"Sometimes it's better to be an orphan than having an evil father," Halyss said with melancholy. "Personally, I was much better off when my father was killed. And when Gaia joined the Star Nations, I was very happy to come back here."
"So you were born here?" Shan-leo asked, curious. It made sense that the sneaky Saurian had mated with probably unwilling Earthlings during his rule, so Halyss did belong to Gaia as much as Daniele and Chantal.
"Yes. I left in 1980, after my mother's death. I spent some years with my father and his haughty wife, but was very happy to come back and help clean up the mess my father made here."
"How long do you think it will take to clean the air?" Dadina asked. "And would we die instantly if we landed?"
"No, it wouldn't be instant death, but your lungs might suffer greatly. We're almost below the ratio of carbon dioxide molecules that is harmful to Humanoids' health. The climate is changing back to what it was, but we still have hurricanes, blizzards and droughts, which doesn't help the development of the planet. Hence no official spaceport and no intergalactic routes for Gaia yet."
"We have a small starship, do you think we could land for a few days?"
"If you're equipped with a teleport room, I strongly advise against it. You mentioned old manuscripts. The buildings have clean air, but walking the streets might be a hazard. I suggest you teleport yourself to the British Library in London, England, which has a great collection from all over the world..."
"London! That's where my mother crashed!" Dadina exclaimed, excited.
"Now is not a good time for sightseeing," Halyss chided. "Come back in a few years." He looked at Shan-leo again. "If you don't find enough in there, I suggest you try the National Museum in New Delhi, India. It's close to where I was born and it has over seventeen thousand miniature paintings, spanning nine centuries."
"I've heard there's been some theft," Shan-leo said.
"Ah, yes, the missing manuscripts." The Reptoid sighed. "Six months ago there was some kind of raid. The Gaians said it was a Chinese woman and her Native American accomplice who looted the British Library, but they might as easily have been aliens. Gaians are not very good at telling their own from other Humanoid planets yet. They can't believe there are so many populations out there that look exactly like them."
"So there's a market for old manuscripts?" Dadina asked, incredulous.
"I think it's more for private collections." Halyss shrugged. "I'm afraid the Galaxy Police will never find the thieves – or the loot."
"We'll have a look on Friport," Shan-leo said. "Thank you, Halyss! I guess we'll follow your advice, then. Can we buy you dinner before we leave?"
Halyss showed a lizard-like grin. "I'd be delighted," he said, giving them his calling code.
***
"Say hello to the Qutub Minar from me," Kol-ian said, sharing screen space with Ker-ris. Shan-leo had called them before starting his visit. "It's in Delhi. You can't miss it."
"You've been there?" Shan-leo marveled. "I mean, you saw all of Earth while you were here?"
"Most of it." Kol-ian chuckled. "I still had my retractile wings... I enjoyed flying to high places at night and watching towns sleep at my feet."
"I'll check it when I go there," Shan-leo promised with a smile. "Do you want me to gather more music for you while I'm here?"
"That would be awesome, although most of it is available on the meganet now that they've joined the Star Nations. But if you happen to be able to attend a live event, a recording would be great."
"I'll see what I can do. Apparently the air isn't too clean anymore, so I won't be spending too much time outside of buildings."
"Try walking around with a gas mask," Ker-ris suggested. "I don't think you'll need the full space suit."
"Nah, I don't want to be noticed because I wear a breathing aid in the streets," Shan-leo replied. "I'll stick to the buildings and their AC. I'm an indoors guy anyway."
Erika decided to wait on the orbital station, but Dadina wanted to at least see London, if possible also Paris and Rome. So she showed her half-sister how to operate the teleportation beam and spent a few hours wandering around London while Shan-leo perused old manuscripts at the British Library.
When he was beamed back to the Haiduc, he found Dadina already there, complaining of a headache. Her eyes were also quite red, and not from crying, apparently. Erika asked him how his day had been, and he enthusiastically described the various manuscripts – Christian, Quranic or Sanskrit – comparing them. He really needed to go back with his tablet to take some pictures.
