The Beloved Pet Ch8
#9 of The Beloved Pet (Abandoned)
Having a cold in space is no fun. Just ask the crew of Apollo 7.
Posted to DA on 7/15/08
Posted to FA on 5/28/09
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"In Sickness"
As the weeks passed I learned more and more about my Master and the society in which he resided. For example, I found out that Arc's have a much longer life span then Terrans. My Master is 87 years old, and by Arc standards, still relatively young. If he were human, he would be in his early twenties and only a year or two older than me. Like most twenty something's my Master and I are in a slightly awkward transition between the family of our birth and the family one forms on their own. No wonder he wanted a warm companion. He also mentioned that while the average terran life-span one earth was roughly 80 years, with the sophisticated medical care made available with in the Arc Empire, it was not uncommon for terrans to live to ages of 200. Of course Arc's will commonly live to 600.
I also asked how much Master had paid for me, an action which I thought he would consider rude since it is generally impolite to ask about a gifts price, even when your the self-given gift. However he found my interest humorous rather than rude. He said that I cost him 345,000 credits and then also offered several comparisons. While wild terrans are classified as rare pets, they are on average the third most expensive; My good friend Sodar cost 725,000 credits, while the Akai almost always cost over a million credits and often are not available because so few are captured. Of course there are also captive bred and common wild pets, for those who are not as well off as my Master, who often can cost as low as 5,000 credits.
While I was warming up to my new Master, something that was warming up to me had escaped my attention. While what resulted from this was unpleasant, it gave me a chance to spend more time in the company of my Master as well as proved to me that Entei carried greatly for my well-being. The first I noticed was light sinus congestion that lasted for a few days prior. I though nothing of this, as I had plenty of experience with the symptoms of the common cold. Then one night I woke up unable to stop shivering. I thought of getting out of bed and telling my Master of this, however, he was more than likely asleep as I had been and I was also very tired from my inability to stop shivering. As a result, I spent the rest of the night shaking uncontrollably despite the comfortable environment coming from the room I was in and the collar I was wearing. The night passed slowly and my only company came in the morning when my Master came in wondering why I had not awakened. Normally I would have finished breakfast by the time he came in. He rushed over and after he mentioned that he knew what was ailing me. With this he left saying that he would be back in under a minute and left one of his servants with me in case my condition worsened. I looked up at who my master had left to watch me and to my surprise he looked like the avian I had met all so long ago. However I knew he was not the same as his voice was different. While waiting for Master to return, he gently proceeded to rub my back and speak to me in a gentle manner. While this calmed my shaking a little, I still did not catch anything he said even with my collar translating. In any case my Master returned in hardly any time at all and in his hands was a large pelt of thick white fur, which was about the size of queen size bed sheets. He quickly wrapped me in its soft warmth, which calmed my shivers to a considerable degree. He then picked me up and proceeded to explain what was affecting me. Sure enough it was related to the common cold, and yet conceivably different. Viruses like the earth common cold have the ability to mutate after each person the infect. As a result there are hundreds of variants of the common cold and one spend their entire life getting infected with a different virus. With in the Arc Empire, cold viruses like the many I knew on earth almost never resulted in a noticeable infection due to various treatments to improve the immune system including nano robots. One strain, however, defied attempts at control. In adapting to survival in a hostile environment, this strain of the common cold lost its ability to mutate promiscuously, yet through some unknown means, gained the ability to defy all vaccines and treatment. The good news was that it had a mortality rate of 0.0001 percent, and with treatment to alleviate the symptoms that was easily negated. Also once one has gotten a light to moderate infection the bodies natural immunity prevented subsequent infections. As a result I would be spending the next week in the near constant company of my Master, until the infection had burned itself out, which would take about one or two weeks. Of course having considerably warmed up to my master, I couldn't complain. The only time I would not be in the presence of my master would be whenever he was using the restrooms, during which I would be briefly handed off to his most trusted servant. At this point I was still lightly shivering and in a groggy state since I had spent the previous night unable to stay still. My Master noticed this, and gently placed his freehand on top of my head, all the while explaining that his telepathic abilities, besides enabling him to read minds, also allowed him to control the sensations of others by touch. With this the pain that had occupied my thoughts, both the chills from the infection and the soreness from shivering, disappeared, leaving only the warmth of the pelt and close presence of my Master. He explained that the two sensations, which had previously occupied my thoughts, would now be stopped at the spinal column and were, at least to my senses, nonexistent. He compared it to a circuit breaker, which he would need to close again in a day or two.
With this he went about his daily errands, all the while gently carrying my barely conscious form. Through-ought this I was only aware of what was immediately around me, with the exception of one of my Masters guests who commented on how humorously pets acted when sick. I wanted to yell obscenities at him, but all that escaped my mouth was a light moan. Master remarked with a light chuckle that his guest might not want to know what I was thinking, and the brief exchange was left at that. When the night arrived he kept his promise by allowing me to sleep with him. At first I was a little worried that in tossing and turning he would inadvertently crush me. After a few minutes these fears looked to be unfounded and I joined my Master in slumber. I awoke the next morning in my Masters arms, as he was busy preparing something. Focusing my senses for a brief moment I smelled a scent, which I instantly recognized, hot coco. My master noticed my awareness of my situation mentioned that he thought I might like this, to which I gave a weak affirmative. Having finished, he handed me a small cup filled with the delicious drink, which I cautiously drank to avoiding burning my self. The sensation of the drink, both the taste and the sensation going down my throat, put me at ease and afterwards I quickly thanked my Master. The days that followed passed quickly as I felt quite relaxed in the arms of my Master and as a result of improvements to my condition. A week after the symptoms began, they had subsided to the point of being negligible. Though having such a disease sucked, my Masters actions alleviated the symptoms and left me with new certainty of his intentions.