Bronki's New Body
Or, Eating Your Math Teacher
Kren had to pick Bronki up and put her on the stool in front of her computer. Seeing that she had difficulty staying upright, he quickly got some rope and tied her to her seat, before she got her computer online.
"This will probably take me an hour to arrange," Bronki said. "The pain is getting worse, not better. Why don't you go out and find me a big meal. The feeding stupor will help me endure the pain you've caused me."
"I will do that, soon. But first, I would like to see you fulfill your side of this bargain." Kren had visions of Bronki calling in the authorities while he was out.
"You are not a very trusting person."
"This is true. But you have every reason to hate me, for what I have done to you. I would be a fool to trust you at this time."
"Kren, you must realize that I am over five thousand years old. There is very little that can happen to a person that I haven't seen. Also, I am one of the most intelligent teachers at the university, as well as one of the wisest. Look. Every being must play the game of life from the position that she finds herself in at the present instant. The normal emotionshate, joy, anger, greedthese things were useful to us when we were savages, but now that we are civilized, they only get in our way. Do you understand that I don't hate you?"
"I can believe that. But you must understand that I only started to become intelligent a year ago, and from the position that I find myself in now, I still think that I would be a fool to trust you. Go online, and do the things that you have promised while I watch. Then I will take you someplace comfortable, and I will hunt for you. Oh, and do the contract first, the deeds second, and the money third."
"As you wish," Bronki said. She had, of course, been planning to contact the authorities, and have Kren arrested and eventually executed, not because she hated him for his treachery, or even because she badly wanted to save her mathematical abilities, but rather to save herself the twelve thousand Ke she had promised, and two of the many houses that she owned.
She started to work the net, thinking that sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. Perhaps, a continued relationship with Kren would prove profitable.
First, she wrote, signed, and filed a confidential contract with the Bonding Authority for a fee of five gross Ke, which she talked Kren into paying by claiming that they did not accept credit.
Next, she filed a quit claim deed for both houses and all of their contents with the Land Authority, and then transferred the utilities and taxes over to his name. Doing the bank transfer to a new account in Kren's name was a matter of only a few minutes.
Finally, she ordered a new body, with suitable brands burned into the girl's upper arms, from the Dependable Carnivore Company, Ltd. The young carnivore was to be delivered the next morning, along with a syringe of anesthetic. The painful natural process that the aristocracy was so proud of using was not for Bronki.
"Now, will you please do something for this pain?" she asked him.
"Of course, I'd be delighted to." Kren untied her from the stool, carried her outside, and placed her gently on the grass, with her back propped up against the house. Then he locked the door behind him, put the key of his new house in his belt pouch, and went hunting.
He was back in a dozen minutes with a large, but suitable juvenal.
Bronki had taken a mechanical pencil and a large pad of grass paper with her, and had used the time to sketch a life-sized diagram of her own brain, with carefully drawn lines showing exactly what parts Kren could and could not eat. These were one fairly large section and three small ones. These agreed with what his memories from the medic told him, so he readily agreed to follow her instructions.
Because of her weakness and pain, he had to use his sword to chop up the young boy he'd brought for her, but Bronki ate the pieces quickly, throwing the bones out into the now well-tended field, being too weak to chew them up.
"Probably just as well," she said, as she became drowsy. "I'd need a new body soon anyway. As to the skills I'll be losing, well, a few years of study will get them back, maybe better than before. I may even come up with something really new, you know. There have been cases on record where an old mind has lost a segment, for one reason or another, and when it finally relearned what it had lost, it had become very creative concerning that particular skill."
"I wish you very good luck," Kren said, and perhaps he actually meant it.
When she fell asleep, he carried her bloated body back to her room and put her to bed. Then he went to bed himself.
He awoke to the sound of a fusion-powered helicopter, and ran out to see it setting itself down near the door under its big, counterrotating blades.
The pilot climbed down and said, "Is here all right?"
"Yes, I suppose that would be fine."
"I've got another delivery in this area in two days. I'll pick up the cage on the way back, if that's okay."
"That would be good, yes," Kren said.
"Fine. You are the recipient?"
"No, that would be Bronki, but she's in a stupor just now."
"Yes, she said that she was injured. You're Kren?" the pilot asked.
"Yes."
"She said that you could sign for this girl. Also, there's this syringe of anesthetic she ordered. It has to be injected into a major muscle two hours before the event. Do you know how to do that?"
"I'm a qualified military medic," Kren said.
"Good. The anesthetic will stay effective for two weeks, and will help out with the headaches as well. Just make sure that the young one eats the muscle that you shot up," she said and pressed a button on a pendant control that lowered to the ground a cage of heavy metal bars containing a starving, young carnivore.
"The cage is quite simple," she continued. "The new girl is back here. Put the old one in the front of the box, strap her in, and lock the door. Then pull these pins, and the wall between them will fold away. Once the new one has finished and has gone to sleep, put her someplace safe. She'll wake up in a week or two, a new person."
"That sounds simple enough," Kren said.
"Good. Sign here."
The pilot climbed back up into her craft and flew away.
Kren looked at the bare needle of the syringe in his hand and decided that there was no time like the present. He went into Bronki's room, to find her lying on her back, with her extended stomach bulging in the air.