"Unfortunately a few of the oldest things have been stolen – the Magna Carta, a Quranic manuscript, a Jainist text – but they still have plenty," he explained to Erika. "I'll bring my notebook so I can copy something as well!"
He retired to sleep, certain Erika would take care of Dadina's health. It was a good thing they had a nurse onboard. Luckily Earth was the only polluted planet on his itinerary, and he hoped his visit would be short but fruitful. Erika could socialize on the orbital station and meet other men while he continued his research.
He spent a whole week in London and three more days in Delhi – the oldest miniature had vanished from the museum there too – then went back to the Haiduc, exhausted, feeling chest discomfort.
The promised dinner with Halyss was a pain for him, and not because of the company. The girls had enjoyed the stay on the orbital station and he emerged from his daze only when Halyss directly asked him about his visit.
"It was good," he said, feeling his eyes grow heavier and heavier. "Thank you so much for your patience, but now I really need to lie down..."
He slumped in his cabin, shivering and panting for breath.
During the night he developed a cough and a fever, so when they left Earth's orbit, he couldn't get up. Erika checked him, frowning, while Dadina took the Haiduc away from the solar system.
"Dadina, which is the closest civilized planet?" Erika asked through the intercom as Shan-leo seemed ready to cough his lungs out. His watery eyes didn't allow him to focus on anything and the fever dimmed his telepathy, so he had to rely on her tone of voice – quite flat at the moment.
"Xi-kong," came Dadina's reply.
"Head there. And when we're in transmission range, call me, I'll get in touch with the main hospital, so they'll be ready for us."
"What is it?" Shan-leo asked, wincing from the pain in his chest.
"Acute bronchitis," she answered gravely. "Don't worry, it's not deadly."
"I've never been so sick in my entire life!" Shan-leo complained, coughing again. "Is it something I caught on Earth?"
"It's one of the short-term effects of air pollution," she explained. "Dadina had headaches and nausea, you have an upper respiratory infection. Could have been viral if you'd caught it on another planet. But in your case, it's the ozone and carbon monoxide of Earth's air that attacked your lungs."
Shan-leo groaned, closing his eyes. Erika's hand was so cool on his forehead... but the damn cough and chest pains were really killing him.
"Could have been worse," Erika said, helping him to sit and drink a soothing tisane. "You could have had an asthma attack."
"Ow!" Shan-leo lay down again and coughed some more. "There's something worse than this?"
Erika chuckled. "Get some rest now. You'll be all right."
8. ERIKA JUNA
When the Haiduc landed at Xi-kong's main spaceport, an ambulance was waiting for them and rushed Shan-leo to the nearest hospital. His bronchitis hadn't worsened, but his cough was still bad. The Xi-kongian doctors had assured them they had the means to help Shan-leo clean his lungs from the polluted air. In spite of having spent most of the ten days on Earth inside buildings, he'd still managed to infect his lungs.
"Now I know why Kol-ian forbade Daniele and Chantal to land," Dadina commented, impressed. "That's an awful sickness."
"Not as bad as pneumonia," Erika replied as they sat in the hospital's waiting room. "I take it Marc'h
arid has very mild winters?"
"Yes, why?" Dadina asked, puzzled.
"So you've never been sick either, not even a cold or flu?"
"Not that I can remember, no."
Erika sighed. "Lucky you. I once caught a cold when I tried skiing. Running nose for days. It was a pain to get through it."
"Yikes. I can't believe on Earth there's still plenty of those sicknesses, and I'm glad I didn't get anything worse than that awful migraine."
Erika chuckled. "It was a bad headache, you don't catch migraines! Glad it was enough to deter you from going back down, or you'd be in Shan-leo's state by now."
"It's not... fatal, is it?"
"No, bronchitis usually improves within a few days without lasting effects, although you may continue to cough for weeks. But he should be up and running sooner if they manage to clean his lungs."
"I'm sorry we ruined your vacation," Dadina grumbled, uneasy.
"Well, there's plenty more men on this planet and I enjoyed that group of students from Alahairo's company on the space station, so... I'm out here to socialize with men, not to see places."
