Allenvy runs out of the door, in a panic, and looks around wildly for the guard. He runs towards the border kiosk, yelling for help.
Zilfred comes out of the kiosk.
Zilfred: What's happening, Sosu? Hajene Pansy's still up the road with the kid.
Zilfred figures it must be bad if a Donor is panicking in front of a renSime. He does his best to stay cool. After all, the Donor is pretty young and inexperienced.
Allenvy is out of breath from running. He hasn't yet reached the stage of Donor training that involves having to learn to keep up with channels all the time.
Allenvy: Zilfred, he's... they're... the man who came in just a few seconds ago, he attacked those out-T women, and now they're fighting! There was blood all over the place!
Zilfred: Okay, I'll come with you and sort it out.
Zilfred isn't looking forward to zlinning a bunch of uncontrolled violent out-T Gens, but he reads a lot of adventure magazines.
Zilfred: You help me out, eh?
Zilfred straightens his border guard uniform and badge and marches toward the Tecton facility.
Allenvy nods, and follows him, trying to keep his ~~ panic ~~ out of his nager.
Zilfred marches up the porch and into the building. He's glad to zlin that one Gen is low field and one is unconscious. Well, not exactly glad about the latter, but it helps the ambient.
Portia is sitting on the couch, glaring at the unconscious Herb and holding Dilena's hand. She zlins more than a little ~~ belligerent ~~.
Dilena is the low-field one, and she's trying to hold on to her emotions with both hands, as she assumes correctly that the Sime who's just come in is not a channel.
Zilfred zlins the unconscious man. He doesn't seem to be having any trouble breathing or anything.
Zilfred: What seems to be the problem here, Gens?
Portia: The problem is that Herb there seems to think he owns Dilena. Which he doesn't. Not on this side of the border, anyway.
Zilfred: Herb is the one who's been beaten unconscious?
Dilena: Well, yes, but we also needed to make sure that he stopped attacking.
Portia: He wouldn't stop trying to drag Dilena away. So we defended ourselves.
Zilfred: Rather violently, I see. You do realize that that kind of behavior can drive a Sime to kill, don't you? Just from being nearby when it happens?
Dilena: Believe me, I wouldn't have dreamed of it if this --
Dilena points at Herb with the toe of her shoe.
Dilena: -- wasn't behaving like a wild animal.
Portia: If there had been somebody else around, Herb wouldn't have been so determined to kidnap Dilena.
Zilfred looks at Allenvy, pointedly.
Allenvy: I was trying to help them, but he just barged right in the door. Hajene had to go outside to assist with a changeover.
Zilfred: Yes, she told me.
Portia: So there you have it. We were the only ones around to stop him, so we did.
Zilfred crouches down and has a closer look at Herb.
Zilfred: How much of this damage was done after this man was down?
Dilena: When he was down, or when he stopped trying to fight back?
Zilfred: Down, I'd say. After you knocked him out.
Dilena: None of it.
Zilfred: Hm.
Dilena: But where we come from, men don't stop fighting just because someone trips them.
Portia: We stopped hitting him when he stopped trying to get up.
Zilfred: Two on one.
Allenvy: This was a really violent Gen, you know -- one of those types.
Zilfred: More than one violent Gen. Three, I'd say.
Zilfred shakes his head.
Zilfred: None of them the kind we'd want to risk having around innocent renSimes.
Allenvy nods gravely.
Dilena ~~ loses all her bravado ~~ on hearing this.
Dilena: If you send us back, he will do it again. Of course your hands will be clean. ~~ bitterness ~~ And Gen law will back him up, no matter who starts it.
Portia: Dilena will never be able to see her daughter again.
Zilfred: You two seem to have gotten him under control by your own out-T methods here, why not on your side of the the border? If we let you into Nivet, you could drive some renSime to kill, and then she'd die of it -- two innocent lives lost.
Allenvy isn't an expert on Gen law, although he has heard some very strange things about it being biased in favor of men, for some inexplicable reason.
Portia: We two can control him, if nobody else interferes. Out there...
