From: elf@halcyon.com (Elf Sternberg)
Newsgroups: alt.sex,alt.sex.stories,alt.sex.furry,alt.angst
Subject: Journal Entry 262 / 0106  [ Goodbye, Donna ]
Date: 1 Feb 1996 13:18:42 GMT
Organization: Pendor, UnLtd.
Lines: 253
Message-ID: <4eqeji$3o0@news1.halcyon.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: coho.halcyon.com

Seren, Hiss 19, 0106

    I smiled tiredly as I threw my clothes into the basket for 
laundry, glancing over at Nyss who was doing the same.  Her soft, 
sexy figure glimmered in the light of the single lamp by the bed, 
her dark blue fur showing the small hints of gold that I always 
found so attractive.  "You've been in the sun," I said, quietly.

    She nodded and said, "So have you.  Burned your nose."  She 
slid the pad of her mitten over my sore and sensitive nose and I 
felt her extend her familiar power into me.  My nose felt much 
better after that.  She sighed.

    "You okay?" I asked.

    "Tired.  Didn't expect to have to use my power tonight.  I 
haven't seen Nance all day, so that's just tapping my own reserve."

    "Why are you so tired?"

    "Them," she said with frustration.  "I don't understand 
Terrans, and I hope I never will."

    "Why?"

    "Oh, this and that.  They're a morass of conflicts.  And some 
of them feel... I don't know what the word for it is.  Ugly?  
Evil?"

    "Depends on what you mean.  I guess some of them could be 
considered evil.  You've got to remember that for the most part, 
they're politicians.  They got to where they are by climbing over 
the dead bodies of their competition.  Or at least over the dead 
reputations of their competition."

    She nodded.  "And they get to where they are because those 
people agree that they're the lesser of two evils."

    "Never saw a democracy run any other way."

    She nodded, sighed.  I leaned over and kissed her furry cheek.  
She smiled and said, "I'm sorry.  I don't feel much like kissing 
tonight."

    I shrugged.  "I know.  Sorry, too."

    "So," she said with a smile.  "How was your day with Donna?"

    "You mean now that Josh took the American delegation and Teena 
took the Soviets?  It was good."

    "There's something missing from your bookshelf."

    "You mean my Eldarfaroth collection?"  She nodded.  "I gave 
them to Donna.  With a nickname like Hyzen I figured she should 
have them."

    P'nyssa shook her head gently and said, "You've carried those 
books around with you for a century, and you just gave them to 
Donna like that?"

    I nodded.  "She deserved them.  I've read all four so many 
times I've got the entire story memorized, line by line.  She loves 
them as much as I do, and it was time to pass them on.  I've always 
got reprints, sweetheart."

    She nodded.  "You did a good job with her."

    "We did a good job, Nyss.  Both of us.  Working on Carroll and 
Donna brought us together.  I did the work and you did the 
pregnancy, but we did it together."

    She crawled up the bed and slid under the covers.  "Love you," 
she said.

    "Love you too," I said as I crawled in next to her.  Sleep came 
with habitual speed.

              -               -              -

    An hour later, I heard shouts and running.  There was a scream, 
and something in Anglic I didn't quite catch.  "Dave?" I mumbled.

    There was no answer.  A chill ran down my spine.  "DAVE!" I 
shouted.  P'nyssa woke to the shout. 

    There was still no answer.  "Shit!" I said, jumping out of bed, 
heedless of my naked state.  I jumped for the grav access.

    Nothing happened.  "What the...?"  I grabbed for the rung 
recessed into the lip of the tube, grabbing for the rung above it 
with my other hand.  "Dave!" I shouted again.  Still nothing.

    Hand over hand I dragged myself up to my living room.  "Ken!" I 
heard P'nyssa shouting.  "What's wrong?"

    "I don't know!" I shouted.  I ran for the door, expecting it 
not to function this time.  It didn't.  I reached for the manual 
lock and hit the 'open' button.  It slid to the side.  We obviously 
still had power or I'd've noticed when the Castle fell out of the 
sky.  "What's going on?" I shouted as I ran for the G-tube.  I knew 
it wasn't going to be working.  I ran into M'Riah as he came out.

    "I don't know!" he replied.  "It's was on the roof, whatever 
that scream was!"

    "Let's get going," I said, in a much calmer tone.  Somebody had 
to keep their head on, guess it had to be me.  That's my one 
personal ability.  When everyone else panics, I tend to be calm.

    I swung into the G-tube and climbed for the first floor.  Riah 
grabbed another set of rungs and began following me.  People were 
congregating around the tubes, wondering what was going to happen.  
"Somebody check Dave!" I shouted down to whoever was down there, 
hoping it was one of the Mahns, our resident AI experts.

