Fic: The Summer Intern (cont.) (R for language and potential rape triggers)

[jeriendhal]

Nan lay in bed for a long time after that, listening to the snores of her roommate, who had finally succumbed to the aftereffects of the emergency stimulant. Finally gray and wet dawn came through the window around 0530, when she finally decided to give up the pretense that she could get any rest. She rose up, grabbing fresh clothes and stumbled to the shower, setting it at high pressure and allowing her body to be pounded into something close to wakefulness. Then, almost as a ritual, she blew her pelt dry under the hot drying fans, brushed everything back into place, then donned her culottes, a fresh white blouse and the vest her mother had embroidered for her as a graduation gift. Then, finding no more reasons to delay, she unfolded her umbrella and left.

The walk to hospital was very quiet. At this hour almost no one was up, not even the arboreal ferin that wandered in and out of the village. Nan only saw one other person as she walked along the main path, a vulpine male from the village's maintenance team, jogging along as he did his morning workout, waving at her politely as he passed.

There was more activity as she finally reached the hospital, as the late-evening shift switched over to the morning watch. Nan slipped through the open steel and glass doors, heading down the white corridors towards the operating room.

She stopped short when she realized entry to the surgery wing required a key card, then took a chance and pressed her security pass to the scanner. The door politely opened itself for her and she stepped on through. As she had suspected, as the First One's intern she effectively had the same clearance as he did, to make it easier for her to help him in his duties.

Nan stepped inside the small, darkened observation gallery overlooking the operating theater. Through the shielded glass down below she could see the little doe lying on the operating table, the First One sitting beside her on a stool, his hands pressed to her belly and chest, both utterly motionless. A very alien state for any ferin who was not dead asleep. Or just dead.

A murmur in a nearby seat made her turn, to find Doctor Pouncer slouched down, blinking away sleep. He yawned and said, "Good morning, Miss Clawstroke." He was still wearing the dampened clothes from the night before, well, earlier this morning.

"I'm sorry, doctor. I didn't mean to wake you up," she said, making as if to back out of the room.

"I wasn't sleeping, not really," he said. "I doubt your were either."

"No." Nan sat down heavily into one of the padded chairs, rubbing her eyes.

"How's Nez?"

"She managed to get to sleep, Den Mother be praised. Did you absolutely have to put her through that?"

"I'm sorry for that, but as a physician, Nez needs to see the worst along with the best." He gestured towards the scene below them. "And frankly, you don't get much worse than that."

Nan nodded silently. After a moment she said, "I think I could really hate humans."

Dr. Pouncer took a long sip from a cup of coffee that had been resting in its holder on the arm of his chair. "Have you ever met a human?"

"No," she admitted. "I mean, I've seen them, tourists and such, but I've never actually talked to one." She rubbed her paw between her ears in frustration. "I thought... I had this idea that if we could somehow make them understand, to see the ferin as people and not just clever talking animals..." Her voice trailed off. Had she really been deluding herself these past four years, thinking that there were reasonable, sane humans that could see the ferin as more than toys and tools?

"I rather like humans," Dr. Pouncer said, with somewhat forced cheer. "I mean, taken as a whole you want to smack them between the ears sometimes, but on an individual basis they can be quite funny and pleasant."

"I know that," Nan snapped. "But if there are humans out there who are willing to do that." She waved at the First One and the wounded doe through the window.

"Child," Dr. Pouncer said gently, "do you honestly think we're any better?"

"We don't enslave ferin to work in power cells, or... or do that to little does!" she exclaimed.

"Maybe not. That still doesn't mean we're any better."

Before Nan could demand further explanation from Dr. Pouncer, the First One's voice came up over the intercom. "I know neither of you are sleeping, so ya may as well come on down for the rest of the show."

Nan started guiltily, then thought about it for a second. "First One," she called over the intercom, "how did you know we were here? I thought the operating room was shielded."

The First One looked up at them both, exasperation evident on his face, "The glass isn't one way, Vix. Now get down here."

"Yes, sir," she mumbled, following Dr. Pouncer down the stairs and into the operating room. The First One remained hunched over the doe, his brow furrowed in concentration. It highlighted the age lines in his face, though she was probably only imagining the extra gray hairs in his head pelt.

"Did Pouncer explain what I'm doing right now, Vix?" he asked her.

"No, sir. I only just got here a little while ago."

The First One grunted neutrally. "I don't know how much you remember about ferin biology from your classes, so I'll take it from the top. Bion is the unique energy we produced, similar but different to the bioelectrical field every living thing generates just from its nerve impulses. For one thing, even the littlest pouchling can produce it in quantities that would fry every nerve in your body if you tried it. We can generate it, manipulate it, sense our environment with it. And we can play with it too, produce energy beams for defense, or transfer energy, which is the Varn loved us so much and the Vulpine fusion plant manufacturers really don't. No one has ever been able to reproduce the effect outside of a ferin's body, not the old Gene Mage, nor anybody else."