Dadina smiled against her will.
"Men with slanted eyes are cute and less hairy than the others," she said. "My prospective next boyfriend is from Xi-kong. I wonder if I should call him and tell him I'm on his home planet – maybe I can do some errand for him."
"And ask him if he has brothers or cousins we could meet! For me, of course. Better than picking random young men on the street, don't you think?"
Dadina shook her head with a smile. Then the doctor came, a plump middle-aged man with short black hair.
"Shan-leo will be all right," he announced. "But we need to keep him here for a week." He told them the visiting hours and suggested they look for a place to stay, since the patient was now asleep. They could come back in the afternoon when he'd be able to talk.
"Thank you, doctor," Erika said.
"Your first aid was very effective," the man complimented her.
"I'm a certified Sylvanian nurse," Erika said, blushing. "But I never saw a case of bronchitis before."
"Well, you are well trained." The doctor smiled. "The young man should be grateful to you."
"I am the most grateful," Dadina said as they left the hospital. "I had no idea of what to do. I'd have rushed him here, unable to help."
"You could have found those remedies I gave him on the meganet," Erika said, amused. "The Haiduc's food dispenser is sophisticated enough to provide herbal teas, and there were some meds in the first aid kit."
"But I wouldn't know what to give him! Anyway, he's in the doctors' hands now, so he'll be fine. I'm not telling Kol-ian or Ker-ris anything, though. Let's find a cheap place to sleep, I don't want to spend the week in the Haiduc."
"Especially if we want to meet men, I doubt the spaceport is the best place to cruise."
"You want to meet men, I have a boyfriend!"
"Prospective boyfriend... Come on, Dads, let's have fun!"
***
They found a cheap motel midway between the spaceport and the hospital and ate some local cuisine in a fast-food place next to it. Dadina was a little nervous about being on her own on a foreign planet, but Erika was quite relaxed.
"There's two of us, and we're Sylvanians," she said as they headed back to the hospital to see Shan-leo.
"But neither of us are trained for combat," Dadina objected. "And I'm sure my mother hung out with all her teammates when she was on orbital stations or other planets! I mean, even when she met her one and only man, she was with the others and he was with his crew mates..."
"Still, they managed to find a secluded place to have sexual intercourse." Erika chuckled. "Relax, Dadina, it's full daylight. We'll stay in tonight, so you can call your boyfriend and he can give you some advice."
Dadina sighed, but grudgingly acquiesced.
Shan-leo was awake, with an oxygen mask covering his nose and mouth, lying on the hospital bed and linked to a machine.
"Hey, gals," he greeted them feebly. "Have you found a place to stay?"
"Yes, and tonight we're calling Hiro for advice," Dadina said, sitting by his bed and taking his left hand in hers. "How are you feeling?"
"Better. They gave me something for the cough and are replenishing my lungs with clean air..."
"Which hides half of your face and doesn't allow kisses," she said tenderly, caressing his brown hair. "But it's fine, I have already kissed you and Erika won't be tempted."
"I might give him mouth to mouth if he's short of breath," Erika teased.
"No you don't!" Dadina glared at her.
Shan-leo chuckled. "Thank you, Erika. You were very helpful in the first stages."
"You're welcome. You are taking me on my first off-planet vacation after all." Erika smiled.
"I'll take you to Vilas Lok as soon as they let me go," Shan-leo promised. "I'm wasting your time off with unhealthy planets and getting sick..."
"Don't worry, Shan-leo, it's been a wonderful adventure so far. And I'm eager to try almond-eyed men."
Shan-leo smiled behind his oxygen mask.
"Just be careful." He squeezed Dadina's hand. "Call Hiro, but don't tell anyone I'm here."
"You bet," Dadina assured him. "I don't want Kol-ian and Ker-ris to show up and interrupt our trip!"
Shan-leo's laugh ended in cough, and Erika patted his back to help him to catch his breath. Then he lay down again and shooed them out, still panting. Dadina made sure the doctor saw him before she left the hospital.
