A Grand Entrance

Nothing was happening and then suddenly everything was going wrong. Hoarace was stationed in the remote outpost at S 23̊ 43.643 E 133̊ 52.705. Currently it was merely a way station to obtain water and an opportunity for prisoners to check in, but really Hoarace had very little to do. The way station had been set up by merely renaming an Art space port to Way Station #A54, nothing else had changed much. Well, it was changed in one other way, it only had Hoarace and two others in the whole complex which used to house many more.

Hoarace had his legs up on the desk and was watching a program on the TV when suddenly dust was everywhere and there was this loud screech of metal on concrete. He had no idea what it was and briefly wondered if the prisoners were staging a revolt. Quickly he hit the panic button that would awaken his two companions but did not hit the super panic button that alerted other way stations. Golan showed up with a gun and no shirt (he had already been on his way to the office), but Florin did not show up. Hoarace and Golan decided to check the security cameras, which involved booting the system since the cameras were never left on since it used too much energy. Thirty minutes later they were checking some outside cameras when they found the source of the sound and Florin.

Florin, unlike the other two, had actually worked here as an Art before The Reformation so she knew what the screeching sound was. There was no time to try and explain it to the numbskulls that she worked with and so she went directly outside. It had been difficult to convince the Prison Administration Board that she should stay on this base in case something like this happened and that she was also competent in prisoner administration so she could be a regular employee. Now she was glad she had succeeded.

By the time the other two had found her, Florin had managed to get the escape capsule leveled and opened. The load screech had come from the collapse of one of the three wheels that served as landing gear. Fortunately this had occurred toward the end of the runway and so the capsule was still in fairly good condition, all things considered. She had carefully retracted the other two wheels until the pod was level. She then found the hatch opening and pulled away the top section to find Kopper and her small number of belongings beside her. Fortunately Kopper was unconscious.

Florin went quickly inside to find her med-kit and a food bar to go with the water she always carried. When she returned to the pod she found Hoarace and Golan there. Hoarace was standing a little bit away from the place it had finally rested with his gun slightly up, but not pointed directly at the pod. Golan had climbed up the ladder and just as Florin yelled, “Get OFF! Let her be,” Golan used his long rifle to poke Kopper. Florin took off at a run and made it to the pod in less time than she thought possible. She pulled Golan off and told him to go stand with Hoarace. Golan, shocked moved like a slug over to where he had been directed to go. Hoarace, in many ways a coward, had not moved an inch.

Florin dipped her upper body into the pod and quietly whispered to Kopper, “Lie still. You’re going to be alright, just let me check a few things.” Kopper had woken up at the poke, but fortunately had not moved since then.

“Wwwhat is going…?” Kopper managed.

“I’ll explain it all later, right now I’m going to check you out a bit then I’ll have these buffoons help me move you inside. I am sorry for all this, just be quiet for now.”

Florin used a few basic checks to confirm that Kopper was doing as well as could be expected, gave her a few small sips of water, broke off a small bite of food to put in Koppers mouth and then strode over to Hoarace and Golan. Golan had just started saying how he was the senior officer here and so he should be in charge and he was going to go alert the command center. With one swift motion Florin took both guns from the flabbergasted men and then said, “You will do what I say and you will not contact anyone.” Golan tried a small protest but hardly a word had been said when Florin cut him off.

“There will be no talking. The woman in the pod needs silence right now. I know about these things because I worker here before this was a way station so you will follow my every direction!” Florin did not wait for any further response and walked over to a storage locker by the buildings that she opened. She took out several pieces of equipment and then put the guns in the bin and returned it to a locked state.

“What if the prisoners get threatening?” Hoarace tried quietly.

Florin whipped around and said, “Don’t be stupid! Nothing like that will happen here, this station is merely here for looks only; nobody comes this direction with any motives other than water. Silence!”

Using hand motions and demonstrations, Florin showed the other two how to take apart the pod properly to reveal that Kopper was on a stretcher that had wheels, perhaps it is more accurately described as a cart. They then cleared the cement that led to Florin’s section of the complex from dirt and slowly pushed the cart into a room Hoarace and Golan had never seen. Florin shooed them away and told them once they were in the hall that they would have to switch to a two man schedule because she would be busy for several weeks. She would lock out communications so they shouldn’t try to do anything. They had no choice and as long as they didn’t actually have to do any more work they really didn’t care that much. The extra shifts would be annoying, but they could sleep through much of the shift; both knew that Florin was right that nobody would even think of attacking them, which made their actions look even more ridiculous. Hoarace hadn’t needed to hit the panic, they hadn’t needed their guns, and the energy wasted on the cameras was silly. Only Golan thought of the fact that someone would probably come by to find out why there was a power drain. But the monitors were slow to care and slow to travel, so this would probably be two months from now.

