13 Degrees of Separation (14 page)

She
took another sip of coffee and then set the mug down. Did she have the right?
She was pretty sure she did but did she really?

She
didn't regret getting involved with the admiral, becoming a reserve officer.
Sure the training was a pain in the ass, it took her away from medicine, but it
gave her a sense of belonging, a sense of actually making a
difference
,
far beyond anything she had done before. Even her charity efforts paled in
comparison to what she was accomplishing now, even with the admiral gone.

She
resented his absence, but she didn't resent the man. Sure, she'd like to think
she would have handled it differently, but she hadn't been there, and besides,
she wasn't him. She was a specialist, she admitted it. Up until the admiral's
departure Thornby had kept to medicine. Since he had left she'd been forced to
take an interest in how her equipment came to her, as well as politics and the
large view.

She
frowned, remembering how it had been before Admiral Irons arrival. How she'd
had to put up with rich folks wanting to use the precious regen tanks to change
their hair, grow goatees, change their skin color, or shed a pound without
exercising, all because they overindulged. Ninety percent of it had been petty
crap, stuff that they could do in a beauty salon if they'd bothered to look
into it. All before a party. She frowned, remembering other things, darker
things. She'd eventually had enough, she'd been forced to go to the fat port
admiral, put up with his presence and use reverse psychology to get him to
limit the regen tanks usage. That of course had inhibited her use to aide
others more worthy, like Horatio when he had needed it the most.

Before
the admiral's arrival she had just had a few regen tubes to do the therapy and
only the ultra rich could afford it. Now it was a basic right of everyone in
the military and the civilians were resenting that. She was trying to keep an
open mind about opening it up to the public, but the processes still took up
her time and resources.

With
the consent of Enrique the Governor of the station and Commander Logan she now
offered free basic Ident implants for anyone at the college, and then last year
they expanded it to the entire population of Anvil. It had certainly changed
simple things like logging into places as well as more complex things like
banking.

Governor
Walker had been on her case about expanding the program system wide. She had
people coming to her now from across the system, some with legitimate needs,
since they were engineers managing equipment. Others were not so legitimate of
course, or at least not so critical. A few were again, rich people wanting to
show off a new toy, which annoyed her. Implants weren't fashion accessories, or
at least shouldn't be. The new scam was to register for a semester at the
college, get the implant, then drop out of the college. That was playing havoc
with the college attendance staff.

Spacers
who came through on ships were paying for the privilege of getting implants.
Some just wanted the basic implant, not realizing there were levels of implants
available. Some like those on Destiny had done their research, they put their
money into full implants, pushing her civilian medics as far as possible. A few
had signed on as reservists, which brought all sorts of issues into the
picture. According to Horatio one person had gotten military implants and then
had immediately resigned. Of course they weren't happy when the implants shut
down. Too bad for them.

She was
caught in a vice, she couldn't use the military technology and resources for
civilian use. However the admiral had created the resurrection project, and the
equipment would go a long way to service those ends. This offered her a way
out, or at least a polite fiction for charging the Navy if needed.

The
price however was steep, she wasn't at all certain if it was even possible to
pull off. Not completely, no way. Not even the Ynari could have done it. At
least not without cloning some human bodies, dumping the minds of the
Chimerian's into them, and then washing their hands of the entire thing and
leaving them to their own after care without support. Ynari could be shifty
like that, or so the stories went.

She
shook her head. No, that wouldn't work. The price, change the Chimera family to
human, something that tangled all sorts of ethical and legal quandaries up in
knots. She wrestled with her conscience and the Hippocratic oath. Finally she
determined that she wasn't playing god like the Ynari, she was going to correct
the damage and try to mitigate it for future generations. She would take it
step by step and try to do her best. She would have to make certain they
understood there was no quick fix. Hopefully their leader understood that.

The
doctor was appalled at how self destructive the family was. How they went to
such great lengths for beauty and cut themselves and maimed themselves, the
desperate measures they went through to change who they were. The simple things
like plastic surgery on their tails, ears, eyes, facial features, fingers,
declaw or mangle their finger tips, reform their feet... The works. What would
happen to those who's surgeries failed for whatever reason? Infection? She
shivered at the very idea. To be maimed for life? Now she understood the masks
and robes.

Hair
removal was easy, though an entire body? She didn't envy the laser surgeons who
did it. According to the journal, at one point when they had been stuck on a
planet with no laser surgeons, an entire generation had to do it by hand. The
family had been reduced to plucking each hair out with tweezers or shaving
themselves. They had even tried acids. What kind of thing would that do to a
child? Mentally scaring them and then carrying it on to the next generation and
on and on? She shuddered at such lengths they had gone through.

And for
what? Why? Was Horathian space so terrible? Apparently so, if they kept this up
for generation after generation, unwavering in this. Something external
reinforced the desire to change. She frowned and then shook her head. That was
something she'd have to ask the intel shop... if she really had the stomach to
hear the answer. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear it at this point. If this
was going on with one Neo clan, what happened to the others who flat out
refused to conform? Sometimes ignorance really was bliss.

She
realized they weren't interested in accepting it, any attempt to talk them out
of it had fallen on deaf ears. They'd heard it all before, the 'accept yourself
and how you are' speech, they tuned it out. She decided to do what she could
for them. The Chimeran family was considered obsessive compulsive and
destructive. An inferiority complex that was practically a self destructive
psychosis. They expected failure, expected to be mistreated, that bothered her
almost as much as the other mental issues. She wasn't sure if they taught it to
themselves or if they were exposed to it on various worlds and it had become
self reinforcing.

