by J. Naomi Ay
When I returned to Mishnah, I rang Petya and told him about my ride on the Starship and how we blew up the ice planet. The two of us started texting and talking like old times. A few months later, both of us were admitted into University of New Mishnah. I didn’t have the grades of course, but I took a bunch of equivalency exams and being who I was, they let me in any way. We made plans to start there in the fall, and we even got a dorm room to share. I planned to get my Bachelors of Science degree in Astrophysics and after graduation, go to Officer’s Candidate School.
For the first time in years, I knew where I was going and where I would end up. I knew also with certainty that my mom, when she came back, would approve. I also knew with certainty, that even though I never really knew my dad, even though I never spoke to him, he heard my prayers after all.
Chapter 8
Jerry
My last patient that morning was a Talasian with a bad skin affliction. There were little pustules all over his body from his scalp to the soles of his feet. It almost looked like acne. If I had a scope here, I would have biopsied some tissue and had a good look at it.
“Is it fatal?” the guy asked.
“Acne? No, not at all.”
“No, it is,” the guy argued. “My cousin died of this same disease about two years ago.”
“You might die of embarrassment, but seriously, it won’t kill you. There are some things you can put on it topically. I’ll give you some calendula. Wash your skin twice a day with it and then rub on some aloe. I can make you a chaste berry tincture too. It’ll help balance your hormones.”
“It’s not my hormones that have the problem, it’s my skin!” He turned a deep shade of yellow.
“Well it is, and it isn’t. It’s both,” I tried to explain. “How about this? I’ll teach you the yoga pose Asana, and you do that twice a day too, and you’ll be all cleared up in no time. Come on, stand up and bend forward like me.”
The guy stood up alright, and raised his fists like he was going to punch me. “Forget it, Moonbeam,” he said. He threw down his fists and headed toward the door.
“Wait,” I called after him. “This will help! Really, it will!”
He made a crude gesture with his finger and then the door slammed behind him.
“That’ll be $45 dollars,” I called, but I was sure he didn’t hear me.
After that, I hung up my I’ll be right back sign and headed over to the farmer’s market. It was a beautiful day again, and the market was crowded with tourists and shoppers. It was a little warm because the winds and the sea were calm and I started to sweat. I decided when I got back to my office, I would make myself a new deodorant spray with some lavender, sage and witch hazel.
My beard got really itchy when it was hot like this. I scratched at it and thought about how I could put aloe on my chin without getting it stuck in all my hair.
I could shave off my beard, I supposed. I wasn’t ready to make such an important decision though. I walked across the market noticing a new booth where someone was selling homemade berry syrups and a long queue was already formed to sample them. I passed by Tuman, the fish-guy, whose own booth was two doors down and I waved.
“Good day, Dr. Moonbeam,” he called and held up some kind of purple-colored fish with three enormous eyes on the top of its head. “Lunch?”
“No, thank you. I wouldn’t eat that even if I wasn’t a vegan.”
“It is really quite good,” Tuman replied, "even though it is ugly. Tastes like chicken.”
“I’m really more in the mood for a veggie sprout sandwich,” I insisted and pointed at the little grocery across the street. “They have a nice deli counter. Their sandwiches are pretty good.”
“Just a moment,” he called and put the fish back in his cooler. “I’ll join you if you like.” He put up his own I’ll be right back sign, and together we headed across the street. “I agree their sandwiches are very tasty now. I think they must have someone new preparing them. They weren’t always that nice. They used to taste like cardboard with plastic and mayonnaise on them.”
“Sounds like the kind of food we used to eat on the ship,” I replied. “We’d call that the Spaceforce daily special.”
He laughed. “When I was in prison, I would gladly have eaten your Spaceforce daily special.”
I glanced at him warily. Prison? “Have you lived here long?” My voice came out a tad high.
