8

Chapter Ten "You want me to sing…"

Djin woke up before the alarm charm. He checked the controls and found everything was working fine. There were no unknown ships in orbit or approaching the Razor Crest. He quickly performed his morning routine, removed his gloves, ate breakfast, put his helmet on and picked up the "day bag" and used the ladder to descend to the lower level.

The Child was awake, standing in the enclosed sleeping area. When he saw Djin, he reached out, making an impatient sound. Djin spoke softly, "Good Morning to you, young one. I see by your monitor that you did sleep well." Djin walked over to the Child's corner of the lower deck and put the day bag down on the low shelf. Oolie and his sons had spent much longer than the one day promised but the changes to the lower deck of the Razor Crest were practical, functional and so very useful to Djin that every morning he mentally thanked his brother and his nephews.

Djin scanned the environmental board adjusted the temperature control in the room so that the room temperature quickly rose from sleeping comfortable to daytime warmth. He returned to the Child and disengaged the controls on the sleeping compartment. It took time as there were multiple controls, both manual locks and computer-controlled fastenings. All the while he worked, the Child gestured impatiently and stamped his foot, showing clearly that Djin needed to hurry up.

As Djin worked he spoke slowly and with great patience. "You know what will happen now. First, I get you out of your night swaddle, run the hippen through the analyzer and see if your system is in balance, then you get a bath, oil, dust, and I dress you in a clean collection hippen. Then I check the analyzer for what it says. Whatever the analyzer says you need to eat; you will eat. Then you rest until you fill the collection hippen again. Then, you will be washed again, put on a fresh collection hippen and you will be dressed in your day clothing. The more you help me do these things the faster it will go and soon we can be doing tasks you will enjoy more. Do you choose to cooperate?"

The Child shook his head emphatically. Djin looked at the Child and laughed, "Just because you say No, doesn't mean it's not going to happen. Since you choose not to cooperate, I will do these things without your cooperation. And you will see, in time, that there is a time to fight and a time to cooperate. Never fight with the head of your Clan. You will lose."

The Child held out his hands and feet and indicated that Djin should remove the wrist bracelets and ankle bracelets. Djin shook his head and said out loud. "You know that the only time those bracelets come off is when you or me or the ship is threatened. It is so boring out there now we are barely using any fuel to fly."

The Child snorted and then spoke a stream of gibberish that Djin now recognized was the Child's mother-tongue language including multiple swear words. Finishing his words and stomping his foot to make his point, the Child glared at him, turned around and walked to the far edge of his sleeping compartment. He curled himself into a ball with his rolled up back facing Djin.

Djin spoke calmly, "How you act to start the day determines how long everything takes. The less time it takes to get ready for the day, the more time we have to spend together. Maybe even go for a speeder ride—the Magistrate wants more surveys done beyond the dune sea—you could come too, ride the speeder bike in front of me." The rolled-up ball was quiet and still and then, after considering the offer, the Child shook all over.

Djin shrugged his shoulders and turned to the shelf, he unpacked the day bag, there was a soft blanket which he laid out on the shelf. There was also a fresh collection hippen along with the holder that kept the hippen in place. He also took out a white, long sleeve gown, the gown being made out of softest, most absorbent bantha fur- a gift from Greta and the other ladies. He put the bag to the side, turned on the shelf light and reached forward to activate the water faucet. When the water temperature reached the set temperature, Djin turned back to the child who had rolled himself into an even tighter ball. Djin walked over to the sleeping compartment, grabbed the four corners of the blanket that was underneath the child and pulled them together, so the Child was wrapped in the bottom of the blanket. As Djin lifted the Child in the blanket an indignant squawk came from the bundle followed by even more swear words. Djin laughed out loud. "Squawk all you want, Womp Rat, this is how the day starts."

