Darkworld: Earth

29.

Gabriel was alone in the room with Liu Wei and the hologram of Trenola, the Yonohoan doctor who was dedicating herself to help mitigate the damage that had been caused to the crew by their exposure to the Tunnel Drive. Most of the crew had taken to removing their vacuum suits after boarding the Toormonda, and he was wearing only the jumpsuit that went underneath. The hologram produced by the scanner was somewhat more exposed.

He blushed despite himself as the hologram projected by the scanner showed his thin but out of shape form briefly before focusing on the ‘problem areas’ that it had detected.

“Well? How bad is it?” he inquired as Liu and Trenola read the readout.

“One moment, let us review the data before we make any decisions,” Liu said.

“Right, sorry. I’ll shut up,” Gabriel agreed.

After several minutes of reading the results of the scan, Liu looked over at him and smiled reassuringly. “Your brain has held up pretty well, Gabriel. You could use some more exercise aboard the Toormonda to help counteract the muscle and bone atrophy from being in zero G, but that’s true of everyone from the Seeker . I am presently placing you as a Stage One on the Tunnel Drive Exposure Gradient and clearing you for work.”

“Stage one out of how many?” Gabriel inquired.

“Presently, five,” Liu answered. “The majority of the crew I’ve examined so far are in stage one or two. The most severe case is stage four, with stage five being a hypothetical progression from psychiatric symptoms into physical ones which we have yet to observe.”

“Thank god,” Gabriel said. “And the scanners aboard the Seeker can’t pick up the damage at all yet?”

“No. The damage is at a cellular level to the dendrites themselves,” Liu explained. “Earth technology doesn’t have the resolution to pick up on the damage through imaging alone. It would take a biopsy with an electron microscope to really diagnose this at home, and we are simply unable to measure the effects with the technology aboard the Seeker at all. Not at this stage of the syndrome.”

“You sound like you’ve rehearsed this explanation for some reason,” Gabriel said, joking slightly as he was certain that she’d been explaining the data to all of her patients.

She chuckled. “Trenola, what do you recommend for Gabriel’s treatment?”

“I recommend no further travel by Tunnel Drive. There are six medications which might help reverse the damage that has occurred and prevent it from worsening on its own. Not all of the medications can be given together, however. There is one combination of two medicines which I would recommend, one combination of three, and another combination of two. The final medicine is incompatible with all of the others and must be taken alone.”

“And nanite treatment?” Liu inquired.

“At present your captain has declared that treatment by nanites will not be performed,” Trenola answered. “However, the damage that Gabriel has suffered has not progressed to the point where I would suggest that as the only form of treatment anyway. It is generally recommended to avoid treatment of the neurons with nanites whenever possible. Only in the extreme cases such as the patient who suffered an emotional breakdown would I recommend them as a possibility. At present I recommend pharmacological treatment to see how the patients respond.”

“And which of the treatment options do you believe will be most effective for Gabriel’s health?” Liu questioned.

“Any of them. They may come with side effects, so I would recommend selecting one and slowly increasing the medication dose to ensure that the patient tolerates the medication. If there is a reaction, then we can switch to an alternative treatment. There is no existing treatment protocol for Tunnel Drive Exposure Syndrome, so we’re largely guessing on the best course of action based on the physiology we’re seeing with our technology, to be honest,” Trenola explained.

“Right. Thank you, doctor,” Liu said.

“You are welcome. I enjoy the medical discourse and the format that your people use to engage in it,” Trenola commented.

“So, I’ll be taking a few pills then? I’m pretty bad at remembering to take my medicine, so we should probably start out with whatever has me doing that the least often,” Gabriel said as he stepped down from the scanner and the hologram of his body disappeared.

“Right, we’ll start with the single medication treatment plan and see how you respond, then,” Liu said. “How are you feeling emotionally? Watching Sarah’s unfortunate episode was troubling for many of the other patients.”

“I feel guilty, doc. I’m not particularly close with Sarah, but I’ve spent enough time with her that I should have seen the warning signs that she was going off the deep end but I completely missed them,” Gabriel admitted.

“You’re not the only one. It’s unfortunate, but the symptoms we’re presently attributing to Tunnel Drive exposure are also very similar to what we’d expect from the stress of space travel and being isolated among a small community like our crew for so long,” Liu explained. “We’re still not entirely certain how to unravel the two factors without the help of the Yonohoan medical scanners.”

“You don’t think I’m being unreasonably hard on myself for feeling guilty, do you?” Gabriel asked.

“I think that what you feel for your friend is probably a normal response, but you shouldn’t beat yourself up about it. I missed the symptoms as well. Or rather, I falsely attributed them to other causes and underestimated their severity,” Liu explained. “I should be feeling far more guilt than you over the progression of Sarah’s illness.”

“Yeah, don’t beat yourself up though, doc,” Gabriel said.

“I’ll try not to. I’m glad that Anders picked up on it.”

“He doesn’t seem like the type who would notice something like this,” Gabriel commented. “Maybe my read on the guy is off.”

“Anders takes his position and its responsibilities very seriously. That includes his responsibilities regarding the crew’s medical status,” Liu stated. “But it was a little surprising when he called a meeting with the captain and the medical crew to review incident reports for any signs of psychiatric symptoms that we might have missed. We were just starting to see patterns in behavior when the incident occurred during the all-staff meeting.”

