Septday, Guire 2nd 067.M42

We had a Mason family dinner today. Cordell had furlough this week, and Arlean managed to get a rare afternoon away from her clinic, so Mum called me around for dinner. I nearly said no, Kader wanted to go out for drinks again but it has been a while since I saw the family. And if I'm truthful, I don't know that my head would survive another night drinking with Kader.

Mum and Dad are well. Dad tells me he had a bit of a scare with his health recently, he was having some pains in his chest, but he saw the Medicae on Flyte street and they did a scan and couldn't find anything wrong. He thinks it was just indigestion but I could tell Mum was still worried. After all, his own brother died of a heart failure not five years ago. But he looked healthy enough to me, maybe he's right.

Cordell is the same as ever. I think he's still unhappy about having missed the last muster and being "stuck" here, as he puts it. Never mind poor little Mei. Mum asked after her again, and all he could say is that she's "okay". I'll bet he hasn't even gone to see her in a month or more. I would like to see my niece, but I don't even know where her mother lives. Or whether she'd be happy to see her deadbeat ex's little brother show up on her doorstep.

It's just so frustrating. I don't know if he doesn't see or if he just outright tries to ignore how much it hurts Mum that he's got this beautiful little girl, and he barely goes to see her let alone brings her to see the rest of the family. We met her once, just after she was born and then he's just gone ahead deciding to be an arse ever since. I don't know. Perhaps I need to go to the public stacks and try to find her details in the birth records. Maybe from there I'll be able to find out who her mother is and look her up in the vox directory. Maybe at least I can show her that the rest of the family aren't all frag-heads like my brother.

Eliza could barely sit still for the duration of dinner. She's finished up her schooling and has applied to the Mechanicus Shrine to join their order as a Tech-Adept, and is now in the period of meditation and consideration before they'll take her on formally. I think this is only a formality, she had to be told twice by Mum not to bring her projects to the dinner table, as gears and spring coils don't go well with re-grox stew. After dinner she took me to her workshop - actually, it used to be mine and Cordell's bedroom, then it was Mum's cogitator room, but now it's been taken over entirely by Lizzy's machines and tools and various bits and pieces. She tried to explain to me what the various things she was working on were, but I couldn't follow. She talks at a million kloms an hour when it comes to her machinery, and sometimes it feels like asking her to slow down and explain is just a chore. She's so smart, I think she's going to go far with the Priesthood. I just hope she doesn't forget us when she does.

And Arlean is, well. Arlean. Her clinic has been run off their feet lately, there seems to be some sickness passing around the lower hive. Nobody knows what it is, people are going missing for two, three, four days then suddenly showing up again seeming feverish, lethargic, pale and clammy and with no good reason for their absence, or in some cases showing a complete denial that they were absent at all. She says that nothing shows up in their blood tests or the few they've had the scrip and resources to perform body and brain scans on are showing nothing out of the ordinary - no brain damage, no tumours, no signs of drugs in their body. All that they can do is offer them some pain relief and anti-inflammatories to hopefully break the fever, then send them home with instructions for fluid and rest. None seem to have come back with escalated symptoms, so that's good. But it appears to be virulent, with people from several hab-blocks and shelters who live in close proximity all coming in within a few days. And she says that several other clinics in the lower levels are reporting the same. I asked her if it's been reported to anyone, and she told me that her supervisors are tracking cases and reporting up to the Spire health department. It sounds scary though. I hope it doesn't make its way too far up the hive. It sounds like it has the potential to be a real problem, and it's getting worse from what she's saying.

But it was good to see them all again. I don't know if we'll be able to have another family dinner before Lizzy goes to the Shrine, but I'll certainly try to get up and see at least her and Mum and Dad before she does. It was a good night, and now I have a week's worth of re-grox stew to reheat for leftovers. Thanks Mum 3

Thought for the Day: Have no shame, for you are a child of the Emperor– born into greatness.