by Ian Rodgers
“Is Vera doing alright? What about Don, Jack and Donna?” Zane asked as he led his mother into her house.
He fetched a glass of water and gave it to her. It was clear that the last few days had been hard on the older woman. Her hands trembled as she took the offered drink, her hair was messy and had extra shoots of grey running through it. Sally Pendon also just looked bone tired. Recent events had taken their toll.
“Vera is… stable. That’s all I can positively say,” Mrs. Pendon revealed. “Don is taking it hard, of course, but he hasn’t shown up except to drop of Jack and Donna. I get the feeling he is ashamed.”
“As he should be! I don’t care if it was Veronica’s request, he should not have given in to her demands! We should have known about her cancer months before it got this bad!” Zane shouted.
“Your father is of the same opinion,” Sally wearily replied. “But what neither of you see is that Don is devoted to Vera. He loves her so much he would hide her condition and her chemotherapy treatments. And though I do not approve, I can at least understand why he did so.”
Zane clenched his fists and it took a great deal of self-control to relax. Curse his mother’s logic.
“And my nephew and niece? How are they?” Zane asked at last.
“They’re both staying here right now. With Vera in the hospital right now and Don on his way to a nervous wreck due to worry and guilt we all thought it was for the best that they stay here for now,” Sally explained. “So try to keep your voice down. They’re sleeping at the moment. Nothing like a nap to keep the house quiet.”
“What about Jack’s preschool?” Zane asked. It was a Thursday, after all.
“He’ll be back Monday, but right now what he needs is to be close to family. Socializing is all well and good but his mother collapsed right in front of him. Jack needs time to… acclimate to not being around her as much.”
“You don’t think Vera’s going to make it.” It was not a question, but a statement, and Zane’s mother nodded hesitantly.
Zane wanted to shout, wanted rage and scream and deny it, but held it all in. An outburst of emotions would help nothing. And his mom was right, sadly. Maybe if Veronica had gotten treatment sooner the cancer would be more manageable. Not anymore.
But he did have one final card to play. Zane’s eyes darted over to the backpack he’d left near the entrance stuffed with clothes and assorted supplies. Inside it was the single most advanced piece of medical technology in the entire solar system. With any luck it would provide an answer to the Pendon’s problem.
“Is there a chance I could see her?” he asked after a moment of silence.
“This weekend your father and I were going to take Jack and Donna to visit her.”
“I sort of meant in a more private setting? Like, alone?”
Sally Pendon’s face fell for a moment, thinking of various reasons why her son would want to see Veronica without anyone else around. Most of the reasons involved screaming and shouting.
“I promise not to make too much of a commotion,” Zane promised, rightly guessing what his mother was thinking. She took a deep, shuddering breath before nodding slowly.
“After we spend some time with Vera on Saturday you can stay at the hospital for a bit longer after the rest of us leave. As long as you keep your tempers and voices down.”
“I think I can manage that,” the young man said with a sigh. He then stood up and stretched. The journey to LA from Plainsburg had been an unpleasant trip as always.
“Do you want any help with dinner? I’d like to do something to keep my hands and mind busy.”
The Pendon matriarch smiled and gladly accepted the help. Maybe a nice meal would bring some levity back into the household.
The time passed by in a crawl for Zane. As much as he loved his family and spending time with them, he desperately wanted to see Veronica as soon as possible.
And while he could have gone off on his own to visit his sister in the hospital, Zane understood that he needed to be with his nephew and niece. Donna was just a baby. She didn’t understand anything and preferred to try crawling everywhere. Most of the time Zane was with her was spent trying to catch her.
Jack, on the other hand, was five, going on six. He knew something bad was going on, and that his mommy was very sick. And he was scared. Zane’s heart broke every time he saw his nephew putting on a brave façade while hiding his fears and tears.
Then there were his parents and brother-in-law. Don was losing sleep trying to manage the club and fretting over his wife. An offhand comment from his mother revealed that it had gotten so bad one of the club owner’s friends had had to spike a drink with sleeping pills to get Don to calm down and finally get a good night’s rest.
Finally, Mr. and Mrs. Pendon were barely holding it together on their end. They hid it well, better than Don at least, but the Earth-shaking revelation had crushed them. No one should see their children die before them, and Vera’s cancer was all the more impactful for the secrecy she had swathed it in.
And that was why Zane waited for the hospital visitation trip on Saturday. He wanted to be close to the family that needed him, and that he could actually help.
But all his fitful impatience paid off. The older Pendons drove their nice SUV with their grandchildren safely strapped in while Zane followed them to the hospital in his decent Ford Focus.
As he drove, Zane couldn’t help but steal glances at the backpack on the seat next to him, taunting the coder with the knowledge that if anyone else knew what exactly was inside it, he’d be in a high-speed car chase with government agents.
Inside the hospital, the young adult’s trepidation only grew. He unconsciously tightened his grip on his pack as the group neared the room Veronica was in. As they went inside there was a brief, muted conversation between a nurse and Ralph Pendon. Seconds later the rest of the Pendons were allowed inside and Jack rushed over to the figure lying in a bed.