“Well, I’d kind of expected something like this to happen, to be honest,” Gabriel admitted. “I’m one of the adherents to the idea that we were taking part in human trials to begin with, and that the entire selection of the crew was made with consideration towards the study of the damage that the Tunnel Drive might cause to humans.”

“It’s unfortunate, but I believe you are correct,” Liu said. She sighed. “It wasn’t officially mentioned in the mission documents, and the official corporate line is that every step was taken to minimize exposure, as well as to increase our resilience. But if you look closely, there’s signs of a hidden experiment being performed.”

“Well, anyway, that’s enough serious talk for now,” Gabriel said. “I’m going to go wander around and play with the Toormonda’s systems a bit.”

“Enjoy yourself. Also, thirty minutes of exercise in the exercise room before you return to the Seeker .”

“I know. Hey, is it true that they have a functional shower here?” he inquired.

“It is.”

“I am very much looking forward to that,” Gabriel said.

He left the medical room and began wandering through the ship. It was surprising how familiar it felt already. It felt like a school, he realized. He wasn’t certain where the feeling came from, exactly, but that’s how it felt to walk through the rooms of the Toormonda.

There were various furniture pieces and things strewn about, and many of the crew members were lounging about in the comfortable gravity that the ship produced. It was a relaxing environment, and there was a soft melody playing in the background. It wasn’t one that Gabriel recognized, and he realized that it was more likely Yonohoan music rather than something that a crew member had brought from Earth.

It was slow but cheerful, not made by any instrument that Gabriel recognized but pleasing to the ear.

Aside from the furniture which was obvious in function, there were oddly shaped things that Gabriel knew were scientific instruments, but not what their function was. The ship was able to produce a hologram anywhere inside its interior, so there were no screens or displays present. Yonohoans were used to reading their information in holographic format.

“Hey Gabriel, you got a moment?” A familiar voice asked. Gabriel turned to see Diego standing nearby, and it took him a moment to realize that the man was a hologram and not really on the ship.

“Of course. What’s up?” Gabirel answered.

“I have some messages I’d like you to pass on,” Diego said. “Unofficial messages through unofficial channels, you understand? Would you mind going someplace private?”

“Sure. One second, let me find one of the bedrooms,” Gabriel answered. “Did you hear about Sarah?”

“Yeah. I saw it coming,” Diego said. “I tried to mitigate it, but I didn’t realize that the situation was as bad as it was. Not until I read the medical report that the Yonohoans showed me about the damage I’d suffered and realized that there might be more to the situation than I’d originally thought.”

“We all missed the warning signs,” Gabriel said, shaking his head. He found one of the semi-spacious private bedrooms and closed himself inside. “Anyway, what do you need me to pass on?”

“When you get home, I’d like you to visit my mother and abuela,” he said. “They’re going to be pretty upset that I’m not returning, and I want you to reassure them that it was my choice to remain behind. It wasn’t an order. Nobody threatened me. I have the option of leaving and I choose not to. It’s not because there are consequences if I leave, but because it is better for everyone if I stay.”

“How is it better, exactly?” Gabriel asked.

“It’s hard to explain, exactly,” Diego admitted. “It has to do with Eolai and his father. You see, Eodar is a great hero to the Yonohoa. It seems that he was one of the first Yonohoa to get swept up into the swarms during the Liberation Wars, and he fought throughout almost the entire time.”

“The wars lasted thousands of years,” Gabriel pointed out.

“They did. They were able to flash-clone people and implant them with the memories of a person, Gabriel.” Diego explained. “Eodar was printed out thousands of times and fought across all of the fronts. When the humans began fighting against each other, he was used on all sides of the conflict,” Diego explained. “However, it was his presence among almost every force in the swarms which eventually helped lead to peace. He would speak with his comrades about life as a Yonohoan and explain their traditions. He extended invitations to join his clan to anyone he found honorable, and to a select few he extended the oath of brotherhood. When the war was over, many of Eodar’s clansmen and brothers and sisters returned to Yonohoan worlds and were gradually integrated over generations.”

“Oh,” Gabriel said. “But I still don’t understand how Eolai is his son if he’s a historical figure.”

“Many of the returning veterans were told that they were welcome to stay and remain among the Yonohoah ‘as long as my children walk through the light of this universe,’” Diego explained. He paused. “That’s not a perfect translation. However, they interpreted it as ‘as long as Eodar has a child alive, then the invitation remains open.’ The Yonohoans saw this as an important tradition and wanted to keep the invitation open to everyone for as long as possible. There is another technology, a stasis field. It seems that, in order to make certain that there was always a child of Eodar walking one of the worlds of the Yonohoans, Eodar was given many, many lovers when the war ended, and they volunteered to enter stasis while still pregnant. They returned to society to give birth one by one.”

“Oh,” Gabriel said as he processed the explanation. “What about artificial insemination? Couldn’t they preserve his sperm?”

Diego shook his head. “It’s legal. However, they consider it a right for a father to select the parents of his child. When the last Eodar died, it became illegal to inseminate anyone with his genetic material who was not already pregnant. And Eolai is the last son of Eodar.”

“That sounds like a lot of pressure,” Gabriel said.

“Yes. My brother has a large weight upon his shoulders. It is a weight which I have unwittingly volunteered to help him bear,” Diego said. “Because now that I am his brother, I’m also a son of Eodar.”

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