by J. Naomi Ay
"Let's finish up here first,” Kenak suggested.
“Leave him alone, Donak.” I watched my apple tree grow more leaves. “So he’s weird and can do some kind of magic stuff. We knew this already.”
Donak stood with his arms crossed in front of his chest and studied Senya as if he was a specimen in a zoo.
“We have much to do today,” Kenak continued. “I, too, want to spend some time with him discussing the Karuptas. Now Senya, could you please just tell us your last name so we can submit this form?"
“Perhaps he doesn't have a last name,” I said now stroking the soft petal of my rose bud. “Maybe the only name he has ever had is Senya. Why don't we make one up or you can use mine. I'll adopt him. Call him Senya Mattson." I smiled at him even though he was studying his shoes and didn’t notice me. I wondered if he was going to turn his shoes into something too.
“Shall we do that?” Kenak asked Senya. "Would you like Shelly to adopt you?"
Senya held a shoe in his hand and looked at it through his new glasses as if it was a real novelty. He smiled at me. “Very good, Shelly.”
"Senya, what is your full name?" Donak asked impatiently. "Let's get on with this. I want to take him back to my lab. I'd like to run some tests. I want to take some more blood and biopsy some ocular tissue."
"No," I protested. "I'm not going to let you treat him like an experiment just because he can do magic stuff."
“What he did just now is beyond magic,” Donak protested. “It is important that we find out exactly what has become of our brothers on Rehnor, what they have done to develop these abilities.”
“No, I say it’s wrong to study him like a lab rat.”
"He's not your son, Shelly," Donak insisted. "Even if you do pretend to adopt him."
"Well nobody else is concerned about him! Maybe I'll adopt him for real."
"We are all concerned about him but he is obviously an adult not a child. I dare say he is well into his twenties if not his thirties already. You cannot adopt him. Furthermore you are not a citizen of Rozari. You are an Earth ex-patriot. If he agrees to the tests, you have no say in the matter." Donak pounded his fist on poor Kenak’s desk.
"Stop this arguing," Kenak cried. “And Donak, don’t break my desk. “Now Senya, who are you? Tell us your name." He said the word name in Ancient Rozarian.
Senya peered at Kenak for a moment. "Name?” Senya repeated the Ancient Rozarian word and held out his shoe. “Shoe?”
“No! Senya, what? Your name, not the shoe.”
Senya smiled broadly and shook his head. His teeth were very white but there was something strange about his incisors. Donak must have noticed this now too because he moved closer.
“Let me see your teeth, son,” Donak said.
Senya shut his mouth quickly and put his shoe back on. He was no longer smiling. He lit a fresh cigarette that happened to be in his hand and got up, walking over to the door.
“Senya!” I cried. “Don’t you want to go to school here? Please honey. Let us help you.”
Senya stood by the door. He took off his glasses and waved them at Donak.
“Thank you for this,” he said slowly and then walked out of the office.
“Senya!” We all jumped up and raced after him. “Please don’t go.” We followed him down the hall and out of the building. Dusk had settled on the planet as he headed outside and started to walk across the campus.
“Senya, please,” I ran and caught up with him as the two old men huffed along behind us. “Please, just give us a chance to help you. I won’t let them treat you like a science experiment. I promise.”
He stopped and looked down at me. His eyes shone silver beneath his long lashes, strangely illuminating the burnt orange color of the approaching night.
“Ay yah, Shelly,” he said softly and touched my cheek with his hand. He ran his fingers across my face as a blind man would while I did everything I could to keep breathing. His touch warmed me throughout my whole being and I saw in that moment a presence, even an aura about him.
“Who are you, Senya?”
He pulled his hand away as the two Rozarian men approached. We all gazed up at him, waiting.
"My name is Sehron de Kudisha,” he said.
“Sehron de Kudisha,” Donak gasped. “As in Karukan de Kudisha?”
Senya nodded slightly. Kenak nearly fell off his feet. He clutched his chest and all color drained from his face.
