Character Perspective: Mendez

“Keep up and stay together you three, it’s extremely easy to get lost down here,” Dr. McFarlane said as she continued her trek forward.

Classes had gone into full swing this morning and after a basic physical training session the moment we woke up, we had been thrown right into the thick of it. Basic ship maintenance was okay, I guess at least, but altogether boring but my medical specialty class? That’s what I was really looking forward to.

Dr. Kathleen McFarlane, as she had introduced herself to us, was waiting immediately outside of the Tyson building following our mornin classes and quickly scooped up myself and the Docs from the MEGALODON and DRAKE, and without even a moment past her own personal introduction was marching her way to a drop-lift in the administration building.

Tucked away behind the front lobby was a hallway that lead to a rather spacious elevator that quickly took us down deeper into the station. As soon as the doors opened, I found that we were in a somewhat cramped but long hallway, and we were all finding ourselves partially jogging just to keep up with the spry older lady.

When she finally slowed down outside of a pair of doors with a Red Cross emblazoned on it, the three of us all had to take a moment to rest. She had us quickly introduce ourselves, using the opportunity to pin medical badges onto our uniform collars. The pin felt heavy and a small red light at the center of the cross seemed to be fading and glowing in and out steadily.

“Now, beyond these doors is the station medical facility and where you three will spend much of your time outside of your shipboard classes. Your upperclassmen all work here as well as the best practice for medical staff is hands-on,” she explained, pushing a pair of square glasses up as they slid down her nose. “Including myself, we have five fully trained doctors staffed here. The two that you all will often interact with are Dr. Hayes who generally works as the station lead for the late night shift and Dr. King who is the station’s Chief of Medical and I advise you follow any instructions he gives you with utmost care. Dr. Grayson and Dr. Myers will also be on hand however their main priorities are to the station crew and are not necessarily instructors.”

“Wait, aren’t you our teacher though?” A darker skinned girl with the name “Quinones” sewn into her uniform asked as she scribbled something into a small yellow notebook she had had open from the moment we met the doctor.

“I am indeed. I act as the stations medical instructor as well as the primary surgeon. As accidents do happen up here, primarily in the Zero-G Shipyard, we often find ourselves pulled in multiple different directions and thus having multiple trained doctors provides those of you still learning how to treat injuries and other issues in these environments multiple resources,” Dr. McFarlane explained with a knowing smile. “Even the upperclassmen must have one of us present during on site evaluations due to liability issues with the station staff, but that’s not to say you also can’t learn a great deal from them as well.”

“Understood Doc,” Quinones nodded and scribbled another line into her notebook.

“Schedules for Medical will be set at the beginning of each quarter and you will each be assigned a second year mentor, this is standard procedure and when you are all second years, you will each be assigned a first year and so on and so forth. Your senior mentor will remain your senior mentor until such time as they graduate, you gain just as much from training someone below you as you do learning,” she explained further before turning toward the door and stepping onto a small pad directly in front of it, causing the doors to slide open with a quick whoosh. We followed her in to a room that immediately reminded me of a ground care center.

“Dios Mio,” I found myself muttering as I looked around. While the inside was sterile white with treatment beds surrounded by curtains lining either side of the long room up to a desk, the windows behind the beds was what had drawn my attention. “Is that the Shipyard out there?” I asked as we followed in.

“It is indeed. The windows allow for various signaling panels to be activated within our line of site along with the radio communications. Two factors to alert us in case we need to dispatch emergency services,” Dr. McFarlane said as she led us past various other students in uniforms that looked much like ours but with a rainbow of trim colors. “May, Bradley, Jackson, with me,” she called out and three other students seemed to perk up and followed behind us as we were all led to the desk where another student was currently sitting at a workstation.

She then assigned each of them to one of us, with Jackson, a stockier guy with a somewhat scruffy beard sitting on his face and hair that was pulled back in what looked like a bun, being assigned as my senior mentor.

