Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode Three: The Egg #21

When Sophia returned to the medical wing, it was mostly empty. Bankim was sitting in the lounge area, his fingers templed in front of his lips, staring ahead. Katja was sitting next to him, but she wasn't speaking.

Sophia went over and sat down next to them. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's just..."

"No," he interrupted. "You're right. I'm sorry. I shouldn't take it out on her. She wasn't..." he trailed off. "My mom was a healer, too, you know."

Sophia shook her head no. Bankim wasn't the kind to talk about himself. "She was?"

"Yeah, well, much of her life. She was good, too. Loved it. Until," he paused. "She was put in charge of a small healing station. It was on a deep space station, tiny, just a way stop really. Some human, some C'thon. They had two eggs."

"Some one stole one?" Sophia whispered.

Bankim nodded. "It was probably during the turn over. Anyway a few months after she took over, they did an inventory and it turned out they were supposed to have three. It wasn't her fault, but they had to blame someone."

"But," Sophia stopped and remember what Zeta had said. "Couldn't they find out who did it."

"That's it," Bankim said. "She did. She did find out. They'd already started the process and..." he choked up slightly. "And she said it was a living thing, in the egg. A person. She couldn't bring herself to turn them in, to terminate it."

"What happened?"

"To the squid? I don't know. Mom lost her job, and her credentials. She had to take a different job. She said it was the right choice, but it killed her, not being a healer. Whenever I see one of them, all I can think is that maybe that's the one, maybe that's the reason my mom can't do the thing she loves."

"I'm sorry," Sophia said.

Bankim looked at her and then at Katja. "I'll apologize, okay? I'll try to be better, not blame her for what another did." He stood and straightened his uniform. "Still, I just, I'll feel better when the baby is born, the egg is decommissioned and I don't have to face the constant reminder, you know." He strode off.

"What do you think about this?" Sophia asked Katja after Bankim had disappeared down the treatment hallway.

"If his mother was half the healer he is," Katja said. "It was a waste to fire her, or take her credentials. There were better ways to deal with the situation. But this what they do. They'd rather have a scapegoat, to show they are being firm on the issue. Maybe he should direct some of his anger that way, at the authorities that stripped a healer of her rank for doing her duty." With that she, too, rose and strode off.