/Nov9.txt

 1[this is a part with crappy writing which I will later rewrite, because I'm starting this at 1:50am and can't really do anything else right now]
 2
 3"Oh my God!" said one of the women, as others behind her muttered and exclaimed as well.  "Blood!"  
 4
 5The older woman turned around and barked orders at several of the others.  "Find the medical crate," she says.  "Bring bandages and Maxil, and a sterile protection pack."  One of them, a slender girl who couldn't have been older than 19, dashed off to one of the crates.  "Stay there," the woman, who Tashi decided to call Boss, ordered, with steel in her voice.  "Don't move."
 6
 7"Oh," Tashi said, glancing down at her arm, "it's not really a big deal.  I can take care of it myself if you just bring me bandages and stuff, I mean, I'm not asking you to *touch* it or anything..."  But the women stay put, all of them looking kind of freaked-out and upset, so Tashi stops protesting and just stands there, waiting.  She supposes it makes sense that blood is taken far more seriously here, and she doesn't want to upset what are essentially her captors, any further than she has to.
 8
 9This is actually going much better than she expected, so far.  Knowing what she does about gender roles inside the Dome, with men holding most of the formal positions of power, she had expected to be met by a man, or a group of men.  Normally that wouldn't even be a point of notice for Tashi – men, women, Covered, what's the difference – but, again, in Dome culture they have gender roles, and therefore a group of men might be unfairly biased against her, because she herself is a woman.  So the fact that this is a group of all women might actually work out in her favor, in addition to the fact that she's apparently fulfilling a proper gender role in her career.  
10
11Or at least, it can be spun to seem that way.
12
13Another outcry goes up, and all of the women around her turn their heads in unison.  Tashi can hear sounds of confusion, exclamations.  She looks around and sees the runner girl and two other women, pulling the pieces of her rig out of one of the crates.
14
15Look for your rig in the crate that contains the medication, she remembers.  Right.  To be honest, in the chaos and excitement she'd rather forgotten about her gear, until now.
16
17The women around her are talking amongst themselves, but they don't break the formation of the tight arms-length ring in which they're standing, around Tashi.  It occurs to her that this is a fairly effective way of keeping someone, at least a nonviolent person, corralled.
18
19The women are obviously trying to figure out what this strange machinery is.  Some of them, voices rising to a higher pitch, are saying words Tashi recognizes, like 'weapon' and 'spy' and 'bomb'.  Tashi doesn't like the sound of that, at all.
20
21One of the ones by the crate pokes at the left shoulder-cam button, and Tashi winces.  Unless the components are powered up properly and in order, it creates a risk of data glitches.  Which would not be a big deal if she was casting live, as she typically is, but everything she does here is going to have to be recorded.  She needs to keep her memory banks pristine.
22
23Assuming, of course, that they'll give her back her stuff.  If not... god.  She'll just have to try and remember as much as she can.  Maybe write things down or something.
24
25"That's mine!" she says, as loudly as she can.  "That's my rig!  It belongs to me!"  All of the heads swivel around to stare at her, in unison.  "It's mine," she says again.
26
27"What is a rig?  Explain," the Boss says again.
28
29Oh boy, Tashi thinks.  Here we go again.
30
31"Alright," she says.  "Okay.  It's not a weapon, it's not.. harmful in any way, first of all.  It's not going to hurt you.  What it is is equipment that I use in my work.  I wear it on my body, see," – she notices that some of the women around her fall back from her, and doesn't quite understand why – "and it helps me do my job of... teaching people things, and telling stories."
32
33"Our teachers and storytellers don't need such equipment," Boss says.  "What is it for?"
34
35Tashi is suddenly drawing a blank, at the worst possible time, about whether the Dome religion proscribes taking images and recordings of people.  That was either mentioned in that one late-night documentary on Dome religious practices that she watched, that one time, or it was in that documentary on the aboriginal peoples of North America that followed immediately after.  She remembers being unable to decide which one was weirder and more disturbing, and she can't remember now which one contained the no-image-taking thing.
36
37She takes a deep breath, and decides to go for it.
38
39"It contains recording equipment," she says.  "You know, cameras?  Things that can take an image of something and send it somewhere else, or keep it around for later?"
40
41Boss actually rolls her eyes.  "We know what cameras are," she says crisply.  "Like on comms, the thing that sends your image."
