hundred-dollar tablet.” Two hours later, I had created my first batch of everolimus tablets. BLUEPRINT UNLOCKED: EVEROLIMUS TABLETS. COST: 100 GM FISH MEAT + 400 MP FOR 1 TABLET OF 10 MG. We sat across the table from Captain Thompson later that evening. "The quality control reports came out okay," Thompson informed us. "Chemically indistinguishable from the original. We can now administer the drug." She paused. "Do you need any specific type of fish to make this stuff?" "Any fish will do," I replied. "Any protein should, actually. It's amino acids that matter." Thompson looked bemused. "I don't suppose you can share the manufacturing process." "I would if I could. It's… complicated." "Let's see if it works. Our patient is in the next room." The patient was a forty-five year old Naval rating who'd been detected with cancer recently. Administering the dose turned out to be easy enough - just hand the tablets over with a glass of water. "We'll wait for a couple of hours, then check his blood levels," remarked Thompson. "Then we get to see if your version is working." "He knows the risks?" I asked. "He volunteered," replied the Captain. "Wanted to be of service to his country one last time." QUEST COMPLETED. +500 XP. NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: CURE. YOU CAN CURE ILLNESSES WITH THE RIGHT APPLICATION OF ENOUGH MENTAL ENERGY. TYPE OF ILLNESSES CURABLE DEPEND ON LEVEL. MENTAL ENERGY REQUIRED DEPENDS ON DISEASE / ILLNESS COMPLEXITY. LEVEL 3 UNLOCKED. CURABLE PHYSICAL ILLNESSES: COLD, FEVER, COUGH, LOW SEVERITY BACTERIAL AND VIRAL INFECTIONS, ORGAN REJECTION. PSIONIC ABILITY ENABLES USE OF CURE FOR MENTAL ILLNESSES. CURABLE CONDITIONS: PANIC (400 MP), HALLUCINATIONS (400 MP). HIERARCHY LORE ENABLES USE OF CURE FOR ALIEN INFLICTED CONDITIONS. CURABLE CONDITIONS: STUN (200 MP). STUDY VICTIMS OF CONDITIONS TO GAIN DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TO CURE THEM. … So close. I had the skill, I just needed to figure out how to cure the Q-phase effect now. Would studying Paul be enough? The other thing I could do was use Cure on more people, see if I could level it. “Will we know when he’s better?” I asked. “Unfortunately, he’s not likely to get much better,” replied Captain Thompson. “At best, pancreatic cancer can go into remission; but he’ll never recover fully. The way it is, he’s got a month or two left at most.” I paused. “Will more tablets help?” “Not for him, but for other patients it may. How many can you make?” “I think I can give you a decent supply, if you have enough fish on board….” Two hours later, I stopped synthesizing. “Two tablets per minute,” Fraser counted, “and two hundred and forty tablets. Captain? Will that be enough?” “It’ll do,” the Captain said. “We generally don’t need more than that in a month.” “I can make and send you more, if needed,” I said. “We’ll let you know if it is needed, Belessar,” replied Fraser. “Right now, you up for another visit to the wards?” Right. A mere 120 tablets per hour wasn’t sustainable for a pharmaceutical supply chain. “Let’s attend to the patients, then.” This time, I kept an eye open for opportunities to use Cure as well. I was home close to midnight. Anne was at the door when I got back. “You can’t keep doing this,” she yawned. “It’s been sixteen days.” “I had a breakthrough today.” “Another level up?” “I unlocked Cure.” My sister was instantly alert. “You did?” “Steady. We’re not fully there yet.” “Tell me. Now.” “Cure works to remove some infections and illnesses, but not all. At Level 3 and with knowledge of Hierarchy Lore, I can cure some alien-inflicted conditions. Like Stun. I need to study victims of a condition before I can use Cure on that condition.” “So you could study Dad, then use Cure on him.” “That’s the hope.” “Can you take a look now?” We headed to Paul’s room. The medical bed still showed his vitals to be stable. I used Observe. PAUL DRAKE CLASS: WORKING MAN LEVEL 3 HP 70/70 STATUS EFFECTS: UNCONSCIOUS, COMA, Q-PHASE BLAST EFFECT I summoned my power and focused Cure on the Q-phase induced condition. YOU CANNOT CURE THIS CONDITION. REQUIREMENTS: CURE LEVEL 5. “I need a couple of levels more in Cure.” “That’s okay,” Anne sounded hopeful. “You get levels fast by using the skill, right? How quickly can you get there?” “I’ve got five more days of hospital visits with Fraser,” I replied. “I’ll maximize the use of Cure during that time. Hopefully that should do the trick.” I thought back to the animal shelter. “There are a lot of cats and dogs with infections, too; I can level it there as well. Chin up…. It won’t be much longer.” Anne exhaled. “That would be …. amazing. We’re so close…. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like, to have him back once more.” “We’ll get there. Soon.” Dr. Lucius and Lara were waiting for me at the centre the next morning with a unique proposal. “We want to do an adoption campaign,” Lucius explained, “for the abandoned animals.” “And being that you’re a hero and everything,” Lara pointed out, “we were hoping you’d endorse it.” I shrugged. “Sure, why not.” So that morning, I got to star in my first Youtube video ad. My role was simple - hold up a cute-looking puppy and Lara would do the voice-over. “A canine friend is a friend for life,” she said. I was just glad they hadn’t used the Nanofibre Weave Combat Armor voice. “A few more days,” I told Fraser, “and I’ll need to call it to a halt.” “We understand. What you’ve done is amazing; there are close to five thousand soldiers who are better