Djin put the blanket down and pushed the bundle so that the Child rolled out of the blanket. There was an indignant squawk and before the Child got to his feet, Djin had grabbed both of his arms and lifted them above the Child's head. There was a click from a locking mechanism and the arms were attached to a vertical frame. The squawk changed to anger and the Child started kicking out with his feet. Djin deftly avoided the feet and pulled up the bottom half of the frame and attached the feet to the frame with the holding mechanism clicking. The Child then howled as loud as any Mud Horn had ever howled and Djin laughed again. "I am so frightened of you, please don't hurt me!"

Djin reached for the closures on the clothing the Child was wearing. As the Child howled and swore and stomped as much as the holding mechanism let him, Djin removed the outer clothing the Child was wearing and then unfastened the holder for the hippen. This took longer then the outer clothing as the hippen was held in place with 10 separate fasteners. Finally, all the fasteners were unfastened, and the hippen was removed. Djin glanced into the hippen and was pleased and relieved to see that the garment had been used during the night. "I knew you were starting to feel better you little whomp rat". Djin removed the hippen from the fastener and opened the analyzer where he put the hippen and all of its contents inside, then pressed the sequence that started the analysis.

While waiting for the analysis to be delivered Djin removed the wash hose from the holder and turned on the water. He swung the frame the Child was held to over the sink and then used the hose to put water on every part of the Child's skin—with the Child reacting as though he were pouring lava on him. After the Child was wet, Djin took a bottle from the shelf, opened it, and applied the fluid to the Child. He then used his fingers to wash the Child, all over, including every nook and cranny a small being possessed. He was incredibly careful to avoid the Child's mouth. When he had to wash the Child's face, he pulled a mouth guard out of his sleeve and popped it into the Child's mouth and then quickly washed the Child's face, including his mouth and nose. He then used the water hose to rinse all the soap off the Child. During the rinsing, the Child managed to spit out the mouth guard which Djin picked up, rinsed off, dried, and put up his sleeve again.

Djin turned on the dry air blower and used the hose to dry the Child. When the Child was dry and glaring at him with angry eyes Djin turned his eyes to the analyzer and said, "a few more minutes, might as well get you dressed for breakfast".

"Are you now willing to cooperate?" The child turned away from him, signifying his lack of cooperation. Djin shrugged and reached to the shelf above the table and pulled down an orange bottle. He put one hand behind the Child's head and quickly insert the top of the bottle into a nostril. He squeezed the bottle first into one nostril and then the other. The Child's head jerked up after the first squeeze, and then after the squeeze into the second nostril the Child's head fell forward.

Quickly, Djin rotated the table the holding frame was on until the back of the child faced him. He removed a bottle from the top shelf, turned on the brand new-compartment ventilation system (thank you again, Oolie) and then sprayed the Child's midsection both in the back, between his legs and in the front. The liquid applied at first beaded up on the Child's skin and then slowly disappeared into the skin. When all of the liquid had disappeared, Djin took a spray nozzle from the shelf and pointed it at the Child's midsection. When he squeezed the nozzle, a fine green powder left the nozzle and adhered to the Child's skin. Again, he applied the green powder covering the same area where the light oil liquid had applied. And just as with the light oil liquid the green powder disappeared into the Child's skin. "no skin irritation for you today"

Djin swiftly unfolded and put the fresh hippen on the Child. He fastened all the fasteners, making sure when doing so that the padded straps faced the Child's delicate skin. He then took a different spray bottle from the shelf and sprayed another oil on each foot taking care when doing so that the oil was massaged between the three toes. Each foot was then covered by a thick sock that went all the way up to the outside of the Child's waist. The bottom of the sock had supports for the Child's foot, without being an actual shoe. The same routine was followed with each hand, although it was not a sock that was placed on the Child's hands, it was a mitten with almost no space between the thumb and fingers. Each mitten and sock were fastened in such a way that the Child could not remove the mittens or the socks by itself.

With both the feet and hands covered, Djin then released the Child's hands and before the Child woke up, he had slipped the white long-sleeve gown over the Child's head. The garment went all the way down to the Child's ankles and the sleeves went past the Child's hands. The Child's eyes opened as Djin released his feet. The Child blinked sleepily as Djin turned to the analyzer and read the output. He smiled at the Child and told him, "you are eating and digesting much better. And with the good sleep you enjoy, the better everything works. This is a good start to the day."

