The Days of the Golden Moons (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 5) (4 page)

Chapter 8

Jerry

My
last patient that morning was a Talasian with a bad skin affliction.  There
were little pustules all over his body from his scalp to the soles of his feet. 
It almost looked like acne.  If I had a scope here, I would have biopsied some
tissue and had a good look at it. 

“Is
it fatal?” the guy asked.

“Acne? 
No, not at all.”

“No,
it is,” the guy argued.  “My cousin died of this same disease about two years
ago.”

“You
might die of embarrassment, but seriously, it won’t kill you.  There are some
things you can put on it topically.  I’ll give you some calendula.  Wash your
skin twice a day with it and then rub on some aloe.  I can make you a chaste berry
tincture too.  It’ll help balance your hormones.”

“It’s
not my hormones that have the problem, it’s my skin!”  He turned a deep shade
of yellow.

“Well
it is, and it isn’t.  It’s both,” I tried to explain.  “How about this?  I’ll
teach you the yoga pose Asana, and you do that twice a day too, and you’ll be
all cleared up in no time.  Come on, stand up and bend forward like me.”

The
guy stood up alright, and raised his fists like he was going to punch me. 
“Forget it, Moonbeam,” he said.  He threw down his fists and headed toward the
door.

“Wait,”
I called after him.  “This will help!  Really, it will!”

He
made a crude gesture with his finger and then the door slammed behind him.

“That’ll
be $45 dollars,” I called, but I was sure he didn’t hear me.

After
that, I hung up my
I’ll be right back
sign and headed over to the
farmer’s market.  It was a beautiful day again, and the market was crowded with
tourists and shoppers.  It was a little warm because the winds and the sea were
calm and I started to sweat.  I decided when I got back to my office, I would
make myself a new deodorant spray with some lavender, sage and witch hazel. 

My
beard got really itchy when it was hot like this.  I scratched at it and
thought about how I could put aloe on my chin without getting it stuck in all
my hair. 

I
could shave off my beard, I supposed.  I wasn’t ready to make such an important
decision though.  I walked across the market noticing a new booth where someone
was selling homemade berry syrups and a long queue was already formed to sample
them.  I passed by Tuman, the fish-guy, whose own booth was two doors down and
I waved.

“Good
day, Dr. Moonbeam,” he called and held up some kind of purple-colored fish with
three enormous eyes on the top of its head.  “Lunch?”

“No,
thank you.  I wouldn’t eat that even if I wasn’t a vegan.”

“It
is really quite good,” Tuman replied, "even though it is ugly.  Tastes
like chicken.”

“I’m
really more in the mood for a veggie sprout sandwich,” I insisted and pointed
at the little grocery across the street.  “They have a nice deli counter. 
Their sandwiches are pretty good.”

“Just
a moment,” he called and put the fish back in his cooler.  “I’ll join you if
you like.”  He put up his own
I’ll be right back sign,
and together we
headed across the street.  “I agree their sandwiches are very tasty now.  I
think they must have someone new preparing them.  They weren’t always that nice. 
They used to taste like cardboard with plastic and mayonnaise on them.”

“Sounds
like the kind of food we used to eat on the ship,” I replied.  “We’d call that
the Spaceforce daily special.”

He
laughed.  “When I was in prison, I would gladly have eaten your Spaceforce
daily special.”

I
glanced at him warily.  Prison?  “Have you lived here long?”  My voice came out
a tad high. 

We
had stopped at the corner to let a horse drawn cart full of tourists snap
pictures of us as they trotted past.  I waved, letting them think I was a
local.  Maybe I should get a shirt made that advertised the Holistic Health
Center with my name, Dr. Moonbeam printed on the back.

“I’ve
lived in the marina here on my fishing boat for nearly twenty years,” Tuman
said, turning his head away from the tourists.

“Camera
shy?” 

“No. 
I have a face that might be recognizable to some.”

“Really?”
I squeaked.  I studied his face as we crossed the street and mounted the porch
steps of the grocery.  Could he be a wanted felon, a prison escapee? 

“Are
you afraid, Dr. Moonbeam?  You are looking quite pale.  I can assure you, I am
no criminal and am here purely by my choice.”

“How
are you famous then?  Are you an actor?  Rockstar?”

“I’m
not famous at all.  My nephew is.”

“Oh,
I see,” I said, although I didn’t.  We walked over to the deli counter and
looked through the refrigerated case of sandwiches. 

