IMAGINATION'S PLACE
FICTION
JOURNEY TO THE LIGHT
By; Speaker Gerald Polley
All rights reserved.
Chapter 26
A couple of days went by. Carol was getting ready to go to her duties when a security man appeared at her door.
"I must speak to you!" he snapped. "There has been a complaint."
Carol looked at him in total bewilderment. "A complaint?" she managed. "What kind of complaint?"
"It seems the hospital hasn't been informed," the
security man continued, "that you are pregnant, that you have known
this fact for some time and have not reported for a physical. You
know the law requires a pregnant woman to begin prenatal care
immediately."
"Oh!" Carol giggled. "All right, I'll make an appointment."
The security guard held out a slip. "You have an
appointment!" he snapped, "this morning! All other duties will be
sat aside until this legal obligation is filled. Am I understood?"
Carol managed a grin, suppressing laughter. "Yes!"
she answered, very sincerely. "You are understood, officer. Thank
you!" She took the slip, checked the time and found she had
better hurry. She caught a tram and went to the other side of the
ship. She walked into the hospital which seemed very busy, and
gave the slip to the receptionist.
"Yes!" the receptionist snapped, "We've been looking for
you. Straight down to the lab at the end of the hall, and have
blood drawn. Then take a seat and you'll be called when a nurse
is available."
Carol got the blood work, came back and sat
down. She was only there a few minutes when the nurse called her
name. She was taken into an exam room, stripped, put in a robe
and the preliminaries were taken.
"Now!" the nurse snapped, "Robe off, on the
table. We'll take full scans. Blood pressure's a little
high. Don't like that! Have to check the blood work."
Carol lay there as the scanner played over her
body. The nurse watched the screen intently. "Woo!" she
remarked, "You should be wearing a head guard. Your skull is
filling back in, but I'm sure you've been told not to do that again!"
Carol grinned. "What in the hell is that?" the
nurse muttered. "There's a lump in your right breast! The
doctor's gonna have to check on that! O.k.! Everything else
looks good. But the doctor's rather hands on. He may want
to take a look inside, just to make sure there's no infection.
Ever had that done?"
"Oh, yes!" Carol answered. "Most of the
medical service I had could not afford scanners. The doctors did
everything the old way."
There was a rap on the door, the nurse called "Come in!" and a boy entered. "How we doing, nurse?" he asked.
"Blood pressure's a little high, doctor," the nurse answered, "and there's a shadow in the right breast."
"Hmm!" the doctor remarked. "Go see if the
blood work's ready, will you? Hi!" the boy piped, "I'm Dr.
Rivermore. First name's Kim and that's what everybody usually
calls me. Now I'm just going to get a scope ready and take a
quick look inside. These scanners are good, but the good old eyeballs
still sometimes tell you more, and we don't wanna miss anything!"
Carol smiled. Without instructions, put her feet in
the stirrups and relaxed. The doctor went to work. "Can I
ask you how old you are?" Carol finally managed.
"Sure!" the doctor answered, "I'm fourteen. Boy
genius. I haven't reached my full size yet. I saw the reaction on your
face. Don't worry, I'm fully qualified!"
"You wouldn't be here if you weren't!" Carol teased.
"Supposed to be three doctors," Kim explained, "but
just before the ship left two of them went ashore and didn't come
back. I was the only one they could grab on the reserve list
before you guys took off! So there's only two doctors. And we're
a little bit overworked."
Carol thought of something but immediately rejected
the idea. The doctor finished with the scope. "Everything
looks fine!" he praised. "Now, let's check those breasts!"
He did a thorough breast exam. "There's a wound here," he remarked.
"It's had stitches."
"Yes," Carol explained, "When I was arrested one of
the girls with me tried to stab one of the police officers. But
she stabbed me instead. They just stitched it up."
"They didn't scan or anything?" the doctor asked.
"No," Carol answered, "they weren't too concerned with my health at the moment."
The doctor sighed. "Might have to write a
complaint on that," he muttered. "Well, I'm concerned with this."
There was a rap and the doctor snapped "Come in!" The
nurse entered. "Doctor, look at this," she moaned, "right here!"
"296?" the doctor snapped. "Get her down to
surgery right now. Get her prepped! I'm going in and find out
what in the hell is going on. This is definitely an infection."
"Is it really that serious?" Carol asked. "I feel fine!"
"Famous last words!" the doctor snapped. "I
want to check on that girl," he continued, "then hold all other
patients. We'll be working late today!"
"Yes doctor!" the nurse snapped.
Carol was taken to a shower room, thoroughly washed,
dried, put in a fresh robe and taken into an operating theater.
"Hello!" a mechanical voice spoke up. "I'm the automated
assistant surgeon. I'll be working with the doctor. I am
fully capable of performing many emergency situations myself. But
in a situation like this I only serve as a back up in case something
goes wrong. Now, do you want full sedation? Or would you like to
be aware?"
