Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents: Both Sides Now

Saturday, and time for Science Fiction Romance Brigade. Click the logo above to find links to other participants.

I’m quoting from a WIP, Both Sides Now. Doc is answering Kevi’s question of how long he has been unconscious.

“About four fivedays.”

“Any idea of the Confederation date? I lost track of time in Zhaim’s hands.”

Doc waved toward a Horizon calendar on the wall. It was a paper calendar—he didn’t have power to waste for electronics here. But he’d kept the days crossed off, and it had Confederation dates marked at intervals. Kevi got up and examined it, and then shook his head. “Over a year,” he said. “It seemed like forever. But things have gotten a lot worse, if Confederation troops are attacking civilians.”

“They have,” Doc replied. “That was Terry’s main argument for trying to rescue you.”

Kevi looked down. “And I suppose you think I was responsible for the slaving in the first place. Indirectly, I suppose I was. But it was oversight, not intention. I never supported slavery. I was born a slave myself. I hate the whole institution. The Horizon slaving was passed behind my back when three of my closest supporters and I were off planet, and I’ve never quite been able to get the seventeen votes I need for reconsideration.”

Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents: Both Sides Now

It’s Saturday, and time for Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents: click on the logo above for links to other participants. I’m continuing with Both Sides Now, but the point of view has switched to Doc, who thinks of Roi as Kevi.

Doc led the way back to the front of the cave, trying to integrate his new observations of Kevi into what he knew of the Regent. He remembered Terry’s comment: that the stories could not be fitted into a coherent whole, and that none of them fitted with what Terry had observed. None of them fitted with what he had just observed, either. “Sit down,” he invited as he led Kevi into the front room.

There was a casserole in the oven—Coralie’s doing; Doc tended to rely on the frying pan himself. Kevi tucked into it with an enthusiasm that left Doc wondering if they’d fed the R’il’noid enough on the trek back, and later while he was healing. Doc had not been used to unconscious patients who chewed and swallowed food, let alone rode horseback.

“Have we been starving you?” he asked.

Kevi grinned. “If you had been, you’d have known it,” he assured Doc. “But I always come out of healSleep hungry. I’ll be eating like a horse for the next few fivedays. How long have I been out? Last thing I remember was Terry feeding me at that cave above the sinkhole.”

Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents: Both Sides Now

It’s Saturday, and time for Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents: click on the logo above to find links to other participants. I’m continuing with a work in progress, Both Sides Now. Roi’s badly damaged feet have just been swabbed with a medication Doc has brought, and Doc is worried that Roi held his feet still during the doctoring. Roi speaks first.

“Of course I felt it. It stings more than a little. But you said hold still.”

The vet grinned. “First time I ever had a patient who obeyed orders that well. I was afraid the nerves were damaged. Here, better put these on if you’re going to keep running around.” He handed Roi a pair of high slippers, almost soft boots.

They fit, cradling Roi’s abused feet in fleecy warmth. The R’il’noid bent to examine them. “Silkie hide?” he asked in surprise.

Doc nodded. “Tanned with the fleece on. Not good enough for export, but they’ll protect your feet while they finish healing. Not that you’re ready for too much running around. Finished that soup? Come on, then; I’ve got some solid food up front.”

Roi followed him, almost comfortable walking. “I did warn you I’m a terrible patient, didn’t I? Ever know a doctor who wasn’t? Don’t be fooled by the fact that I can hold still. I did most of my healing while I slept. Now I’m ready to get back in shape.” He had no intention of staying an invalid a moment longer than he had to.

Science Fiction Romance Brigade: Both Sides Now

After I had this scheduled. I learned that the SFR Brigade Presents is taking a vacation during the month of June.  I’ll leave this one up, but Saturdays for the rest of June will be something else. Maybe more garden photos, if I get more good ones.  I’m posting from Both Sides Now, a work in progress. Doc Alsyn has been setting a little girl’s arm after Roi has hypnotized her. This is from Roi’s POV.

When [Doc] was done he looked at Roi, who by then was wondering how much longer he could stay upright.

