I did some wandering around, looking into different places, exploring as much of the \u2018ship as I could. Obviously the Cockpit, the payload bay and the engine rooms were out of bounds for passengers, but I have seen everything else; all I could really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, space travels are mostly boring. It takes about three days to get as far from any given mass \u2013 such as a planet \u2013 as necessary to bend the space; it then takes another three days or so to get from the place where the \u2018ship reappears to the final destination. Summarized, our journey was bound to be six days, minimum. You had to have something to do to survive the boredom. It was far worse than seafaring on the Old Earth in the Old Times. Back then they had the sea and the breeze and the birds, but here, there was nothing<\/em>. Quite literally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But this is the thing with boredom: when you are bored, you want some distractions, any distractions, and then you realize that with certain things you would rather not have the pleasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the fourth day of our journey, the sirens went off. I panicked, but then I recalled the procedure and returned to my room. A male voice instructed us to put on our space suits, immediately, so I did, I locked the helmet in place, ran a diagnostic and sat on my bed waiting for the green lights to appear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLadies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking.<\/em>\u201d Bloody loudspeakers \u2013 except that this time, it was not loudspeakers but the space suit radio. <\/em>\u201cDue to a recycling unit malfunction, there has been a substantial loss of atmospheric pressure in the \u2018ship. The hull has not been breached. There is no immediate danger to life and no reason to panic. I would like to ask you to remain in your assigned quarters and wear the space suits including helmets at all times until further notice. Please liaise with the \u2019ship\u2019s AI in case of any problems, be it malfunction of equipment or psychological discomfort. Thank you.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wonderful. No hull breach: good. No immediate danger: good. Loss of pressure and the need to wear the space suit for an indefinite amount of time: less good. I really did not like the feeling of a space suit; I did not like the oxygen tanks on my back, the helmet which only allowed you to see in one direction, the gloves which made your fingers about four times as thick as normal and did not allow you to handle everyday items. I did not like the relatively heavy magnetic boots, and I certainly did not like the bloody head-in-a-fishbowl feeling the \u2018suit was giving me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next thing that happened was a loss of artificial gravity. Not that I immediately took off or anything, because I was sitting and not moving when it happened, but I started to feel a bit dizzy, then a lot dizzier, and then, the next time I moved, I launched myself towards the ceiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh fuck,\u201d I said to no one in particular and I used the handles provided on the walls and the ceiling to stabilize myself. I didn\u2019t like<\/em> space suits; I hated<\/em> zero gravity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after I found my way back to the floor, the situation became even more interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The light above my door shone. I managed to get to the door relatively quickly, not killing myself in the process, and open the door. It was the captain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou are a doctor of medicine,\u201d she verified, using a closed short distance circuit of our \u2018suits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am, yes.\u201d The answer came with a caveat, though. \u201cBut it\u2019s been a while since I practiced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDoesn\u2019t matter. Come with me, there\u2019s a medical emergency.\u201d I followed as soon as I heard the keywords medical emergency<\/em>. Space ship captains normally have wide authorities and can make anyone do almost anything under the threat of severe punishments for disobedience, but I didn\u2019t need an incentive like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sick bay was in the state of total mess; things were everywhere<\/em>, tools and containers with medicaments and even pieces of clothing were floating around without any order. But that was neither what I noticed first nor what I paid attention to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh fuck<\/em>.\u201d There were two people obviously trying to restart a third person\u2019s heart. \u201cOh no!