The next time I woke up I was thankfully alone. Moving cautiously, I felt a lot better so I sat up and felt for the bandages at my side. Soft fabric brushed against skin - my hand was no longer bandaged and did not hurt. Curious, I held it closer and noticed a few faded bruises against the tanned skin. They did not look like I had acquired them only the day before. Amazing, Razzan medicine was much more advanced than I'd thought. The skin darkening was a really strange side effect though. It looked pretty natural. I held my other hand up to compare it against my normal skin tone and swore. In the soft yellow light of my room, it was the same colour. Pulling up my sleeve and peeking down my medward gown revealed what I'd suspected. At least it was only tanned, not a hint of green in sight. That was really the last thing I needed right now, to have the Razzan medication interfere with my pigment blocker. The door chimed, interrupting my thoughts and I quickly dropped my gown. Meral walked in and smiled upon seeing me awake.
"Good afternoon shift. How do you feel?"
"Pretty well. I'm healing much faster than I thought."
"Ah, that would be because you've been in healing sleep for one and a half tendays now."
Mercury. Healing sleep?! "What the ... why?"
Meral shrugged casually. "We're on our way home. I'd thought it would give you a head start healing faster."
"Then you have my thanks. The skin discolouration is a pretty strange side effect though. How long does it take to fade?"
"Your skin tone will change for a few weeks. I've put up special lamps to aid with that." She gestured towards the ceiling, then moved around to my left side.
"I'd like you to get up and move. The creams we have to prevent the tissue from hardening are pretty good but you still have to move to keep the skin flexible. It will also help reduce the amount of scarring. With laser wounds, scarring is inevitable but it doesn't have to be excessive, if you catch my drift. You know, these scars would be acceptable on a battle hardened male body, but on a female? Maybe if you were a warrior, like some of your old scars suggest, but then your muscle tone is insufficient as is your general fitness. Though if I can believe what I heard from your performance during the duel, you might have the reflexes necessary, if you trained them."
Maybe she would stop talking if I complied and got up. No such luck. She went on and on about scars on soldiers, wounds on warriors and by the time I was standing with her support, I felt like I were attending a medical lecture. Time to stir the chatterbox back to more interesting topics.
"Meral?" I threw in as she stopped for a nanosecond to draw breath.
"Yes? Let's get you walking." After a few tentative steps that put a strain on my side but hurt only mutely, I started again.
"I've been wondering. What exactly does Exalted mean?"
"You mean, you did not know? Holy tree! It's the title for a Razzan second in line after the Head of their House." She halted in front of a seating arrangement at the other end of the small room and motioned for me to take a seat. Gratefully, I sank into the chair and leaned back. Those few steps had been surprisingly exhausting. Meral remained standing and continued her lecture as she towered above me.
"Our houses are what you humans would call royalty. Raitel married according to her station when she joined the bond with Zac. He's fourth in line for his house." I buried my head in my hands. The royalty part I'd known, it was common knowledge about Razzan society. They were ruled by seven houses, all of whom enjoyed a lot of respect from their subordinates. A pretty ancient civilization structure for a species that had developed into the space age but it seemed to work quite well. A wave of guilt threatened to choke me but I fought to hold it at bay.
Meral picked up on my mood with alarming accuracy. She put a hand on my shoulder and remained silent for a moment before she spoke.
"It's not easy to bear the responsibility for a death. Just remember that you were within your rights to defend yourself. Raitel's house can't deny you this, even if they'll still hate you."
"Mercury forbid I ever meet them."
"You will when we get home."
"I'll be long gone by then. At the next long distance call station you'll be rid of me."
"If you say so. Rest a bit, someone will come by later to help you back into bed."
With that she removed her hand and started to walk away. I lifted my head to look at her retreating back, about to call out to her. All the appliances in the room were programmed in Razzan, which I supposedly didn't understand. The round elegant script tempted me from the small table in front of me. I could still read it as easily as when I'd first studied it. Suddenly I felt heartily tired of feigning ignorance but Meral was already gone when I had made up my mind.