Roi was staggering when Doc led him away. Could he make it back to the place where he had awakened? But Doc took him only a turn or two before pushing him down on a hay bale. “Stay there until I get back,” he ordered, and Roi was too tired to argue. He leaned back against the stacked bales of the wall, and tried to examine his own weakness. Mostly hunger, he decided. SleepSinging didn’t produce the energy drain of true Healing, but it took a tremendous amount of concentration. And he’d last eaten—when? The last food he could remember was the rabbit stew Terry had fed him.

Doctor Alsyn must have come to the same conclusion, because he was carrying a steaming mug as well as a rag-wrapped parcel when he returned. “Get this inside you,” he ordered as he sat on the floor and began examining Roi’s feet. After a moment he grunted, nodded in apparent satisfaction and unwrapped the rags, removing a capped bottle. “Hold still; this’ll sting a little,” he said as he swabbed Roi’s feet.

Science Fiction Romance Brigade: Both Sides Now

It’s Saturday, and time for Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents, a blog hop featuring 200 words or less from published or unpublished works. Click on the logo above to find other participants. This excerpt is from a WIP, tentatively titled Both Sides Now. Doc has just led Roi into a space in the hay bales occupied by a panicky little girl (who’s been raped and has broken her arm) and the woman attending her who is equally, though less obviously, apprehensive of strange men.

“It’s all right,” Roi said, pitching his voice deliberately high and making sure his emotional broadcast had nothing of “male.” “I’m not even going to touch you, except to put my hand on your forehead. You just relax and listen.” He modulated his voice into a singsong as he placed his distorted hand above the child’s eyes.

He’d have had a hard time doing this using the pure Jibeth tradition, with the muscle tension in the face giving him the feedback he needed to adjust his singing. Luckily his empathic sense gave him much of what he needed. It still took close to ten minutes of singing until the little girl was relaxed enough he could add the second component, moving his free hand in a complex pattern to catch her gaze. Finally he was able to move the hand toward her eyes, very slowly, as he sang the command to sleep. Her eyes closed, and her breathing steadied. He looked down at his distorted hands, and grimaced. There was no way he could set the arm himself.

“Keep her that way for a few minutes, can you,” Doc said, and proceeded to straighten and splint the arm.

Science Fiction Romance Brigade: Both Sides Now

Saturday is time for the Science Fiction Romance Brigade; click on the logo above for more snippets. This excerpt is from a WIP tentatively titled Both Sides Now. Roi is following Doc through a maze of hay bales in a cave.

Roi limped after him, the roughness of the floor increasingly painful to his bare feet. “In here,” Doc said finally, and gestured Roi through a gap in the piled bales.

Greenstick fracture. No problem to set, as long as the child could be kept quiet. But rape? She couldn’t have been more than ten, Roi thought angrily. Zhaim had clearly thought he was more effective than Roi had been. But the Confederation was built on trust, not on military might. If this was any sample of what Zhaim thought effective, he’d destroy the Confederation in a Human generation.

The little girl cowered back when Roi and Doc entered the room. The reaction of the woman nursing her was less overt, but Roi automatically moved out of the doorway, making sure she had a free route to escape.

The child needed treatment for more than her broken arm, but that would only make her mental condition worse. Better get her quieted down and sleeping now, get the arm set, and then find out what resources Doc might have.

Science Fiction Romance Brigade: Both Sides Now

The Science Fiction Romance Bragade Presents is a blog hop with up to 200 word snippets of science fiction/romance we have written, published or unpublished. Click on the logo to find links to other authors. The excerpt below is from a work in progress tentatively titled Both Sides Now. Roi and Dr Alsyn, the veterinarian who is the closest thing to a doctor available to the nomads, are talking just after Roi has told Dr. Alsyn he knows several modes of pain control.

“You know about those?” Doc asked sharply.

“Doctor Alsyn, I’m a Healer. I can’t use that right now, but Marna made sure I knew every healing method in the Confederation, as well as what she could teach me of the Riyan methods. I’ve spent an aggregate of several years at the reestablished Jibeth school on Riya. Some of the others are quackery, but a lot have something useful, and I do know them. From what I can feel, I’d go with drugs on that kid, but if you don’t have any sleepSinging would probably help. Only I can’t find her in this maze.”

“SleepSinging?” The term was obviously unfamiliar to Doc.

“It’s a form of hypnosis used by the Jibeth healers. I can guarantee it won’t hurt her, and it might help.”

