Fic: The Summer Intern

[jeriendhal]

The flyer settled down on a crushed gravel pad at the edge of the clearing, between a larger multiple passenger model and an air ambulance. Skyler shut down the engines and hopped out neatly, handing Nan her bag.

“Thank you for the ride,” she said.

“No worries,” he replied. “I do most of the piloting for the village. I'll probably see you again.” He gave her a cheery wave and made a five meter hop up into the nearby trees, quickly disappearing from sight.

“Now what?” Nan asked Freya.

“We'll drop your stuff off first.” The ranger led her to a rambling two story wooden building with a wide front porch, and several wings that seemed to have been added haphazardly as the it grew to accommodate the growing population. “This is the main quarters for all the non-ferin living the central village. The tourist centre is what most off-world tourists see, but this is really the administrative center of region. There are about two hundred vulpine and a few other races here, creo and a couple of wazagans mostly.”

“Any humans?”

Freya shook her head. “We've got a few that visit, friends of the First One mostly, or pro-ferin lobbyists, but none that stay long. They aren't very welcome around here, for obvious reasons.”

They stepped inside the building's lobby. At this hour of the day it was empty, the large conversation pit occupied only by a couple of vulpine technicians discussing some problem with the local waste disposal system. A small self-serve cafe occupied one corner, and on the opposite side were a couple of kiosks for making FTL comm calls.

They headed up the stairs leading to a mezzanine overlooking the lobby and down the corridor to a dormitory room with just enough room for a pair of single beds, two desks and two dressers for clothing. One of the beds was already made up with bedclothes, and the desk occupied by a laptop, electronic drawing plaque, and a large pile of data chips equally divided between adventure novels, medical texts and art books. One the shelf above the desk was a single, old-fashioned hardbound book, bound in red cloth and bordered with golden thread, the title on the spine written with flowing characters in a language that Nan didn't immediately recognize.

“Your roommate is an intern working at the hospital,” Freya told her. “The bathroom is at the end of the hall. I hope you don't mind sharing.”

“I have four brothers,” Nan said. “I'm used to sharing.” She dumped her knapsack on the unused bed, and made a note to ask where she could get bedclothes for it. They headed outside again, walking down a footpath that appeared to be mostly for the benefit of non-ferin villagers. Ferin themselves stuck to the trees, bucks and does scampering along, with the laughter of joeys seeming to be everywhere.

“That's the general store,” Freya said, pointing out to a large building as they walked along. “You can get pretty much anything you need there, or they can import it for you eventually. About two hundred meters further down is the main administration building. You'll be working directly with the First One though, so you won't be seeing much of it.”

“Why's that?” she asked.

“He does most of his work out of his home.” Freya smiled. “He's bit allergic to paperwork. Other ferin or vulpine take care of most of the work running the place. The First One mostly acts as the region's ambassador, and mediates between the various arboreal ferin troupes scattered around.”

“What's that?” Nan pointed out another building set away from the path. Unlike the rest of the buildings the area which were made of cut logs, this one was thoroughly and somewhat jarringly modern, all concrete and glass, with a landing pad atop the roof.

“That's the hospital,” the ranger explained. “That's where the majority of the region's budget goes. The ferin are tough little fellows but they're not indestructible. That and we don't know half of what we ought to about how their bodies work and what's really needed to take care of them. Obstetrical stuff we've got a handle on mostly, but ferin geriatric care is something of an emerging science.”

“I thought they didn't age so much as suddenly stop,” Nan said.

“True enough, but we're still trying to figure out why that is. We don't even know what the upper limit to a ferin's age is suppose to be. The First One is getting near one hundred-twenty years old at least and he's healthy as a grass chaser. Speaking of which...”

They had arrived at a large circular ferin treehouse, set about fifteen meters off the ground and mounted between three large village trees. A porch without a railing circled it, and an hideously expensive FTL comm transmitter antenna was mounted on the peaked roof. Nan couldn't immediately see how anyone who wasn't a ferin was supposed to climb up to it.

A naked ferin doe with long green hair wrapped in a thick braid looked down on them lazily from from where she was lying on the edge of the porch. She gave the ranger a wave with her tail and said, “Is that the new vixen, Freya?”

“Yep, her name is Nan Rey Clawstroke,” she replied. “Where's his royal nibs?”

“Hi, Nan,” the doe said. “He's around the opposite side in the apple grove.”