    There was a scramble as Riah and I ran down the hallway.  
Lights came on as we headed for the door, and Dave's voice said, 
"Ken?"

    "Dave!  What's going on?"

    "I don't know," he said.  "Get to the roof.  We have a 
problem."  I  ran for the G-tube at the end of the corridor.  
Putting these accesses at the cardinal ends and the main tube in 
the center had made sense a few decades ago.  Now they were only 
hindrances. 

    The tube here was floored, so I ran in fully expecting the tube 
to be non-functional, but it carried me up to the roof.  I ran out 
into the rooftop garden.  There were lights coming from the walkway 
to the left, by the round table.

    "Ken!" a voice shouted, and a huge arm clamped over the front 
of my chest.  "No!" he said.

    "Dammit, Fritz, what?"

    The Uncia held me and said, "Calm down."  I heard voices.  A 
feminine voice, Shalla's I think, saying, "Let her go.  What can 
you do?  There is no negotiate, Mister."  She was speaking Anglic.

    "We're keeping her," the voice returned.  "We keep her all the 
way back to Earth."

    I shrugged free of Fritz's arms and stepped forward.  Four 
lighting drones hovered in the air, illuminating the three figures 
clustered at the far end of the patio.  Two of the Terrans, from 
the North American /  European contingent, and Donna.  "Shalla," I 
whispered.

    "Shhh," she insisted.  She turned back to the Terrans.  "We 
can't give you that.  Besides, even if you get off the Castle, 
where can you go?  You need one of our ships to even make the trip 
back to Earth."

    "That's why we keep the girl," the one holding Donna said.  He 
was holding a pistol, vaguely in the direction of her head.  Didn't 
anyone ever tell him that won't work?  The Pendorii skull's so 
heavily laced with ceramics a bullet will only give a mild 
concussion.

    "Shalla," I hissed.  "Get her out of there."

    "I'm trying," she replied.  Donna looked terrified, her eyes 
wide with fright.  She screamed.

    "Shut up!" the Terran holding her insisted.  They both looked 
to be mostly North American.  "You!" he said, pointing his pistol 
at me.  Thus far, the other one, also holding a pistol, hadn't said 
a word.

    "What?" I said before Shalla could shut me up.

    "Step into the light."

    *On-line*, Dave said in my head.

    *Dave, tell Shalla to take 'em*.  "Why?" I asked the Terran.

    "Because I want to see you.  Do it or I kill her."

    I stepped forward.  *Ken, Shalla says on the two step.*  "You 
wouldn't do that.  Then you'll never get out of here."

    "But I'll get you, and her."  I took the second step.

    There was a blur.  Lights flashed, Shalla and Fritz went 
charging by.  I heard two shots, and something exploded in my leg.  
I fell to the ground.

    "Ken!" I heard from behind me.  And from in front, another 
scream.  Then all was silent.

    "Donna?" I asked, looking up at P'nyssa, who stepped over me to 
reach Donna.

    "Make sure he doesn't move," she said to Fritz.

    "Donna?" I repeated, more insistently.  "Tell me."

    "You'd better not look," P'nyssa replied.  I turned to look, 
the pain in my leg searing.

    I remember looking, and I remember saying "No."  Donna was 
lying on the ground, Shalla holding her.  There was blood 
everywhere.

    "Ken," Fritz said.  "Don't move.  The bullet's shattered your 
leg.  Dammit, don't move!" He repeated.

     I ignored him and with both arms and legs dragged myself over 
to her.  "Shalla?" I asked.

    "Father," she said quietly, her eyes full of tears.  I pulled 
myself closer, and I could see what had happened, where all my 
plans and designs had gone so damnably wrong.  "She's not going to 
make it."

    The bullet had caught Donna in the throat.  I reached out to 
touch my grandchild, and her blood got on my fingers.  Her eyes 
were open.  P'nyssa was standing over the three of us, and I could 
feel her pouring everything she was into us.  I felt the sheer raw 
power a healer deals in running through us, but it wasn't enough.  
There was no way to close the wound; the bullet had torn Donna's 
throat out, and there was no way enough blood was going to reach 
her brain and save her.  The blood ran down the front of her chest, 
soaking her long, blond curls and her silly Eldarfaroth T-shirt.  
"Donna," I said.

    P'nyssa knew she would never have enough power to save her.  
She changed, so I could hear Donna.  *Granpa,* I heard her voice in 
my head.  *Don't be sad*

    "Donna."

    *Goodbye, Granpa.  Take good care of Mom and Dad.*

    "Donna!"

    And there was nothing more.

--
"Journal Entry 262 / 0106  [ Goodbye, Donna ]"
The Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik, et. al., and Related Tales
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Elf Sternberg            rational romantic mystic cynical idealist
elf@halcyon.com          Where evolution is outlawed, only outlaws evolve
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