Simon carefully withdrew the tiny needle from River’s arm, firmly pressing a swab of alcohol to the spot. River watched the needle with distrust as it disappeared in the Bio Waste bag Simon had brought with him. She tugged restlessly at the bright cover on her bunk.

“strange brew?” she asked.

Simon looked up, his expression tinged by distracted puzzlement. “Hmm.” He tapped a last note into the handheld. “Huh?” Simon blinked as he gave his sister his full attention. It took him a second to put together what his sister had said and then his brows drew together in confusion. “What do you mean mei-mei?” It was something new he was trying. A small thing in the long run. But he thought that if could get River to explain the more abstract concepts she spoke, it would help her concentrate and focus.

River reached out and took the tablet from Simon’s hand. “River be careful with that,” he said and reached to take the delicate instrument back.

She evaded his hands and easily accessed the system. She scanned the contents and said, “You’ve added trifluoperazine to the cocktail. And you’ve removed the haloperidol.” She paused and further consulted the tablet. “Good. It was causing me to have tremors.” She handed the handheld back to Simon who was looking at her in silent befuddlement.

“I… well. Shumma? It was causing you to have tremors?” he said unhappily, seizing the one thing that had made sense out of the whole exchange. He looked at the scrolling screen in his hand and frowned. Tremors was one of the side affects of haloperidol but he had removed it because the trifluoperazine was supposed to work better at repressing dopamine receptors.

“You should have told me sooner mei-mei, I would have stopped it.” He added River’s observations to the growing file he kept on her. About a fourth of it could be attributed to the girl in front of him. When River had those startling moments of clarity, she often contributed to his medical notes.

“Couldn’t. Wings won’t fly if you don’t test them,” she said with