Florin had carefully moved all the necessary equipment into the room Kopper was in now when she first was allowed to be stationed here. Her job at the original base had been to do minor tasks that other demanded–a gopher. But she was the only person with a low enough profile to not attract the attention of the new world order but knowledgeable enough to actually help any sun catcher crews that did return. Kopper was the only one that had returned during Florin’s stint as a prison guard. She had participated in the rehabilitation of the other crews that had returned when the call went out and they returned. Pretty much every person she worked with during that time told her she was being stupid to think that anyone would return after five years. Before Kopper arrived, Florin had almost believed them. After Hoarace and Golan had disappeared down the hallway, Golan complaining that the pod had damaged the biocrete, she sunk to the floor with her back against one concrete wall.
“Dear Lord,” she prayed in a whisper, “please help me remember what to do to help this woman. So much has changed. Help me know what to tell whom.”

After a few moments of planning she got up and went into the room. Kopper had begun to wonder is she was abandoned. So many things weren’t right about all this, shouldn’t there be a crew to take care of her? Why did she feel so weak? Was there any food? Florin came to Kopper’s side and gently laid a hand on her arm.

“My name is Florin,” she said in a whisper, but it still sounded loud to Kopper in a way she couldn’t describe. “I will help you regain the ability to live on earth and I’ll try to tell you what has happened since you left for the sun. Right now though we’re just going to worry about doing things one step at a time. You will have to remain still for about a week while I do some work on you. I’ll try to be kind, but a few things are going to hurt plain and simple. I’ll warn you when something will hurt. Is this okay?”

Kopper’s eyes searched the room for an answer to multiple questions. Was there any other choice? What happened to the men? What had changed? Was she in danger? Finally her eyes looked at the hand on her arm, it felt warm. She looked at Florin and decided she looked kind, earnest, and worried for Kopper.

“Yes,” it was more a visible word than an audible one.

Florin sat with Kopper for five hours. Giving her slow sips of water and massaging some feeling back into her arms.

“Can I have more food?” Kopper squeaked.

“No, I am sorry you cannot today. I need you to fast for 12 hours so I can do some blood work, then we’ll work you up slowly to eating real food again,” Florin looked genuinely sad that she had to do this, which comforted Kopper more than food would have. “I’ll be right back, I’m going to go look up your file. Stay as quiet as possible.”

Florin disappeared into a room piled with boxes and heaved them around for a while. She finally found the box containing the information about all the sun catcher crews that had not returned and could potentially be alive based on the energy feeds from the station orbiting earth. Each folder had two pictures on the front, one from the launch day and one a computer projection of the individual 30 years from launch, and so Florin easily found the folder about Kopper. She set the folder aside to make a pathway back out to the main room. Once back in the room she noticed that Kopper was looking uncomfortable. She dropped the folder and ran over to Kopper. Kopper couldn’t talk, all her energy was taken up by her body doing other things. Florin pressed her hand on Kopper’s forehead and upon finding it a normal temperature she started running her hands over other parts of Kopper’s body trying to find out what was wrong. When she hit the abdomen she realized what was wrong. Gas. Well there was nothing she could do for that right now, but it did tell her that she needed to hood up the stuff so Kopper wouldn’t have to worry about messing the bed. Kopper looked directly at Florin to find out what was wrong, her eyes piercing needles that conveyed what Kopper could not say. Florin patted Kopper’s arm gently.

“I am sorry I can do nothing to ease the pain. Not today. It gets better, everyone that has come back has this happen and we never did figure out exactly why. I am going to hook up some equipment to take care of your bodily functions for the next week. It will hurt a little bit when I hook it up, but not so much as it would hurt if I tried to move you every time you needed relief. You’ll be okay.”

The process was not very pretty, but it was needed. Kopper managed a little gasping ughh at one point, but the rest of the time both of them were silent. Florin cleaned everything up and then came back to Kopper’s side to tell her it was done. There were a couple of tears on Kopper’s cheeks, not from pain but from sadness and humiliation. Florin knew how much effort went into producing those tears and admired Kopper’s strength for getting them out. Florin set to messaging Kopper’s feet after softly brushing the tears away. After she finished she returned to Kopper’s side and asked if the pain was any better. Kopper said, “Yes,” swallowed, then asked, “Why did I come back?” Florin then knew that the physical pain was fairly minor and she should spend more of her time on mending spiritual wounds than the body right now.

“Oh... I guess I still don’t know your name,” Florin began and then finished up while she went to retrieve the file, “one second.” Back at the bed, she flipped the file open and saw Kopper’s first name and couldn’t help but inhale sharply. This was going to be more difficult that Florin had originally thought. This shock wasn’t lost on Kopper, but Kopper couldn’t ask about it and didn’t want to anyways. “Kopper, what a beautiful name. Well Kopper, you are going to be stuck with me for several months so I hope that you’ll learn to like me as a friend. First off, know that I am here for you, that is the only reason I am here. I won’t try to hurt you. As for what you’ll have to go through to get back to what you remember living on earth being, I won’t tell anyone about anything we do. Some things are going to be difficult for you because you won’t believe you can’t do them. Its okay. So far you have shown more dignity and strength than any other sun catcher crew member and some of the ones I have seen return came back after only a year in space. I will keep your honor safe. Now you should sleep, you’ll find you’ll need more than you expect for a while yet.”

Kopper closed her eyes diligently and despite the fact that she was sure she wasn’t tired she fell asleep within two minutes. Once Florin was sure Kopper was asleep, she pulled slightly away to a table nearby and throughly read Kopper Light Elgin’s file, twice. Then she put it back in its box in the office.