The club was coming along very nicely. From what I could see it was almost finished, but Casey said it would still be at least another day. On the way back to our quarters, we happened to walk past a section that overlooked the cavernous landing area. However, the big doors were closed, and the frantic activity that had been nearly constant since we arrived was no longer present. After watching the non-activity in the bay for a few minutes, we finished making our way to our apartments. When Casey asked the computer if there were still any news channels broadcasting, she was told no, that all of them had shut down since the transmitters seemed to draw enemy fire.
I asked where T'lon was currently, and was informed that she was in Europe at present, protecting a team rendering aid to survivors of the attacks. Andreya's voice reported that she was busy, at the moment, but didn't seem to be under unusual stress.
We still had a few minutes before the time limit on our playing restriction would be lifted, so I took the opportunity to show my lovers and our children how much I truly loved all of them. The strange thing was I think even little Greg and Wendy understood exactly what I was trying to tell them with all the hugs and kisses.
When it was time to play again, I picked up Princess and Erin picked up her acoustic as well. When I started playing a song by Joni Mitchell called 'A Case of You', Erin grinned at Casey who joined right in. I was so surprised by our wonderful Casey taking the vocals that I almost stopped playing. She sang it perfectly and sounded just like Joni even on the high notes.
Barbara, not to be left out, started the next song called 'Safe and Sound' by Sheryl Crow, and Erin sang the vocals. Of course the songs didn't sound anything like they did on the CDs, since we didn't have a full band, but they sounded pretty good.
It wasn't until the next song started that I realized we hadn't told Andreya that we were ready to play; however, glancing at the monitor of the terminal let me know that she already knew. The 'On air' light was on.
We played as much as we could over the next few days. When the club was finished in a little over one more day, we moved there to play. We found that the place was almost packed from the time we opened the doors to the time when we would tiredly drag our asses back to our apartment.
Just out of curiosity, Barbara opened the kitchen and simply got her supplies from the replicator, but cooked everything fresh. Beautiful Casey was her waitress, and within five minutes she was overloaded with orders.
Alan and his crew were back; we did see some of his crew in the club each night, but Alan was obviously pretty busy. Mulan did show up one afternoon; when she saw how overworked Casey and Barbara were, she left almost immediately. When she returned, she had three women with her, and a young man on crutches.
Two of the young women immediately began helping Casey with wait duties; the older of the women got behind the bar and smiled broadly at the set up she found there. The injured young man was helped into the kitchen, where he took over the grill and most of the prep-cook duties for Barbara.
It was still pretty constant, but now there was time for people to take a break every now and then. One thing I noticed was as soon as the woman took stock of the bar area, one of the new, very attractive young women showed up with a special drink for me.
"Sir, this is for you. Alice said to tell you that it will help keep your throat from getting raw. She also told me there is a modification she can make if you start getting sore anyway, so please let us know if you are." The girl smiled prettily and blushed slightly as she handed one of the cool drinks to Erin. Erin kissed her softly on the lips in thanks.
The girl blushed brighter and scurried off to tell the other new girl. Erin and I exchanged grins; we had our first groupie! The woman named Alice at the bar must have thought so too, since she laughed right along with us. I nodded to her in thanks for the drinks and she waved back.
We all had a brief meeting when the day was over so we could at least meet each other. The girls were Shelby and Brianna, the bartender was Alice, and our short order cook was a seriously wounded soldier named Harris. He'd had his leg ripped off by an enraged Caldarian. His normal Earth military team-mates literally blew the Caldarian into small pieces with their conventional, Earth weapons.
We worried about T'lon everyday, and all of us sent her messages asking her to be careful, and telling her how much we missed her. She replied to every message; she sounded lonely and tired, but was looking forward to coming home to us. It was amazing how much she felt like one of us.
We had just stopped for lunch one day, when three men, leading and guiding four long floating platforms, entered the club, and came over to us at the bar. On the floating platforms were cases and cases of an expensive French Champaign.
