6 Billion A.D./Chapter 2

Chapter 2: (...)

Tentative Synopsis: Rigel, in search of a cure, ventures out of League territory to a far off planet following rumors of an illegal medical procedure.

2.1

The news never sank in completely. I couldn't die. Not now. As the weeks passed on the ship I became further detached. I had convinced my father to let me board a ship heading outside of League territory. He reluctantly agreed. To him this was goodbye.

I arrived at the shipyard late in the evening. The ship was a junk pile. It was a trading ship of sorts; spare parts and knickknacks. It was the only ship I could book in a hurry. And I needed to leave; I was a dying man.

By the third day of the journey, I had experienced an amazing series of worries. Such a long boring trip… why was it necessary to leave the security of the League realm? When would I start noticing actual symptoms of my disease? How much did other passengers know about me and what did they think?

I didn't see those other passengers much as I usually took meals in my suite. I knew there was a family group of Jalars quartered near me; I had seen them when I went out once to look through the large port in the viewing lounge. Most of the other passengers I'd seen were solitary travelers like myself.

I came out of sleep state the next day with a feeling that I had toured all of time and space, but I could not remember any details. All I had was a memory of a female [race?] saying, “Rigel? Your name is not always Rigel.” I knew her from somewhere but it was all hazy. Strangely, just about everything I did that day reminded me of the dream, as if I had already done it while sleeping.

Though I could not access the information nets of my destination, Barneth (?), I had spent much time drifting through the ship's data storage. The League just didn’t pay much attention to fringe worlds. No doubt there were scholars who studied them, but I hadn’t had thought of that before I left and there was no way to look into that now.

From the League Star Catalogue

LSC-352-34920047 aka: Cindor: A G0 star in the Perseus Arm of the galaxy, generally south of the Orion Spur. Five planets orbit; 3 rocky planets, 2 gas giants. Planet 2, Barneth, supports [intelligent] life.

Directory of Inhabited Worlds

Barneth (Cindor2), is the habitable planet of the Cindor system. As with many worlds, it is not known when Barneth was first settled. While ruins exist, no documented efforts have been made to determine their age.

Orbit: Barneth orbits Cindor every 317.62 days; the orbit is nearly circular.

Being a mature planet, there are no outstanding geological processes evident; no very large mountain ranges, no active volcanoes. Oceans cover 73% of the planet’s surface. There are 4 continents of moderate size and numerous islands.

Climate: Having minimal axial tilt (2.6 degrees), Barneth has barely discernable seasonal variations, so climate is determined by distance from the poles, which have small ice caps. Ocean currents also play a small role in climate but the oceans are relatively shallow. Temperatures are Standard Tropical at the equator.

Settlement: There are several large cities on Barneth, 2 spaceports and one orbital station. Most inhabitants live in small towns or rural homesteads. There is not a great deal of manufacturing. Barneth's major industry may be smuggling, but that has not been verified. League regulations are not in force and there is a chance visitors may encounter criminals.

That was all I could find on Barneth in that database. Still, it was an improvement over my initial description: 'There's a place out there in the Fringe where they do some questionable research', basically. At least the ship's memory provided plenty of other educational material and entertainment to keep me occupied during the easy part of the trip. I thought things might be a bit more challenging when we reached the edge of League space and I had to change ships.

It turned out that it was the easy part of the trip. The ship put in at the main station orbiting Trantaz, which was where I was supposed to transfer to a passenger ship heading out to Barneth and other worlds. Upon arrival at the terminal (so called), I found that my ship had already left.

The Connections Office was manned by a Naylen. Naylens are generally unhelpful, but he seemed to care a bit when he answered my inquiry, “I’m sorry, but that ship is no longer here.”

“But I had a reservation on that ship!”, I objected, “I have it right here.” I invoked it on my device and showed him.

“You did not make your reservation with me”, he said, not looking at my reservation, “and therefore it is not my responsibility.”

I’d heard stories about Naylens, and I was starting to suspect that he was only pretending to care. The stereotypical Naylen, having a job like his, derived satisfaction from finding ways to not be cooperative. The only way to succeed with them was to have indisputable documentation, and I was wondering about my reservation now.

“So, please tell me why this reservation is not valid?”

He sighed, a soft whistling sound, and looked on his screen. “I do not see your reservation listed for the Emelarian. Are you sure you paid for it?”

