It is interesting. As she was a teenage girl, she always wondered how it was like when one grows old. How she would feel, how she would think. Into what she would change. Over the decades, she learned about the answer. One simply doesn't change. You stay always the same. Sometimes, patterns of behavior are forced on you by the environment that surrounds you. Its part of human intelligence to adjust if needed. But it doesn't change your character or who you are. Your feelings. But one thing changes though. Time goes by faster. Weeks in her current age feel like days felt in her twenties. You close your eyes in the middle of a safe and decent summer night. You are supposed to hear the birds when you wake up. Maybe, you will hear a warm summer rain dripping on the roof. But its the snow and the bitter chill of the winter that you will see when taking the first glimpse out of the window. Its the torture of age. Once a human, you turn into a dayfly.
Her eyes stopped looking into an inexistent distance. She focused the doctor in front of her. His face made a sad impression. But it wasn't sadness originated from true emotions. It was a worked out sadness. She figured that he had to grow cold. He couldn't let things get to close to him in a job like his. He was almost 20 years younger than her. But already grayed and routined in what he was doing. She didn't blame him for that. She wasn't even sad her self. In her age, one starts to wonder what part of the body would bear the fatal flaw, that brings existence to an end. Now she was given the answer. She smiled unsafely.
"Is zere anything one can do ... to ... stop it"
"I am afraid no, ma'am. If we would have detected it, earlier..."
He continued with a shake of his head. His view unconsciously wandering from the left to the right of his desk before focusing on her again.
"We can slow it down."
"How long?"
"A year ... maybe two."
He bit on his Jaw, eyes blinking. As she obviously gave her self up to her emotions. The coat of self-pity was warm. It felt good.
She thought about Benjamin, Artur and little Hagen again. They would be fine. Artur was 20 now. Hagen was already eleven. Benjamin would have a hard time. Raising one of his grandsons in his age... but he would be fine. Artur would take care. Tears blurred her view. She took out a handkerchief. She didn't notice how the doctor winkled his forehead as he made a decision.
"There might be another way though."
She dried her tears and looked at the doctor again.
"There is a renowned hematologist that successfully synthesized artificial bone marrow. His work is disputed. But under the given circumstances, I should let you know about him. His office is located in Botnang City on Planet Stuttgart."
She slowly closed her eyes in bitterness. Rheinland ...
People always dreamed about flying. About levitating. They did back on earth in the old days and they still do now the moment they see a flying creature. They managed to build machines to somehow satisfy this urge to leave the boundaries of gravity behind even though it was just a small balm. She never understood that. She never liked flying in a machine. She always needed solid ground under her feat to know where and which way to go. And now she felt how it was - how it felt to levitate. It was awful. Her organs drifted in her old body and her hands that were meant to manifest here will by deeds were desperately trying to fix her position while her legs were just useless attachments on her body.
The IMG transport tried a radical maneuver to evade the torpedoes of the corsairs that picked their prey up on Cardiz' long-range scanners before. Her Inertial body and the damaged artificial gravity where the reasons why she was hit by the wall of the cargo bay, she and the other illegals were drifting in, as the helms officer tried to let his ship dodge the Novas.
Brutally knocked out by the maneuver, she didn't notice how the IMG transport made it barely intact to Freital/Omega 11. The Hessians didn't bother to help the injured or flush out the dead. They took the bribe and kicked them out of freital, as they needed all their men back in omega 5. Rheinland was in a full scale conflict with Kusari. The Corsairs felt the chance to finally and permanently take a step into Rheinland's underground. They would do everything to get past Ronneburg and finally into omega 11. Diamonds! And then, Stuttgart. Food! The Hessians couldn't afford to spare any men for babysitting any insane illegals who honestly thought they could get around the blockade of Omega7 and Omega 3 alive.
But the IMG transport made it to the the Stuttgart gate. Their faked com signatures and Daumann IFF data seemed to work as their distress call was answered by three military patrol vessels, which escorted the transport to planet Stuttgart. A scan. No diamonds to be found in the cargo hold of the trading vessel. Where is the cargo!? Rubbed by Hessians. Another scan. Faint bio-signatures were picked up. An officer will come on board. It wasn't a request. Sweat ran down the temples of the crew.