For the Good of the World

Chapter Two

"Honey, I'm so sorry," Rupei said and extended a hand to Aura. "Are you ready?"

Aura brushed fresh tears from her cheeks and looked at Via with reddened eyes. "Do you have more questions?"

"Not right now. I'll contact you through the Caeles if I do."

Rupei nodded, helping Aura to her feet. "Alright, then let's give these two room to work," she said and led her sister out.

As the door slid closed, Via glanced at Mitis. "Long day for you." With only five hundred colonists, most people wore many hats. But none wore as many as the Lifesupporter, who attended to the health of the living and the dead as a physician, medical examiner, and priest. "So, how are the Chief Terraformers?"

The middle-aged Lifesupporter shook his head, and exasperation made his voice dry. "You know I can't tell you that," he said and picked up the teacup and plate with a sigh.

Via followed him into the kitchen. "I don't mean spiritually. I know that's confidential. Just... How are they?"

Lucina and Umbrata Adurere were devout followers of the Eternal Radiance and quite frail. The elderly women met with Mitis every morning for spiritual guidance.

"They're doing well." Mitis set the teacup on the white counter. "Cheerful, even. You heard they've set a date for the abdication?"

"Yeah, Mater says it's scheduled for right after the Trellis goes up."

The identical twins had made the sky-wide nanite lattice their life's work, but now that work neared completion. Lucina's oldest twin sons would become the first in a long line of Trellis-maintainers, the nanites in their blood fused with the paraterraformation system. They'd be able to sense and control the great nanite lattice like part of their own bodies.

Mitis nodded. "I think they're looking forward to retirement. They've certainly earned it. Can you imagine? We'll finally be able to farm outside of the arcology and live safely on the day-side. That's quite the legacy they'll leave behind."

"A one-hundred seventy-five-year reign," Via said. "I can't believe they were born on the ship." She glanced down at the deceased victim. "I feel so bad for Ancients, sometimes. They die so young. Even as healthy as Ivan's wife says he was, he wouldn't have lived even half as long as one of us." She sighed and pushed the depressing thought away. She needed to get back to work. "Have you done your autopsy yet?"

"Yes. Let me send you my findings."

Via nodded as the nanites hummed, and knowledge surfaced within her mind like memories.

Tissue damage. Pulmonary edema. Replacement of oxygen with carbon monoxide in the red blood cells.

She frowned. "What in the world caused carbon monoxide poisoning?"

Mitis sighed. "Some Ancients use rather archaic equipment. It's easier for them than nanites, I guess. And look..."

He led her to the spare bedroom, where a strange contraption sat next to a rock-strewn worktable. The ugly metal device rested atop four sturdy legs, with a serrated disk situated over a flat surface. Some kind of jug protruded from the table's underside.