"When we're hurt, we can draw on our bion as well, t' keep us going past the point anybody else would've just fallen over. When we're hurt bad," his tail spade gestured toward the little doe, "we draw it tight into ourselves, going into a protective coma, maintaining the minimum of life necessary while stretching out our bion reserves as long as we can while we heal. Th' problem is, if we're hurt badly enough, we stop healing. Sometimes, if we're wounded enough in mind as well as the body, we don't even go into a coma before we stop generating bion. We just... give up."

"Is that what happened to this doe?" Nan asked.

"Likely," he said. "Did you read her record yet?"

"No, First One," she admitted.

He chewed his lip for a moment. "Do it if you want to, but I won't make it an order. It's... extreme, even for a ferin coming from her background."

"Yes, sir." She waved a paw at the doe. "So what are you doing now, healing her?"

"Not exactly," the First One replied. "This little doe's spark is so faint, she was almost past the point of not being able to generate any bion at all. Ya ever go on one of those Young Explorer trips, where they make you try and start a fire with just a piece of rock and a hunk of steel?"

"Yes, sir."

"Remember how pissed ya got when the spark just touched the kindling an' it started to glow, then a breeze hit it and it blew out again?"

"Oh, Holy Den Mother yes."

"That's sorta what I'm doing now. Her spark is so weak she can't strengthen it. So I'm feeding power to her, adding kindling to the flame, so it can grow on its own, but not so fast that I smother it." His spurs and tail went flat briefly and she could see the strain on his face clearly now. "I can blow off the front end of a battle cruiser if I sneeze too hard, but trying to feed just the right amount of bion into this little doe, not letting her starve out, not overwhelming her, is the fragging shit."

Nan touched her finger pads to her chin. "Wouldn't have made more sense then to let a ferin physician handle it then, one without as much power but with, um, greater control?"

"No," he answered. "It wouldn't have been any easier for them, given how bad off she is. And when she wakes up, we have to have as tight a connection between us as I can make."

"Why?" she asked, trying to not gain false hope from the First One's casual statement of when, not if.

"You'll see," the First One said. He turned his attention to Dr. Pouncer. "Pouncer, please inform all the ferin staff that are pretending not to mill around nearby that they can come into the observation gallery now."

"Yes, First One," the doctor replied, and headed out the door. In a few minutes the gallery began to fill with the precious handful of physicians and nurses that a century of teaching had been able to produce, along with a greater number in maintenance overalls and hospital gowns.

"Vix, step out of the doe's line of sight, please," the First One muttered softly to her. Nan took up position at the head of the operating table, where the little doe could see her. Once she was in place, the First One stood up, raising his head towards the gallery, his palms still flat on the doe's chest and belly. "Brothers and sisters," he called up, his voice deepening. "Look at this doe, your sister, sore wounded at the hands of the slavers. Look at the wounds on her body, at the wounds in her soul. They tried to destroy her, those who raised in a kennel to be the plaything of the monsters who are arrogant enough to call us the animals. But our spirits are stronger than the collars and leashes they'd have us wear! They tried to kill her, this doe, but she lives. Watch her awaken now, awaken into freedom."

The First One looked down at the doe under his care and ordered, "Breathe!"

The doe drew in a long breath, her bare chest expanding, contracting. Then she began to cough, her eyes flying open in surprised, hands reaching to her throat. The First One didn't touch her, but kept his hands close to her in case she fell off the table. The doe tried to raise her head, let it fall back, the turned it to look up at the First One, her eyes as wide as saucers.

She opened her mouth, only a raspy croak emerging. At a nod from the First One, Nan grabbed a water bottle from a nearby side table and handed it to him. He squeezed the little doe a mouthful and she swallowed, coughing again. Her mouth opened, closed, opened again, but no sound came out.

"Do you know where you are, sister?" the First One asked gently. When she shook her head, he told her, "You're in the Ferin Reserve, on Newspring. A vulpine world. This place is ours, the ferins', for our use alone. You are safe here, sister. Safe forever."

The little doe opened her mouth again. "Who?" she asked raspily.

"Don't you know, can't you feel?" he asked her softly.

Her wide eyes blinked. "F-first One?" she asked, disbelieving.

"Yes," he said. "You are in my land, under my protection. Safe now, safe forever."

"They s-said... they said...." The doe's chest began to heave, dry sobs, her body too dehydrated to make tears. The First One gathered her up in his arms as she wailed, "They said you weren't real!"

Comments

[chaypeta.livejournal.com]

As I said earlier I love the way you explained how Terinu used bion to bring the ferin doe back. And lots of little details: Terinu calling down Nan and Dr. Pouncer, how he knew that the other ferin would be milling around at this early hour anxious to know about the new doe, the bion insulated operating room and the little doe's reaction to discovering the mythical First One is real.

Thank you. Again looking forward to what you have in store next.

[mjkj.livejournal.com]

Wow...

heavy...

I still do not see why they need as close a connection as possible when she wakes up...

mjkj

PS: suspected typo:
"Vix, step out of the doe's line of sight, please," the First One muttered softly to her. Nan took up position at the head of the operating table, where the little doe could see her. => from the context I would say the last part should read: where the little doe could not see her.