"Excuse me, Sir, but this just came in for you on a shuttle from Europe," the first man said, grinning. He handed me a small holodisk of the type messages are carried on. "I think this might have an explanation; I know it was marked as to remain with the shipment until delivery. If you'd press your thumb here, we'll get out of your way."
All of us were a little confused by the delivery since we hadn't ordered anything. I made it clear to the man before he left someone else's very expensive shipment in the wrong place. "Before I accept, are you sure this is for us? We didn't order any of this."
"DEL TO: WEIST, JON, c/o Davy Jones' Locker, Neptune's Massif Command Base, Earth, Sol sector," the man read off the chit. "No offense, sir, but you're the only person I know here with that name." He really did try not to laugh. "Don't worry, sir. If this isn't supposed to be yours, we'll come back and get it. However, I was told to make damn sure it came to you, by the loadmaster of the shuttle. She told me the force commander of the whole bloody European Command told her that if this shipment didn't make it, intact, to you, she would not be very happy with the loadmaster."
Casey and Erin smiled at each other, and both said "T'lon," at the same time. I pressed my thumb to the small pad on the man's clipboard. "What about those nifty floating tables?"
"Ah, once you get them unloaded, just press the 'return' button, and shove them out the door. They'll find their own way back to the cargo area." The man nodded to the ladies, smiled warmly at Alice, and led his buddies out the door.
"Two rows of five cases per floater, four floaters; forty cases of Champaign. How the hell did she get her hands on this?" Casey asked.
"At over four hundred dollars a bottle, I'd like to know how she pulled it off too!" Alice said, smiling.
I held up the message disk. "Let's find out," I tossed the disk to Alice who slipped it in the terminal behind the bar. The image of T'lon appeared beside Alice, and she smiled. "Greetings. I hope you like the gift I've sent; it was a gift to me from a kindly older gentleman who was greatly appreciative that we managed to save his family winery from destruction by a Caldarian culling force. When I told him of you, and the club you are trying to get started, he gave these to me and said that in order to ensure its success, it will need the perfect Champaign for its grand opening. I hope you do not mind, but I invited him to the grand opening, whenever it takes place."
The image shifted slightly and she was wearing combat fatigues now. "I don't know if we'll be able to come back between operations, but we are going to be shifting to a new area soon. Obviously, I can't tell you where yet, for security reasons. If we can, I'll see you soon for a night or two, but if not, I'll send you a message once we get to the new location. I miss you all. The rest of this message should only be played in your quarters as it is very private and for your eyes alone. I pray to see you all soon." The image froze on her beautiful, smiling face.
"Who is she?" Shelby asked staring at T'lon's image.
"She's our lover, and we hope, fiancé," Barbara said softly. "She is the Benesian Commander of the infantry battalion stationed here."
"She's Benesian? I'd heard they were really beautiful, but ... Wow! That woman could make me swear off men completely!" Shelby said, and then blushed when she saw me grinning at her. "Well, most men anyway," she added softly and looked at the floor.
"Well, I suppose we should find a place to store forty cases of Champaign until we hold our grand opening," I said.
Alice slowly tore her eyes from the image of T'lon. "I think we have room for it in the bar store-room." She latched the door open while I guided the first of the small cargo sleds close enough to start handing the cases to her. When each floater was emptied, one of the girls would guide it over to the door and send it back. After we got everything stored, Erin and I ate our lunches, and got back on stage.
That night when we got home, and had the kids in bed, Barbara put T'lon's message in our bedroom terminal and asked for the private part of the message to be played.
T'lon, dressed only in panties and a tank appeared sitting on our bed. "Hello again. Before I show you the recording I made for you, I wanted to say a few things to all of you. It is unfortunate that this has to be done in this manner, and, as I said, I am unused to being unsure of myself, but this is the situation we have been given." She took a deep breath, which did wonderful things to her chest under the thin shirt.