We had stopped at the corner to let a horse drawn cart full of tourists snap pictures of us as they trotted past. I waved, letting them think I was a local. Maybe I should get a shirt made that advertised the Holistic Health Center with my name, Dr. Moonbeam printed on the back.
“I’ve lived in the marina here on my fishing boat for nearly twenty years,” Tuman said, turning his head away from the tourists.
“Camera shy?”
“No. I have a face that might be recognizable to some.”
“Really?” I squeaked. I studied his face as we crossed the street and mounted the porch steps of the grocery. Could he be a wanted felon, a prison escapee?
“Are you afraid, Dr. Moonbeam? You are looking quite pale. I can assure you, I am no criminal and am here purely by my choice.”
“How are you famous then? Are you an actor? Rockstar?”
“I’m not famous at all. My nephew is.”
“Oh, I see,” I said, although I didn’t. We walked over to the deli counter and looked through the refrigerated case of sandwiches.
“I would like a tuna fish salad sandwich today,” Tuman said, tossing a whole bunch of the sandwiches aside. “I enjoy those very much.”
“Aren’t you sick of fish?”
He frowned. “Sometimes I am, but these sandwiches are very good. Unfortunately, I cannot find one. I will have a chicken salad instead.”
“I’ll have avocado, tomato and alfalfa sprouts on 18 grain bread with cream cheese.” I found my favorite in the cooler. I bought myself an organic, filtered water brewed iced green tea while Tuman got a liter sized bottle of Cherry Coke. We sat at a picnic table in the park across the street and ate our lunches.
“Look at that,” Tuman pointed at the courthouse on the corner as he finished up his sandwich.
Turning around, I watched a banner unfurl down the side of the building.
“The Empire of Rehnor welcomes Derius,” it read. “To Peace, Prosperity, and Freedom.”
Underneath these words, a picture of Katie emerged. She was dressed in some kind of fancy dress and had a diamond tiara in her hair. Her eyes were wide, and she smiled a little. To those who didn’t know her, they might think she looked gracious and stately. To me, she just looked scared. I stared at the banner, at her picture, and I must have loosened my grip on the sandwich because all the sprouts fell out and ended up in a pile on the picnic table.
“She was beautiful,” Tuman remarked, his dark eyes watching me fumble for sprouts.
“She is,” I agreed. I wasn’t hungry anymore anyway. I tossed what was left of my sandwich into the trash. “Even without a tiara.”
When I turned back around, Tuman was still studying me watchfully.
“Kind of hot today,” I mumbled and took a long gulp of my tea.
“Why are you here, Dr. Moonbeam? What are you hiding from?”
“I’m not hiding from anything.” I looked back at Katie. “I was just on a path, and it turned, and I didn’t like the direction it was going so I turned around and took another path and now here I am.”
“I have no idea what you just said.” Tuman smiled.
“I’m not sure I know either.”
“Perhaps all of our paths are really just circles.” Tuman rose to his feet. He toasted me with his liter bottle of Coke. “No matter how far we run, we always end up back in the same place. Welcome to Rehnor, Dr. Moonbeam. It seems as though despite my best efforts, I will indeed end up home. Perhaps you will too.”
I raised my empty bottle of green tea to him as well and toasted him as he walked away. The
n I held my bottle up to the picture of Katie on the side of the building. “Be well, Goldie,” I called. “Where ever you are. Be well.” I headed back to open my office for my afternoon patients.
Chapter 9
Shelly
“What does this mean?” I cried.
I was standing at the window of our office, the one that used to be Ron's but was now Jason Eckland's. I watched the Rozarian police turn back anyone and everyone who wanted to land.
“I don’t know,” Janet snapped. “Can’t you call Thad or something?”
“Thad’s not answering.”
The vid pinged and an internal message arrived announcing the hospital was now closed. Patients would be transferred to the Rozarian Science Institute Medical Centre, or any other facility that had beds even if it was on the other side of the planet. All the other buildings were closing, as well. Everyone was told to go home and wait for an announcement.
