That was many years ago, almost a decade. She thought very little of it now; she had much more important things to do.
Kaylin had adjusted to a new life, on a jungle planet labeled GR-208, but affectionately called Neo Australia by the inhabitants. It was a penal colony, not a well-monitored one. The place was truly a prison, but without guards. Inmates here were soon absorbed into one of the many gangs the moment they were dropped off. No one cried out 'racism!' here, it was a way of life. Each gang had a territory, a territory that was like their own city, built with houses and businesses.
They lived apart, like Native Americans lived separately across the wide empty plains, but just like children playing Indians, someone would bum-rush into another territory, stab someone, and cause a mess.
A mess that Kaylin had to clean up.
She remembered when she had been dropped here. Charged with involuntary manslaughter, and she was 'accidentally,' deposited on the wrong level of penal colony. Weyland hoped she would die. She probably would have, with how gentle and meek she was, but also refusing to join any of the specific 'white-skinned,' and 'close enough to be Asian,' gangs that tried to assimilate her. But when the third day rolled around, and she saw a dying dark-skinned man beneath some ferns and saved his life, she immediately made a place for herself on the small planet.
Neutral territory. Don't touch. She was the Switzerland of the world war. Earning the favor of every available gang quickly, and accidentally. She helped deliver the breech baby of the lover of the leader of one gang. Saved the eye of the leader's brother of another. Eventually she had accumulated enough favor that it was mutually agreed that the doctor was to be left alone.
It was, of course, the only thing the gangs ever agreed upon.
They gave her a small spot, somewhere off on the outskirts away from them all, to call her own. But close enough to save someone's life. They had even built a house for her, one of the gangs. It was more like a hut, but she was grateful for it. There were no rooms in it, just one large circular area. From the gangs here, she had gotten a bed, a table with four chairs, a nightstand for her bed, and even cabinets. The talent among the people she lived with astonished her, and her genuine gratitude astonished them.
Of course, her table was heavily stained with blood, as it served as her operating table when the need arose. Today, though, it was serving as a seat for the son of a guest.
Tyke, he was called, and he was cute little thing, dark-skinned with short peppercorn hair on his head. She smiled gently as he held a white mouse in one hand and she looked over his arm in the other. His arm was cast with a sort of mud that she could make from the clay-like soil on this planet and water. It solidified almost like cement, and the arm needed to be chiseled out.
"I think we can take this off now," she said and Tyke looked at her with wide dark eyes.
"No!" protested the six-year old.
"But don't you want to have your arm back?"
Tyke snatched away his arm and held it close, the white mouse also held closely, clutched tight in his little fist, "but mommy and daddy signed it!" he pleaded, "uncle Joe drew a picture on it! See!?"
He held out his arm, pointing at the picture of a sun with a smiling face, the white mouse sitting comfortably in the boy's fist.
She gently touched his fingers and smiled at him, brushing his cast as if cleaning it, "well, what if I can save Joe's picture?"
The boy's lips pursed as he seriously thought about the offer. His small eyes squinted hard as if he didn't trust her. Kaylin smiled over at his father, leaning against the doorway to her hut. The proud man smiled back, a shock of white against his dark lips.
"Okay," Tyke finally said with a shrug of his shoulders, and shifted his weight in his seat. Kalyin smiled and took out her tools, a rock and a butter knife. Very carefully she hammered out a circle around the smiling sun until she was able to pry the entire disk out by itself. She gave it to him to hold, and he traded the mouse for the stone and looked at it. Kaylin put her pet on her shoulder and continued to work. The young boy kicked his legs, without a care in the world, so focused on that stone as piece by piece of the cast fell off. Finally, it was all a pile of stones and dust, and she brushed off his arm and gave it one more check over. She then smiled and tapped his leg.
"All done," she reported happily and he slid off the table, thumping to the ground and jogging over to his dad.
"Thank's Kay! You're the nicest white lady!"
Kaylin sputtered and hid her smile. Jone just laughed and rubbed his son's head, "hey bud, you should make that into a necklace," he said, gently touching the stone.
"Yeah, I'll make it into a necklace," Tyke repeated, turning the stone different angles. He then looked over at Kaylin again, "hey Kay, can I bring some crumbs for Algea?"
Kaylin smiled, "you most certainly may bring comes for Algea, I'm sure she'll love them."
"Okay," Tyke nodded once, "let's go dad," he ordered, taking his father's hand and walking briskly out the door, putting on his high-held 'I'm the man,' face as they walked out. Kaylin smiled and waved at Jone as she dusted off her table, letting it fall to the ground which was dirt anyway. She dusted her hands and went to her doorway, freezing and standing stalk still. Jone had Tyke positioned behind him, and was walking sideways past another man of different color, who was walking sideways around him. The Caucasians had Jone outnumbered three to one, the tension in the air was thick, Kaylin trembled slightly. But the two groups honored the agreement, and once they were ten paces apart, they turned from each other. Jone lifted Tyke up and took him down the road, and the Caucasian walked up to Kaylin's house, all smiles.
"Hey Kay," he said and invited himself in while the other two stayed outside on either side of the door. Kaylin simply smiled and moved across the hut.
"Hey Cee," she answered and took from one of the cabinet a small cloth bag, the herbal tea blend that she had prepared, "I added some honey this time, I know it's bitter stuff, but hopefully this will make it easy to drink. How's she doing?"
