It didn't take him long to fall asleep, although this time he was aware of dreaming. His dreams were strange and vivid and when he awoke he felt only somewhat rested as a result. When he opened his eyes and looked around again, he was rather startled to find two humans standing nearby, just inside the privacy bubble. After a moment he recognized one of them as one of the linguists he'd worked with learning the Rich'ti language in the months of preparation before the assignment.
The other person looked distinctly like a doctor, with the traditional white coat and stethascope. There seemed to be some disagreement going on between the doctor and Urish'tal, and the linguist appeared to be translating back and forth between them. Before they could get further, Kevan raised a hand to let them know he was awake, a gesture that Urish'tal caught before the others.
"We can ask him ourselves, if you are so concerned," she said, with the linguist quickly translating into English. "He's awake."
The two humans turned towards him and the human doctor came bustling over to his bedside at once.
"Ahhhh, Mister Phelps! Good, good! I am Dr. Melovich, one of the attending physicians on Radiance V of the Jupiter fleet. Commander Norlen felt I should come down here and make sure that your injuries were healing properly."
Kevan's had a moment of amusement wondering what the Rich'ti must think of the portly doctor. Urish'tal did not seem overly impressed. She handed him the datapad again, from where he'd placed it at the side of the bed.
"I don't know what this Human is saying to you now, Kevan," she said with some obvious distaste in her voice, "but he seems to think that you'd be better off being moved to the medical bay on their ship in some contraption that will keep you from being jostled about. I've explained that you should not be moved until tomorrow, and then only back to your quarters for now, but refuses to take me at all seriously. He also seems to be trying to say we are poisoning you with our medicines when he has yet to examine you at all." She shook her head with a measure of frustration. "The choice, of course, is yours, but I'd advise against moving you at this time. If you feel up to it, however, we can remove the respirator for a short while and see how it goes."