“I
would like a tuna fish salad sandwich today,” Tuman said, tossing a whole bunch
of the sandwiches aside.  “I enjoy those very much.”

“Aren’t
you sick of fish?”

He
frowned.  “Sometimes I am, but these sandwiches are very good.  Unfortunately,
I cannot find one.  I will have a chicken salad instead.”

“I’ll
have avocado, tomato and alfalfa sprouts on 18 grain bread with cream cheese.” 
I found my favorite in the cooler.  I bought myself an organic, filtered water
brewed iced green tea while Tuman got a liter sized bottle of Cherry Coke.  We
sat at a picnic table in the park across the street and ate our lunches.

“Look
at that,” Tuman pointed at the courthouse on the corner as he finished up his
sandwich. 

Turning
around, I watched a banner unfurl down the side of the building.

“The
Empire of Rehnor welcomes Derius,” it read.  “To Peace, Prosperity, and
Freedom.” 

Underneath
these words, a picture of Katie emerged.  She was dressed in some kind of fancy
dress and had a diamond tiara in her hair.  Her eyes were wide, and she smiled
a little.  To those who didn’t know her, they might think she looked gracious
and stately.  To me, she just looked scared.  I stared at the banner, at her
picture, and I must have loosened my grip on the sandwich because all the
sprouts fell out and ended up in a pile on the picnic table.

“She
was beautiful,” Tuman remarked, his dark eyes watching me fumble for sprouts. 

“She
is,” I agreed.   I wasn’t hungry anymore anyway.  I tossed what was left of my
sandwich into the trash.  “Even without a tiara.”

When
I turned back around, Tuman was still studying me watchfully. 

“Kind
of hot today,” I mumbled and took a long gulp of my tea.

“Why
are you here, Dr. Moonbeam?  What are you hiding from?”

“I’m
not hiding from anything.”  I looked back at Katie.  “I was just on a path, and
it turned, and I didn’t like the direction it was going so I turned around and
took another path and now here I am.”

“I
have no idea what you just said.”  Tuman smiled. 

“I’m
not sure I know either.”

“Perhaps
all of our paths are really just circles.”  Tuman rose to his feet.  He toasted
me with his liter bottle of Coke.  “No matter how far we run, we always end up
back in the same place.  Welcome to Rehnor, Dr. Moonbeam.  It seems as though
despite my best efforts, I will indeed end up home.  Perhaps you will too.”

I
raised my empty bottle of green tea to him as well and toasted him as he walked
away.  Then I held my bottle up to the picture of Katie on the side of the
building.  “Be well, Goldie,” I called.  “Where ever you are.  Be well.”  I
headed back to open my office for my afternoon patients.

Chapter 9

Shelly

“What
does this mean?” I cried. 

I
was standing at the window of our office, the one that used to be Ron's but was
now Jason Eckland's.  I watched the Rozarian police turn back anyone and
everyone who wanted to land.

“I
don’t know,” Janet snapped.  “Can’t you call Thad or something?”

“Thad’s
not answering.” 

The
vid pinged and an internal message arrived announcing the hospital was now
closed.  Patients would be transferred to the Rozarian Science Institute
Medical Centre, or any other facility that had beds even if it was on the other
side of the planet.  All the other buildings were closing, as well.  Everyone
was told to go home and wait for an announcement.

“I
don’t want to go home,” Janet snapped.  “I just got here.”

“I
don’t either,” I replied and tried Tim’s number.  After about twenty rings, he
finally answered.  “Where have you been?”

“I
was working in the yard,” Tim grumbled.  “After all that rain this weekend,
I’ve got pools of standing water in the middle of my vegetable garden.  What’s
the matter?”

“I’ve
been calling and calling,” I cried, trying not to really cry.  “They’re
shutting down SdK.  We’re all supposed to go home.  Thad isn’t answering.  Tim,
do you think they might have arrested him?”

“No.” 
Tim took off his gardening gloves and frowned.  “He’s off in space somewhere
buying up more hospitals probably.  He might even be asleep.  Who knows what
time it is wherever he is.  Don’t you worry about him, babe.  He’s fine.  Why
are they closing SdK?”

“I
don’t know,” I shrieked.  “I don’t know what’s going on.”

“Well,
come on home then.  I’ll take a look at the news wire and see if I can figure
out what your Evil Emperor did that forced the Alliance to shut down his
company.”

“Can
I come with you?” Janet asked, grabbing her coat. 

