Constellations Read Free

his workers carrying a makeshift stretcher. Sweat matted their stark white hair to their heads and soot stained their rough, woven clothing. “We will carry him, Beloren.”
    â€œJust a moment, Crimar,” she said as she searched through her worn, leather medicine satchel. While she knew the bag did not contain what she needed to eliminate the tumor, which under Grennai medical standards would be undetectable and eventually fatal, Jendra was sure she could cure the young man given a little time and privacy. Unable to administer a hypospray in the midst of the onlookers, Jendra opted for an oral dose of trianoline. She slipped the small strip into his mouth, where it dissolved instantly on contact with his tongue. Within moments, the medication would begin to relieve some of the trauma the fall had inflicted upon his brain.
    After taking an additional few moments to wrap the man’s head in a thick bandage, Jendra pointed to one of the workers and had him kneel next to her. She handed him another wad of cloth, instructing him to hold it against the victim’s wound.
    â€œKeep pressing here until you get to the beloren at the white home,” Jendra ordered as she rose and waved to Crimar. “Take him now. I’ll follow after you.” She stepped back, allowing the supervisor to direct two workers to load their comrade onto the stretcher.
    After directing the rest of the workforce to return to their respective tasks, Crimar turned to Jendra. “Thank you for coming so quickly, Beloren, ” he said. Though normally she found his accent as he spoke in his native language to be fluid and almost musical, on this occasion his tone was flat and emotionless. “But he has lost much blood. Surely he will die?”
    â€œNot if I can help it,” Jendra replied, the resolve in her voice abruptly shattered beneath the force of a ragged cough that hunched her aging, slender form. Seeing the look of concern in Crimar’s wide eyes, she offered a weak smile as she wiped her mouth. “I’m fine, my friend. It’s merely the soot in here. Maybe you could tidy up for me the next time I pay a visit?”
    A wide smile creased Crimar’s dark features. “I hope that is not for some time, Beloren. ”
    Jendra patted his shoulder as she suppressed what would have been another coughing fit, then gathered her meager medical bag and headed for her home. As she walked down the village’s main thoroughfare with its dual row of one- and two-story wooden frame buildings, she hoped she would not have any patients awaiting her return. Still, she knew that as the villagers became more accustomed to her presence, they would come in a steady stream even for the most minor of ailments. That seemed to be the way of the Grennai as she moved from settlement to settlement, this one her fifth since her return to this planet more than a year earlier.
    While her personal mission of medical duty on this decidedly primitive world—catalogued in Starfleet databases only as NGC 667—had not gone precisely as she originally planned, Jendra managed to allow herself some small measure of satisfaction in her accomplishments this afternoon as well as what she would do for her latest patient at the first opportunity. Thanks to her, with an admitted assist from her borrowed Starfleet-issue medical equipment, one young man’s life would change for the better.
    The least I can do for these kind people, and we should be doing a damn sight more.
    Hoping to catch a little rest before following up with her patient, Jendra opened the door to the clinic that doubled as her home. Moving shadows in the hallway leading to her examination room caught her by surprise, though, and she stopped. Hushed voices—she could not make out any words—carried from the far room.
    Making her way down the hall, minding her steps so as not to clatter her hard-soled shoes against the wooden floor, Jendra peered into