Djin crossed the Child's arms across his front and slid a small pillow under the Child's chin and another small pillow underneath his knees. He then quickly pulled the sleeves and bottom of the gown up and over the Child, tucking the ends into specially made pockets until the Child was completely swaddled, leaving only his head visible and upright due to the pillow underneath the Child's neck.

Djin opened the panel above the analyzer and found four vials there, one brown, one green, one blue milk and one thick with yellow chunks. Each syringe had a syringe plunger at one end and a small, soft plastic nipple at the other end. He expertly removed the cap from the nipple on the first Syringe and placed the nipple gently into the Child's mouth. "Ready for breakfast?" The Child shook his head "NO!" and shut his mouth and his eyes. Djin started depressing the plunger forcing a small amount of liquid into the Child's mouth.

The Child was fully awake now and tried again to turn his head away, but it was no use. Between the swaddling and not being able to use his hands and feet the Child had no choice but to drink the fluid in each syringe. Djin took great care not to push the syringe too fast or too slow but just to keep steady pressure on it. As he fed the Child the first liquid he spoke, quite conversationally, "I know this is not the way you like to eat, but it sure is better than using the tube that went down your nose." The Child's eyes widened at that and he sucked on the nipple vigorously.

To himself, Djin noted that this was the first sign of cooperation. Purma had told him that all Children get used to routine, but all children do not adjust at the same time. It was more likely than not that this Child would adjust to being fed with the syringes faster since the alternative, the nasal tube, had been so upsetting. Purma, Djin reflected ruefully, was always correct.

After the first syringe was emptied, Djin took the child, placed him over his shoulder and started patting his back. After a very satisfying burp left the Child, Djin replaced him on his lap, took the second syringe and fed the contents to the Child. This process was repeated with each of four syringes.

When the liquid in all four syringes had been consumed, and four productive burps had been generated. Djin reached into the swaddling blanket and felt the Child's midsection. His stomach was full of the liquid in the four syringes. Djin removed his hand, applied several drops of the skin oil he had previously applied to the child and then reinserted his hand and began to rub the Child's belly slowly and with barely detectable pressure.

The Child glared a death glare at Djin and Djin grinned back and said, "I know what you want, you want me to sing to you, don't you? The Child shook his head and made a disgusted face. Djin smiled and began to sing the morning song of the Mandalore, "good morning to you, good morning to you, we're all in our places, with bright shiny faces, cuz THIS IS THE WAY, to start every day, good morning to you" You want to try to sing with me.? No? That is okay, I will sing it by myself until you know the words.

As he sung, he lowered his voice and kept gently rubbing the Child's belly. Djin kept singing the song, with all the known verses, each time lowering his voice and then slowing the tempo of the song. He was rewarded with the Child shutting his eyes and his entire body going limp in his arms.

Djin slowed the rubbing of his fingers but did not stop. -Some while later he was rewarded when the sensors in the hippen sent a signal to his wrist gauntlet indicating that waste had been eliminated by the Child and deposited in the Hippen.

He held the sleeping Child close and told him what a good boy he was, and how much he was loved and that everyone was so happy that he was feeling better and he was just the best Child.

As he waited, he planned. This time, after the Child had been cleaned and another hippen had been placed on him, he would put the Child into the robe he loved to wear and remove the mittens from his hands.

As a surprise for the Child he had contacted Kara to accompany them on their survey of the other side of this planet where there were reported to be plenty of interesting plants and water to investigate, including some delicious frogs.

As he planned the day, he remembered to activate the storage drawer and remove what Greta had called a "day bag". The bag contained, Hippens, food, drink, extra socks and mittens, warm blanket, and an emergency supply of breathable atmosphere. After he had removed the day bag, he noted, with gratitude and affection that even with one day bag removed the drawer still contained at least 100 more day-bags. They were ready for this day and all the future days to come.

THIS IS THE WAY

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