1000 Patients

Posted on 19 Jun 2023 @ 4:27pm by Lieutenant Commander Temerant Bast

611 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Outbreak
Location: Antioch III - Capital City Medica
Timeline: Fourteen hours after Patient Zero

Healer Manet made his way through the patients who were lined up along the corridors of the Haert Medica. The corridors were stacked to their fullest. The Healers and Sustainers were juggling five times their maximum recommended caseload, and still people were coming in. Tents were being set up in the park behind the Medica, since there was no space left inside. Power generators would have to be installed to operate the breathing assistance machines.

In virtually all cases, the major symptoms included headaches, sore throats, chest pains and labored breathing. Strong fever was also present in virtually all cases, leading to an altered mental status. Intense cough was also documented, leading to bruised or broken transverse ribs and torn intercostal muscles. Some cases also involved coughing up blood, the bursting of blood vessels in the eyes, and major inflammation of the axillary ganglia. A minority of cases had cardiac affects induced by the respiratory difficulties, and a few cases of stroke had occurred. There were also forty fatalities already.

Healer Manet was the administrator of the Haert Medica. But today, he was simply a healer, who was desperately needed on the floor. He reached into a supply closet past another patient's bed and pulled out a fresh surgical mask, thinking that it would be a challenge to find an uncontaminated place to change the one he was already wearing.

He walked around the area, and stopped at the Sustainers' desk, and checked the board to get a status update. The names of the patients, their location and the initials of the Healer who was caring for them were displayed, along with a code to describe their chief complaint. Aside from a few injuries, the vast majority of patients were here for the same reason.

Manet was about to reach for the next patient's chart when he heard one of the Sustainers call out for assistance. He looked around, searching for her location, and found her in one of the back corridors, wiping blood off a patient's face. The young woman looked haggard, deep circles under her eyes, and the eyes were dark, the corneas injected with blood. Her breathing was labored, raspy and crackling. Manet had come to recognize this as one of the final stages of the illness. The lung tissue was becoming so scarred, the patients were drowning in their own blood.

He looked at the paperwork attached to the patient's bed, and started. This was Hadrea, the Tashi's personal aide. Manet quickly ran over to the suspensory, and returned with a handful of vials and medications, which he began to administer to Hadrea, in a desperate attempt to find something that would help her, and either assist in her breathing, or at the very least ease her pain.

As he pushed another medication, Hadrean reached out and grabbed his wrist. She pushed aside the breathing mask that was providing oxygen, and looked into his eyes. "Remember. The birds blue into wheels cannot compress supply or arithmetics," she pressed, as though she was telling him the most important thing in the world.

Her eyes turned over in her head, and she collapsed on the bed. Manet touched her neck, feeling for a pulse, but he found none.

Manet turned to the Sustainer. "Get the Examiner. I want samples collected from every patient. We need to find out what's causing this. It's obvious we have a new pathogen on the loose."

He released Hadrea's grip on his wrist. "I need to get word to the Tashi's office. They'll have to notify her family."

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A post by
Healer Manet
Played by Lt. Temerant Bast
Chief of Operations
USS Cygnus

 

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