“Hey there, Jack. Have you been a good boy for grammy and grampy?”
Zane was taken aback by the skeleton trying to pretend it was his sister. Where was his happy, vigorous, larger than life sibling? Where was her smile? Where was her hair?
Stolen by the cancer that gnawed upon her.
“Oh, big bro, almost didn’t see you there, what with all the skulking in the corner. Come over here and join the family,” Vera requested. Zane winced. Her voice was little more than a whisper now.
But he complied. “Vera, are you doing alright?”
“I’m fine. Trust me.”
“Really momma? You’ll be OK?” Jack pleaded. She just reached out and stroked his hair, a faint smile on her face.
The visit was subdued, to say the least. And somewhat heart wrenching. Vera had tried to hold Donna, but the poor girl had burst into tears. She didn’t recognize her own mother anymore.
The visit was cut short immediately after that.
“Vera, we’re going to head back and put down the kids for a nap. But Zane will keep you company for a bit. Play nice,” Sally said, giving a strained smile as she patted little Donna on the back to calm her down. Veronica just nodded.
“Are you going to yell at me?” his sister asked once the others had left.
“I want to. I really, really, really want to shout at your for hiding this from us and hurting yourself in the process. But I promised mom I would not.”
“Thanks, bro. But you want to hear something crazy?” Vera asked in a conspiratorial whisper. Zane leaned in.
“I almost wish you would.”
Shock wrote itself across his face and the younger sibling chuckled weakly at the reaction.
“Ever since I woke up here, no one has so much as raised their voice towards me. Even dad didn’t get into a rant about my irresponsible behavior or anything like that. And yet, it all feels wrong.” Tears welled up in Vera’s eyes as she spoke.
“I want to be yelled at, to be shouted at, and to be scolded! Because whenever it happened when we
were younger, even if mom and dad were angry, we knew that in the end everything would be better!”
“Now? Now they speak in hushed and soft tones. They’re afraid to raise their voices at me and show their displeasure in any way. And it means… it means…”
It means that things won’t be better.
Those words went unspoken, but their absence had a presence all of its own.
“Vera, I have something here. It’s a device I want to use to check something. Do I have your permission to use it on you?”
A nod, and Zane unzipped and reached into his backpack. He removed from it a slick, silvery tool that looked more like a fancy barcode scanner than anything else.
While his sister watched, the coder turned it on and held the device above her head. A faint green light shot out of it and ran up and down the length of her body. Even with most of it hidden by blankets the scanner still got valid responses and sufficient data. Mere fabric could not hold back science!
“What is that thing? What did it do?” Vera asked, eyes following the machine as Zane peered at the tiny screen on its side.
“Something helpful. At least, I hope so,” her brother replied cryptically.
Zane bit back a smile. The machine had gotten a good deal of medical info from the brief examination of his sister. He’d need to extract some blood or obtain some hair for DNA samples, but that would be for another visit.
He put the scanner away and pulled up a chair to sit next to his sister.
“So. Want to talk?”
Veronica nodded happily. “Tell me more about your foreign girlfriend…”
Chapter 18
“How is your sister?”
Zane looked at his floating metal companion with pain in his eyes. He had just returned from LA and his mind was awhirl with the news he had heard and the sight of his baby sister confined to a hospital bed.
“Bad. Very bad.”
Rob bobbed low in sympathy. “I see. Did you manage to retrieve some medical information on her at least?”
“Yeah. Here.” The coder passed his inhuman housemate the medi-organi-scanner before stomping into his bedroom. He proceeded to remove and carelessly toss his dirty clothes into the hamper before slamming a fist into his bed. It did nothing other than sink into the soft mattress.
“Damn it.” He couldn’t muster up the energy for a shout. He was only able to mutter half-hearted curses under his breath. He couldn’t muster up any rage or stronger emotions, not any more after he’d been emotional drained over the course of a week. But he still felt he had to do something to let his feelings be known.
For the next twenty minutes his bed doubled as a horizontal punching bag. Once he was finished he took a quick shower before walking back into the living room.
“What’s the verdict? Can she be saved by Earth medical attention?” Zane demanded. The droid shook itself, imitating a shaking head.
“No, the cancer has progressed too far. At this point chemo-therapy will only delay the symptoms, and all the anti-cancer drugs your world has developed are in the testing stages at best. There is no hope for your sister on Earth.”
“Then what about space? What about the Alliance? You’re always speaking about how advanced they are, and showing me their commercials,” Zane pushed.
“Part of how I talk about the Planetary Alliance is based on my old programming to play it up. Not that what I say isn’t true, but a lot of the products tend to be more for the upper-middle-class and above,” Rob admitted.
“Who else but the richer-than-average citizens could afford interplanetary shopping on a sustained level? Most planets within the Alliance’s influence have their own farms and factories to supply local demand. It just isn’t feasible to do so otherwise, at least not until recently. That’s partly why Crown Corp. developed their automated drone delivery service to transport goods cheaply, and droids like myself to serve as portable network hubs and companion-bots.”
“So that Star-Helix commercial was a lie then?” Zane gestured at the droid who put up the holo-screen. The human then fiddled with it a bit before a video began to play.
