Chapter 36: The Seed

SS Gymnosophist hung in orbit, having arrived from Spica with a load of hospital equipment in her hold and a crew of terraforming specialists and their associated gear taking up her passenger cabins. They were there to train local staff on the finer points of planetary environmental systems, the previous staff having been decimated by the Battle, and to upgrade their systems to the rigorous standards of Spica. This would both improve farm yields and make living on the planet more comfortable.

Being Spican, the terraforming specialists were nude. Being Arcturan, at least at first the trainees wore their traditional outfits that covered almost all their skin. The former Arcturan crew had been all male, as befit the prejudices of the First Families; the new Arcturan crew were like the Spican crew, a mix of genders. Unlike the Spican crew, who were in their 50's and 60's, the Arcturan crew were mostly in their 20's and 30's and eager to learn at the feet of the masters.

Dr. McAllan got back to the North Shire with his team one week after their first visit. By this time, the local census had been completed and the Medical Inspection Room's temporary walls replaced with more permanent construction. He had news for the three patients and the youngest patient's escort.

"That ship in orbit, the Gymosophist, will head for Spica in a couple of days. A VSTOL will pick you up at the local landing pad this afternoon and whisk you away to Arcturus City, where a shuttle will take you and some others to orbit; you'll probably be back here within a couple of weeks, all better."

The team also included one addition: Dr. Ruth Arless, MD, OB/GYN. The stout, kindly woman with shoulder-length brunette hair was heading up the neonatal/postnatal care program of the Arcturus Development Project. She was here today interviewing candidates in the northern shires who wanted to apply for training in Arcturus City as midwives. "We'd like to get two in each shire," she was explaining.

Most of the women of North Shire had begged off as being too busy working their farms or shops to attend the 90-day course, but two, the Shire Reeve's own wife Glynnis and sister Meredeth Bondecker, agreed to attend. Both ladies were in their late 20's and had borne children: Glynnis three and Meredith four, the oldest 10. Neighbours agreed to take care of "your eight children", feeding them and making sure they didn't get into trouble.

"But there are only seven children," Reeve Brian Bondecker protested. As the penny dropped, he glowered at his neighbours and pointed to himself.

His fellow shire citizens laughingly agreed – he was the eighth child.

"Thanks," he assured them with a rueful grin and rolled eyes.

Alicia Chandler and her mother Heather arrived with the two male patients at Arcturus City Spaceport via a VSTOL bus chartered by the Spican medical authorities. The four were immediately whisked through a side gate to the warehouse serving as the makeshift hospital, where kindly female nurses helped them out of their clothes, all the while keeping up a friendly, distracting chatter. Both Alicia and her mother were deeply embarrassed at being nude in front of their fellow Shire residents, as were the two men being nude in front of the womenfolk – especially one as young as 15-year-old Alicia. The staff themselves being nude did help everyone continue to function, but the first few minutes were tense. Everyone's clothes were tagged and stored by (nude) medical assistants, (nude) doctors repeated the physical exams on all including Alicia's mother, and a (nude) driver took them to the shuttle. It rapidly filled up with nude, embarrassed patients from other shires and within two hours of the North Shire four's arrival launched for a rendezvous with the SS Gymosophist. On board, the nude patients were greeted by the nude crew of the Gymosophist and by a small but competent-looking medical team that would escort them to Spica. Alicia reflected that, aside from the nudity angle, it was much like she would have experienced if Spica hadn't been naturist, or if another planet had handled the medical care.

She met another girl there about her own age suffering from a previously undiagnosed weakness in the wall of an artery in her brain. Lilith and her mother were there from a western shire, so the two girls shared many experiences in common. They were soon fast friends, spending much of the time in the ship's virtual library digging up information on this strange new planet they were heading for, one where apparently nobody wore a stitch from toilet-training to grave.

Two days later, Alicia and her mother were on Spica. Unlike the adult patients from Arcturus who went to the General Hospital, Alicia, Lilith and their mothers were whisked to Capitol Children's Hospital. They were re-examined, this time by experts in their respective conditions, and operations were rapidly scheduled. The next morning, both girls were having their surgeries in separate operating rooms by separate specialist surgical teams – one on vascular issues, the other an Oncology team.

As the two girls lay in anaesthetic-induced slumber and the respective surgeons dealt with the issues that brought them to Spica, both mothers sat nervously together in a common waiting room drinking far too much incredibly bad coffee – and not noticing the taste. For some reason, all waiting rooms in all hospitals have since the introduction of coffee only been able to serve incredibly bad coffee. The two nude mothers tried to calm their nerves by discussing life in their respective Shires, and finding they had much in common, being both from farming families, and since meeting each other having spent more time in the buff than they'd had in their lives. The video was on, and between discussions they saw dramas, children's programming and local news shows all with nary a clad individual in any of them.

After two hours of delicate surgery, Alicia was taken to Recovery. Her new friend was transferred there ten minutes later.