Chapters One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen Pt. 1, Fourteen Pt. 2, Fifteen, Sixteen.
(Non-SF Flyover Valley starts here.)
“They will come for you,” Anais said.
“I can’t say I’m surprised you don’t understand the nature of the bond between a student and a teacher,” Tian Teacher tried to stretch but the ties would not give.
“I had a mentor as well,” Anais inclined her head the barest half-inch. “Among other things, she taught me that in cultures such as yours, there is a strong bond of obligation between...” She broke off. Tian Teacher was laughing quietly, wincing as his bad leg was jostled.
“Cultures such as mine,” he said, shaking his head. “You really do think like that.” With a wry grin, he shifted to try and take the pressure off his bad hip.
Anais felt a cold pressure in the region of her chest. It took her a moment to identify it as anger. It was not going away despite being classified.
“We could probably fix that leg of yours,” she said. “I am no medic, but I doubt you have got anything there that we haven’t seen. We could smooth your face, bleed you nearly dry and fill you up with fresh plasma. You would look like a human being, instead of ... this. Your mind, you must be proud of that, your spirit. We can clear it all up, remove any wrong memories, store some new ones, change your neural pathways. We can make you think any way we like, do you understand that? There is nothing you can do! That is why a culture like yours is ... ” she groped for a strong enough word, “doomed! You cannot deal with change! You have nothing to hold up against it!”
Tian Teacher was looking at her with a mixture of pity and contempt.
“You’re wearing the face you got at sixteen,” he said, softly. “So who’s afraid of change?”