We
all had coats these days.  In the last few months, the weather in Rozari had
shifted to an almost normal pattern.  Takira-hahr had suddenly gotten very
green with grass and shrubbery and even small forests popping up in the
surrounding countryside.  This winter, if you could call it a winter, it had
started raining nearly every day.  The more it rained, the greener it got and
the greener it got, the more it rained.  After all this time, it was as if the
planet was finally recovering.

“Sure,”
I replied. 

Janet
had been coming to our house a lot lately.  The breakup with Jerry had really
sent her for a loop.  She was very depressed and for Janet, very quiet.  I
didn’t think she had a whole lot of other friends and if she did she didn’t
care to see them now.  Having dinner and watching sitcoms or reality shows on
the vid and eating popcorn with Tim and me seemed to be the only thing she was
interested in doing.

“Did
we adopt her?” Tim asked, one evening after she had fallen asleep on the couch.

“It
seems like it.”

“You
sure have a tendency to pick up strays,” he remarked and turned off the sitcom
to watch a football game instead.

By
the time we got out of the SdK parking lot, several hours had passed.  It was a
zoo leaving the campus.  Along with thousands of other employees and patients
all trying to go home, ambulances were stacked up to transport all those
admitted into the hospital.  We had to crawl out of the gates and get scanned
by the police who checked our ID and probably recorded who we were. 

“This
is creeping me out,” Janet said as we both showed our passes to the officer. 

“It’s
the price of freedom,” the officer replied. 

“Freedom
from what?” I asked.

“The
Empire.  Move on.”  He waved us forward.

“Yeah?”
Janet called back and waved her ID at him.  “Right now we’re about as free as
animals in a zoo.”

“Don’t
argue, Janet,” I snapped.  “Let’s just get out of here.”  We were given
clearance to go, and I headed back towards our house on the outskirts of Landbase
Rozari.  I could see off in the distance a lot of spaceplane activity in the
skies.

“Just
because we can’t see the bars, it doesn’t mean they aren’t there,” Janet
mumbled scrunching down in her seat and crossing her arms in front of her
chest. 

“What’s
gotten into you, Janet?”  I had to fly slowly as the traffic leaving
Kalika-hahr was incredible.

“I
don’t know.  If they close SdK here permanently, I might just head over to
Derius or someplace else too.  I really would like to go Rehnor, the Capital
Planet, but I heard there is a huge waitlist and it would take years to get
permission to live there.”

“How
do you know?”  I pulled into our drive.  Frankly, I was surprised to hear Janet
was even considering it.

“The
HR department at SdK told me when I asked about transferring.  There are lots
of openings at the new facilities though.  Maybe I will go someplace else. 
What do I care about Rozari or the Alliance?”

It
was pouring down rain as we rushed into the house, holding our handbags over
our heads which did little to protect our hair.  If we were going to stay here
much longer, I would actually have to go out and invest in an umbrella. 

Tim
was in the living room talking on the vid to Thad, who was dressed up and
looked like he had been in a meeting.  Gwen and Jimmy were in the kitchen
making sandwiches.  Gina came rushing in just then too, her purse on her own
head.  We took off and shook out our sodden coats and shoes and then sat down
in the living room.

“Go
ahead, Thad,” Tim ordered and scrunched up his mouth, which was a clear
indication he was very annoyed.

“Hey
everybody,” Thad called and waved.  “How’s it going?”

“Thad!”
Gina snapped.  “They just closed the hospital.  How do you think it’s going?”

“Oh
yeah,” Thad nodded and frowned.  “But no worries.  It’ll be open again soon.”

“Are
you kidding?” Gina cried.  “The policeman who escorted me out said the Alliance
is going to confiscate the buildings and use them for their own offices.”

“Nah,”
Thad said and then turned away from us to talk to a woman with yellow skin and
green hair.  “Yeah, reschedule that for Tuesday for me, thanks.”  He smiled
back to us.  “See the thing is, the Alliance isn’t going to own Rozari much
longer, and they kind of know that.”

“What
do you mean, Thad?” I asked, glancing at Tim.  Tim looked like he had a bad
case of indigestion.

“Well,”
Thad continued.  ‘If you turn on the Galaxy News Service, you’ll discover that
Dancing with the Stars has been pre-empted.  Ron has decided to blow up some
rock out there in the solar system, and that’s all the talking heads want to
discuss right now.  Personally, I think that Luminerian gal who was dancing
with the guy who made that vampire movie should at least be included in the
semi-final round.  What do you think, Gina?  You thought they were pretty good
too.”

