Fanfic: The Last Kidnapping, Part 15
Title: The Last Kidnapping, Part 15
Author: Joan
Length: 2620 words
Summary: Wayne is sentenced. Someone invents something just for Roxanne. (Thanks to karenbethjones for inspiring this one.)
Warnings: Nudity, genitals. This will be the last chapter about the Tseri#uu curiosity about the functioning of Roxanne's reproductive anatomy.
Links to previous chapters under the cut
Links: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8; Part 9; Part 10; Part 11; Part 12; Part 13; Part 14
Morning in Harolup High Orbit began with frolic. Officially it was an exercise period, but in practice it consisted of retracting the tables and opening the pool to whatever loud, wet, energetic activity people wanted to engage in. Megamind and Roxanne were fitted with helmets that consisted of breathing masks attached to rigid crests going up from the back of the neck up to the top of the head that looked like fins but were actually air processors that took in oxygen from the water and released carbon dioxide. In one of those, a humanoid air breather could stay under water for a little over four days before the filter needed changing. With the addition of fins on their feet, Roxanne and Megamind entered into Minion's world and had a great time there.
Breakfast was all about networking. Much more than during the previous two meals, people moved from table to table, discussing arrangements for the day's activities. The Yi[gulp]vi as well as the Opuulu swam if they had any distance to cover. Megamind, Minion and Roxanne were at the table with Tsveö and Naüÿng, just finishing up, when an elderly blue woman swam up and joined them. Her name was Ni[click] Aüvrek and, as soon as introductions were over, she had a question.
"[What were your fathers' names?]"
"[[Gulp]anen and Vrouw,]" replied Minion.
"[Knew it! My Viöreh and I served with them in the Vacuum Skirmishers. Two campaigns.]" Then she rattled off two strings of gibberish which were, Tsveö explained, the names of two asteroids that the Vacuum Skirmishers, an interstellar fighter unit in the Tseri[gulp]uu military, had fought for in Me Weä [Squish]iyey. Roxanne had read a little about the Asteroid War, in which the various peoples fought over mineral-rich asteroids in uninhabited star systems while continuing to get along peaceably in most other ways. She also knew that Megamind's and Minion's male parents (Megamind's father and Minion's cloneparent) had served in those wars in their youth, but she still tended to think of it as so far in the past that no one remembered it. To have someone turn up who not only remembered the war but had fought in it was discombobulating in a way that surprised her. (She was to realize later that she still had a notion in the back of her mind that advanced civilizations don't make war.)
"[Our fathers weren't home very often when we were little, so we really want to hear what you remember about them,]" said Minion.
"[That's why I came over. When do you have time?]"
###
After breakfast, Megamind and Roxanne watched Wayne's testimony together and recorded their reactions to it separately. (They withheld their private reactions: Megamind's disappointment that Metro Man mentioned him and Minion so seldom, Roxanne's happiness that someone, somewhere was finally getting to hear about all those things she'd agreed to keep quiet as her part of various deals to get someone to testify or to retire quietly.) Then they ate lunch and then Megamind and Minion had a conference call about setting up a brainbot body factory. Roxanne went back to sickbay and allowed Anyöp Lei to do that more thorough exam he had requested. It was very thorough and took the whole afternoon. Tsveö was there to translate and she congratulated herself that she was adapting enough that she was okay with having a sixteen-year-old boy in the room even during the gynecological and proctological parts of the exam. Then a much younger child walked in, maybe nine or ten, looking excited, holding a little circle of bright metal in one hand and a very small maroon plastic shape, like a Bing cherry-sized ball of play-dough that an adult had squished with a thumb, in the other. The collar of the child's shirt was vee-necked instead of round-necked, so this was a girl.
"[Ah, there you are, Ni[squish]n,]" said the doctor. "[This is my Yi[gulp]vi's granddaughter. She invented this for you. Hold it up close so Roxanne Ritchi can get a good look at it.]" The examining table held Roxanne in a reclining position, her upper body at a slant and her feet up level with her shoulders on supports much more comfortable than the steel ones on a gynecologist's examining table on Earth; the medical fish stood at the end of the table, almost between her feet. Now it lowered itself so that her face was level with the girl's. Her position, sprawled open like a turkey ready for stuffing, didn't bother the child a bit. She vibrated with excitement, like a puppy who wants to make friends. The ring was the outer edge of a clear, flat disc, the rest of which was almost invisible, like the skin of a soap bubble.
