by Mason, Jolie
The human on the ground groaned as he crawled to his knees. A few passersby stopped to see the excitement of a Sorian disabling human attackers. It was clear that didn't happen often around here. Ra’dan walked closer to the woman. He noticed for the first time that she wore the long red coat signifying she was Imperial medical personnel.
Ra squatted down next to the man on his knees. “I think you will stay clear of this place from now on, my friend. Yes?”
The unconscious man began to stir as his partner dragged him up under his arms. Ra watched them limp away quietly until they were well and truly away down the boardwalk. He looked up at the building. He wondered what kind of clinic would draw patients like those two.
“Thank you”, said the quiet voice behind him. He turned to be confronted with eyes the color of the storms on Taarken, deep gray with flashes of blue. They were mesmerizing. So different to him, so alien. Her pert nose gave her whole face an innocent, childlike appearance, and her small stature added to the illusion. Her figure, however, completely corrected the impression. Her body was full and lush, curved in interesting places and very beautiful. Also, very unlike the women of his home world.
“You treat humans like those here?”
“I treat anyone who’s injured, but not like those, no. This clinic is for Sorians primarily. I operate off a grant from the Empress’ philanthropic foundation. It's a fund to provide medical care to indigenous populations in hardship.”
She shifted from foot to foot, still holding the pistol in her hand. Ra smiled at the sight. “Did the empress donate that?” He nodded at the cold metal in her hand.
Sheepishly, she smiled back a little putting it behind her back. “No, no. That I brought with me. This isn’t my first position working with mistreated indigenous peoples. You learn to expect resistance.”
He found himself fascinated. “So, this is a free clinic?”
“Yes,” she answered. “You don’t live here?”
“No, I captain a ship. I haven’t been home for many, many years.”
Surprised, her mouth bowed in a silent oh. “Well, why don’t you come in and see what we’re doing?”
Ra inclined his head, suddenly entertained as he hadn’t been in a long while. She led him inside the small clinic's currently empty waiting room into an examination room filled with medical equipment, fairly advanced medical equipment. Beyond it, he could see a cramped office with a cot in the corner. He stuck his head into the office looking around. “You live here?”
She smiled again. “It feels like it sometimes, but I have a house just past the tree line out back. The townspeople built it for me.” She spoke with great affection. Suddenly, she looked up at him. Ra'dan found he couldn’t look away, even had he wanted to look anywhere else. “I’m sorry. I’m Dr. Nina Quell.” She held her small hand out for his.
He took it slowly, liking the sound of the name, Nina. The way the I drew out into a longer sound due to her accent. Her hand warmed his own. “Ra’dan Sevarus.”
Then she gave him a genuine, uninhibited smile, and the whole room lit up. “Captain. Happy to meet you.” Her sun bright hair caught and held the light from the lone window above them. Ra thought for the first time in a long time, he was happy to meet someone too.
His brow furrowed as he looked around at the clean, bright office. “Those men?”
“That’s my fan club”, she answered sarcastically. “Hired muscle from the local Slavers. They don’t like my clinic.”
“Why would the slavers care about a small clinic?”
She stood clutching both hands together, not nervously. More restlessly, like she had more energy in her body than it could feasibly hold. “I send back reports to the Foundation, telling them the condition of the planet and its people. Admittedly, I’ve been lobbying lately for an end to the slavery on the planet. The empress is less enthusiastic than I’d like, but she’s giving the matter some attention which is about all I can expect. I had a text comm from her office.”
Ra shook his head disbelievingly. Was it in the water? “Do you know how dangerous this game you’re playing is, Doctor?”
She drew back, a shocked expression on her face. Of course, she was shocked. He just met her and he was questioning her judgment. These women were going to get themselves killed going after slavers.
“I would think a Sorian would understand the risks versus the rewards.”
“I don’t understand suicidal urges. Slavers are not going to allow you to meddle in their business like this and live.”