\u201d I made a quick jump to approach them and assist them. I immediately forgot everything, the captain, the rest of the world, my dislike of the situation, my funny movements and thick fingers and the lack of feeling in the space suit gloves. It was not important anymore. The only important thing was to save a life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That, I did not manage to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sixty-five minutes later, it was clear that the dead man would not be any less dead, no matter what we would do. I swore and then I swore some more, but there were no tears. Not yet. Back in my hospital days I always used to cry when I lost someone, and now I was sure I would cry later, but there appeared to be more important things to do first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like calling the captain and telling her that somebody just died on board her \u2018ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that we were not desperately fighting for the man\u2019s life anymore, there was time to make a quick chat and a very brief introduction. The two people were Maria and Anthony, nurses assigned to the \u2018ship for this journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe fact that Dr Marlow passed away is acknowledged,\u201d Mess said as soon as she appeared in the sick bay. Her voice sounded right next to me, but of course that was because she was using the short distance circuit which transmitted her voice straight inside my helmet. \u201cI will make an appropriate entry in the log.\u201d She turned to me. \u201cAlix, meet my two nurses, Maria and Anthony. This,\u201d she pointed towards the dead man, \u201cis my medical officer, Dr Leonard Marlow. As you can imagine, you are now the only doc on board.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn\u2019t say anything; I was considering what would follow. Was she going to ask me to stay in the sick bay and be a temporary doc? That would be funny as technically, I was at the time not a practicing doctor but a researcher and a scientist, and it had been a while since my hospital days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am very impressed how well you handled the situation,\u201d Mess continued, \u201cespecially given you have no zero-g training and no experience with attending to a person wearing a space suit. I would therefore be eternally grateful if you could stay here for the time being and replace Leonard. This is just a temporary measure, obviously, and does not make you a member of my crew.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSure.\u201d Shit. There it was. I immediately felt uncomfortable with the literally endless possibilities of how crisis could unfold and how my lack of sufficiently current experience could cost us. If I was our best option\u2026 Oh dear. \u201cI suppose Maria and Anthony will show me around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOf course,\u201d Maria confirmed her willingness to help me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes, that\u2019s what I was going to say,\u201d Mess continued. \u201cFirst of all, we need to put this place in some sort of order. Maria, Anthony, could you please help Alix do this. Please also explain to Alix how things work here, and please log an explanation on what happened from your perspective \u2013 both what happened to Leonard and why is this place upside down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both nurses confirmed and went back to placing Leonard\u2019s body in a body bag. Bloody goddamn zero gravity; one could not even provide the dead man with the traditional courtesy of covering his body with a white sheet and waiting an hour or so before officially zipping him in the black non-woven textile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGood. Kaa, please remind me to log an explanation of the sick bay situation. Anthony, could you please show Alix how to deal with the paperwork. She is not a Flotilla officer, so you will have to guide her through it. I will double-check and countersign everything once you have it ready.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWill do, captain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She turned to me. \u201cLet me know if there\u2019s something you are not sure how to deal with, okay? I appreciate that I am not putting you in an easy position.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n My medical licence had been revoked on Iokasta for my alleged subversion and sedition and technically, I was not allowed to do an actual doctor\u2019s job; I was a researcher. In addition, I had no idea how to handle anything<\/em> on board this \u2018ship: the procedures, the available equipment, the current adverse conditions. I felt a bit stressed, but for a few reasons, I did not want to add to Mess\u2019 pile to deal with, or cause any panic. \u201cI will try to manage,\u201d I said with as much confidence as I could scrap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am off, then.\u201d And she disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was impressed with her calmness. An hour ago, when she summoned me, there was a sense of urgency, but no panic. Now, she lost a crewmember, and while she was obviously affected by that, she did not lose it in any way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the next hour or so, with Maria\u2019s and Anthony\u2019s help, I was able to deal with the paperwork, the log entry, the sick bay clean-up, and one dead body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHello. You are Alix, I suppose.\u201d A male voice; not Mess, then; and guessing by the size of the space suit, not the big security guy, the one who took me to the \u2018ship\u2019s prison on my first day. I didn\u2019t know anyone else from the crew, so I was yet again facing something unfamiliar. I hoped the feeling of strangeness<\/em> would go away soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIndeed. How can I help you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHello. My name is Frank, and I am the navigator and the second-in-command of this \u2018ship.\u201d He did not shake my hand because you don\u2019t do things like that in a \u2018suit, but he turned so that I could see his face through the transparent part of the helmet. \u201cCould you please follow me. The captain wanted you to attend the chief officers\u2019 meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSure.\u201d Maria and Anthony apparently heard what Frank just said, so I made a farewell gesture towards them and left the sick bay. We quickly proceeded through the corridors and ended up in one of the rooms the passengers should never, ever enter: the Cockpit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAlix. Thanks for coming.\u201d That was Mess. I quickly looked around. There were seven of us: myself, Mess and Frank, then the big security guy (who had a baton, a ray gun and a pair of handcuffs on his belt even when wearing a space suit) and three people I did not know. These were two males and a female, probably; it was not straightforward to tell in the \u2018suits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBoss. You sure about this?\u201d asked one of the guys unknown to me. He meant my presence, that was for sure; it took me a while to locate who was actually speaking. \u201cThe authorities won\u2019t like this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey come and stop me,\u201d Mess said. Somehow she managed to sound both indifferent and defiant. \u201cIn case someone didn\u2019t notice, I am the captain of this \u2018ship. I will do whatever is needed to get her home safely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFair enough.\u201d The guy laughed. \u201cI am not questioning your decisions! I just don\u2019t want Mr M to cause you problems.\u201d He spoke with an accent I did not know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCaptain, the Regs require me to point out to you that this is a Flotilla officers meeting, but there is a person present who is not a Flotilla officer.\u201d This was the security guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAcknowledged, Hank. Kaa, please log Hank\u2019s warning and that I understood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLogged,\u201d said the AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnyone else has anything to say?\u201d Mess\u2019 voice said that better not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCaptain, I didn\u2019t mean\u2026\u201d the security guy began. She made a gesture to stop him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know, Hank. It\u2019s cool. Don\u2019t worry. Anyway, let\u2019s start.\u201d Mess extended her hand towards me, but did not turn to me. \u201cThis is Alix. She does not have a surname; don\u2019t ask, it\u2019s complicated. She is one of our passengers, and she happens to be a doctor of medicine, the only one on board right now. I asked her to become our temporary medical officer. I am sure Maria and Anthony would cope, but with 280 passengers and all the trouble around, I am more confident when we have someone with a proper medical diploma there in the sick bay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Five people gestured towards me in acknowledgement. I also made a \u2018hello\u2019 gesture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIs that why you invited her here, captain?\u201d Frank asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mess confirmed this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am not sure this is a good idea. It\u2019s just\u2026 she\u2019s a civilian, and she will panic, won\u2019t she? I am sure of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAlix<\/em> is going to help us with a serious problem and deserves to be fully informed of the situation. Besides, Alix can hear you<\/em>, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI do apologize.\u201d Frank looked at me. He did look mildly sorry for questioning my status \u2013 and referring to me in third person in my presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFabulous. Anyone for a second round of doubts?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a mix of \u2018nos\u2019 and \u2018sorrys\u2019 from everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would like to make a short introduction, then,\u201d Mess said when they finished murmuring. \u201cAlix, this is Frank, or Lieutenant Matinelli, my second-in-command and the chief navigator.\u201d Mess pointed her gloved hand towards Frank, whom I had met already. \u201cThis is Hank \u2013 Major Hanseraq Eir\u00edksson \u2013 who is my security officer.\u201d This was the big guy; I have met him before as well, but we hadn\u2019t been introduced. \u201cLieutenant Kip Polansky, my chief engineer.\u201d This was the guy with the funny accent. I wasn\u2019t quite sure how an Australian accent<\/em> should sound, but for some reason Lieutenant Polansky sounded close enough. \u201cSecond Lieutenant Mette S\u00f8rensen, the purser.\u201d The female. She looked like a stereotypical cook, a big woman with a friendly face. I realized I have seen her before, she was the person responsible for catering, meeting the passengers three times a day in the \u2018ship\u2019s dining hall. \u201cSecond Lieutenant Balvinder Singh Thomas, our payload officer.\u201d This was a man with a religious headwear under the helmet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOK, let\u2019s start, then. Kaa, please log what people say from now on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAye,\u201d the voice said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAlix can explain what happened to Leonard. Please.