The Space Freighter Libereco - Kurgio is Called to the Core - Part 3

Stepping off of the cargo ramp, you look at the red sun low in the sky.  It has been jaros since you were here. The landing terminal is all plasteel and duraglass.  The curves of the buildings are supposed to give it an organic look, but that makes it look so artificial and fake. Out on the Rim, you had a mix of prefab and hand made. Here, it is all so industrial but made to look natural.

As you enter the terminal, your minividi beeps. Skipper sends a voice link. “We’re leaving, once we are cleared to take off. Reach out if you need anything.”

“Will Do. Safe travels.” You say as you shift the strap of your bag, higher on your shoulder. 

The signs point to “Planetary Arrivals” and “Planetary Departures”. A smaller sign on the arrivals side points to “Intraplanetary Transportation”.

At the Arrivals desk, a friendly woman greets you. “Bonvenon al Sankta Koro. Cu ci, tio estas via unua visito, kaj cu vi restos longe?”

You hold your minividi against the reader and it pulls your information.

“I’m here to visit my family.” You respond in flawless Esperanto.

“Dankon. Guu vian restadon.” She replies as your planetary access is granted on your minividi. You give her a quick smile, which she returns with a long practiced familiarity, and motions you to move before she says, “Sekva” and helps the next person.

You walk past the Medical Access office and flash the “All Clear” stamp on your minividi. If you didn’t you would have had to answer a long questionnaire and receive, robotically, whatever shots you were missing.  While still on the Libereco, you did all that in advance, and made sure you were medically cleared. That last thing you wanted was to be placed on a “medical hold” because you forgot a shot or didn’t properly record it on your medi-log.

You follow the signs to the intraplanetary transports.  They always remind you of large bugs.  The flying ones are like libeloj, and the land ones are like skaraboj. 

You go the large round passenger door of a flying one. “Where would you like to go?” the computerized voice asks you.  There is a human in the driver’s seat too, but he is basically “emergency backup” if the computer fails.

You give him the address of your childhood home. “Very good. We should be there in approximately one hour.” The voice responds as you put your bag in the luggage space and strap in the seat. The large door closes and the engines power up.  The large flapping wings start to move and vibrate until they generate lift.

You lean back in the seat and close your eyes, feel it ascend, and drift off to sleep.

When you wake, you are circling over the family home as the ship verifies that the neighborhood landing pad is clear.  “We will be descending in 5 minutes, please prepare yourself.” The computer voice announces.

It touches down softly and gently. When the engines pause, the voice says. “Please take all of your belonging and exit the craft.”

You unstrap, get up, grab your bag, send a few valutos as a tip, and wave to the human in the cockpit. He gives you a lazy “thumbs up” and then checks his vidi for their next passenger.

The house is a short walk from the pad, so you are home in minutes.

It looks almost the same as when you left it. Standard UGA construction. Not too big nor too small. Environmentally friendly and plugged into the local grid.

As medical professionals your family made a comfortable living, similar to UGA teachers or other necessary planetary civil servants. The Core is “fair and structured”. At least that is what everyone believes.

You hold your minividi to the electronic lock and the door opens. Your mother is walking into the foyer.  “Ionny! You made it.” She says as she hugs you tightly. It has been over 10 jaros since anyone called you Ion or Ionny.  Ion Ladipo Novak is your full and official name. But you prefer Doc or Kurgio. Ion seems like it belongs to another person.

Your mother kisses your cheek. Her naturally dark skin contrasts against your lighter tone. She then steps back.  “Let me look at you. You mustn’t see any sunlumo. You have gotten pale.” But she then squeezes your arm.  “But you keep in shape. Good. I worried that you’d let your muscles atrophy with all that space travel.”

“Panjo, you know we have artificial gravity on the ships. And I spend a fair amount of time planetside on the various Rim Worlds.”

She kisses you again. “I am so happy to see you. Your brother will be too. Go put your bag in your room. Then come down and we can catch up.”

You hug her tightly again and then walk upstairs to your old bedroom.

The door is open and you see your old furniture: a durasteel frame bed, a faux wood dresser, a plasteel desk and matching chair, and of course your old wardrobe. The place you played in as a child.

You set your bag on the bed. You will unpack it later, because you want to know what happened to your father, so you head back downstairs.

Your mother is sitting at the dining room table, sipping a mug of coffee. “Ionny, do you want some coffee or do you still drink tea?”

“I still like tea, Panjo. Do we have some in the kitchen?” you ask, realizing that your mother wants you to sit and drink with her, like she taught you kids to do when there was something serious to discuss. 

In the kitchen, you easily find a mug you preferred when you lived there, an old style, hand-thrown ceramic mug. Perfect for tea or coffee. Then you find a box of tea cubes. The mixture of herbs and seasonings that your father preferred, and you learned to like.

