Page 21 of Dark Awakening: Hidden Currents

Poor Rob. The guy needed to be liberated.

"Hopefully, after tomorrow, he'll see the truth for himself. It'll be painful, but a little pain now will save him a lot more pain in the future."

Her words brought back memories of her own breakup with Edgar. He had been a decent guy, and for a while they'd had fun together, but he was not the right one for her. Ending things had been difficult, and she had hated hurting him, but in the end, it had been the right decision for both of them.

"By the way," Jasmine said, suddenly curious about Edgar's current love life, "how are things going with Edgar and Frankie's cousin Angelica? Have they seen each other again?"

Margo grinned. "Frankie says that they can't get enough of each other."

She felt a wave of relief and happiness wash over her. "That's wonderful! I'm so glad. I wish them the best, and I hope that Angelica is the one for him. Did he tell her already about who he is? I mean, she's a Dormant, so if they hit it off, he should give her the talk."

"I don't know," Margo said. "I'm not really following their love life, but speaking of Dormants and transitions, how are things going with you and Ell-rom? Any progress on the transition front?"

Jasmine felt a flutter of nervousness in her stomach. "We're taking things slow. He's still recovering, and there is also the issue of his inexperience. I don't want to overwhelm him."

Margo's eyes widened. "So, he's really a virgin?"

"Very much so, but not for long if I can help it."

15

ELL-ROM

Ell-rom walked over to Julian's office and rapped his knuckles on the door. "Do you have a moment?"

"I have more than a moment." The medic waved at the chair in front of his desk. "I have all the time you need and more."

Ell-rom left the walker near the door and took the three steps toward the chair without help.

"Nice," Julian said. "I'm thrilled to see your progress."

"Thank you." Ell-rom sat down. "I wanted to talk to you about the television in Morelle's room." That was certainly an easier topic to start with. "I'm concerned about her being all alone in there for most of the day and having no one talking to her like Jasmine did for me. If you can set it up for her so the teardrop is hung over the speaker, perhaps that could serve as a substitute for someone actually sitting in her room and talking to her."

Julian nodded, but he didn't look excited about the idea. "We could do that, but it's not quite the same as having a loved one talk to her. Research on the effectiveness of auditory stimulationfor coma patients has shown mixed results. Those who had a loved one talk to them showed more significant brain responses compared to unfamiliar stimuli, but the truth is that not many studies have been done on the subject."

Ell-rom frowned. "I didn't know Jasmine, so hearing her talk and sing to me could have been the television as far as I was concerned, but it still helped pull me out of the coma."

Julian shrugged. "Something is always better than nothing, and I have no problem implementing your idea, but you need to know that your presence is more meaningful to Morelle. If you want, we can conduct an experiment. We can measure Morelle's brain activity when there are no sounds in her room, when the television is on with no Kra-ell translation, with translation, and lastly, when you talk to her. It would be fascinating to measure the differences."

"Is it difficult to do?"

"Not at all. I can get a more sophisticated piece of equipment to measure the electrical activity in her brain. Think of it as a way to listen to the brain's conversation." He chuckled. "It is fortunate that Morelle is nearly bald because I will need to place small sensors on her scalp, and having no hair will make it much easier. The electrodes are connected to a machine that records the brain's electrical signal."

"Is it painful?" Ell-rom asked.

"Not at all. It is completely painless and noninvasive, meaning it doesn't require any surgery or discomfort."

Sounded easy enough, and Julian seemed excited about conducting the experiment. "How soon can you get that equipment?"

"I have an EEG right here in the clinic, but it's pretty basic. I would like to get something better that can provide more information. Amanda, Kian's younger sister, has much better equipment in her lab, which is called Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, which measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow. It assesses brain function in response to stimuli and is much more accurate, but it's a big machine, and we can't transport it here or have Morelle transported to Amanda's lab." He tilted his head. "Well, it's not that we can't. We just can't do that easily, and Kian will not approve it just for the sake of an experiment."

"Hmm." Ell-rom rubbed a hand over his jaw. "I'm meeting the entire family tomorrow, so I'll mention it to Amanda. Perhaps if she is also interested in the results of this experiment, she will be willing to help us to either get a machine in here or transport Morelle to her laboratory."

"Transporting Morelle is out of the question," Julian said. "But I wouldn't mind getting that lovely piece of equipment in here."

"I'll see what I can do." Ell-rom shifted in the chair, wondering how to broach the other subject he needed Julian's help with.

The medic narrowed his eyes at him. "I know that look. You want to ask me something and are embarrassed to do so. I think we have already established that you can ask me anything, and I will do my best to provide you with as much useful information as I can."