The Gender End by Bella Forrest (the giving tree read aloud TXT) 📕

big of a risk to my people as you are assuming I am to yours. This is the first contact any one of my people have had with anyone in The Outlands, and I’m also in uncertain waters. I definitely didn’t think I’d be meeting other humans this morning.”

“The Outlands? Is that what you call the Wastes?” asked Raevyn.

I opened my mouth to reply, just as Devon asked, “So your people have explored The Outlands before?” and I nodded.

“Yes to both questions. Parties have gone out… They haven’t come back. No one ever comes back from The Outlands. But honestly, our coming out here wasn’t even intentional. Our ship was damaged, and we’re… we’re just trying to make our way back home.”

“I’m sorry, but that’s not good enough, Miss…”

“Bates,” Jathem supplied for Raevyn, and she nodded absentmindedly.

“Bates. We have no guarantee that you won’t return with your people in a whole fleet of those gyroships with who knows how many weapons. Frankly, for you to think we can allow you to—”

There was a sharp crack, cutting Raevyn off, and I looked down to see CS Sage pulling the sides of my cast open. Immediately I felt the urge to gag as the smell of unwashed, dirty skin and old sweat wafted out from under the cast, my face flushing with embarrassment.

Sage wrinkled his nose, clucked his tongue, and pulled a small silver spray can from his pocket, spraying it all over my arm. The mist was cool, but not uncomfortable, and my skin began to tingle as the smell all but evaporated. He took a tissue out of a box and wiped at the skin, the white material quickly turning black, and my blush deepened.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, and he shook his head.

“Not at all, but that is why these are more primitive methods. Your skin can mold or get an infection or irritation. I bet it has been itching a lot too.”

“It really has,” I replied, thinking of all the times I had almost lost a pen trying to use it to scratch under the cast.

“Not surprising,” he said, tossing the tissue aside. My arm continued to tingle, the aching pain of the break fading away, and I gave it a considering look.

“Is that it?”

“Ha! Hardly. I think we can do a bit better than that.”

He reached up and pressed something on the screen. Immediately a small section of the wall opened, and a thick plastic sheet came out, feeding through some kind of dispenser. Sage let it run and then tore it off. Indicating for me to lift my arm, he carefully wrapped the plastic sheet around it, looping it around and pressing it down against itself. He held it in place for just a moment, and then let go.

Amazingly, the plastic stayed in place, and I almost sagged in relief at how much better my arm suddenly felt. What was more interesting were two things: the first was that it was incredibly lightweight and left my hand completely free and useable. The second thing I noticed was that the plastic was actually comprised of dozens of hexagonal shapes, seemingly filled with some sort of gelatinous substance.

My hand still had stitches in it from where Tabitha had driven a knife through it, but the skin was almost completely healed, and CS Sage was already snipping and pulling the stitches out—after giving the area a quick blast with that silver canister again. I gasped involuntarily as he yanked at the thread, but the expected pain didn’t come. Maybe the silver canister contained a pain reliever as well as a disinfectant? It seemed to do everything at once.

“The material will allow your skin to breathe while simultaneously pumping in the necessary ingredients for rapid bone growth and recovery,” CS Sage said, noticing my scrutiny of the plastic wrapping. “On a fresh break, it would take about twenty-four hours, give or take the severity of the breaks. Since this is older, it should take less time.”

He finished the stitches and placed a bandage over both sides of my hand to absorb the blood. “This is a knife wound,” he stated flatly. “Easy enough to spot, and even easier to heal, but I’m a little curious as to how you came to get it, young lady.”

“Someone stabbed me,” I replied dryly, and he grinned, showing no sign of annoyance at my sarcasm. “Listen, I really appreciate you taking a look at me, but would you mind also taking a look at my friends? A few of them are in even worse shape than I was in, and it would really mean the world to me if you could help them.”

CS Sage was now tsking over the scab covering up the hole in my head. He moved so quickly for such an old man, it was hard not to be impressed with just how filled with vitality he was. Soon another piece of that gelatinous material was pressed against my head, and immediately the dull ache I had been carrying there for weeks was gone. I hadn’t even been aware it was there until it disappeared.

“Before we can even begin to discuss what to do with your shipmates,” announced Raevyn matter-of-factly, her arms still crossed over her chest, “we have to decide what to do with you.”

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10

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Violet

“She’ll have to remain here,” Devon announced casually, his hands clasped in front of him. He looked around at the other councilors and shrugged. “She and her companions both. We’ll have to… integrate them into our society. They’ll be given the net, of course, but after that we’ll be able to begin dissecting their gyroship. The ability to achieve flight would be of… great use to us.”

I felt a trill of alarm at the hungry tone of his voice, like he was excited by the prospect of kidnapping three women in order to get his hands on the heloship. In fact, we were obstacles to his goals. I could tell he thought he was being gracious