Crudrat, page 17
“Why is this one not in pain?” Maura asked him, softly, while Quy and his aunt continued to argue.
“Jakaa Nova carry numbing agents in their claw tips. Genetic modification to extend hunt-time. According to the tinker records it made sense once long ago.”
“You have tinker records?” Maura was amazed. That was like hearing the voice of the Wheel, right there, out loud – spiritually miraculous.
“Of course we do. So do your Wheel’s enhancers, most likely. They just don’t talk about it. How do you think they know how to trigger those silver eyes of yours?”
Quy’s voice, raised again, interrupted them. “But every petitioner in the past has at least known something about how our society works!”
“Then perhaps this should be a lesson to you. Pick your bond-mates more carefully in future!”
Quy went very quiet, and very angry. He also slipped back into use of the personal, a sure sign of upheaval. “I should like to think, Aunt, that you are not using my friend to punish me for acts of my own making and choosing. That would be dishonorable to say the very least.”
The Patrona reared back as though slapped and bared her teeth in a snarl.
Dr Sillous sighed and interrupted them both. “My little sugar drop,” he addressed his wife, “doesn’t the law also state that equality must formulate the petitioner’s starting point?”
“Husband, when I need your advice, it will be on matters medical, not legal. And I will ask you for it.”
Dr Sillous gave her the raised eyebrow. Maura thought he was a remarkably tolerant sort of alien. She wondered what the Patrona was so afraid of. What’s it matter if I learn more of this world? I’m settled to live in it permanent and forever now, aren’t I? Maura thought to ask that question, but wasn’t sure about giving offense. So many turns she’d been trained to keep her mouth shut, never speak unless addressed directly. It was hard to break that kind of habit.
Quy barely gave her the chance. He was already back to arguing. Sure was a champion arguer, old quoin Fuzzy. Who’d have thought, when I fell on him out of the sky, he'd turn out to be such a talk-making machine.
“Ah ha! See, even uncle agrees with this one on the matter. Why are you being so unreasonable about this, Aunt?”
The Patrona looked down at the small alien girl lying broken on her husband’s operating block. Maura wondered what she saw. Shorter than the Kill’ki, hairless except for the blue on top, silver eyes, enemy made. Was that the issue? Kill’ki had been fighting Wheel off and on for generations. Or so the Wheel claimed. Mild skirmishes mainly, and always the loosing end of it, or that’s what the Wheel reported. Maura wondered at the truth of that now, especially seeing as the Kill’ki had the Jakaa Nova on their side. She cocked her head, trying to wrap her brain ‘round the suspicions inside an alien mind. Manzanilla is a politician, and don’t all those in power think the same, in the end? Maura changed her thought tactics. How would a sequensor think, faced with a Kill’ki on the block trying to climb into Wheel society?
“She thinks this one is a spy,” said Maura. She shifted her gaze to the Patrona without moving her head. “Don’t you?”
Quy said, “No. Not possible. Really?” He lost most of his anger to amazement. “You mistrust this one’s judgment that much?”
Dr Sillous said, “Not only your judgment. I’ve done a bit of anthropology in my day and from what little we know of them, the Wheel would never use a reject for anything, not even spying, but my suspicious little snowdrop here does not believe me either.”
“She comes to us out of the void and unexpected. She has a strangely unique skill set, and looks more than she talks. She carries with her no technology either to offer in trade nor on her own person that we might use to find weaknesses in the Wheel. And you do not think any of this suspicious?”
Sillous shrugged. “She worries about allowing Crudrat here access to information.”
Maura said ashamed, “You know this one can not read most words, right?”
The Patrona was unfazed. “Neither can we. Kill’ki have never had a written language. That is not the kind of information that concerns me.”
“If you’re that worried about her, why not take her through the education regime yourself? The Patron position is authorized to approve temporary coalition, is it not? You must have had the training.”
The Patrona donned a very long-suffering expression. “Quy, I am Patrona of this entire city. I do not have time to shepherd your problem around.”
