Winds of Change

"Okay... how are we doing this?" Thane said getting to business.

"I want to get them good at hand fighting before we introduce them to weapons. It will teach them to control their bodies." She explained.

"We know little about hand fighting, we can't help you there." Braken stated.

"That I know, we will cross that bridge if we come to it and if I must I will get Sage, Susan, Destiny or Tarval to join the team." She explained. "Now... what is expected in the way of inspections?"

Cia smiled, "we can take care of that, for the first week we tell them what needs to be corrected, next week they have daily inspections of dress and dorms. While you are inspecting them before stretching, one of us will go through the dorms, make sure everything in place, if not we report it and we take them back in to correct it then they get punished."

"What is the charge?" Alanna asked.

"Failure to maintain equipment and quarters to reasonable standards," Thane replied, "my wing got the yard twice for that one. Cleaning weapons for the entire day and doing the afternoon in the laundry the other time."

"My wing got that one too, we had to scrub the great hall's floor while on our hands and knees and with little brushes." Braken added.

"My wing had to clean the entire barracks." Cia continued.

"Suicides for an hour." Alanna told them.

"You win," Thane said as it seemed extreme.

Alanna smiled, "I would like the practise swords to be packed away. They won't be handling swords this year." They nodded.

Rhun adjusted the power flow to allow better resolution, he smiled, "okay, it's done." He had been working for the last two hours to hook the device up to a special solar crystal converter which would power it. Susan had spent that time explaining to Ken what the device would be able to do, he had quickly become just as interested as Jewel had been. The head midwife, Jen, was also present and just as pleased with what she was hearing and was glad she had brought an expecting mother to try it on.

"So this will let me see my son before he is born?" the expecting father said as he gestured at the device.

"Yep," Susan answered. Rhun had already given her the knowledge on how to use the device, he had thought it would be received better if the medical professional did the presentation.

"Will it hurt him?" The mother said a little nervous as she was led to an examination table.

"No, it is completely safe, you won't even feel it." Susan reassured. "Now we haven't been formally introduced, I am Susan and I have used a device like this for years and not just for looking at babies." Susan said using her gentle voice.

"I'm Prudence, this is my mate Mikael." She introduced as Susan placed a towel under Prudence's dress but over her sex for modesty then lifted it to expose the slightly rounded stomach.

"How far along are you?" Susan asked still trying to wrap her mind around a five month pregnancy and how big someone might look at full term with such a small child.

"I have two weeks left, I shouldn't get any bigger, I haven't in the past." Prudence answered.

"I can assume by that comment that this isn't your first child, have you had any complications." Susan asked.

Prudence nodded, "My first was a breech birth but the second went smoothly."

Susan nodded, "Okay so I am going to place this against your stomach, it might feel a little cold to begin with." Everyone crowded around to watch both Susan and the screen. Mikael held Prudence's hand and watched what Susan was doing to make sure she didn't hurt his mate.

Susan focused on the screen as she placed the small rod in her hand against the skin. The screen changed but it wasn't an image that Susan was familiar with, it wasn't grainy it was a very clear amber coloured picture, just not what she was looking for. "Okay let me just adjust the depth," she said as she pressed her thumb to a pad and slowly slid it forward.

"What's that sound?" Mikael suddenly asked as the fast whooshing beat of his child's heart came from the speakers.

"That is your son's heart beat." Susan answered calmly.

"It is so fast?" Mikael said a little surprised as he had never heard this before.

"Completely normal," Susan replied as she suddenly found a foot. "A foot, he hasn't finished turning just yet." Everyone focused on the screen, Susan slowly moved the probe.

"That's a wing," Ken said as he pointed to the screen.

Susan grinned as she slowly moved the probe further up and a little to the side, a hand came into focus and finally the face as the little body moved. Prudence covered her mouth in surprise and a tear trickled down Mikael's face.

Susan paused the screen and pressed a button, taking a picture, it printed out and she offered it to the parents, "Now I am just going to do some normal screening, it'll only take a few moments."

The parents didn't care, they were so enthralled by the picture of their child that Susan could have done anything.

Susan quickly looked around then removed the probe. "Everything is in order, I would like to check you again in about a week just to make sure he is in the right position for birth."

"What if he isn't?" Mikael asked.

"Well there are options," Susan said, "We can check again when you go into labour, if he still in the wrong position, we can attempt to move him, or we can allow the breech..."

