The Princess and the Human

Githaiy's office was quiet, except for the continuous swooshing of the water as it ran down the sink while the doctor was washing her tools. It was a special faucet, not connected to the normal water system. Instead, it belonged to a container filled with drinkable, purified water.

Normal tap water contained - among other things - harmful calcium. That was because purifying water not meant for drinking was simply not worth it. Although she didn't know the exact reason why, after all, she was a doctor, not an economist. It usually didn't matter; cleaned, but unpurified water was perfectly eligible for things like cleaning, washing, and the like. Even bathing in unpurified water usually had no real consequences for a Vanaery. Symptoms of calcium poisoning only started to appear if a certain amount was directly ingested. For that reason, using drinking water for anything other than drinking was a rare exception for special cases. Cleaning medical tools being one of them.

Githaiy took a glance behind her. The princess was still unconscious, but the monitors showed her breath to be calm and steady while displaying nothing worthy of worry. Except for the large amount of calcium in her body, obviously. Not to mention the two broken arms. But there at least didn't appear anything new to worry about over the last few invas.

Unfortunately, calcium was not like some poison that could be cured with an antidote. All she could do was administer chelating agents to her to prevent the mineral from damaging her organs, followed by drinking lots of purified water to flush it out. But that took time, and she didn't yet know for how long Her Highness had been carrying the calcium in her body. Preventing damage was one thing, healing damage that was already there was another.

After confirming that everything was as alright as it could be in this situation, Githaiy continued cleaning her tools. She was tired and regretted her decision to not sleep on the shuttle. But her personal discomfort was irrelevant right now. Her Highness's life was on the line after all.

Right, she also needed to alert the guards that there had been an attempt on the princess's life. Or maybe Nadine had already done so. Then...

"Doctor!" A male voice stopped her train of thought as one of the guards ran in, looking fairly disheveled. "Her Highness is... oh, she's here. She, uh, was poisoned?"

"Yes," Githaiy confirmed while giving the guard a strange look.

"And... is she fine?"

"She's stable, for now. How about you calm down and tell me what brought you here?"

"Right, um, apologies, Milady. Unfortunately, I don't know the details. The captain sent a message to every guard to find Her Highness, as it is likely that she was poisoned. But we couldn't find her, and the door to her room looked like it had been blasted open with some sort of weaponry. Guess no one expected her to be here already. I, uh, should probably tell the others."

"Do that. And while you're at it, tell your captain to come here, we have things to discuss."

"Right away, Milady."

"And remember the protocol!"

"Ah, of course, Milady. Um, if I may ask, what happened to your door? It looks just like the door to Her Highness's quarter."

"...long story."

It wasn't really all that long, she just didn't have the nerves to tell it right now.

The night before...

For a moment, Githaiy was just down there on the floor, needing a moment to process what she was seeing. Though she quickly managed to pull herself together again and stood back up.

"What happened?"

"I don't know!" the small alien answered in a panicked voice. "We were talking and she suddenly collapsed!"

So she had still been awake after all? Then why had the hallway been empty?

"Put her on a bed, quick!"

With a nod, Nadine rushed inside, carrying the princess twice her size with seemingly no effort. Githaiy immediately rushed over to her, examining her for any symptoms that could give a clue to what was wrong with her.

"Did you notice anything? I need details!" she asked while she kept looking for hints.

"Um, she, uh...," Nadine stuttered, "s-she had a bad headache."

"Yes, that much I know."

"A-and, um, I think she was also nauseous. H-her hands were shaking... oh, and..."

What seemed like a muscle spasm made the body of her Highness jerk violently, making the doctor flinch backward.

"...that."

Headaches, nausea, tremors, spasms, the doctor counted in her mind, erratic breath, unsteady heart rate...

With a flick of her lower-right hand, she called her automatic emergency bag to her.

"I think I know what she has, hold her down!"

The small alien hurried around to the head end of the bed. She then hesitated and ended up holding her hand more above the princess instead of actually holding her, but the doctor was in too much of a hurry to notice.

Fishing out one of her pre-prepared syringes, Githaiy pulled away the clothes covering the princess's belly. She was now actually glad for the cavity Nadine had corroded in there, as getting through two layers of shell would've been quite the annoying task. She ran her finger over the new carapace until she found the point where two shell plates overlapped.

Just as she was about to continue, another spasm shook the body below her. Githaiy barely managed to pull back her arm and prevent the syringe from getting knocked out of her hand.

"I said hold her down!"

"B-but...," Nadine stuttered, but Githaiy cut her off. This was not the time for her anxieties.

"Broken arms heal, this will kill her! Now HOLD. HER. DOWN!"

That seemed to snap the small alien out of it. She tightly grabbed both of the princess's lower arms, while simultaneously using her elbows to pin down her upper arms. Githaiy on her end used her two left arms to hold down Her Highness's hip. She then brought the syringe down again, pushing the needle through the overlapping plates and piercing the flesh below it. She could feel another spasm, but this time the bodypart she was working on almost didn't move at all. Instead, she could hear a telltale snapping sound, but she didn't care for now.

