ALLIANCE

To close a deal, hold your hand face up so it can be observed, then look at the hand you are going to shake... always look for poisoned needles or darts...

Rincewind

Once I organize my chat sessions with my subjects (I ask Malinche if it was possible for them to treat me as an equal and he was horrified), they are easy to satisfy, every two days I open one of the barrels of canned food, Malinche tells them What do I want and they eat the hospital rations in large bites. Being synthetic, the food could be kept for a long time and has not yet expired. He feeds them quite well, their leader managed to get them to only eat a little at a time; He still fears that one day he will wake up and I will be gone, leaving him with the responsibility of keeping his people alive. The hospital is full of material that can be used, in the laboratory areas they have the reagents that our leaders needed so much inside the labyrinths, they were used for everything... until they were finished. This time I need to prevent that from happening; I only plan to analyze what is most important.

The hospital is more than 70 stories high, the basements and sub-basements are as many levels. I've been here for more than a month and I still don't dare to review everything, despite not believing in anything similar to ectoplasmic manifestations, I have no intention of allowing a false move (a scream of fear, for example) to reveal my character not divine in front of the population, at least I can observe some floors with the help of the surveillance cameras, but soon I will have to check the generator levels or we will be left in the dark.

The first thing after putting order was the burial of their cholera victims... at least a part of them, I wanted to cremate them in the incinerator, a look from the tribe at the blood chilled mine, apparently they drank some kind of liquid contained in something they insist on calling waterskins, which they did not bring and are dying of thirst; To avoid something horrible regarding a macro spread of the virus, I make you an offer, I tell you that I will give you your meat but instead of drinking the blood I will give you water... I think you will understand. Once he understood me, the malinche began to explain to them, spoke to them in loud voices and hit the most distracted from time to time. He is quite a leader.

In the laboratory I look for a directory or something to guide me. Apparently there is a skin treatment area (dermatology) and since the water is contaminated, the tanks must be quite full; I place a pair of neck flasks for distillation, I connect them to the stopcock using a hose and at the outlet of the glass tube I place a test tube, the water in the cisterns is supposed to be free of bacteria (except for the deadly one) so for now it doesn't matter if I don't put another filter. After searching a little I found a portable ultraviolet ray device; I open the water jet and put the gun pointing at the small tube, I leave it on and wait for the test tube to fill and I take it to the "prophet", he drinks and smiles; He takes it to the others and they each take a drink, I pray it works. My water supply won't last long.

I repeated the procedure for several days, only giving them the muscle tissue of their peers and insisting on cooking it; gas reserves are stable. I left the bones for their weapons, the rest was incinerated, although that could have gotten me into trouble, the fact of bringing them water, which didn't taste ugly or anything; He made them forgive me for that divine whim. When I saw the water sample through the microscope; It seemed that the method of eliminating that particular toxin worked on drinking water, so I spent the rest of the device's portable battery filling three barrels of water (I showed Malinche how to do it), I can still see him sitting for hours and at night proudly showing off his divine abilities... I remain in front of the microscope, if it was so easy, I don't understand. How was it not tried before?

After three weeks of living with them, Mali arrived (I called him a sweetheart and he doesn't seem to care), he tells me that they found another god in the surrounding area... I'm pissed off! Am I so lucky? He says that they were going to eat him (it doesn't matter that I tell them that they can live only on canned food... it's something ceremonial, he says) but they saw that he was wearing something similar to my skin and fearing my wrath, they brought him here. I ask them to put him on one of the stretchers that I set up on one side of the laboratory, they place a huge body, it is easily ten centimeters taller than me; I see signs of severe dehydration, maybe I have problems communicating or may be hostile, I don't care, it's a sign that my people have not died.