They stopped in a supermarket on the way back and bought food, having decided to eat in their room. Dadina saw an antiques shop and went in, looking for postcards or other handwritten documents. She found only a bunch of old correspondence in the local alphabet, which neither she nor Shan-leo could read, but it looked nice. The antiquarian told her the letters were two centuries old, since snail mail had ended a long time ago.
Erika found a nice painted vase, more recent but still old, and she bought it for her mother. Since the sun was setting by the time they exited the antique shop, they rushed back to the motel and ate, seated on the carpet, comparing their purchases.
"I'm going to take a bath," Erika said as soon as they finished eating. "Should give you some privacy while you call your boyfriend." She winked and locked herself in the bathroom.
Dadina snorted and went to sit on the bed. She called Hiro and this time he answered almost immediately.
"Hello, pretty." He smiled. "How are you?"
"I'm fine, but Shan-leo is sick," she answered. "Don't tell anyone, but guess where we are?"
"I don't know." He shrugged. "You got drunk somewhere on Vilas Lok?"
"No, Shan-leo doesn't drink, it meddles with his telepathy! He fell sick when we left Gaia and the closest hospital was... on Xi-kong."
"Oh." His smile vanished and he averted his eyes. "Don't tell anyone there that you know me, will you?"
"Why not?" she protested, nonplussed.
"Just to stay out of trouble," he answered quickly. "I told you I can't go back. My name is better not mentioned over there."
"But don't you have family here?" she asked, worried.
He hesitated. "My mother works at the central hospital. Just make sure nobody is around when you tell her about me."
A little puzzled, Dadina tried to probe him with questions, but he wouldn't talk about it. She then told him where she was staying and that Erika wanted to meet local men – if he knew any safe places where two women could find company.
"I don't know the capital city well, but I'm sure it's similar to the rest. There are a lot of gangs there, and you want to avoid them."
"Erika!" Dadina called.
Erika emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body and wet hair.
"Hiro says there are gangs and it's dangerous to hang out," Dadina told her half-sister.
Erika went to sit next to her to see Hiro and waved at him.
"Hello the
re! I'm Dadina's half-sister!"
Hiro half-smiled. "Hi, Erika. Like I was telling Dadina, Xi-kongian men aren't known for being respectful of women, especially foreigners."
"Oh." Erika's shoulders slumped in disappointment. "Do you have brothers or cousins I could turn to?"
"They're in gangs," he answered. "They have their own women. Unless you want to be treated like a slut, I don't recommend it."
"Thank you, Hiro," Dadina said as Erika sighed. "Shan-leo promised we'll go to Vilas Lok next."
"That's a much safer place to meet men and have sex," he said. "Be careful, and don't go out after dark."
"We won't."
Erika put on her nightgown while Dadina ended the call with a sigh.
"He's cute," Erika said, combing her long hair with her fingers. "Well done."
"Well, he's not really my boyfriend yet," she grumbled. And maybe never would be, like Shan-leo said. Especially if he kept things from her.
***
"Um... is there a Doctor Megumi Shibata here?" Dadina asked shyly at the hospital reception. It turned out that Hiro's mother was on duty and they only had to wait thirty minutes for her to finish what she was doing.
She was a petite woman with her black hair in a bun. She led them to an office for what she thought was a private consultation, looking surprised by the visit of two foreign young women. Dadina couldn't see any particular resemblance with Hiro, since Xi-kongians all looked very alike to her. It was one thing seeing a single young man with slanted eyes, another a whole planet!
She sat with Erika in front of the doctor and cleared her throat.
"Are we in a safe place where nobody can hear us?" she asked, worried. Hiro had sounded adamant about secrecy.
"Yes," the woman answered, puzzled. "The hospital values its patients' privacy."
"Good." Dadina exhaled, relieved. "I'm not really a patient. I mean, I'm here because a friend of mine is being treated here, but that's not why I asked to see you."
The woman nodded, waiting for her to continue.
"It's about your son, Hiro," Dadina said quickly. "He's on Marc'harid and..."
Doctor Shibata stopped her, putting a hand forward.
"Don't tell me! Is he safe? That's all I need to know."
Star Minds Next Generation Page 8