Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Assistive Technology

Dzara sat in the Forsaken's new quarters on board the Omen spaceship. It was an impressive piece of technology, she would give them that, but it was hardly what one might have considered accessible, or at least she thought. With humans being the primary crew members, things were small enough for sure, but otherwise it was made for a crew of able-bodied persons. Which was, of course, why humans seemed to have a tendency to fix the person rather than change the enviornment to better fit the person. Take Kanan for instance, with that brace on his leg.

They would rather change the person than just make the environment a little easier. She idly wondered if she could talk him out of wearing it. The wound was part of him now and behaving like this was only rejecting a fundamental part of himself, to say that having an injury or a disability was in some way wrong.

She didn't agree with augmentation, and she made sure the others understood that.

They were who they were, and to try and fix what made them special would be to take away their culture, their brotherhood. Take Nasash for instance, if they were to somehow fix his hearing, they would take away a fundamental part of who he was, turn him into one of them, force him to be soemthing that he wasn't for their own convenience.

The thought disgusted her.

She looked around at the others.

They were all special in their own way, and they deserved to stay like that, just like she was. To imagine putting a brace on her own limbs made her cringe at the thought. How demeaning and degrading it would be to receive that sort of help, to give up herself like that.

She had been on board the Omen for only a week or so, but she had spent most of her time in here with the others. She had no interest talking to the humans. They were not Drev, and what was more so, none of them had physical issues that she knew of. Which meant that no one on the ship understood them. Even Sunny and Kanan could not fully understand the Forsaken like she could. There would always be a fundamental misunderstanding between them.

And then there was sunny's "battle partner." Adam, who Dzara didn't approve of in the least. Not only was he a human, which to Dzara seemed a fundamental betrayal of all Drev kind; to think the saint of the sun choosing a human over one of her own, and an able bodied human at that. The thought made her shake her head in disgust. But this is why she was here, she needed to talk to sunny some more, with a little time and effort she was sure she could convince Sunny of what she was missing out on, to bring her back to people that were going to understand her in a way that human never could, both culturally, and physically.

She looked around the room, counting the number of the forsaken that she saw there. There were at least ten of them and she frowned noting that a few of them were missing. She had tried to curb it when it began, but some of them had taken to spending time with the Lost tribe and even the humans on occasions. She tried to make them understand that they needed to stick together, which some of them understood, but others continually argued with her about.

They couldn't all be perfect.

She heard the soft sound of footsteps behind her, and turned, only to see a human silhouette in the doorway. She felt her guard go up as the human stepped into the room, and then felt her jaw clench a little as she recognized him. About her height, with bright reflective green eyes and delicate blue stripes running over his pale skin from the UV light.

The one named Adam approached.

"Dzara." He said showing his teeth. One of the others had told her that a human showing it's teeth was a good thing, but she wasn't so sure. Humans had untrustworthy faces.