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I did what I was asked to do. I told them about his heart failure, about how we tried to restart him for more than an hour, about this being nobody\u2019s fault; the usual stuff. I felt I would definitely cry that night, when going to sleep, but I tried not to show that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThank you.\u201d Mess seemed moved; everyone seemed moved. I realized I just talked about someone who they had probably known for quite a long time. This was immediately confirmed. \u201cIn the year or so Leonard was with us, I learned to respect him, appreciate his experience, and actually quite like him. His first trip with this \u2018ship was a disaster of a sort, but since then, he became a valuable and valued member of my crew.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other five officers added a few words of their own, while I kept my gaze low so as not to disturb their moments of sorrow. Then, they held a 30-second-long minute of silence for the man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMoving on,\u201d Mess said finally. \u201cKip. Your update, please.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSure, Boss. So, there were three problems to start with. There is the failure of Recycling Three; that one is done. Not possible to fix it, but I stopped trying, as I don\u2019t think this is a problem really; more of an inconvenience I\u2019d say. Then, the G-mesh. That\u2019s back to operational, and I can turn it on any minute. Just give me the right order and voil\u00e0, I will make your gravity happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGood. I will make an appropriate announcement and we put it back on, otherwise people will throw up their guts. Is eleven hundred realistic?\u201d 1100 was in forty-five minutes. It was not even noon and how much had happened already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs good as any other time, Boss. The G-mesh is good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBal? Need more time to fix anything so that the payload does not crash?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo problems in the payload bay, captain,\u201d said Balvinder. \u201cJust\u2026 If Kip could do it slowly, and not like the last time.\u201d I was not sure what the man was referring to, but Kip obviously knew, and he did not look happy about the reminder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell, yes, cool. Will take care of it, Bal. So, now for our main problem, our lovely Right Front. I need more time to make that baby work with me and not against me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCould you please be more specific?\u201d Mess asked with a smirk. I did not even know what the Right Front was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kip started to talk. He talked a lot about various failures, about what he thought could be broken, about all the things he tried to address the mysterious trouble the \u2018ship was experiencing and whether it helped, and about how much that affected our ability to bend the space. It was obvious that while Mess knew fairly well what he was talking about, the rest of her crew had no clue. The only thing I was able to work out was the nature of the Right Front<\/em>: it was an engine, not a conventional one but one which would help bending the space for us. One we could not do without.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLook, Boss. Fuel, we\u2019re good. Hydrogen, we\u2019re good. Grease, we\u2019re good. Security switches are on and all green lights. Fuses are either replaced or not blown. What should move, moves, what should not, does not. The obvious things have been checked, fixed, rechecked and fixed again. From my engineering perspective all looks hunky dory \u2013 apart from the obvious fact that the Right Front is just such a pussy. What to do, I don\u2019t know. Kaa has no idea either. The things I had done last time to make it all work did not help this time, and I guess I will just have to keep trying. My engineers are there right now, working on all the stuff I told you about already, but who knows if that helps? I don\u2019t.\u201d And he threw his hands in the air in a desperate gesture. There was still zero gravity, so it made him spinning away from the rest of us; everyone laughed; no doubt he did that on purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFine,\u201d Mess said after this frustrated tirade. \u201cI guess asking you \u2018how long\u2019 or such will be of no use.\u201d He shook his head, an exaggerated gesture in a space suit. \u201cI will make the appropriate announcements about the G-mesh, we switch it on at eleven hundred, then I\u2019ll come and find you, and you, me and Kaa will try to figure the Right Front out together. Let\u2019s see if I can add any fresh super clever ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWorks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMette. Your update on the state of the food, water and recycling, please.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll good, captain,\u201d the big woman said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got enough of all essentials. Recycling Three only concerns the inner atmosphere, so even without it I am not short of anything. Water levels are good and not getting worse; we have about twenty-eight days before we have to get to the e-rats, and with the e-rats, we have another forty, at least.\u201d Her stereotypical appearance extended to her voice: she sounded like everyone\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnyone else has anything to add?