Instahot water fills the mug and the cube quickly dissolves, creating the hot, fragrant mixture you enjoy so much.

You sit in a chair close to your mother and set the mug on the table. “Panjo, what happened to Pacjo? How did he die?”

She takes a slow sip of her coffee, then sets it down. “Kankro.” She says.

You sit back for a second and think “Cancer? That doesn’t make sense, not with all of the technology available.” You reach your hands and grasp hers.  “What kind of Kankro? And why didn’t it get found during his physicals.”

Tears well up in her eyes. “Ask your brother. Matty treated him before he died, and knows what happened.”

You feel confused. Mateo is a very good doctor but not an oncologist. Your frateto is a general doctor, doing rotating shifts at various local hospitals. “Tell me what you know.”

You say holding her hands more tightly.

“After your father and I retired, we talked about traveling. Visiting other parts of the Core, and maybe even seeing some of the new Rim.” She pulls her hands free of yours and takes her coffee mug. She sips it again before continuing. “He started volunteering at some of the local clinics, which were shorthanded, and staffed by Medi-comps.

“We have one onboard the ship, but I never use it. Pacjo told us to never trust them. Go on.” You say taking a moment to sip your tea.

“UMP paid him for his time, on top of his pension. So we were saving up the valutos to take a trip. It was easy money for him, just verifying that the Medi-comps diagnoses were correct before patients should follow them.” She continues.  “After a few months of doing it, he seemed run down and tired all the time. I asked him to get a physical at the hospital. They said it was stage IV and spreading through his system.” Tears run down her face.   

“Why didn’t it get caught earlier?” You ask genuinely curious.

She took a tissue from a dispenser near her and wiped her eyes and face. She then paused for a moment. “You should ask your brother.”

You sip your tea and wonder what isn’t being said.  It seems like your father was keeping secrets from your mother. You finish your mug, get up, go to rinse it in the sink. You see the sonic scrubber and use it to clean the cup, then set it where it was.

“It’s been years since I use one of those.” You say aloud. “Our ship is an older one and has a water reclamation and recycling system.”

“None of that here.” She says, following you into the kitchen. “Water is for cooking and drinking. Welcome back to the Core.” She finishes her cup and then cleans it, too. Quick and efficient, just like UGA proclaims everywhere.

“I’ll unpack and then link with Matty.” You lean and kiss your mother on her cheek, “Thanks for the tea, Panjo.”

 After hanging things up in the wardrobe, and putting things in drawers, you sit on your bed and look at your minividi.  You could link with your brother but you aren’t sure if he is working, or even awake right now. He might be on the other side of the planet, if he is even on Sankta Koro. You stare at the blank screen. You have too many unanswered question concerning your father. You close the door to your old bedroom and sit down on the bed. You tap your brother’s name on the contact list. In a moment his face fills the screen.

“Ionny! Panjo said you might send a link. From the look of the background, you’re home.”  He says, the collar of his scrubs and coat are just visible.

“Frateto, are you at work? If you are busy, this can wait.”

“Ionny, don’t call me that and, I won’t call you maljunul.  I thought we outgrew all of that.”

You smile for a moment. “Of course Matty. Or would you prefer Doctor Novak?”

“If we both ‘Doctor Novak’ each other, we won’t get anywhere.” He says with a wink and a smile. “So what do you need, Ion?”

You sigh for a moment, realizing that the playful banter is over. “Realistically, I need answers. You were Pacjo’s doctor? What happened?”

His eyes glance off screen. “I’ve got about 5 more hours on shift. Why don’t you take the metroo over to my place.” He taps his screen and an address and access code are added to your minividi. “Make yourself at home. Heck you might even enjoy the hospitality of some of my neighbors.” He says with a grin.

“Ok. Will do.” You say. He taps his screen closed before you can say anything else.

 You tell your mother you are going to Mateo’s house. You hadn’t seen it but he invited you over. She kisses you and says “Be careful.” All of a sudden you feel like you are a 10-jaro old kid going out to play at the local park. You shake your head at that and walk to the metroo.  You had been away from the Core for so long, you forgot that metrooj run all through the planet, connecting communities with a clean and easy way to quickly move lots of people. When you are at the statio, you look at the map on the vidi. Tapping the screen, you see which lines you need to take to get to your brother’s house, or at least to his city and neighborhood.

You download the information onto your minividi and board the tube. Minutes later you are at the main city station.  This line continues where you need to go so you wait a moment and then you are in his city.  Your minividi shows you how far you need to still walk to get to his house. “I forgot how easy somethings are in the Core.”

(Come back for the next part of the story.)