Chapter 4: Plague-like symptoms
"Excuse me, Doctor Right?" Amyus Right looked up from the printed message in his hand.
"Yes, Nurse Matsugae?"
"I'm sorry to disturb you, sir, but we've got thirteen people in the waiting room with the same symptoms - intense hunger, dizziness, trouble breathing, and nine of them say they've lost weight in the last two days. Why, is there something wrong?"
Iriina Matsugae had been a floor nurse for nearly forty years, and she had seldom seen doctors look so scared. Worried, plenty of times, especially the doctors who knew their patients well, or were sensitive, but not scared.
"Show me," he demanded, still holding the printed message.
She led him quickly down to the emergency room where a number of people were having trouble breathing, gasping for air. One was coughing blood into a bowl.
A nurse in stained surgical scrubs came running in and skidded on a freshly mopped bit of tiled floor. "Sorry," she bounced off a wall and kept going like a champion. "Doctor Right? We've got five kids in the pediatric ward with the same symptoms, and I just got a call from a friend at the twenty-six hour centre on the other side of the city. He's got six people in with the same symptoms. He wants to know what special drugs to prescribe and if we know any more than he does."
"Actually, yes. Maysie! Maysie Kellinger, give me that phone." He grabbed the phone of the secretary who had been complaining to the hospital's bread supplier about mould. "Hey, that's important!"
"So's this." He dialled frantically. "Yes, I need to speak to Captain Santiago right now." He covered the spearker. "Maysie, contact every doctor on the staff with experience in epidimiology and call in all volunteer staff for an emergency briefing. Yes, I need to speak to him right now, and it's an emergency," he said the last sentence into the phone. "I don't care if he's Mercury getting a suntan, you can get him on the phone for me."
"What's going on, Right?" The portly Doctor D'Urville, head of the Emergency Medical Centre, looked extremely irate.
Right wordlessly handed over the crumpled piece of paper. "Yes, Captain Santiago? This is Doctor Right at Midgard General. I've got nineteen people with identical symptoms and six more at the other twenty-four hour place across town. Oh, make that twenty-two - three more just walked in the door. Yes, that's twenty-eight total. Dizziness, difficulty breathing and intense hunger. You wanted to know about people with… hold on a second."
The elderly man who had been coughing up blood had fallen to the floor and started to convulse. Nurses and doctors converged on the man like flies to a carcass, calling instructions and demands, but within thirty seconds the man was no longer breathing.
"Are you still there, Doctor Right?" Came the voice from the speaker.
"Yes. One of our patients just died in our lobby." Right waited. "Alright. I'll pass the word. If we just quarantine… they did WHAT?"
Everyone turned to look except for the staff administering recussitation.
"What?" Another pause. "Oh, hell. D'Urville! C'mere." He lowered his voice. "The military wants to declare a quarantine."
"This building is the city's largest hospital - we can't do that!"
"Not on the hospital. On the planet. This bloke thinks the Kangas dropped a biological weapon on us. He sent that call out to report any plague-like symptoms, numbers of similar symptoms… I think this qualifies." A group of people burst through the doors carrying a young woman on a board. She would have been pretty, except for the way her face was turning blue and she was gasping for air, clawing at her chest.
"We need a doctor!" One of them called, then looked around and paled. "Oh, Allah be merciful."
"Fat chance of that," Right muttered. "Call in the quarantine, D'Urville."
"Excuse me, Doctor Right?" Amyus Right looked up from the printed message in his hand.
"Yes, Nurse Matsugae?"
"I'm sorry to disturb you, sir, but we've got thirteen people in the waiting room with the same symptoms - intense hunger, dizziness, trouble breathing, and nine of them say they've lost weight in the last two days. Why, is there something wrong?"
Iriina Matsugae had been a floor nurse for nearly forty years, and she had seldom seen doctors look so scared. Worried, plenty of times, especially the doctors who knew their patients well, or were sensitive, but not scared.
"Show me," he demanded, still holding the printed message.
She led him quickly down to the emergency room where a number of people were having trouble breathing, gasping for air. One was coughing blood into a bowl.
A nurse in stained surgical scrubs came running in and skidded on a freshly mopped bit of tiled floor. "Sorry," she bounced off a wall and kept going like a champion. "Doctor Right? We've got five kids in the pediatric ward with the same symptoms, and I just got a call from a friend at the twenty-six hour centre on the other side of the city. He's got six people in with the same symptoms. He wants to know what special drugs to prescribe and if we know any more than he does."
"Actually, yes. Maysie! Maysie Kellinger, give me that phone." He grabbed the phone of the secretary who had been complaining to the hospital's bread supplier about mould. "Hey, that's important!"
"So's this." He dialled frantically. "Yes, I need to speak to Captain Santiago right now." He covered the spearker. "Maysie, contact every doctor on the staff with experience in epidimiology and call in all volunteer staff for an emergency briefing. Yes, I need to speak to him right now, and it's an emergency," he said the last sentence into the phone. "I don't care if he's Mercury getting a suntan, you can get him on the phone for me."
"What's going on, Right?" The portly Doctor D'Urville, head of the Emergency Medical Centre, looked extremely irate.
Right wordlessly handed over the crumpled piece of paper. "Yes, Captain Santiago? This is Doctor Right at Midgard General. I've got nineteen people with identical symptoms and six more at the other twenty-four hour place across town. Oh, make that twenty-two - three more just walked in the door. Yes, that's twenty-eight total. Dizziness, difficulty breathing and intense hunger. You wanted to know about people with… hold on a second."
The elderly man who had been coughing up blood had fallen to the floor and started to convulse. Nurses and doctors converged on the man like flies to a carcass, calling instructions and demands, but within thirty seconds the man was no longer breathing.
"Are you still there, Doctor Right?" Came the voice from the speaker.
"Yes. One of our patients just died in our lobby." Right waited. "Alright. I'll pass the word. If we just quarantine… they did WHAT?"
Everyone turned to look except for the staff administering recussitation.
"What?" Another pause. "Oh, hell. D'Urville! C'mere." He lowered his voice. "The military wants to declare a quarantine."
"This building is the city's largest hospital - we can't do that!"
"Not on the hospital. On the planet. This bloke thinks the Kangas dropped a biological weapon on us. He sent that call out to report any plague-like symptoms, numbers of similar symptoms… I think this qualifies." A group of people burst through the doors carrying a young woman on a board. She would have been pretty, except for the way her face was turning blue and she was gasping for air, clawing at her chest.
"We need a doctor!" One of them called, then looked around and paled. "Oh, Allah be merciful."
"Fat chance of that," Right muttered. "Call in the quarantine, D'Urville."