“Not as a rule.” Jack shook her head, pulling the first strap across Dr. Bleak’s massive chest. “When a scientist speaks, it behooves the ordinary soul to listen. We rarely speak without cause.”

“I thought dialysis was a modern thing, not a mad science thing,” said Sumi. “You’re mixing your genres.”

Jack glanced up. “I come from the same world you do,” she said. “I didn’t forget the medical wonders of my youth simply because I chose a world where lightning is the panacea and thunder is the very voice of God. I’m not the only one to have made the transition, either. Much of what our birth world can do, the Moors can do, simply in a more dramatic and often more permanent fashion. Dialysis will let me keep Dr. Bleak’s blood oxygenated and prevent further tissue damage.”

“You’re not keeping anything,” said Christopher uncomfortably. “His blood isn’t oxygenated anymore. It’s dead. He’s dead.”

“Must I be surrounded by fools and cowards at every turn?” Jack glared. “I’ve told you before, here, science is always the question, and the answer is always and eternally ‘yes.’ I’ll suction the blood from his veins, re-inflate them with saline, and replace his blood, fully oxygenated, before capping the stump of his neck and beginning circulation. Yes, he’s dead. Many people have been dead. Two of the people in this room have been—”

“Three,” said Sumi with apparent disinterest, munching a tomato as if it were an apple and looking thoughtfully at the stuffed infant plesiosaur dangling from the ceiling.

Jack stopped. “I’m sorry?”

“Three of the people in this room have been dead. You’re wearing Jill like a Sunday gown, and she was dead before you brought her here and brought her back, so three.” Sumi shrugged. “It’s something we all have in common, except for Christopher, and he loves a dead girl, so I guess he has it too, just sideways.”

“Yes.” Jack’s hands dug at the edge of the table again, a look of brief, intense nausea on her face. “Three. As you say. It changes nothing. I’ll restore his circulation and preserve his tissues. Resurrection is easier when decay hasn’t had too much time to set in. The healing process is long enough without adding necrosis to the list of complications.”

Alexis returned from the far side of the windmill, pulling a large machine with one hand and a pair of joined cannisters with the other. “Ready,” she said.