63. Life on the Supercarrier Part 2
It took a while but Abyssal and Meica finally arrived at Doctor Julia’s clinic. It was in the middle of daylight as the fake sun was directly hanging above them. The place was more lively as compared to the last time they were there. Residents were all walking around the place, going to shops and enjoying themselves. If Abyssal had to guess, there were about two hundred people moving around.
The shops in the plaza that Abyssal was in have a variety of items for sale. That being said, the item selection was nothing like in Ashen port. Unlike the port, the place here didn’t have any higher-tech items for sale. No futuristic cars or weapons and no ships nor weapons for sale. Just restaurant cafes and maybe a few entertainment outlets here and there.
Within the middle plaza of the residential area, standing outside the clinic was Meica holding Abyssal. The weather was hot and she was sweating, but for some reason, she was just standing by the entrance, not wanting to walk in.
Why? It was because weird loud noises were coming out of the clinic. It was like passing through a nursery or an elementary school and hearing the sounds of children playing.
Except that this place was a clinic, not a school.
Through the cloudy broken windows, Abyssal could see that a mob of children were making a mess of the place. A bunch of boys and girls running around making a nuisance of Julia. The person in question could be seen running around, chasing after them. Julia did her best to keep the children from hurting themselves and trying her best to keep the place as orderly as possible, minimising damage. It was unfortunate that she was soon tackled to the ground by the children— becoming completely immobilized. They then started to play around with her, doing things like tying her hair in weird ways and doing weird wrestling-like moves on her.
‘Man, are children always savage creatures like this?’ Abyssal thought to herself as she witnessed the carnage in front of her. The children had no chill and were making life for Julia as hard as possible.
“Abyssal… children are scary, nyaa… This ship is scary nyaa…” Meica replied. Her body was shaking and she was holding onto Abyssal tightly. One could say she was more scared than the incident with the captain a while back.
“At least the children look happy, I guess,” Abyssal muttered in response. Indeed, only pure smiles could be seen on the children's faces.
To a normal person’s eyes, it may look like a woman just playing around with children, but the scene in front of Abyssal was nothing more than a woman fighting for her survival. Doctor Julia put up a good fight, but in the end, there was only so much she could do against a bunch of children. She struggled and struggled but eventually gave up. On her face was the look of resignation as she allowed the children to do whatever they want to the woman. This scene continued on for quite a while.
….…...
“It’s time for lunch! We’ll see you later, Julia!”“See ya!”“Bye!”
Yelled the kids out loud as they exited the place. One by one, boys and girls started to leave the place. Children from ages five to twelve with different skin colour and hairstyles. When the last of the children left, Abyssal counted nine.
After making sure that all of the children left, Meica slowly went over to the door and peeked inside. On the floor was Doctor Julia lying half dead. Her eyes were unfocused, looking towards the ceiling. Her hair was tied like some sort of strange voodoo doll-like with many strings and bands. The room looked like an earthquake happened with books, apparatus, trash, liquor and cigarette butts on the floor.
“Um… Doctor Julia. Are you okay?” Meica asked timidly, her head peeking over the door. Her body was still outside the clinic though, too afraid to enter the crime scene.
Julia turned her head towards the entrance and saw Meica looking at her. She rolled her eyes before getting up and fixed up her hair. “Urgh… more children to handle…”
She then stood up before walking over to the counter and grabbed her glasses. Once done, she tried tidying up her appearance before giving up halfway.
‘Oh wow. She looks wasted…’ Abyssal thought to herself.
“Why are ya standing over there like that? Come in. You are letting the cold air outside,” Julia grunted as she sat on her chair.
“Sorry for disturbing…” Meica said softly before entering the mess of a clinic. She then tip-toed towards Julia, trying to avoid the various objects that were on the floor.
Julia, who saw this, gave Meica a small apology. “Sorry about the mess. Kids be kids, ya know. Kyle and E aren't around to play around with them, so they naturally go to me.”
“I don’t know. They looked like little monsters rather than kids to me…” Abyssal replied.
“Monster and kids, what’s the difference?” Julia replied.
“Why you though? There are plenty of adults in the place, right?”
