Chapter 14: Unexpected Company — Part 3

Despite the enemy’s focused efforts, nobody lost their lives during the attack. The enemy had taken their own fallen comrades, leaving only biodroid remains. The Bugs made short work of the worst of the injuries, and helped Yap put herself back together again. They had expanded their search for survivors, both enemy and friendly, to the outside of the mansion. They had some concern for Alon, and posted three Bug medics with him. Being older, Alon’s injuries were more dangerous to him specifically than to the younger of the manor. He lay in bed, bandaged and weak, his eyes bright and quick despite his age and condition. When Orchid was able, she began to do a head count. Jun sat with Joanie and Bamboo. Joanie had lost an arm to an explosion meant to disable Master Blue Dragon. Master Blue, who had crawled, injured as he was, back into the Wilds when the enemy left, returned, still damaged, frothing cold plasma with the extent of his rage.

Yap was almost fully recovered, and as their patients were stable, she began to work immediately on Blue. Orchid used a microscope and very small tools to make repairs to Glyph and Spunky, both of whom were critically injured in the fight. The Bugs began sorting remains into piles based on edibility, and reconstructed the events of the attack, its intentions, and its outcome. Orchid listened absently to people talk, worrying for Nikkei, whose body had not yet been found, and to the Bugs’ random chatter on various specific strategic events. Within a few moments Spunky’s automatic repair cycle came on-line, and within a few moments more, Spunky was helping Orchid repair Glyph.

“They bombed my home, destroyed so many precious things.” Blue said, his voice bereft of hope.

“They took all our children,” Joanie began, barely able to talk through the pain, “They took my arm.”

As Jun was still too injured to move, Swift went straight to Orchid. “We found Master Nikkei. We need hume hands to help us.” Swift said.

Orchid looked up from her work, sounding a little distracted. “I will see to the mistress.” She said, rising from her work.

She followed Swift outside the mansion via the Commons’ field entrance. The field and part of the orchard had been burned during the attack, the field further trampled as troops assembled in front of the gate that had been opened to the North of the mansion. Nikkei lay trampled into the mud of a well-plowed field, barely alive. Orchid reached down carefully, pulled Nikkei from the muck, Nikkei’s bender suit giving way as the last of its energy diminished. Orchid found herself staring down momentarily at a man’s genitals, all body hair either removed by laser or perfectly plucked, or perhaps never there to begin with. Only a thick patch of public hair, shaped in the form of a triangle, remained. That hair was dyed bright purple. The triangle pointed directly to the base of the penile shaft, and Orchid had to frown slightly for a moment as years of dismissed observations rolled back into memory.

“That explains a lot.” Orchid was quick to pull the bender outfit loose so it could resume its processes as cover for Nikkei. “I know that body usually betrays gender,” she began, speaking to Swift, with the cautious choice of words reserved for speaking with Bugs, “But I must warn you and yours that Mistress Nikkei’s psychology is not betrayed by her body, and to speak of her in terms of gender, one must account for the nature of her mind, not the physiology in which that mind resides.”

Orchid, despite her recent injuries, had no problem lifting Nikkei in her arms and carrying her inside. “Yap love, please come with me.”

Yap looked up, her face blanched in fear. “I lost all hope that Yoshi had let Nikkei live.”

“He didn’t let her live, he left her to die. Yap, love, please, help me get Nikkei to her rooms. You and I have much to discuss.”