"Jody Lynn Nye - Medecine Show" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nye Jody Lynn)

"I'll do what I can," Gershom said. "This shouldn't lengthen our trip more than a few days. Is that all
right?"
"All right is yes. I shall be swim," he said, coming out of the somersault on all fours. "Thinking of Poxt
makes me wish for water." He trotted toward the bathroom.


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"Fine and dandy," Shona said. "I'm just happy to be alive." She stretched again.
"Mama, down!" Alex said, holding out his arms to her.
"One second, sweetie."
Before turning the baby loose, she freed the cat and dog, who hurried to their feeding station. Harry
dashed ahead, spun, and held up a paw full of hooks toward Saffie, halting the dog in her tracks, then
took a long drink. Shona guessed he was parched from yowling. The black dog waited her turn patiently,
then slurped her noisy way to the bottom of the little reservoir. With a tiny whine, she looked up at her
mistress.
"Nose it on, Saffie," Shona said, pointing to the low-set lever. "Come on, girl. You know how." The dog
still hesitated. Shaking her head, Shona knelt and ruffled the dog's fluffy ears, then kicked on the faucet
with the heel of her hand. "I think she just wants me to do it to reassure her," she told Lani. The girl
knelt on the dog's other side and put an arm over her shaggy back.
"She was scared."
"So was I." Shona stood up and went to take Alex down from the impact cocoon. She undid the
fastenings around the papoose roll. "Here we go, sweetie."
"No," the toddler said, clenching his hands on the straps and fixing his mother with an obstinate gaze.
He put out his lower lip. "Don't want down now."
With a sigh, Shona hefted the carrier onto her back. "I don't know where you got that stubborn streak.
Come on. You can help me listen to the mail. Here goes the horsey! Ready?" She galloped toward her
cabin with the baby on her back shrieking his delight.
"Alone?" Lani said, from the floor.
"No, of course not," Shona replied, turning around at the door. "There might be news for you from Aunt
Lai or Susan, since you so seldom send any messages yourself." Lai was Shona's pet name for her aunt
Laurel Elliott who had raised her and embraced Lani as a new great-niece. Lani blushed. She was shy
about sending messages, but she loved getting them. "Come on," Shona urged cordially. Lani unfolded
her long legs and hurried after them.
2
The second room of the lab module functioned as Shona's bedroom while she was on a planetside
assignment. She left her private comm unit hooked up in there most of the time, partly to keep it out of
the way of the ship's day-to-day operations.
Long ago, someone had discovered that if a lab was always set up inside its own unit, it didn't have to be

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set up again in haste, and it could be isolated and sterilized in cases of quarantine. Laboratory modules
belonged either to the Galactic Government or to the Corporation for temporary use on exploration or
colony missions, but Shona's was a new one, on permanent loan to her. Manfred Mitchell, the new CEO
of the Corporation, had sent her a series of temporary short-term assignments to give medical care to