42
43"Yes!  Right, exactly," Tashi says, feeling rather dumb.  Of course they have comms.  She did know that the Domes had the ability to communicate amongst one another; of course they knew about cameras.  "It's like a comm, just... more so.  With lots of cameras, so that people can get a 360 degree view of what's around me, and skin sensors so that people can feel what I feel, and sound equipment so that people can hear what I hear.  Basically, when I'm 'casting, everything that I know, my riders know too."  
44
45"Ah.  So you wear the rig, not to cover and conceal your body, but to expose it."  Boss sounds oddly approving of that fact.
46
47"Um, yes, I suppose you could say that.  Sort of."  Several of the women around Tashi seem to relax, and her 'caster instincts immediately trigger.  Something's there, something about concealment; something big and deep and core, by the unconscious nature of these women's reactions.  She goes to subvocalize a note to herself to explore this topic later, then remembers that she isn't rigged up at the moment, and settles for making a mental note instead.
48
49"Good," Boss says.  "And it has no violent capabilities?"
50
51"None whatsoever," Tashi reassures her.  She supposes that if it came down to it and she was really trying, she could stab somebody with the claw end of the servo arm, but the whole point of having a field support team is that she doesn't have to deal with that kind of situation.
52
53A field support team that she doesn't currently have.  Hm.
54
55She frowns, and makes another mental note about the claw thing.
56
57"Alright," Boss says, and then to the girl, "bring it over here, along with the medicine."  The girl complies, and all of the women that weren't already gathered around Tashi come with her.  There seem to be about 30 of them total, crossing a full range of ages from the no-more-than-19-year-old to Boss, who seems to be the eldest.  The girl hands Boss what Tashi recognizes as a sterile protection pack, of the sort used in hospitals.  Boss pops the tab and the bag unfolds into a high-necked, long-sleeved apron, which she dons; she then rolls on the gloves with practiced motions, and pulls the facemask over her mouth and nose and eyes.
58
59Tashi thinks it seems a little bit excessive for dealing with a minor cut, but she stays still as Boss approaches, looking like a surgeon.  The older woman orders, "Take off your blouse." 
60
61It takes Tashi a moment to recognize the archaic term, and then she realizes that Boss is talking about her overshift.  "What?  No!" she says.  "Why?"  The women around her begin muttering again, apparently shocked by such an obvious display of defiance.  
62
63"Take off your blouse," Boss repeats.  "It might have touched the blood."
64
65"It didn't–" Tashi gives up, recognizing a losing battle when she sees one, and sighs.  She pulls off her overshift and holds it out for Boss, who removes a sterile bag from the pocket of the apron and zips Tashi's overshift inside, then tucks it back into her apron pocket.
66
67Tashi has a feeling she'll never see that overshift again.  No big loss – it was one she only wore for working, anyway.  The pre-dawn air is chilly, though, and she shivers in only her undershift and bra.
68
69Finally, Boss pulls out the can of Maxil, and goes to work.  She sprays it not only over the cut, but up and down the full length of Tashi's arm, from the tips of her fingers all the way up to the shoulder.  Then she has her turn her arm over, and does the other side.  All of this excessive caution, Tashi thinks, and yet these people have *sex* with one another.  I can't even begin to comprehend this mindset.
70
71All the more work to do in the days ahead, she supposes.
72
73Finally, Boss takes the smartseal bandage and presses it against the wound, releasing only when it has wound itself around fully and turned its surface blue, indicating that it has achieved the wrap pattern and compression level that will be most effective for Tashi's specific arm wound.
74
75If you could even call it that.
76
77Finally Boss steps back, and strips the sterile pack down in a practice motion that makes Tashi wonder if she is some kind of a doctor to these people.  She removes her mask first, using the pull-tabs and being careful not to touch her skin with the gloves, and folds it into the same sterile bag as Tashi's overshift.  Then she peels off the gloves, still managing deftly never to touch contaminated surface to bare skin.  
78
79These people have *sex*, Tashi thinks again.  It's mind-boggling.  But Boss definitely must be some kind of doctor.  Tashi wonders how soon she can get her for an interview.
80
81Finally, Boss puts the sterile bag back into the pocket and removes the apron, unfastening it behind her neck and folding it around the bag, where it shrinks into a sort of protective shell.  Tashi is fascinated; she's never seen that part of the process before.  Boss hands off the now ball-shaped mass of fabric to one of the other women, who walks off with it and disappears somewhere.  And then, like some sort of force-field has been lifted, the women swarm in close to Tashi again, even more of them then before, and her arms are quickly once again restrained. 
82
83"Come," Boss says, not to Tashi to but to the other women.  "We will take this foreign woman to see the Mayor, and she can tell her story in front of everyone."
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98