AGE NINE

The girl has no friends. Her teachers are worried and send home notes expressing their concern. Her mother and the owner of the Hand attend meetings, at which they make appropriate comments and nod as if concerned. But behind the closed doors of their home, nothing changes.

The girl bears no physical signs of the damage that is wrought upon her daily. The tool she knows as a dermal regenerator closes up the lacerations, fades the bruises. The broken bones are harder to disguise. Lies flow thickly: She’s so clumsy, she tripped on a toy and fell down the stairs. She’s such a tomboy, always playing in the trees.

The girl keeps herself to herself. She does not raise her hand to answer questions, but frantically studies the information given and consistently makes the [98] highest grades in the classroom. No one wants to play with her, and she does not invite such pastimes. No one wants to study with her. No one wants to be around her in any way, shape, or form. They do not know what they sense, these nine-year-old children, but it is as strong and as wrong as the stench of decay, and they avoid the girl completely.

She scribbles in a journal, deleting each entry once it is written lest it be discovered by the owner of the Hand. She has fantasies of coming to her instructors, of telling what the Hand does to her, to her mother, but does not dare act.

She reads the assignment dutifully, and writes her report as if her life depends upon it.

STAR TREK: VOY - Homecoming, Book One
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