Chapter 35: Reconstruction

A week had now passed since what the Arcturans were beginning to refer to as "The Battle". Smoke from the shattered rubble in the heart of Arcturus City still rose occasionally, but life was beginning to return to some semblance of normality.

The temporary hospital in the converted warehouse was still technically Spican, so all patients, staff and visitors went nude. There were still a good thirty or more Arcturan casualties requiring inpatient care, but the number was rapidly dwindling. The staff now had some free time, and to the stifled giggles of the smaller children could be seen visiting the local market and playing soccer and volleyball in the local park, in the same clothes that they'd worn all their lives.

At first the sight of nude medical staff of both genders in the streets of Arcturus City raised consternation on the part of the local gendarmes, but with a rather flustered grace they decided that as they were now gracious enough to treat all of Arcturus for free, permitting public nudity was a minuscule price to pay. Considering that the former governing officials had forced all the citizenry into attire that covered all but head and forearms, and the women especially into floor-length gingham dresses, matching caps and full-to-the-ankle bloomers, the permitting of open nudity was a monumental concession.

The local television transmitters had been damaged during The Battle, so SFS Algiers served as a repeater station for other star systems' news nets.

The feed from Spica included a special channel for Arcturus, not the regular fare that Solaria and Deneb provided. Four times a day, Mike's press attache Alphonse Frattini produced a special update on the patients evacuated to Spica, the Bucyrus passengers and any other item around the universe that Al decided the Arcturans might just be interested in. Charles and Bethany appeared rather frequently in video as they visited every Arcturan on Spica and tried to pass on messages between the patients and Bucyrus refugees on Spica and friends and family back on Arcturus, and deal with any issues that came up. For all practical intents and purposes, he continued to function as the Arcturan ambassador to Spica, representing a government that did not exist.

Wendy Chen stirred the cream into her coffee as she sat on the coffee shop's patio, relaxing as she enjoyed the last afternoon of her shore leave on Spica II. In the morning, the newly-refurbished Diane Webber would take her, her fellow crewmen and some other passengers on the first regular run to Solaria. It had taken about a week to restore the vessel from hospital ship to luxury cruise liner. She was actually looking forward to spending another couple of days nude and being pampered.

Opposite her, Army nurse Lee-Anne Macklinburg stretched lazily. "You know," she confessed to the young pilot, "I never thought I'd say this, but I'm going to regret having to don a uniform again."

Wendy smirked wickedly. "You could always ask for a transfer to the Spican military," she suggested.

"No, I think not," Lee-Anne decided. "It's tempting, but I'm Solarian through-and-through. I wouldn't object if Solaria became naturist, though."

Wendy looked over her coffee cup at her friend, and thought for a moment. "You know, neither would I..." she agreed wistfully.

"Hello ladies! Mind if I join you?" came a cheerful voice from behind.

"Al! Come on over and park your lazy carcass here. How goes the life of a media mogul?" Lee-Anne called cheerfully.

"Ah, you should see today's Arcturus Report. The last of the patients was released from hospital this morning, and the whole lot will be shipped back home when Webber-chan returns from its inaugural passenger run to Solaria at the end of the week. There was a big ceremony, flowers, lots of bigwigs including of course the First Minister and members of her cabinet. We also had as special guests two newly-healed Arcturans, a mother and child, let's see, Murelle and Ruby Duschenne."

The official patrol car had seen better days, Dr. Roger McAllan decided. It was straining as it pulled its loaded trailer along the country lane to the shire north of Arcturus City.

He and two comely young nurses named Frieda Sheffield and Yukiko Ichimori were headed out to five rural shires to set up clinics that would be manned one day out of five. Like all Spicans, he and the two ladies chattering in the back seat had grown up nude, and still were. Like all Arcturans, the police officer next to him had grown up believing that nudity was not only improper but obscene, except in those extremely rare instances where it could be excused as art. However, like most Arcturans, Constable Pat Donnelly was having those assumptions challenged rather strongly, especially on this day, the first of his new assignment as driver and escort for the Spican field medical team. The trailer they were towing contained panniers of supplies for the new clinics, to be set up in the basement of each shire town's official Town Hall.

As they pulled into the market town's Commons, they saw a sizable crowd had gathered, unusual for a Monday. The crowd was friendly enough, curious and somewhat guarded, being unused to official visitors that did not bring bad news – onerous new taxes or some irritating new regulation that would be rigorously enforced. Two brawny young men used to heavy farm work effortlessly hefted the two panniers of medical supplies from the trailer as if the boxes weighed less than a baseball, and came back and brought the portable examining table into what would be their examining room in the basement of the Town Hall.

As the nurses set up the medical inspection room, the doctor and constable sat with the Shire Reeve and his council, discussing the future of Arcturus. "There are two reasons why we need this done," Constable Donnelly was saying as he handed over the census forms on a memory stick. "First, we need to re-establish civilian government as quickly as possible, and that means an election. All the election records were lost in The Battle when the Administration Building burned down, so we need to replace that. Second, the Spican medical staff want to do a thorough survey of the planet's medical needs, and want to use this census as a starting point for their records. Everyone will get their own ID number. Above 13 years of age, they get a photo ID card, 13 and under gets a junior ID card without a photo."