Stifling outrage, I said, “Of course I paid for it! Do you doubt me?”

“Yes, this is Trantaz Bliss station; I doubt everyone and everything. Do you have a receipt?”, he said.

I invoked the receipt for him. He smirked, “Oh my, that cabin was reserved using League funds. The Issen Line is not currently accepting payments in League financial units, so there was no reservation." He seemed pleased.

I couldn’t believe it, “They certainly accepted the funds, but I have no ship! What do I do now?”

He smiled, “You’ll need to take that up with Issen. They don’t have any representation on this station. Meanwhile, would you like to reserve a berth on another ship?”

After some wrangling, I was able to arrange passage on a ship, the Ardmanol. It was a freighter that also carried passengers. Not guaranteed to be fast, or luxurious, but I was hoping for 'comfortable' at least. Fortunately, the Connections Office accepted my financial units (FU's) and I made sure the reservation was entered into the system. It cost me 1137 FU's!

For a few more FU's, I rented a room on the station, as Ardmanol was still waiting for cargo and would not leave for two days. I looked into the Trantaz Bliss data store and found it to be quite interesting.

By League standards, Trantaz Bliss was a small station orbiting an unimportant planet. Trants, however, thought of their system as a very exciting place. They had all the advantages of being League members but, on the other side literally, they might as well be a fringe system. Trantaz was a hub for trade between the League and fringe systems - a fair amount of people and cargo passed through Trantaz Bliss.

The League was made up of many races but a few seemed to drift towards the Fringe. Naylens and Vareetors were common on this edge of the League and Trants, here, of course. Trantaz had colonized two nearby systems that were barely habitable but were mined for resources.

Then there were other races from beyond the League. Generally, they were thought of as being less civilized than League races but I found that they were just less organized – there were small empires, trading associations, and various other types of partnerships. Raiding and piracy was not unheard of, though not common. Fringers, in their turn, looked down on those who lived beyond the Fringe – the Outsiders, usually individual worlds not interacting with anyone.

I found a nice shop in the concourse on the 2nd day. The Trant behind the glass, Mreln, was very helpful and wanted to sell all kinds of gear to me. I thanked him and said I had very little need and not much funding. When I told him I was heading to Barneth, he focused in on weaponry.

"Oh, Barneth, have you heard anything about it? You'll need to be armed there."

Being on the frontier now, I'd started carrying the gun my father had given me. I pulled my tunic back to reveal it.

Mreln was impressed, "Hey, that's a fine laser weapon there, expensive too. All the criminals in town will be wanting to kill you to get that!"

"Seriously? I have three power cartridges for this, and a recharger for them."

"Yeah, well, you have to sleep sometime, and that's when they'll do it", Mreln said, sadly.

In short, we both were happy with the transaction. Mreln got my laser, cartridges and charger - I walked away with two large caliber slug throwers, holsters, 80 rounds of ammunition and a large knife in a sheath with leg straps. I was learning.

2.2

The planet (...) was... I found myself among low characters as the months passed, following the rumor. But finally I got a lead from an arms dealer. A nearby moon supposedly held a facility that performed risky experiments... The men surrounded me. One swung his pipe at me. I rolled out the way, and positioned myself against a wall. I couldn't give them my credit chips. This was the only hope I had to live. So I did what any cornered animal would do and rushed the man closest to me tackling him to the ground. I picked up the pipe. Rage overcame me. I swung the pipe at the man over and over again until there was nothing left of him. The other men ran away. I felt awful, but also had a guilty satisfaction. I was alive.

But I felt different, strange. I was a murderer. No I was a survivor. Either way I felt awful.

2.3

The shuttle quickly flew away, leaving me stranded. The suit itched. I saw a facility in the distance. My suits fluid retention modules were not configured properly, someone had removed them prior to my donning of the suit. If I was going to last long in this suit safety and a clean environment was a paramount concern. So I ventured onwards hopefully to find the road that leads from the shuttle landing to the rural zone.The directions I received from my sources where the research facility was may not be completely accurate.I check the suits directoinal/lateral readings. Due to the water levels of the planet there was no northern or sothern poles to gain a reading.So I decided to walk into the sunset ,time was running out. Walking quickly away from the shuttle landing I found a transport roadway ,there were tracks for transports as well as a semi graveled road beside it. So I followed the road.A few hours went by as I walked aside a road that was seemingly made of beach mud and rocks. Then out of nowhere a solar powered jeep rode up.A guard in a standard issue looking suit stops short of me looking me up and down then gestures me to get in.I had no other chance to live thru this landscape the pressure from the high waves crashing in the near distance causing winds that make the landscape near the vast ocean nearly uninhabitable.So I walked out to the jeep and got in.

