Legendary

Families

The tracker was ready on Tuesday. Tony went with me to the clinic to explain it to them. "It's an implant," he explained. The doctor looked rebellious as he explained how it was triggered by surges in adrenaline, cortisol, and DHEA. Unlike a wearable tracker, it couldn't be discarded, and I had an app for my communicator that I could hit to cancel it if it was a false alarm triggered, for example, like almost being hit by a vehicle. "It shouldn't trigger with an initial flush of stress hormones, though," Tony said. "It shouldn't trigger unless there's ten seconds of a certain concentration in the blood."

"It's not certified for use by the government," the doctor said sternly. "Medical devices are regulated by law."

"But it's not actually a medical device," Tony pointed out. "Its monitoring of stress hormones is only incidental to its function, which is to provide GPS coordinates for location."

"I'd prefer that it be done by a medical professional," I cut in when the doctor opened her mouth. "But if it's going to be a problem, I can implant it myself. Local anesthetics, and I can get my hands on a tissue accelerator." The doctor glared at me, then capitulated. Five minutes later, I was laying on a table, Tony observing, as the doctor made a small incision under local anesthetic to place the tracker just on the inside of my pelvis. It clamped around a blood vessel just inside the iliac crest with a tiny flat plate with the hormone sensor extending into the vessel. The pelvis was the ideal place for placement; the area was rich in blood vessels of the appropriate size and was well protected with bone and muscle.

"The whole device is made with vibranium, which is nontoxic and non reactive as well as being the strongest naturally-occurring metal on the planet," Tony said abstractly as he oversaw the placement of the device. I couldn't see it, so I just lay there and waited. "The seal of the vibranium around the tracker and sensor is perfect, I had Emma do it, she checked the whole thing out too. But even if it wasn't perfect, if any blood or blood product were to get inside the device, it would shut down and an error message would be sent that it needed to be replaced. The tracker collects and uses kinetic energy from the action of the blood against the sensor."

"Ah," the doctor said, nodding.

"That's amazing, Tony," I said, a little sleepy and bored since I couldn't see anything.

He flashed a grin at me. "Anything for you, Tiger. You do  attract trouble." I sniffed, and the doctor started to use the accelerator wand; it provided a small beam of the energy that ran the device, allowing for pinpoint precision and use during surgeries. My down time was limited to the twenty minutes of the procedure.

This was good, I had a therapy appointment, followed by classwork and a phone call with Damian that night. I took delivery of a phalaenopsis orchid, which was white with a deep pink center. The card specified the meaning as beauty. It was delivered by Alfred, who additionally had a basket of cookies for me. Eira pranced over, as taken with Alfred as he was with her. It was wonderful to see him and he had time to come in for a cup of tea. I managed to wrest the hostess duties away from him and served him a nice cup of strong black tea with milk and sugar, the way he liked it.

The next day, I went to Asgard to visit with Sif. She'd had fairly extensive injuries too, including multiple fractures on each rib from where she'd been stomped by a fire giant, and was only recently allowed visitors. The two of us had sustained the worst injuries of anyone who lived through the battle, but her Asgardian physiology was just different enough that the medicines that had assisted my healing didn't work on her. She'd had fierce post-concussion syndrome. This time I brought a huge bouquet of flowers and some chocolate. She was quiet and quite thin, but glad to see me and Eira. Eira curled up with her as we talked. Sif mentioned that I looked pale myself and I said that I was having nightmares and was jumpy. She nodded, and suggested going to see the Norn.