Chapter 49

Of course things did not go smoothly with the medical centre, at least initially. Cass, although estranged from her family, was still subject to the influences of the Imperial Health Bureaucracy and her vindictive cousin Ujuna. Hence, as soon as we took title to the medical centre from Municipal Services, we lost all our Healers ... for about one hundred rotations, which is all it took them to hand in their notice and sign back up with the centre. It was the same with their assistants/retainers. I rather suspect this sent Ujuna off the deep end for a while as her ploy to deprive us of Healers seemed, for her, to be a winning hand, unless, of course, you knew what the actual rules of employment that Healers worked under were. They were, essentially, under the same rules as me; hence they were self-employed free agents, not employees of the Imperial Health Bureaucracy. Therefore, because they were not employed by them, they could terminate the contract if the Imperial Health Bureaucracy or any employer acted unreasonably. Apparently telling them they were no longer to work for the medical centre was acting unreasonably ... in their view.

There were then attempts to shut us down via inspections, which frustrated them by the fact that the AI in the medical centre maintained all records perfectly and I or our new cleaner kept the place spotless, in short the centre was pretty much an example of how a medical centre ought to be. That, plus a writ to prevent harassment served upon the Imperial Health Bureaucracy at the High Table for their sudden ‘daily’ inspections when Cass produced witness testimony to prove the Imperial Health Bureaucracy had not inspected any of the other local medical centres even once.

The Imperial Health Bureaucracy was ordered to cease and desist with its activities and Ujuna censured for its activities along with a stinging fine of five thousand Royals. Ujuna did not take kindly to this and was hit with a further personal two thousand Royal fine for contempt of court, before being dragged out of the room by her family.

None of this, of course, made Cass happy. They were her family after all, and she deeply cared for some of them, including Jorulla and Cassira, her son and daughter, who, under pressure from Ujuna, had disowned her, almost breaking Cass’ heart.

Fortunately Cass had good friends, was independently wealthy and was also the Royal Healer, something Ujuna tried to strip from her with another writ, only to back off after a glare from Amantil caused her to drop it before a judgement was given after Amantil turned up for the trial.

Hiqua remained Cass’ retainer as she was tied by personal bonds to Cass and not Cass’ family and remained happy enough with the situation as I covered the costs and wage bills of the medical centre via a charitable trust Cass and I set up.

We were informed by the Guild of Healers that the Imperial Health Bureaucracy had tried to rescind the membership of the medical centre to the guild to cut off a supply of locum Healers. However, they had refused to do so on the grounds that the centre was a member of good standing and was up to date with its fees. So, currently we had a standoff between Cass and myself on one side and the Imperial Health Bureaucracy under Ujuna on the other side. Though my friend, the newsie Teelae, had heard rumours that Cass’ family were now very unhappy with the various censures and fines received by the Imperial Health Bureaucracy due to Ujuna’s vindictiveness and were now moving to edge her out of her position as its head.

All of this unfortunately played out in public on all levels and this caused Cass a great deal of anguish, having her life hauled over the coals as she was (and is) a very private person and felt that life had dealt her too many blows recently, what with her divorce and now her estrangement from her family. This was ameliorated somewhat by Cass throwing herself into her work, along with her surrogacy work with me which brought a measure of joy and happiness into her life. This was also helped by Cass now being a recipient of rejuve which had turned her from a fifteen (42 Earth years)-year-old back to an eight (22 ½ Earth years)-year-old.

This naturally had got her a little attention from some predatory males, however as Cass now lived in a median level home similar to mine, she was not that easy to find or court on the upper levels where it really mattered.

Elsewhere, Kirim was delighted to get her hands on Healer Morano as a coroner for the Guardians, something he was fascinated with as it kept him from (normally) being around real patients and gave scope to his very enquiring mind. This had enabled him to blossom away from his very narrow views on patriotism and mild anti-imperialism and grow up ... so to speak. His family (though not his mother, Vasuul) were also shocked with his relationship with Guardian Meditech Flinna as they were highly compatible, if from complete opposites of the social spectrum. Still, it was obvious seeing the pair together discussing (arguing over) politics and the current state of the Empire that the pair were very much in love, if awfully fond of needling one another on occasion.

The Empire itself was stepping down from a war footing, as were the Melanoqui Autarchy and the Gershonian Realm. This was good news from the point of view of the Bureau of Interstellar Revenue as the potential for a financial crisis was averted, if causing issues with long term credit restrictions. Still, the reserves had all been sent home to their worlds and jobs and trade was picking up along with sales of a couple of shipyards to the Melanoqui and Gershonians to enable them to build their own heavy fighters with the Empire selling them the specialised compact hyperbeam cannon as there was no way they were allowing the secret of manufacturing one of those out of their hands.

