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Ic'jit - bad blood
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"We need to stop?" Miana sat in the co-pilot's chair, Beanie loyally at her feet.
"Sei-i. There is a supposed ic'jit nearby." Abba set their course to a planet that didn't look inhabitable.
"Is that even inhabitable?"
"H'ko." Abba scooted back and stood, confusing his human charge. "You try." He waved her over to the pilot chair.
She never really practiced around him, but he knew she studied her tablet a lot and matched the controls with each maneuver.
Miana slowly toed her way over to the enormous chair and sat down. Abba stood right behind her, gripping the back of the chair to keep balance as he turned off the autopilot and let her gain control.
The ship continued to use its thrusters and stay upright. Several protocols remained active to help the pilot during semi-manual control. Basic stuff.
Abba let her play with the controls a bit and get a feel for the ship's flexibility and heaviness. Then, he instructed her to gently push on the u-shaped wheel to send the ship forward.
As they neared the planet, gravity began to pull on the ship, increasing their speed as they descended.
"Uh… Abba…" He didn't seem worried as they entered the atmosphere.
"Pull up a little." He reached forward, guiding her hands to steadily pull on the ship, thrusters working hard to slow them down.
Abba spread his feet apart to keep his balance as the ship shook around them. Beanie whined from his spot on the floor, hunkered down lest he goes flying about.
Miana let go of the wheel and let Abba take full control. The ship did its best to assist him in landing, but it still was a bit rough. Way worse than how Abba usually landed.
"Sorry…"
He scoffed, "I should have told you to pull back sooner."
"So I got to stay here?"
"It would be wise. Not much to see outside, but…" He grabbed her gauntlet and showed her how to manage her net settings. "You could hang around the ship. Make sure you keep cool and have your mask for air. Leave Beanie inside."
Outside held toxins and plain dirt. Its temperatures were scolding and for Miana, the netting would only manage for a short period of time. Enough to check out some of the rocks nearby. Not much else to explore.
Abba headed out, cloaked. She didn't even see the direction he traveled.
Miana waited a bit before heading out herself. She didn't know if she could, but she collected a few samples of the rocks, making sure they were critter-free. Despite her netting keeping her cool, the sun still scorched her skin and she wondered how Abba would fair.
Of course, their homeworld reached temperatures just below this. However, it also had a better atmosphere and flora and fauna both thrived under those conditions.
Miana highly doubted anything thrived here. It didn't even have water, one of the four essentials for all life.
Unable to stand the heat and her skin beginning to turn red, she headed back for the ship and quickly sat under the air vent in the kitchen. She would have grabbed water, but she made her mad dash to the vent her priority. She'd get up in a moment.
She did fetch some water after time had passed. Hands shaking, she filled the glass and downed it, grabbing another before heading to her room. She changed her clothes into a tank top and loose shorts, needing to get out of the netting as fast as possible. It hurt her skin.
While up, she also changed the overall temperature of the ship. It felt so hot.
Miana settled herself next to Beanie in the kitchen. She positioned a single fur pelt beneath them and let the vent help cool her down. The cool stream of air chilled her skin, but she stretched herself out and napped.
Waking a few hours later, she headed to her bathroom for a quick potty break. There, as she walked past the mirror, she saw just how red her skin was. From head to toe, she began to resemble the first makings of a tomato.
Twisting herself back and forth, she could see the forming of a blister on her back. Grossly becoming large and too disgusting to stare at, Miana turned her attention to relieving herself.
She removed her bra as carefully as she could, gasping in pain as it scrapped across her skin. Her top didn't hurt her near as bad.
She gave herself a once over, looking for any more blisters. Thankfully, there looked to be only one, but her skin had only gotten redder.
The mini-clinic would have been helpful except there were no instructions on how to work any of the machinery or what gels and herbs would help her burn. Most of the jars were unlabeled or had some kind of symbol which didn't match what her tablet told her.
Miana paced in the control room for a while. She wanted to call Abba back. She knew what sun blisters were but had no idea how to treat them on the ship. Her stuff had small science kits she bought out of boredom while on the run. Nothing for sun blisters.
Getting dizzy, she returned to the kitchen for more water.
Night didn't seem to be a thing for this planet or she completely missed its entire night cycle while she slept. Either way, Miana checked and Abba had yet to return but the sun continued to blaze the planet. Beanie followed her around, tail wagging when she checked every single room in the ship.
"Beanie… this is bad." Miana returned to her room, finding her blister had only doubled in size and looked like a balloon needing to be popped.
White, thick scabs covered portions of her back. Her skin had yet to return to normal and retained its inflaming red appearance.
Biting her lip to keep from whimpering at the sight, Miana headed back to the medicinal cabinet in search of something to relieve her pain. She still couldn't manage to figure out what would be useful to her and ease her pain.
Everything had been labeled differently compared to what the tablet said it should be. Some not labeled at all and Miana stomped her foot in a moment of utter childish frustration. As if the labels would have changed in the course of a few hours… she knew this already.
She shivered, setting the ship's temperature back to the default and returned to the kitchen for water.
A few, long hours later, Miana heard the ship ramp open and then close with a shutter.
Standing, she ran to find Abba returning, his trophy and proof of bounty away in a bag. He stopped dead in his tracks upon seeing her blistering skin and cocked his head in confusion.
