Utrecht Visscher | Network 001

[frontier_doktor]

[Public | Audio]

[This man has an accent too, German, but it's nowhere nearly as thick as Niko's Serbian one is. He could speak German and let the translator take care of it, but so far he's met enough "standard" speakers that he can handle himself.]

Hallo, I'm Dr. Visscher [pronounced "Fisher"] and I'm new. I am the sort of new where I have no idea where anything is yet and I keep getting turned around. So if anyone could help me to the clinic when they have a chance I would greatly appreciate it.

Speaking of which, I'm a general practitioner. I'll be working for the resort and town. I am a human, but I've never been to Earth. Any Earth, of any sort. I know there are a few of them out there.

Comments

private

[likeaswift]

[...ah.]

Complicated indeed. Was it—forgive me, I am terribly new at this—was it something like the situation we have here?

Re: private

[frontier_doktor]

Not exactly. They were a special case.

They were unfortunate victims of location in the space race and someone decided to do something kind for them. Unfortunately that colony was on an otherwise uninhabitable world and depended on life support systems.

But they did tell me a lot about where they came from, and I know a lot about Earth as it is [in his neck of the woods anyway.] I've just... never been, for whatever reason.

Re: private

[likeaswift]

[Dryly humourous.] Whereas I, until coming here, have only ever known one Earth. My mother was German, in fact, and my father English—and for all intents and purposes, I am an Englishman. From a very dull world and time, compared to some of the others here.

private

[frontier_doktor]

Oh! [ That brightens up up immediately.] Have you ever been, then? I wouldn't think of it as all that dull. It's always been one of the places that I've never managed to get to despite desperately wanting to. [ But maybe he's also a little afraid he'll be disappointed in it when he does, and he doesn't want to risk that good thought in his head.]

The colony I grew up on was Braunschweig.

private

[likeaswift]

Many times. Some of those times rather more salutary than others, it must be said. [The war. Berlin. Leamas. And the latest, the little man walking across in the dead of a winter night. He has to smile at the name of Visscher's colony, however.] I know the city on Earth known as Braunschweig, but my mother's family comes from quite the opposite end of the country. I spent much time in my childhood in the Schwarzwald, in the south.

Re: private

[frontier_doktor]

The Schwarzwald is another place that I've always wanted to see. My father was East German, my mother West. She had stories about it.

It was a messy situation for them, I know that. I hoped that it would get better, at least. Whatever version of it I saw was the Germany they always hoped that it would be.

Re: private

[likeaswift]

1967, you said? A very difficult time. My own year—1977—is perhaps only easier insofar as we have had that many more years to grow accustomed to the division of the country. [Dryly ironic, there.]

private

[frontier_doktor]

That's unfortunate. They said all the war had ruined what was a beautiful country. Years of it, both with violence and government. They were glad to leave, but I always wanted to see it anyway.

private

[likeaswift]

The war was indeed terrible, and the divided country—well. It was a sad and sorry thing. The wall down the middle of Berlin—terrible.

Perhaps you may yet see a happier Germany, if our hosts are amenable.