{"id":6936,"date":"2025-06-09T17:30:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T17:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=6936"},"modified":"2025-06-09T17:30:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T17:30:25","slug":"illness-in-a-word-by-r-p-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=6936","title":{"rendered":"Illness in a Word by R. P. Bird"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Illness in a Word<\/em><\/strong> by R. P. Bird (F&SF<\/em>, April 1991) opens with Tsi-Tokkmani, the alien Maniquad narrator of the story, returning from a Council meeting with his human slave:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

I could see that my human was quite agitated.
They are like children, even to their size. My body slave\u2019s name was Holand. He was tall for his kind, yet no more than a yearling\u2019s height.
\u201cWhat is it, Child?\u2019\u2019
\u201cMaster, I heard the insults Kor-Keiimani hurled at you from the speaking circle. Yet you had no reply! How can you endure such abuse?\u201d
I stopped. My tail flicked about in irritation as I soothed down the feathers on my flanks. I suppressed its movement. \u201cWhat might I do Child?\u201d
\u201cI . . . I do not know.\u201d He bowed his head. Holand realized he had spoken out of turn. I was glad he found it unnecessary to cower. Other Maniquad took pride in the intricate patterns of scars their whips brought up on human backs. I preferred my slaves unblemished.
[. . .]
\u201cHe insulted you. What of your honor?\u201d he said, his head still bowed.
\u201cThese matters are of no concern to you! Maniquad need no interference in their affairs by slaves. I must insist you speak no more of this. I have great affection for you, Holand. I have great affection for the entire household, but I will impose discipline if I hear any more of this nonsense. Do you understand, Child?\u201d pp. 70-71<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This exchange forms the nub of the story. After returning home, Tsi-Tokkmani summons Holand to ask about duelling amongst the humans (which is supposedly banned by the Maniquad). After he is finished interrogating Holand, Tsi-Tokkmani sleeps and dreams of his ancestors; they try to instruct him in the Old Ways of blood and honour and killing, practices his species has almost entirely given up.
When Tsi-Tokkmani wakes the next morning he sees that Holand is wounded. He learns that, overnight, Holand led a human mob to fight with the servants of Kor-Keiimani, the person who insulted Tsi-Tokkmani at the council. A human from Kor-Keiimani\u2019s compound later arrives with a peremptory demand for Tsi-Tokkmani\u2019s attendance to explain the attack on his slaves. The story ends with Tsi-Tokkmani leading a mob of humans to the compound, the death of Holand, and Tsi-Tokkmani\u2019s atavistic murder of Kor-Keiimani.
The penultimate line of the somewhat abrupt ending is \u201cBe proud; we have taken back our honor.\u201d
A short message story, and its heavy-handed finish felt more like something you\u2019d find in the Analog<\/em> magazine of the period.
* (Mediocre). 2,300 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Bird\u2019s only other story was The Soft Heart of the Electron<\/em><\/strong> (Aboriginal Science Fiction<\/em>, July-August 1989).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Illness in a Word by R. P. Bird (F&SF, April 1991) opens with Tsi-Tokkmani, the alien Maniquad narrator of the story, returning from a Council meeting with his human slave: I could see that my human was quite agitated.They are like children, even to their size. My body slave\u2019s name was Holand. He was tall […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1643],"tags":[21,235,427,1647,25,1644,12,1645],"class_list":["post-6936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-r-p-bird","tag-21","tag-235","tag-aliens","tag-atavism","tag-fsf","tag-r-p-bird","tag-short-story","tag-warfare"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6936"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6942,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6936\/revisions\/6942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}