"Still no response to voice, and he's already out again - yeah, keep going," Dr Harrison says absently. 

"...Okay." Down to 30 mcg/kg/min. Somewhat nervously. 

"Do we need to wake up Shavri so she can be there to Mindspeak him that he's safe here? For what information I'd need to Sending someone . . . name and what they died of isn't going to do it, I'd need to know--what they did with their life, what they were like as a person? The sort of thing you can learn by having a conversation with someone where you're trying to get to know each other a bit. Oh, and Sending is language-independent so it's okay if they're Neutral and don't speak Celestial, but someone who's been turning into a Chaotic Neutral outsider is less likely to be willing to answer me."

“…Well, I’ve already sent my dad one weird message today, I can ask him for - stuff about my grandfather - he was a doctor, he immigrated to a different continent and had six children and worked in small towns as the only doctor - I don’t know if I really knew him as a person, more than that?” She does know his full name, though. 

…And they should definitely have Shavri here before she disturbs Leareth again. As long as he’s not being poked at he still seems to be comfortably asleep, but that could change at any point. 

Shavri can be retrieved. She’s pretty bleary - she was very asleep - but she does look a lot less like she might collapse on the floor now that she’s had something to eat.

:- Not getting anything off him at all right now: she says. :How awake was he seeming before?:

“…Honestly, not very? More just, uh, it seemed like that might not stop him from winning a fight if I startle him. Uh, I was going to wait five more minutes and then check his responses again." This time she'll maybe start with somewhat less startling stimuli than a sternum rub. 

Over at the computer, Dr Harrison lets out what sounds like a crow of triumph. "Hey, guys, come check out Dr Chen's latest email!" 

Subject: RE: Radiation case - I need more information

---

Harrison,

Here's what I know:

- The labs you sent me are physiologically impossible.
- Your radiologist called the CT scan "impossibly good", and he's not someone who would screw around with official medical documentation for a prank.
- I tracked down a Gazette-Journal article about a "priest of a previously unknown religion associated with Dungeons and Dragons" who's "healing people" at your hospital.
- You started off calling it "biological cellular regeneration" therapy, but your last email wasn't even trying to make sense.

If you're telling the truth, your patient should be dead, and he's not. But he's not home safe either, because those last labs you sent over were showing deterioration again, and you were stressed out enough about it to call me. 

I did some google research on Dungeons and Dragons. This is insane and makes no sense, mind you, but it would fit with the limited availability you hinted at. The delay between your first call and the improved labs had me at a loss for a while, but I did find at least one spell that needs holy water as a "material component" and I suppose the pharmacy wouldn't have it in stock. I admit I'm still bemused about your "specialist" who can "see cellular damage", but you're clearly trusting them just as much as you trust the lab values. 

You're claiming the underlying problem isn't fixed, which is plain from the results you sent, and that you need the patient himself to provide transport to access the "more advanced treatment options" that would fully cure him. I am, to be clear, well into the realm of crazy speculation here, but: if there's a secret underground religion where priests can do real magic (and rumors of it leaked and inspired someone to turn it into a roleplaying game system?), you might need a more powerful priest, and they might not be easy to find. And your patient certainly wasn't exposed to >50 Gy anywhere in the State of Nevada, that was the first thing I checked, but you're claiming he crashed in under thirty minutes; if any of this is real, then he didn't get to you on a medevac helicopter, that's for sure, and why not suspect that he can teleport to wherever this hypothetical more powerful priest might be found? 

I repeat, again, that this is insane, but here I am on a plane anyway, because if this is real then it's huge, and if this is real then you have a patient in trouble. 

If this is real, I'm certain that I'm still barking up the wrong tree on several elements, given how I'm going off a tabloid article because you won't be straight with me. If it's really aliens, or lost biotech from Atlantis, I don't even know, but it's still huge and I still want to be in that room, and you still need me. So that's what I'm asking: be straight with me. If you can do the impossible, I need to know what and how and the exact limitations you're working with.

I'll be straight with you: if this is a prank or a hoax, I will absolutely make you regret it, but if there's an actual patient in that room, then I'm on your team here. I'm not going to report you to the medical board for pulling off something impossible to save a patient, however crazy you sound. I'm starting to feel pretty crazy myself. 

Boarding in 10. Should land on time, 00:05 at RNO, and I'd appreciate not having to wait for a taxi. 