“Most people don’t really like having kids around,” Julia replied, averting her gaze from Abyssal.
“Eh? You don’t really look like you like having kids around either though?”
“Tsk. Just leave ‘em alone. This is the only time in their lives where they get to act like one,” Julia said as she spun her chair, turning around in place to face Meica and Abyssal.
“Um… Julia not going to clean up the place?” Meica said as she finally arrived across from Julia, she then sat on the receptionist table.
“Why bother? It’s going to be a mess again the next day.”
“I see…”
“...”
“...”
“So…? What the hell are ya guys doing here? If you’re here to make small conversation then please go away. It may not look like it but I’m really busy.”
“Un, we just wondering if you have more of that medicine you gave me. Sub sulphite something something,” Meica pointed her finger at her head trying to figure out the medicine name.
“Bismuth subsalicylate? Yeah, I have those,” Julia said before lying back on her chair and closing her eyes.
“Yeah that! Meica wondered if you give more of those. Jumping made me sick.”
“....” Julia didn’t respond.
“Um, hello?”
“...”
“Missy?” Meica moved nearer and poked on Julia’s cheeks.
Julia kept quiet, though she did let out a slightly audible grunt.
“Helloooo?” Meica kept poking her.
The poking continued up to a point where Julia exploded, swatting Meica’s hand away. “Goddammit stop that! Y’all ain’t getting any of that stuff alright! Medicine ain’t cheap ya runts!”
Meica backed away just a bit. “Ack! Sorry!”
“Do you even know how hard it is to get these stuff? We are in the middle of the goddamn space, man. We dock like once per year or something like that! That’s not to mention the damn cost of these things. Ya think I’m subsidized by the government? I bought all of this stuff with my own money, kid!” Julia said all of that in one breath. Once done, she took deep rapid breaths before letting out a large sigh.
Both Abyssal and Meica went silent at this sudden outburst. They totally did not expect her to blow up like that.
Julia then folded her arms and laid back on her chair again. “Why ya need to even have the stuff anyway? Don’t really look sick to me.”
“Well, she’s not sick now, but every time the ship makes a jump, the symptom comes back. So we thought—“
“Huh? Actually wait. why y’all still getting sick? Didn’t that stupid gal give ya or activate the jump shields? Are you telling me that you’ve been exposed to dimensional interstellar travel raw all this time?”
“Huh? Jump shields?” Abyssal asked in confusion
Hearing this, Julia slammed her forehead with her right palm. “Oi! You stupid girl! What the hell is this? People can actually die from this shit, ya know!” Julia yelled out to the roof all of a sudden.
“...”
“...”
“... sorry, I was too busy evading enemies that I kinda forgot about it, tee hee! I’ll do it later so…” E’s voice came out from some speaker in the room.
Julia then scratched her head hard. “Arrgh, I’ll do it. Godammit,” she then stood up and straightened up her clothes before moving towards the door, going through the mess that was the clinic. She stopped by the door before looking outwards, scanning the area for something.
“Hey, you guys. Where is your ship?” Julia asked, her eyes focused entirely on the outside.
“Ah! It’s in the hangar bay,” Abyssal replied.
“Which one?”
“Huh?”
“There are plenty of hangars on this ship, which one?”
“I don’t really…”
“Screw it, just bring me there. You lead the way,” Julia replied before leaving the clinic.
Both Abyssal and Meica were speechless about the matter. Abyssal's second thoughts on Julia was that she was rude, but maybe she wasn’t so bad of a person if kids love her and if she’s willing to help Abyssal and Meica out with their problem. Abyssal gave a nod to Meica and she followed after Julia swiftly.
‘Isn’t she going to lock the place at the very least?’ Abyssal thought to herself as she looked at the entrance behind her. ‘And didn’t you say you were really busy just now?’ Abyssal thought to herself as they followed after Julia.
As they walked, a certain shop caught Abyssal’s eyes. It was a shop that sells humanoid robots meant for the helping of domestic housework.
‘Oh?’
Abyssal quickly registered the location of the shop before drilling that knowledge deep within her consciousness. She then continued with her day but keeping in mind a possible body replacement in the near future.
