Year 860 AGR
Flying in an ornithopter was a very different experience from a ride on her father's mechanical horse, but Her Royal Highness Princess Theodora was just as thrilled by it. The sleek silvered transport was deliberately stylized with flapping gull-wings on top of the thick transport pod and an aggressively flared beak-shaped cockpit attached to the front. The beating of the wings and the view out of the port window from her chair of the calm azure seas below were stimulating and left her squirming in her seat between the two. Her older sister Sophia was sulking at being in the middle seat and swatted at her, but mother stepped in to calm them down.
Their destination was on Aeopia, a large temperate island in the aptly named Blue Sea which had been set aside as a resort as long ago as the Terran Dominion settlement of Rum. Mother had told Theodora about how illustrious ancestor Philip had seized the island from its owners for their treachery during the Parsen occupation and turned it into a sanctuary for his wounded troops. Following Qyasars had maintained that status-quo, settling it with religious communes and dotting the countryside with hospitals and small towns to sustain them. Not even her father could construct a palace on the island without the approval of the Concord waqf that held title over it.
The ornithopter started beating its wings more vigorously as they descended over the beach of a pleasant dark emerald island shining out amid the crystal waters. The sensation jolted Theodora in her seat, but she was all smiles. As fun as the flight had been she was looking forward to getting back on the ground.
They finally landed at a small neocrete pad set aside near the hospital they were visiting. It lacked the hangers and elaborate support facilities of their takeoff site on Thrake. The pilot had to step back in to help Theodora and her sister out of their seats and off the ornithopter. She had to be careful to avoid getting her sleeved silk chiton caught on the parachute line at the door of the vessel as she jumped into her mother's arms.
But once her mother had sat her down on the ground she could look around at their destination. Kosala Restorative Hospital was built to the sort of hospital model she was familiar with, a four-sided peristyle surrounding a vast interior courtyard with two large wings on either side opposite each other and a grand portico at the front entrance. It was built with a pink sandstone facade instead of the white marble of the hospitals of The City, and the upper reaches of the hospital were decorated with unfamiliar writhing figures and motifs of animals. It was very unusual and unfamiliar to Theodora, and she found herself taking her mother's hand tightly as they walked down the neocrete path from the landing pad.
They were met at the steps of the portico entrance by a small party of saffron-robed men and women, all bearing the red caduceus mark of certified healers on their foreheads. The eldest-looking of the group, a wrinkled man with a bald head and long grey beard, stepped forward to greet them.
"Your Highness, it is an honor." He bowed from the waist at Theodora's mother, and the rest of the party followed suit. "I am Georgios Palamades, the doctor-administrator of Kosala hospital, and I welcome you to our facility."
Theodora wasn't really paying attention to the flurry of introductions that followed. Instead her gaze fell on the top facade of the portico, where a frieze depicted an unfolding lotus. On either side various odd figures were depicted in stylized poses. Multi-headed and multi-armed figures in loincloths were common; there was even a monkey-headed man captured in mid-jump.
They walked around the interior, guided by Dr. Palamades, who spoke softly as he explained this and that to her mother. Theodora's attention span was waning though once they were out of the portico and into the peristyles she had more to look at. The colonnaded walkway was decorated with various statues and artwork, as well as examples of Parsen and Solarian armor and ensigns captured in battle and displayed here. The statues ranged from common depictions of a doctor with the twin-snake staff to the strange multi-armed figures on the friezes outside.
The open courtyard was more interesting still. She had to be discreetly held back by her mother to keep from running out into the sunshine and flowering grasses. There was an exercise pitch nearby as well, sand-tiles marking out a space for football or cricket as well as group and solo routines. It was mostly empty, though a handball net had been left out in the middle as though a game had just ended or hadn't yet begun.
"Kosala is a member-facility of the Brahman synods of Rum," Palamades commented as they passed by. "Vedic injunctions to heal the soul and mind as well as the body are a guiding principle of our treatment. You see here, out in the courtyard, we have broad spaces for physical therapy for those who have recovered sufficiently for it. On the other side we have picnic and rest areas under the shade of snakefruit trees for those less physically able, and a fountain to rest by with live music. The open theater is less used than we would like, but we still manage to put up a travelling player troupe or musical performance once or twice a month."
The tour proceeded on around the side of the courtyard and entered the hospital facilities proper. "We strive to maintain a peaceful and serene atmosphere even in the midst of emergency, as a clear mind and soothed soul faces adversity with greater confidence," Palamades noted. As they passed down halls they noted regular burbling fountains and silk tapestries that were riotously colored with all kinds of mythical scenes. Soothing flute music also wafted in the air, piped in from a studio Palamades said was located in the basement. Orderlies and nurses, these clad in crisp rose tunics and trousers rather than saffron robes, walked purposefully through the halls.