“Blessed Saint, are you serious?” Donak cried. “If this is a joke, we don’t find it very humorous.”
“Why would it be a joke?” I asked, looking from one man to another.
“He is descended from the Infidel,” Kenak stated breathlessly.
Senya put his glasses back on and gazed out across the campus. He took a long drag on his cigarette.
“Are you?” Donak demanded.
“How would he know?” I asked. “Do you know who your ancestors were a thousand years ago?”
"I could run a DNA sample against Karukan's," Donak said to Kenak. "I could do it with a strand of his hair but I would much prefer blood and perhaps some skin tissue. Semen would be ideal of course but I doubt he’d allow that."
"Stop it, Donak!" I interrupted. "He is not here for you to run batteries of tests. He escaped Rehnor to get away from them not so he could become your lab rat. Now, either you are going to help get him citizenship and admission into the Institute or not. It doesn’t matter who his ancestors were!"
“You don’t understand, Shelly,” Kenak piped up, having regained his breath and composure. “Karukan de Kudisha was the most reviled person ever to live on this Rozari. If Senya is in fact his descendant and it certainly appears that way being that he bears his name and is marked in the same manner, his own safety would be at stake."
“Perhaps our safety is at stake too,” Donak added. “How do we know he is not here to finish the job Karukan started? How do we know he is not here to launch the Karuptas efforts to annihilate the Rozarian Saintists and retake this planet?”
“That is patently ridiculous," I snapped. “Do you truly think the Karuptas want to give up their nice green healthy planet to return to this post Armageddon nuclear wasteland?”
“Are the Karuptas going to invade Rozari?” Kenak asked, hesitantly gazing up at Senya while Senya stared off in the distance, a bored expression on his face.
"Didn’t you say the Karupta have de-evolved?" I reminded them. "How are they supposed to invade? On horseback?"
“Still,” Donak shook his head. “He is a de Kudisha. His ancestor was responsible for the havoc that turned this planet into this.” He waved at the red dust. “By admitting him into this Institute, by assisting him even, we could be jeopardizing our own standing. You could lose your funding, perhaps even your department. I could lose my privileges."
"We are anthropologists," I reminded Kenak. "We are supposed to study your ancestors. It’s perfect that Senya is here. He can give us insight that no one else has. I'm sure the Dean will understand that even if he is a Saintist. Look at him." I pointed at Senya who was now crouched down in the dirt, picking at the toes of his shoes. There were two holes forming right above his big toes and an ugly black nail was emerging through each of them. “He’s just an innocent mutated kid with some weird things about him. Maybe we can give him a whole new life. Maybe he can study something and get a job.”
"Oh, I see," Donak replied snippily. "It's perfectly fine for you to study him but not me even in the name of medical science."
“We are just talking to him, not cutting him open."
Kenak rubbed his eyes tiredly and Donak fumed. Senya straightened up, apparently having finished destroying his shoes.
"Alright," Kenak sighed. "Let's just submit the paperwork and get this done. We shall argue another day on who or how we may study him. Will you come back to the office with us Senya...er Sehron?”
Senya shrugged and breathed out a plume of grey smoke.
“Yes, of course he
will.” I grabbed the boy’s arm and pulled him back toward our building. Surprisingly, he came along docilely.
“Where do you live, Senya?” I asked as we walked back. “Are you living on the street? Are you homeless?"
“Perhaps you would like to take him home with you now, Shelly?" Donak snipped from behind us. “Your newly adopted son, the descendent of the Infidel.”
"We will get him a dorm room too," Kenak sighed. “The son of the Infidel will be housed, clothed, fed and educated by the taxpayers of Rozari.”
Somehow, Kenak, with the assistance of Donak and me, got through and submitted all of the paperwork. We had a bit of challenge determining Senya's birthday and how old he was. Ultimately, we settled on what sounded like the closest date on our calendar, August 1st. That made him almost exactly twenty-seven years old, the same age as my oldest son, Thad.
