All sentient life is connected. The appendages may be different, we may eat different things, and live in different solar systems, but at the end of the day, we’re all one big family.
It’s time to explore the branches of the universal family tree, and today, we present:
Agent Red
– Issue 14 – Sweet Oin
The Universal Infirmary of Oin is the greatest hospitals in the universe. It is much more than a hospital, it is a testament to Ointite generosity and their belief that all beings of the universe are the children of the same maker, the Center. The UI accepts any and all patients with no expectation of payment. For the UI, patient medical information is payment enough and each patient they successfully treat becomes a testament to their vast expertise in the biological sciences of any being of the universe. The UI’s repository of information is second only to the Ultimate Library on Bromeran because the UI specializes only on medical and biological information, while the UL contains information on every subject imaginable.
Whadgaf Jiris is at the main campus of the Universal Infirmary with her friend Sevi Swite, a nurse of universal distinction, and she has been here for many daylight cycles. Whadgaf likes it on the campus; the planet Oin is welcoming to outsiders and she was treated like an official Hajferis emissary on her arrival. She has been living in a suite on the UI campus and Sevi is close by.
This morning, Whadgaf walks onto the balcony connected to her room that she shares with others living on the floor of the building that contains her suit and she has come to know everyone who frequents the balcony very well. They are mostly Ointites, who are on average about a foot taller than Hafjeris, and they have bulbous heads and large eyes that broadcast their emotions like a billboard. The rest of their bodies are similar to the Hafjeris, arms and legs with the notable exception of wings. Whadgaf likes to sit with an old Ointite man named Zaklep who is a former minister of the planet’s only religion who had been like a celebrity in his younger years. He was living out his last days in the suit next to Whadgaf and she liked to sit next to him to greet the star of the planet as it rose to start the day.
Whadgaf finds him rocking slowly in a chair, barely visible in the dim light of the early morning. Ointites have a grayish skin color, like that of an Earth dolphin and the old man seems to disappear in the absence of light. She pulls a chair next to him.
“It is nice this morning,” she says as she stares out at the changing landscape that is very different in the light than in the predawn hours. It seems to be a truism of the planet, that everything is more alive, more vivacious under the intense starlight of the daylight hours, like everything of the planet is resplendent and reflecting light like glitter.
“It should be a nice day.” There are many languages on the planet Oin and Zaklep speaks to Whadgaf in the native Hafjeris language that he had learned in his youth. “I don’t think today is the day,” he said with a grin that Whadgaf could see as the light of the morning slowly intensified.
“Thank the Center,” Whadgaf says with a smile. She has become very familiar with the customs of the Ointite and she is very aware of their religion that exalts the great black hole that is said to exist at the center of the universe. “Everyday with you justifies my journey to this point in my life. I’ve never known the peace that I feel here.”
“You knew peace on Hafjeran, in your vaulted castle in Jeriel, it only seems hollow now that you look back on that time with wisdom. True, you were a caged bird, but you were content within your confines. Then tragedies happened and now you are liberated and being the great Whadgaf Jiris by your own standards.”
“This peace is different then,” Whadgaf said. “I’m experiencing a wiser peace.”
“Peace, true calm and contentment with the present, is the same no matter the condition. This is why ignorance is bliss. Parsing peace out and giving it different categories is what allows us to be fooled into believing that we have attained a peace worth maintaining when in reality, we are enduring some unpleasantry in order to attain said false peace, whether knowingly or not.”
“Well Zaklep, I will enjoy whatever peace I have now while it lasts.”
“You speak like you have made plans to leave.”
Whadgaf shrugs her shoulders. “Or like I have not made plans to stay. I enjoy it here, Sevi is a good friend and she has shown me a lot since I arrived here. I’ve been thinking of becoming a nurse like her.”
“You should be a doctor. I can tell from our conversations that you prefer theory to practice and that is what Ointite doctors do. They are always thinking of ingenious ways to cure ailments and they can achieve this through debate and intense contemplation.”
“I’ve never met an Ointite doctor,” Whadgaf says curiously as she realizes it. The UI is staffed by so many nurses that Whadgaf assumed nurse to be the only title for medical professionals.
“You wouldn’t. They do not teach or treat patients, they work exclusively in the UI library, lost in study.”
“Sounds like a lonely existence.”
“True, but their labor has created this amazing universal infirmary that has saved countless lives. It is a truly selfless sacrifice.”
Whadgaf thinks about it. She has no desire to return to Hafjeran anytime soon, and she could lay low as a doctor on Ointite, hard for even Agent Red to find. It was worth considering.
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