"[I call it the] super-tampon," said Ni[squish]n. She handed Roxanne the maroon thing, then took the water-dispensing hose from the side of the examining table, held the ring flat and began to drip water onto it. "[You put it on your cervix.]" The clear portion bulged downward, containing the water, until it held maybe a quarter-cup. "[It catches whatever comes out of your uterus.]" The little maroon thing played three humming musical notes and vibrated. "[That means it's full.]" She put the hose back. "[Then when you sit on the toilet, you press it and it releases.]" She glanced at the maroon thing. Realizing that it was a remote, Roxanne pressed the indentation. The bottom of the bulge became longer and narrower until it was funnel-shaped. The water ran out of the tip onto the drain in the floor.
"Wow," said Roxanne, and then remembered to speak in Tseri[gulp]uu. "[This really is an advanced civilization.]"
The girl beamed. The membrane of the super-tampon shrank as it emptied until it was once again flat inside the ring. A droplet of water hung from underneath it, apparently left behind when the hole closed. She shook it off and handed it to Roxanne. The table began to rise under her.
"[Now, Roxanne Ritchi, I'd like you to put it on immediately,]" said the doctor. "[We'll check to make sure it's correctly placed and you can take it with you."]
She held it in the fingers of one hand for a moment, working out the logistics, while young Ni[squish]n climbed up the mechanical suit and clung to its back, looking over the metal shoulder with unchanged eagerness. The table stopped where it had been when the child came in, the top about level with the suit's elbows.
Tsveö did not join them. Instead, he moved away from them, up along the side of the table, and put his hand on Roxanne's shoulder with a look of concern on his young blue face.
"Is this hard for you?" he asked in English. Delighted that someone in this strange culture understood what she was going through, she gave him a warm smile.
"I'll be all right," she said. "Thanks for asking." Fortified by his sympathy, she leaned forward just enough to slip the little thing inside herself while two pairs of alien eyes watched with undivided attention. Good thing I'm stretched out more than I used to be. This would be a lot harder if I could only get two fingers in. The device went into place pretty easily. Anyöp Lei handed her the electronic speculum, which was a small dildo-like shape with a handle at one end and an array of tiny lights and cameras at the other. She'd already used it once. As soon as she touched it to her opening, a hologram appeared to her left showing her vaginal tissues, eight times life size. She pushed it in until the hologram showed a good view of her cervix with the super-tampon on it, the ring a shiny line that fit perfectly around it.
"[Perfect,]" said Ni[squish]n.
"[Looks like it's in its correct place.]" said the doctor. "[Why don't you leave it in until tomorrow morning? Then take it out, clean it and let us know how it suits you.]"
###
"That kid did not invent that membrane," said Minion.
At dinner, Roxanne had asked Megamind and Minion to explain how the super-tampon worked in English so she'd be sure of understanding it. Megamind had asked Tsveö and Naüÿng how to translate certain concepts in Tseri[gulp]uu science and the three had been in intense discussion ever since. Meanwhile, Minion was explaining it in terms of his own experience.
"Before the boss built my first suit, I lived in a globe of that same membrane, ever since we left Lup. It takes in oxygen from the air, puts out carbon dioxide and it responds to certain frequencies of radio signals, so I could roll the globe in any direction. I could also open it to take something in or get rid of something. In a pinch, I could break it open completely and at the same time use my swim bladder and my tail to get some lift and kind of launch myself through the air for a few feet. Even if I didn't get close enough to bite the guy the boss was fighting, which was the only reason I ever did that, it generally distracted the guy enough so the boss could get in the winning punch or kick or whatever. Then he'd put the membrane and me in water and I could signal the membrane to wrap itself around me in its globe shape, seal itself up and I'd be back to normal. What that new device of yours does is pretty simple by comparison. The big accomplishment is the ring. It's gotta fit so perfectly that it doesn't bother you and it never comes off by accident, and the only way to --"
"I'm sorry, Roxanne," her husband broke in, "but there's no way to explain this in terms of the human understanding of physics and chemistry. You'll have to learn the Tseri[gulp]uu version, and that's not something that can be accomplished over dinner."
