Antibodies 22

Printer-friendly version

Author: 

Audience Rating: 

Publication: 

Genre: 

Character Age: 

TG Elements: 

TG Themes: 

Permission: 

Antibodies 22

© Copyright BG Taff

Characters.
Verna Spiro Type one Virus
Nana Bev, Interplanetary prospector.
Jamie, Bev’s younger prospecting Partner.
Dennis Potter Freight manager and old friend of Beverly’s.
Jack Godfrey Yard foreman and walking boss.
Charlotte and Lucy - Jamie’s younger dancing & clubbing friends.
Rose and Violet. Cis-girl friends of Jamie.
Dr Williams Virologist
Jennifer Jamie’s girlfriend. (Sleeping partner.)
Shirley Jamie’s niece.
Dafydd Bev’s older brother.
Digger Beverly’s first ship.
Miner Beverly’s second, larger and newbuild ship.

Jamie and I completed a brief paired voyage to the moon which was the first we had enjoyed since the twins were born.

It was only a three-day quickie but it was pleasant to settle into the old familiar routines we had previously shared before Jamie had branched out to command her own craft. It was really a delight to be quietly scanning the charts then to find a sippy cup of tea at one’s elbow, having been delivered by a crewmate who knew my every nuanced habit or preference.

As I smiled my thanks she struck her familiar pose with her bum-cheeks wedged against the pilot saddle and her knee wedged under the comms panel.

“Has the family been in touch; about you brother that is?” She asked.

I leaned back and wagged my head slowly.

“Not yet. And they’re under instructions not to mention the family rendezvous. We’ll sort it out back on earth. Space comms are notoriously public.”

“You’re going to have to get a scrambler set to encrypt private stuff.”

“I’ve never needed one before.”

“You’ve never had a family before. That gives you a long tail and somebody’s bound to find out. The words hostage or blackmail spring to mind. There’s always a mouth ready to jabber, jabber, jabber.”

“Ayye!” I sighed. “Ain’t that the truth.”

Our chat was interrupted by Earth advising us of our approach protocol and we prepared to make our approach. Jamie took the pilot seat while I put the cups away and logged in our docking intentions. An hour later we were parked in Dennis’s yard and I was chatting to Dennis to arrange my brotherly meeting during the weekend when Dennis’s yard was normally closed.

“Looking forward to meeting him?” Dennis asked.

“Mostly just curious; you know – what he looks like and stuff. He was quite a bit older than me. He was first born, then there was a long gap before I and my sisters turned up ten to fifteen years later.”

“So by the time you were thrown out he was long gone.” Dennis surmised.

“Oh hell yes. He would have been about twenty-six or seven. While growing up, I only saw him at family gatherings for Christmas and such.
I Never even went to his wedding for I was long gone by then. He was thirty something while I was about twenty-one or two by then and doing my vagabond thing with Digger.”

“So. When are you arranging to meet him? The yard’s available from 1800 Sat through to Sunday midnight.”

“I’ve arrange it for Sunday morning at ten, are you okay with that?”

“Are you having anybody else there?”

“Jamie will be loitering nearby but it’ll just be Dafydd and me. I suspect he’s got issues with our mother as well; we might even have common ground.”

“Well good luck. There’s makings for coffee or tea in my secretary’s office.”

The following morning I received a message advising me that Dafydd would rendezvous as agreed so I made my way to Dennis’s yard while Jamie loitered above in Digger, which she had now fully claimed as her own ship.

ooo000ooo

I did not have long to wait. We had agreed to meet in my new ship called Miner and I would let him in via the side gate which was discreetly tucked beside the freight warehouse. His private grav could be parked in a communal carpark, so as not to attract attention. All he had to do was step out and walk a couple of yards to a gate that was remotely controlled from Dennis’s office and several other locations including the control room of my new ship Miner. It served mainly as an emergency fire exit and was rarely used otherwise.

I tested the gate several times while I waited for my brother Dafydd, then his grav appeared and settled in the large communal public carpark. Most of the other businesses were closed for the Sunday but a couple were working and he landed near a group of other gravs as he recognised the gate I had described.

I followed him on the cameras and eventually he stood beside my ship as I lowered the steps.

“Come on up, I offered as I stood at the top of the short companion-ladder. “

“Berwyn?” He asked uncertainly.

“It’s Beverly now. D’ you want tea or coffee.”

“Have you something stronger?”

“Sorry, I don’t drink.”

I noticed his eyes narrow uncertainly and wondered if he was already a victim of some corporate cultures. I did not spot any tell tail signs of alcohol abuse so I put the issue to the back of my mind.

“Can we get straight down to business. Are you prepared to donate some blood to me?”

“Has our mother not told you?”

“She said I had to speak to you.”

“The answer’s yes for you and our brothers-in-law.”

“Oh, that’s a relief.”

“I thought our mother had told you.”

“She doesn’t communicate much to me. She didn’t see me having a long life until you showed up with your blood vaccine.”

“Yes, I got that impression when I met her last time at the hotel.

By now he was in the cabin and looking around at Miner’s technically advanced bridge. Then his eyes fell on the kettle and he declared his preference for coffee.

“It’s instant coffee, I’m afraid. I grew up with it during my pauper youth and the habit’s stuck.”

“Instant’s okay; any biscuits?”

“In the tin in the rack.”

“I’d have thought you’d have had a galley and mess room.”

“Why? It’s usually a one-man operation; or two if Jamie joins me, though she’s got her own ship now.”

“Yes, mother mentioned you had a wife.”

“I don’t have a wife. Jamie’s my bestie and first mate when she’s with me. She’s the mother of our children though. You can meet her if you want.”