off today because of your help.” “I’m sure most would have recovered on their own.” “You still saved them a ton of hospital time. And there are at least a thousand who were considered beyond help. You can draw the line anytime you want.” I felt a twinge of guilt coming on. “I’ll be there after any major alien battles - healing troops. If that helps.” “It most certainly would,” the officer acknowledged. “Where are we headed today, anway?” Tripler Army Medical Centre, Honolulu. McDonald Army Hospital, Virginia. Malcolm Grow Medical Clinic, Maryland. William Beaumont Medical Centre, Texas. These were the last four hospitals I visited. Each had hundreds of patients whom I could help, and in each I had to give up on hundreds more. By the last day of the tour, I was exhausted. I’d channeled more MP into healing in the three weeks than I had in the year before it. On the last day, I got out of the aircraft at the Tanisport base completely and totally wrung out. “You okay, Belessar?” “Just tired,” I replied. “Drained. I… had no idea how much would go into this.” “Well, it’s fortunate I’m out of hospitals to show you,” replied Fraser. “Did you get what you needed?” “Yes,” I replied. Then I paused. “How did you know I needed something?” “Give me some credit,” replied Fraser. “Altruism will only take you so far. Mind telling me what it is you wanted to do?” I sighed. “No point hiding from a spy, I suppose.” “We prefer the term ‘intelligence agent’,” replied Fraser. “Spy has … negative connotations. Besides, a spy is someone who operates in enemy territory. I would at best classify as an analyst.” “Point taken.” I shrugged. “I… have been stress-testing my power. To see if I could … engineer a breakthrough.” Fraser inclined his head. “And did you?” “Yes. One of my abilities enhanced.” “Would it have to do with that episode on the USNS Comfort?” “Yes. The treatment I helped with made one of my powers…. stronger. Could we leave it at that?” The officer spread his arms wide. “Whatever suits you. Just curious, that’s all. Old habits are hard to break.” “Thanks.” “Incidentally, I have something for you.” He handed me a smartphone. “This is in case you want to get in touch with us more securely. It’s as untraceable as we can make it, so nobody will use it to track you down.” “Thanks. How do I know you won’t use it to track me down?” “You have my solemn word. And the orders of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs as well, for that matter.” I smiled. “Seriously?” “Yes. The CJC was quite clear that nobody is to put any kind of tracking software on you. Besides, if we really need you somewhere, would you refuse to come?” “You do have a point.” “We also want to invite you to a small ceremony in a few days.” “A ceremony?” “First Platoon is receiving a unit citation, delivered by General Walter Xavier. You heard of him?” I thought back. “He’s the officer who spoke on the dais after the Battle of New York.” “Indeed. He’s also the CO of U.S. Northern Command. First Platoon did an impressive job in New York, and the General is here to give them an award. He also wants to meet you in person. Doyle and the boys from the First are also keen that you be there to see them get the award, so we thought we’d extend an invitation.” “I’d be honoured. Would it be okay if I brought a few people with me?” Fraser smiled. “Only one girlfriend, please, Belessar.” “It’s not like that. I just wanted to invite - well - a single person. They’d be coming in armor, like me.” “Shouldn’t be a problem.” “Cure is now at Level 5,” I informed Anne that night. Anne squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. Then opened them. Teardrops strained to escape. “Will it work?” she asked. “It should,” I replied, “but we won’t know until I try.” “Check, but don’t use it just yet.” “Why?” “I want to be there in the room when you do.” “Sure.” “If you can wake him, I’ll stay home from school tomorrow.” “Agreed.” I walked into Paul’s room and used Observe. PAUL DRAKE STATUS EFFECT: Q-PHASE BLAST EFFECT CAN BE REMOVED BY USING CURE REQUIREMENT: 600 MP I smiled. “Okay, the bad news is it needs 600 MP. The good news is that I can get there with a single dose of Hypercaffeine.” Anne sighed in relief. “Can you do it now?” “Sure. Let me get set up." “And I’ll get my stuff ready. Better take two pills, though - you tend to do badly at zero MP.” Five minutes later, fortified by two Hypercaffeine pills, I pulled the needed MP into my hands as Anne watched. Six hundred MP formed into a nice golden ball. It glowed in an eerie light as I set my sights on Paul Drake’s still form. Focus: Q-phase blast effect. Use Cure. The warm ball of light flew towards Paul and suffused his body. A dim glow lit up his sleeping form. Then, all of a sudden, it vanished. STATUS EFFECT REMOVED: Q-PHASE BLAST EFFECT. PAUL DRAKE IS CURRENTLY UNCONSCIOUS. TIME TO REGAIN CONSCIOUSNESS: 8 HOURS. “Nothing happened?” inquired Anne. “It worked,” I explained, “but there’s some sort of timer. He’s supposed to regain consciousness in eight hours.” “Oh.” Anne deflated. “I thought it would be… instant, you know?” “Apparently not. You should get some sleep; I’ll wake you up in time.” “I’m too nervous to sleep. I’ll pull up a chair and wait for him to wake up.” “I think I’ll turn in for a bit. Wake me up when he does wake. Or if there’s an emergency.” Fifteen minutes later, I’d changed into my pyjamas and was ready to sleep. I checked in on Anne one last time. The teenager was seated in a chair next to Paul’s bed, snoring.