When the syringe was empty, she pulled it out again and fetched the next from her bag.

"You can let go now."

As the girl did as instructed, Githaiy could see orange blood dripping down her hands, as well as a panicked look appearing on her face.

"It's fine, that was a necessary evil. Your words, remember?"

Nadine swallowed hard but nodded.

"Is she... safe now?"

"No," Githaiy retorted. "So far, I just suppressed her body's reaction. The important part comes now."

While she spoke, she poked the new syringe through a different overlap in her shell. She then used the needle to feel around, trying to find a similar overlap in the new shell lying beneath it. This time, she unfortunately couldn't use the cavity.

This second syringe contained a chelating agent, meant to bind the calcium and prevent it from doing any more damage. But to maximize its effectiveness, she had to inject it in close proximity to the organs that might've been affected. And for most of them, this meant going through two layers of shell.

She had to use up all three of her pre-prepared syringes until she was sure it was enough. But she couldn't rest yet, as she shifted her attention to Her Highness's extremities.

A moderate, but steady stream of blood was flowing out of the two lower arms, right beneath the wrists. One glance made it clear that it was no mere shell fracture, no, the fight against the grip of the bench vises that were Nadine's hands had cleanly broken them. Still, nothing life-threatening. For now she would just stop the bleeding, and later straighten them so they could heal. After disinfecting the wounds and applying hardening agents and larco-resin, she bandaged the sections and placed the arms in a low-stress position. Once that was done, Githaiy finally allowed herself to collapse onto her chair.

"Is she going to be okay?" Nadine's voice broke the silence.

"If nothing more goes wrong, she is likely to recover."

Her answer made the small alien give off a sigh of relief.

"And, how long do broken arms usually take to heal?"

"Well, her molting cycle is just about to end so the new shell broke as well. It'll take a while."

That answer seemed to confuse her.

"Why does it depend on the molting cycle?"

"Huh? Of course it does. The new shell has to form after all, it's not like pieces can just grow back together once broken off."

A blank stare from the girl was the answer.

"... let me guess: your bones do grow back together."

"Yes. Don't quote me on that, but I think it normally takes up to eighty days."

Up to? So it can take even less? That's pretty quick, Githaiy marveled. So much about "One of the greatest disadvantages of endoskeletal species".

A moment of awkward silence followed, broken once again by Nadine.

"So, uh, why did she collapse?"

"Calcium poisoning," the doctor explained. "But I would like to know how it got so severe. Our general water supply can't be contaminated, otherwise the others would show symptoms as well. And while our tap water contains traces of calcium, it's not that much. Her headaches started to appear just a few days ago... no, that doesn't add up timing-wise. She would've needed to drink nothing but tap water, and even then the build-up should've been more graduate, not such a quick escalation."

"That's because it wasn't an accident."

The doctor's head perked up.

"What do you mean?"

"When it happened, her room was locked from the outside. Someone wanted her to die before help could arrive. This was an assassination attempt."

It was as if the room had just gotten significantly colder. Githaiy's heart skipped a beat.

Assassination? The Princess? Who would do something like this?! Also, if the room was locked, how did she...

Her gaze wandered to the remains of her own door. It was just barely held in place by the lower hinge and the door handle, which had lodged itself deep into the adjacent wall.

Never mind. But why does Nadine seem so calm about it?

Before the doctor could finish her thought, the small alien walked to a group of chairs close to the entrance.

"Uh, Doc?" she asked with a slightly shaky voice. "Would it be bad if one of those broke?"

"No?" the doctor answered confused. "I rarely need them and the palace would pay for new ones anyway."

"I see. Then I apologize."

"For what?"

"RAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

With a sudden, ear-splitting outcry, the small alien lifted the heavy chair above her head and slammed it into the ground, the combination of her strength and gravity causing it to shatter. For a moment, she stood there, panting. Then, her face shifted again, taking on an expression that Githaiy hadn't seen before.

No that wasn't right. She had tried to forget it, but she had seen it before. Once. On the Star Treader.

"I don't care what or how long it takes," she growled, her voice oozing pure hatred. "I will find out who did this!"

Present day...

As she was in the process of locking the princess's broken arms in a straight position, Githaiy noticed that parts of Her Highness's shell felt slightly greasy. They weren't melting, but they still bore witness to the fact that Nadine had carried her over.

"Doctor?"

Upon being called, Githaiy saw an armed Vanaery standing in the remains of her entrance. He wore the special combat armor of the palace guards, with the exception of a notable marking at the center of the torso.

"Captain," she returned the greeting. "Before you ask, her condition is no longer life-threatening, that's all I can say at the moment.

"Yes, Aiyrin already told me."

"Can you tell me how you learned about this?"

The guard captain nodded.

"Simple, the culprit told us."

Oh, so they already had caught the one responsible? That was good news. Nadine certainly would be pleased to hear that as well.

"Or," the captain continued, "to be completely exact, we found the note she wrote before committing suicide."