Quy crossed his arms, looking militant. “Bonded, remember.”
Dr Sillous looked at his wife. “And we are family.”
“How do you consistently manage to drag everyone else into your mistakes?” The Patrona glared at her nibling. But it was clearly a capitulation and everyone knew it, even Maura.
Quy grinned.
Maura wasn’t so certain about this change of approach. “Uh,” she raised a querulously fingertip, “What was just decided?”
Dr Sillous explained kindly, “You are going to be attached to my wife here as soon as you are well enough to leave the slab. She’ll explain to you the workings of Kill’ki life, and then you’ll be tested.”
The Patrona’s expression said she didn’t like this turn of events. Maura wasn’t too sure about it either. Following around a highstock and keeping out of her way all shift wasn’t Maura’s idea of a pleasant run. Especially if that highstock was hostile.
She turned her gaze on Dr Sillous. The Jakaa Nova was looking equally uncomfortable. Well, she supposed he was going to eat it later for having sided with Quy in this.
Quy was the only one who was genuinely pleased.
Maura worried about letting him down and seeing him bleed for it.
“Good that’s settled,” said Dr Sillous. “Now, the patient requires rest. Both of you take any further,” a pause, “discussion outside.”
Quy and his aunt left. Out in the stone hallway, floating back through the curtained entranceway, Maura heard them raise up their voices once more.
“Do they ever stop?”
“You know he was fostered here for prequoin? They drove each other to distraction, so she had him transferred to a different city for quoin. Too much alike.” Sillous picked up a small round plastic globe and twisted something at the top. “Now it is back to sleep with you.” He passed the globe softly under her nose. A strange smell wafted out, acrid as digested crud but not quite so unpleasant. Just as Maura became interested in figuring out what it was, she fell asleep.
Despite her negative opinion of the Jakaa Nova, Maura grew to genuinely like Dr Sillous over the next few spins. He had a calmness about him either learned from his profession, intrinsic to his character, or gained through marriage. She found if she asked him a question, he was more than likely to answer it and not be annoyed. Miraculous.
“How,” she wondered one day, “did the Kill'ki ever contrive to conquer your race?”
“I shall take that as a compliment. But actually, with their wari training and their range of weaponry, the Kill’ki are a match for the Jakaa Nova in a one-to-one fight. Such sparring is quite the sight to see. The Kill’ki, however, have better technology. But the Jakaa Nova were not conquered — that is Wheel coloring your question. The Kill’ki did, and will in the future, conquer some of their Coalition, but not us. We came in as allies. There was a lengthy adaptation period for both peoples, since we Jakaa Nova are a hot jungle genotype, and Kill’ki were made for ice. But it happened a long time ago and now there are bits of both in the Coalition.”
The very idea of such open acceptance made Maura blink. “You truly are alien, in your thinking as well as everything else.” She shifted a bit on the stone platform. She’d graduated to sitting up last shift, and Dr Sillous hinted she might be allowed to walk around later that afternoon. It couldn’t come soon enough. Her muscles were not used to stillness. Biskweet was happy with her confinement. The murmel had taken up permanent residence on her feet, having been displaced from his role as pillow by an actual pillow. Dr Sillous’s staff was spoiling him with ear scratches and bowls of flush. Currently, he formed a ball of blue in a nest of furs and blankets between her ankles.
Dr Sillous sighed. “You really do see us as entirely other, a completely different class of creature.”
“It’s difficult not to, particularly with the Kill’ki. They are so very furry.”
“And you are a product of a narrow-minded culture, even if you lived on its outskirts.”
“This one is trying to change the way she thinks.”
“I’ve seen photos of your ruling caste, you know? Made a bit of study of it back in training. Some of them look pretty much alien to me.”
“Yes, but they aren’t, they are human.”
Dr Sillous frowned, put down his quazi-scanpad and gave her his full attention. “I don’t think you are quite grasping the truth of the matter. We were all made once, triggered your people would say, but the Tinkers, what they started with was…” He left off mid explanation, reconsidered, then asked, “Didn’t they teach you universe history on that spaceport of yours?"
