Chapter 24
Peony
Peony jumped down, shaking her head. Her brain felt heavy – weirdly only on the left side – as though the neural upload had a physical weight.
It took a little convincing to get Scarlet to lay down next, but a few minutes later, she was also standing, speaking the new alien language.
Alanna eagerly threw herself down after that.
Then Hattie. Holly was quite reluctant to lay down last, holding Hattie and Scarlet's hands as she grimaced.
She was, ironically, the only one of them to not pass out.
By the time she was up and moving, slowly to get used to the new knowledge in her head, Peony was already feeling back to normal. She and the others were speaking in their new language – mostly just remarking on how cool it was that, so easily, they were speaking a new language.
Atem stood back, watching them get accustomed to their upload. First Healer Donivi introduced himself to them as Alanna was testing out her new language by reciting poetry in the corner that did not at all sound right in the new tongue.
“If any of you start seeing halos or auras or feeling odd, tell me,” he said. “Seizures are a rare side effect, but they need to be treated immediately.”
“This is so trippy!” Hattie cried, looking at her hands as though they had changed.
“Can you upload any information that way?” Scarlet asked, looking at the machine.
“We can,” Donivi assured her. “We use smaller ones for teaching lessons to pups. They don't need to be as big because they don't give as much information all at once as you just took.”
“And this doesn't have any long-term bad side effects?” Holly asked, leaning her head to the left, as though trying to dislodge the weird, weighted feeling.
“So long as you don't upload too much too quickly, there shouldn't be. I don't recommend any of you getting another upload for about two tendays, but after that, you will be fine. The handheld versions at home have safeguards in place so you can't upload too much.”
Atem stepped forward, pulling their attention back to him. He hadn't been far from Peony's side, and his third eye never left her, but he had been standing back, giving them room to recover and allowing them to be excited.
“It is a pleasure to finally speak to you all,” he said, looking at them each in turn. Starting with Peony and ending with Peony again. “Before anything else, is there anything any of you need urgently? Are you hurt? Ill? Anything?”
The girls all shared looks, silently passing the question back and forth. When no one said anything, Peony spoke for them all.
“We have questions, but no urgent needs right now.”
Atem grunted once. “I expect questions. And I will happily answer them all.
First, however, I wish you to allow First Healer Donivi to scan you for injury or illness.
You were imprisoned for some time, and I don't know your nutritional needs.
A scan will tell me if I need to add more to your diets or if you're carrying some kind of illness.”
The girls, and Atem, all turned to look at Peony. And her belly dropped again.
She held up her hands. “Oh, no. No way. I don't like medical exams at the best of times. I've already exhausted my quota of healers for the week just getting the upload.”
Atem frowned, clearly not happy to hear that. “It is for your own good, vi Seerin.”
“I appreciate that, and I am grateful to you for being so kind.” Peony nodded sagely. “Please appreciate that I am already itching to run away from here. One medical procedure a day is too many.”
Atem's brow furrowed as all three of his eyes focused on her. She refused to budge.
“I'll go first,” Alanna volunteered suddenly from the window. “I don't mind healers or medical procedures. Do I get on the same bed?”
First Healer Donivi motioned to it with a smile. “If you would, yes.”
Peony and Atem continued staring at each other. He closed the short distance between them, searching her face.
“You do not trust First Healer?” He asked, his voice soft.
Peony grimaced. “I don't really like healers. It's not them, it's like a phobia. You know?”
He grunted in confirmation, though he still looked confused. He understood her words, but he did not understand her reticence.
Peony bit her lip then, deciding, took in a breath.
“How about this: If any of the others come back diseased or they have parasites or something, I will happily submit myself for inspection.
If I begin to feel even a little bit off, I'll tell you immediately and let you scan me all you want.
But I don't have any medical problems and if we're nutrient deficient in anything, all of us will show it, not just me, and you can correct all our diets.”
He kept silent, still frowning.
“Please?” Peony took his hand, squeezing it gently. “Atem, I didn't even want to lay down for the upload. That alone took a lot out of me. Please don't make me do it again.”
He sighed, relenting. “Very well. I agree to your compromise. But you must tell me immediately if you feel unusual. Vas?”
