Tori (Patreon)

When I took the poll, Tori got so many votes! I'm so glad you guys are enjoying her tale. So here's a little scene that I really think you'll be excited about.

But fair warning, SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! this scene does presume you've read the first Tori book, Reaper's Lottery. If you haven't yet, but plan to, you should probably skip this scene—it will reveal something you won't want to know in advance.

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Up on Level 4, the attractive, older male gasped in shock when Tori opened the door. He rushed over and immediately apologized. “I’m so sorry, ma’am. You startled me.” He held out a paw and Tori rested her weight upon it, then he led her slowly across the empty med bay to a reclining exam chair.

“It’s okay,” said Tori. Her heart beat quickly. She had such terrible memories now of being in med bay, but if this doctor really could help her… More than anything, she was afraid to get her hopes up. “I’m getting used to it.”

“Sulfur exposure?” he confirmed, just barely touching the sides of her face with his pads. When she nodded, he added, “But not aboard this ship. I would have heard about it.”

“I just transferred here, yesterday.”

His fingers hovered, as if he wanted to push her eyelids open farther, but was hesitant to touch, so she opened her eyes as wide as she could. “I’ve never seen such extensive damage in a living patient … but your eyes? Your lungs?”

“Cloned replacements,” explained Tori.

“Amazing. You’ve taken so much damage. I suspect that with any additional exposure, not even cloned replacements will save you,” he said with a smile. He took a step back and rested his paws on his hips. Unlike the usual horror she saw in people’s expressions, the doctor’s ears were up, optimistic. Perhaps he knew how—

“With your permission, I’d love to write an article—a series of articles, actually—about the long-term effects of such an extreme case of sulfur poisoning.” Tori’s ruined ears fell, but the doctor kept talking. “There’s been plenty of documentation about injuries this severe, of course, but I’ve never read a study about anyone who has survived it. Well,” he corrected himself with a shake of his head, “some have survived, but I’ve never read a case where the company administrators authorized reconstructive surgery—”

Tori sat up straight, composed herself, and tried to lock her self-pity away in the corner of her mind. “Actually, Doctor Amhela,” Tori interrupted, despite how he had not gotten around to introducing himself, “I came here to find a surgeon who could fix me up.”

The doctor’s blue eyes opened wide and his brown ears fell. “Oh … no … I’m so sorry. I don’t know who misled you, but,” he gestured helplessly at her scar-speckled coat, “there’s nothing I could do to fix this. The damage is just too—”

Tori’s heart pounded. Aziz had warned her that this wasn’t going to be easy, but for her to get what she wanted, she would have to pretend that it was. “Nonsense, Doctor,” she scoffed. “I happen to know that if anyone aboard this ship could perform a successful brain transplant, it’s you.”

His ears flattened, his expression puzzled. He stared for several seconds before speaking again, and when he did, his voice was significantly quieter. “I suppose,” he said, “it’s physically possible to clone you a new body and I’m capable of transplanting your brain into it. But that’s just semantics. It’s never going to happen. The resources alone would be such an investment … there’s no way the company administrators would ever—”

“Administrators are easily bribed,” she reassured him, smiling wide. “In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever met a geroo who wasn’t. Some just expect more credits than others.”

Amhela shook his head in disdain. “Well, I don’t know what sort of geroo you’re accustomed to dealing with—”

She offered her paw. “Tori. Please, call me Tori.”

He touched her pads very gently with his own. “I’m sorry, Tori. All of my patients up here on four are very wealthy. They treat me quite well. And if you think that I’d risk everything I’ve worked for my entire life, just for a few credits…” He reached out and touched the cheap necklace around Tori’s neck.

She immediately put both her paws to the necklace, and a cold sweat erupted down her spine. Crap! I was so excited to see a doctor that could help, I didn’t even stop to think about disguising myself as someone who could afford his help! What will I do?

Her heart raced and she tried to swallow with a dry throat.

Then she chuckled.

It felt good, so she did it again, louder this time.

Soon she was yarping hard and wiping at her freshly cloned eyes. “Oh, Doctor!” she laughed. “You would not believe just how many geroo I had to bribe to arrange a transfer to this ship. Simply everyone had their strand out, waiting to get their share.”

She sighed and leaned back on her palms. “I bribed my doctor, back on the Harvest Reaper III, to swap around my medical records so that when I came here, no one would realize who I was.” She shook her head and grinned. “I suppose I could have saved myself a hundred and fifty thousand credits, huh? All it took to convince you that I’m a lower-deck nobody were a handful of tarnished beads on a dirty, old length of string!”

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S17aMtAHLviqLVkU3rWqHiktObMzORA0YuzC3BliEGU/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?