"Then we should start soon," she replied. "I mean, this is something everyone knows here, right? It's as basic as the language."
"It's deeply part of our language," said Naüÿng. "There are common metaphors you'll never really understand until --" He broke off. "Looks like we've got company."
A large brown and green shape approaching them underwater broke the surface as it came up to the table, revealing itself to be Sa[squish]ikwuë Nawa. Roxanne hadn't seen the Commander in person before; she hadn't realized how big he was. Next to him, Minion and Naüÿng looked about the size of that six-month-old they had met the previous evening.
"[Greetings, everyone, and especially Roxanne Ritchi, whom I am pleased to meet for the first time.]"
He paused to let everyone reply, then continued.
"[I believe we have come to an optimal decision. Wrist unit, display my most recent map.]"
###
If Wayne Scott had been aware of the conversation that followed and had known, not just that he was allowed to watch it, but also that he would be provided with captions in English if he asked for them, he might have learned of his fate right then and there, but he didn't. He spent the time looking at the map on which the Commander's was based, the map of current Tseri[gulp]uu use of Harolup's resources. He had offered to contribute to the colonization effort, so he figured he'd better know something about it. He did discover that the screen would give him a close look at whatever map feature he asked for and was doing some serious virtual exploring when the two all-two-familiar piscene faces came on.
"Wayne Scott, your sentence has been determined. Since you have asked for knowledge of your people, you shall do the work your ancestors did: mining. The three thousand one hundred twenty-four cyborg cores that came with you on the Adventure are going to need bodies. You will assemble, first, the materials needed to build a factory to build those bodies, then the materials out of which the bodies will be built. After that, you will be trained to work in space and you will build a small starship of the sort that can keep a single person alive for the journey to Imbarnan and back, starting from mining asteroids for the materials. If you manage to avoid killing yourself through carelessness, you will be trained to pilot it and allowed to go to Imbarnan. We estimate that the completion of this sentence will take about five years." Wayne wanted to thank it, but it kept talking. "Tomorrow morning a shuttle will depart for First Seed. You will be provided with respiration gear and will follow it down. You will not be allowed to enter either the shuttle or Harolup High Orbit. On the surface, you will rendezvous with your translator and be introduced to the community. In the meantime, it is recommended that you get a good night's sleep."
The two Opuulu vanished before he could respond. Their faces were replaced by a far more familiar one, which he had longed for and at the same time dreaded facing.
"Roxie."
"Hey, Wayne." She was smiling, a sad smile, as if she wished they could be meeting under better circumstances.
"Can you forgive me? And accept my thanks for pulling my chestnuts out of the fire and saving all our lives?"
"Of course." She sighed. "If I'd been able to reach you right after we found out you were on the Adventure, I'd have broken something over your head, but that already seems like a long time ago. This is a small colony and we're going to be seeing a lot of each other, so we'd better get along. Besides," her smile widened, "it's good to see a friendly face from home. Listen, I want to introduce you to someone." She turned to her right and the camera panned out and left to show an Opuulu in a plain metal suit. "This is Ivri[click] Naüÿng. Ivri[click] is the family name and Naüÿng is his personal name. He's coming down on the shuttle with us and he's going to be your translator."
"Um, hi." Naüÿng was clearly nervous.
"Hey, Nayung. Can I call you Nayung? Call me Wayne."
"Hi, Wayne. Yeah, sure, Nayung is close enough."
"Great. I look forward to working with you." He wasn't sure he did. His previous experiences with Opuulu had led him to prefer an Yi#vi over an Opuulu translator, but that wasn't this guy's fault, and he wasn't in any position to be choosy. "Roxie, did you say we? You're coming to the surface, too?"
"Yeah. We've all got our job assignments. Megamind and Minion are officially the brainbot managers. Brace yourself. They're going to be your bosses. I'm going to be doing field research, observing nature. These people may not have any secrets, but the planet still has plenty."
