Challenge #02251-F061: They're Best Friends
Human survives horrible maiming, torture, excessive bleeding, battle wounds like a split skull etc. and Havenworlder doctor is completely scared of a being that laughs in the face of death, is even victorious (in wiping out the enemy), and survives wounds, which should be definitely fatal. -- Anon Guest
Human Stef was leaking again. There was a ten centidu[1] gash along the exposed flesh of her arm and some of the effluvium had had time to form a flaky crust. Doctor Leez'yun shrank away the instant ze noticed. "Keep your biological pathogens to yourself!"
"Huh? Human Stef looked at her forearm. "Oh shit. When did that happen?" She dug a biotainment bandage out of her preparedness pack and added it to the injury, rubbing it over so that the heat from friction would aid in its bonding to her skin. Next, she checked on her data reader for any places on her day's path where she might have leaked onto an otherwise safe surface. "All clear. I didn't leak on anything or anyone else but me."
"A wound like that is a serious injury," lectured Dr Leez'yun. "The blood loss alone is..." ze trailed off. This was, after all, a Human. "It's hazardous to your fellow crewmates. Your blood is highly toxic and belongs inside you."
"I'll be more careful about monitoring minor injuries on board," Human Stef vowed. "And outside. And anywhere but strictly Deathworlder-only environments." It was the drone that she used, as if she was bored by the entire thing, that irritated Leez'yun.
"You Humans are more trouble than you're worth," ze growled. "Going into battle half-cocked, recklessly attacking everything that moves, leaking..."
"Hey, I make sure my implants are-- wait. No. You're talking about the cut. Right. Carry on carrying on."
"And then there's your indifference to even the most reasonable requests to keep yourself and this crew actually safe..."
Human Stef grinned. "Admit it. You actually love me."
"There is absolutely no affection here! If I could exchange you for a more cautious space marine, I'd do it in a cold second!"
That was what ze said, and ze meant it at the time. Then came the spectacular incident involving thorny underbrush, some minor-to-humans poisons, and a ravenous beast that decided Leez'yun's fellow Hyxirians were tasty.
Human Stef hadn't given a single thought to standing in its way and literally beating it into submission. Her stunner had had no effect on it, so she picked up rocks and deadfalls and literally hammered at it until everyone but herself was safe. She'd collapsed from her injuries on the way back up to the Star Sniffer, and dragged into Leez'yun's workplace feet first.
Ze had not expected to feel such a vertiginous spike of fear. Not for hirself, but for Human Stef. The bumbling, gigantic pain in Leez'yun's anatomy, the one who had made every day an exercise in exasperation. The daily source of argument, friction, and interpersonal irritation.
She may be homicidally annoying, but she is my homicidal annoyance, Leez'yun realised. Even though medicine was hir duty, and keeping Human Stef alive was hir job... none of that factored into whether or not Leez'yun worried about the seemingly suicidally insane Human.
Human Stef's own words echoed in Leez'yun's head. Admit it. You actually love me.
"Never," ze vowed in a soft whisper. "Never out loud."
[1] centidu - pronounced: SENT-ee-doo - one one-hundredth of a Standard Distance Unit, or 'Du'.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / MIRO3D]
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