An arrival and a loss

[vadagget]

I knocked the dirt off my feet and wiped the sweat from my brow before entering the shop. Inside, I trudged wearily up to a medical booth to offload the day's loot and buy more medical supplies. Profit from the transaction was pitifully small; at this rate it will be a month before I can afford some better armor. Omnis get much better returns for their bounty then clans do but the recruiter had failed to mention that back when I was contemplating where to go. That, and the intense heat here in Tir caused make me often consider whether I made the right choice. Still, there is much to be satisfied about. I am slowly learning how to control nanobots and am making a living by myself, albeit a minimal one so far. The city provides rent-free housing and the food is cheap. Also, Tir is refreshingly non-Omni in it's design. I had spent my first few weeks in West Athens, hunting small animals in the woods nearby and helping to clear mutants out of the subway system, sleeping in the back of the shops at night. It was the daily attacks by Omnis that drove me away from there. Shooting young clanners, barely able to cast a nano, is apparently considered some sort of a sport there; and it is sickening. Old Athens was very pretty and had plenty of shops but the architecture still reminds me too much of the Corporation. So it was on to Tir, where not a trace of the old standard could be found. Here I can immerse myself into another world, pushing away the images and emotions from the past....

**********
My family is from the old Omni-Tek colony on the frozen mining planet of Dradok IV. Father was a medical supplies specialist with Omni-Med, while mother worked part-time in the offices of Planetary Environmental Standards & Compliance (PESC). I'm not sure PESC -had- any full-time employees. Father was a dyed-in-the-wool Omni-Tek employee but mother was not so fond of the Corporation. Dradok is one of Omni-Tek’s oldest colonies, and Omni-Tek and Sol Banking each lease half of it. The planet had most of it’s accessible ore removed millennia ago but it is still the headquarters for mining research and development and both corporations keep renewing their leases, largely just to spite each other. The 1,000’s of miles of tunnels made from extracting ore have mostly been converted to living and working quarters and it is there that we lived. Aside from the holographic caverns the only time I saw any sunlight was on our annual trip to the equatorial surface domes at the height of summer to watch the ice storms that formed when the water thawed. Such was life, but it was all I knew then.

Omni-Tek had instructed us to relocate to Rubi-Ka but father had, for the 1st time that I could recall, stonewalled them; using bureaucratic loopholes to delay the transfer for 18 months until I was old enough to be able to use the 'insurance' technology that existed on this unique planet when I arrived. That delay gave me time to learn as much as possible about my future home. I knew Rubi-Ka was an important Omni-Tek holding,and the source of notum, which allowed people throughout the galaxy to enhance the capabilities of nanobots in ways inconceivable before its’ discovery. In normal, everyday life though, no one encounters such technology. If you were sick or injured, the doctor would inject you with the proper nanobots to repair the damage. Father often talks of the time he got to see notum-enhanced technology at work. There was a subway crash, with many people killed or injured, and he was called up to rush additional supplies to the main medical center. The emergency room had been sealed off, with patients being brought through intermediate chambers. Inside, the environmental systems were pumping notum into the atmosphere and a surgeon, trained on Rubi-Ka, was tending to the most severely injured. Father said clouds of glowing nanobots were swarming around the doctor and he would simply wave his hands in the air and the patient on the table would heal within seconds. Many people suspected that such chambers and specialized personnel were made available to the corporate bigwigs on a regular basis, but no proof of that had ever been published.

While The Corporation always portrayed Rubi-Ka as a happy and prosperous colony, living in proximity to Sol Banking made it possible to hear other stories of how things were on Rubi-Ka, at least according to Sol. Their version was that the planet was in constant internal conflict, pitting Omni-Tek against former abused employees, now split off into independent clans. Because a person can die on Rubi-Ka and then miraculously be brought back to life, it was possible for intense conflicts there to sustain themselves. If we moved to Rubi-Ka, we would be trained in the use of notum-enhanced nano technology, which sounded very cool, indeed! On the downside, the planet was hot, with two suns, something I was not at all acclimated to. I vowed to study a profession that would allow me to stay indoors as much as possible.

When the time came, we packed up and started out on the long journey, leaving the subterranean caverns of Dradok IV behind forever. They say you have no sense of the passage of time while in cryo-containment but after being revived in orbit around Rubi-Ka, having 1st been routed to Omni Prime and then on to Rubi-Ka itself, it seemed like an eternity had passed. It certainly did not feel, as the travel agents had claimed, as if I had gone to sleep the night before and woke up the next morning in orbit around a new planet. We spent two days on the Morning Star Space Station, getting papers sorted and medical checks done. Everyone is required to register with a professional guild, as you will be trained in the use of notum in ways specific to that profession. I signed up for the medical profession, less because I felt any interest in following in my father’s footsteps then because it seemed to me to be a good chance to spend my workday in some cooled hospital. Besides, I at least knew something about medicine, as opposed to what I didn’t know about engineering or some of the more exotic professions that only existed on Rubi-Ka. And there was that tale of the doctor at the hospital, healing all those crash victims, in the back of my mind.

