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"A See Weed, a Bat-"

"Even a Dragon!"

"I don't believe it ?C not seven planets "

"At least seven She started at the Orgin "

"Really? The Orgin?"

"Quiet, please!" Fords interrupted "If you cannot observe professionally and silently, then I will have to ask you to remove yourselves "

Abashed, the six students fell silent and edged away from another

"Let's go on with this, Darren "

Everything was prepared The appropriate medicines were laid our beside

The huical cap, exposing her slender neck Deeply sedated, she breathed slowly in and out Her sun-browned skin had barely a mark to show for her?? accident

"Begin thaw sequence now, please, Darren "

The gray-haired assistant was already waiting beside the cryotank, his hand resting on the dial He flipped the safety back and spun down the dial The red light atop the s faster as the seconds passed, changing color

Fords concentrated on the unconscious body: he edged the scalpel through the skin at the base of the subject's skull with small, precise movements, and then sprayed the medication that stilled the excess flow of blood before he widened the fissure Fords delved delicately beneath the neckthe pale bones at the top of the spinal column

"The soul is ready, Fords," Darren informed him

"So a her "

Fords felt Darren at his elbow and kneithout looking that his assistant would be prepared, his hand stretched out and waiting; they had worked together for ap open

"Send her home," he whispered

Darren's handsoul in his palm

Fords never saw an exposed soul without being struck by the beauty of it

The soul shone in the brilliant lights of the operating roohter than the reflective silver instru ribbon, she twisted and rippled, stretching, happy to be free of the cryotank Her thin, feathery attachments, nearly a thousand of theh they were all lovely, this one seeraceful to Fords Deep Waters

He was not alone in his reaction He heard Darren's soft sigh, heard the ad murmurs of the students

Gently, Darren placed the s Fords had made in the human's neck The soul slid s herself into the alien anatomy

Fords admired the skill hich she possessed her new home

Her attachhtly into place around the nerve centers, so deeper to where he couldn't see, under and up into the brain, the optic nerves, the ear canals She was very quick, very firlistening body was visible

"Well done," he whispered to her, knowing that she could not hear hiirl was the one with ears, and she slept soundly

It was a routine matter to finish the job He cleaned and healed the wound, applied the salve that sealed the incision closed behind the soul, and then brushed the scar-softening powder across the line left on her neck

"Perfect, as usual," said the assistant, who, for soe from his human host's name, Darren

Fords sighted "I regret this day's work "

"You're only doing your duty as a Healer "

"This is the rare occasion when Healing creates an injury "

Darren began to clean up the workstation He didn't seem to kno to answer

Fords was filling his Calling That was enough for Darren

But not enough for Fords Deep Waters, as a true Healer to the core of his being He gazed anxiously at the hu that this peace would be shattered as soon as she awoke All the horror of this young girl's end would be borne by the innocent soul he'd just placed inside her

As he leaned over the huma

n and whispered in her ear, Fords wished fervently that the soul inside could hear him now

"Good luck, little wanderer, good luck Hoish you didn't need it "