“Now, for today I expect your mentors to give you a basic lay of the land and tour of the facilities here. You will all also be instructed in the use of the Medical priority lifts and their locations around the station. Tomorrow we will meet here in the back instruction room for the actual beginning of classes, but for today that will be all,” she said and circled to the back of the desk and taking a seat next to the senior student.

“Whatcha wanna see first?” Jackson asked me as the others seemed to break off and he turned back toward the front of the hall.

“Pues… I want to see the Zero-G Shipyard honestly but that might now be exactly on the tour list you got… does it?” I asked as my eyes darted back to the windows.

“We do gotta see the Medical Lifts and I have to show you the operations for them, guess that’s where we could head,” Jackson shrugged and waved me forward past the medical beds and closed curtains. “Most of your initial work down here is just gonna be in general sick call, giving out basic meds for whatever the station staff is complaining about to get an extra day off, you know how it goes,” he shrugged as we passed through the doors.

“People still actually get sick up here? Ain’t this place like, super sterilized and controlled?” I asked and he just shrugged again.

“They’ve been trying to get rid of the common cold for centuries, shit just keeps evolving,” he said. “I think it’s cause they don’t screen the mechanics and station staff well enough though and they change out a lot more frequently. Fact is, once those bugs got up here, they’ve just lingered in some way or another forever, least that’s what Deleon told me when I asked that same question to him last year.”

“Guessing he’s your mentor then?” I asked.

“Yeah, last year I was stuck to his hip of course during his on call schedule but this year I just meet up with him twice a week. So you just get to be stuck with me for now, let me know if I’m acting like too much of an ass, willya? I’ve been told I can be a bit… short,” he explained as he stopped in front of a pair of doors and tapped the emblem on his collar with the doors sliding open. “That pin on your collar will activate any Medical Lift on the station and it’s the only way to get these one’s going so that they aren’t clogged up with staff moving to sleeping quarters or the mess halls,” he added.

“What is our schedule then?” I asked as I followed him into the lift, and he hit a button with a ship icon on it.

“This quarter I am on the early afternoon shift, 12-1600, so we generally have to deal with “scrap call”,” Jackson responded as the lift started to hum and drop. “Basically it’s like sick call but for bumps, bruises, and mild scratches. The auto-stitcher is one of the most frequent tools in our belt for that because for some reason people always get themselves injured or nearly cut off a hand right after lunch time,” he laughed.

“Órale, you’ve seen a hand nearly cut off?” I asked curiously. I had of course seen a lot of simulated injuries and worked with “flesh-like” training tools but working with actual people was its own mountain I had yet to fully climb.

“I didn’t get to shadow or work on it, but I’ve seen an entire arm ripped off up here. The Shipyard has a ton of regulations but dealing with that kind of equipment and working in a Zero-G space with that kind of equipment can become incredibly dangerous if you are lax for even a moment,” he explained. “But it’s also the only way to construct these ships that works,” he added as he first grabbed a pouch on the side of his belt that I hadn’t noticed and retrieved a mask like device that was connected to the pouch by a long clear tube. He then opened a panel on the side of the elevator and handed me a similar looking one. “Put this on, I’m sure Dr. McFarlane will give you guys your own personal devices later but in case you forget it in the break room, there’s always a few spares in every medical lift.”

I looked at the bag curiously but just shrugged and slipped the mask over my face as a red light began blinking at the top of the elevator.

“Now entering Deoxygenated Levels,” a robotic voice warned.

“FYI, the lifts decompress only when you hit the open door button once we have reached the level we intend to exit on. The shipyard opens to free space so it is rather impossible to have normal airflow in there,” he explained before I could even ask. The elevator slowed to a stop with a ding and a green light surrounding the “open door” button started to blink. “Well let’s go see it, just… don’t go floating off anywhere, I sure as hell don’t want to get in trouble for losing my mentee on the first day,” he said with a laugh and pressed the button.