Portia gestures towards the border.
Portia: a man can pretty much do what he wants with his wife, and the law will enforce it.
Portia is ~~ bitter ~~.
Dilena: Beatings, rapes, you name it.
Zilfred shrugs.
Zilfred: So go live somewhere else. We don't want violent people in Nivet. Violent Gens are a menace to public health.
Dilena: Herb is a menace to our health. When we came in, we told Hajene Pansy we were fleeing persecution. After all, you let him through. Why didn't you... sense his intention?
Zilfred: He wasn't violent then, he was just pissed off, and being rude about showing it. Lots of you out-T Gens have no manners.
Dilena: Well, what if he had become violent? Wouldn't you have forcibly restrained him?
Zilfred: Sure. But not before. That would be assault on my part.
Portia: In fact, he did become violent. And instead of stopping him, that fellow there just ran off.
Portia points ~~ accusingly ~~ at Allenvy.
Zilfred: He ran off to get me, and by the time I got here, you two had done quite a number on him.
Portia: What did you expect us to do? Let him drag Dilena back across the border to where he can beat her as much as he wants, with her having no right to object?
Zilfred shakes his head again.
Zilfred: I'd recommend that the two of you clear out before he wakes up and charges you with assault under Nivet law. That's a very serious offense here, because of what it does to the ambient.
Dilena: We stopped him. By any means necessary.
Allenvy: ~~ defensively ~~ Well, I don't know how to fight an angry Wild Gen! No one ever taught me. Besides, I didn't want to add anything to the bad ambient.
Portia: So you didn't even try when he started swinging at Dilena.
Zilfred doesn't point out that by then there were no Simes around to zlin it.
Allenvy: I tried to step between them, but he punched me!
Allenvy rubs the side of his face, which is sore from Herb's right cross.
Zilfred: Out-T Gens are like that, son.
Allenvy: And that's why I don't want to deal with them when they're angry!
Zilfred sighs deeply.
Portia: Bullies like Herb don't go away just because you "don't want to deal with them". They just get more violent.
Dilena: Anyway, how can it be assault? Don't you recognize self-defense? Or do your crazies just whale on people who aren't allowed to hit back?
Zilfred: He's in much worse shape than any of you three right now. Self-defense is one thing, excessive force is another.
Allenvy: Why don't you just make weapons to knock them out when they're angry? You ruined a perfectly good lamp, and created a fire hazard.
Allenvy points accusingly to the broken lamp, and the oil spilled all over the floor.
Zilfred: Destruction of Tecton property.
Dilena: Necessity!
Zilfred: That was these women broke the lamp, wasn't it, Sosu? Not the man?
Allenvy: I think so. It happened after I had left the room, but it looks like it was what they used to hit him over the head with, to knock him out.
Zilfred gives another deep sigh.
Zilfred: Well, I'd just pick him up and dump him over the line, but Hajene Pansy will probably want to check him out and work on him. You two are going back. Try again another day and another border crossing.
Allenvy knows he'll probably be the one to support Hajene Pansy while she's doing it, but isn't looking forward to this, despite the fact that it's a chance to get in some real practice.
Dilena: He's bigger, stronger, and more used to fighting than we are. He probably fought other kids every day or so when he was growing up. We had to act fast and as definitively as we could. As it was, we couldn't even knock him out with it.
Zilfred: Not my problem. Get your wheelbarrow and go.
Zilfred zlins the man.
Zilfred: Zlins like he could wake up any time now. Don't you want a good head start?
Herb stirs and moans.
Dilena: No. I'm not leaving just because you say so.
Allenvy: Is he hurt, or just stunned?
Zilfred gives Allenvy a Look.
Zilfred: Son, getting stunned takes some damage to the head. He's hurt.
Allenvy backs off.
Allenvy: What should I do until Hajene Pansy gets back?
Portia: We were the ones who were assaulted. We want to press charges, if that's what's necessary to keep him away from us.
Dilena: I've spent most of my life running and hiding, one way or another, and I. Will, Not. Do. It. Any. More. ~~ tight-lipped implacability ~~
Allenvy: Should I tie him up or something?