The first floor was mostly reserved for acute emergency care, Palamades explained. He led them to a lift to the second floor, which was reserved for surgical operations. Much of the work of Kosala involved treating trauma patients and especially stab wounds for obvious reasons. But it was a Class 1 rated military facility, he went on, which meant it had labs to provide cloned organs and replacement limbs as well as a license for cybernetic prosthetic augmentation. Queen Olympia engaged him in some conversation about the criteria for using cybernetics versus clone replacement, but Theodora was mostly thinking about the gun-metal arms and legs she noticed some of the Somatophylakes boasted. Were they war heroes too?
Visiting the third floor was a highlight of the day for Theodora. When Dr. Palamades asked if they wanted to view the cloning labs her sister had shook her head and hadn't wanted to go in. She was afraid of all those horror stories from before the Great Awakening. But Theodora resolved to go boldly inside and show up her older sibling once and for all. Her mother sighed, but left Sophia behind with a bodyguard to watch her in a lounge while she went with Theodora.
Of course she was half-expecting tables stained with blood and chained-up chimerical abominations but the labs were pretty boring-looking. Sterile white walls and white benches and whirring air conditioning it was all so very sciency, at least until Palamades took them into a back room. There row upon row of crystal tubes met them, with green biogel from the tubes lending the poorly lit room an emerald cast. Disembodied limbs hung suspended in the first rank of tubes that Theodora could see, and it was just as awesome as it was disturbing.
"Cloning to replace damaged limbs or organs was approved during the Jerusalem Collegium as a legitimate use of otherwise proscribed technology. It may seem grotesque, but we are tightly audited by the Concord Coordination Office as well as your husband's military. And in a way it should be a measure of pride that we have these facilities." Palamades pointed at a cylinder. "This technology is entirely of human design and innovation. Of course technology purchased from the Hertos supports our use of it today, but this is something we understand completely on our own."
It was like he was setting out a challenge. Theodora didn't know what exactly was going on but the atmosphere felt charged. Evidently her mother declined to take him up on it, so he continued the tour. She got to see some organs, too, including a heart beating in the biogel. Though it didn't really look like a heart to her.
Her sister rejoined them for the tour of Floor 4, which just covered administrative offices and was super-boring. They weren't allowed to Floor 5, which covered the cybernetics labs and machine shops, so they were stuck waiting in a lounge with some Pomfizz drinks and a couple of Somatophylakes while their mother got to see all that.
But afterward they got to go back down to the courtyard. Theodora and Sophia sat on stage at the theater while their mother delivered a speech to recuperating veterans. Theodora largely zoned it out, there was a lot of talk about duty and honor and gratitude, but after it was over and following the polite applause they got to step out and go meet the soldiers. That was more interesting since there were so many people to see and shake hands with and preen about.
"I lost it to a raxian during a patrol on New Wash, your highness," one of the warriors sitting on the benches told her when Theodora asked about her new cyber-limb. The gunmetal hand stood out from the scared woman's brown skin, as required for cybernetic prosthetics. "I wanted to get back to the Amazons as soon as possible. But with this beauty maybe I'll try to join the Somatophylakes instead."
"Neat!" Theodora's eyes widened at meeting one of those elites, renowned for their never-say-die attitude and penetration of impossible terrain. And this was an opportunity to answer a longstanding curiosity of hers. "So do the Amazons really eat snakes?"
Theodora's interogee laughed. "Only in the field. And sometimes snake's a better meal than what we do find. But we're the toughest bit… soldiers in the army, pardon me y'r highness. The Herculeans are puss... hovers compared to us."
"Don't listen to Vasquez," another warrior seated above her shouted out. "The Herculeans jump out of planes. I'd rather eat a fu… eat a snake than do that. They're all crazy brave, and crazy nuts."
Of course soon the nearby benches were engrossed in the ages-old dispute about whether the Herculeans or the Amazons were the baddest of badasses, though everyone seemed to agree the Hypaspists weren't even worth considering. Theodora's mother rescued her before her delicate ears were fully assaulted, though she did pick up some interesting new vocabulary from the experience.
The following tour of the residential treatment wing was not so pleasant. Theodora hadn't really known what bladed weapons could do to someone once they got slipped through an energy shield and armor. She learned. It was not fun.
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At the age of six, Princess Theodora of Erum began her education at the prestigious Stambouli Kindergarten. Even with the relaxed hands-on approach to learning pursued at Stambouli, she had a favorite period that she preferred above all others. What was it?
[ ] Art! Finger-painting is fun, and music instruction is a nice break, too.
[ ] Exercise! Whee, I'm getting so much faster.
[ ] Reading! Books are neat; there are entire worlds I can visit at any time I want to.
[ ] Math! Two and Two is Four, and I have ten fingers and ten toes… it all fits together.
[ ] Recess! You and you, let's take the slide together.
