Aari gathered her up and stroked her hair with his broken hand, shushing her. “I am used to it now, little sister. Please don’t weep for me. Did you not hear what they said? Later, perhaps, when they know more, they can do more.”
“But there must be something they can do now,” the child insisted.
“Well, actually, there is,” Becker said. “We could break the old injuries, one at a time, and you could reheal them. That should work.” He looked at the doctors and cocked an eyebrow. Acorna translated.
“We do not do such things, Captain. Even in a therapeutic way, and to heal. Injuring any living creature is an act of violence and not our way.”
When Acorna gave Becker the doctor’s reply, he shrugged and asked, “They don’t mind finishing the job if I do the dirty work though, do they?”
Acorna translated. “They have no objection.”
Acorna asked Becker, “What do you have in mind? “
“Well, first, I just want to make certain of something. The way Aari healed me and RK when we were hurt, you can do that for him? I mean, make it so he gets patched up completely almost at the same time he’s hurt so he doesn’t feel anything for more than say, a split second?”
The others looked dubious, but Acorna, who had had considerable experience with the healing properties of her own horn, nodded. “Yes. Probably even more effectively than Aari healed you since he had to use the dead horns to accomplish the healing.”
“Well then, all we have to do is rebreak the places that have set wrong and heal them again. I hate to put Aari through it, but it’s the only solution,” Becker said. “Your docs may have principles against it, but I don’t.”
Bidiila said, “I personally have never encountered old fractures such as these. Few of us have. When one can heal almost any wound immediately, one seldom sees old wounds, and even then, usually they have received some sort of attention prior to ours that keeps them from being in such sad shape as Aari’s.”
“I understand, doc. You people don’t want to do it because the way you see it, hurting people is the opposite of healing. Me, I don’t have any problem with breaking a few bones, especially in a good cause.” He touched Aari’s shoulder. “How about it, buddy?” he asked Aari. “You willing to let me bust you up a little so your medics can heal you right this time? I can’t do much about the horn, but I got me a crowbar that will do a good job with a few surgical strikes. They promise it’ll only hurt for a little ‘while.”
Aari only glanced at the doctors, who, except for Bidiila, had backed off slightly. “I can bear pain at the hand of a friend,” he said. “Part of the pain of the torture was knowing that my captors intended their cruelty and delighted in my pain. They even amplified it. I know that you will be sharing it and helping me bear it.”
“Maybe Maati and you other ladies should leave now,” Becker told Acorna.
Acorna didn’t need to translate. Maati was shaking her head, and clinging to Aari. Grandam said simply, in clear thoughtspeak, without hesitation or question so that even Becker could understand her, (Your concern for our sensitivities does you credit, Captain, but Aari will need our support more than ever. We will stay in contact with him as you perform your task. In that way, he may feel far less pain.)
Becker nodded. The other doctors were all protesting but Bidiila spoke to them sharply and, although they looked away as Becker fetched his crowbar, they remained close. Aari reclined on a table and Grandam, Acorna, and Maati stayed close by his head, their horns touching his face and neck, and their hands on his arms and shoulders. Becker, without fear or squeamishness, and with the efficiency he might give to hammering some bent object into shape, brought the heavy tool down sharply on the misshapen part of Aari’s leg. Aari let his breath out in a huff and a high-pitched whistle, and by then the doctors were closing in, applying their horns to the fresh wound as they manipulated the leg so that it would set correctly.