"I wanted to thank all of you for the wonderful, loving messages you have sent to me. The Goddess knows that those messages have been instrumental in helping me deal with the insanity I witness everyday. I know we have only spent one night together, and that we haven't had enough time to get to know each other, but I feel that we made a connection in that one night, and it has yielded feelings in me that I can no longer ignore.
"This is somewhat difficult for me, since I am a dominant in Benesian society, and would assume the role of head of household in a typical Benesian family. However, the night I spent in your loving arms made me feel more feminine, and more loved, than I felt even with Sh'an. I am in love with all of you. I can tell that you feel love for me as well, and would..." She frowned a moment as if trying to gather her thoughts. She sat up straighter and looked out at us again. "Jon, Barbara, Erin and Casey Wiest; I am T'lon J'kar, a simple soldier. I would like to formally request to be considered for admittance to your family as a wife to all of you, and mother to the children." There were tears in her eyes as she stared out at us. "In the short time we have known each other, your family has captured my heart. I feel as if our souls have touched, and mine has held on for dear life ever since. I will await your answer, and hope you enjoy the rest of this message; it was recorded while I thought of all of you."
"Pause please," I asked the computer and turned to my wives. "I already know the answer to this question, but now that it's official, this will probably be the last chance to point out problems or bring up objections before we commit ourselves to her. Do any of you feel that she is not one of us?" I asked.
My girls were sitting beside the frozen image of T'lon on our bed holding each other and missing our absent wife.
"Never mind, I do already know the answers." I touched the stud on my earpiece. "Commander T'lon J'kar please."
"T'lon here," a tired but alert voice answered a moment later.
"I love you, T'lon," I said while typing the command to add my girls to the call, and turn on visual, if T'lon agreed.
Almost immediately an image of T'lon's upper body appeared on the screen, nude. "Jon?"
"I love you, T'lon," Barbara said.
"I love you, T'lon," Erin said.
"I love you, T'lon," Casey said.
A look of utter joy came to the beautiful woman's face. "I sure hope I'm not dreaming this again! Goddess, I miss all of you so much! I love you too!"
"We just received your request to bond with us. Lover, you don't need to ask for what is already yours," Barbara said.
"I just wish we could move your belongings in here so you can come home to your family and not worry about having to pack." Casey smiled at the woman who had tears running down her face.
"If it were allowed, we would meet you at the bottom of the shuttle ramp when you get back and put the bond ring on your finger right there, and recite the pledge," Erin said.
"So it will happen as soon as we can get you back here to our apartments, and strip out of our clothes," I finished for my ladies.
A message appeared on the bottom of the screen "Please keep the call short; I'm not supposed to be allowing it, but you both needed it — Andreya"
I looked back up at T'lon. "My love, I was just told we need to keep this call short, I'm sorry for waking you, but we thought you might like to know..."
An alarm started screaming at T'lon's end and she kissed her hand before touching it to the screen. "Thank you!" and the call was disconnected.
We took our clothes off, and got into bed. We were all cuddled when Casey said, "Computer, continue message."
Andreya must have been peeking again, because the image of T'lon moved from the foot of the bed to up with us, and lying down. Barbara and Casey moved apart to make room for the nude image.
T'lon began by caressing her bronzed and muscled body with her hands. We could see her nipples get hard as she teased them. She pinched the small nubs and moaned as she pulled them away from her chest. We watched, rapt as our missing lover teased us with her message.
Barbara had ended up spooned up in front of me, and reached behind her to stroke my cock as she watched. I cupped one of her breasts, and gently did the same thing to her that T'lon was doing to her own chest. I could feel Barbara's mood, and smiled to myself as I put my mouth next to her ear. "Mommy? My cock is all hard, and stiff, I was wondering is you'd let me stuff it up you pretty rear." I licked her earlobe as she shuddered; she really loved this kind of talk during sex.
I whispered in her ear again. "Your own son is going to sodomize you. Not only are you going to let him, you are going to help him."