The doctor practically sputtered, “Slavery is a thing that must be fought, Captain Sevarus. Whatever the cost.”
“So you have no value for your own life? No one values you?”
It was clear she was offended now. “I value life. I value the friends I’ve made among your people. It would appear I value them more than you do.”
Ra stepped a little closer. “To die for a thing is beyond price, Doctor. Be sure it has worth before you commit body and soul.”
“Do you understand the horrors perpetrated on your people or are you so self-involved you don’t care?”
Ra’dan felt the weight of the woman's opinion. But, to a degree, he'd provoked her reaction by telling her what to do, by expressing his disapproval. He had enjoyed talking to her. She wasn't the first woman he'd offended over the issue today.
“I understand more than you can, Doctor. I was a slave before I was a captain. Be careful. These men will hunt you, and you’ll be lucky if all they do is kill you.” He took one last long look around the small examination room. “It would be a shame to lose a healer and a kind heart for nothing. Thank you for showing me your clinic.”
Ra’dan left stiffly, unsure why he’d been rubbed so raw by the conversation. He knew his family thought he’d abandoned his people. He knew he had merely survived, but this doctor pricked his conscience. He could have returned, but there would have been a risk to it, wouldn’t there? He was Sorian. He risked his freedom anytime he set foot on the planet, and Ra knew he couldn’t live without his freedom. It was a risk he wasn’t willing to take. Not yet.
*****#*****
2
Nina watched Sevarus walk away with a defeated step. She wanted to know where he was going, what he’d do when he got there. He’d been a slave. The pain he’d communicated in those few words, in the quiet torment hidden in his voice, still burned.
She’d been on Brin a while now, long enough to know that nothing was ever simple. Sometimes, her passion got the better of her, she knew. This was one of those time. She’d been too focused on the cause to see the individual. Although, she’d focused plenty on the individual, just not on the right parts.
He was tall and lean like all of his people. Obesity didn’t exist in Sorians. The metabolism just worked too fast for excess weight. The ideal in their culture was very thin, very tall and very green. The captain was the Sorian ideal with golden eyes reminding her of a jungle cat, and his strong, quick physique. The strangest part was that she’d been treating Sorian men and women for a year. They’d become familiar to her in form and face as her own human features. She barely registered exotic or different anymore, until today. This captain registered in a big way.
His bare arms and shoulders had been sculpted, there was no other word. His face rivaled any of the great works of art. Nina needed to leave these thoughts alone because the Captain wasn’t coming back anytime soon. She’d made him sad. It hadn’t been intentionally done. She would do things differently if she could, but that was her trouble. Once Nina was on a crusade, she engaged at full speed, no holds barred.
Regretfully, she went back inside to work. The next hour passed quietly involved in paperwork, until the bell rang in the waiting room. She put down the datapad and trailed through the exam room into the front. The girl standing at the desk was too light in tone. Her face looked wan, especially for a young Sorian woman in her prime.
“Nessa, what’s wrong?”
Nina r
ushed around the desk to feel her forehead. “What are the symptoms? Come back. Sit down.”
She counted the girl as one of the friends she’d made here on Brin, even though she kept much to herself, telling very little about herself. Today, the girl looked different, weary.
“I am tired, Doctor Nina. So very tired. Even sleep doesn’t help.”
“How long?”
“Two or three standard weeks. I thought I would get better.”
“Three weeks is too long”, Nina scolded. “If something hasn’t healed by one, then you have a problem. Why didn't you come to me?”
Taking out the equipment she needed, Nina continued to explain to the patient just what she was doing. “I’m taking a blood sample and running a standard screen for the obvious. We’ll have some information in just a few minutes.”
Nessa looked concerned. “What screens?”
“Platelet count. Hormone levels. Metabolic information. Just a general check to see what systems could be out of sync. It’s nothing at all.” She found the right spot on the arm and slipped in the syringe without any fanfare. The sharp hiss was the only indicator blood had been drawn. Nina repeated the process with another small tube, then put the blood samples in the machine, a large piece of equipment that cost more than the building that housed it.