Dafydd squinted at me judgementally and I began to wonder if he had the same narrow morality as our mother. I didn’t bother trying to explain; I simply warned him that I lived by a very different set of values to our mother. My community was very close and protective of each other.

He agreed to meet Jamie and stared curiously at the much-scarred hull of Digger as Jamie landed next to us.

“She’s a bit of an old banger isn’t she?”

“She’s sound. I used her for years and Jamie’s happy to use her as seed-corn towards expanding our business. Jamie’s more ambitious than me and want’s to own a fleet of ships.”

“How did she get all those dents and scratches in her hull?”

“I took a lot of suicidal risks when I started out. I worked single-handedly mostly amongst the asteroid belt. The risks were high but I had little to live for. I came close to death a few times. One time I had to live in my spacesuit all the way back to Earth when an asteroid pierced the hull. Fortunately, there was no inspectorate then, sticking their noses into private affairs. With luck and secrecy early prospectors could make a lot of money provided they kept their discoveries secret.”

“Yes, I remember the mineral auctions back then. Good places to get yourself robbed or killed until the mineral exchanges were set up. How did you avoid being followed and claim-jumped?”

“As I said, I went into dangerous places and digger was a tough little patrol ship. She was Great-Grandpa Charlie’s first attempt at long distance exploration and he built her to a very tough spec. She could literally bounce off an asteroid while searching inside the asteroid belt or planetary rings. And of course she was fast. They had considered turning her into a museum piece and she was lying forgotten and neglected when I came across her, so I used our family connections to get the title to her. The rest is history as they say.”

As I explained this, Jamie had parked Digger next to Miner in the yard and then let herself in to my ship.

“What’s goin’ on Babes?” She asked while eyeing up Dafydd suspiciously.

“Believe it or not love, this is my older brother Dafydd. Dafydd, meet my friend and companion Jamie.”

Jamie extended a limp lady-like hand and raised a questioning eyebrow as I explained.

“I’ve agree to give him and my brothers-in-law some vaccine from my own blood.”

“I thought it was agreed; no favouritism. Vaccines were to be given strictly on worth and merit.”

“Are you saying I’m not worthy?” Dafydd bristled at Jamie.

“I hardly know you,” Jamie countered, “it’s just that there is an agreement with the Oxford clinic and Professor Williams the virologist. She’s very philanthropical and the distribution of the vaccine is based strictly on merit. Has she ratified your eligibility?”

Dafydd frowned and turned to me: “But we’re family’ we’re not breaking any rules.”

I hesitated then explained.

“The recipient has to fulfil certain criteria. Academic excellence, engineering achievements, medicine, philanthropical or charitable endeavour and so on. Then he and his immediate family members are eligible, if the Oxford panel agree.”

“That sounds like Nazi Eugenics to me,” Dafydd argued.

“There’s not that much vaccine going around,” Jamie observed, “not when compared with the billions of needy.”

She turned to me and cautioned.

“I think you’re on a slippery slope Bev. Once the charge of nepotism is levelled at you you’ll be vulnerable.”

“Oh come on Jamie, it’s my blood and he’s my brother. He’s family.”

“Family?” Jamie raised that questioning eyebrow again.

Dafydd immediately sensed the censure and protested.

“I wasn’t responsible for what our father did.”

“Na-ah; maybe not; but you didn’t seek to help your brother, a fifteen-year-old kid thrown out on the streets.”

“I wasn’t there, I was working away from home then. I only found out during the next family Christmas and by then Bev had disappeared. And she was sixteen not fifteen.”

Jamie had perfected the art of expression and Dafydds’ defence about age just evinced another withering look. Unwilling to come between my brother and my best friend I settled the argument there and then.

“D’ you think I’m worthy of the vaccine Babe’s.”

“Don’t be daft!”

“It’s a fair question.”

“I’m not thinking of you or Dafydd. I’m thinking of the Oxford board. If you bypass their rules, you discredit the whole system and invite mayhem or worse, some sort of insurrection.”

I sensed Jamie’s hidden agenda here.

She was using a genuine moral and realistic argument to punish my family for abandoning me because of my transgenderism. This was in no small part because she too had suffered during her childhood because of her gender problems. Still in her early twenties she still carried the scars despite her sister having shown the utmost empathy by donating her whole reproductive system for experimental transplant.

I took Jamie aside and quietly expressed my thoughts about this and Jamie tearfully conceded that I was right. She was still loath to forgive however and I got a deeper insight into how much Jamie felt for me and all transgendered issues. The anger still burned hot within her.

I chatted to her softly about unrequited hurt and slowly lanced the boil of frustration that was gnawing at her innards. I can’t say that I was wholly successful but she tempered enough to agree to visit the Oxford board and present my case concerning my brother and brothers-in-law.

Having given my friend something concrete to deflect her anger, she helped me deliver sufficient blood to infuse a small donation of pure blood into my brother’s arm then visit the rest of my family to complete the work with my brothers-in-law.

We did not treat the younger boys because they did not yet need a vaccine and young boys are want to boast about anything they perceive to be advantageous over their contemporaries. I did not want my efforts to become public if I could help it. In truth, Jamie was right, unless the board deemed me or one of my family to be eligible for the vaccine; even though I was the individual who produced the antibodies.

I was convinced that I was entitled to donate my blood as I saw fit but a lifetime of transgendered experience with lawyers had taught me that legal minds functioned very differently from realistic minds.

ooo000ooo

up
147 users have voted.
If you liked this post, you can leave a comment and/or a kudos! Click the "Thumbs Up!" button above to leave a Kudos

Comments

Long time

Welcome back !