"Oh yes!" she whispered, trying to press my dry cock up her asshole. She was partially successful since all the precum from my cock had made her slippery enough for her to lodge the head of my cock up her rear-end.
"You're such a nasty mother! You let him fuck you, and had a baby by your own son!" I whispered to her as she shuddered again from my words. "He fucked your daughters in front of you, and made you watch as he got both of them pregnant as well! You enjoyed watching him take them!"
She had worked the whole head of my shaft into her tightest hole without foreplay or lubricant, and was still fighting to get more in her. "Oh jessus! Please just impale my ass on that big fucking cock, you nasty motherfucker! Keep telling me how nasty I am, and all the dirty things you are going to make me do!"
"Well, gee Mommy? Do you like watching my naked girlfriend fucking herself while she thinks I'm the only one watching? You should see her when the rest of the cheerleaders come over! She makes them all lick her little pussy, but she likes it best if I shoot my cum up her first. I tried to tell her that she'll get pregnant, but she said as long as her girls suck my cum from her then she won't get knocked up," I said creating a fantasy for her.
She groaned as she watched T'lon pushing two fingers into her stretched cunt, and one up her virgin ass. T'lon was very loud, and she was really enjoying imagining me fucking her ass while Casey sat on her face and Barbara ate her tasty quim.
"Suck me, Mommy! Suck my dirty cock to get me wet enough to fuck you up the ass." I said to get her going more. I never expected her to actually do it. Even Casey and Erin were a little shocked to see Barbara slide down and gobble up my dirty cock like she was starving and was given a steak.
She sucked me thoroughly and almost sucked me into an orgasm before sliding back up my body and pressing her asshole down onto my cock. When I rocked my hips forward, she had both of her nipples pulled out tightly and pushed back at me as hard as she could.
I slid all the way up her in one swift stroke and she shook and tried to pull hard on her nipples. She yelled loudly enough for us to wonder if she had awoken the kids. "God-Damn! YES! FUCK! Assfuck Mommy you hung bastard! Pound your baby making cum up your mommy's ass! FUCK! You're HUGE!"
Casey got up to check on the kids and Erin gave us a clear view of her fingers sliding in and out of her naked, bald pussy.
"Look at your precious little Angel, Mommy. I snuck into her room one night and fucked a baby up her virgin puss. Now she's my pregnant slut, aren't you Angel? Your precious children made children of their own to fuck." As I whispered into her ear, Barbara was starting her cum, and I felt my balls begin to react to T'lon, Erin, and my mother's ass.
"Just think, Mommy, while you're watching me fucking your angel again tonight, I'll also be fucking the daughter she is carrying in her womb! Your granddaughter is going to be born pregnant!" Barbara blew with that last comment, and the contractions of her ass, as well as Erin stretching her little pussy with three fingers, was too much for me, and I popped up Barbara's ass like she wanted me too. Oddly, T'lon was cumming too, in her recording.
That was when I noticed that Casey hadn't returned from checking on the porch monkeys. I kissed Barbara and Erin before I got out of bed to wash up in the bathroom and go in search of our other wife.
Once I left the bathroom, I walked into the kids' room to find Casey holding a sobbing Wendy. Our son was still sound asleep, but Wendy was clearly very upset about something.
"She thinks something is going to happen to one of us tonight. Pretty much all I can get out of her was 'Mommy got all blowed up.' Since all her mommies are here in the apartment, I'm not sure what she's talking about," Casey explained.
"Which mommy, honey?" I asked. "There's been no explosion here."
She gave a big sniff to clear her sinuses, and looked at me with bleary eyes. "Momma Taun got blowed up! She hurt real bad, daddy! She need us, but we no go!" She started bawling again.
"We just talked to T'lon tonight, and she was fine sweetheart. She said she missed you," I told the girl.
Erin and Barbara looked in the room to see what was going on, when they saw the distraught girl, Erin pulled her head back, and Barbara came into the room. "Maybe we should take her out to the living room so we don't wake Greg up?"