“Vas! Thank you!” She jumped, throwing her arms around his neck.
He didn't hesitate to return her embrace, earning a delighted 'aw' from Hattie as she watched. Peony chuckled as she released him. He was more reluctant to let her go, but he was smiling again. He brushed the backs of his fingers across her cheek.
“Vi Seerin...”
Peony cocked her head curiously. “Some of your words aren't translating. Did we not get the full dictionary or something?”
First Healer Donivi was the one who answered, even as he was still looking at the machine as a large, slowly rotating ring with a pale, white light emitting from it ran up and down the bed, scanning Alanna.
“You got a full upload of modern Domtri.
For the next three days, any word spoken in that language will automatically translate for you.
After three days, the imprint will begin to fade and only the words you've used will you retain, so you will lose a lot of the more technical jargon and any large, esoteric words that no one uses in day-to-day conversation. After that, you will have to learn any new words the old-fashioned way.”
“Okay, but it's only been a couple hours. So, why doesn't some of it translate?”
The ring stopped spinning and First Healer Donivi answered without looking up from the display of information as it moved across the screen.
“Modern Domtri is the planetary standard. It is based on old Domtri combined with intergalactic standard – to make communicating with other species easier, of course. Old Domtri is based on ancient Domtri, which is actually four different languages each with their own regional variances. The words that aren't translating to you are ancient Domtri words that weren’t kept in modern Domtri. Ancient Domtri had a tendency to be more - er, poetic, shall we say? - than old or modern Domtri. The words vi Dominani is using have a wealth of meaning that do not translate easily so they weren’t converted to modern Domtri.
So, you will not recognize them when they are used. ”
“Oh...” Peony murmured, unsure of what else to say. That was a lot of information.
As she was digesting it, Alanna spoke-
“How's my scan? Am I healthy?” Her head tilted awkwardly up in an attempt to read the screen. Did their upload include written language?
“You are missing a few key nutrients. Nothing dire for the moment. Are your people carnivores?”
“Omnivores,” Scarlet answered, coming to stand at his side.
“Ah. I see. Alanna is missing some of the nutrients that come predominantly from meat. Are your people blood drinkers, by chance?”
“Ugh!” Came four disgusted voices.
“Hard no,” Scarlet assured him calmly.
“I see,” he chuckled at their reactions.
“Vi Dominani, I will compile a complete dietary recommendation list for them and have it sent to you by tomorrow morning so your chefs can adjust accordingly. Other than that, Alanna appears to have an old fracture to her arm, well healed, and some mild inflammation to her esophagus.”
“That's my heartburn,” Alanna laughed. “And I broke my arm falling out a tree when I was, like, six.”
“I can correct the esophageal inflammation and the weakness that allows the regurgitation of your stomach acid, if you wish.”
“Oh, go ahead. That sounds cool.” Alanna beamed, her feet wiggling excitedly.
Donivi begin tapping against the screen and, again, the ring came down around Alanna. It stopped halfway down her chest and began humming as its glow changed from pale white to a deeper, richer cream color.
“What is that doing?” Scarlet asked, clearly fascinated.
“I am adjusting her body cells to restructure and reorganize in the way I need,” he replied calmly without looking from the screen.
“The, er, heartburn, you called it? It's from a loosening of the musculature of her lower esophagus allowing acid from her stomach upwards, burning cells not meant to be exposed to the acid. I am merely encouraging her body to correct itself.”
“No surgery? No medicine? You can just... force her body to act right?”
Donivi finally looked to her, frowning. “Surgery? For something like this? Are your people really still so primitive when it comes to medicine?”
“First Healer,” Atem growled in warning as Scarlet looked a tad offended.
Donivi stood straight, focusing back on his work. “Forgive me, vi Dominani. I meant no insult.”
“What does 'vi Dominani' mean?” Peony asked, changing the subject in an effort to diffuse the sudden tension in the room.
Atem answered her, still glaring at Donivi's back, “It is my given name. The old form of it. Most people still prefer to use it over First Domini, which is my name in modern Domtri.”
“Your given name?”
“A name that I earned. As opposed to my birth name, Atem, or my clan name.”
“Okay. So, what's First Domini?”
