Next of Kin

"It will mean transferring to a different reality," Andrea warns her. "You remember I explained to you about alternate realities when we talked before. Well, the best medical care available to us for your mother was in one of those."

"That makes no difference," Exotica replies, which is what Andrea had expected her to say. "There's nothing to keep me here. I take it my father has been dealt with?"

"He's dead. I'm not sure whether I should say 'I'm sorry' at this point or not."

"Not. And Blondin?"

"I'm not sure - things were rather rushed and confused, as you can imagine. I assume he's dead, though. Anyway, we Champions aren't needed here any more. Cederik and his forces will be able to move in now and attend to any mopping up operations that might be necessary."

A short time later, Exotica - wearing a surgical mask, for infection is always a great worry when someone has suffered serious burns - is looking down at her mother as she lies in a bed in the Voyager's sickbay. She is unconscious and swathed in bandages.

"The prognosis is not very good," Voyager's Doctor tells her. "We can keep her alive, and eventually she will probably regain consciousness, but she will face life in a wheelchair and a degree of scarring will be inevitable. There's one rather - er - unorthodox procedure we could try, though. I don't know if your friend Andrea has told you about how she became a demifox? She has? Well, we could try the same thing with your mother. Since we don't know when - or if - she will regain consciousness to give her consent, I'm afraid it falls to you - as her next of kin - to decide. Just for Andrea to give her a nip should suffice. Your mother would become a demifox, but she would be healed of all her injuries in the process. At least, that's what I understand based on hearing Andrea's story at second hand.

1. "Should we go ahead?"

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