The pain left him. His mind cleared and he lay there gasping from the ordeal.
Ato and Nea smiled at them. So cheerfully that he almost expected them to write out a bill for surgical fees.
“God, that was a close one,” Ato said, and wiped his forehead. “Five hours of it. And it was touch and go all the time.”
“What happened?” Odin asked. He remembered something about a glittering tomb and Maya awakening from her long sleep and Grim Hagen. He even remembered the Bron carelessly swinging Piper’s head by the hair. But these were mere scenes that flashed before his mind. He could not fit them together, as yet.
“Tell him, Nea,” Ato said.
She smiled proudly. “It was my invention that saved you. You see, I have two of them now. I told you that they are as near as we can get to making living things. And I also told you that there is much more to them than you saw. They are destroyers and they are builders. We found you dead—or nearly so. Hagen had sent volt after volt through your bodies. You were electrocuted.”
“We hurried you back to the ship. And all this time, while Ato steered us back into space, the Kalis and I—for that is what I have decided to call them—have been working over you. You might say that we are master electronicians, rebuilding circuits, repairing transistors and condensers—”
“You were plenty rough,” Gunnar grumbled.