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was silence. I raised my hand to make it obvious I had a question. \u201cI don\u2019t understand this very well,\u201d I said when Mess nodded to encourage me to talk. \u201cBut \u2013 are we going to die?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPossibly,\u201d Mess replied. \u201cHopefully not, but one never knows.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCan we go back to Iokasta?\u201d I continued. It would be extremely unpleasant for me, but the rest of the \u2018ship\u2019s company would be fine, so\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo.\u201d There was a moment of silence. \u201cNo. You weren\u2019t in the previous meetings, so you understandably don\u2019t know this, but what happened is that due to the Right Front malfunction, the space was bent around us, but we fell out of the crease in a wrong place. We worked out where we are, but getting out of here is something else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThanks.\u201d I appreciated the open answer. I looked at Frank; he was looking at me, probably waiting for me to panic. I smiled at him to show him I was not panicking at all. In a way, I was actually happy. If I die, I die free<\/em>, that\u2019s what I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGood. Everyone knows what they are doing? Kip will take care of the Right Front; I\u2019ll help him; Frank will be in charge of the Cockpit for the time being; Alix will be our temporary medical officer and will take care of the sick bay and whatever happens there; Bal will make sure that the payload does not cause any trouble once we switch artificial gravity back on; everyone else goes about their business as usual. Understood?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes, captain,\u201d was the reply of most, apart from Kip (\u2018Yes, Boss\u2019) and me (a nod instead of a verbal answer).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGood. Everyone knows their tasks, let\u2019s be about them. Kaa, we are done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll logged, captain,\u201d the voice confirmed. In the meantime, I was wondering how many people there were in the crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mess made a gesture towards me to make sure I\u2019d wait; everyone else except her and Hank was gone in less than ten seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou need a crash course in emergency procedures,\u201d Mess said. \u201cHank will help you with that. It should take about an hour and a half, and don\u2019t worry, if there is something the nurses cannot take care of, they will call you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFine.\u201d I followed Hank somewhere towards the centre of the \u2018ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLadies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking.<\/em>\u201d I knew about this announcement, and still I jumped. I needed to do something about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The announcement that followed was the one about switching on the artificial gravity. People were to return to their quarters immediately and secure all freely floating objects, no matter how small, and before 1100, they were to lie down on their beds or the floor (the grey<\/em> thing, not the blue<\/em> thing) and wait for the gravity to kick in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hank did not care about that. He took me to a room which contained lots of guns, all of them secured to the walls or placed neatly in transparent cabinets, and he started talking to me about the safety protocols and how things worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was so focused on his explanations of how to operate the emergency equipment and evacuate the \u2018ship that I nearly missed the return of the sweet pull of artificial gravity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two hours later I was back in the sick bay, feeling like I knew everything and nothing at the same time, like I already forgot everything important, like I didn\u2019t understand a thing; like Hank was talking for two hours straight and I remembered precisely nothing; like I still had to learn an awful lot. Maria was showing me details of how just about everything in the sick bay worked, and my head was exploding. I was familiar with the civilian, planetary<\/em> version of most of the equipment, but this was a space ship, everything looked different, everything was smaller and\/or more sophisticated and\/or adapted for zero-g, vacuum and other space specifics, and all this was just overwhelming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maria and I were next to one of the two pressure rooms and she was showing me how to use this facility in case of loss of pressure (like now) when I heard a familiar voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHello? Anyone around? I think I need medical help.\u201d I already got used to the fact that people who sounded just next to my ear were not necessarily so close. We immediately abandoned my training and I focused all my attention on Mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGood news is that the Right Front is nearly ready to go,\u201d she said. \u201cBad news is that now I need you to fix me<\/em>, and keep me going.\u201d I noticed that the left arm of Mess\u2019 space suit between the elbow and the wrist was damaged and showed signs of emergency repairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTime to go and try one of the pressure rooms for real,\u201d I uttered and took Mess to one of the very few places where she could take off her \u2018suit to show me what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a lot of blood to start with, and in my head, I symbolically thanked the space god for giving us back the artificial gravity.