“I don’t want to go home,” Janet snapped. “I just got here.”
“I don’t either,” I replied and tried Tim’s number. After about twenty rings, he finally answered. “Where have you been?”
“I was working in the yard,” Tim grumbled. “After all that rain this weekend, I’ve got pools of standing water in the middle of my vegetable garden. What’s the matter?”
“I’ve been calling and calling,” I cried, trying not to really cry. “They’re shutting down SdK. We’re all supposed to go home. Thad isn’t answering. Tim, do you think they might have arrested him?”
“No.” Tim took off his gardening gloves and frowned. “He’s off in space somewhere buying up more hospitals probably. He might even be asleep. Who knows what time it is wherever he is. Don’t you worry about him, babe. He’s fine. Why are they closing SdK?”
“I don’t know,” I shrieked. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Well, come on home then. I’ll take a look at the news wire and see if I can figure out what your Evil Emperor did that forced the Alliance to shut down his company.”
“Can I come with you?” Janet asked, grabbing her coat.
We all had coats these days. In the last few months, the weather in Rozari had shifted to an almost normal pattern. Takira-hahr had suddenly gotten very green with grass and shrubbery and even small forests popping up in the surrounding countryside. This winter, if you could call it a winter, it had started raining nearly every day. The more it rained, the greener it got and the greener it got, the more it rained. After all this time, it was as if the planet was finally recovering.
“Sure,” I replied.
Janet had been coming to our house a lot lately. The breakup with Jerry had really sent her for a loop. She was very depressed and for Janet, very quiet. I didn’t think she had a whole lot of other friends and if she did she didn’t care to see them now. Having dinner and watching sitcoms or reality shows on the vid and eating popcorn with Tim and me seemed to be the only thing she was interested in doing.
“Did we adopt her?” Tim asked, one evening after she had fallen asleep on the couch.
“It seems like it.”
“You sure have a tendency to pick up strays,” he remarked and turned off the sitcom to watch a football game instead.
By the time we got out of the SdK parking lot, several hours had passed. It was a zoo leaving the campus. Along with thousands of other employees and patients all trying to go home, ambulances were stacked up to transport all those admitted into the hospital. We had to crawl out of the gates and get scanned by the police who checked our ID and probably recorded who we were.
“This is creeping me out,” Janet said as we both showed our passes to the officer.
“It’s the price of freedom,” the officer replied.
“Freedom from what?” I asked.
“The Empire. Move on.” He waved us forward.
“Yeah?” Janet called back and waved her ID at him. “Right now we’re about as free as animals in a zoo.”
“Don’t argue, Janet,” I snapped. “Let’s just get out of here.” We were given clearance to go, and I headed back towards our house on the outskirts of Landbase Rozari. I could see off in the distance a lot of spaceplane activity in the skies.
“Just because we can’t see the bars, it doesn’t mean they aren’t there,” Janet mumbled scrunching down in her seat and crossing her arms in front of her chest.
“What’s gotten into you, Janet?” I had to fly slowly as the traffic leaving Kalika-hahr was incredible.
“I don’t know. If they close SdK here permanently, I might just head over to Derius or someplace else too. I really would like to go Rehnor, the Capital Planet, but I heard there is a huge waitlist and it would take years to get permission to live there.”
“How do you know?” I pulled into our drive. Frankly, I was surprised to hear Janet was even considering it.
“The HR department at SdK told me when I asked about transferring. There are lots of openings at the new facilities though. Maybe I will go someplace else. What do I care about Rozari or the Alliance?”
It was pouring down rain as we rushed into the house, holding our handbags over our heads which did little to protect our hair. If we were going to stay here much longer, I would actually have to go out and invest in an umbrella.
Tim was in the living room talking on the vid to Thad, who was dressed up and looked like he had been in a meeting. Gwen and Jimmy were in the kitchen making sandwiches. Gina came rushing in just then too, her purse on her own head. We took off and shook out our sodden coats and shoes and then sat down in the living room.