Left to my own devices I settled for examining my room. From here, the bed looked impressive with its big diagnostic screens and cabinets sunk into the wall. Apart from the sitting group I was currently occupying, there was only one chair in the room, drawn up close to the bed for anyone watching over the patient, i.e. me. The lack of windows was more than compensated by the amazing star scenery painted on the ceiling. I leaned back into the comfortable chair, trailing my gaze over the star belt. If my room was any indication, this was one of the most luxurious medic bays I had ever been to, in keeping with what I had seen from the rest of the ship.
"Good afternoon shift. How do you feel?"
"Pretty well. I'm healing much faster than I thought."
"Ah, that would be because you've been in healing sleep for one and a half tendays now."
Mercury. Healing sleep?! "What the ... why?"
Meral shrugged casually. "We're on our way home. I'd thought it would give you a head start healing faster."
"Then you have my thanks. The skin discolouration is a pretty strange side effect though. How long does it take to fade?"
"Your skin tone will change for a few weeks. I've put up special lamps to aid with that." She gestured towards the ceiling, then moved around to my left side.
"I'd like you to get up and move. The creams we have to prevent the tissue from hardening are pretty good but you still have to move to keep the skin flexible. It will also help reduce the amount of scarring. With laser wounds, scarring is inevitable but it doesn't have to be excessive, if you catch my drift. You know, these scars would be acceptable on a battle hardened male body, but on a female? Maybe if you were a warrior, like some of your old scars suggest, but then your muscle tone is insufficient as is your general fitness. Though if I can believe what I heard from your performance during the duel, you might have the reflexes necessary, if you trained them."
Maybe she would stop talking if I complied and got up. No such luck. She went on and on about scars on soldiers, wounds on warriors and by the time I was standing with her support, I felt like I were attending a medical lecture. Time to stir the chatterbox back to more interesting topics.
"Meral?" I threw in as she stopped for a nanosecond to draw breath.
"Yes? Let's get you walking." After a few tentative steps that put a strain on my side but hurt only mutely, I started again.
"I've been wondering. What exactly does Exalted mean?"
"You mean, you did not know? Holy tree! It's the title for a Razzan second in line after the Head of their House." She halted in front of a seating arrangement at the other end of the small room and motioned for me to take a seat. Gratefully, I sank into the chair and leaned back. Those few steps had been surprisingly exhausting. Meral remained standing and continued her lecture as she towered above me.
"Our houses are what you humans would call royalty. Raitel married according to her station when she joined the bond with Zac. He's fourth in line for his house." I buried my head in my hands. The royalty part I'd known, it was common knowledge about Razzan society. They were ruled by seven houses, all of whom enjoyed a lot of respect from their subordinates. A pretty ancient civilization structure for a species that had developed into the space age but it seemed to work quite well. A wave of guilt threatened to choke me but I fought to hold it at bay.
Meral picked up on my mood with alarming accuracy. She put a hand on my shoulder and remained silent for a moment before she spoke.
"It's not easy to bear the responsibility for a death. Just remember that you were within your rights to defend yourself. Raitel's house can't deny you this, even if they'll still hate you."
"Mercury forbid I ever meet them."
"You will when we get home."
"I'll be long gone by then. At the next long distance call station you'll be rid of me."
"If you say so. Rest a bit, someone will come by later to help you back into bed."
With that she removed her hand and started to walk away. I lifted my head to look at her retreating back, about to call out to her. All the appliances in the room were programmed in Razzan, which I supposedly didn't understand. The round elegant script tempted me from the small table in front of me. I could still read it as easily as when I'd first studied it. Suddenly I felt heartily tired of feigning ignorance but Meral was already gone when I had made up my mind.
Left to my own devices I settled for examining my room. From here, the bed looked impressive with its big diagnostic screens and cabinets sunk into the wall. Apart from the sitting group I was currently occupying, there was only one chair in the room, drawn up close to the bed for anyone watching over the patient, i.e. me. The lack of windows was more than compensated by the amazing star scenery painted on the ceiling. I leaned back into the comfortable chair, trailing my gaze over the star belt. If my room was any indication, this was one of the most luxurious medic bays I had ever been to, in keeping with what I had seen from the rest of the ship.
Pyrite glint - snippet 11 von Kat steht unter einer Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported Lizenz.
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