Time and Dirt
(First Day -- Previous Day -- Day 21 -- Next Day)
Day 21
Heliopause Colony on Planet Vertumna, Medbay
“Solane... ah, good morning... you’re still sleeping? I could barely sleep, maybe I should have asked for some pillows rather than just sit on this mushwood chair that I moved to the wall last night. But I didn’t want to leave you alone for a moment, you know?
...
You’re going to get better. Even if things still don’t look as good, soon they will. I know it. Your hair is still as bright as ever, and I think your skin looks already a bit better, too. Brighter... but maybe that’s just the suns, too. I have never seen them shine so beautifully into the medbay before. Reflecting on all the glass in the room here, the lamps, small test tubes and huge flasks, and the plants inside them slowly opening up... Are the sunrises always like this here? Hey, you’ll be so lucky to see something like that once you wake up. Your room didn’t have that, did it? At least something...
Come on, wake up. The syringe helped, right? ... Oh, your face is hot to the touch. I hope that’s not a bad sign. I’ll ask Dr. Instance if I should make you a cold compress from a towel or something.
It’ll be fine...
...
Here you go. I hope that helps, Dr. Instance herself will be here in a moment or so to check on you as well.
I don’t know what happened, but I’m sure it won’t stop you. Maybe it’s even just a necessary step on the way to getting better, like how vaccines can make you a bit ill for a day or so so you don’t get a much worse illness later?
Tomorrow you’ll probably be already doing better again.
...
Sometimes I wish now I had learned a bit more about human biology in addition to plant and xeno biology, like, from my mother who does some of the engineering for the life support systems in the medbay here. But I didn’t really see the need back then, and it seemed like we had you for that. You even had just started some basic nurse training under Dr. Instance earlier this year, too, hadn’t you?
I feel like I couldn’t do well here, though. Aside from all the reading this seems to require, just being in this small space with all those cold instruments and weird devices... I mean, sorry... it’s different with you of course. It always is!
And ... and when you’re ill, of course those... things can feel very differently.
It’s just, I can’t imagine working here would do me much good, even if there are some plants at least. I just much prefer “shovel duty” as your mother liked to call it. It’s why I never could bring myself to take after my mother the way you did with yours and help out with the ... cold and clinical. And I thought you’d be the same.
But maybe there’s something I’m missing here, something that makes you enjoy it. Because I know for sure you wouldn’t just do it out of a sense of duty, right? Because no one else was up for it or something. Surely there are other people in the colony who would not mind doing the job? *Someone* from the Heliopause ship that Governor Lum arrived with surely would have some medical training, or at least passion for it.
After all, there are so many other things you like to do, right? So much ... you still wanted to do, *we* still wanted to do.
...
Where is Dr. Instance? I thought she would be here already. Is something keeping her?Let’s wait for a bit longer, I guess, before I go searching for her again...
Huh, some squeaky noise, approaching. Wait, is that the medical trolley I saw earlier? Oh, she must have prepared for a procedure. It’s nice to see someone else caring about your wellbeing, right, Solane... I hope it’s that anyway. Sometimes I catch myself distrusting people by default now and it haunts me. I used to not be like this at all...
...
Okay, she’s here, Solane. Don’t worry, it’ll be alright. You hear me? She will, uh...
...
Take your temperature and then give you a catheter with ... cooled saline? Like water with salt dissolved in it. She says it will cool down your blood and then your whole body? Wow, that’s weird. I had no idea such a thing was done. Hopefully it works... I want you to be back on the path to healing soon. This is just a temporary setback, right?
Please, Solane, now hold still one more time... I’m with you, it’s okay.
...
Oof, you still have a lot of strength left in your arms, don’t you? Want to wrestle with me while asleep? Heh... I accept your challenge! Aaaand... ugh, there you go. You defeated me! Truly you must be the strongest human on Vertumna, able to defeat your peers with your eyes closed...
Ha... not seeing you smile at my jokes anymore, it’s just hollowing me out inside. And not having heard your laughter in three weeks ...
I remember when it was audible across the fields like every day. And now I have to work in silence, except for what the plants and xenos are occasionally whispering to me.
Ughhh, I’m so tired from the lack of sleep... but since the weather is dry for once today, I have to try to catch up on all the work out there. Sowing our carrots, parsnip, garlic ... After checking for weeds, of course. I really need to think about ways to keep out those uninvited guests better. Speaking of which... dustmoles are also becoming a real problem again. Burrowing beneath the colony walls and then causing trouble on all the fields by making burrows and dens there, too. No idea how to deal with that yet... I actually wish I could lay down next to you and rest, too. That’s sadly not an option, though...
Please get well, Solane. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”