"No... the last breech nearly killed her." Mikael said firmly.

Susan nodded, "well if he won't move and you won't allow a breech, there is a C-section..."

"A what?" Ken asked.

"A C-Section, we make an incision," Susan showed where she would put the cut. "Here, and pull the child out."

"And lose my mate!" Mikael said angrily.

"No..." Susan reassured, "she would be fine, I've performed this procedure many times and have never lost a mother or a child. On Earth it is considered a routine procedure like stitching a wound or setting a broken limb. I have some information that you can read concerning C-Sections, there are some risks but there are risks with any procedures."

"And how would you minimise these risks," Mikael asked, he was completely focused on protecting his mate and their child.

"Do you have a dagger?" Susan asked and Mikael nodded, "may I have it." Mikael frowned but unsheathed his dagger and offered it to her hilt first. Susan took the dagger, "Now... I am going to cut your hand with this," Susan explained.

Mikael jerked his hand away.

"I can't stab myself, I heal too quickly naturally, I just want to show you how I minimise risks. It is completely safe." She told him, Mikael took a deep breath and put his hand out. Susan sliced his hand and he hissed in pain but he kept his hand open and his arm out. Susan let him bleed for a moment before she covered his hand with her spare one, she watched him for several moments as she healed him.

"Aren't you going to do something?" Mikael asked.

Susan grinned and removed her hand, "I already have." She put a hanky in his hand, "wipe the blood away." Doing as she asked he wiped the blood away and stared at his unblemished hand.

"What?" Mikael asked.

"I am a Were healer, it is what I do and what signalled me out for healer training." Susan explained.

"You did that?" Mikael asked and suddenly he didn't mind too much if Susan cut his mate open to save his son, both would be safe in her hands.

"I can do it again..." Susan said a little teasingly as she extended his dagger again. Mikael yanked his hand back which caused many to chuckle. Susan reversed the dagger and gave it back to its owner. Mikael took his dagger back and wiped it clean before returning it to its sheath, he tucked the bloody hanky into a pouch, it was covered with his blood so there was no point in returning it.

Susan tugged the dress down to cover Prudence's stomach and removed the towel. Mikael helped her down from the table and walked her from the room.

"So... what do you think, could this be useful?" Susan asked the room and got many nods.

"I want to hear more about this C-section," Ken said.

Susan nodded and made a couple of medical books appear, "Come, I am sure we all want to be comfortable when we talk about medical stuff, and Rhun would like to check the systems." Ken and the head midwife nodded and followed Susan out. Susan paused at the door, "any chance of hooking a bio-bed up to the solar crystals?" she asked.

Rhun thought for a moment before he nodded, "should be able to, I'll have to boost the rods but it is possible."

"Thankyou Rhun," She said before she finally walked away from her rooms. They walked into Ken's office and sat down.

"So just how routine is this procedure?" Ken asked.

"So routine that expecting mothers can elect to have it done instead of a natural birth." Susan replied.

"The only time we try to cut a child out of its mother is if the mother has died, doesn't guarantee the survival of the child though." Jen added.

"Well by then the child has already been in distress for a while," Susan replied. "I am surprised you didn't know about the procedure or about Ultra sounds."

"Our medical knowledge is limited to what is brought to us from people like you, we tried once to update our medical knowledge by going to earth but without giving ourselves away we could never condense that kind of learning into a portal time frame. We simply stopped trying."

"Well lucky for you I have trainer status and can update your knowledge. I am sure Nathanael is doing the same with..." Susan clicked her fingers, trying to remember the name.

"Dayton," Ken supplied.

"Dayton, and I am sure Amy will help by getting Dayton into classes and courses to help, hell he'll be there long enough to go through med school and internship since this exchange was designed for a decade." Susan added.

Ken nodded, "we were hoping that would happen."

"Man I wish I was there that first day when they see a Nephalim walking into anatomy class." Susan said with a grin. "And if you want I am sure Amy can organise for more people to go to med school and even bring in some midwives and doctors in exchange."

"I wish we had thought of this years ago but we have been so self-reliant that it has made us stop asking for help. It was only through Amy's suggestion that you wanted to learn about wings and asking if we could exchange a doctor for a doctor that we started thinking that this could be turned to our favour." Ken explained.

"Well I'll do my best to teach you what I can." Susan said with a grin, as she opened one of the thick medical books she had willed into her arms.