"I wasn't out there for more than ten minutes, I swear!" Tears dotted her vision and she pathetically stared up at him. He clicked, gently setting down the bag and approached her, only to stop as she showed him her back. "It hurts. Like really hurts."
Abba stayed rooted in his spot. He hadn't thought the sun would scorch her skin in such a small amount of time. He knew that, obviously, he would be fine much longer than her, but nothing this bad so quickly.
Growling low in frustration, he grabbed his bag.
"Follow. Quickly." She jogged behind him and let him help her up on the metal table in the mini-clinic.
"I tried using the tablet to find some aloe, but it wasn't useful."
"I see… I will leave you a more appropriate sheet of the labels and their meaning." He grabbed a few bottles and had her lay down on her stomach. "I should have known better. I'm sorry, Miana."
"It's okay. I got some rocks." He trilled, amused at her mindset. "I hope it's okay I took them."
"I don't care." Miana smiled at that. "Are they nice?" He distracted her with questions as he sterilized a knife. "Shiny?"
"No," Miana laughed a bit at that. "Red rocks. Nothing special. I have some kits to test them. Earth stuff. I'm sure you guys have something better."
"Kits? I'm not familiar with things like that." He left the knife in the bowl and retrieved some medication for her. Pain medication.
"Oh… Uh, they just have sets of tools that I can use. Like, testing the rock for its hardness level and such. Properties of the rock." Miana took the pills, washing them down with water and trying not to gag at the taste. "The ones I have are for kids, though."
"I see." He wheeled over a little table, setting the sterilized knife next to bandages and ointments he would need. "Perhaps you can show me later."
Miana barely heard the request as she nodded off. The drugs often led to extreme drowsiness and with the right dosage, sedation. He had checked beforehand the known drugs used to treat humans and their side effects.
With her out, he cut through her top and gently placed the fabric off to the side so he could get to work. He swabbed her entire back with a spray medics had recommended he take just in case.
Abba first began by draining the blister with the sterilized knife and applying ointment to prevent infection after it had fully flattened out. He left it alone, moving his attention to the white, scaley blisters that took over most of the skin on her back.
He had seen the blisters like the one he had popped, but he hadn't come across these types in his research of humans. In fact, he had only run across the idea of sunburns and blisters when he had seen it happen on one of his trips to Earth.
Deciding and doing his best to use the knife to gently separate and remove them, he set aside the dead skin in a waste bowl. Then, he used the preventive ointment over the rest of her back. He laid a gauze over her back and gently rolled her over and removed the rest of her top.
Abba grabbed an aloe-like treatment and quickly applied it to the skin that had been exposed. Being respectful, he did his work fast and turned her back over to begin wrapping the gauze around her, lifting her up when he needed to.
He finished and placed a light cloth over her to keep her covered and got a bag of fluid. Similar to their IVs, he hooked it up to a stand attached to the table and stuck the needle into her arm. He couldn't let her get dehydrated.
Abba brought back the furs she had bundled up on her bed as a makeshift pillow and a few pelts. The makeshift pillow he tucked under her head and the pelt he left between her and the table, so she'd be at least somewhat comfortable.
Beanie sat nearby, under the cooling vent Abba had opened and with a bowl of food and water next to him. He figured the loyal creature wouldn't want to leave anytime soon.
He got them off-planet and back into space where the sun wouldn't be bothering her for a while. He also needed to find a trading station to pick up more food supplies and, if Miana was up to it, she could sell the pelts she had left unused. She could always do that at the mothership, but he would leave the decision up to her.
Abba returned to check on her before turning in for some much needed rest. He left the skull still in the bag and on his workbench. He would clean it tomorrow and store a dreadlock as proof of the kill.
He found her still asleep on the table, unmoved, the next morning. But, according to the scanner, she had developed a fever. Chills lined up and down her arms and legs. The wounds on her back didn't appear to be infected, but he added more ointment and gave her fresh bandages anyway.
"Abba?" He only clicked in response, not too far away, but out of eyesight. "I'm hungry."
He expected she would be, already having a plate of warm meats and cool fruits for her to eat beside her. He helped her to sit up, careful of her back, and sat the plate in her lap.
After a few minutes, she set it aside. She had barely touched anything.
"Miana?" She returned to laying down, a pained expression on her face. The scanner didn't pick up anything obvious.
"Sorry, the room is spinning and the food made me nauseous." Abba took the food away, knowing smells were enough to make one sick and calmly purred to her as he double-checked her vital signs.
The fever hadn't gone down since administering a small shot to her arm. Something akin to the fever-reducing medicine she would find at home.
"Don't apologize. Just rest." He stayed with her, purring until she fell back asleep.
Only then did he leave to take care of the ic'jit and insure the creatures they had captured were properly fed and given water. He checked the temperature of the ship and their course before returning to her side to monitor her vitals.
Her fever had broke after only a few hours and the chills were gone. For now.
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So, in my research of sunburn blisters, I came across a picture of a young boy's back that had the same kind of issues I described Miana with. I'm sure you can find it, but I recommend that you don't. Real nasty stuff. Anyway, that's what I used to model Miana's sunburn blisters and she has the symptoms of sun poisoning, so yay Miana!