When you are severely ill or injured for the first time, two things are bound to happen. The first is that you realize you had no idea what it was like for others until you had come to that situation, and the second is that things you would have never considered doing begin to have a certain appeal to them.
I knew because I was familiar with Earth's traditions and had spent enough time on the frontier to know it was a common enough occurrence: going on pilgrimages for special healings was always a big thing. Miraculous interventions were often needed and shortcuts to recovery always wanted.
Now, by the 23rd century, getting to one's miracle often just meant getting to the next star system over, or perhaps a visit by Doctors Without Interstellar Borders – that was not much that could not be fixed up by somebody.
Shortcuts on the body's ability to heal, no matter what sort of body you had – not so much, especially when it came to concussions.
In other words, there was no way for me to shorten my year off from work after sustaining a severe concussion.
That didn't mean news of how people were speeding up the process didn't appeal to me.
It was a good thing I was married, with five children.
My wife – known to the galaxy as Admiral Vlarian Triefield, the fleet's highest-ranking science officer – was always on the prowl for natural remedies to assist in my healing, and took excellent care of me. Her methods were very much science and research-based, though. No wild news for her.
Me? I was a more than decent practical scientist, but I also was desperate in a way only a busy man reduced to sitting around the house could understand. I was also a Kirk. You only have to understand that I'm from the same family as my fleet cousin J.T. to understand that I have certain of the same propensities for risk taking – altering the course of time and history just falls into the purview.
That beautiful golden lamp above, with its golden flames at key points releasing the essences within it, represents one of the risks that sort of appealed to me at that time – the news was saying people were getting great results at the Hermenian aromatherapy centers in which the natural remedies in question were being used.
In the back of my mind, I knew better – but, I was desperate.
Fortunately, V.T. kept me grounded in many ways. The first thing she always did was take me seriously, no matter how ridiculous my idea – “Okay, Mark, let's look into this – even it were to cut a month off your recovery, it would be worth it. It's certainly a lovely process to work with – just gorgeous to be in a dark room surrounded by lamps like that, and easy on your eyes in every way.”
I really could not look for any length of time at a computer screen without headaches, so she read out to me what she was finding over the next hour before we got to the summary.
“The Hermenians have developed this to be safe for humanoids in general, and it basically works like an induced coma … basically, this is just natural and maintained anesthesiology at work, through ancient technology like many Earth cultures used to use for various reasons,” she said.
“Right,” I said. “Doesn't look too scary.”
“No, it doesn't. Just a couple of things to consider … it says here than in the case of severe concussions, patients who rest and keep their activity levels low for the first year achieve similar results … the advantage of the Hermenian treatment for concussion sufferers is not so much the gaining of time, but just to remove temptation from more active patients.”
“Oh .. so, basically, lie around for a year here through willpower, or there through induction.”
“Afraid so, although yes, it can shave a few weeks off just by virtue of that. One other concern. In a concussion, the body is trying to repair and rewire the brain … generally, the substances used by the Hermenians are non-narcotic and thus non-addictive, but because of the vulnerability of the severely concussed brain, some human patients develop dependencies. Withdrawal symptoms include –.”
“Never mind. I'm addicted to my wife and family and as clear a mind as I can get. Forget the whole thing.”
Was I disappointed and frustrated? Yes. Would I have any regrets about just taking the full year's cure of rest, home, and family? No. The possibilities of taking the Hermenian lamp cure with the things that could go wrong clarified that for me.
On the other hand, if clarification of the mind is a type of healing, I suppose the cure worked after all, sort of …
This fractal made in Apophysis 2.09 crossed the gap from 2D to 3D, and the shape produced reminded me both of the old lanterns and the potpourri pot I used to have ... I combined both in my mind to create the idea of the Hermenian Lamp, its orderly flames venting a remedy that might well work for some, but might just as well be avoided by others, lovely though the practice be!
Lovely fractal crossing patterns. Reminds me of a vine growing in different directions. Thanks for sharing your continued saga of the extended Kirk family. Five children already! They've been busy.
Take care.
Yep... this is a vignette from their year 18, given that the Kirks start writing after their 25th wedding anniversary... so, they might tell a story anywhere in that 25-year span, but I tend to group things up, so, all the stories for a little while will be from year 18...