Chapter 8: I am Neon (SOTU)

== =Chapter 8=

Only a day had passed since the tragic death of the Leedei, Med Central had sent a specialist via Avatar presence to lead the autopsy. The results were clear and Justice Central had ruled it an accident.

Dr. Makma Makedi had fallen victim to a compound that was the chief ingredient of the for Leedei approved medication against motion sickness. The cause was a very rare allergy to said compound, that while Makma had an allergic reaction to something it ate before, the incident had happened in its childhood and had never been put into his CITI data.

True, it had been argued that the MD of the science cruiser should have conducted the Ankerman-Nelson tests, tests specifically created for the Leedei physiology to check for the trigger conditions that can cause allergic reactions. A safe drug could then be synthesized on the spot or even more permanent measures taken to eliminate the danger of allergies in the first place. However the auto defense to these general raised accusations were the missing data in the Citizen Identification tag implant and the MedCentral general approval for the generally deemed harmless drug that could be purchased by anyone.

The pharma corporation making the drug argued that the rare allergic reaction was known and noted on the drugs information.

To avoid any kind of bad publicity, the drug maker agreed to compensate the life partner with a considerable amount of credits,which the grieving life partner accepted.

With all direct parties in the case satisfied, Justice Central closed the case and that was that.

Claudia sad brooding on one of the chairs in the observation lab. The lab was underneath a nearly indestructible transparent dome of Ultronit reinforced Dura-plast and allowed a direct view into the planets environment.

Aplarox, the local sun was just a reddish diffused halo in the cloud filled sky that surrounded the station in all directions. Clouds on this world traveled at the speed of sound and were elongated streaks of different molecular gases, ranging from water vapor to Ammonia and pretty much everything in between. The high speeds, the still very warm center of the planet and the friction caused electromagnetic storms of incredible intensity. Raging without pause most likely for millions of years.

Claudia had her legs pulled up and her arms wrapped around her knees, as she kept looking over the large data display fields full of constantly changing and scrolling data, directly underneath the dome’s base ring.

This time it was the Stik that disturbed her, unlike Chimeer he had not looked for her on purpose and was unprepared for her being there in his favorite spot.

She turned to him as she had noticed his faint but clearly annoyed sigh.

“Ah it is you, Gwoonly. What brings you up here?”

“I am here every day after my shift, Dr. Bloch. ever since this base was dropped into this planet’s atmosphere. I come here to sit and meditate and watch the raging storms. There are no storms of this kind on Woorld.”

“There aren’t storms like this on New Cambridge either. I find them rather disturbing and unsettling to be frank. I have never heard of the Stik or the planet Woorld, where is your home exactly?”

“My home had a very famous name once, or should I say infamous name. It was once known as Sin 4. We Stik are the native population of that planet and were oppressed in the worst conceivable way by the many off world syndicates.”

She turned.“Of course I have heard of Sin 4 and all the horror stories about it. It was in Freespace if I recall correctly and during the time the Big Four, still all existed.”

“Yes indeed, but thanks to Captain Erica Olafson and a human named Fusionbeam we became Union members. Union Marines kicked the foreign oppressors off our world not that they left all that many able to flee and the Union Army Corps of Engineers has and still is cleaning up our planet.”

She shifted into a more natural seating position.“That hasn’t been all that long. I think about fifty years or so. I was already teaching Xenobiology back then, around 5030 on the old time scale was it not?”

“We celebrate the year of our freedom to be 5027 OTT.”

“So did you meet that famous and so mysterious Captain Olafson or any if her legendary companions?”

“No, I wasn’t born then, but my grandfather did. I did meet the Eternal Warrior once though and that was the best day of my life.”

“You must be kidding, Admiral Stahl himself? I always thought he is more a myth than a real person.”

“He is real alright, Dr. Bloch and everything they ever said about him is true.”

She changed the subject.“So what do you think, about something being alive out there?”

“Our Union has so many different life forms. There are the Non Corps living on the surface of a sun. The Camogi existing within a Neutron star of all places. There are the Bellebees, floating gas bags home in an environment pretty much the same as it is out there. Who can forget to mention the Hotzies, who crawl their entire existence over metallic helium at pressure and temperature conditions considered lethal to pretty much everything else. ”

The tall Stick with it’s cone shaped skull spread its long thin arms. “You are the Xeno expert and I bet you know many more examples of what we would consider unusual or impossible environments for life to develop that is.”

She gave him a warm look.“Yes, Gwoonly I do and I know the ones you mentioned, but they all can be observed in some fashion. They all have some sort of permanent center where memories and an ego center are kept. Out there is nothing.”

The Stik shrugged.“That never handicapped that famous crew you mentioned. I recall, the USS Tigershark encountered many unusual life forms. Including a living dust cloud, the Argroou are almost real ghosts if I recall, one of them even becoming a crew member.”

She grinned .“You are right, you are so right. It is not experts of the known everyone should listen to, but believers in the unknown and impossible. Thank you Gwoonly, you are wiser than you might think you are.”

She jumped up and rushed to the Inter station transport tube. “System, locate Chimmie for me and get me as close to his location as possible.”