Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode Three: Eggs #2

Sophia waited in a portion of the spaceport called the shed. This was a private bay for the station's own hopper traffic and strictly speaking not open to the public. But she was, strictly speaking, not part of the public now, she was a employee of the station. At least when she stated who she was and why she was here, they had ushered her in without complaint.

She heard the dock workers talking in Consortium about the hopper's progress and she knew that as they rushed to one of the airlocks, it was Bankim and Katja returning with their new patient, or patients.

Which was why Sophia had come. The others were stable and able to care for themselves well enough, at least for a half hour. But with two new patients arriving, the healers might need something.

The door burst open and they came through. The healers had a young woman between them, barely a teen. She was pale and looked weak, but she was awake and moving under her own power at least. Behind them came a security guard carrying some sort of oval white device in his arms.

"Sophia, great," Bankim said as he saw her and Sophia flushed, knowing she'd chosen right by coming here. "Matt, give her the child."

The security guard handed Sophia the device. She took and looked down, seeing into the hatch. "Holy crap!" she spat. "Is that?"

"The baby, yes," Katja said. "Safely sealed in an egg. It will be fine. But mother's pretty weak."

"I'll get us a transport," Bankim said. He nodded for the security guard, Matt to take his place at the woman's side. He sprinted off to talk to one of the dock workers.

Moments later a worker was pulling up alongside of them in a small electric cart. It had a wide truck bed at the back to haul supplies. "It'll do," Bankim muttered. He lay and blanket out on the bed and helped the mother to lay down.

Sophia and the others climb on as well. "I didn't even know they had these," Sophia commented.

"A station this small has little need, for average citizens or daily use. There aren't any designated transport hallways. But for big loads or..." Bankim said. They zipped down a long empty hallway. After musing awhile he added. "We should talk to Dhanvin about getting one, outfitted for passengers. Make your job easier, if we could run Randy up to the market area on a cart and then let him walk up there for exercise, get what he needs instead of having us go... Yeah, I'll bring it up at the next meeting."

The transport had come to a wide elevator and slid inside. "There's no direct route," the driver said. "I'm going to have to criss cross a half dozen times to local lifts. Hope you aren't in a rush."

Bankim shook his head. "If we were, we'd have gone straight to a local medibay. Take your time." To Sophia he said. "We'll put the two up in one of the bigger rooms. That way we can get into check the egg without disturbing mom so much. Not that there should be a lot we need to do." To the guard he said. "Do you need to get back to the surface soon?"

The guard looked startled. "Yeah, I do. How?"

"We can let you go, take the next elevator down." Bankim checked his slate. "Be one in about thirty minutes, looks like."

"And that goes to?"

"Denver. Local transport should available there, I assume."

Sophia laughed. Bankim gave her a look. To the guard, she said. "He don't get the surface, sorry. How far is Denver from home?"

"About two hour's drive."

"Can someone come get you?"

Matt shrugged. "I suppose."

"Animika, a friend, was telling me about her homeworld," Sophia went on as they slid into the second lift of their trip and started to drop a few more levels. "They have trains, hoppers, small orbital flyers, airships of a sort that glide a few hundred feet up, even personal pods. You can pretty much get anywhere on the planet through public transportation, in a matter of hours and for next to nothing. They don't understand how travel on our world works at all."

"That's okay. Once I get to the surface I can call. Someone can come and get me I'm sure. Just didn't think this shift would end with me going into space, is all."

"Actually you can call from here before you go down. We got cell service."

"You do?" he seemed surprised.

They pulled to a stop in front of their wing. Criss cross the station a half dozen times was an exaggeration, Sophia thought as the driver pulled out and disappeared.

Two people were waiting in the lounge. Sophia recognized both but had never been personally introduced. Jack, the diplomat and his counterpart Zeta were local celebrities, or at least, people everyone knew.

"This is our first errand of mercy?" Jack said looking at the egg in Sophia's hand. He stared into the hatch. "Wow, you can see it floating in there. Zeta?"

Zeta held back, a curious expression on her face.

"They've all seen things like this a million times," Jack said dismissively. "They forget how amazing they seem to us."

Zeta's face was drawn and nervous but she came forward. "I've never seen an egg up close before," she contradicted. "You are right, it is amazing. You can see the fetus in there just like it was in a womb or something."

Katja rescued the egg from Sophia. "We are putting her in room 103, with Mom. Get them settled to rest, okay?"

"You must be our new liaison officer?" Jack said. "Jack Sheridan, State Department. This is Zeta Kulpolla."

"Sophia," Sophia offered taking his hand. She was thrown, flustered by the word "officer." When Dhanvin offered her the job, he'd just said liaison. She supposed, in retrospect, that there would be some rank associated with it, but she hadn't thought of herself as an officer. Besides she hadn't thought of a last name.

If Jack noticed her lack of surnames, he gave no sign. "Okay, Sophia, we have a security guard to return to the surface and family wanting to come up." He turned to Matt. "The brother is on the way with Grandma and Grandpa. They will be coming up for awhile. You can ride home with the brother. I'll give Sophia diplomatic passes, get you back through the gate and grandparent's in.

Forty five minutes later Sophia found herself on the surface of the planet again, dressed in a borrowed, cold weather jumper in deep blue and standing at the front gate to the station. It was after midnight but it felt much later, like days had passed since she started her new job.

"God it's cold," Matt commented as he sipped a cup of coffee and stared across the parking lot. "And it's only mid November. Be a long cold winter, I think. Got plans for Thanksgiving?"

Sophia shrugged the question off. "Not sure. That's coming soon, though isn't?" She nearly lost track of the Earth calendar since coming to the station. I've only been on the station three weeks, she thought and the sense that far more time had passed filled her again. God, it seems like a lifetime ago.

A pickup pulled in front of the gate and a middle aged couple climbed out. Matt shook Sophia's hand and was nodded through the gate. Sophia stepped forward and introduced herself to the couple.

"Sophia?" the man said, one eyebrow arched. It was the first time in weeks that anyone had questioned Sophia's gender identity. Once they were inside the station and Sophia had stripped out of the heavy jumper, any question of her gender seemed to evaporate and the man treated her cordially enough.

The elevator had already climbed back to the station and they had to wait for the next one. Only one of the restaurants was open all night, and it was empty except for one short order cook and one US soldier on break. Sophia bought them all a meal out of petty cash and they sat with the soldier and ate.

When they got back to the medical wing, the mother, Katie, was asleep with her arms curled around the egg like it was a teddy bear. A sleepy Katja told Sophia to put the parents across the hall. Sophia showed them the small room, not much larger than the hotel she'd stayed in the first night and then went to her own room to finally lay down and sleep.

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