“Reject, remember? This one thought you knew what that meant, medic. They taught me nothing from the moment this one rejected the implant. Learning is only possible with a chip.”
“But you yourself have trigger traits, right? You must have been born into an elite family.”
Maura gestured expressively at her silver slitted eyes.
“And the hair?”
“That’s crudrat made.”
“I thought they had some sort of educators or teaching devices for Wheel elite even when very young.”
Maura wondered at his access to information. He sure did know more about the Wheel than she’d sussed about the Kill’ki Coalition. It made her think hard on all those security measures the armigers were always taking on. Not so good, in the end.
“Drones gave this one a bit of learning before chip-rejection, but this one is thinking such history lessoning were a tad less than reality. Why don’t you speech on what rumors fly about the past ‘round this part of space?”
Dr Sillous looked at the shift monitor reader attached to the cuff of his coat. “I suppose I could spare a few ticks.” He checked about at his staff. A group of three, one Jakaa Nova, one little scaled greenish sort called Ooten, and one of the all-red aliens Maura had been amazed by during her first spin in the city. They all seemed to be busily occupied with important tasks. The surgeon settled on the edge of the stone platform near Maura’s hip.
“Where to start? With the most relevant information, I suppose.” He gave her a quick assessing look. “Genetically all of us here are compatible. Even you. There are a few species who have been tinkered beyond human breeding compatibility, like the Galoi, but none of those belong to our Coalition.” When Maura still looked confused he added, “You know Manzanilla and I have a son? He’s about your age, perfectly healthy, and fostered into the profession of his choice.”
Maura wondered in amazement what such a creature might look like, half red-eyed furless Jakaa Nova, and half white fuzzy Kill’ki. Then she wondered if she was genetically compatible with these bizarre alien races as well. She wasn’t particularly interested in that sort of thing, and it wasn’t a pleasant idea. She hadn’t yet even figured out how Kill’ki sex parts worked. She’d seen Quy naked, and he didn’t seem to have any. She figured that this was a good question for a doctor.
“Where do the Kill'ki keep their, you know, bits.” She gestured expressively.
The doctor didn’t seemed inclined to laugh or be offended at the question. “Ice planet, remember? The males can retract their genitalia entirely into their body cavities for warmth and the females only develop breasts when feeding their young.”
Maura blinked at him. Very odd. Then a fearsome thought struck her. “So if we are technically compatible, me being bonded to Quy doesn’t imply any kind of a sex act, does it?” Not that Quy had tried anything, but it would be nice to know if he was entitled. Or if she was entitled, for that matter. Maura became rather nervous.
Dr Sillous looked repulsed by her question. Not a reaction she had expected. “Quite the opposite, actually, bonded in an invitation to familial, not sexual, intimacy. Sex between bonded is taboo, tantamount to incest.”
Maura breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh good.”
“Don’t find Quy attractive, huh?”
Maura wrinkled her nose. An alien! Surely not. That seemed almost like fooling around with a murmel. Blech. Since Maura was pretty sure Dr Sillous wouldn’t like such comparisons, especially given his own preferences, she said, “Don’t find boys that attractive.”
“Ah, favor the female? Gender fluid? Third gender? Agender?”
That was more choices than she’d expected. Freedom from the Wheel appeared to have other perks attached to it. Options. Maura considered for a moment. Truth be told she hadn’t ever thought much on the subject, it wasn’t something that came up often for crudrats. There was that whole short life survival thing getting in the way. “Uh, no. Not interested in any of that at the moment. Thank you,” she said primly.
The doctor laughed. “I would not be so fastidious for too long, if I were you. This side of space appreciates the exotic, and you are nothing if not exotic. Someone is going to ask to initiate you eventually.”
“This one is barely thirteen turns, if that!”
