Tatyana-IllnessIt had been a decent stretch between clients and jobs for me. Strange, considering my talents, but the Lielum were oddly wary of a Sinfin, and not too keen at the idea of one as a doctor. As well, all the guild jobs were taken, and I had no chance to even look through possible listings. All in all, it was starting to strain even my patience. I had disembarked because I heard of a frontier town on a planet in the early stages of being terraformed, but it had been nearly a week without anything to do, and the next ship was still two months off. My cash was running low and I was beginning to think I would have to bite the bullet and pay the rather exorbitant fee to withdraw enough cash to last me. Then, a windfall came, in the form of a Bofin woman by the name of Rosalyienn. I hadn't heard about other settlements around, though not surprising considering how friendly the locals had been. Apparently, a good number of the Lielum were actively pushing away the other settlers; mostly Bofin and a few Usajinn. They'd soon learn not to do that with an S rank Hunter/Enforcer about, but they'd not even given me the opportunity to flash my credentials. My priority now was on Rosa, however. She was one half of an Onja pair, a mental or psionic gestalting between two bofin, and her partner was pregnant. And sick, with an unknown and strange illness that herbology and psionic healing was not helping with, nor would any Lielum provide medicine or doctors. We traveled on my motorbike, Rosa had come on foot nearly ten kilometers to ask for help, and had been in town for two days before she found me. My first impression was that the Bofin had settled in a decently fertile place; Rosa explained that they had used psionics to speed up the terraforming process in the area. I added that information to my list of suspicions. The trip back was fast; little traffic and an off-road vehicle make for numerous shortcuts and fairly straightforward travel. At first, the villagers were cautious of me, but Rosa vouched for my independence from the Lielum city; I added a few disparaging comments of my own about the Lielum that Rosa had chose not to voice. With me speaking their language, and being rather frank, as well as definitely not a Lielum, they warmed up enough to explain what they knew of the illness and show me to Rosa's other half. More than she were sick, but so far, no one else was terribly ill, though no one was getting better, either. I'd not seen a sotoljga in person before, but I hid my curiosity and surprise and went to work on the pregnant quadruple amputee. My threads extended under her skin, throughout her blood vessels, probing her organs and bones, searching for what was there what should not. The sounds I made must have perturbed Rosa, for she asked what I had found. Not a damned thing. At least pathogen-wise. And nothing psionic, from their own doctors' searches. So I checked for something else. And I found it. Her immune system was slightly haywire. Hard to detect; it was actually performing its job admirably. Against itself, and her blood cells. Something set it to attack her own body, making her blood cells just off slightly. Pretty devious, and it'd be undetectable if one didn't know what to look for. I did, however. Because this was something used against my people; one of the few diseases that was found to be able to kill Sinfin. And it was engineered. I relayed what I found to Rosa and the shaman-doctor that had been taking care of Lyienn. Then I sought and hunted the virus in her marrow; finding it, I eliminated it by producing antibodies, and set her still-unaffected marrow to produce extra blood cells for a bit, just enough to get her back to normal. I'd have to stay and watch over her, to make sure it was a success, then perform the same procedure on the other sick bofin. But since antibodies were in play, they could provide full immunity to the rest of the herd through simple milk sharing. I advised the shaman-doctor to weaken the immune system of those currently infected who were showing the worst signs of aemia. My pay was dinner, and a soft bed for the night. And in the morning I was greeted with a big breakfast; Lyienn was back to normal energy levels already. I performed a follow up check, and confirmed her cells were healthy again, and that her unborn children would be perfectly fine. I spent most of the day performing check-ups and excisions of the virus, as well as patching up a few others. The Bofin were a bit surprised at my stamina, and how much longer I could work on patients than they. I offered one of my basic level books on Biomancy, and how they should at least have one shaman-doctor studied in the art, just for overlapping sake. My meals were provided all day, including snacks; during one break, I inquired about other settlements in the area, not seeing any of the Usajinn I'd heard about. There was another small town on the opposite side of the port city, and I decided to check it out. Rosalyienn and one of the shaman-doctors, Calgabre, wanted to come with. I hadn't room for them all, but the Bofin did have a cart that I could pull with my motorbike, so I also took a few surplus medical suplies. I went around the port city, instead of through, so it took us a while. I could tell something was off before we even got into hearing range, and Calgabre before then. They were nowhere near as well off as the all-Bofin village. There were a lot of sick, and all of them in poor condition. Calgabre and I started work immediately; Rosalyienn helped move those that couldn't. Scan, infuse, treat. On some I had to borrow blood from Rosa and Calgabre; I overcharged their blood production with permission. Children and pregnant women first. By the end of it, six hours had passed, and between the two of us, 200 patients. Three died; Miast, a young Usajinn girl, Lrosith, a Bofin girl, and Wonisi, an elderly Usajin male. Rosalyienn forced us to rest; Calgabre was at her limit, I was almost out of power, and we all needed to eat. I wanted so bad to continue, but relented, as I could barely channel anything else. In the three hours we rested, the elders explained. They'd felt a bad omen when the Lielum caravan came early, before the Train-ship had even left. The sickness started not soon after; many cases of anemia were being reported, and it was only being made worse by their medicines for it. I caught them off guard when I explained why. This was definitely a modified version of the plague used against the Sinfin in the early years of First Contact with the Lielum. I spent the next day repairing the damaged marrow and blood of everyone in the village; milk sharing would help reinforce resistance against reinfection. We were paid in food and shelter, as well as bits of jewelry and clothing. It wasn't even enough for half of the median rate of that many patients, but I wasn't making them pay for the cost. No, that was going to be taken out of those who were responsible. Those that now had the blood of children on their hands. As the Hound of Corners, I would bring justice. Even if it was only myself alone against an entire damned city. |