Frek and the Elixir by Rudy Rucker

Jeroon reached over to the small bowl by the fireplace and picked out a couple of the drier gobbets of meat. “These are from the Kritterworks artigrows. They’re like belly buttons, you might say, scraps of umbilical cord. NuBioCom harvests them special for us Grulloos, useful kritters that we are. And in return we give them our eggs, which just so happen to be ideal for making embryo blanks. A nice little circle there. We give ’em eggs to seed their kritters into, and they give us stim cell nuggets left over from where the kritters grow.” Jeroon brandished the two winkled nodules. “Loaded with bioactive repair cells,” he said. “Just the thing to fix your brain! Not that the counselors would have told you about them. Gov much prefers the Three R’s for troublesome lads like you. The removal, recycling, and replacement of a bad boy’s brain.” The Grulloo let out a snort of laughter.
    Frek hadn’t really been following Jeroon’s meandering discourse. But at the last words, he instantly imagined the terrible squeak-clank sound again. He lurched up onto his knees. “The Three R’s?” he choked, looking for a way out. It would be hard to make his escape with the ceiling so low.
    â€œDon’t startle up,” said Jeroon soothingly. “ No Three R’s. It’s but a foamy health-drink I’m after making you, my boy. You’ll drink, you’ll sleep, and you’ll be able to remember again. We Grulloos know firsthand about the beastly things your counselors do. Did you see the Raven when they peeked you?”
    â€œYes,” said Frek, slowly lowering back onto his cushion.
    â€œGov is kac,” said Jeroon shortly. “A bully and a coward. A parasitic worm. Don’t budge!” He scuttled into the kitchen.
    Gov is kac. Frek had never heard anyone say that before, not even Dad. It was music to his ears. The fact that Jeroon was free to say it made him feel safe. And then Jeroon was back with a mug of something lukewarm. It was cloudy, and smelled of rancid meat, and it made Frek’s lips numb, but at Jeroon’s urging he drank every bit of it down. All at once Frek could feel how tired he was from the long day. Jeroon pulled over another cushion. Frek lay down and slept right through the night.

    He was roused by something lightly jumping on his stomach, then hopping off. He heard high little voices all around him, and the burbling of a stream. Light slanted in through a round window nearby, stained green by overhanging bushes of a type Frek had never seen. The voices belonged to five Grulloos, their bodies variations on Jeroon’s, each of them with a head, a pair of legs ending in hands, and some kind of tail. They all wore colorful jackets around their middles. Two of them were quite small. Children.
    â€œHe’s awake!” shouted the littlest Grulloo, the one who’d just woken him by bouncing on his stomach. “The Nubby’s awake!” She had a sweet round face and two pink leg-arms sticking out of the side of her head. Her jacket was little more than a pink sash. The bulge at the back of her head tapered out into a little ponytail that waved about on its own. “Hi, Nubby,” she cried, hopping onto Frek’s chest again. “I’m LuHu!” Her ponytail rose into the air like an exclamation point.
    â€œRoar!” said the other young Grulloo. “Are you scared?” He had short orange hair and sharp yellow teeth. His tail resembled a tiger’s, and his jacket was striped to match. He’d been feeling Frek’s belly with one of his black-nailed hands, but when Frek moved, the little Grulloo twitched away.
    Next to him was a mermaidlike Grulloo with a scaly, silver tail and a fair, thoughtful face supported by two well-formed arms. Her jacket was of flowing, sea-green cloth. Beside her was an orchid Grulloo, a heavy-set woman with white petals upon her legs and tail.