Herb groans and shifts a little.
Zilfred: Keep an eye on him, Sosu, make sure he's breathing right and all that.
Zilfred wonders what they're teaching them in Donor School these days.
Allenvy nods and bends down to inspect him, watching his breathing pattern.
Herb: (weakly) Kill... th' l'il bitth.
Zilfred: As for you two, you're Gens, and you don't have a right to come into Nivet, like the poor kid Hajene Pansy is trying to help right now.
Dilena: That's why we asked for asylum.
Zilfred: Asylum is when your government is after you for some political crime we don't recognize. Or for your larity.
Herb opens one eye, radiating waves of ~~ pain ~~ .
Zilfred: You're welcome to run away for all I care, but not into my country where you've shown what kind of harm you can do to us already.
Allenvy notices the violent Gen beginning to stir, and quickly moves to block the pain-filled field from Zilfred.
Zilfred appreciates it.
Zilfred: Thanks, Sosu.
Dilena: We have a well-founded fear of persecution for a crime you don't, in fact, recognize: we're lovers.
Zilfred shrugs.
Herb: Gimme chance... kill th' bitth. Both.
Allenvy watches Herb's face uneasily.
Allenvy: No one is going to be Killed around here, unless you keep insisting on disturbing the ambient by attacking people!
Portia: You hear that? He plans to murder us both, if he can. And on the other side of the border, he can do that with no fear of any consequences.
Zilfred snorts.
Zilfred: Murder of Gens is a crime over there. It's only Simes you can murder with impunity.
Herb: Hun' 'em down... unnat'ral crea'ures.. rid... th' worl'
Zilfred waves a few tentacles in front of Herb's face.
Zilfred: Care to rephrase that, Gen?
Herb: Gimme... m'wife... kill 'er.
Allenvy: No, he's not going to Kill her, unless you provoke him into it, and I won't allow that.
Herb: Oth'r bitth too.
Allenvy moves again to compensate for Zilfred's change in position.
Zilfred: I recommend you shut up, sir, or you'll be leaving Nivet less gently than you might.
Herb's eye drifts closed, then he snaps them both open and struggles to sit up.
Dilena rolls her eyes at Portia ~~ scornfully ~~.
Herb: No! Hunt 'em... killem.
Allenvy: Hey! Wait just a minute! You're injured -- you can't just sit up.
Allenvy tries nervously to push Herb back down.
Herb struggles harder.
Herb: Kill 'em... madder o' pride now.
Zilfred: I guess he's ready to go home now, eh, Sosu?
Allenvy: I think he is, definitely.
Zilfred: Okay, I'll get him, you get the door.
Herb flops back down.
Herb: F'geddabou' th' reward... jus' killem.
Allenvy: You really are barbaric, aren't you? No one on this side of the border Kills any more.
Allenvy still doesn't quite get that the word has a different meaning out-T.
Dilena: He means Gen-style, with fists. Or knives, or guns.
Allenvy gets up and heads for the door, trying to block as much of the pain as he can even from across the room, and holds it open.
Zilfred lifts Herb by the armpits and drags him toward the door.
Zilfred: Thanks, son.
Herb: Ooooohffff. ~~ pain ~~
Zilfred drags Herb out the door and down the steps, bump, bump, bump.
Allenvy stays with him, trying to block the pain as he goes.
Herb: Aaaaahhohhhh...
Zilfred drags Herb past the kiosk and over the border, where he sets him down off the road.
Zilfred: There. You're deported. Don't come back.
Zilfred wipes his hands on each other.
Herb: Gimme... bitthes... ngggh.
Zilfred: Shenning anti-Simites.
Herb moans once more and subsides.
Allenvy makes a face of disgust at Herb and turns to leave with Zilfred.
Zilfred goes back to his kiosk where he can watch the door of the Tecton office.
Zilfred: Get them out of there, Sosu.
Allenvy nods, and runs back into the building.
Zilfred: Shen. Fighting like a bunch of Pen Gens, and want to come into Nivet.