And if she fell on her nose now, right when Mum and Dad trusted her most-they'd probably restrict her to the dome forever and ever.
"Not worth it," she sighed, jumping down from her stool. She frowned as she noticed that the pins-and-needles feeling in her toes still hadn't gone away. It had been there when she woke up this morning. It had been there yesterday too, and the day before, but by breakfast it had worn off.
Well, it didn't bother her that much, and it wouldn't take her mind off her Latin lesson. Too bad, too.
"Boring language," she muttered. "Ick, ack, ock!"
Well, the sooner she got it over with, the better off she'd be, and she could go back to nice logical quadratics.
The pins-and-needles feeling hadn't worn off by afternoon, and although she felt all right, she decided that since Mum and Dad were trusting her to do everything right, she probably ought to talk to the AI about it
Socrates, engage Medic Mode, please," she said, sitting reluctantly in the tiny medic station. She really didn't like being in the medic-station; it smelled of disinfectant and felt like being in a too-small pressure suit. It was just about the size of a tiny lav, but something about it made it feel smaller. Maybe because it was dark inside. And of course, since it had been made for adults, the proportions were all wrong for her. In order to reach hand-plates she had to scoot to the edge of the seat, and in order to reach foot-plates she had to get right off the seat entirely. The screen in front of her lit up with the smiling holo of someone that was supposed to be a doctor. Privately, she doubted that the original had ever been any closer to medicine than wearing the jumpsuit. He just looked too polished. Too trustworthy, too handsome, too competent. Any time there was anything official she had to interface with that seemed to scream trust me at her, she immediately distrusted it and went very wary. Probably the original for this holo had been an actor. Maybe he made adults feel calm, but he made her think about the Psychs and their too-hearty greetings, their nosy questions.
"Well, Tia," said the AI's voice, changed to that of the 'doctor'. "What brings you here?"
"My toes feel like they're asleep," she said dutifully. "They kind of tingle."
"Is that all?" the 'doctor' asked, after a moment for the AI to access his library of symptoms. "Are they colder than normal? Put your hand on the hand-plate, and your foot on the foot-plate, Tia."
She obeyed, feeling very like a contortionist "Well, the circulation seems to be fine," the 'doctor' said, after the AI had a chance to read temperature and blood pressure, both of which appeared in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. "Have you any other symptoms?"
"No," she replied. "Not really." The 'doctor' froze for a moment, as the AI analyzed all the other readings it had taken from her during the past few days; what she'd eaten and how much, what she'd done, her sleep patterns.
The 'doctor' unfroze. "Sometimes when children start growing very fast, they get odd sensations in their bodies," the AI said. "A long time ago, those were called 'growing pains'. Now we know it's because sometimes different kinds of tissue grow at different rates. I think that's probably what your problem is, Tia, and I don't think you need to worry about it. I'll prescribe some vitamin supplements for you, and in a few days you should be just fine."
"Thank you," she said politely, and made her escape, relieved to have gotten off so lightly.
And in a few days, the pins-and-needles did go away, and she thought no more about it. Thought no more, that is, until she went outside to her new 'dig' and did something she hadn't done in a year, she fell down. Well, she didn't exactly fall; she thought she'd sidestepped a big rock, but she hadn't. She rammed her toes right into it and went heavily to her knees.
The suit was intact, she discovered to her relief, and she was quite ready to get up and keep going, until she realized that her foot didn't hurt. And it should have, if she'd rammed it against the outcropping hard enough to throw her to the ground.
So instead of going on, she went back to the dome and pealed off suit and shoe and sock, and found her foot was completely numb, but black-and-blue where she had slammed it into the unyielding stone.
When she prodded it experimentally, she discovered that her whole foot was numb, from the toes back to the arch. She peeled off her other shoe and sock, and found that her left foot was as numb as her right
"Decom it," she muttered. This surely meant another check-in with the medic.
Once again she climbed into the claustrophobic little closet at the back of the dome and called up the 'doctor'.
"Still got pins-and-needles, Tia?" he said cheerfully, as she wriggled on the hard seat.
"No," she replied, "But I've mashed my foot something awful. It's all black-and-blue."
"Put it on the foot-plate, and I'll scan it," the 'doctor' replied. "I promise, it won't hurt a bit."
Of course it won't, it doesn't hurt now, she thought resentfully, but did as she was told.
"Well, no bones broken, but you certainly did bruise it!" the 'doctor' said after a moment. Then he added archly, "What were you doing, kicking the tutor?"
"No," she muttered. She really hated it when the AI program made it get patronizing. "I stubbed it on a rock, outside."
"Does it hurt?" the 'doctor' continued, oblivious to her resentment.
"No," she said shortly. "It's all numb."
"Well, if it does, I've authorized your bathroom to give you some pills," the 'doctor' said with cloying cheer. "Just go right ahead and take them if you need them. You know how to get them."
The screen shut down before she had a chance to say anything else. I guess it isn't anything to worry about, she decided. The AI would have said something otherwise. It'll probably go away.
But it didn't go away, although the bruises healed. Before long she had other bruises, and the numbness of her feet extended to her ankles. But she told herself that the AI had said it would go away, eventually, and anyway, this wasn't so bad, at least when she mashed herself it didn't hurt.
She continued to play at her own little excavation, the new one, which she had decided was a grave-site. The primitives burned their dead though, and only buried the ashes with their flint-replicas of the skygods' wonderful things, hoping that the dearly departed would be reincarnated as sky-gods and return in wealth and triumph.
It wasn't as much fun though, without Mum and Dad to talk to; and she was getting kind of tired of the way she kept tripping and falling over the uneven ground at the new 'site'. She hadn't damaged her new suit yet, but there were sharp rocks that could rip holes even in the tough suit fabric, and if her suit was torn, there would go the promised Family Day.
So, finally, she gave up on it and spent her afternoons inside.
A few nights later, Pota peeked in her room to see if she was still awake.
"I wanted you to know we were still flesh-and-blood and not holos, pumpkin," her mum said, sitting down on the side of her bed. "How are your excavations coming?"
Tia shook her head. "I kept tripping on things, and I didn't want to tear my suit," she explained. "I think that the Flint People must have put a curse on their grave-site. I don't think I should dig there anymore."