Dr Sillous looked impassive. “Well, should you change your mind, I took the opportunity to sterilize you while I was making repairs. Like the wearing of jewelry, the Kill’ki do not permit breeding until adulthood.”
Maura was pure confused by that. “But this one is a reject.”
“So?”
“You didn’t suss the body?”
Dr Sillous frowned. “Suss what?”
“This one is already sterilized. Has been since the implant didn’t take. The Wheel does it to all rejects. Can’t have a failure go about procreating. Not sanitary.”
“What?” The surgeon rushed over to a side platform, picked up one of his not-quite-scanpads and poked at it for a couple minutes.
“Great space turds! They removed your whole blasted uterus!”
Maura wondered, if it was so important, why he hadn’t noticed it missing. “Well, what do you do for the sterilize action?”
“Install temporary hormonal mod.” He continued to stare at the digital readout. “That may be the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen. And I’ve been through two wars. Look at the scarring.” The Jakaa Nova’s lip curled up in revulsion.
Maura opened her mouth to be offended and then shut it. She was feeling a bit like free float spaceside with no breather in this conversation. Best to quit while she wasn’t too far behind.
“That will teach me not to check over all internal organs. Anything else missing?” Dr Sillous wasn’t asking her. He was back in full medic mode, nose to the scanpad, wandering out of the room still prodding at it.
Moments later, Quy came into the lab for a chat.
Quy had been in to visit her every day and was getting used to suffering under the burden of Dr Sillous’s revelations whenever he did so.
“Quy!” Maura said as soon as he'd settled himself cross-legged at the end of her bed. “This one found out the most amazing thing just a few ticks ago.”
Quy was haplessly unwary. What Maura found amazing each day was generally an utterly mundane fact to him. “Oh, yes?”
“You male Kill’ki can retract your bits!”
“What?”
“You know, up inside. That’s right nifty! Do you think they could make it so this one could do that with her tits?”
Quy winced. Sometimes Maura knew he found her phrasing too abrupt. Mostly it wasn’t so bad, as Maura tended not to talk much but the other times...
“Maura!” no one else was in earshot, so he could use her real name. “We do not talk about these sort of things in such a forthright manner. You ought to take greater care.”
“What things?”
“You know, sexuality and so forth.” Maura thought Quy would have blushed but he hadn’t the capacity.
“But you sure do start in on them young. Dr Sillous issued this one with sterilization. Said this one might need it.”
Quy sat up straighter at that. “Was there a reason? Has someone been bothering you?”
Maura cocked her head. Is this the bonded coming out? Why so protective? “Nope, but apparently they will soon.”
Quy bristled. “Oh will they?”
Maura went all prim on him. “You think they won’t? Dr Sillous says this one is exotic!”
“Uncle Sillous talks too much.” Quy sighed. “But he is probably correct.”
Korakay came wandering in, shift break.
Maura was surprised. She hadn’t thought they were that close, especially after Korakay abandoned her during the fight.
“Hello you three.” Korakay included the sleeping Biskweet in her greeting. “How’s it floating?”
Maura looked away.
The murmel raised his head autocratically, and received the expected attention. Korakay scratched him under the chin. He groomed her arm hair gravely. Deserter.
Quy turned to look at his age mate. “Enjoying being out of the kitchen?”
“Rumor is, you took my place.” Korakay didn’t look up from the murmel.
Quy snorted. “Got into it nice and loud with the aunt over Crudrat here, and she took it out of this one’s pelt in kitchen duty. Could be worse. Not sure how, but could be.”
“Poor little cub, suffering in the land of food.” Korakay was utterly unsympathetic. “How are you feeling there, Crudrat?”
Maura gave her a stony glare, silver eyes hard. Much she cares!
“Looks to be that you are in Crudrat’s bad books.” Quy was getting used to interpreting Maura’s expressions. “What’d you do?”
“This one has no idea.” Korakay seemed both confused and a little hurt.
Maura was thinking of Rees, always her tiny champion. “It’s what you didn’t do. In this one’s part of space, a friend would have tried to help.”