“Go ahead, Thad,” Tim ordered and scrunched up his mouth, which was a clear indication he was very annoyed.
“Hey everybody,” Thad called and waved. “How’s it going?”
“Thad!” Gina snapped. “They just closed the hospital. How do you think it’s going?”
“Oh yeah,” Thad nodded and frowned. “But no worries. It’ll be open again soon.”
“Are you kidding?” Gina cried. “The policeman who escorted me out said the Alliance is going to confiscate the buildings and use them for their own offices.”
“Nah,” Thad said and then turned away from us to talk to a woman with yellow skin and green hair. “Yeah, reschedule that for Tuesday for me, thanks.” He smiled back to us. “See the thing is, the Alliance isn’t going to own Rozari much longer, and they kind of know that.”
“What do you mean, Thad?” I asked, glancing at Tim. Tim looked like he had a bad case of indigestion.
“Well,” Thad continued. ‘If you turn on the Galaxy News Service, you’ll discover that Dancing with the Stars has been pre-empted. Ron has decided to blow up some rock out there in the solar system, and that’s all the talking heads want to discuss right now. Personally, I think that Luminerian gal who was dancing with the guy who made that vampire movie should at least be included in the semi-final round. What do you think, Gina? You thought they were pretty good too.”
“Thad!” Gina growled as the kids joined us carrying a platter of synthetic peanut butter sandwiches.
“What do you think, Tim?” I said calmly though my heart was racing. “Is it safe for us to stay here? Is there going to be a war?”
Tim made a snorting noise. “I need a beer,” he grumbled even though it wasn’t even noon. He got up and went to the kitchen, refusing to answer my question.
“Mom,” Thad said, his voice serious now. “The Alliance has no chance, and they know it. They’re going to make some noises. They’re going to take over the campus there and as soon as Ron makes a move on Rozari, they’ll back down and move out. You guys just consider these next few days or weeks or whatever it turns out to be, a well-earned vacation. When it’s all over, Rozari will be part of the Empire and guess, what? You can finally go visit Mishnah and stay in the Palace Hotel.” He laughed.
“That’s not funny, Dad,” Gwen said, looking a little pale. “What if there are protests? What if the Saintists decide to fight?”
>
“You think a few pale, skinny, Saintist dudes can take on the giant Empire?” Jimmy said to his sister. “No chance. Dr. Ron can blast every one of them to hell and back with just his finger. Personally, I’m going to enjoy my vacation. I’m going to head out to the beach with my fraternity brothers.” Jimmy was working in the accounting department at SdK. Gwen was in her last year of college at the Institute.
“It’s raining, dogface,” Gwen replied. “But you and the rest of your stupid Phi Delts will probably hang out there anyway.”
“It’ll stop.”
“Jim’s right,” Tim interrupted, coming back to the sofa while twisting open the cap on his bottle of beer.
“Of course. It’ll stop eventually. You want to hit the beach with us, Gramps?”
“No,” Tim grumbled. “The Alliance has no chance. They won’t risk losing anybody in fighting a battle they can’t possibly win. They’ll put up some token resistance and then they’ll back down. Welcome to the Empire of Rehnor.”
“How do you know they won’t try to take over Earth next?” Gina asked. “Or anywhere else? I’m not sure I want to be part of Rehnor.”
“He doesn’t want Earth, Gina,” Thad replied. “He just wants Rozari. Right, Mom?”
Everyone turned and looked to me.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I think all he really wants is Katie to come back.”
“So he’ll just keep wreaking havoc upon the Alliance until that happens,” Tim remarked.
“Uh, Dad, I could cite a bunch of numbers showing how much better off the citizens of the Empire are than the citizens of the Alliance, but everybody would probably get bored and change the channel,” Thad said. “Just trust me, everything will be fine. Ignore your sister and enjoy the beach, Jim. Phi Delts are hot where ever they go, even when it’s raining.”