"Even here you managed to find something to investigate. You know who to call if you get into trouble, right?"
Author: Joan
Length: 2620 words
Summary: Wayne is sentenced. Someone invents something just for Roxanne. (Thanks to karenbethjones for inspiring this one.)
Warnings: Nudity, genitals. This will be the last chapter about the Tseri#uu curiosity about the functioning of Roxanne's reproductive anatomy.
Links to previous chapters under the cut
Links: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8; Part 9; Part 10; Part 11; Part 12; Part 13; Part 14
Morning in Harolup High Orbit began with frolic. Officially it was an exercise period, but in practice it consisted of retracting the tables and opening the pool to whatever loud, wet, energetic activity people wanted to engage in. Megamind and Roxanne were fitted with helmets that consisted of breathing masks attached to rigid crests going up from the back of the neck up to the top of the head that looked like fins but were actually air processors that took in oxygen from the water and released carbon dioxide. In one of those, a humanoid air breather could stay under water for a little over four days before the filter needed changing. With the addition of fins on their feet, Roxanne and Megamind entered into Minion's world and had a great time there.
Breakfast was all about networking. Much more than during the previous two meals, people moved from table to table, discussing arrangements for the day's activities. The Yi[gulp]vi as well as the Opuulu swam if they had any distance to cover. Megamind, Minion and Roxanne were at the table with Tsveö and Naüÿng, just finishing up, when an elderly blue woman swam up and joined them. Her name was Ni[click] Aüvrek and, as soon as introductions were over, she had a question.
"[What were your fathers' names?]"
"[[Gulp]anen and Vrouw,]" replied Minion.
"[Knew it! My Viöreh and I served with them in the Vacuum Skirmishers. Two campaigns.]" Then she rattled off two strings of gibberish which were, Tsveö explained, the names of two asteroids that the Vacuum Skirmishers, an interstellar fighter unit in the Tseri[gulp]uu military, had fought for in Me Weä [Squish]iyey. Roxanne had read a little about the Asteroid War, in which the various peoples fought over mineral-rich asteroids in uninhabited star systems while continuing to get along peaceably in most other ways. She also knew that Megamind's and Minion's male parents (Megamind's father and Minion's cloneparent) had served in those wars in their youth, but she still tended to think of it as so far in the past that no one remembered it. To have someone turn up who not only remembered the war but had fought in it was discombobulating in a way that surprised her. (She was to realize later that she still had a notion in the back of her mind that advanced civilizations don't make war.)
"[Our fathers weren't home very often when we were little, so we really want to hear what you remember about them,]" said Minion.
"[That's why I came over. When do you have time?]"
###
After breakfast, Megamind and Roxanne watched Wayne's testimony together and recorded their reactions to it separately. (They withheld their private reactions: Megamind's disappointment that Metro Man mentioned him and Minion so seldom, Roxanne's happiness that someone, somewhere was finally getting to hear about all those things she'd agreed to keep quiet as her part of various deals to get someone to testify or to retire quietly.) Then they ate lunch and then Megamind and Minion had a conference call about setting up a brainbot body factory. Roxanne went back to sickbay and allowed Anyöp Lei to do that more thorough exam he had requested. It was very thorough and took the whole afternoon. Tsveö was there to translate and she congratulated herself that she was adapting enough that she was okay with having a sixteen-year-old boy in the room even during the gynecological and proctological parts of the exam. Then a much younger child walked in, maybe nine or ten, looking excited, holding a little circle of bright metal in one hand and a very small maroon plastic shape, like a Bing cherry-sized ball of play-dough that an adult had squished with a thumb, in the other. The collar of the child's shirt was vee-necked instead of round-necked, so this was a girl.
"[Ah, there you are, Ni[squish]n,]" said the doctor. "[This is my Yi[gulp]vi's granddaughter. She invented this for you. Hold it up close so Roxanne Ritchi can get a good look at it.]" The examining table held Roxanne in a reclining position, her upper body at a slant and her feet up level with her shoulders on supports much more comfortable than the steel ones on a gynecologist's examining table on Earth; the medical fish stood at the end of the table, almost between her feet. Now it lowered itself so that her face was level with the girl's. Her position, sprawled open like a turkey ready for stuffing, didn't bother the child a bit. She vibrated with excitement, like a puppy who wants to make friends. The ring was the outer edge of a clear, flat disc, the rest of which was almost invisible, like the skin of a soap bubble.