The evening of the shuttle trip there was a large crowd waiting, as they had had mechanical problems with the earlier shuttle, and it's departure was now overlapping with the evening one. As I filed past the boarding officer I could hear him counting:

Boarding Officer: "10,11..<grumble>..12, 13..OK, that's all. The rest of you move to Docking Bay 2 where the 2nd shuttle is now ready to load.

He had cut off the line between myself and my parents!

Father protested: "She’s our daugher, we are traveling together"

Officer: *glancing at my papers* She's an insurable adult, no requirement to travel with immediate family. And the remaining passengers traveling planetside are a pair of families with small children - those we cannot split up. Now move along to shuttle bay 2, we are behind schedule as it is. Both shuttles will land at Omni-1 in 20 minutes and you can see your daughter there.

With that he stepped resolutely in between myself and the rest of the line, including my parents, while a couple of other station personnel shifted closer to the group, glaring. Father, after a moments' hesitation, moved on to the other shuttle bay, with mother close behind, frowning. She called out over her shoulder:

"We'll see you on the ground shortly Elcie, take care."

On board the shuttle the captain engaged the movement inhibitors to keep people from being tossed about if we hit turbulence and we started down. Minutes later, however, the ship was rocked by explosions and alarms started to screech. A cry came over the intercom "Oh My God, we're under attack!" "We're going down!". Then everything went black.

When I came to I felt like I'd been dragged down an ice glacier. After a few moments I was able to make out some red lights flashing and realized that alarms were still screeching. I grabbed an emergency medkit from the overhead bunker then, still in a daze, stumbled towards the flashing lights. Ahead of me I could see someone else dragging themselves up a ladder to an escape hatch and I followed suite. Outside, people were gathering on the deck of the shuttle and there was a nurse tending to them. The suns were already set but the sky was well lit from a plethora of stars and one of Rubi-Ka's large moons. Most people looked bloodied and disheveled but I saw pilot and copilot looking quite fresh and clean, if a bit weak.. Looking around I realized the shuttle had crashed in shallow water just shy of some landing pad on Rubi-Ka.

The nurse began to look me over, checking for any serious injuries.

"I need to get to Omni-1" I told her; "My parents were on the other shuttle that just left the Morning Star and they will be worried about me. I need to let them know I am ok."

The nurse froze, staring at me. "you came down on this shuttle but your family took the other?"

"Yes, they said this one was full and as I am 16, I can travel alone."

"One moment" She stepped a few feet away from me and began to talk to someone on her comm unit.

A cold, prickly feeling began to come over me, starting at the back of my neck. I don't know if it was her expression or her body language, or if I could just pick up snippits of her conversation, but I began to sense that something was very, very wrong.

The nurse returned to me, her eyes now round and moist as she struggled to hold her emotions in check.

"I'm sorry, hon, the other shuttle was attacked further out in orbit and didn't make it to the surface. No one survived."

"But, but, don't you have Insurance technology here? We were all scanned on the station."

"We do, and in fact a couple of people on your ship were killed in the crash and revived but you have to be on the planet's surface, or very close, when you die for it to work. It is only because of the notum on the planet that Insurance technology works and the effects of the notum do not reach out past the atmosphere into space while the Morning Star is far out in geosynchronous orbit. Shuttle pilots here know to head for the planet when they have problems or are under attack because if you just die from the crash, you will be ok. But when the aliens attacked the two shuttles in orbit, yours was close enough to make it to the surface intact but the other one was destroyed while still out in space. I'm sorry, there is nothing we can do for your parents."

With that she turned away from be and went back to attending to the more seriously hurt passengers from my shuttle.

I don't know how long I just sat there, I was too numb to cry. That would come later, and often. Eventually I picked myself up and waded in to the beach where another medical attendant was waiting. He explained that with the aliens constantly attacking this shuttle bay site that only some soldiers would come out from the mainland and that the medical personnel are too busy to do much else other than tend to the wounded. Having spent my life around medical supplies, I offered to help him. It gave me something to do while I pondered what I should do next. At The Morning Star, I had been issued a small handgun as well as some healing nano, which I had no idea how to use. I would shoot the small animals in the area and then check them for usable body parts. Sometimes I would catch them lugging trinkets or bits of clothing around, and collected those, as well.

A few hours later, I returned to the shuttle to gather my belongings. Most of my stuff had been in the cargo bay, which was ruined in the crash. All I had left were some clothes, some guides to Rubi-Ka, and my holographic picture album, along with a few memory crystals father had given to me to carry as his briefcase was full. There was a teleporter on the far side of the landing bay that led to the mainland but the intervening area was swarming with aliens and I had not yet worked up the nerve to try to cross. So I settled down for the remainder of the night in a sheltered corner of the station to get a little sleep...

