The top of the entry read, April 19, 29477. But that was just about the only thing in the entry that made any form of sense. The rest was all a confused jumble. Reading it over she could barely even remember what she'd been thinking and feeling at the time she wrote it. But it was the last entry she'd made on Rubika until today, some 3.5 months later. So much had happned in that time. In some ways Cathryn couldn't believe that all that time had passed, in another way she couldn't believe how much time had passed. Still, so much had happened...
She'd received threats on her life, her guild, and EG all due to her own fumblings, playing spy and simply trying to help a father find his daughter.
She'd recieved a series of increasingly troubled calls from her aunt on Earth about the health of her Uncle Boyd. The doctor's didn't know what was wrong with him. They only knew that he was dying and none of their treatments were working.
Then there had been the final desperate call begging her to come to Earth. The stunning news that her uncle had cancer, the disease which had been eradicated some 25 millenia ago was somehow running rampant in her uncle's body. He was not expected to live. They hadn't even made the vaccine for more than 20,000 years. They simply no longer possessed the skills for treating him.
Cat had arranged transport to Earth as quickly as possible, but not before making a few arrangements and buying a few key peices of equipment. She'd already had a plan. She was going to bring her Uncle back with her to Rubika. She'd get Jynne, the best damn doctor she knew to help her Uncle when they came back. For sure, she thought, Jynne could eradicate the cancer that was eating her uncle from the inside out.
The rst was a blur of activity until she finally arrived on Earth and was met at the spaceport by her Aunt Ceil and cousin Kerri. She could tell by the look on both of their faces though that here was no time for cheerful reunions.
They had raced to the medcenter as quickly as possible, but not quick enough. Her Uncle never opened his eyes, never knew she was there, he was gone withing minutes of their arrival to his bedside.
Then there was the days and weeks of mind numbing grief. Cat knew death, knew how to handle it better than most of the people she knew on Rubika who scarecly had to face perma-death, but knowing it didn't make it easier to deal with.
She'd become so despondent that she'd decided to stay there on Earth. She just didn't have the energy to return to her life on Rubika. But Aunt Ceil and Kerri had convinced her to go back, convinced her that she would feel better there because that was where her heart was.
Much as she tried to fight them, as the weeks turned into months, she ultimately had to admit they were right. Though Unle Boyd and Aunt Ceil had taken her in and raised her from the time she was 8 and Kerri and she had been more sisters/friends then they had been cousins, Rubika was where her heart was and was the only place she would be able to heal and be happy again.
She had to admit to fear at returning. She'd left without a word to almost anyone. She'd sent a few criptic messages back home to let people know she was ok, but that was all. Even Gorvant, her love, did not know anything of her Uncle and what she'd been going through these last months. So she was afraid that no one would understand her sudden departure and that she may have alienated herself from her friends and her lover. Regardless though, she knew she would have to risk it. She needed to go back.
She couldn't have been much more surprised though when Kerri insisted on coming with her. But she received an even bigger shock that aunt Ceil fully supported Kerri's decision. So it was decided that Kerri would come along, if only just for an exploration of the universe beyond Earth.
Now here they were. As Kerri lay silently sleeping on her bed, Cat started a new journal entry. She titled the page, "Arriving Home."
