Chapter 12: Vuud With Us, Part 2

Log 152 days out

This wake up, Vuud and I were sharing breakfast: gofee and drygroots with some biteback to give it a little character. Vuud eats without complaint. He has only been aboard seven days, but he has been an invaluable worker.He not only troubleshoots and upgrades the SNS but can even invent new and powerful commands. I suppose I am being complacent in trusting him with so much but I have not felt a shadow of alarm. I also strongly sense stemshiver in Vuud.

A hairy arm appeared and reached for the gofee pot. Ronnie's familiar green cup made a gentle clack on the table. "Good morning, Ronnie!" I exclaimed.

"Good morning, Mica. Good morning Vuud is it?" the question only out of politeness.

Vuud smiled with his thin gray-brown lips and nodded that noble but vulture like head on the long neck. "Makes me happy to see you Ronnie." Vuud does not usually bother with his Thytongue translator.

Now there are three of us.

I am the only one of us who bothers with exercise.Vuudtried it once but said he couldn't see the need.Which was just as well because he smelled.

This morning I installed a pullspring in the bulkhead at the end of the passage way, I was doing tricep pushes; I knew I had adjusted the sliding clip pretty far down its track and I was watching it closely-but. As I twisted away from where it was secured stretching hard-Whack! The edge of the clip bent, flying out of the track and catching me on the side of the head.

I fell down on the deck gasping in pain. Ronnie and Vuud both rushed to where I was crouched. Vuud grabbed the bloody clip and raked it across the thin batwing skin of his arm. A round large ebony drop formed and glistened. He dabbed it up with his fingertip and applied it to my wound. The bleeding stopped and the pain started to subside right away. He gave me a grave smile. "Now we are bleeding brothers, I guess."

********

Ronnie blew on his gofee and sipped it. It always amazed me what deep appreciation he has for this humble beverage.

"Vuud, we've all lived a board Merkury together for the last couple of weeks. We've waited, but you've never told us your story---"

Vuud uncharacteristically spilled gofee from his black mug. "My story," he repeated hollowly. "You may not like hearing my story," as he mopped up the spill with an M-rag.

We stared at him levelly, waiting.

"Very well. I was born on a planet you've never been within light years of, never heard of-"

"Called ?" I wanted to know.

"Called Kinshiell. My father and mother were growers of food in those times. They were prosperous enough. They taught and loved my sister Misrudi and I. We loved them completely and learned very greatly; our parents were convinced we were prodigious.

"When we were about twelve in your reckoning, we both became very not well. We could not eat, our bodies became hot and hard and thin. We could not even hold our heads up. Our parents became terrified they might lose us. Having spent more money than they could afford and neglecting their business, they finally decided to secure for the four of us passage to a medplanet on a healthship.While we were aboard, the doctors worked with skill on Misrudi and myself. We were healed before we even landed on the medplanet, but we continued our journey for the health of the other passengers.

"Not many days from our destination, the pilots lost control of the ship." At this, Vuud lost his composure, with a sob, he dropped his head on the table and bent his arms over his neck. Ronnie touched his elbow with his rough hand while I squeezed his shoulder. Vuud finally raised his head and with determination continued his story.

"It was the hellish marauders. They silently dragged our ship of suffering ,unwell persons to Carnage. They forced us out and butchered us right there as we emerged from our healthship. Our blood flowed in the channels built into their docks."

"For some reason they kept me. I hated them even as they trained me to fight and to kill. I became an apt pupil. They also gave me engineering but especially medicine. Strange how the same people who slaughter absolutely without remorse were masters of the ability of curing.

"I learned to be a doctor as I never could have elsewhere. Not only were my classmates and I kept at our learning and practicing day and night, but we learned to heal Carnage's captives from the ends of the universe; species no one had even imagined. Carnage wanted them for some purpose.

"Though I was successful, I was lonely. I hated my masters. I would sit in class and actually be able to see the blood on the hands and wrists of my classmates. Of course it wasn't really visible, but it had been. All of them worshipped murder.

"Except one. She had no blood on her. As I carefully became acquainted with Amaline, I discovered that she, like me, was not a native of Carnage, was one of the many captives. We became lovers carefully. It was not wise to let those creatures know that you loved or cared for someone. Amaline was beautiful to my eye but especially to my soul. She was the only thing that I cared about on Carnage.

"Though I had no friends, I did have enemies. Some hated me for my success, some hated me for the disdain in which I held the material things of that place; and they without doubt felt my revulsion toward them. But I was trained and valuable to them as a healer, I also had somehow gotten the reputation of being able to sicken or kill relatives of those who tried to harm me.

"Finally a group of doctors, three of them, decided that I was not magic and in fact they would kill me and solve this problem. Strangely, before they could act, one by one their wives became terribly ill, then their siblings. They died and then the conspirators themselves died. All that were left were four children.

"And so Mica, when you arrived, I was confined to my apartment. They had discovered Amaline. They let me know that if anyone else mysteriously died, so would she. They could not touch me physically, but they could not tolerate me either. So, when you provided an exit for me, you saved them and I so hope that you saved Amaline too."

"Did you---were you the reason those people fell sick and died?"

"Mica my friend I think you ask that question out of simple curiosity. My answer is, I cannot think about that charnel house that is Carnage anymore now." Vuud looked down at his arms on the table and was silent.

# # #

We were an odd but basically happy and cooperative crew. Even so, working around each other, smelling each other not having enough to do much of the time and sharing the same tedious food can become very oppressive.

One wake up, I did my devotions and some stomach and leg exercises. Vuud had to march around and across me several times. I heard him in the galley mashing marshbugs and yellowish. He also flashed the gofee. I joined him in my sweatskin, hungry.

After draining a couple of cups, I set it down and said, "Where's Ronnie? He doesn't like to mess his gofee."

Vuud looked serious. "I believe him to be sick."

"Really! How? What makes you think so?"

"Have you noticed how quiet he's become? Also he has a tissue beginning to form around his neck like a clear necklace. I think it is asphixfilm. I've seen it before. I think he's feeling sad."

"Is it serious? Can we help? Cheer him?"

"It can be very serious. We can help him, perhaps."

"How?"

"We need to help him to have faith."