easy to fawn and cringe before Tutor Chonis, though it had to be done. Tutor Chonis didn’t like her. His charge to Koscuisko had been double-edged, she realized — on the one hand giving her fellow Student his orders but, on the other hand, providing yet another reminder that she had no special medical education. She was ignorant of all but the practical basics of field medicine, and her fellow Student was a neurosurgeon qualified across eighteen of the thirty-seven hominid species and the obligatory exemplar from each of the non-hominid classes of intelligent species with a secondary qualification in the biochemical applications of psychopharmacology, which she wasn’t prepared to swear she could so much as spell correctly. She had no right to be here, as far as Tutor Chonis was concerned. No one would be there to intercede if she should fail, to stand between her and the humiliated wrath of her Patron.
Tutor Chonis’s little smile, half-hid beneath his neatly trimmed mustache, was as hateful to her as his tone of voice had been. “That’s up to you, Student Noycannir, of course.” Tutor Chonis would just as soon leave her out of it. That was the principal reason she would insist on participation, just to be sure that no negative comment went unchallenged. “Report tomorrow morning, and we’ll review your progress to date. All right?”
Fleet wanted her to fail because Fleet’s vested interest was in retaining sole control over the Writ. Fleet was waiting for her to fail. Fleet would be happy to throw her to one of her own fellow Students for the Tenth-Level Command Termination just to express its resentment of First Secretary Verlaine’s power play.
Half-sensing Koscuisko’s sympathetic gaze, she stood, determined to exit with what dignity she had. Koscuisko’s sympathy was intolerably patronizing. He disgusted her, him from his privileged background, money, rank, everything. She was ten times as good as Andrej Koscuisko, Bench medical certifications or no. She had worked for everything she had attained. Nobody had ever dropped an appointment in her lap.
“Very good, Tutor Chonis. Are we dismissed?”
The Tutor waved his hand, still smiling. Mergau bowed stiffly and left the room, struggling to contain the frustration, the fury, the fear that seethed within her.
She would be damned before she would give up her purpose.
Because she would unquestionably be damned if she should fail in it.
###
The serious concerns in life, Andrej felt, could best be pondered in one place and one place alone. One could think in one of the pathetically generic chapels that Jurisdiction Fleet provided for the spiritual welfare of its members under arms; but in chapel, one was expected to be silent, if not reverent, and Andrej had always done what he considered to be his very best thinking out loud.
Sitting on the slatted bench in the sauna that Joslire had located for him, Andrej took a deep breath of the hot, wet air and sighed with the satisfaction of it, coughing slightly as the thick heat caught in his throat. The heavy warmth was relaxing from the inside out. Just what the doctor ordered, he told himself dreamily. And I am the doctor, so I know.
Joslire had posted himself by the door, but whether it was to control access or simply to be closer to a patch of cooler air, Andrej couldn’t tell. The man’s posture was as correct as ever it was, regardless of the fact that he was half-naked; there was something a little unusual about Joslire’s state of undress, what was it?
“Joslire, will you come here for a moment, please?”
Joslire had folded his uniform for him and stowed his clothing carefully away before Joslire had even started to undress, and Andrej had been halfway into the sauna by that time. Obedient to his word, now, Joslire came to stand at attention on the wooden grating that covered the heated floor. Leather straps, that was what it was. Leather straps across Joslire’s narrow slanted shoulders,
Tutor Chonis’s little smile, half-hid beneath his neatly trimmed mustache, was as hateful to her as his tone of voice had been. “That’s up to you, Student Noycannir, of course.” Tutor Chonis would just as soon leave her out of it. That was the principal reason she would insist on participation, just to be sure that no negative comment went unchallenged. “Report tomorrow morning, and we’ll review your progress to date. All right?”
Fleet wanted her to fail because Fleet’s vested interest was in retaining sole control over the Writ. Fleet was waiting for her to fail. Fleet would be happy to throw her to one of her own fellow Students for the Tenth-Level Command Termination just to express its resentment of First Secretary Verlaine’s power play.
Half-sensing Koscuisko’s sympathetic gaze, she stood, determined to exit with what dignity she had. Koscuisko’s sympathy was intolerably patronizing. He disgusted her, him from his privileged background, money, rank, everything. She was ten times as good as Andrej Koscuisko, Bench medical certifications or no. She had worked for everything she had attained. Nobody had ever dropped an appointment in her lap.
“Very good, Tutor Chonis. Are we dismissed?”
The Tutor waved his hand, still smiling. Mergau bowed stiffly and left the room, struggling to contain the frustration, the fury, the fear that seethed within her.
She would be damned before she would give up her purpose.
Because she would unquestionably be damned if she should fail in it.
###
The serious concerns in life, Andrej felt, could best be pondered in one place and one place alone. One could think in one of the pathetically generic chapels that Jurisdiction Fleet provided for the spiritual welfare of its members under arms; but in chapel, one was expected to be silent, if not reverent, and Andrej had always done what he considered to be his very best thinking out loud.
Sitting on the slatted bench in the sauna that Joslire had located for him, Andrej took a deep breath of the hot, wet air and sighed with the satisfaction of it, coughing slightly as the thick heat caught in his throat. The heavy warmth was relaxing from the inside out. Just what the doctor ordered, he told himself dreamily. And I am the doctor, so I know.
Joslire had posted himself by the door, but whether it was to control access or simply to be closer to a patch of cooler air, Andrej couldn’t tell. The man’s posture was as correct as ever it was, regardless of the fact that he was half-naked; there was something a little unusual about Joslire’s state of undress, what was it?
“Joslire, will you come here for a moment, please?”
Joslire had folded his uniform for him and stowed his clothing carefully away before Joslire had even started to undress, and Andrej had been halfway into the sauna by that time. Obedient to his word, now, Joslire came to stand at attention on the wooden grating that covered the heated floor. Leather straps, that was what it was. Leather straps across Joslire’s narrow slanted shoulders,
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