[vadagget]

The following morning I woke up to the heat. I would learn later that the temperature at this location was quite pleasant due to the ocean breeze and the far southern latitude, but at the time I simply thought “this is bearable”. Other places on Rubi-Ka would not be so “bearable”. I talked to the station manager, Travis Molen, some more but all he could suggest was getting to the teleporters on the far side of the facility or, lacking that, help out around the place. I did run some errands for the head doctor on location, Elsa. This was my first encounter with a ‘clan’ person and she left a good impression. Perhaps it was her polite demeanor while under the stress of dealing with the situation on the island, or maybe it was just the similar name, I don’t know. She got me some protective clothing to help ward off the wildlife and turning in her reports to Travis Molen got me a few credits. I also talked with the Unicorn guard but his condescending manner totally turned me off.

There was a vendor here, also, Antonio Stacklund, selling various wares. I had already found some gems and trinkets on the leets and reets that roamed the island and he was willing to pay for those, in turn enabling me to buy protective clothing. He also explained how to improve my pistol which I did, even buying another pistol to help fend off the creatures. By the late afternoon I felt like I could risk the run across the wrecked landing platform to the far side where the whom-pahs were. Fortunately, the aliens seem focused on attacking the guards and ignored me.

On the far side I found a representative from Omni-Tek, as well as one from the clans, and a neutral observer. The Omni-Tek rep was pushy and though I took an application, I did not immediately fill it out. The clan rep was a bit better, but still rather zealous, and I picked up one of his applications as well. The neutral fellow was friendly enough but I didn’t get any sense of a support community. Whichever side I chose would affect my life forever, determining what my opportunities were to advance and where I could, and could not, travel. Having transferred from an Omni colony I was officially registered as an Omni but, as the clan rep explained, once you arrive on Rubi-Ka, you can chose another side.He also gave me some brochures showing off the clan cities, something that was not listed in the Rubi-Ka materials I had gotten before I arrived here. I found them to be far more aesthetically pleasing then the Omni-Tek architecture I was used to, though Old Athens seemed to have a hint of that old style. He also pointed out that I could obtain improved armor and equipment from the clans if I signed on with them, and promised that some guilds would be willing to take me in and train me, no Omni-Tek schools needed.

I retreated into the Transport Room to mull things over. Omni-Tek had kept me fed and protected all my life so far, but they had also dictated almost every aspect of my life. What to wear, what school to go to, what I could read or not read. Looking at all the brochures I now had, I realized that it also painfully reminded me of my family that was now gone, and the life I had had with them. Perhaps had I waited a few days longer I might have thought things out more rationally, but at the time I felt the need to distance myself from all that and to hide in the furthest corner of the planet while I recovered emotionally. I stepped outside to the clan recruiter and gave him my signed application! If things didn't work outor I simply changed my mind, I was still young enough to re-sign to Omni-Tek. The clan recruiter handed me a teleporter key and some maps of the clan areas. I headed back into the teleporter room and, using the key, teleported to West Athens...

**********

After a few weeks in Tir, I had gone to explore the Shadowlands. People talked about a lush world with new creatures and great opportunities to be had. So, hoping to find a cooler home than Tir, I traveled to Jobe and on to Nascence. The place was indeed different, so much so that I have yet to figure it out in full. The temperatures were a bit better here than in Tir but the strange wildlife is frightening. These creatures are much tougher, too, than the usual fare on Rubi-Ka. After a few days I left, I'll return when I'm a bit older and better able to navigate around this strange world. I did, however, get an apartment in Jobe. They were much nicer than the bare rooms available on Rubi-Ka and I sleep there when I can. My Tir apartment is now mainly a stopping-off point to get out of the heat and catch a meal.

I am still wearing the armor I picked up on the Island where I crashed, it is surprisingly good and, more importantly, paid for. Any armor I see that is any better costs a week's worth of loot per piece. I had hoped to spend more time working in hospitals but it seems those jobs are all taken by people with better connections. Thus, I am left to foraging around the nooks and crannies and the hot plains nearby for pelts and body parts and gems that I can sell for credits. I already knew how to make plasma from dead animal parts and processing that has been a mainstay of my income here. I need to start intereacting with more people and get on some teams. Doctors are good in that way but so far I have been reluctant to engage with people on the planet here any more than necessary. I guess I am still in shock over how my arrival here went, and the loss of my family. They say time heals all wounds but mine are still too fresh to allow me to be comfortable in groups of any size; and don't even mention shuttles *shudders*. Still, I need to do something now to improve my situation. In combat I am barely using my healing skills yet every fight seems to last forever. Time to start looking around for new tutors and people I can actually heal...