“Thanks.” Nan took a deep breath as they circled around the tree house to a grove of about twenty Terran fruit trees. This was the culmination of all of her schooling, the reward for all of her hard work, late nights spent in study and hour upon hour of writing papers and listening to lectures in study of the most mysterious, important and tragic race in the Galactic Sapiens Alliance. She would be working with the First One, the First Free Ferin, leader of his entire race and very nearly their god. The next few moments could very well define the rest of her career.

“Where is he?” she asked quietly, as they came to the center of the grove. The only noise, aside from the chittering of the glide-lizards in the trees, was a rhythmic wheezing sound from up in branches.

“Look up,” Freya said, pointing.

Nan looked up. The First One, the First Free Ferin, supreme leader of his race, ect., was sprawled face down on a branch, dressed only in a pair of ragged shorts, snoring loudly above a pile of apple cores lying on the ground underneath him.

Freya reached over and gave his tail, which hung down from the branch, a sharp tug. “Hey, wake up! You were supposed to meet us at the landing pad.”

The First One cracked open one eye and glared down at them both. “I forgot.” He yawned widely and sat up. “Important matters of state y'know.” He hopped down, landing lightly on his feet and looked Nan over. “Who are you supposed to be?” On closer inspection Nan's initial impression that he looked just like the vids of him in his younger years was corrected. Though he still held a ferin's perpetually youthful build, his dark blue hair was shot through with gray strands and there were crows feet his eyes, and the corners of his mouth. He was also easily the tallest ferin she'd ever seen in her life, matching her own height.

“Er, I'm Nan, Nan Rey Clawstroke that is,” she told him, her mind trying to rapidly re-order her long imagined scenarios about how this was supposed to go. “I'm the new Freeman Scholar. Um, I'm supposed to be your intern, er, sir.”

“Great, another one.” The First One scratched the base of his tail reflectively. “Here's what you're gonna do. Yer here ta do what I tell ya to do, and get info on whatever paper ya wanna write and that I'm never gonna read. So keep yer mouth shut when you're around and try to use those big ears of yours to listen when I talk ta ya. Got it?”

“Er, got it,” Nan said weakly.

“Great. Now come along and I'll show ya around my place so you can get started.” he started up the path back to the treehouse, leaving her gaping in his wake next to Freya.

“Have fun,” the ranger said, patting Nan sympathetically on the shoulder.

TBC

Comments

[mjkj.livejournal.com]

Hehehe

Talking about first impressions :)

Teri certainly scored here :P (negative score as always) *grins*

mjkj

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

Terinu sure is laying it on thick there.

Would you like notes about stuff like superfluous or missing words I notice, or repetitions?

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

He's one hundred and fifteen years old, he's allowed to get snarky with Bright Young Things out to Change the World. ;)

And feel free, I finished that bit up last night just before I went to bed.

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

I think with the accent it... has a LOT of impact. ;)

Not much, and most is just suggestions where one might rephrasing to get of repetition:

...added haphazardly as the it grew ...

The tourist centre is what most off-world tourists see, but this is really the administrative center of ["the" missing here] region.
(Not about the repetition, just seems a bit odd to have BE once and US English the next time.)

"...to a dormitory room with just enough room..."

"One the shelf above the desk was a single, old-fashioned hardbound book, bound..."

The sentence starting with "This was the culmination of all of her schooling, " has the phrase "in study" twice.

[chaypeta.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah... that's him alright. :) Lazy and mischieviously testing the limits of his new intern's patience and good manners. I also like the very familiar way that Freya has with handling him. She's been around him too long to be impressed with the stunts he pulls. He's been around her long enough to seek a slice of perverse pleasure at annoying her every opportunity he gets.

And I like the idea of the ferin hospital being the biggest money sink. the vulpine are pouring the money back into something useful to the ferin that doesn't try to challenge their chosen way of life... and conduct some non invassive research at the same time.

little bitty correction if you could. Ferin can't have green hair. They don't have yellow pigmentation. So anything from magenta, burgundy, blue, purple, grey, white and almost black and anything inbetween. Brown, scarlet, orange, yellow and green are out. Sorry... me being super picky.

[mjkj.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I forgot to add:

Nice even Wazagans are there - do they administrative work or more like missionary? And how do they cope with the vulpines' believe of the Holy Den Mother? (I wonder) :)

mjkj

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

No worries, I'll fix the hair thing later. Glad you liked the rest of it though. Yeah, in The Future health are is still going to be a budget bugaboo, especially for a people without an industrialized economy.