Chapter 15- Lunario

Lunario Bannirio, a wealthy Banning businessman, found himself in the hospital once again.

He was born to a rather poor Banning family, on the planet Crio. Crio was an almost abandoned miners planet, with families moving there years ago for job opportunities due to the special nature of the mines, which required living workers. The ore, named Crio- after the planet-, they dug at the time was seen as rare with a lot of uses.

However, as with the coal mines from human history, society moved on from Crio ore and left hundreds of families without jobs.

At first, it was not noticed by the miners as they took it as a break before they went back to mining. Thus, expecting to be paid, most kept to a slightly extravagant lifestyle using their savings and the rest were more prudent as they cut costs where necessary. This went on for a while before the more prudent miners noticed the decreasing quality of items on sale. Previously, for the same price, they got more food or other items, most thought it was just an issue with supply and ignored it while a small number quietly prepared for months by bulk buying as much non-perishables as possible.

Within a month, the prices soared as the quality plummeted, making it difficult for the mining families to get access to a lot of essentials. This caused a panic among the families as they suddenly could not afford to buy good quality food or wear new clothes, even housing costs were affected as they became cheaper but the cost of maintenance of the property steadily climbed up. They were becoming poorer but could do nothing to rectify their situation, as scientists had found a better alternative to Crio ores (Cr) and so it lost its value, not to mention that the mines were all either state-owned or private property, leaving them with no other way to earn money as Crio was a planet that boasted little to no harvest due to the high concentration of Crio ore in the soil.

The families who had saved a lot of money but not been able to bulk buy food as the prices quickly climbed had bought tickets off of Crio. Leaving them with nothing once they left as even the ticket prices had soared to leave the planet. The extravagant families were the poorest of the three groups as this occurred. They had spent most of their money thinking that they would be able to return to work soon, and so they were unable to buy food at the high prices stated nor could they afford to leave. Some took the money and left with their spouses, abandoning the rest; and some of the adults, however, took all the money and escaped alone or with an outside lover. In some cases, the lover took all the money and left them stranded and broke with their family, with the extreme cases leaving them homeless as well as penniless.

The families who bulk bought were silently watching, even as they continued to use their food carefully, for fear that they will run out before the situation stabilised. They also reached a silent consensus to avoid mention of their food stores, as other peoples' desperation was growing proportionally to their hunger, leaving them the most fortunate out of the miners. This did not last long as raids were carried out, by the landlords and others with some strength, to loot from the poorer and weaker families. Again, some were smart to hide their excess food and others had grown complacent, leaving them open to the plundering of the villains.

Slowly, it became a dog eat dog world on planet Crio. The poor remained poor and the powerful remained powerful, as their food intake was well monitored by the powerful ones they were not able to rise in rebellion towards this new regime.

The situation was still ongoing as Lunario was born, to one of the poorer families. It was his good luck to be born to one of the prudent families, who were poor but had a surplus of non-perishable foods hoarded to keep them alive hidden from those who would take it forcibly. However, he was still in a family too poor for a visit to the hospital or to buy new clothing yearly, as such he was born with the aid of a midwife at their humble home.

Lunario grew in a happy if poor home, filled with love and affection from both parents, with enough to eat. As he grew, he showed that he was an intelligent young boy, capable of learning quicker than others his age in school as well as keeping consistent scores- gaining top marks- at every assessment. This gave his parents pause as they knew that Lunario would become stunted, with no way for him to advance on Crio unless he went into the service of one of the overlords of Crio. They did not want that life for him though, as working with the overlords was like a deal with the devil, as they may be forced to be scapegoats for other peoples' misdemeanour or forced to commit crimes on orders from their bosses.

In response to this, they secretly sold their food stores on the black market of Crio, for an incredibly high price. The money, they found, was enough to send one person off Crio with a little leftover. His parents hid the money in an area only the three of them would know of as they decided on the best time to send Lunario to another planet, unaware that one of the patrol groups saw the two of them as they disappeared with bags of food, on their way to the black market.

They had become targets of one of the overlords as they were suspected of hoarding food for a resistance.

They denied the accusations vehemently, which was not believed, leading them to be sent to a prison facility for interrogation. They spent over a year in captivity, with Lunario waiting for their release, with a deduction on his allocated share of food as a punishment from the overlord, while keeping his scores in school among the best as he knew that his parents valued education.

Not wanting to disappoint them once they returned, he patiently waited for his parents as he believed them innocent, but only one of them returned.

His mother.

However, she was quite weak as they seemed to both torture and starve the prisoners to force a confession. Both she and her husband managed to keep their plans for Lunario quiet during the rounds of torture, with her husband taking the worst punishments away from her, leading to his death. She hung on to life desperately, barely, to tell Lunario of their plans as well as the location of the money and official documents. Once done she fell asleep on her bed the day of her release and did not wake up the next day.

Grief. Sadness. Anger. Hurt. Loneliness.

Lunario felt it all, as he watched his mothers' body being lain to rest, his parents' wedding rings worn on his neck in remembrance of their love for each other and happy memories.

After the funeral, he packed up the house, selling it as well as the furniture and clothes, and then he left with the rest. He left Crio at the age of 18 and went forward with his life. As his parents predicted, he grew from a no-name orphan to a well-known businessman within a decade.

Within this decade of growth, he met his wife Evangeline (Eva) and the two of them fell in love. She grew the business with him, and they never fell out of love with each other, even as the years went by with no children. At some point, they tried natural conception but were left disappointed, as they tried different methods. All ending with failure.

Now, Lunario is in the Reynor first Hospital VIP ward awaiting treatment for the internal injury that had caused his infertility, knowing that it was impossible to become fertile as the ideal time for treatment had long passed, as described by the doctor.

Seeing the doctor leave, he returned to his mini-computer to check his emails and reply to some. In the silent room, he suddenly heard the sound of a soft voice exclaiming in pain, which startled him. he looked up and met the round eyes of a young banning in old, worn clothes with patches of dirt stained around his knees.

He felt his heart melt at the adorable little boy looking at him in both awe and curiosity.

His face softened into a kind smile as he coaxed the little one to his side, asking him questions to figure out his identity. They slowly became familiar with each other the longer they talked before a knock burst their little bubble.

"Come in" Lunario said.

The door slid to the side as a person stepped through.