In the Regnat, though, it was slightly different. They were still in the process of dealing, along with their allies the Alliance, with the problem of the Tcheeklan Ravagers. For all they could build their own heavy fighters, they had chosen to mount a standard compact hyperbeam to keep control of the build to themselves. This still made it a far more deadly craft than anything the Ravagers had. Though finding out where they were from was still the main problem. Naturally enough they had scouts out, however the Ravagers used mobile repair docks set well away from the borders of the Realms they raided and also traded from them to ostensibly neutral Realms. In short it was immensely frustrating for the offended parties, though the instances of attacks on their planets were dropping rapidly due to the heavy fighters which now patrolled in numbers.

Of the Raffagee, there were no problems, even though, technically, the Empire and its Allies remained in a state of war with them. Currently the Imperial and Gershonian scouts showed them to be turning all their time and resources into settling the four worlds they claimed whilst fighting off sporadic and dwindling Vraik attacks as the Vraik realm teetered on the brink of total collapse from being a star-faring nation. There was a little grumbling about letting them off scot free in the various newsie political programs as well as the various Parliaments, Senates and Courts of the various realms, but the actual leadership, on advice from their militaries, realised that attempting to attack across Vraik space would be difficult, a waste of resources and liable to cost the lives of millions of their own people.

“Dave, it’s time,” Kirim informed me.

“Um ... time for what, my love?” I asked, sleep fogging my brain somewhat.

“Time for us to go to Medical Resource and me to have your son,” she replied with a smile and then a slight wince.

“You sure?”

“Of course, I was just on the toilet and my waters broke,” she replied with an expression that denoted she was exasperated somewhat with the stupid man she was married to.

“Sorry, still waking up here,” I apologised, seeing her sunny smile break out as I hurried to the shower.

When I got out and was dressed, Hiqua had arrived and was currently chatting with Kirim and Kiria. “We’ll come up once you’re ready,” she confirmed as a lift arrived and we set off, Kirim walking somewhat gingerly.

Cass was waiting for us when we arrived and soon had Kirim relaxed on a grav-bed as she scanned to ensure everything was going as naturally as possible.

“I love you, Dave,” Kirim told me between contractions. “But I’m going to be awfully glad to be rid of ‘bump’ here. I don’t remember half as many aches and pains from carrying Kiria.”

“He has been an active little soul,” Cass chuckled. “But, he’s in the right place now and you’re dilating nicely.”

“Yes, he’s been a right little sod at times, just like his Dad,” Kirim gasped with a grimace.

“I’m so hurt,” I chuckled.

“Ah, shut up!”

“Behave the pair of you,” Cass smiled, realising Kirim was just hurting and frustrated.

“Well, he’s not the one trying to pass a bloody grav-ball; he’s the bastard that stuck it inside of me!”

It went downhill from there until I finally had my son in my arms and Kirim was being patched up by Cass.

“All better now?” Cass asked her.

“Yes,” Kirim replied, blushing slightly and looking a bit subdued.

“It’s OK my love. I’m the one who had the fun and you paid the price,” I chuckled.

“I said such nasty things.”

“But look at the result,” I chuckled, handing our son over.

“Oh Dave, he’s so lovely,” Kirim sighed.

“With you as his Mum, that’s a given,” I smiled.

“Aw...”

“So, name?”

“Dayyev, as we agreed.”

“Hello, Dayyev,” I greeted our son with a kiss and then a kiss for Kirim.

“Ready for visitors?” Cass asked.

“Yes,” Kirim replied.

The next Imperial year was busy from a working point of view, though the real joy for both of us was watching our children grow and thrive. Kiria was now 3 ½ (9 Earth years) and was, as I had predicted, a wonderful sister to her brother and a great help to her Mum in doing so. Her schooling was going fine and she’d mastered the art of being (somewhat) diplomatic in dealing with those who did something she disagreed with. Her wanting to be something that she saw or read about every day or so hadn’t changed, though was trending towards being a Healer as she would often drop in on Cass when she finished school and try to help out at the medical centre in as much as she was allowed. This relieved Kirim somewhat as she had feared Kiria was simply going to enlist in the Ground Forces when she hit 7 Imperial years (19 Earth Years). Not that Kirim had issues with the military or even the Guardians, it’s just that with the education Kiria was getting, she felt she could do so much better than starting at the bottom in that area. That said, Kiria still trained with Rigg as well as Janilla who turned up at the Guardian gym one day to observe and had words with Rigg which ended up in a challenge. Janilla won, however, not as easily as she normally did in hand to hand and she and Rigg were now cautiously moving towards friendship, as well as training alongside Rigg when she got the chance.

I now had a new Monitor at Medical Resource, a young man called Jerrin as Vilgra was now a Mum herself and had been promoted to Trouble-shooter working directly for Herrick via the Cure Guild. Not that making sure Cures behaved themselves was her fulltime job; it was just an activity to keep those who didn’t realise that she was a Trouble-shooter in the dark.