Fic: The Summer Intern (cont.)

[jeriendhal]

The next morning Nan’s phone rang just as she coming back to her room from getting a shower.  Still wrapped in her body towel, she picked it up and answered, “Nan here.”
 
“It’s me,” the First One said.  “Meet me over at the landing pad in fifteen minutes.  We’re taking a trip today.”
 
“Yes sir!” Nan stripped out of the towel and quickly shucked on her cargo pants, shirt, and her vest.  Grabbing a sandwich from the auto café on the way out the door, she jogged over to the pad just as Skyler and Freya emerged from Skyler’s flyer.  “Where’s the First One?” she asked.
 
“Taking his sweet time, as usual,” the pilot said with a grin, crouching on the flyer’s nose. 
 
“He’ll be along,” Freya reassured her.
 
“What’s happening though?  I thought it must be something pretty urgent for him…”  She bit down on to bother getting out of bed and replaced it with, “…to call me to meet you here.”
 
“Semi-urgent,” the ranger said.  “We’ve got a farmer whose land is on the edge of the Reserve.  His crops have been raided by a troupe of ferin twice now, and he’s been screaming to his farmer noble, Lord Brokentoe, for us to Do Something.  That makes it a ferin/vulpine relations problem, which now means it’s the First One’s problem.”
 
“And if it’s the troupe I’m thinking it is, I have to do this in person,” the First One said, dropping down from the trees.  He was dressed much more formally that Nan had ever seen him, in a pair of expensive looking dark maroon silk pants pants and a matching tunic, embroidered with gold thread, echoing his old Service uniform.  “Skyler, get that crate warmed up and set your nav for Map Area 2934, on the edge of the Reserve.”
 
“Crate?” Skyler said in hurt tone, but he obeyed and began to warm up the flyer as they all piled in.
 
“What do you want me to do when we get there, sir?” Nan asked as she strapped herself in.
 
“Just stand back and watch.  That’s what you’re there for,” the First One replied, settling in beside Skyler. Nan's tail was kicked hard as the pilot ferin firewalled the engines as soon as the First One was strapped in, the flyer going nearly vertical as they zoomed up to a cruising altitude of five klicks in the air before the craft nosed over and settled to cruising speed.

“I thought you were kidding about his piloting,” Nan grunted to Freya over the whine of the engines.

“I heard that!” Skyler called to her. “Nothing wrong with my piloting. It's everyone else's stomachs that are too sensitive.”

“I've seen you make vulp pilots straight from the Service throw up, you little grey menace,” Freya shot back.

He grinned and flipped down his mirrorshades. “It's a gift, what can I say?”

The First One ignored this exchange, having closed his eyes, crossed his arms over his chest and leaned his head back against the headrest, seeming to have fallen asleep before they'd even reached altitude. Still, he cracked open one eye to look Skyler over and say, “I've flown with every Brushtail that's had a joystick in their paw for the past hundred years, Skyler. You'll have to go a long ways before you match them for crazy piloting.”

That shut the pilot up long enough for Nan to ask, “What should we expect when we get there, sir? Is this troupe you're going to see a particular problem?”

“Not the troupe itself, but the buck leading it,” he replied. “Freya, give her the data from your handcomp, all right?”

“Yes, sir.” Freya brought up a file and passed it over to Nan's own unit. “Give it a read.”

Nan opened the file and started reading. It concerned a certain arboreal ferin buck, who was among the majority of the ferin on the reserve who actively avoided civilization, not even bothering to name themselves for the benefit of any non-ferin they might interact with. Instead all there was to identify him was a government social ident, plus a copy of his DNA markers, all assigned to him when he'd first arrived on Newspring.

She stared at the holovid image that had been taken of him when he'd arrived. A face that was youthful in appearance, but with seemingly dead grey eyes stared back at her, framed by shaggy, light pink hair. Social Ident #343-228-5991 had been born on the same world the First One had been snatched from in his youth, the origin point of all the modern ferin. Much like the First One he had been kidnapped, taking by raiding slavers along with the rest of his troupe, at the tender age of five. For the next forty years of his life he had served in the power cells of a creo industrial colony, until ferin rights activists had succeeded in buying him and shipping him to Newspring.

Like every ferin rescued from such circumstances, he'd been offered all the mental health counseling he might desired, from specially trained ferin and vulpine therapists. The buck had refused, choosing the disappear into the vast expanse of the reserve as soon as he'd completed the required physical exam given as soon as he'd arrived in the administration village. Many of the ferin who'd made a similar choice, untrained and unfamiliar with the dangers of survival, having lived their whole lives under the thumbs of their owners, either came to painful ends via the dangers of the forest, or ended up junior members of an experienced troupe that took them in out of pity. This particular buck had taken neither of those paths, instead surviving on his own until he'd managed to attract a harem of does and bachelor bucks who were drawn in by the strength of his personality and the dominance of his well developed bion generation.

Still, she couldn't help but note the file entries made by the physicians of the village's hospital during his brief stay there.

Patient shows strong indicators of long-term mental abuse, including PTSD, ODD, and paranoia. Extended counseling was recommended, but refused by patient. Patient's survival probability if he chooses the Arboreal path is judged to be sub-optimal.

The doctors had gotten that last part wrong at least. For the past decade and a half the buck had been not only surviving but thriving, though his troupe had tendency to be highly nomadic, other troupes choosing to avoid his, or teaming up to drive it out of their territory when he became too disruptive to the locals. It would seem now he'd roamed all the way to the edge of the Reserve, unable to truly find a home anywhere. She wondered if the First One would recognize the parallels.

TBC

Comments

[mjkj.livejournal.com]

Great :)

Hmm ... where is that parallel??? I do not see one... =P

Well, I think the doctors have judged rightly: he is living ("surviving") sub-optimal – and probably causing more headache in the future...

mjkj

[chaypeta.livejournal.com]

You know I'm lovin' Skylar more with every scene he appears in. He has just the right amount of check and he's a great way to demonstrate the relationship Terinu shares with the other ferin.
Really interested to see what happens when Terinu clashes with this rogue ferin.

[lilfluff.livejournal.com]

It might even be fun to take a ride on something piloted by him. Maybe. As long as ones insurance payments were up to date. Oh, and the air-sick bags were close at hand.