"[I call it the] super-tampon," said Ni[squish]n. She handed Roxanne the maroon thing, then took the water-dispensing hose from the side of the examining table, held the ring flat and began to drip water onto it. "[You put it on your cervix.]" The clear portion bulged downward, containing the water, until it held maybe a quarter-cup. "[It catches whatever comes out of your uterus.]" The little maroon thing played three humming musical notes and vibrated. "[That means it's full.]" She put the hose back. "[Then when you sit on the toilet, you press it and it releases.]" She glanced at the maroon thing. Realizing that it was a remote, Roxanne pressed the indentation. The bottom of the bulge became longer and narrower until it was funnel-shaped. The water ran out of the tip onto the drain in the floor.
"Wow," said Roxanne, and then remembered to speak in Tseri[gulp]uu. "[This really is an advanced civilization.]"
The girl beamed. The membrane of the super-tampon shrank as it emptied until it was once again flat inside the ring. A droplet of water hung from underneath it, apparently left behind when the hole closed. She shook it off and handed it to Roxanne. The table began to rise under her.
"[Now, Roxanne Ritchi, I'd like you to put it on immediately,]" said the doctor. "[We'll check to make sure it's correctly placed and you can take it with you."]
She held it in the fingers of one hand for a moment, working out the logistics, while young Ni[squish]n climbed up the mechanical suit and clung to its back, looking over the metal shoulder with unchanged eagerness. The table stopped where it had been when the child came in, the top about level with the suit's elbows.
Tsveö did not join them. Instead, he moved away from them, up along the side of the table, and put his hand on Roxanne's shoulder with a look of concern on his young blue face.
"Is this hard for you?" he asked in English. Delighted that someone in this strange culture understood what she was going through, she gave him a warm smile.
"I'll be all right," she said. "Thanks for asking." Fortified by his sympathy, she leaned forward just enough to slip the little thing inside herself while two pairs of alien eyes watched with undivided attention. Good thing I'm stretched out more than I used to be. This would be a lot harder if I could only get two fingers in. The device went into place pretty easily. Anyöp Lei handed her the electronic speculum, which was a small dildo-like shape with a handle at one end and an array of tiny lights and cameras at the other. She'd already used it once. As soon as she touched it to her opening, a hologram appeared to her left showing her vaginal tissues, eight times life size. She pushed it in until the hologram showed a good view of her cervix with the super-tampon on it, the ring a shiny line that fit perfectly around it.
"[Perfect,]" said Ni[squish]n.
"[Looks like it's in its correct place.]" said the doctor. "[Why don't you leave it in until tomorrow morning? Then take it out, clean it and let us know how it suits you.]"
###
"That kid did not invent that membrane," said Minion.
At dinner, Roxanne had asked Megamind and Minion to explain how the super-tampon worked in English so she'd be sure of understanding it. Megamind had asked Tsveö and Naüÿng how to translate certain concepts in Tseri[gulp]uu science and the three had been in intense discussion ever since. Meanwhile, Minion was explaining it in terms of his own experience.
"Before the boss built my first suit, I lived in a globe of that same membrane, ever since we left Lup. It takes in oxygen from the air, puts out carbon dioxide and it responds to certain frequencies of radio signals, so I could roll the globe in any direction. I could also open it to take something in or get rid of something. In a pinch, I could break it open completely and at the same time use my swim bladder and my tail to get some lift and kind of launch myself through the air for a few feet. Even if I didn't get close enough to bite the guy the boss was fighting, which was the only reason I ever did that, it generally distracted the guy enough so the boss could get in the winning punch or kick or whatever. Then he'd put the membrane and me in water and I could signal the membrane to wrap itself around me in its globe shape, seal itself up and I'd be back to normal. What that new device of yours does is pretty simple by comparison. The big accomplishment is the ring. It's gotta fit so perfectly that it doesn't bother you and it never comes off by accident, and the only way to --"
"I'm sorry, Roxanne," her husband broke in, "but there's no way to explain this in terms of the human understanding of physics and chemistry. You'll have to learn the Tseri[gulp]uu version, and that's not something that can be accomplished over dinner."