She sat on the stool in front of Nessa to pat her knee reassuringly. “It will just be a few minutes. How are you? Other than too pale and tired?”
“No changes. Did you hear back from the government?”
Nina bit her lip. “Yes, my report was acknowledged, but little else said. The media ignore me altogether. I did receive a response from the empress’ office that she would read the report, but that’s it.” She frowned. “I’m not sure anyone’s listening.”
Nessa’s sympathy for the woman warred with a hard edge in her expression. Nina could see it plainly. “You knew it was unlikely”, she said.
“I know”, she nodded. “The costs of war and rebellion are just so damn high, Ness. I want to stop an uprising if I can. I won’t stop trying it my way.”
Nessa reached up to brush the Nina’s vivid hair away from her face gently. “I know you will never stop fighting for us. It is why we all call you sister.”
It was true. The Sorian’s had named her sister, Lalel in the old language, after she fought off an attack on the clinic by the slavers. They’d been dragging away a small boy younger than ten standard years when Nina pulled her pistol and shot one of the slavers dead there in the street. It was the first and only time she’d killed, and it still kept her up a little. The slaver hadn’t deserved a second thought, but Nina did worry about her oath. She’d done harm to someone. Her oath meant the world to her. She wondered if it still mattered.
The chime from the machine drew her attention. “Let’s see what we have.” Nina reached for the datapad readout on the test results and selected the patient name. “I had forgotten your second name was Sevarus. I met another Sevarus today”, she said absently.
Ness said, “Probably my brother. He is in port.”
“Hmm”, Nina stared in surprise at the results only half listening to Nessa. Nothing was wrong, but one never knew how news like this would be taken. “Well, we know why you’re tired, Nessa.”
“We do?” Ness sat up straight on the table.
“You’re pregnant.”
“Pregnant?”
“Yes, as in baby.”
“Baby?”
Nessa grew pale to the color of sea foam on the ocean. Nina sized it up quickly; she hadn’t planned on this news.
“Ness, how will Bay feel about this?”
The girl swallowed. “I don’t know. We never speak of family or future. All our planning is for revolution.” Nessa put a hand possessively over her abdomen. Nina smiled softly. Babies were a joy. A joy she wanted to experience herself one day.
“Guess tonight you will speak of something more than revolution, lalel.”
Nessa laughed. “I guess we will.”
*****#*****
Ra parked the gleaming white hover car and it’s attached trailer in front of his Marm’s house. She couldn’t afford to continue hauling fruits and vegetables into market in a wheel cart. One of these days, the boys would be unavailable and Marmy would try and tackle the job on her own. This way, she stood a chance of getting it to town should she ever try. Plus, he hoped this would allow her to visit her friends.
Marmy scooted out the front door as soon as she saw it was him. Before she could say a thing, he beamed at her and handed her the key tab. “I hope you can use this around the farm, Marm marm. There won’t be room for it on the Bell.”
She could only press a hand to her chest and say, “This is for me?”
He’d been hopeful the gift would help around the farm, but he was glad that he’d made his Marm so very happy. It was worth every moment of effort to see her so happy. “Tomorrow, we will haul some things in to the fruit stand”, she announced. He smiled at being volunteered.
“Well, in that case, best to have a big meal, huh? Sounds like hard work.”
Ra’dan ate very well.
*****#*****
The market bustled with people as he helped Marm set up her stall. She leaned back fanning herself as she waited for market time. Ra put all her fruit in the bins and made himself scarce. Marm would handle her own enterprise. He’d been told to go enjoy himself, which he took to mean she wanted privacy to boast to her market friends about her new hover-car.
He squeezed his way between crates and people out of the market, headed for his sister’s flat along the dock. It was possible he might get a chance to talk to this man of hers.