"Mart's still sick," he said, his face falling to genuine concern, "she couldn't eat anything yesterday, it all kept coming back up, even the soup," he sighed and took the bag from her, half-sitting against the table, "I don't know what to do next, this tea's the only thing that stays down, but it ain't food," he lifted the bag, then let his hand drop hopelessly.
"Y'know, I know you don't like coming into the cities, but I can't move her out of the house. Do you think… I mean… if I make everyone behave, could you come check her out?"
Kaylin was wide eyed, "I—I would have done so sooner if I had known it was that bad. This has been going on for a week now, it's not just some stomach flu, what are her other symptoms?"
Kaylin was already packing as Cee began to explain, seemingly astonished that Kaylin would so willingly come with him. He explained the stomach pains, clarifying that they were lower abdominal, the high fever, each symptom he add she added something new to her makeshift bag and soon had it slung over her shoulder.
She felt a bit odd, being escorted in the middle of three large men. She held tightly to the straps on her bag. The cities were more like villages, of course there was only so much one could do when being condemned to Neo Australia, left on the surface with nothing but your hands and your jumpsuits. The grandest houses in the village were cabins, other houses were huts like hers. Talent was worth a lot in a place like this, it paid to be good at working wood, or stone, to know how to construct things that were almost modern convenience out of sticks and leaves.
Kaylin's talent, of course, was healing. And it afforded her freedom.
It was to one of the cabins that they went, and once inside, Kaylin's eyes had to adjust to the darkness. The place was lit only through the open windows, but she found the woman she was looking for, laying on a bed with a heavy blanket over her.
"Hey doc," the woman said weakly, blue eyes opening before closing again as she shifted.
"Hey Karla," she said gently, moving over and setting the bag down by her, "I heard you're not feeling well."
Karla laughed, "understatement of the century."
Kaylin smiled, "'Weyland is a jerk' is the understatement of the century."
Karla laughed again, "true that," she said, and the sentiment was repeated throughout the living room.
Kaylin's smile gentled and she took the edge of the blanket, "now Karla, I know you feel cold, but you can't cover up, you'll only make the fever worse. In this heat, it'll be very easy to start killing your brain cells."
"What brain cells?" Cee attempted to joke.
"Someone hit him for me," Karla said.
"Ow, hey!" Cee half-laughed.
Kaylin looked over Karla's body. It was covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Her gentle hands carefully touched her arms and the woman's neck, feeling her brow, furrowing her own. She had Karla open her mouth, and looked at the back of the throat past the woman's tongue ring and then at her eyes.
"Have you been feeling soreness in all your muscles, or is it just the pain in your stomach?"
"All over."
"Okay, can you turn over?"
Karla groaned but complied, and Kaylin put her ear to the woman's back and instructed her to breathe deeply. She put her ear to the woman's chest and also her stomach, listening closely.
"Okay," Kaylin said and opened her bag, "now I know it sounds gross, but I need a urine sample."
"Seriously?"
"Yes," Kaylin handed Cee one of the hand-blown glasses she had and the man helped his wife to a more private room. They returned with the glass and Kaylin tightly secured a cloth over the top. She took some of the woman's blood in just as primitive of a method, took a swab of her cheek lining, and then opened up her bag.
"Alright, these flowers, are pain killers, they don't have a taste, so just chew and swallow," she instructed and set the bag in Cee's hand, "this grass has fever-reducing qualities, and it is bitter, you can boil them with your tea though, I did sweeten it."
She handed him another bag and then pulled out a stone jar, "in here's a paste. You know what paté is?" she asked, Karla and Cee shook their heads
"Isn't that French?" asked one of Cee's boys.
"Okay, it's a kind of meat, spread it on some bread, have it with your tea, it's high in fat and proteins. You've lost a lot of weight," she was not going to explain what it was to a woman who couldn't keep food down anyway, especially since the paste wasn't exactly paté.
"That's a good thing though."
"No," Kaylin said shaking her head and smiling, "not when you lose too much."
She left the things with Karla and had Cee come out with her out of the house, "I'm not ruling out the flu," she said the gentleman, "but this is an alien planet, and it's possible it's something completely new. I'm going to do some tests and see what I can find. Until then, keep her comfortable, and keep her cool. Bucket water from the river, soak a cloth in it and put the cloth on her head but don't let her drink any of it."
Cee nodded and said 'okay' every time a new order came out. Once she was done she huffed, holding both the glasses upright to keep them from spilling. The corner of Cee's mouth twitched and the young man looked up at her, "thanks Kay," he said genuinely, holding back his emotions, "you're the nicest Asian girl I've ever met.
Kaylin smiled but her shoulders slumped. She shook her head as they both chuckled.
"You two," he said to his guards, "get her home," Kaylin waved as Cee disappeared back into the dark cabin. The two large men took her back out of the city and down the road. They were also glad that Kaylin seemed able to help Karla out, and didn't leave her sides until she was in her door. She turned and waved at them, then went back inside and set the two glasses on the table. Along with the cheek swabbing. She stood in silent contemplation about what she would do, knowing that the tests she could do were going to be grossly inaccurate. She wished that she had equipment, a microscope, syringes. But instead she was playing medicine woman, and she was afraid that one day, she would come up short.
Inhaling, she looked over at the white mouse that crawled up past her missing pinky, and placed her small paws on the thin deformed ring finger, looking up at the woman with whiskers twitching.
"Hey Algernon," she said, gently petting the mouse with a finger, "I'm home," she said smiling, "time to get to work."