“The universe is a scary place. Asteroids, cosmic mishaps, and dangerous wildlife. But it doesn’t have to be that way for everything.” A soothing feminine voice played over a field of stars with images popping up of the assort dangers mentioned in the narration. Then the stars faded and the darkness turned to sterile medical white while a DNA helix with stars inside it appeared.
“We here at Star-Helix Medical Laboratories are dedicated to finding the cures to what ails you. From corrective genetic therapy for birth defects to medicine for dangerous illnesses, we strive to provide all the help you deserve. Contact us for a personal quote on all health care needs.”
“We can eradicate cancer. We can eradicate Flenge Pox. We can eradicate suffering. Star-Helix Medical Laboratories: Science is always an option.”
“Was what they said a lie?” demanded the young man.
“No. But cancer is one of the constant medical conditions in species across the galaxy. And while it is not as deadly as it once was thanks to Star-Helix, it exists to this day. But creating a cure and creating a drug to suppress the spread of cancer are two different matters!”
Zane flinched. Rob’s outburst had carried more emotion than the droid usually displayed. But he mustered his courage and stared at his friend.
“If you don’t want to tell me, fine. I understand you are afraid of the Alliance finding out about you. Finding more than they already know about us at least,” Zane began.
“But if there is even a slim chance of me being able to save my sister I will take it, and damn the consequences. So please, Rob, tell me: is there anything I can do for Veronica?”
“There are a few options for treatment,” Rob revealed hesitantly. When Zane leaned in eagerly the droid let out a static laced sigh.
“First option would be to send your sister to the nearest hospital that can deal with such illnesses. They’d administer suppression drugs and over the course of a few years destroy the cancerous cells. However, the nearest properly equipped hospital is several solar systems away and she is from an unregistered species. Not exactly possible to get her there right now.”
“Second would be to purchase the standard cancer suppression medication. However, the same problem arises regarding the species of your sister. Humanity is not recognized as part of the Planetary Alliance, and would thus need to pay exorbitantly for even a few doses compatible with the human species. Not to mention it might be necessary to use the black market to obtain the drugs.”
“Aren’t there any better solutions?” Zane begged, and Rob cursed his newfound empathy.
“There is one. The third option would be to purchase a cancer drug specifically tailored to your sister that would swiftly eliminate the cancerous cells rather than just curtailing them. Simply send a sample of non-cancerous DNA to Star-Helix Medical Laboratories, and they’ll synthesize a medicine perfectly suited to her needs.”
“Perfect!”
“But expensive. And risky.” The droid’s words cut through Zane’s elation. “On the matter of price, we could be looking at tens of thousands of Alliance Credits. At a minimum. Not to mention the cost for rushing production and delivery.”
Zane swallowed at the numbers that came to mind. That would mean the medicine would cost millions of dollars based on the exchange rate. “And the risk?”
“The process of creating a personal cure to anything is heavily monitored by Star-Helix and the Planetary Alliance. The moment you send an application, they will know about you. And me. And they will come for us.”
Zane fell silent, worry etched onto his brow.
“You know that I was never supposed to be here. And as accidental as it was, the fact that a Class B species has access to me and my systems means that you will be charged with numerous breaches of the law. At best, you would be arrested by Alliance peacekeepers in secret and I would be reprogrammed. At w
orst…”
“What would happen in the worst case scenario?” Zane asked quietly as his friend trailed off.
“You’d ‘vanish,’ the Earth would be annexed as a Colonial Territory, and I would be scrapped.”
Nothing but the sound of the winter wind outside was heard for a long time inside the ranch house. Zane chewed his lower lip before looking over at Rob.
“What would happen to my sister?”
“If you paid for the medicine using my services, then legally Star-Helix would have to administer the drug to her, non-registered species or not. And, since it was you who initiated it, she would be bereft of any guilt. Not to mention she knew nothing about me and this was all your idea. At best, she’d live, freed from her cancer. At worst, she’d live under close scrutiny, possibly even house arrest.”
“But Vera would be alive, at least,” Zane declared. He stood up, doubt falling away from him.
“Start the application process with Star-Helix. I want the cure finished and in my hands as soon as possible. Disregard cost. I’ll pay whatever it takes to save her.”
Rob remained motionless for a long time before a beep echoed through the room.
“Application in progress. But I need a sample of non-cancerous DNA to scan so I can send it on to Star-Helix alongside the cancer data you took from your sister.”
“I have just the thing,” Zane announced after a quick thought. He ran into one of the guest rooms and emerged minutes later holding a familiar binder bulging with photos and memorabilia.
“Will this do?” Zane asked as he showed his metallic friend a small, preserved sample of umbilical cord.
“Perfectly. Give me a moment while I examine it.” Needles and probes unfurled from Rob and it picked up the medical scanner and scrapbook token while Zane smiled victoriously.
“Ah, Aunlood. Thank you for arriving so quickly.” The Chairperson-Elect was not sitting at her desk. Instead she was standing in front of it next to a tall, pale blue bipedal being with a crown of eyes and clad in elegant robes.
