“How could my father ever think ill of you people? How
could I ever feel like an outsider? Everyone has been so wonderful! I mean
even the village jerk stood up for me!”
“Welcome to the Highlands. We're happy to have you here,”
grinned Theodore.
“But we are going to have to leave for a while...”
“The time will fly by!” promised Theodore. “Things will
be just right!”
Theodore sighed as he watched the Highlands fade into the
distance. Just a week before he had to say goodbye to Anna as she returned
home for school. Now it was his turn. Previous semesters had started with
giddy anticipation, but this semester seemed more like a chore. As the
dropship effortlessly docked with the starliner in orbit, he was on autopilot
as he moved to the new ship with his simple pack. He'd be on board a single
night, it was a direct flight after all. He was heading to one of the academic
centers of the human colonies; there were many others heading there as well.
The ship didn't have its own gate-drive, but rather used a series of gates
carefully arranged across this arm of the galaxy along the standard trade
routes.
As he moved to his simple but comfortable cabin and
sprawled on the small bed, a simple thought went through his mind: what was he
doing? Oh, he wasn't concerned about his relationships, those, while
nontraditional, were at least well received at home. Why was he going to
college off world? He already had squared away the start of a
wonderful
family.
Was he ever going to use his new education? Second Mother had always said it
was all about keeping his options open, but now that he had started to make
choices, was it really important? Would it have been better to stay home so he
could help with the new child in the house? See more of Meagan? Start on the
repairs to the house?
Anna was gone for one last year of public school. He
grinned at the thought of her
finally
being able to spend some quality
time with her mother. He was looking forward to having Janice meet his
Mothers. He was certain there was going to be a great and fascinating interest
in Janice meeting the Firemeadows. He permitted himself a small laugh at that
thought. Janice was a marvelous lady! Dedicated to her work, but when asked,
and it didn't take much asking Anna had said, was willing to drop half her work
to be with her daughter.
Thomas Westmore. Her father. Would he come around and at
least
show up to the wedding? He had seemed like such a nice man.
Friendly, helpful, devoted to his work. Apparently he drew the line at their
engagement... Theodore looked down at his fur with confusion. It was
just
fur!
Why should that make such a stupid difference? Her father didn't initially
come across as petty or narrow minded. Had opened his house up to Theodore and
his sisters without thinking... Theodore sighed, Thomas Westmore was what he
was...
With practiced form he fed his hand written essays for
school into the room’s computer along with his own storage card. He spent the
next hour double checking the conversion. It was all but flawless; the data
card already had stored countless examples of his own writing and style and the
computer was good enough to highlight areas of confusion rather than making
rash, and often comical, guesses. With that squared away he looked to the
books the d'Elevston twins had loaned him. He was pretty confident about that
class, but the whole question of
why
he was going back to school came
clawing back into his head.
He sighed as he tried to think what he had learned at
college beyond the simple coursework. Well... he had met a lot of people.
Mostly human, but a fair amount of Taik and otherwise. He had been exposed to
an insane variety of cultures and personalities. His social science, history
and government classes had been real eye openers! He had become the
de
facto
public relations ambassador for the Highlands of Afon there at the
university. There had been certain amusement as a sociology professor had
spent a great amount of time asking
him
questions. And then there was
the physics department! Oh! they had a love-hate relationship with his Live
Steel, fascinated by it but annoyed that it seemed to perplex so many of their
laboratory experiments and tests. There was some comfort from his math
classes: math is math! While he started behind his peers in classes such as
calculus, he easily held his own in set-theory and other more abstract classes.
Gotten a paper published even; that had been a feather in his teeth!
Theodore finally smiled as he started to appreciate that
the greatest thing the university had taught him was how vast, and unimaginably
varied the galaxy, the universe was. There was so much out there to know and
understand. So much to learn... He laughed as he could already envision
himself sitting with gentle Meagan and helping teach the newest members of the
family the multitude of things he had learned.
His brain lurched, Meagan: art, music, dance, theater.
His first two years at school had all been technical and socio-politcal. While
he had studied cultures from their governments and history, he knew
nothing
of various people's
true
culture, their arts.
That
was what he
was going to explore this semester! He laughed again as he thought of Anna!