By the time the new semester started, Senya was speaking Rozarian fairly fluently although his accent was thick and inflection was almost always off. I would also practice English with him which was just as terrible. Kenak took him to be assessed for placement but returned befuddled.
“What's the matter?” I asked.
“We couldn't assess him,” Kenak sat on the sofa and looked at his hands.
“He couldn't understand the tests or the procedures or what?” I felt terribly sad. Maybe he wasn’t all that smart but I still wanted Senya to do well and succeed. I wanted him to get a degree or at least some sort of education and skills so he could make money and have a normal life. Well as normal a life as a guy with weird powers and blind silver eyes could have.
Kenak shook his head. “He already knows everything.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mathematics, physics, the sciences, economics, everything."
“Algebra?”
“No Shelly, advanced differential equations, differential geometry, ergodic theory and dynamics.”
Donak came through the door just then.
“I think he used his telepathy to read the minds of the examiners and retrieve the answers,” he stated. He grabbed a soda from the fridge and sat down next to Kenak.
“No,” Kenak replied emphatically. “He had to work out equations and argue the proofs and not only did he do it quicker than the professors but in several cases proved them wrong on their own solutions. Not to mention, I administered the exam in organic chemistry myself. He demonstrated a full understanding of the topic and even tried to engage me in a discussion of nanotechnology and electro optic materials to which I have only a very limited knowledge.”
“Wow,” I said and pondered that. “Maybe the Rehnorians really are more advanced than the Rozarians.”
“I doubt that,” Donak replied drily.
“No,” Kenak responded. “Rehnorians, the Karupta especially are less advanced than us. He must be as exceptional in his intelligence as he is in other ways.”
“I wish I knew more about those unique proteins in his plasma,” Donak sighed. “I wonder if they are the source of all these powers and abilities. Of course, I can’t draw any blood on him.” Donak looked pointedly at me. “How proteins would make him a genius though, I cannot fathom.” He stood up again and crossed the office to look at the window at the dull red landscape.
“What's going to become of him then?” I was now more worried than ever. If the Saintists found out about him, if they felt threatened, they might revoke his citizenship and kick him off this planet. “Can he still go to school here?
“Yes,” Kenak replied. “He is very interested in medicine. He wants to become a doctor.”
“Really?”
Donak cleared his throat and turned around. A slight smile played on his lips. “Surgery, neurology, brain function. Apparently he doesn’t know everything there is to know about these subjects as of yet.”
“He said he wants to heal people,” Kenak added.
“A blind brain surgeon?” I laughed. “I think I’d be a little nervous about letting him cut into my head. What if he cuts out the wrong part?”
“He sees more with those sensory lenses than you or I could ever imagine,” Donak replied. “He can spot things with those that a normal eye simply cannot. I believe he will make a fine surgeon and an excellent diagnostician.”
“Why do you think the Rehnorians gave him up?” I asked. “Do you think they didn't understand what he is?”
“I don't know about that.” Kenak shook his head and went to stand by the window with his friend. “But whether they understood or not, it is undoubtedly to our benefit that they did.”
A year and a few months later, Senya, was now known as Dr. Ron by the staff of the medical centre, a nickname given to him by a group of nurses. He had Rozarian citizenship. He had completed all coursework from the medical school at a record pace and was currently working through his internship at the hospital. He still lived in the dorms but was on probation for entertaining too many young ladies in his room. The girls flocked around him which surprised Kenak and Donak but was patently obvious to me. I didn’t see him very much anymore. Occasionally, I caught a glimpse of him walking across campus and disappearing inside one or another building before I could catch up to say hello. All the research and information about Rehnor and the Karuptas that we had hoped to garner from him had fallen by the wayside.
From the beginning Senya refused to answer our questions and to this day politely or impolitely ignored Kenak. It didn’t bother me any. I could see he was running away from something and didn’t want to remember it. Poor Kenak was saddened though. He thought he had found the capstone for all his years of research and study only to have it slip through his fingers. Senya, for all his brilliance, mutant chromosomes and magic, was just a young man at heart and this I needed to keep reminding my Rozarian friends.
