From Ad Astra: That was an impressive piece of work Nerys. To disscover the incident behind Berat's injuries and even to understand a little of the pain he endured then and afterwards as even his own vessel's power caused him further pain. An agony in an of itself. I like the build up, the ticking clock effect, that winds the story along. Very effective at driving the thrust of the story onwards. Good stuff.
Thank you so, so much. I've had this in my head for a LONG time, and to finally see it on "paper"...it's really something. He copes much better now, but he will never be free of the pain, and his hands only improve somewhat after this. To me the whole, entire incident is an absolute tragedy. And not just for Berat.
True it isn't just a tragedy for Berat. The poor kid too. Not to mention the fall out for the colonists - especially given how fair Berat would have been as a governor.
Berat wouldn't have been the governor...more like the local military patrol/liaison officer, had things worked out right. The human governor would've stayed in place. It sucks, though, how because of what happened, Evek came in and did God only knows what to the colonists.
There are hints of it in "Let He Who Has Eyes See," actually. Tekeny Ghemor and Turrel ended up getting hold of Berat's petition to stay in the service, and making it actually happen. Ghemor sent one of his staff officers, Glinn Bresul Yejain, to become Berat's new first officer and aide. Upon Yejain's arrival, Berat held a meeting with his senior officers (those ranked dalin and above) and went over in frank detail what it was going to mean serving under him now that he had this disability. He offered any of that rank who wished it to transfer off of the Sherouk without prejudice (Ghemor and Turrel would've helped with the reassignments). Everyone offered the choice chose to stay.