Apparently the men had wanted to meet the human brides onthe ship but none of the husbands had brought them by so far. As doctors theywere curious regarding any physical differences—even though their research hadshown that everything was compatible, they wanted to see it firsthand.Declining a physical exam, she did try to answer all the questions they had.When they started asking questions about her monthly cycle, Dathrow made apoint to excuse himself for a couple minutes and check on a message waiting forhim in the system. The questions they asked her about her period did make herrealize she was going to be needing “supplies” fairly soon and wondered how shecould go about asking that.
“Tamin, are you technically my doctor or will a human doctorbe brought up from Earth if I need one?” Poppy asked curiously.
Rodin chose that time to pop into the conversation that hadbeen led by the other doctor until then.
“We will be your doctors while on Squadron One if you needmedical assistance. As of right now, we are too far from Earth to get a humandoctor even in an emergency,” he said.
Not wanting to be left out, Tamin spoke next. “Also, theCouncil decided that any Phaeton children will need to be monitored by our ownrace so all pregnancies would be seen to by either Rodin or myself while youare here.”
“Why? Are you feeling unwell? Do we need to summon Wheatonfor you?” Rodin asked.
“Ummmm…no. I just wasn’t sure who I should talk to aboutgetting supplies when I need them—to deal with feminine issues,” she said whiletrying not to feel embarrassed. Talking to these two hunks about her period hadnot been on her mental to-do list today. Poppy had a male doctor at home butDr. Stevens was about sixty years old with twenty grandchildren. He wasn’tanything like these two babes in front of her and she wasn’t quite sure howmuch they knew about periods or the supplies that were needed when they came.
“Of course, of course,” Rodin answered with a nod,understanding what she was asking.
“We had planned on having a human nurse here to assist thebrides when the time came but our ship was called away before we could finishthe interviews. We did get enough ‘supplies’ though, for your stay to becomfortable, if needed. I can show you the supply closet next where those itemsare kept. You can choose what you need and let us know if there is somethingspecific you would like. We can make notes for future orders regarding yourpreferences,” Tamin finished.
Following Tamin down the small hall that led to the examrooms, Poppy peeked around the rest of the small medical center. Walking pastthe open exam rooms, she glanced around in awe. Instead of normal hospital bedsthey had long pod-like structures in the center of the room. Pausing outsideone of the doors, she was bumped by Rodin, who was following close behind.
“Oomph. I’m so sorry, Rodin,” she said as she was jostled bythe big body behind hers.
“No, I am sorry, Poppy. I admit, I am anxious to hear yourquestions and hopefully have you explain some of the supplies that we received.After studying the packaging we were able to understand what the purpose ofsome of them were but we are confused about an item that has wings. It does notmake sense to us why wings would help during your menstrual cycle,” Rodin saidas he backed up a few paces.
Oh great. Poppy was not looking forward to explainingtampons or pads with wings to this big guy. His expression became similar tothat of a kid in a candy store the more he spoke to her. He seemed as if hewere soaking up every word she said. She had a flashback to her sixth-gradehealth class, when all the girls were separated from the boys and had “thetalk” about menstruation. Picturing herself standing in front of a white boardholding up various objects and explaining how they were used caused her to grimace.Deciding now was a good time to distract the doctors, she gestured to the openroom.
“What are those?” Poppy asked, pointing at the weird podobjects that were where she expected exam tables to be.
Gesturing for Poppy to enter the room, Tamin and Rodinfollowed and walked to the center of the room.
“This is your standard regen bed,” Rodin explained with asweeping motion of his hand.
“Sugar, nothing you guys have up here is ‘standard’ to me. Aregen bed? As in, regeneration?” she asked, walking up to the white pod withbright blue buttons. It appeared as though someone would lie on it and thesides and top would close when it was turned on. The result was something thatresembled a space-age coffin.
“Exactly. When a warrior seeks our services, this is thequickest way to diagnose the problem. It takes vitals, searches for injuriesand can provide a diagnosis within minutes as to what the problem is. When wehave medical screenings, we use it to generate information for medicalrecords.” Tamin hit a button so the pod closed in a hum.
“It can also heal broken bones and most internal injuries.The duration it takes to heal different injuries varies depending on what itneeds to fix or regenerate. The more complicated the injury the more time itmay require.” Rodin was leaning against a cabinet that held medical instrumentsmore familiar to Poppy than the sci-fi bed in front of her.
“I would actually like to get a baseline on you if we could,Poppy. That way we will have your stats