...*...*...*...*...

After going
through the journal she called Trenton back in to consult. He answered with a
video conference request.

“Trenton...
are you sure you want all of it? I think Doctor Martel and I can work around,
find a fix for your following generations but the entire package?”

"What
is the expression? Go big or go home?” he asked, smiling. He'd slowly come to
relax in her presence, even over the video conference. She'd expected his call,
dreaded it when it had come in. She still didn't have an answer for him, but
she was leaning heavily towards going for it. At the very least she could ease
their pain and give them a straight answer.

“But
still...”

“Perfection
doctor.”

She
blushed. “We humans are far from perfect you know. If I do this, I'm saying
if
,”
she emphasized, holding up a finger. “It wouldn't be because I think you are
right. It would be because I need that equipment for the greater good of many
people. It may save
billions
of lives.”

“I
see.”

“I hope
you do. We're trying to bring back the lost.”

“We are
moving to the light as well. We each do so in our own way.”

“You
aren't nearly as lost as the Ssilli are, or... you know what, never mind for
now. I wish you could see, things are different here on Anvil, and in Pyrax in
general. You could fit in without the robes or masks. I don't think anyone
would think twice about what you look like. Here it's what you can do that
matters,” she said with some authority.

“What
about Briev doctor?”

“Briev?
I heard...” She frowned ferociously. Briev was a regressed medieval cesspool,
the experience of the Destiny landing party had only confirmed it. Now the news
of it was propagating throughout the sector. Hopefully ships would stop going
there for a few decades until they cleaned up their act. “That's there, not
here, they are pretty backwards. We are different.”

“My
people have recently been looking into events in the station and the system. I
see the same thing happening here as it did in Horath and on other worlds, one
after another.”

“You're
kidding me!” she said, eyes wide. She shook her head vehemently no. “No, not
going to happen!”

“The
Neo tax doctor?” Trenton asked softly, blue eyes staring into hers.

Thornby
scowled, freezing in her tracks. The Neo tax was an ugly bit of bigotry she and
a lot of people didn't like, but it had gotten in anyway. A case of being
asleep at the switch, no one had been paying close enough attention when the
bill had been proposed and rammed through the community. But unfortunately
there had been enough pressure to get it through both houses of the newly
reformed system congress. Governor Walker had made a show of signing it into
law, stating it was 'only fair for Neo's and large aliens to pay their fair
share'. What a load of bull.

The Neo
tax doubled the life support tax on any Neo, regardless of size, and any large
bodied alien. Centaurians were a Major target there. She turned away, now
flustered, embarrassed, and upset.

She
turned back slowly, seeing sad knowing eyes staring expectantly at her. Slowly
she reluctantly nodded.

“Fine.
I'll do it. We'll get the details down. Don't expect perfection, I'm not, no
one is.”

“We
understand that. But each step in the right direction is preferable to
stagnation and devolution doctor,” Trenton replied, tucking his hands into his
sleeves in front of him.

“All
right. Definitely a change in your next generation, human or as close as we can
manage. Plastic surgery and whatever genetic changes we can manage and your
bodies can accept. We'll get down to the nitty gritty details in a bit.”

“I
thank you.”

“Normally
I wouldn't bend on this, even with that damn tax. And no, that wasn't what
persuaded me Doctor,” Thornby said.

“Oh?”

“It's
for larger causes. I'll explain some other time. For now, let's get the
bureaucrats involved and get this in writing. They'll of course tangle it into
a knot of red tape and mumbo jumbo only they can understand just to justify
their existence.”

“Of
course,” he said, smiling slightly and then signed off.

She
sighed, turning away as her monitor shut off. “What am I getting myself into,”
she murmured.

...*...*...*...*...

Doctor
Thornby assembled a staff of Anvil medical professionals as well as Trenton and
his medics the next day. Together they broke down each problem to turn the
Chimerians into humans, one step at a time. They decided to start small, with
basic plastic surgery. They would start with ears, faces, and tails. Simply
docking the ten tails and ears that hadn't already been docked would be a good
faith gesture.

The
doctor had arranged for the equipment to be stored in a nondescript warehouse
in one of the storage districts on the station. She had even arranged for
Marine protection of the precious cargo within.

“You
mean they cut their tails off?” a nurse demanded, sounding aghast.

“Some
Neo's do. They don't like having a tail, it interferes with sitting on human
style furniture. They also dock their ears doctor.”

Thornby
waved an impatient hand. “I know. And piercings, tattoos, liposuction, binding
their feet in tight fitting shoes, and such. The list goes on and on. Don't get
me started on people's concepts of beauty and how it affects their long term
health. I get that. Some human males practice things on their genitals... you
know what, never mind, off topic.”

“Yes,
just a bit doctor.”

“Piercings,
implants... oh boy. Okay,” the doctor said, brushing her hair out of her eyes.
She rubbed her bridge of her nose for a moment to collect her thoughts. Finally
she took a deep breath. “Okay, break it down by segment we said. Break it down
by existing people and future children. For children it is an easy enough fix,
find the gene sequence for tails and shut it off.”

“Will
that stop it in our children?” a female Chimerian asked.

Doctor
Martel nodded. “Yes. No more recessive trait. Removing a tail trigger is a
simple fix. You just switch it off. The tails will start to grow during
gestation, then fuse together into a stump. By the time they are born you won't
see it.”