|
Scene #88
The Devil in the Details
Chapter 1
Kirien Sevireiya
stared at the metal table, one finger pressed hard under her nose.
The cool classroom reeked of formaldehyde and other smells she
didn't feel like trying to identify. "Key, how can you bear the
stench?" Her half-sister Key turned to glance at her, an
amused smile twisting her lips. "You get used to it," she said.
As a doctor, Key had plenty of experience in dealing with
disgusting things. Kirien didn't. She preferred paper and books,
research that didn't stink beyond a hint of mustiness. "Used to
this? How?" she asked with a groan. Key shrugged and
said, "Be glad it's not summer. In the summer it's much worse.
Put that apron on, just in case." A heavy, twilled apron already
shielded Key's white dress from any ichorous fluids that might
unexpectedly spew forth. She wore gloves and cotton sleeve
protectors that tied neatly above her elbows. With her
compliantly-straight brown hair pulled back, a tidy little cap
covering it, Key looked prepared for any eventuality.
Kirien picked up the length of heavy white twill and turned it this
way and that to find the neck-strap. The apron, probably the
correct length on her sister's petite frame, allowed several inches
of Kirien's heavy brown skirt to show. She sighed as she tied the
tapes on the apron's back. Being around Key usually made her feel
like a giantess--not to mention childish, silly, and
inefficient. "Father did know you were coming by to do
this, didn't he?" Key asked. Kirien nodded as she tied the
apron behind her back. She was old enough not to need her father's
approval for everything, but somehow she suspected Key wanted to
verify it. "Yes. He said he thought it was a good idea."
The next to last of the five Sevireiya daughters, Kirien always
felt like she'd missed out on something. Her sisters were all
accomplished in one way or another, but whatever Kirien had been
made to excel at, she hadn't yet discovered. Father fretted about
her more than all the others combined. "Are you ready
now?" Key asked. Kirien nodded. Not as mentally prepared
for this as she claimed, she turned her eyes away when Key folded
back the sheet. The horrible smell tripled with Key's movement,
chemicals and something oily roiling into the air. Kirien replaced
the finger under her nose and held her breath. Key glanced
back at her, and a wry smile crossed her pretty features. "Just
breathe for a minute, Kiri. You'll be fine." Kirien squared
her shoulders, determined to look strong. "I'm ready."
"Well, you wanted to see one, so here's your chance. We don't drag
these out of storage for just anyone." Older than Kirien by a
dozen years, Key had enough influence to be allowed to study one of
the three specimens the University of Jenesetta had on hand.
Generally, such a grisly display would have drawn dozens of eager
young medical students to observe from the aged wooden benches that
lined the edges of the square classroom like an arena.
But this was one of the specimens they would never see.
Stored in a large vat of formaldehyde for longer than either
of the sisters had been alive, the body on the metal table looked
very human. "Several of his organs have been removed for study at
various times," Key went on, her voice adopting a lecturing
cadence. "They return them, of course, but we can't examine their
original placement due to that. Also, records indicate that his
heart was missing when he was originally turned over to the
university." "His heart was missing?"
"Yes, we believe that's how Grandfather made certain he was dead."
Key retrieved a pointer from the chalkboard at the rear of the dais
and gestured for Kirien to approach the table. "Removing the heart
seems to be irrevocably fatal." "I do know that, at
least," Kirien said. "Having seen the hearts of the other
two specimens, I feel comfortable stating that it would probably
have been very like a human heart. In fact, most of the organs
seem to be analogous to ours." Kirien opened her
mouth. Key raised a hand to forestall any protest. "I'm
working under the assumption that you and I are, for all practical
purposes, human." Kirien swallowed her objection. Their
family knew, as did few others, the secret that lay at the heart of
their people's existence. Most of the Menhirre might only have a
tiny percentage of Shifter blood in their veins, but that inhuman
origin defined them as a people. Her own family had quite a bit
more than a tiny percentage. "So what did you want to
start with?" Key asked. Kirien had been trying not
to look directly at the body laid out on the table. Yellowed flaps
of skin opened up along the midline of the chest, folded back as
neatly as the sheet. Key had left the body covered from the waist
down. What Kirien saw, though, seemed gruesomely similar to things
she'd seen displayed at the butcher shop on First Street. Those
had to be lungs, she decided. She didn't dare look the specimen in
the face. "Uh, what's the most different?" "The difference
in the genitalia, of course, is the easiest to see," her sister
said without flinching. She folded the sheets farther back,
exposing what appeared to be a male body, intact from the hips
down. Kirien stared, her cheeks burning. "Um, how?
I mean, isn't he...normal?" "You're blushing. I forget you
don't know some things us old married ladies do." Key grinned and
turned back to the specimen. "Yes, little sister, this is an
apparently normal set of male genitalia. What isn't normal is the
pouch in the abdominal wall into which it can withdraw."
| 
