Serendipity (Book 1 of the Dana Halliday series)

INSTINCT. GALILEO'S OUTPOST. JUPITER BLESS YOU.

"I'm impressed." 

I realized Adrian was standing at the edge of the treatment area.   I wondered if Flynt would prefer privacy, but he didn't seem to mind.  He must have known Adrian was there well before I did.  

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, he clawed up two doctors and a nurse on the Far Tirzens."

Flynt sighed, though he grinned.  "It was one doctor, and I was drugged. I warned it to restrain my hand, at least. It didn't listen."

I made a mental note or two. Treat a sedated Fenn like a sedated hawk. Check. Tirzens are "it." Check. I taped a cotton pad over the needle puncture. He was shivering.

"Can I show her that acupressure thing?" Adrian asked. "She might need it if you're ever injured enough to be irrational."

"Sure, go ahead."

Adrian approached the table. "Watch this, D. If you press with your fingers here, in the middle of his back, pretty firmly—" He demonstrated, pushing into the ropey muscle on either side of the spine. Mentally, I was counting rib spaces and noting a couple of distinctive marks near the area.

Flynt's blood pressure and heart rate dropped to normal and then a bit beyond. He drew a deep breath and closed his eyes, his antennae starting to move in slow circles again. He had stopped trembling. When his eyes opened, he had an expression of dreamy unconcern on his face.

"Huh," I said. "Wish I could do that to chows."

Adrian grinned and let go. 

Flynt straightened as though jerked from an imminent doze. "It only works for a few minutes," said the Fenn. "But it's quicker than drugs."

"Thanks for showing me. Okay, I'm done torturing you for now. Why can't you lie down?"

He shrugged. "Just can't. Instinct." He pulled his shirt back on—it was a t-shirt version of the heat-repellant turtleneck he'd worn on Earth—and hopped off the table. It's chilly on board a spaceship, what with the vacuum outside and all, but Flynt evidently still felt too warm. "Adrian, I'm going to clean the water recycler this afternoon. Is that all right?"

"Better you than me." Adrian leaned on the table and watched as he left. "He seem healthy to you?"

"So far as I can tell."

"I'm glad you got him in here. This is such a different environment than he's used to, I worry about him."

"Seems like he's okay. Jump up there."

He raised his eyebrows. "I'm healthy as a Cennett horse, cuz."

"Get up there. Humans are almost as alien to me as everyone else. What if something happens to you?"

Adrian grinned and hopped backward onto the table. The light show started again. "Fine. But if you put on a rubber glove, I'm gone."

"Eww." I looked at all his vital signs, which were within normal ranges. "Only if your life is in danger, promise. What did he mean by instinct?"

"Some of their behavior is innate. Usually it makes sense—the smell of blood can really trigger this protective response he has, for instance—but that fear of lying down is pretty baffling." His eyes went elsewhere while I listened to his heart. "I was sitting with him when he attacked that doctor. They had to do some surgery, clean up the stump and put in the implants. They let him wake up lying flat on his back. I knew he slept sitting up, but I didn't realize it's because he can't lie down."

I got out another syringe and took some blood from him. Oddly, I have pulled blood from several humans, fellow veterinarians, for various reasons. "What happened?"