The Mitchegai digestive system is quite elaborate for a carnivore. The first stomach, located just below the diaphragm, is used for little else but storing brain cells until they can be taken up by the blood stream. The second stomach is a hugely expandable storage bag, permitting a Mitchegai to consume a being even larger than herself. Only in the third stomach does actual digestion start to take place. The intestines are smaller than in a human, requiring more frequent defecation.
The buttock contained the largest muscle in the Mitchegai body, but the upper thigh was almost as big, and Kren saw no point in rolling her over and possibly waking her.
She didn't even murmur as he injected the anesthetic deep into the muscle. Of course, it wouldn't occur to a Mitchegai to apply an antiseptic before an injection.
He spent the next two hours reading a book concerning the life of a university student, hoping that it was more accurate than the one about military life.
When the clock in his study showed that the time was up, he carried Bronki out and strapped her in the front half of the cage, while the new girl screamed with hunger.
Using his sword, he cut off the top of Bronki's head, and making frequent reference to her sketch, he sliced out and ate precisely those portions that were agreed upon. They were delicious, and he was tempted to take a bit more, but he decided that it might be dangerous to do so.
Then he replaced the skull cap, locked the front door, and released the screaming young carnivore, before going indoors to rest for a bit.
He had intended to only relax for a few hours, but when he awoke, he found that he had slept for over two days. Dizzy and confused, he went out to check the cage.
He was relieved to find that all was well out there. The youngster was sleeping undisturbed. If the housekeeper had been by, she had touched nothing.
It was not easy to get the new Bronki out of the cage and into her old room. The new carnivore had eaten all of the old Bronki, who had been swollen with the large juvenal she had previously eaten. She weighed well over twice what she originally had. Feeling weak himself, Kren had to drag her most of the way.
He had just completed the job when the helicopter arrived to pick up the cage. He waved to the pilot, glad that he did not have to think up a plausible lie for Bronki's presence in the cage. In truth, he wasn't thinking very clearly just then.
Then he locked the door, went to his room, and slept for another three days, troubled by strange, mathematical dreams. It was the first time that he had eaten a major portion of brain without also eating the body as well. He felt surprisingly hungry. He resolved that if he ever did this again, he'd eat a juvenal along with it, and go into a proper stupor, if he could somehow figure out a safe way to do that.
He rectified that problem now by going out, killing, and eating a small juvenal. He didn't want to be in a stupor when Bronki awoke, because he still didn't trust her.
Returning to the house, he noticed that Bronki's old study was devoid of dried blood. The housekeeper had apparently come, cleaned, and left.
Eventually, while Bronki still slept, he picked up the book on mathematics that he had been struggling with for so long. No longer was it incomprehensible to him. In fact, it all looked childishly simple.
Obviously, the operation had been a success.
He spent the next few days going over every book on mathematics that he could find in his new house. He was elated to find that he comprehended it all, from corporate accounting to advanced matrix theory, even the most complicated texts.
The housekeeper came every two days, as silent as before. She must have had some hint as to what was going on, because she stayed away from Bronki's room. As before, he stayed out of her way and let her get on with her job.
Once Bronki was awake, they would somehow explain to the servant that he was now master of this house.
Kren started in on the sciences. With his now superb knowledge of mathematics, he made it through the introductory text in only three days, and four days after that had completed a book on basic physics.
He was well into his first chemistry text when Bronki finally woke up. She staggered outside to relieve herself, and then went to the living room for a long drink of water.
"I always hate this part," she said.
"Is there anything that I can do to help?"
"You can do nothing but leave me alone. I'll be another week getting myself reintegrated."
With that, she staggered back to her room and closed the door.
Kren soon started into biology, a subject far different on a Mitchegai world than in any other place in the universe. They had, after all, only two species to study. But what they lacked in breadth, they made up for in depth. Billions of worker years had gone into the study of their limited subject matter. Every single gene was completely known and understood. Every single chemical used in either species was accurately classified, and all of its functions were completely explained.
Every possible drug that could have any effect on a Mitchegai was carefully cataloged and understood. The vast majority of them had been made illegal, since anything that could cause a short-term improvement inevitably caused a long-term disability. Anything that would result in a long-term benefit had already been bioengineered into the race. Also, any illegal product provided the legislators with an opportunity for considerable personal profit.
He was finishing up his first book on biology when Bronki made her next appearance.
"You are a lot slimmer than you were a few weeks ago," he said.
"Integration is a high-energy process. I need a few days to get my course outlines at least started, then we have time for a last good meal on country food before it's time for us to start for the university."
"I'm not sure that going to the university would be such a wise move for me. The identification scars on my arms are fraudulent, and if an officer of the duke's army were to study them, and make a few inquiries, I could be in big trouble," Kren said.
"So wear your cloak until we get to the university. You'll be safe enough once you're there. The University of Dren is an independent academic corporation. It's located at the intersection of four dukedoms, and it pays taxes to all four of them, but it's not under the jurisdiction of any of them. If any one of the dukes were to force his way in, the other three would feel threatened and attack him immediately. You'll be safe."
"That is interesting. Perhaps I will go."
"You must go," Bronki said. "If I show up without you, the athletic director will claim that my letter to him was a practical joke, and then he would make my life very difficult."
Five days later, they locked up the house and started walking to the public transportation terminal.