Doctor Alsyn hesitated, and then turned down an alley between two rows of piled hay bales. “I need to set her arm, and she’s terrified of me. Of all men. Confederation troops caught her and her mother. They took the mother—at least the nomads didn’t find her body. Raped and abandoned the little girl. This way.” His anger was palpable to Roi, but it was no less than his own. Confederation troops, responsible for this kind of outrage?

Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents: Both Sides Now

The Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents is a blog hop with up to 200 word snippets of science fiction/Romance we have written, published or unpublished. The Excerpt below is from a work in progress, tentatively titled Both Sides Now. This is from the point of view of Roi, who is calling himself Kevi, just after he has recovered consciousness in a maze of hay bales, aware through his empathic sense that someone near him is in pain..

He knew the direction—the pain pulled at him. But he had no idea of the route.

Another, much brighter light bobbed toward him from the left. “What are you doing out of bed?” Doctor Alsyn, Roi identified the man who’d come up beside him. The vet apparently knew were he was going.

“Do you have a pain killer?” Roi replied. “Not for me,” he added hastily. “But someone in this hay maze needs it. I was trying to find her.”

Doc seemed to sag. “No,” he said. “No pain killers, no anesthetics, no antibiotics. A little tape and gauze, but mostly we’re boiling rags. And the pain—how did you know about that?”

“I’m an empath,” Roi replied. “I feel emotions and sensory impressions. Zhaim did a very effective job of blocking most of my abilities—I can’t read minds, or teleport, or do most of the other things you’ve probably heard R’il’noids can do. But I can’t not hear emotions without deliberate effort, and ignoring pain is like not hearing someone screaming. It’s like keeping my fingers in my ears. How about herbals like willow bark? I’m sure I remember seeing willows in that valley. Or hypnosis, or ….”

Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents: Both Sides Now.

Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents is a blog hop with up to 200 word snippets of things we have written, published or unpublished. Click the logo above to find links to other participants. This bit from Both Sides Now (tentative title) is a continuation of the initial meeting between Kevi and Coralie. Remember Kevi has awakened to find his hands and feet almost useless, as is his Healing ability.

Which also meant he could not Heal the person whose pain he felt. Well, he had other resources. Marna had encouraged him to learn every medical tradition he could, as part of his training as a Healer, and there were a number of ways to control pain. Conventional medicine used drugs, but he was also Jibeth-trained, among other traditions, and sleep-singing would do as well.

He looked down again at his feet, and decided that if he broke bones walking on them, the bones would probably need to be broken and reset anyway. The hay walls did not imprison him; there was an obvious opening a few steps from the bed. He got to his feet, steeling himself against the pain, and hobbled over to the door. The floor was rock, with bits of hay and grain here and there. Uncomfortable for bare feet, even those in better shape than his.

The door led to a darkened maze of hay bales and feed sacks, piled more to let air circulate than for easy navigation. He went back for the light, holding it awkwardly in the crook of one arm, and began trying to find the injured person.

Letter Q: Quotation (on Science Fiction Romance Brigade: Both Sides Now)

Q is for quotations, and that is what two of the regular blog hops I belong to are all about: quotations from one’s own work, published or not. Today’s quotation is a continuation of last week’s, also on Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents, and is from my work in progress tentatively titled Both Sides Now. Click on the logo above for information on the blog hop and links to other authors.

Kevi turned his head from side to side, trying to locate the source of the pain, but it was somewhere beyond the walls of hay. He stretched cautiously, testing his body’s responses. No real pain. His back was straight, which was a blessed relief, and while his hands and feet were distorted and tender, they seemed to be there and whole.

He struggled to a sitting position, in the process discovering that he was wearing a kind of long loose shirt, and then swung his feet to the floor. He had to suppress a gasp as he tried to put weight on them—the wounds had closed, but some of the broken bones had healed crooked. A quick inspection of his hands confirmed that they were in even worse shape.

Under normal circumstances, that would be no problem. He was a Healer, and part of his talent lay in his ability to realign and force knitting of even small fragments of bone. But Healing required both esper and empathic abilities, and Zhaim’s first move had been a massive overdose of hiControl. That didn’t affect empathic abilities or shielding, but his esper talents would be non-existent until he could get the antidote—and that was unlikely to be available on Horizon.