7172-1-28

“Hello I am Doctor Witko, Mr. Tarson, I was told you wanted to speak with me?”, asked Doctor Witko.

Lucas answered: “Yes, it is because I am helping in a hospital with this strange new illness. I have a fairly high end watch with integrated medical scanner, and that thing is screaming out warnings as if they were going out of style. Now, it is meant for ease of use, and not at all programmed for Kar’Netra, but still. Where should I send the data?”

“Hm, let me think.” He paused for a short moment and looked something up: “Well, I will send you a link to where to send this batch of data. You will also get a mail in the next hour or so where you should send any further data you gather, as well as observations you have that might be useful.”

“Thanks! Well, do you have any other things I should care about? Safety? Procedure?”

“No, not yet. But that mail will have all that in it. Well, not yet besides the standard, please take care of yourself, do not endanger yourself, and wear protective equipment at all times while being exposed. It is beyond unlikely that the virus will suddenly jump, but not necessarily impossible from what we know currently. Now, can I call you under this link at all times during the emergency?”

“I am technically on vacation, but in an emergency, I am part of the military. So, if you really need me, you can call me to the banners, so to speak. But yes, I can be reached over this link, unless, oh, that reminds me, I need to deactivate do not disturb mode, one sec.”

After a short episode of going through a number of menus, Tarson continues talking: “Unless nothing, considering I have just deactivate do not disturb from kicking in. But I might be, hopefully understandably, a tad bit annoyed if you call me during my beauty sleep for anything unimportant.”

“Completely understandable. While I have an override link for all my colleagues, I will remind them to deactivate it as well, we might not be able to afford the time loss in an emergency. Well, thanks for the conversation, and thanks for the data. I hope things get better quickly, but now I need to return to my job. Good bye Mr. Tarson.”

“Good bye. And I also hope that things get better quickly. Why does something like that need to happen while I am on vacation?”

Mitko laughed and ended the call.

Lucas sighed, and saw that he had a new email. In it was, as expected, the link to which he should send his Data. After he did that, he continued testing the patients. It was boring, time-consuming, but not particular difficult work. After he had finished, he saw a new email, with the correct procedure to share his data.

He then called the nearest doctor in this hospital: “I am finished here for now. Considering I am no true doctor, what should I do now?”

“Hm, lets get you first through decontamination. After that, I believe you might sserve as an interface between us and your doctors. We just do not have the knowledge, tools, or even authorisation to really talk to them. You however have, to a certain degree, and you as a layman might be just what we need to get the knowledge from your doctors, while getting our knowledge to them. But that is just speculation. By the way, what are you doing normally?”

“Testing and developing neural interfaces. Can be a fairly fun job, but is, on occasion, incredibly dangerous. I went through infantry training, but that was a few years ago, and I did not really keep up with the required skills. Still, in an emergency, I can fight. And I was part of the first wave, so the training I had was a bit more advanced than you might expect. But that does not mean I am an expert, and I would be crap at crowd control, which is the most likely thing you would need a soldier for. But for now, I want to get through this, eat a nice meal that will not kill me, and then see look at my holidays and say my good byes to them. Because I guess I will not see a whole lot of free time in the future, and if I do not volunteer, well, I can always be deployed officially… Excuse my rambling, this is shit for me too. Although, a lot less than for your species. It is unlikely that I am infected, after all.”

“I completely understand. Ok, now please step into here…”, the doctor continued giving instructions, while Lucas Tarson did his best to follow them. Which was not always easy, considering that even if both species looked very similar, there were differences. Luckily, the differences were minor enough that the procedure could be adjusted with relative ease.

After the decontamination was done, he did what he had proclaimed. Just for the record, the hospital food was not terrible. Not great, but what did you expect?”

During the next two days, a lot of things were found out about the illness. First, it was deadly, and the death rate was devastatingly high, in fact, over 55% of all infected died. Of the survivors, over 30% would retain permanent health issues, at least that was what the simulations had shown. Most of the rest would need care for the next few days, after the illness had run its course. In just these two days, the healthcare system of Kas’Aron was at its breaking point. And then there was the final issue. The incubation time had been roughly 30 days before the first symptoms, and a carrier was at the latest 24 hours after infection infectious. Which meant that most of the planet was affected, for certain. Which also brought with it the unique problem of requiring every community to isolate, while many of those being unable to feed themselves. And those communities, where the illness began appearing, well, the doctors were ill, too. The UE did its part, but it was not nearly enough. Kad’Nagarth was feeling this the most, considering it was now clear that it had been the centre of the outbreak, but it was far from the only city. And Kas’Nagarth had at least some automatic medical facilities, which helped. But it was to big of a city. So it was not nearly enough. The UE, after being asked by the government concentrated on finding a cure, because that was the best use of the ressources it had available.

Over these next two days, he was mostly deployed as an interface between the slowly growing UE Taskforce and the Kar’Netra. But then, there were rumours of disappearances in the poorer parts of the city. The government of Kas’Aron could not risk what little manpower it had, the situation was already nearly out of control, but these rumours would need to be checked. This, sadly, was mainly necessary because the fear existed that those people in the poorer parts of the city were breaking quarantine.

And thus, Lucas Tarson was tasked with establishing if the quarantine had been broken, and if no, to figure out who was taking advantage of the chaos. Well, at least he got a gun from the UE arsenal, as well as a bit of body armour, so if someone decided to attack him, he would not be helpless. On the other side, he did not get a partner, which would normally be considered to be the absolute basic thing he should get.

And thus he began walking towards the poorer sections of the city after equipping himself, including a backpack full with the essentials of life, for an out of contact scenario. Which sadly was not too unlikely.