Chapter 175: Chapter 169

I closed the app as I heard the MRI room door open. Axle walked with Jada’s help, leaning against her heavily. His eyes were both covered in a thick, white bandage. Dr. Miles split off from them as one of his staff helped Jada to a nearby patient room.

“Well, it’s not a great prognosis,” he said, handing me Axle’s chart. “Both of his eyes are burned out, along with the retinal nerve about halfway into his brain, it’s a miracle he didn’t suffer any secondary damage. Or whatever did this to him was highly specialized. The scarring is permanent, he won’t see again without considerable surgical effort.”

“Can you perform it?” I asked, not looking up from the chart. The MRI sheets showed tiny, darkened lines running through Axle’s brain.

Dr. Miles nodded, hands in his lab coat pockets. “Yes, with the right assistant. I’ll need to bring in a specialist, he’s asking for mechanical replacements. I’m no engineer.”

“What’s the price tag for everything?” I asked.

“Fourteen million, for a high-middle shelf optic. It’s what’s nearby, and I can get my hands on both the tech and the specialist at the same place,” Dr. Miles replied. He shrugged. “Three days from now, he can have his sight back. Best I can do, under the circumstances.”

I looked up at him and tried my best to smile. “Thank you doc. I appreciate it, I really do. Get it moving. I’ll get you the morties.”

“Ah, yeah, about that. I can’t really get it moving without them,” he said. “So that complicates matters a bit.”

Quenching the anger that rose, I nodded. “I understand. I’ll get it together, fast.”

Dr. Miles nodded back, hands in his pockets and lower lip stuck out sympathetically.

I scowled, a sudden memory claiming my attention. 

“Hey, doc,” I asked. “Whatever happened with that research into Nu-Earth humans you were doing?”

He snorted, in the back of his throat.

 “Nothing of value, if that’s what you’re wondering. The extra aggression is from lead poisoning, primarily. Some other pollution damage, excess radiation, and a planetary epidemic of mental health crises, but mostly it’s the lead.”

I blinked and my scowl deepened. “What do you mean?”

“Your whole world has lead poisoning,” Dr. Miles said, casually. “Some event in the recent past flooded your atmosphere with an extraordinary amount of lead and lasted for decades before it was fully stopped. Leaded gasoline in motor vehicles, I think it was? So now all life on Nu Earth has a degree of lead poisoning. You were likely born with it, from your parents' exposure.”

The man adjusted his lab coat and sat down beside me. 

“Hell, I’m getting a dose just living on this planet. But yeah, that’s the primary reason your people are so much more aggressive than humans from Victorian Earths or Caveman Earths.”

“Lead poisoning makes people aggressive,” I repeated, numb. “And there’s no way to profit from this information?”

“Not immediately, with the local market in shambles as it is. You’d need some kind of cleanse, likely nanoscopic, to remove the excess lead particles for Nu-Earth humans, and there’s just not enough of a market to even sell the disease, as we say,” he said, sighing at the finish. “Shame too. I have quite the compilation of data on the subject. Even found some charts to use, Antarctic ice core research. Tracks the rise and fall of both your Greek, and Roman empires, in the lead from their smelting. Then the big spike event; leaded gasoline, and the levels have just never dropped to normal since.”

“Great. So we’re all lead poisoned radioactive mutants, and there’s nothing that anyone can do about it,” I sighed back.

“Oh now, I didn’t say that,” Dr. Miles frowned. “There’s just no market for the cure, so we can’t sell the concept to any affiliate that could make one.”

I narrowed my eyes and stared at the man. “Thank you for that clarification,” I said, through gritted teeth.

“Well, happy to help where I can,” he got up, immediately taking a few steps away from me before turning back. “Should I expect extra security while Axle is in my care?”

I nodded. “BlueCleave regulars at the least, yes. I plan to have some extra security installed too, so probably a tech,” I told him. When he frowned, I raised my hands. “I’ll tell them to try and stay out of your way.”

“Thank you, boss,” Dr. Miles said. He turned and left, walking into Axle’s room.

I sighed and stood to speak with the BlueCleave officer that had been assigned to us. She was a sergeant, by the patch on her armor.

“Sergeant, good,” I started.

The young hobb snapped to attention and saluted me.

“Hey, cool it with that stuff. I don’t want anyone to know there’s officers here,” I told her. “Call for reinforcements, I want a full team on this building at all times from here on out. Tell them to bring a sniffer, and someone to install it too.”