I nodded and Wendy held onto my neck like a lamprey. I carried her out to the living room, and sat on the couch with her. "Wendy sweetheart, when did T'lon become 'Mommy' to you?"
"The night of the sleep-over. When Geg and me wen' ta bed, she was a fun new playmate, but when we woked-up, we felt like her was our mommy like Mommy Casey, and Mommy Erin, and Mommy Bar'." The girl was still learning to speak, and it was a mix of Talosian and English, but I mostly understood her. "Her migh' go 'way now, Daddy! Please don' let her go 'way!" She started crying then, and buried her face into my chest.
"If there was an attack, Andreya's probably really busy; could one of you please see if Mulan can help clear this up?" I asked the concerned looking women around me. "Wendy is positive T'lon has been hurt badly."
Instead of using her earpiece, Erin turned and typed some commands into the coffee table keyboard.
A hologram of Mulan, nude and in bed, appeared over the coffee table. "Hmm? Oh, hi Erin. What can I do for you? Andreya and Alan are still in the command center."
"We're really sorry for waking you Mulan, but Wendy's really upset. She's convinced that T'lon has been injured, and we were wondering if..." Erin began.
Mulan grinned. "You were wondering if I could find out for sure without disturbing Andreya?"
"Yeah, sorry to bother you with something so trivial, but she's really upset, and we can't seem to get her to calm down," Casey said beside Erin.
"I'll see what I can do. Technically, everything entering and leaving this base electronically goes through Andreya. However, there's simply so much of it, I don't think she'd notice a discrete search for the data. Gimme a few minutes, and I'll see what I can find out for little Wendy." Mulan smiled tiredly; "She's so cute, how could I say no?" She broke the connection.
We all just cuddled the girl for a few minutes, and she looked up into my eyes. "Daddy, go to big room with water wall; Mommy Taun be there soon. Her need Daddy bad, her go 'way if daddy no there. Go Daddy! Daddy no let Mommy go!" She wiggled strongly to get out of my lap so I could go to the 'Big room with the water', wherever that was.
I let her down and she turned to me when I didn't immediately get up. "Go Daddy! Her be here soon!"
"Maybe she means the landing bay? That's where they bring the wounded before taking them to the hospital section," Barbara offered, getting scared now herself.
"Erin, can you watch over the kids, and answer Mulan when she calls back? If she's right, and I'm starting to feel pretty scared about it, we should be there. If she's right, we'll call you and you can meet us at the hospital with the kids," Casey said.
Just as we were about to leave, the terminal signaled an incoming call. Erin, being the closest, answered it, and a worried looking Mulan appeared.
"I couldn't find much; there is a huge fire fight going on in the area right now. I do know that her command shuttle has dropped out of the Command and Control net. We are still getting the transponder from the data recorder in the ship, so we know it hasn't moved, but that isn't much help. The Caldarians in the area have been tossing small tactical anti-matter warheads at us, and our people are getting hit pretty hard. The first shuttle from that area will be here in just a few minutes. Unfortunately, everything is still so confused there, that I can't even get a confirmation that her shuttle is still intact."
"Wendy thinks that T'lon will be on one of the first shuttles coming in and she'll be in really bad shape. She wants Jon to go to the 'big room with the water wall' and meet her, or she'll 'go away'. We're all scared enough that Jon, Barb, and Casey are leaving for the landing bay right now," Erin replied, waving us out the door.
"Tell them to run, the first two shuttle are on final..."
That was the last we heard as the door to our apartment closed behind us, and we ran for the lift. When we got to the landing bay, one of the shuttles was lowering its ramp, and the other was settling to the deck. We ran to the closest of the shuttles and found a harried looking man frantically waving to the running medics.
"Is T'lon J'kar on this shuttle?" I asked worriedly.
He quickly scanned a list on his board, then shook his head. "No, she got put on the other one. I'm sorry, Jon, but she's listed as super-critical."
