Chapter Four - Part One: Testing New Skills

Professor Morrow, Dr. Galloise, Pillar, and even Vasillis arrived at her bedside within the hour. Each of them were ecstatic that Leta was on the mend and happily gave her hugs and well wishes.

Professor Morrow was dressed like she'd just come from teaching at the university, sensible slacks and shoes in place and a pencil still stuck in her hastily thrown together bun.

"I'm so glad that you're doing well." Morrow said with a sigh of relief, her kind brown eyes, gentle nature, and middle aged appearance making those who met her feel as if she was the kind, eccentric mother you always wished you'd had.

Pillar gave her a tight hug before holding her at arms length with a worried expression.

"The doctors told us it was palytoxin." She said, a look of concern on her tanned face.

"That's what they think, but it looks like whatever was in my system has passed out of it quickly enough." Leta replied, giving her friend a reassuring smile.

"Your parents are beside themselves." Dr. Galloise grumbled, though her relieved expression was at odds with her agitated tone. "I don't think your mother has given any of us a moments peace since we let them know. We told them that you were awake and on the mend, but they are still insisting that you come home."

"No, thanks." Leta shook her head, "Once the doctor gives me a clean bill of health, I'm ready to get back in the water. This is the discovery of the century! Like hell I'm going to let an accident like this get me down."

Pillar gave a sheepish look and glanced at Morrow, who was glancing away with a contrite expression. Even Dr. Galloise looked uncharacteristically sad.

"Uh… what's going on?" Leta finally asked when the silence in the room became too much.

Dr. Galloise sighed before responding. "The dig is on hold, possibly canceled."

"What!?" Leta shouted, sitting up suddenly.

"Why? I'm fine! It was an accident! We'll all be careful-"

"It's not you, Leta." Morrow interjected, putting a hand on Leta's shoulder to calm her down. "It's the Greek Government. Apparently we've discovered enough significant materials that the site is now deemed too culturally important for excavation by a small university group. They need to review the site and the artifacts we've found, and that could be a while. Governments are never a 24-hour turnaround kind of establishment."

Leta felt literally heartbroken at the news. She'd been waiting her entire life to get her hands in the dirt and bring light to ancient civilizations, and now her first one was being taken away from here.

"Cheer up." Pillar said, giving Leta's hand a squeeze, "This isn't the first time a government has gotten involved with an excavation, and it won't be the last. They'll look at what we've brought to the surface, go over our notes, and examine our equipment. We've already signed the waiver stating anything we bring up to the surface is 'property of the Greek people', so they let us go back on our merry way. There's very little that they can come back with to keep us from digging."

"Pillar is correct." Morrow added, "While this is an unfortunate setback in our timetable, it's not the end of the world. Once we get the all clear from the authorities, we'll be back in the water."

"Until then," Dr. Galloise interjected with a stern look, "We cannot get back to the site, and none of us can leave the city. We're actually 'encouraged'," She said with air quotes, "to stay put in our hotel until the investigation is finished, but we've been given a bit of leniency due to your condition."

Leta sighed, still disappointed at this unfortunate turn of events. School would be back open in a month, and she had to be back home before then. If this hiatus took too long, she might never get another chance to examine the site again.

It wasn't just about the discovery of a new Mycenaean ruin that made her upset. With the nanites now alive in her blood, she felt a need to go back to the site and find any more information she could about the lab and the cache the team had stumbled upon.

The information she got from Gada didn't sound like there were more class programs laying around in glass vials at the dig, but there still might be something there that could shed light on the nanites and their abilities.

"Think of this as a forced vacation." Morrow said encouragingly, "You all are working so incredibly hard at the site. Use this time to take a breath, maybe even explore the city a bit when the authorities give us the all clear to do so. The university outpost is not off limits, so you're welcome to stop by and see what we've got in the collection when you have time."

"For now," Dr. Galloise insisted, "you need to focus on rest and recovery. You might be feeling better but palytoxin is nothing to laugh at. I'll try to find your phone so you can FaceTime your parents and let them know you're well."

The nurse and doctor arrived and asked the group to leave so that Leta could be examined. Pilar and Morrow gave her big hugs and the team promised that they'd return soon with her phone and a change of clothes so that she could go home the next day.

The staff checked over everything and were pleased that she seemed to be healthy after her ordeal, letting her know that they would come back in a few hours to check her again.

Bored, Leta found the remote to the TV and turned it on to pass the time. At least now she'd be able to pay attention since she could understand what was being said on the Greek channels.

By a stroke of luck, the TV had a massive amount of channels, many of which in different languages. Seeing an opportunity, Leta used the guide to find the international channels.

In less than an hour, she was able to pick up Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, French, Italian, German, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Hindi, and even Russian.

It was late afternoon when Dr. Galloise returned with a change of clothes, her cellphone, and a charger.

As expected, her mother was a complete basket case back in Seattle. It was a little after 1 a.m. in the morning back home when she finally FaceTimed to let them know that she was okay.

Her mother insisted that she come back on the first available flight out of Athens, but both Leta and her father were able to calm her down. Her father was a big help in persuading her mother on the merits of continuing the dig.

Leta's stomach twisted at the mention of the dig, and she told them the team was on hiatus until they got an all clear from the authorize to continue. This more than anything seemed to appease her mother, as it meant that Leta would be getting a little bit of rest.

Leta ended the call with her parents when the nurse came in to check on her once again, promising her parents that she'd be giving them a call the moment she was out of the hospital.

By then her phone read that it was 6 p.m. and Leta was so starving she was actually looking forward to whatever dinner the hospital would be providing her.

When the curtain pulled back, she fully expected a nice hospital worker to come wheeling a dinner cart, but was instead met by two men in police uniform.

One was tall but wide, a thick 5 o'clock shadow coloring his face, the other was skinny and obviously knew to the force, with kind brown eyes and an inexperienced air.

"Oletta Black?" The older officer asked, his pronunciation of her name thick with his Greek accent.

"Uh, yes, that's me." Leta stuttered, surprised that two police officers were giving her a visit.

"We have some questions for you regarding the dig you are currently working on."

"Oh! Okay." She responded quickly. This must have something to do with the investigation that the authorities were doing on the site.

The young rookie pulled out an audio recording device while the older one did the talking.