He knew only the basics of biology, maybe he should add anatomy and physiology
as well!
Not that he wanted to do any of the things Anna was doing, but
knowing what was going on and why things were or were not important or
dangerous would go a long ways to help him understand the challenges she was
facing. Yep! It was going to be a very different semester this year. Well,
different save for fencing!
“Art History and Appreciation I, Survey of Polyethnic
Dance I, Theory of Music I...”
“Anatomy I, Introduction to Emergency Medicine—taught from
the military science school, and oh! look at this: Competitive Fencing. That
one was a
complete
surprise.”
The d'Evelston twins grinned at Theodore.
“Seems
someone
made some serious changes after his
summer off,” grinned Maurice.
“Can't fault the dance class. Took it myself. Two-thirds
girls, not a bad class!” grinned Marcel.
“Two-thirds? Oh, the poor lad is gonna feel all awkward
with so few girls around,” teased Maurice.
“Eh, 'bout right. He has two lined up. Just needs
another pair to add on.”
“Your math mentor would throw a fit seeing this; poor sot
didn't make it though...”
Theodore was suddenly taken aback, “Dr. Barvelt got
fired?”
Marcel grimaced, “Oh, thought we'd told him when we
visited.”
“Nope,” replied Marcel. “We kept things all sunshine.
Didn't want to add gray clouds...”
“Killed. Nasty wreck on the monorail.”
“Yeoch!” grimaced Theodore. He had liked the man as a
friend as well as a teacher. “Do they know what caused it?”
“Not sure 'bout the finals of it. Maintenance worker
messed up.”
“Found some nasty drugs in his system. Not pretty for
'im.”
“Well, thank you for
not
bringing it up when you
visited. We needed all the positive things we could get,” replied Theodore.
“Not go well 'fore we got there?”
“That's it, he
had
four girls. Something went
wrong and he was down to two...”
Theodore laughed, “No, more that there had been fifteen
people show up with intent of killing me.”
The twins nodded seriously at that. “That'd do it!” the
agreed in unison.
“All clear 'n carefree now, yes?”
“That's what they said. I'm supposed to meet Agent
Telmark tomorrow for a partial debrief.”
“Well, get the wind at your back and your head in the
game: fencing team needs you!”
Theodore laughed at Marcel's recollection of the dance
class; it
was
, in fact, about two-thirds girls, but Marcel had neglected
to mention the instructor was a Lowland Taik from the Altshea Confederation. Well,
a good choice for mixed styles compared to the masses of humans! She was a
nice enough lady in her early sixties and still had a good sparkle in her
eyes. Much to his surprise it was soon deduced that the instructor had been
the dance choreographer for Tatiana Rose, Second Mother of Meagan. That had
been some years ago!
Music theory class was going to take some work! Theodore
came in a blank on that class: what musical notation he had been exposed to
growing up was radically different than what was covered in the class. His
only saving grace was the mathematical concepts of note, tone and frequency,
the bane of the other students, easily fit to his sensibilities. It was soon
obvious he had a well-tuned ear, one very much used to a twelve semi-tone
octave. There was no small amount of amusement to the rest class as they got
to watch his fur crawl and spike when demonstrations of seventeen and nineteen
semi-tone scales were first introduced.
Theodore was tickled pink that the anatomy class was more of
a “comparative” class and the subject matter was going to span four species.
It was going to take a lot of study and brute force memorization, but at least
the subject matter was interesting. Likewise the art class was interesting but
going to require a lot of study and memorization. It was a good thing he had a
sharp memory!
There was going to have to be at
least
three hours
between his “Emergency Medicine” class and the next meal. It was a fascinating
class, and he was grateful that taking anatomy was concurrent requirement as a
lot of the terms and descriptions obviously overlapped. But from the first
day, the instructor made it clear that the class was going to be very graphic.
Suddenly bolting and running from the room was perfectly acceptable so long as
you were back inside of ten minutes, he had said. That statement had caused a
bit of mirth when first offered. By the end of the first period, however,
three of his classmates had seized on the offer. The class was quite serious,
and gross...