“Thad!”
Gina growled as the kids joined us carrying a platter of synthetic peanut
butter sandwiches.

“What
do you think, Tim?” I said calmly though my heart was racing.  “Is it safe for
us to stay here?  Is there going to be a war?”

Tim
made a snorting noise.  “I need a beer,” he grumbled even though it wasn’t even
noon.  He got up and went to the kitchen, refusing to answer my question.

“Mom,”
Thad said, his voice serious now.  “The Alliance has no chance, and they know
it.  They’re going to make some noises.  They’re going to take over the campus
there and as soon as Ron makes a move on Rozari, they’ll back down and move
out.  You guys just consider these next few days or weeks or whatever it turns
out to be, a well-earned vacation.  When it’s all over, Rozari will be part of
the Empire and guess, what?  You can finally go visit Mishnah and stay in the
Palace Hotel.”  He laughed.

“That’s
not funny, Dad,” Gwen said, looking a little pale.  “What if there are
protests?  What if the Saintists decide to fight?”

“You
think a few pale, skinny, Saintist dudes can take on the giant Empire?” Jimmy
said to his sister.  “No chance.  Dr. Ron can blast every one of them to hell
and back with just his finger.  Personally, I’m going to enjoy my vacation. 
I’m going to head out to the beach with my fraternity brothers.”  Jimmy was
working in the accounting department at SdK.  Gwen was in her last year of
college at the Institute. 

“It’s
raining, dogface,” Gwen replied.  “But you and the rest of your stupid Phi Delts
will probably hang out there anyway.”

“It’ll
stop.”

“Jim’s
right,” Tim interrupted, coming back to the sofa while twisting open the cap on
his bottle of beer.

“Of
course.  It’ll stop eventually.  You want to hit the beach with us, Gramps?”

“No,”
Tim grumbled.  “The Alliance has no chance.  They won’t risk losing anybody in
fighting a battle they can’t possibly win.  They’ll put up some token
resistance and then they’ll back down.  Welcome to the Empire of Rehnor.”

“How
do you know they won’t try to take over Earth next?” Gina asked.  “Or anywhere
else?  I’m not sure I want to be part of Rehnor.”

“He
doesn’t want Earth, Gina,” Thad replied.  “He just wants Rozari.  Right, Mom?”

Everyone
turned and looked to me.

“I
don’t know,” I said.  “I think all he really wants is Katie to come back.”

“So
he’ll just keep wreaking havoc upon the Alliance until that happens,” Tim
remarked.

“Uh,
Dad, I could cite a bunch of numbers showing how much better off the citizens
of the Empire are than the citizens of the Alliance, but everybody would
probably get bored and change the channel,” Thad said.  “Just trust me,
everything will be fine.  Ignore your sister and enjoy the beach, Jim.  Phi Delts
are hot where ever they go, even when it’s raining.”

“Is
there anything bad about the Empire, Dad?” Gwen asked.

Thad
thought for a moment.  “Well, the SpaceNavy doesn’t do as many vessel
inspections as Spaceforce.  I guess that’s a definite strike against them. 
Katie will have to find a new source of employment if and when she ever comes
back.”

“What’s
going to happen after he’s dead?” Gwen continued.  “This whole empire is built
around one guy.”

“No,
it’s not,” Thad said.  “It was started because of Ron and he can overrule stuff
when he thinks it's crap, but for the most part, every layer of government in
every country and planet within the Empire is a representative republic with
elections just like the Alliance.  After he’s gone, assuming he’s not immortal,
it’ll revert to a Constitutional republic and then in another few hundred
years, it’ll be filled with corrupt fools and blow itself up just like
everybody else.  Look, it only took the Alliance two hundred years to implode.”

Nobody
responded, not even Tim. 

“Okay,
I’ve got work to do.  I still run his hospitals,” Thad waved and signed off.

“What
are we going to do, Tim?” I asked.

Tim
shrugged and swallowed his beer.  “Absolutely nothing.  I’m not about to leave
my tomato plants just because the Allied fools have been replaced by Rehnorian
fools.  Fools are fools no matter which government they represent.”

“Okay,”
I agreed and Gina and the kids nodded, as well.

“I
didn’t think he even liked Rozari,” Janet said quietly.  “He always complained
how hot and dry it was.”

We
all looked out the window at the dark grey skies and the streets puddled with
water.

“It’s
raining now,” I said.