"Then we should start soon," she replied. "I mean, this is something everyone knows here, right? It's as basic as the language."
"It's deeply part of our language," said Naüÿng. "There are common metaphors you'll never really understand until --" He broke off. "Looks like we've got company."
A large brown and green shape approaching them underwater broke the surface as it came up to the table, revealing itself to be Sa[squish]ikwuë Nawa. Roxanne hadn't seen the Commander in person before; she hadn't realized how big he was. Next to him, Minion and Naüÿng looked about the size of that six-month-old they had met the previous evening.
"[Greetings, everyone, and especially Roxanne Ritchi, whom I am pleased to meet for the first time.]"
He paused to let everyone reply, then continued.
"[I believe we have come to an optimal decision. Wrist unit, display my most recent map.]"
###
If Wayne Scott had been aware of the conversation that followed and had known, not just that he was allowed to watch it, but also that he would be provided with captions in English if he asked for them, he might have learned of his fate right then and there, but he didn't. He spent the time looking at the map on which the Commander's was based, the map of current Tseri[gulp]uu use of Harolup's resources. He had offered to contribute to the colonization effort, so he figured he'd better know something about it. He did discover that the screen would give him a close look at whatever map feature he asked for and was doing some serious virtual exploring when the two all-two-familiar piscene faces came on.
"Wayne Scott, your sentence has been determined. Since you have asked for knowledge of your people, you shall do the work your ancestors did: mining. The three thousand one hundred twenty-four cyborg cores that came with you on the Adventure are going to need bodies. You will assemble, first, the materials needed to build a factory to build those bodies, then the materials out of which the bodies will be built. After that, you will be trained to work in space and you will build a small starship of the sort that can keep a single person alive for the journey to Imbarnan and back, starting from mining asteroids for the materials. If you manage to avoid killing yourself through carelessness, you will be trained to pilot it and allowed to go to Imbarnan. We estimate that the completion of this sentence will take about five years." Wayne wanted to thank it, but it kept talking. "Tomorrow morning a shuttle will depart for First Seed. You will be provided with respiration gear and will follow it down. You will not be allowed to enter either the shuttle or Harolup High Orbit. On the surface, you will rendezvous with your translator and be introduced to the community. In the meantime, it is recommended that you get a good night's sleep."
The two Opuulu vanished before he could respond. Their faces were replaced by a far more familiar one, which he had longed for and at the same time dreaded facing.
"Roxie."
"Hey, Wayne." She was smiling, a sad smile, as if she wished they could be meeting under better circumstances.
"Can you forgive me? And accept my thanks for pulling my chestnuts out of the fire and saving all our lives?"
"Of course." She sighed. "If I'd been able to reach you right after we found out you were on the Adventure, I'd have broken something over your head, but that already seems like a long time ago. This is a small colony and we're going to be seeing a lot of each other, so we'd better get along. Besides," her smile widened, "it's good to see a friendly face from home. Listen, I want to introduce you to someone." She turned to her right and the camera panned out and left to show an Opuulu in a plain metal suit. "This is Ivri[click] Naüÿng. Ivri[click] is the family name and Naüÿng is his personal name. He's coming down on the shuttle with us and he's going to be your translator."
"Um, hi." Naüÿng was clearly nervous.
"Hey, Nayung. Can I call you Nayung? Call me Wayne."
"Hi, Wayne. Yeah, sure, Nayung is close enough."
"Great. I look forward to working with you." He wasn't sure he did. His previous experiences with Opuulu had led him to prefer an Yi#vi over an Opuulu translator, but that wasn't this guy's fault, and he wasn't in any position to be choosy. "Roxie, did you say we? You're coming to the surface, too?"
"Yeah. We've all got our job assignments. Megamind and Minion are officially the brainbot managers. Brace yourself. They're going to be your bosses. I'm going to be doing field research, observing nature. These people may not have any secrets, but the planet still has plenty."
"Even here you managed to find something to investigate. You know who to call if you get into trouble, right?"