“I believe one of the translations for it is 'grand ruler'.”
“Ruler?! Of what?” She gasped.
“Turv, of course,” he said as though that should be obvious.
“You're king of an entire planet?”
Atem gave her a searching look. “Not a king. I assist in the governing and represent my people on the universal stage. That is all.”
“Those are, like, the same thing,” she mumbled, stunned.
He gave her a look. “Is that odd to you?”
“It's not to you?”
He gestured no, waving his hand in a way that was almost dismissive, like he was banishing the words.
“When a species is presented to the Coalition, they must have a singular representative.
They don't care how that representative is chosen or what role they fill among their people, just that they act as a representative. My ancestors chose that task to fall to the dominani. Most literally translated, it means, ‘leader among the warriors’. We chose to translate it as First Domini when modern Domtri was created.”
Peony stared at him, shocked. She had gotten the general gist that he was an important person, but she hadn't even close to guessed he'd be king of a country, much less an entire planet.
As she was recovering from that info bomb, Alanna's cellular reconstruction was finished, and Hattie took her place. Scarlet was starting to ask Donivi questions as he scanned her next.
“You've the same nutritional deficiencies as Alanna,” Donivi said. “You've also got some expansion scarring to your abdomen, hips, and breasts.”
Hattie's face turned red. Peony knew without needing to look at her body that he was referring to stretch marks. Hattie was certainly the most curved of all of them and those curves didn't grow without leaving their signature.
“Would you like me to return the scars to ordinary skin?” He asked calmly as if unaware of their surprise at his addressing it that way.
“Yes, please,” Hattie squeaked, embarrassed.
But Donivi didn't seem to notice as he got to work
“So,” Peony finally turned back to Atem, now nervous. “Do I need to, like, bow to you or something?”
“Hm? Why?”
“Because you're a king?”
Atem gestured no again. “I am not a king. And bowing is not done towards First Domini. I would never lower my people like that. And none of you need ever defer to me as First Domini outside of formal occasions. And only then because it's expected.”
Peony cocked her head curiously. “Why?”
“Because you all are vora vakara. And sisters to my heart. You are my family.”
Peony's heart jumped with excitement at hearing him call her family. But-
“What does 'vora vakara' mean?”
“It's a rather complex phrase. But essentially, it translates as 'warrior in deed if not in name'.” He reached out and took her hand, lacing their fingers together and bringing it up to place the back of it against his chest, over his heart.
“It is a name of high honor, and not one frequently given.
My society values warriors highly, above all others, as we are the protectors and those willing to give our lives to keep everyone else safe.
But not everyone can be a warrior. Those who are not warriors by trade, but who perform heroic acts, can be granted the name 'vora vakara' to mark their deed. And all of you have performed a great deed for me.”
Peony's eyes widened as she realized what he was saying. They had, inadvertently, rescued a king from imprisonment. In return, he was honoring them among his people.
Holy crap, she had slept with a king!
That realization almost took her off her feet and she needed another moment.
Hattie was replaced by Scarlet on the table. While she was scanned, Hattie walked to the corner to lift her skirt so she could check her hips and belly, making a sound of delight to find her stretch marks really were gone.
Aside from the same nutritional deficiencies as the rest of them, Scarlet had no other issues. Peony wasn't surprised that the beautiful, calm, intelligent Scarlet was physically perfect as well. Some people really had all the luck.
What was surprising was that Holly needed no encouragement to get her scan done. She seemed almost eager to lay back and let Donivi work.
“Hm...” Donivi frowned at his scan. “You have a few problems, Holly. I see an autoimmune disorder, a neurotransmitter imbalance, a pulmonary malfunction, and you seem to be developing a malignant nodule in your intestines.”
Holly was not surprised, though the others all stared in shock.
“Holly, you have cancer?” Hattie blurted in loud horror.
“I guess so. I have a family history of it. Pretty strong. So, I'm not surprised I got it too,” she said weakly. “And I already know I have lupus and depression and asthma. I suppose it would be too much to ask you to fix all that?”
“Why?” Donivi asked, seemingly confused. “It will take a bit longer, and you will need yearly scans if you truly are predisposed to developing malignancies, but it's all repairable.”