As the tears began to form, we ran to the next shuttle just as the sealed tube of a stasis unit was being pushed down the ramp. I could see T'lon's name on the ID plate and ran over to her. A very concerned doctor was performing triage and it was clear he was trying to decide if T'lon were too far gone to save.
I felt his sorrow grow as he reached a decision about her. As he rose to go to the next patient, he saw us running toward him. "Is she still alive?" I asked urgently.
"Yes, she will be for a few more minutes. Frankly I can't see how she's lasted this long. May I ask what she is to you folks?" he asked.
"If you can save her, she'll be our wife. Can you open that thing so we can hold her hands? That way, she'll know we're here for her," Barbara said with tears in her eyes.
The man swallowed hard. "I'm sorry Mrs. Weist ... she doesn't have hands anymore. She was caught in an antimatter explosion, and I don't see how she survived this far."
Jon reached out to the small spark of life that still remained in T'lon and focused on how much he loved her, how much the girls and the kids loved her; then pushed that love to that spark. He felt it grow, ever so slightly, but it did grow. It knew that he was there, that the girls were there. It knew that she was loved.
"Doctor, she needs to go in now! She's still with us, she's just barely holding on, but she is still there. Now Doctor!" Jon said.
Against his better judgment, he red flagged T'lon's tube for immediate attention, and orderlies came running. One man pulled the tube toward a set of doors in the back of the bay, while the other jumped up on what looked like a running board, and started entering commands on the keyboard. We followed the pair as they guided our lover down a long hall to a part of the hospital section we hadn't seen before. At the end of the hall was a large room that was teaming with activity. Doctor Tom was there and looking a little harried.
"Jon, ladies, I'll have to ask you to please go out in the waiting room, now. She's hurt very badly, and I don't think you want to see what she looks like once we take her out of the tube. It won't be very pretty. We have a lot of work to do on her, and it'll be awhile before I'll have any news for you. Now, please, follow the orderly out to the waiting room."
"Doc, please do your best; she's one of the ones I sing for," I said, tears falling down my cheeks.
Tom looked back at me sadly, "I understand, Jon. We'll do everything we can, but keep in mind; she's lost more of her body than anyone should be able to do and still be alive. Right now, her odds are not good. Now, please, I need to get to work."
I nodded to him, and pulled my ladies after the orderly out to the waiting room. When we arrived, the orderly handed something to a waiting man in uniform. The man looked over at us sadly, nodded to us, and ran out of the room.
"My name's Ben. I'll try to make sure you know what's going on. If I get really busy, I might not be able to get out here very much, but I'll try. Use the com there on the wall and just ask for me if you need anything. There's a replicator right next to it," the man said before turning back to the door.
I got the girls to sit down, got us all some coffee, and called Erin. She said Wendy had calmed down a few minutes ago, smiled and fell back to sleep without saying another word.
When I told her about T'lon's condition, she started crying. While I was on the com with Erin, little Mulan showed up with tears in her eyes as well. She told Erin, and us, that the Caldarians that T'lon had been fighting when she was wounded had decided that there was no hope for victory, so to deny it to their enemies, they detonated the drive cores of their ships. No one knew how many had died yet, but the death toll was expected to be in the millions. A flying hospital that had been at Williams base was being diverted to help handle the numbers of wounded and set up a field hospital in the area as soon as the radiation levels got down to safe limits.
I could feel the depression start to work on me again, so I asked Mulan if she could bring Princess to me. When Mulan got there, I kissed her cheek in thanks, and wiped the tears from my face. Suddenly, I had no idea what to play. My mind had gone completely blank, and all I could feel was the pain of those around me.
Barbara and Casey burst into tears, and even Mulan started a fresh round, but she put her hand on my arm. "Sing to her, Jon. Sing to T'lon. Sing about your love, and the happiness you will all share when she makes it through this. Sing to your family, but let the rest of us listen."
She'd echoed Doctor Tom's words to me from the other morning, and I fought to shake off the melancholy that was gripping me.