<\/em> When Mess removed the \u2018suit, I examined her forearm and immediately saw a series of nasty-looking cuts. It looked almost like some clawed monster had repeatedly assaulted her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cExplain to me what happened,\u201d I asked her firmly. I absolutely needed to make some scans to see if anything else was wrong with her, for example brain damage or internal bleeding after being hit with something heavy, but if she could tell me in advance, that would help a lot. And if not, for example because of inability to make herself clear, that would be valuable from diagnostic point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe were in the engine room, doing some repairs on one of the subunits of the Right Front. I was helping Riff, one of Kip\u2019s engineers. Suddenly a cover of another subunit disengaged and fell. I was not quick enough to get out of its way entirely.\u201d She shook her head. \u201cWe did not even touch that one. I don\u2019t know why it went down. Kip is investigating, but it\u2019s not his highest priority just now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDid the thing hit you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo. Not really. When it started falling, I was warned and got away \u2013 almost. It just fell down on my elbow and took me down and scratched my arm. Riff lowered g<\/em> locally and pulled the thing away, he immediately fixed my \u2018suit and activated the basic medical circuit, and then he told me to go here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes, he did the right thing.\u201d I looked around. Three minutes ago, Maria showed me where everything was, and I still remembered. I pulled out three things: a gel disinfectant, a tube of regene-glu, and some sterile gauze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHow much does it hurt right now?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot at all, but that\u2019s because my arm is numbed from elbow down. The \u2018suit did that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI see.\u201d I started working on Mess\u2019 injuries, not using any more anaesthetics. I also made a mental note about the need to study all the medical functions of the \u2018suits \u2013 just in case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI guess you now have to go and do some captain-of-a-starship stuff, but it would be good if you could give your left arm a rest for at least a day,\u201d I told her when I was done with her. Regene-glu was an all-purpose miracle, neatly packed in a tube, but it could not do the impossible. \u201cBefore you leave, I would like to do a quick whole-body scan, to see if there is some unexpected damage.\u201d I noticed I had switched into my doctor mode<\/em>: speaking with the confidence and authority of someone in the know. People hardly ever resist this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAny point arguing that that\u2019s not necessary? I have to go back and continue working on saving my \u2018ship.\u201d But of course Mess tried to resist. This was like a soap opera stereotype of space ship people \u2013 heroes who had nothing but disregard for their health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot as long as I am your temporary medical officer.\u201d I shook my head. \u201cIn the meantime, I\u2019ve read the part of the Regs concerning medical officers, even the substitute and temporary ones. I now know what my responsibilities exactly are, and you will do as I tell you, or else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am quite impressed that you found time to read this stuff, and that you bothered. Fine, let\u2019s do this. You are probably right anyway, better safe than sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d I approved of this attitude. It did not take me long to get her out of the \u2018suit completely, do my checks, then let her get a new \u2018suit from one of the sick bay emergency boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe actually did what you told her,\u201d Maria observed when Mess left. \u201cWhen she has these eyes, it\u2019s very difficult to make her stop for more than 5 seconds, because she thinks we are in crisis and the \u2018ship is more important than anything. How did you manage that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJust told her she had to do it, I guess. Maybe it\u2019s because I am a guest here, she did not want to be difficult.\u201d That\u2019s what people did, sometimes, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maria laughed. \u201cYeah, or maybe your will is stronger than hers!\u201d she said, and we got back to her explaining to me how to use the sick bay facilities efficiently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I did some wandering around, looking into different places, exploring as much of the \u2018ship as I could. Obviously the Cockpit, the payload bay and the engine rooms were out of bounds for passengers, but I have seen everything else; all I could really. Still, space travels are mostly boring. It takes about three days … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-67","page","type-page","status-publish"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144,"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67\/revisions\/144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}