The door opened and a man stepped in. He was older, about Tim’s age and huge, easily three hundred pounds. The man had a lion's head of white hair and very pale white skin with eyes that were a very pale blue, almost color-less. He was wearing a handsome suit of obviously fine fabric although the style was a little odd and he was clutching a Universal Translator in his hand. He brought it up to his mouth like a microphone and spoke into it.
“Hello,” he called.
“Hello,” I replied and the translator repeated it back to him in whatever language he was speaking. “You don't have to hold it and speak into it. Just put it in your pocket and it will hear us and translate out the speaker.”
“Thank you,” he said and did so.
“Can I help you?”
The man cleared his throat. He pulled at his collar and I could see he was sweating heavily under his suit jacket.
“Why don't you take off your coat?” I suggested. “It's much too hot here to be dressed like that. Did you just come out of a dome?”
“Thank you,” he said again and slipped off the jacket. “And no, I am not from a dome.”
“Have you come to see Dr. Kenak?” I asked.
The man looked around the office as if Kenak might be hiding under the sofa.
“I'm Dr. Mattson,” I said.
“Hello Dr. Mattson,” he replied. “I am looking for someone and I believe you know him.”
My heart froze mid beat. He was looking for Senya. Maybe this man was his slave-owner. This man must have come from Rehnor and he was here to take him back.
“Let me ring Dr. Kenak.” I turned toward my vid to think. Kenak might turn Senya over. As proud and happy as he was with Senya's accomplishments this last year, he fervently believed that other societies were to be studied and not interfered with. If the Rehnorians wanted their runaway slave back, Kenak would return him.
Speak of the devil, the door opened again and Kenak and Donak came in. They were arguing about something as they usually did after lunch. I could see them doing this forever, even when all they had to argue about was whether they should nap or play pinochle and in which order.
“Dr. Kenak, Dr. Donak,” I jumped up. “This
is…”
“Good day,” the sweaty foreigner said and held out his hand. “I am Captain Loman of the Royal Mishnese Guards.”
Kenak's eyes immediately flew open.
“Good day, good day,” he cried, enthusiastically pumping the man's hand. Donak raised his eyebrows and glanced over at me. I frowned.
“How can we help you, how can we help you?” Kenak practically begged. “Please sit down.” He led Captain Loman to the sofa. “Donak, get the Captain something to drink. What would you care for Captain, water or soda? We have this wondrous drink here now from our friends on Earth. It’s called Coca Cola and it’s quite tasty.”
“Water would be fine, please,” the Captain replied.
“The Royal Mishnese Guards,” Kenak sighed happily and sat down on the sofa next to the Captain. “The Mishnese are still a monarchy then? Are you still ruled by the descendants of Mishka Kalila?”
“Yes,” the Captain replied wiping his brow with the water bottle Donak handed him. “Yokaa Kalila is our King. I am the Captain of his guards.”
“And do the de Kudishas still rule Karupatani?” Kenak anxiously leaned toward him.
“Yes,” Captain Loman said. “Merakoma de Kudisha is the King of Karupatani.”
“Ha!” Kenak exclaimed. “I have attained more information in these five minutes from Captain Loman than in nearly two years from…”
“Don't say it!” I screamed.
Everyone looked at me.
Captain Loman chuckled. “So you do know him, Dr. Mattson?”
“We're not going to tell you where he is,” I said. “He's a citizen of Rozari now and you can't take him back.”
“You don't need to tell me where he is, Dr. Mattson.” Captain Loman smiled. “He is listed on the staff roster of your medical centre.” Twisting the cap off of his water bottle, he took a long drink. “I do not intend to take him back at this time,” he said, again wiping his face with the sweaty bottle. “I am merely here to check on his health and his progress. You are his personal physician, yes?” He turned to Donak.
"I suppose so," Donak replied as he pulled up a chair from the student desk. "I did attend to him when he first arrived in our midst but he has had no need to see me since. Regretfully, I have never been able to study his blood proteins or ocular tissue or anything else that I had hoped to study."
