The last story of my second collection is entitled Broken Child. Lem is a three-year-old boy and the son of Roland, who is the son of Gary, Empress Faustina’s brother, and Skylar. Roland is demi-human and Sky an albino. It seems there was just enough genetic stress to trigger something very similar to Batten Disease in the boy. Fortunately, they have very clever friends, including Dorina, a Thinking Machine from tribe Tohsaka and the smartest person on earth. She diagnoses Lem and says he can only be cured at an equipotential flux point of a fusion reaction. With only one such reactor left on earth, in former China, Fussy’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Ildi, demi-human, is dispatched to negotiate. Things happen, and days later, Dorina tries to effect her magic. But, something is awry and matters do not go as planned. That’s where things open, below.

I picked part one of five out of the air as, again, I want this to be a SHORT story, not a novella. That means things have to happen fast, no matter what I may want to say. This story will be tech-heavy with reactors, genetics, etc. There will also be a large amount of politics, as we’ll see when Ildi starts talking.

Nurse Practitioner Tamera Keynes has been affiliated with the Hartmanns since Fussy was in her late teens. Fussy did not want too many of her family in the rump state of Chu at one time, so put her in charge. The story will be from her POV.

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Thirty minutes ago

“… sì, wŭ, liù,” the aide was saying, clicking his stopwatch after the last.  “Six second, they tell us.  That was six, but Tokamak still run.”

Another shudder.  Dorina’s ghost was before them.

“Skylar.  Tamera.  Something came up and we had to improvise.  Come now.”

And was gone. 

Ignoring any possible danger, the two women tore at the door and sprinted into the reactor room, flying up the metal stairs to where Lem had been taken to Ildi.  Skylar was younger and faster, arriving just seconds before Tamera did.

“Lem!” the young mother screamed, kneeling.  “Are you okay?”

While he hugged her, Tamera looked around.  “Aren’t we missing one?”

“Um.  About that,” Dorina said from next to them. 

She made to tap her own fist against the top of her head.

“Oops?” the ghost-girl tried with an embarrassed smile.

“What does that mean!” Tamera demanded.  “Where’s Princess Ildi?”

“I’m right here,” Lem said in a voice of a little boy, but with a peculiar tone.  He let go of Skylar and looked at his hands.  “This is very odd.”

“I’d like to think y’all can get the rest of me back?” Ildi asked Dorina with Lem’s mouth.

“Oh, sure!  We’re working on it now!”

“When?” they pushed.

“Yeah… about that…” Dorina said, letting her form fade just a little.

“And until then, I’m fostering a Crown Princess?” Skylar cried.  “What the hell is wrong with you people!”

“It’s okay, Mom,” Lem said with a toddler’s smile.  “Cousin Ildi is funny!”

***

“…so avoid taking too much of your valuable time, Professor Doctor Li, to sum up, it seems we shall need to run the EAST reactor one more time, to, ah, correct this small confusion.”

Professor Doctor Li looked across the conference table at what looked to be a three-year-old boy.  Short, nearly white hair, at odds with his nearly black eyes.  But the voice was soft, almost feminine, and spoke impeccable Chinese but with a strong hint of a Cantonese dialect.

“I see,” he said.  To Tamera, it was obvious he did not but could not lose face.  I hope Ildi catches that…

“Please be assured from me, Crown Princess Ildi, that I, and my mother, Empress Faustina, esteems you highly, and shall commend all of your dedication to the master of Chu, Duke Yuë,” the young woman inside the boy said.  Nurse Practitioner Tamera Keynes relaxed a fraction.

“What you say… is difficult,” the head of the Eastern Advanced Experimental Tokamak – the last barely working fusion reactor on earth, located in Hefei City, central former China – admitted.

“I assure you, Most Distinguished Sir, that it is difficult for us, as well,” she said with a laugh from Lem’s mouth.

“In the attempt to save this boy, the Empress’ brother’s son’s child, from certain death of his neurological disease, ah, corners had to be cut, I,” she gestured at Lem’s chest, “was the only organic material available, and consented to Dorina’s request to be made one with little Lem, to keep him alive.”

She – he – sighed and looked out the window to the left.  It was late spring and the trees were beautiful and full of bright birds.

“In just a few days, we should know enough to separate us.  But, once again, we need your reactor.” Dropping their hands to their sides, Ildi put Lem’s head onto the table.  “Please, sir.”