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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