The hobb turned away to do as I ordered, and Jada stepped up behind me.

“He’s asking for you,” she growled.

I turned and looked up into her face and nodded. 

“I’m sorry Jada. I couldn’t protect him. Never should have brought him down there with me.”

She took a long breath and sighed. “I’ll never forget that smell . . . if only we could convince him to wear a suit,” she hissed under her breath.

I shook my head. “He’s scared to death of the suits, there’s no way.”

“I know,” she growled. “Anytime I bring it up he starts talking about quantum entanglement and dimensional boundaries. He can be quite stubborn at times.”

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I chuckled lightly. “Doc says it's just a matter of morties to get him patched up. Which means it's just a matter of time.”

“He told us, yes. I’ve sent you four million, it’s all we’ve saved,” the hulking Knowle said. “And Axle insists he has an idea to make the rest, quickly. That’s what he wants to talk to you about.”

I nodded and followed her back through the lobby, toward Axle’s room.

“Hey,” Jada whispered over her shoulder. “What happened?”

I growled in the back of my throat. “Quadrum got impatient with us. Punished us for being bad servants,” I ground out.

She glanced back at me, but only nodded. “I’m glad to see you’re pissed off about that,” she said.

“Already working the problem,” I said back.

Jada held the door open, and I entered to see Dr. Miles at Axle’s bedside, hands in his lab coat pockets.

“Well, I’ll be back to check on your pain levels in about an hour. I can still put you out anytime, if needed. You let my staff know if you need anything else, and we’ll be keeping an eye on your vitals in case of any after-effects,” Dr. Miles said.

“Thank you doctor,” Axle slurred. His head waved from side to side as he sniffed the air. “Tyson!”

“Yeah, I’m here,” I said, approaching his bedside.

Dr. Miles smiled and nodded, then left and closed the door behind himself.

“Tyson, you mustn’t take any action against Quadrum,” Axle whispered.

I glanced around, before taking his hand. 

“It’s just us in here, it’s alright,” I told him.

My friend squeezed my hand and let go, reaching under his covers and producing his tablet. “I’m still going to help, Tyson,” he said. “Most of what I do is phone calls, talking to people. I can still work.”

Jada growled in the back of her throat, and I shook my head. “You need to focus on healing, buddy. Plus, you’re stoned right now. Probably feel like you could take on the world.”

Axle snorted. “No, just the Dearth Conglomerate. This reaper hounds thing, I think I know what to do,” he said. The Knowle rubbed lightly at the side of his bandage, before Jada gently grabbed his hand to stop him. “That radioactive material in the Sleem cavern,” he said.

“What about it?” I asked.

“You once told me that you suspected the cavern you found it in was their origination point. If it was, it is possible those hounds still carry a residual amount of that specific radiation,” he said, his head rolling on the pillow.

“We could use that to track them?” I asked.

“Possibly, yes. It’s a lead. I’ll need help going over the original Fumble-Bee footage, those should have records of the material we seek,” Axle said, before giggling.

“It’s funny,” he said. “Quadrum may have ended up saving us all.”

Jada shushed him with a gentle but heavy hand across his snout and looked at me sharply.

“I should go,” I said. I stood up to leave, but Axle shoved his mate’s paw off his snout and grabbed my arm.

“Tyson, wait! The income stream,” he gasped, before leaning back in the bed again. “Oh, these drugs are strong. I agree, I need to rest, just one more thing first.”

I nodded, before realizing he couldn’t see me. “Go ahead,” I said.

Jada narrowed her eyes but listened as Axle spoke.

“We want the camera crews focused on the current hive-clearing operation, but I intend to gain and edit some footage of our hobbs hunting the reaper hounds as well. We’ll find them eventually, and the footage might be of some use,” Axle rambled.

“What is he talking about?” Jada asked.

“He wants to pitch a show to the CTV crew in orbit,” I told her.

“Axle, honey, you need to rest,” she whispered gently.

“No!” he insisted. “Time sensitive, we have to make some calls. I’ll rest once this is in motion.”

I raised my hands and started slowly backing toward the door. Jada glanced over and nodded at me, so I kept going.

As I was about to close the door, I said to Axle, “I’m sorry brother, we’ll get you some new eyes fast.”

He grinned from the bed, his tongue lolling from the side of his mouth. “That’s what the show is for!” he said with a drunken giggle. I closed the door gently and left them alone.

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