 

Rebecca Chen, MD, PhD 
Professor of Radiation Oncology
Director, Acute Radiation Syndrome Treatment & Research Program Division of Radiation Oncology
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
1211 Medical Center Drive, Nashville, TN 37232

---

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email and any attachments are for the exclusive and confidential use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not read, distribute, or take action in reliance upon this message. If you have received this in error, please notify the sender immediately by return email and promptly delete this message and its attachments from your computer system.

What an email. ...Marian kind of feels like there's something wrong with finding shoulder-surfing this email any weirder than her day so far, but it's so surreal. 

She skims through it all once, and then goes back to the top and translates it into Celestial for Samora. 

(Shavri, since she's apparently not strictly necessary for Mindspeaking Leareth until Marian decides to harass him again, has decided to sit down and close her eyes for a minute or two. She still has Healing-Sight up on Leareth but she's not otherwise trying to follow anything that's happening.) 

"I'm glad she's willing to help. What is the Medical Board and do you think she thinks what we're doing is legal, or thinks it's illegal but doesn't object, or doesn't know if it's illegal and hopes it isn't? Also and perhaps more urgently, do you have enough information about my abilities to write a response?"

"The Medical Board is the - legal body that governs doctors - and if this is illegal I...guess...it would be because doctors aren't allowed to test a new experimental treatment on unconscious patients who can't consent to it? Because most cases where that happened in the past were unethical? In general if something is a totally new and untested treatment there's supposed to be a whole system for studying it and making sure it works and doesn't harm people. I don't think the system has any provision for emergency use of a treatment that has been tested a lot but only in another world, or for - someone like you, who's recognized as a healer in your world but isn't a type of professional that our world's medical training recognizes - so I think if someone did report it, the judgement would prooobably end up being that it's fine but in the meantime it would make everything five thousand times more complicated so I'm glad Dr Chen doesn't want to report it." 

Dr Harrison appears to already be typing out a response, so apparently he feels like he's got enough to go on? Marian feels like to the extent they don't know enough about Samora's abilities, it's not necessarily information Samora can give them by answering questions, it's that Samora's world doesn't have modern Earth medical science and hasn't studied how cleric healing works. Maybe Dr Chen will have ideas for specific questions to ask Samora, once Dr Harrison explains the basics. 

...Anyway it's now time to check if Leareth is waking up more. Carefully. Maybe starting with Shavri Mindspeaking him, actually, presumably someone would normally be woken up by unexpected telepathy? 

Sure she can do that. (Yawn.) 

:Leareth, wake up.: 

Leareth does not react visibly to this, but there's a flicker of something on Thoughtsensing - not waking up fully, and there's no sign that he's recognizing it as Mindspeech per se, but for a moment there's a hint of some kind of awareness. 

Shavri tiredly relays this and then tries again, louder. :LEARETH WAKE UP: 

Leareth's expression scrunches. After a moment his eyes crack very slightly open, unfocused and vague. 

To Thoughtsensing, it's clear that he's still not really aware of what's happening, but he is - reacting. And awake enough to be having experiences, even if most of what Shavri can pick up on is pain and nausea. 

:He's already in a lot of pain: Shavri relays. :But I think he could wake up more than this, if you do the hurting-him thing again.: 

...Marian winces internally a bit at having it described that way, even though it's not inaccurate, but sure, she can try pinching Leareth's nailbed – ramping up the pressure slowly, so she can stop when she sees a reaction and hopefully not get punched. 

Leareth is close enough to the surface that he reacts almost immediately, by trying to slap her hand away. He's not very coordinated; he bangs his hand into the bedrail instead, startles himself into coughing, and then makes an absolutely miserable expression - presumably at the presence of the tube - and starts trying to reach for it. 

Nope nope nope nope nope! Marian grabs the trailing end of the wrist restraint – she compromised on untying it from the bed-attachment point under the railing, so that he wouldn't feel constrained if he was just moving around, but she can still intercept attempts at self-extubation more easily. 

Leareth is not actually strong enough to put up any real resistance, but he's definitely trying. 

:Leareth, it's okay, you're safe, you were injured but you're with Healers -:

Is he even noticing that someone is trying to reach him with Mindspeech? 

Not really!!! Leareth is running on reflexes only right now! He's in a strange place and something is wrong and his instinct is to stop being in the strange place! 

He tries to Gate, again on pure reflex, though the mental motion is garbled enough that nothing happens. 

:He's trying to Gate. He has no idea I'm even here. I think you need to make him sleepier again, right now, and try again in a bit.: 

...Marian has a standing order to give 10 mg propofol boluses if Leareth is dangerously agitated. 

He looks visually calmer after the first, but she has to give three before Shavri confirms that he's stopped instinctively trying to portal himself somewhere else. Aaaaaah.