Colonies of U'u'kata

Chapter 16 - An Understanding of Insects

"Oh, uh, yeah. Cali, I need you, please come back," Xal-ii said, not having to fake the pain in his voice but catching on nonetheless.

Gripping the front of her tunic, Cali turned her wide eyes to Xal-ii as she dragged in breath after breath, fighting the fresh terrors in her mind.

"Please... help," Xal-ii said softly as Kovich backed away slowly, taking Thenta's arm and pulling him back with him.

Cali finally dragged in a whole breath as she looked over Xal-ii's wings. Her trembling fingers reached for him and she carefully felt along the fragile-looking ridges. When she came to the break, he sucked a breath through his teeth and groaned as the lights in his hair flashed erratically.

"I-I'm not a medical doctor but... the-the costa is broken just below the node and there are multiple vein ruptures throughout—ah, the radial supplemental vein has ruptured. There's muscle damage," she added, carefully feeling where his wing met his back.

Kovich wrinkled his nose. He'd always thought Tilith backs were gross. Four arms and wings gave them an unsettling, deformed appearance he found hard to look at. He'd served as a gunner on a Tilith battleship for a few years and was never able to get used to it. But Cali was suddenly in her element, her sharp mind going to work on a problem she could understand.

"This will need a splint. If there is a small enough needle in that med kit, I can straighten this out without too much damage to the membrane but... it's going to hurt."

"More than it already does?" Xal-ii said through his teeth, face a rictus of pain.

"... Yes. More than it already does," Cali said apologetically.

She raised her eyes and met Kovich's gaze and held it for a moment before saying, "Will you bring the med kit? I'll also need more light. You're both going to have to help with this."

He summoned more balls of light to float around the room as he retrieved the med kit and opened it, setting it beside her.

"Thank you, Kovich," she said softly.

He met her eyes and there was such depth to her gaze. "Thank you," she said again.

With a grunt, Kovich gave her a nod and said, "What do I do?"

***

The procedure was grueling. Cali wasn't a medical doctor but she'd worked with a veterinarian several times on C.O.S. when he was short-handed. Working with animals coupled with her knowledge of insect wings and the supporting muscle structures gave her an edge while getting Xal-ii's wing straightened out and splinted.

It had been difficult, though. They didn't have anything to sedate him or enough pain killers to dull the agony of having a needle pushed through the sensitive membrane of his wing. That was to say nothing of the closed fracture reduction she had to have Thenta help her with. She was pretty sure Kovich sported a good bite on his hand from holding it over the Tilith's mouth as he screamed.

"There," she said at last, sitting back. "That's as good as we can get down here."

Xal-ii had lost consciousness about ten minutes back, thank God. It was hard to see someone in so much pain and the emotional toll left her exhausted as she sprayed antiseptic on his wing and started putting things back into the med kit.

Kovich gently laid the Tilith on his stomach and covered him with his own jacket before he and Thenta sat on either side of him and just stared at the unconscious male.

"I never knew they had so many nerves in their wings," Thenta said.

"I didn't realize he had a tail until it wrapped around my leg," Cali said. She'd known the Tilith had tails but it just hadn't occurred to her until she about jabbed him in the pterostigma because she thought a snake had a hold of her.