Much to his surprise, the fencing class was turning into a
lot of work. It was a blast, that was a given, but the new assistant coach was
awesome
both at fencing and at visualizing the fight in front of him.
He was quickly able to pick Theodore's style apart and instruct his other
sparring partners to take advantage of it. Theodore was soon having to
work
for his points and that was a rewarding experience! He hadn't had to work
that much or learn that much since sparring with his father many years ago.
When the tournament season started after the midterms, things were going to get
exciting!
Letters from the two girls as well as his parents were
frequent. Both of the girls were delighted and flattered at his choice of
school work for the semester. He was surprised and delighted to get a letter
from Anna's mother, Janice, as well. Janice's letter was warm and a joy to
read, totally devoid of any hint that there might have ever been a problem at
home. She had dozens of delightful questions of the polite ins and outs of a
Highland marriage and she had already arranged to be off an entire month around
the big day.
And then another letter arrived: one from the Federal
Police. With butterflies in his stomach, he opened the official letter. He'd
been promised a debrief earlier, but the busy schedule of the special agents
involved always had gotten that delayed. Well, it seems that delay had come to
an end! Saturday, 10:00
am
at one of the federal buildings downtown. At
least it wasn't going to interfere with classwork...
Theodore sighed as he boarded the monorail. His sigh was
quickly tempered with mild fear as he snapped around making sure his tail was
clear of the door! Oh! these human contraptions didn't have proper safeties
for people with long tails! The various train cars on the Altshea lands had
air jets on the door edges that would tickle your tail, warning you to pull it
clear. Here, not so much! Theodore laughed to himself, he was tense and it
was showing: he hadn't had a close call with his tail getting caught in a door
since the first year at school!
He quickly found himself a seat and tried to enjoy the
view. The seats weren't very comfortable, a common problem with human seating:
where to put your tail? At least the ride was free. All public transportation
on the planet was free; that put far fewer individual cars on the road than on
Anna's home planet. That was odd. Theodore had never thought of it: did Anna
consider her present planet her home world? She had been born off world after
all. He laughed to himself, in a year's time she'd probably declare that Afon
was her home world without swishing her tail... Theodore laughed at himself,
she had no tail to swish! Well, that wasn't quite true he grinned.
The monorail to the downtown area was always a rush, it
climbed more than a hundred meters into the sky. Industrial structures
dominated the lower levels while commercial and residential complexes balanced
on top. It made for a compact city and a light and almost ethereal view.
Pocket gardens and parks graced the tops of the industrial buildings that
didn't have subsequent structures and it made for a parade of green islands,
floating in space.
Sudden screams from the front of the cab caught his
attention and he sprang from his chair and ran to the front of the car. There
in the distance was another car on their same rail heading straight for them!
That was not supposed to even be possible... Someone had already hit the
emergency brake cord, but nothing happened. If anything they were actually
starting to accelerate! A hundred meters above the urban canyons and their car
was doing easily 150 km/h and heading straight into another.
Panic would have gripped him, but his father's training
had taught him far too well. This wasn't about surviving, this was about
saving people. There were other people in the car, he knew he could help some
of them, but not all. Rage washed over him as he had to
decide
who to
help. Decide who was going to live and who was probably going to die a
horrible death. He couldn't save them all, he knew that and it ached his heart
to the very core. So he went on primeval instinct: there was a young family,
on a Saturday shopping outing most likely. There were several children huddled
with their young mother. The family group had already clustered as fear of the
inevitable gripped them.
“We're leaving now,” offered Theodore as he rushed to the
small family and strained to raise his Live Steel armor around them all. With
a second flash of blue he cut a wide arc in the side of the car and dragged the
entire family out the new exit and sent them plummeting to the ground below.
He felt his armor strain to hold the group together, but with an internal fire
he'd not felt since his bow shot earlier that summer, he held fast. Held fast,
hard and long.
They clipped the edge of a building on the way down,
shattering glass and crumbling concrete as they bounced. Theodore could feel
the ground approaching more than see it, but he could also feel the movement there
below and strained further to alter their arc so as to avoid landing on
anyone. With a horrendous crash they smashed into the pavement below. The
Live Steel armor could drag its inertial frame as it needed, as a result the
otherwise fatal deceleration for those inside the cocoon was avoided. The
pavement, however, still had to soak the momentum and kinetic energy of the
family plummeting from a hundred meters overhead.