There was an old song I remembered called the wedding song. I think it was originally performed by a group called The Captain and Tennille, but I could be wrong. I held princess and put all my ladies in front of me, in my mind. T'lon was right in the center, holding hands with Barbara and Erin, while Greg snuggled onto her lap to listen to Daddy play.
I knew I wasn't telepathic, but I tried as hard as I could to push the images in my mind to our wounded love. As the images turned to the five of us, nude and standing a circle holding hands, I finished the song.
The love I felt coming back from the ladies echoed in the hearts of everyone I could feel. I held the image of my ladies in my mind, and began a song by Randy Travis called 'Forever and Ever, Amen'.
I played every love song I could think of, and was just finishing the last one, when I noticed Ben had entered the room, and was standing quietly waiting for me to finish. I felt a pang of apprehension until I saw him smile softly with tears running down his face.
He knelt in front of us. "Doc Tom will be out to talk to you in a few minutes. Your wife survived the surgeries. She is still in critical condition, and on life support, but the doctors are pretty confident she'll pull through, now. So will a lot of others that should have died. Mr. Weist ... I've seen some of the worst tragedies and most profound miracles any human should ever be exposed to, but what I saw today was by far the most miraculous thing I've ever witnessed." His tears started flowing heavier, and he tried to hold them back and managed to choke out a thank you, before he got up and left the room.
I hadn't realized how tired I was, or how sore my hands were. My own cheeks were wet from tears, and my throat was starting to get raw. When I saw that I had played continuously for seven hours, I understood why.
I set princess aside and got myself some tea with lemon from the replicator, and took a few sips to ease my sore throat. Without words, both Barbara and Casey snuggled up to me when I sat between them. Barbara was holding princess so she wouldn't get damaged by the three of us.
It was a few more minutes before a very tired Doctor Tom walked through the doors. Barbara handed me Princess as she got up, and got the doctor a cup of coffee. He smiled his thanks as he sat next to us.
"T'lon will make it. She'll be on life support for the better part of two weeks, while we regrow a few of her internal organs. She'll still need more time to regrow her limbs, then the weeks of physical therapy learning how to walk again, and building up her muscles. But she will survive.
"Jon, Ladies, I want you to know that I didn't save her life. None of us in there did. By every ounce of medical knowledge we have, that woman should have died a hundred times.
"The really strange part is, she wasn't the only one! Yes, we lost people in there, but even the ones that couldn't be put back together died with a smile. Not a single person brought in today, that died, not one of them held the horror of their death as their last thought. They passed with hearts full of love, and minds at peace.
"A major miracle was performed here today, Jon. That miracle was right here in this room. T'lon J'kar should have died today. The explosion that wounded her destroyed so much of her body, she should have bled to death in seconds. Jon, I don't tell you this to frighten you, but to illustrate exactly what you did today. That woman's body was destroyed! She was so badly burned she was barely recognizable as humanoid; her body simply stopped five inches below her ribs. Her left arm had been ripped off at the shoulder, and her right had been flash burned half way up her upper arm." He took a drink of his coffee and let the warm liquid infect him for a moment.
"Normally, there wasn't enough left of her to save, and since she was still alive, we would have euthanized her. That may sound cold, but normally, it isn't, believe me. But you reached her, she was still with her body, and you reached her. Once we got her into the theater, we got to work. Myself and Doctor McGregor opened her tube and couldn't believe she was still with us. As quickly as we could, we got her body going on regenerating, then set about trying to rebuild her spinal column. The nervous system is the hardest to repair, especially with so much of it destroyed.
"Every person in here felt the love you have for her, and your wives. It was a beacon to her, and her fellow wounded. Doctor McGregor got called away to help another patient, but I kept working on T'lon. She should have been dead when she was pushed in there, but she wasn't. She held onto your love while we fixed her body enough to support her soul again. So did ninety-five others, Jon.