==2.4==When we got down the road thru a large stone gate the guard took of their helmet and then gave me a thumbs up,the high sodium levels in the air had bleached their hair and their face as well.I breathed a sigh of relief as my suits alarms had turned off.So I push the fluid pump option on my suit.The suit pump was slow due to the damages to it.The guard nervous thumbed at their rifle.It worked well enough I could take my helmet off,so I did."Good looking for a smuggled passenger ain't you ,the guard jeered."."We are required to take you to the town gate watch commander if you are allowed clearance to enter the rural zone if not I'll have to leave you for dead,the guard spoke in a military trained voice.".That being said they continued further down the road and stopped at the edge of series of shear cement enclosures next to a series of solar powered jeeps.The guard climbed out and motions me towards a set of large bay doors.I followed.When I caught up the guard opened the doors.We then walked down a short corridor which had a series of hinge locking doors.We got to a certain door marking what seemed to have a coded name plate on it.The guard opened the door and motions me forwards.The small hallway had a scanner I prayed that my illness was not transferable as the scanner beams lit up and began scanning me.Thankfully I got the green light and another door opened to a suit lockup.I went in with my helmet on which is generally the procedure to find one lock up had a green light on so pushed it open.I then placed my now emptied suit piece by piece into the lock up.Strecthing out afterwards I was then alarmed as a voice spoke thru an intercom."Please continue to the door with the green light no delays,the voice barked."So I did as directed until I came to a door.Thru it was a room filled with lush furniture and paintings. A man sitting in a chair greeted me. He wore a very ill fitting robe despite this decadence that surrounded him. "We're always thrilled to have an unwelcome guest." I quickly told him my story. “A sad story indeed, but why did you come here?” “I can pay,” I retorted. The man in the ill-fitted robe laughed. “We don’t really need the money. It’s more a matter of desperate research on desperate people. If you can pay in courage that will suffice. My name is Lom be the way, let me introduce you to the rest of the assemble.” ...

We entered an even more luxurious room, where three men and one woman were sitting playing the game toloz. “Everyone this is Rigel. He has like a week left to live or something like that.” “My kind of people,” the woman looked up. “What do you mean by that.” “I like dead people, they’re quiet. I’m Deolonis by the way.” Nice to meet you. The man to the right placed his piece and yelled “toloz!” Everyone threw down their cards. The man who won stood up, “you know what this place is right, people come here to die.” ...

...

Let’s take you to meet the doctor. The doctor was a large man, monstrous even. I had to look up to see his face. “Mr. Rigel, you seek treatment for an incurable disease, yes.” Well doctor I should be dead by now, I really have nothing to lose. The doctor looked me up and down. “My research is very experimental, dangerous even.” ..

...

...A woman approached me in the hall. “I’ve heard about you. I’m Janae.” “Nice to meet you, I’m Rigel. What is your job here”. “I don’t really have a job, Dr. Helic is my father.”

...

2.5

The doctor told me that the procedure was unsafe. It was only once successful 30 years ago. Only one in a million people would allow the (nanoprobes, picoprobes?) to sync. And then it still was not guaranteed. I agreed to the procedure. I was approaching the time I had left, and was already feeling my health deteriorate.

2.6

As the weeks passed it was clear that the procedure worked. Janae approached me in the hall. We talked. "Am I immortal?" I asked... Janae replied, "There is a place where you might go. A temple of the old ways, before the Dark Age. I can take you there.

...

Janae told me about the Old Ways when everything was possible, when people lived forever, when life dared to venture beyond. Life must have seemed wondrous then. Until of course the scourge came and cleansed all these wonders. Tell me about the scourge, “The soldiers of the Order. Horrific robots whose only purpose is to destroy.” I looked up, “I thought the Order was a myth?” Janae smiled, “Who knows what really happened. All we know is that we were pushed from the stars by some malevolent force.” ...

...

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