The Plane Crash

‘You do know, I hope, that it would be much simpler for all concerned if the pilot just died, don’t you?’ Titan said. ‘That way we could just pretend that none of this happened.’ ‘Yes, I’m well aware of that,’ Gwendolyn snapped. ‘But that’s not going to happen, not if I can help it.’ ‘I knew you’d say that,’ Titan sighed. ‘Well, OK, given that you’re going to do everything in your power to keep him alive, what are you going to do with him if he lives?’ ‘I don’t know yet. Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.’ Just then, one of the doctors came out of the treatment room, looking serious, and Gwendolyn immediately rushed over to her and asked how her patient was. She replied, ‘Well, he’s pretty badly beaten up with a few broken bones but by far the most serious problem is his head wound. He seems to have relapsed into some kind of a coma and we have no idea when he might wake up or, indeed, if he will. But at least his vital signs are stable so we are hopeful. One interesting thing is that we can find no means of identification on him so at the moment he is still nameless.’ ‘What! You mean that there was no wallet on him or pilot’s licence or anything?’ Finn interjected now. ‘Yes, that is correct, Sire.’ ‘That is odd but perhaps it got lost in the fire,’ Finn said. ‘Well, obviously we cannot take him to a human hospital where he could be treated,’ Gwendolyn said. ‘So just do your best to keep him alive.’ ‘Of course, Milady,’ the doctor answered before continuing. ‘But he’ll need round the clock attention and I’m not sure if just the two of us can handle that. What would be very helpful would be if you could send us your doctor to help out,’ addressing this last sentence to Titan. ‘I’m sure then that between the three of us we’ll be able to manage.’ ‘Yes, of course I can do that,’ Titan replied, graciously for him. ‘Thank you, Your Highness.’ And with these final words, the doctor ran back into the room next door to help her colleague. ‘Well, that is certainly interesting,’ Finn said quietly to no-one in particular. ‘So we have a nameless, uninvited human guest to look after for an unspecified amount of time.’ ‘Yes, that’s about the size of it,’ Gwendolyn said.