The young family looked up at Theodore in utter shock and
disbelief as he lowered his armor and helped them out of the crater he had
caused. All heads suddenly turned and watched in horror as the two train cars,
that moments earlier they had been part of, began their dance with death toward
the ground below.
Theodore growled in rage as he watched the cars fall
knowing there was nothing more he could do. Nothing but watch. No... there
might
be survivors... maybe... time to see if there was anything he could do for
those on the edge! With the family safely out of the crater and blubbering
their confused thanks behind him, Theodore ran as fast as his legs would carry
him. Those driving in the streets had all stopped as they had watched the
horrendous crash. Normally he would have been angry at the people for gawking,
but he used the stillness on the streets to cross safely.
He was soon at the wreckage and desperately started
looking for any signs of life. Fortunately, there were a few other pedestrians
who had taken to action rather than just be bystanders. With the help of
strangers, they dug through the shattered remains of the cars looking for
anyone who might have the slightest chance... The twisted debris slowed their
work. While Theodore was easily able to cut through pieces with his Live
Steel, he still needed the help of his fellow rescuers to move the heavy pieces
of twisted metal out of the way.
Screams! Screams were good, that meant there was some
life left! The desperate band moved to the source and found a lady twisted and
torn in the wreckage. She looked horrible, but her eyes showed she had refused
to give up and that was good enough for Theodore! The
primitive
emergency training from the university was going to take too long. Time to
handle things Highland style: Theodore concentrated hard for a moment and with
determination born of defying hateful death, he invoked a Live Steel blade and
ran it into the head of the wounded lady sending her into spot stasis. The
looks of his fellow workers spoke volumes. As wounded lady's body started to
shimmer blue and Theodore was able to start to pull her out
through
the
intervening twisted metal, they set aside their confusion and helped pull and
soon she was clear and carefully set clear of the debris field.
Three more were pulled from the wreckage with a
chance
of living. He dropped them all into spot stasis as they waited for help. The
rest that they had found... Theodore understood why the class back at college
had been so graphic: disasters in real life were gruesome, horrible things. It
wasn't just a simple cut of the flesh or shattered limbs. It was the chaos,
the blood, the screaming, the confusion. Those with a faint heart or weak
stomach need not try...
Theodore rode with the four people they had pulled from
the wreckage as none of the locals had any idea how to deal with the Highlands’
version of a stasis field. One by one, in the care of the trauma center
Theodore brought the crash victims out of stasis. Things were a gory mess, but
the people there were professional. Professionals at their finest.
He sat in the corner of the emergency room, shaking.
Shaking with rage and fear. Shaking from exhaustion, spot stasis was easier
than live stasis but still took its toll on him.
Live stasis!
His mind
lashed out as he thought back to watching his father and the Firemeadow ladies
perform such excellent work. If only the locals knew how to do that! But that
was all moot, he was far too tired to have held one, much less four patients in
live stasis.
The hospital staff got him a warm blanket and a large
glass of water as they moved him to the family lobby. He was pretty close to
just going to sleep on the floor when he caught the refreshing sight of friends
from the university: the d'Evelston twins.
“You look like hell,” grimaced Marcel. He nodded to
Maurice and his brother set off for another blanket and more fluid.
“Good to see you, too,” Theodore tried to laugh. “How'd
you find me?”
“The news, silly boy. Between camera's catching your
first jump and then you and the others helping in the wreckage, you're all over
the place. Crap, you look parched. Drink more!”
Theodore had never seen either of the twins serious, but
he was grateful for the friendship none-the-less. He did his best to drink
more water, but it just tasted... the whole place smelled like...
“Okay, onset of shock or just exhausted?” asked Marcel.
“Tired.... just so tired...”
“Good lad. Let's get you back!”
Marcel and Maurice started a lively exchange, but Theodore
was just too tired to pay attention. He was in autopilot... What he thought
was mere moments later, but had to be closer to a half an hour, he found
himself being half carried back to his room at the university. Sleep came soon
and long. He needed it. He hurt.