Journal 11/28/11

Ran into Hiri at the Bazaar.

Things are going ok, with her. She's still seeing Camille, and sometimes Cia. She wants me to come in more, and I guess I should.

The technique she gave me, it has helped with the bad dreams.

She said Camille really enjoyed learning in the simulator with Silver. I think Silver enjoyed it too. Kids aren't really his thing, but Hiri said that wasn't really always the important thing. People who aren't really good with kids can still teach them a great deal, and people who are good with them can ultimately be pretty useless, sometimes.

Maybe I'll see if I can get Silver to take Cami for a real HAS ride.

We had tea and talked more at Lenfa's. I wasn't that hungry, though.

I told Hiri about the time I lied to Cia, when I needed her to clone jump. She is good at listening, I guess it's the job. I didn't expect it to still bother me so much. Maybe it's because I had to bend the truth recently. Hiri wanted to tell me that Cia would understand this time, too, if she found out.

That doesn't make me feel much better about it.



Hiri has an ex who doesn't understand it's over. He's followed her up from the planet she's from. I've sent what info on him I got to Sarakai.

He's going to make himself a problem. I'll let Hiri try to resolve it her way - with the authorities - first. She's a friend though, and I'm certainly not going to allow anything that might get back to Cia and upset her unnecessarily.

In a way it was good though. I feel a little less frustrated with something concrete to work on.

Journal 11/25/11

Went and talked to Cia, about moving to the clone with the donor bone marrow.

Doctors say that it could give her years, if there aren't any complications.

Can't risk that there might be complications. They need to find a cure.

Journal 11/21/11

I decided I wasn't being much help leaning on the medical people, so I took a break. Went to the gym - Fit to Fly - to work out some frustration, I guess. Ran into Helmi and KJ there. Helmi says Cia is doing ok, in a new Jump Clone again, though. I let KJ know the sample he got is going to be tried out too. That it might give Cia the time she needs, while they figure out a cure.

KJ wanted to make a bet, that I couldn't crack his ribs. I haven't met many ribs I couldn't crack, but then, maybe he has some kind of real high end custom job, I don't know. Anyway, I told him I didn't want to damage a corporate director and went back to beating the shit out of a practice dummy.

Helmi didn't have my reservations, and they sparred. I wasn't paying a lot of attention at the time, but looking at it later, Helmi's style is very offense based. Strikes, mostly. KJ seemed to go more for throws. Disabling. Holds.

It was interesting, in any case. The gym was a good distraction, helped to get away for a few.

I'm going to go see how the lab coats are getting along.

Journal 11/18/11

They found it!

Or, at least, I think they did. They found out that something in that plant - the Tyndedhanah. It's toxic in some way to embryos. Only the ones with the gene pair though, and only embryos. That's why Jorion never got sick, and why Cia did.

It does something to the bone marrow, limits its lifetime to 21 years or so - makes it so after that, the cells stop working and dividing correctly. Now they know about the toxin, and the genes that allow it in, Nari says they can start working on a cure.

I told him to do whatever he needs to, hire whoever he needs to to get it out.

It has to be in time.

I should find out where Nerila is with those clones.

Journal 11/15/11

Silver's been involved in some stuff with this new war. He said he saw Cia out there. I'm not sure whether to be happy she had the energy, or furious she is taking the risk.

Journal 11/14/11

We raided Jorion's doctor's office while we were down-planet. It was a raid because of course the bastard was FIO - I should have guessed - and when I initially walked in to talk with him, security tried to grab me.

We got the doctor himself in transit, and he told us what he could remember - which wasn't much. We hit his office though, and pulled the files on Cia's family.

Analysis has come back, using the genetic workups from those files, the bone marrow samples, and the info they found about the genes that are responsible (though they still can't tell me exactly how).

Luc has the gene too. The one that means he will get sick. It means his bone marrow isn't going to do Cia any good either.

And Camille... she has it too. When she's Cia's age, whatever it is - however it works - it will switch on. Unless we find a way to fix this.

Jorion had - has - the gene too, and he didn't get sick. There must be something else to it. The gene is just the vulnerability.

Anyway, Nerila is setting up JCs with bone marrow grown from the other two donors - from Lorraine and whoever it is KJ got his sample from. With luck one will take.

I'm going to go make sure the eggheads are staying properly motivated.

Journal 11/10/11

They found the genes that Cia and the others - the bodies we exhumed - have in common! They are part of the way there, at least. They don't know quite what the connection is, between the genes they have isolated and the disease, but they know where to look now.

Ulf Atamahara has found Cia's family too, most of them. Not Jorion, of course. He got bone marrow samples and got them to Nerila. Killjoy Desher found an unrelated match too.

Nerila has tested them and that means 3 potential matches for Cia. Her mother, Lorraine; her brother, Luc; and KJ's unrelated sample. If even just one of them works out, it means maybe years more, at least. Time for a more permanent cure.

Journal 11/9/11

While I was down on Debreth, I went to the University there, trying to find family records and whatnot from Ciarente's family. I met a young man there who was very helpful. It turns out he knew Ciarente, before. When she was at school there. I can imagine her, studying in the library, doing coursework, probably worrying about her grades. I wonder if it would have been better if that had stayed her biggest worry.

