CHAPTER 42

Mary who had been watching looked over the now updated readings; good, the jar of seeing them had opened part of the blocked memory. Sighing, Mary thought now to bring the rest of it out before they went on too far. Accessing all of her medical records she started painstakingly going through them all again trying to find the right treatment.

Shelby was greatly encouraged when she saw that Derrick's readings were starting to align back to what they had been before the incident. Although Shelby was somewhat confused as to why just seeing his relatives had caused this to accrue. Derrick was looking around the room trying to figure out exactly what was what but still for the life of him nothing but the table looked familiar. Looking further he saw that a young blonde, green eyed woman was watching everything that was going on, why did she look so familiar also? Derrick thought the young blonde was gorgeous but the harder he tried to remember the more that his headache. Finally laying back a groan escaping his lips, Shelby told his grandmother and mother they needed to let him rest. Besides, Shelby thought she'd like to talk to them alone anyway.

"I feel that you both want answers," Shelby told them after they were alone.

"Yes, first off how in the hell has this injury happened to my grandson!" Milley O'Toma almost shouted at a startled Shelby.

"I assure I was taking every precaution that I could, but as we both know Derrick isn't the greatest listener in the universe." Shelby shot back at her.

"Huh as advanced as you are you could have prevented it!" Milley snapped at Shelby. "I tried Mrs. O'Toma," Shelby replied tears now starting to fall from her eyes,

"I tried my best to protect him but he is so stubborn Mary has had to shock him before to get him to rest. Believe me Mrs. O'Toma I want nothing to ever harm Derrick, never." This last was almost a whisper as Shelby couldn't see that straight from the tears.

"Oh my god you really are alive and you're in love with Derrick!" Sherry O'Toma said suddenly, her eyes wide as the realization hit her. "Just how long have you been in love with him?"

Shelby actually blushed as she struggled to answer Sherry's question, "I'm not sure, I think it was just after Derrick opened up more of my emotions, he always puts us machines before himself."

"Humph! Yep! That sounds like our Derrick, alright young la ... whatever you are, what can we do to help?" Milley O'Toma told Shelby. "We'll do what we can but we aren't medically trained, we're at a complete loss with this."

"According to Mary, she was the voice you heard before I brought you on board me. Just seeing you, has already started to straighten out his brain readings, unfortunately all the memories he has at the moment are up 'til he was beaten outside the base."

"Ho ... how did you know about that?" Sherry asked Shelby.

"I have been in his mind a few times to try and help him, though at the moment I am afraid that his reaction to me being there might do far more damage than help. So we are trying a few less painful and intrusive ways to snap him back to us. As I said, your presence has already awakened quite a few of his memories." Shelby explained.

"Uh huh, why do I feel that you are hiding something from us?" Milley asked Shelby.

Sighing Shelby had never met a human as perceptive as Milley O'Toma, in a way it was refreshing but also frightening, Milley O'Toma was a formidable woman and Shelby felt that even Mary might find her hard to talk around. Mary had been listening the whole time and had come to almost the same conclusions as Shelby, now she could see why the emperor was as strong as he was.

"What she hasn't said," Mary said suddenly appearing next to Shelby, "Is that if these methods we are trying don't work we will have to delve back into his mind, this is dangerous. It appears now that the experiment he used on himself to increase his knowledge also weakened his grasp on the present. Almost like with his war stress only far deeper, and many times more dangerous to bring him out of. If this isn't done right we could not only lose him but the A.I. that goes in."

Sighing, Milley nodded her understanding, as Sherry both had tears in their eyes Derrick was the last male of the family. They both knew as did Mary and Shelby that if he was lost all was lost.

"All right let's start on these methods; we need him back if this galaxy is ever going to be civilized again, as it is right now I wouldn't give you too awful much for it."

Mary appeared on board Tempro a few moments later, looking over all that had happened so far; she sighed as the first twenty attempts had been dismal failures. "Tempro are you getting any closer to finding why they fail before even half maturation?"

Tempro sighed, he didn't like reactivating the equipment after so long, he could still hear the cries and screams of the failures all those centuries ago. "No mother I haven't as of yet I am still seeing no pattern of success or failure. I have gone back to the records of those first experiments, even as far as they went I have as of yet to detect any pattern that will aid in any of this."

"Please continue, try living tissue as a template this time with all the samples that you have, record all. Transfer all data you have so far, it is possible that you may have overlooked something." Mary advised Tempro.

"Yes mother but I don't think I can go much further than where I have, I will advise you as soon as I have something." Tempro told Mary.

"Good, remember Tempro we are doing this for him, there has never been a human, emperor or not, that has ever shown the concern and care that he has. He more than deserves this and as I said before, he will need her when the time comes." Mary told Tempro; though he didn't really approve of it he knew that Mary had a point, a very valid point.