"We may have done the physical part, but you saved every one of their lives. I suspect you hurt yourself again to do it too." He smiled as I nodded and sheepishly smiled back.
"Honestly Doc, I didn't even realize I had been playing as long as I had."
"Well, I sure as hell won't complain about it. We have a lot more happy endings tonight because of you."
"Tom, did Ben lose someone in there? He was pretty emotional when he left here," Barbara asked.
Doc Tom looked thoughtful for a moment. "Barbara, you haven't been through it yet, but during a nasty session like this was, and like the one that's coming will be, us doctors simply don't have time to sit with the ones that aren't going to make it. That job generally falls to people like you and Ben.
"He held a lot of hands this morning, and said goodbye to a lot of people. As with most of the nursing staff, he was prepared to see a lot of pain, anguish and torment. A good portion of those people didn't pass as tortured as they normally would have. Instead they passed with a feeling of love, and it showed on their faces. Our nurses carry most of the emotional burden in there, and most are having a little difficulty dealing with how things turned out." He again smiled at us approvingly. "You're tired. Go home and get some rest. Come back in the morning, and I'll take a look at your hands and throat, though I see you're drinking tea, that should take care of your voice if it's not too bad."
"Actually Doc, we're supposed to be opening the club in a couple of hours. Perhaps we can take breaks in pairs and come see T'lon," I said, suddenly feeling very tired.
Doc Tom pulled a small device out of his pocket and looked down at it casually. "Well, perhaps the folks can make it through one day without a live performance, Jon. Considering the amount of energy you put out this morning, I think you really need to go get some rest. You don't want to over-stress your ability too much."
I was feeling dizzy all of a sudden, and Tom got to his feet, went to the replicator to get something, stopped and spoke quietly into the communit on the wall. When he sat back down the little gadget he'd set there was beeping to get his attention, and flashing some red lights.
He was saying something to me, but I couldn't hear him very well, and my vision was getting blurry. Two people pulling one of those floating gurney's between them came in the door from the doctor's area, and I thought one of them might be Ben. Then the world start to spin as the lights faded into a fuzzy darkness.
"I love you, Jon. Thank you."
"I love you too, T'lon, but what are you thanking me for?"
"You saved my life, Jon. You and our wives held me. I wasn't ready to pass the gates yet, so all of you held me. That is what I was thanking you for."
"T'lon, it was entirely self-motivated. None of us could stand the thought of losing you; we couldn't let go of you. You are part of us, Love."
"Uh, T'lon? Where are we? How is it were talking; aren't you still badly wounded?"
"I don't think this place actually has a name, my love. We are both in a coma at the moment. The amount of energy you spent to save me and the others was far more than you actually had. You are paying for that now."
"I don't understand. If I didn't have the energy, how could I use it?"
"You drew it from the only place in your body strong enough to power it; your own life force."
"So, I'm dying then?"
"Yes Jon, but not completely. You gave many people a total of thousands of years of life. In order to do that, you've given up years off your own life; at least that's what some of our scholars claim is possible."
"Well, a thousand years for other people at the cost of a few of my own doesn't sound so bad. I mean, now those people will live and have a future; that's gotta be worth something."
"Was it worth two hundred and fifty years of your life?"
"It cost me that much?"
"I'm afraid so. You will be much older when you wake."
"How much older? Will I be able to see our children grow up?"
"I'm afraid not, Jon. But you will see our son being born. I can't see much after that."
"So, I've got about a year then?"
"That's just a guess; I'm still not sure this is all real."
"In a way, I hope it is just a dream, T'lon. I love all of you so much, I don't want to die and leave you. But, if my death is what it takes for those people, and you, to live, then I would still have done the same thing."
"I thought as much. You have a very giving soul, Jon Weist. You will wake soon, and your wives will need all your love to get through this. Be very careful with the life energy you have left. I doubt you will survive it again."
"T'lon? T'lon, please don't go! You need to know how much we love you! How much we care for you! T'lon! Please come back, sweetheart ... I need you."