Leareth, half-roused by the nearby activity, turns his head a little and watches drowsily through slitted eyelids. 

Julie picks a cheerful cooking show.

The autodoc gives instructions on how to administer the local sedative, and administers some other medications that will control bleeding and clotting during the operation, and then starts issuing instructions.

The Healer who watched the two-hour crash course follows the instructions! He has the considerable advantage that he can see everything that's going on directly with Healing-Sight, which at least partly cancels out the disadvantage that he's literally never done surgery before. 

The others keep a steady flow of Healing-energy going and are ready to control any bleeding that slips past, but mostly just observe. In awe. 

The new kidney is significantly smaller than Julie's existing ones - it simplifies printing it and sticking it in - but it's made from her cells so it shouldn't set her immune system off. It looks - like a kidney. Healthy and intact and already alive.

That’s so amazing! 

One of the Healers tries to instruct the Proto not to eat this one, it needs to leave it alone so that Julie’s body can work properly and then there’ll be more resources for both of them.

Confusion. It doesn't immediately start chomping on the new tissue, though.

They hook up the blood vessels and Heal the connection-points and disturbed tissues around the site, and sew Julie up, and then - wait to see if the new kidney is going to do its job. Does it?

The early numbers all look good.

Phew! Maybe they can get to relax a little bit more now.

:We're all done: the surgeon-Healer tells Julie. :How are you feeling?: 

I've been worse. What's going on right now, exactly?

:We got everyone off your ship and destroyed it so the Martian patrols can't get it. I think right now we're just trying to fly to Ceres as fast as possible? And hoping the Martians don't follow us, but Nayoki has some sort of fallback plan for trying to hide the drive signature if they do. We'll be at Ceres in either three or five days? The crew weren't sure how fast you and Leareth could handle going, I think?: 

People do rehab from surgery on Earth. The flip'll suck but that won't be for a couple of days. And this ship flies very smoothly.

:I'll pass that on: 

They've been pretty distracted with Julie, but a couple of the Healers turn back to refocus on Leareth. What's the Proto up to in his body? How does the autodoc screen think he's doing?

They...should probably figure out what its recommendations are on the scale of the next few days - and what sort of prognosis it's giving - since it sounds like they're now going to be stuck mostly waiting for a while. 

Leareth is mostly stable. The protomolecule is eating him a tiny bit, but slowly. He's in better shape then when they got here, at least. The system doesn't think he needs any transplants.

The autodoc's prognosis is pessimistic. It expects both of them to be dead in a week if they continue extreme measures, and recommends instead switching to hospice care.

They're going to ignore that recommendation. For one, the autodoc doesn't know about magic Healing, and two, the difference between a day and a week might be huge. 

Though if it ends up taking five days just to reach Ceres, that's cutting it pretty close... 

The Healers discuss amongst themselves, and figure out a shift rotation where two of them will take the next eight candlemarks off to sleep - on the floor of the medbay, for lack of anywhere better - and then switch off. 

Nayoki sits on the bridge with the crew of the ship. Fidgets. Occasionally pesters the Healers, or Naomi for screen-information-translation.

She's also starting to pick up a few words of their language, since she's skimming surface thoughts for word-meanings whenever the crew say anything out loud. 

Are any of the Martian ships pursuing their ship, or trying to contact them? 

Not yet. 

Well that's something. 

Eventually she, too, swaps off with one of the less tired mages recently Gated over, hands them responsibility for the ready-to-hide-from-Martians duty, and asks whichever of the crew are nearby where would be a good place for her to get some sleep.

Also should they figure out something to do with the spy? One of Leareth's mages is still guarding him in his room so he can't make a run for the ship computers to send a prosthetic eyeball report to his superiors. 

"You could ask him who he works for. He wouldn't tell us but maybe he'd tell you."

:Oh. I might as well try that: 

She has ways to make him tell her, of course. Or drag the information out of his head whether he tells her or not. She's been kind of cagey about the full extent of Velgarth magic, though Holden and his crew must have some inkling of what Mindhealing can do, she used set-commands on some of them. 

So far she's pretty sure the spy doesn't know much about who Leareth is or how he got to this star system or what he wants, which means that even if he does get a report off it won't reveal all that much to his superiors, but it still seems pretty important to know who they are. 

She troops off to find her way to the bunk-rooms, and reaches out ahead with Thoughtsensing. Is the spy awake? 

He is! Nervously chatty with his guards. 

What's he thinking about–

On second thought, hold that.

What are the four main crew of the ship thinking about, now that she's headed off to do something else and is, as far as they know, out of earshot? She's been too distracted and worried about Leareth to do any in-depth mindreading for the last few candlemarks, but they've got to be incredibly confused. 

They're talking quietly. " - insane."

"It doesn't make any sense. But I can't think why this is the lie anyone would choose to tell."

"I don't like them."