He’d just reached the boardwalk. Shouting and racket farther down the way where a very large crowd of Sorians and humans gathered. This crowd ran just a shade too large to be a fight. It was looking like a riot between slavers conscripting on the boardwalk. He didn’t remember them being so bold as to take people off the main thoroughfares.
Here, the group of Sorians fighting back was large and armed, he thought as a shot rang out and a nearby human male ducked. Ra moved beside a large building to take cover. He’d entered the boardwalk from a side alley, and couldn’t be exactly certain where he was. He was fairly sure that Marm was safe from the trouble where she was, but he wasn’t. Enforcers would be the least of his worries, if these guys all had guns. More shots zinged off buildings and barrels. Shouts raised in pitch.
Ra looked around the building to see if the enforcers were moving in yet. His heart felt stuffed into his throat. For him, this was a nightmare, a press gang. He was just another Sorian on Brin. The enforcers could force him right back into slavery or kill him, which was preferable. He waited till the crowd fought its' way ahead of him and ran for the next alleyway. He looked up to realize it was the back alley of the clinic, so proclaimed by another medical insignia. He heard the shuffle of feet and whispers of voices as he pounded his way hurriedly around the corner. It was the doctor, and she wasn’t alone. Her eyes grew wide as she saw him.
She shepherded four children, Sorians, out of the clinic and into the alley. Apparently, Doctor Quell intended to hide them all somewhere. He approached quickly frightening one of the smaller children who was instantly shushed by the others.
“Where are you going?” He demanded.
“Away. They will search the clinic for people hiding. That’s why the men started the fight.”
“It’s a distraction?”
She nodded at the children. “We have to get them down two blocks and into a cart hidden in the alley.”
“Where are the parents?”
She jerked her head toward the noise. “Two of them are there. Another is at work.”
He sighed. They would all have to run for it, he supposed. Leaning down to pick up the smallest, a girl in a long white child’s dress, he said, “Lead on.”
Nina didn’t argue with him. She picked up a little boy of two and herded the other two down the all
ey at a brisk pace. Another street peeked out into the boardwalk. Nina stopped at the corner to peek out at the fight. She turned back to Ra. “No enforcers yet,” she said, then pointed off the other way where a curve took them to an even narrower opening between buildings. The back alleys of the city were like a warren, one narrow lane leading into another. They took the curve quietly.
Trash cans and dead rodents lined the alley way next to a small restaurant's back door. The smell of old food turned his stomach. Ra’dan would put money on the cart being just ahead because they appeared to be running out of alleyway. An old model car sat dilapidated and unused, and much like his Marm’s new car, this smaller cart had a capped trailer on the back. He watched as she rushed the children beneath the cap on the back.
Nina put her finger to her lips staring at each of the scared children in turn. “Quiet as little banta, okay?”
They nodded, terrified, and Nina closed the cap and her eyes momentarily. Her frightened face carried the weight of these four young lives. They exchanged a fearful look. Both of them knew slavers sought children especially because they can be controlled, raised to be servants and victims.
Ra’dan climbed on the runner in front of the trailer. Swinging his leg over, he gestured to her to climb on behind him. “Where are we going?”
“My place”, she said and pointed behind them. “That way. In the trees.”
He looked again at her to make sure he heard her right. “In the trees”, he said. She nodded. Ra'dan maneuvered the thing around quietly, pointing it out of town. At the back mouth of the alley, he looked both ways, then fired up the propulsion and slid the runner expertly down an embankment off the other side, rather than use the picturesque loop that curled down the hill at a sharp angle. It caught on the dirt road at the bottom and held. Behind him, Nina clutched his waist for all she was worth. He steered the thing out across a sports field and onto a hiking trail. He looked back over his shoulder to see no one following them.
“This is good,” she told him in his ear. “This will take us right to the house.” He followed the trail for a good while, until her tap on his stomach got his full attention. His body jerked a little at the contact, surprising him with his reaction to her slim fingers on his muscles.