"I think I'd prefer to be aware," Carol answered.
"Very well," the auto surgeon agreed. "I'll get you
ready. So just as soon as the doctor gets here, we can begin!"
In a few moments an I.V. was in her arm, a device
was around her neck, a tube inserted in her airway, then slowly she
began to go numb. The auto surgeon poked her here and there to be
assured she couldn't feel anything. "There!" he remarked, "Nurse,
lay out instruments."
The doctor came through the ready room door holding up his
hands that had been freshly gloved. A nurse positioned a platform
and he stepped up on it, examining Carol's breast. "O.k.!" he remarked.
"All set? Blink once!" Carol blinked. The doctor picked up a
scalpel and in a few moments announced "There it is! This is weird!
This isn't a tumor. It looks like the kind of tissue that
surrounds a foreign object to protect the rest of the organs near it.
Tough stuff! Well, we're gonna get it out of there. There
we go! Got it! Now, let's close up here. Only take a
couple of minutes. And then we'll have all that stuff out of
you."
Finally he announced "There we go! Nurse, you
may remove the airway and the I.V.. I don't think there's any further
need. Med, I'm really curious about this. I've got other patients
waiting but I want to open this thing up and see what it is."
He went over to a work area. The mechanical surgeon
followed him. The doctor got a fresh scalpel, worked on the lump of
flesh and then spread it apart. Suddenly a klaxon started to go
off.
"Evacuate operating theater!" a voice began to
blare. The auto surgeon literally grabbed the doctor, spun him
around, and carried him to the door. "Get out!" it snapped. "Do not
come back without full protective equipment. Remove those gloves
without touching them!"
The nurses had cut the I.V. line, crimped it, and
now picked Carol up and rushed her from the operating theater. As
soon as they were out the doors shut and sealed. They got Carol
to a room, got the I.V. out of her, and fetched her clothes.
"What in the hell is going on?" Carol asked.
"I don't know!" the nurse answered, trembling, "But
when the med surgeon acts like that it's somethin' serious! It's
no damned little thing!"
A few minutes later the doctor came in. "Well,
we've had an exciting day!" he remarked. "You can go. Return to
your duties. Come in in two days for more blood work. I
think you'll be having a visit from security. As a matter of fact
I know you will. They'll explain. If you'll excuse me..."
"Doctor!" Carol snapped.
He turned back to her. "Yes?"
"Damned good work!" Carol praised.
The doctor nodded and headed out. Carol went
back to her duties. Obviously everyone was aware that something
had happened. Late in the afternoon her husband showed up.
"Break area!" he snapped. Carol followed him. They sat down
at a table and he held out a little plastic container. Inside was a
small metal object. It looked like a round tube with little hooks
on one end.
"Good Lords!" Carol snapped, "I've seen pictures of those! That's an assassination dart!"
"Sure is!" her husband snapped. "A whole bunch
of people are going to be in a whole lot of trouble because that thing
has been inside you for so long. It still has enough poison in it
to kill a dozen people. If it had worked simply trying to help
you and absorbing your sweat through their skin could've killed
people! They're looking for the young woman that administered
it. She was obviously no friend of yours! Praise the Lords
the god damned thing malfunctioned! But it was leaking just
enough stuff so your body encased it in tissue to stop the irritation.
They can't figure out how you survived! This was no accident.
They wouldn't use something like this on a police officer. It was a
direct attempt on your life!"
"Why?" Carol screamed, jumping up. "Why?
I was nobody, a punk, no one someone would use one of those
things on. Why?"
Her husband shrugged. "We may never know," he
answered, "but I'd sure as hell like to know! I'd like to get my
hands on whoever it was that sent that bitch! Well, thought you
should know. It's just got everybody enraged. We're sending
messages back to Earth. There's just ...there's just no need of
stuff like this, no need of it!"
Carol couldn't argue, she couldn't argue at all. One
of her assistants ran in. "I hate to disturb," he cried, "but we
think it's happening! We think the core has finally reach the
right temperature and right rotation! We think the magnetic field
is forming! Mars is developing solar shields."
"Whoa!" Carol cried, "I'm coming!" She looked to her
husband and snapped "Thank you!" and hurried out. The next hours were
very exciting. They forgot about everything as they watched on
the instruments as the shields formed, and the solar winds began to
collapse. Then the asteroid's shields combined with Mars and the
atmosphere that had been held around it fell onto Mars. Carol was
too excited to sleep, but finally her husband came in, picked her up,
put her over his shoulder, and carried her out. She cried "Good
night!" to her crew and they all answered "Good night, ma'am!" It
had been an extremely exciting day! But Carol didn't want one
kind of excitement ever again! She didn't like the idea that
people were trying to kill her. She did not like it at
all!