Maybe it would have been, if it weren't for this disease.

There were some records there, in their archives, and some first hand accounts. A doctor, one of Cia's ancestors, whose daughters died, some others. There was a plant, too, the name was similar to another word - Tyndedhanah and tydenethanah. Anah is like soul, or spirit, I think. The Breill back then said there was no room in the colonists' children's hearts for Tydenethanah - whatever that means. There was a lot of talk about the Breill though, and that there might be some connection. So, I even took samples of the plant.

That's how desperate this is. Anything that might help. A plant sounds like a word mentioned by some doctor from 150 years ago? Grab some. Records? Bodies? Family doctor? FIO files? A parieur who says she was alive back then as someone else? All of them, take them.

I just hope one of them has what they need to help Cia.

Journal 11/7/11

It's good news.

When I was on Debreth I went to the church - Fortune on the Waters - almost first thing. I was looking for records, actually. That's where I met Nualla, the parieur I brought back. Anyway, she did get us access to the records. Record keeping on Debreth seems to be messy and more than a bit ineffecient. I guess they had to play with the hand they were dealt after colonization though.

Nualla also showed me the graveyard. Many of the people buried there were Cia's ancestors, and when you go back a little way, and awful lot of people died around Cia's age.

I didn't really want to cause a big mess, so I set people checking on those records and pursued other avenues. It became pretty apparent that the best way forward would be a mass exhumation of Debreth's ancestors, though. I did expect a bit of resistance. Aside from Nualla though, I hadn't found many parieurs worthwhile, and I wasn't exactly dreading making an example of a couple of them to keep the rest in line while we did our digging.

We showed up and the gaggle of old priests tried to make a nuisance of themselves as expected. It was Nualla that ended up handling the situation though. She fell, and when she got up, it was like Fortune Herself was talking through that girl's mouth. The other parieurs took it seriously enough, anyway. She told the head geezer Be Silent! and the old bitch listened.

Then:

I will be found among those who seek me. Do you seek me?

I'm not sure what that means, but I suspect it isn't very good, because none of them did. So, she told them Then go! All of you! There is work to be done here, and you are not the one to do it!

Like Fortune's own drill sergeant. And all the old parieurs ran away like their robes were on fire. It was damn impressive. Nualla claimed she didn't remember it all, afterward, and Rorkulo - the medic we had along - said that Nualla has epilepsy. Regardless, that little teenage girl standing down the crowd of glowering priests isn't something I'll soon forget.

And the good news!

It paid off. The techs say they've IDed the genes that all the people who died of the Stranger's Curse had in common, from those remains. That they have in common with Cia. They just have to figure out what the exact mechanism is, and they should be able to start working on a cure.

Journal 11/6/11

I got a report today, Cia nearly died. Did die, I think. They got her to the cloning bay in time though. This time, they did. Who knows about next time, though? I'm going to have a talk with old man Nari and see if they can speed things along. I'm sure they think they are working as fast as they can, but you never quite get that last bit of effort out until there is real pressure.

Journal 11/4/11b

Oh, forgot before. I saw Nerila too. She seemed... jumpy. I don't think she has been getting much sleep, so I sent over a few people to help her, and take shifts monitoring Cia so she can get sleep. Don't need her falling apart on us.

Journal 11/4/11

I finally finished with the debriefs and making sure everything we got on Debreth went to the proper teams with the proper priority.

After all that, I went to see Cia. I saw Camille first, and she was still Cami. She had a sort of rmote control giant lizard she was playing with in the hangar.

I didn't mean to be gone so long, down on the planet, and while I was gone- She isn't doing very well. Apparently Vikarion decided to respond to Cia's request for her original body back by strolling up in it. Shithead. From what I hear, Cia was pretty shook up. I can imagine how she might react anyway, cloning not being something she is really comfortable with. Ancestors abandon that bastard, he's either stupid or just a jackass.

Cia, she still wasn't well. Wasn't fighting. She was still set on giving up. Staying in the River. I told her about Nualla, that I brought her a parieur, but she didn't seem convinced it would help. She needs to fight though, so I got her to fight.

It made me feel like shit. What I told her was mostly the truth, and the rest... Well, it might be true. I made it sound true, I guess. She believed me. That if she didn't get better, her younger siblings wouldn't have a chance, if they got sick. That she had to live, had to maybe give up her soul, face nothingness - annihilation, for them. And she said she was tired. I told her it would just be a little longer.

It has to be just a little longer.

Journal 11/2/11

Just got back up from Debreth, along with the last of the stuff we found. The lab weenies have their work cut out for them. Bodies, analysis of a good ton of paper records, genetic stuff, what we got from that doctor, even some plants to test.

I told Cia I would get a parieur, too, and I did. She's not quite what I expected to bring back, but I hope she can help Cia. I hope Cia's been alright. With the operation to grab the doctor, things ended up running a lot longer than I expected. I think what we got will be enough though. It has to be.