Author's Note: I have taken care to do research for this chapter, for information pertaining to John's medical condition and the relative treatments. I have tried not to deviate from the information I found, but if anyone with medical knowledge finds errors here, please accept my apologies. There are times of course, when we compromise reality for the sake of our art, but I will endeavour not to do that unnecessarily.

DOCTOR ROSE DEACON

SURGEON, GDF FLYER GOLIATH

PERSONAL

I had to request Colonel Casey to intervene in order to keep Miss Kyrano out of my sickbay. I have been aware of her presence before on board various GDF ships, working with Captain Rigby and others. Fortunately, she has never been a patient of mine…although I suspect I came close to becoming a patient myself whilst trying vainly to persuade her to leave the room so that I could get on with helping Mister Tracy. The Colonel succeeded in calming Miss Kyrano down with just a few soft words and a hand to the shoulder.

If I had tried to touch her shoulder, I had the distinct impression she would have bitten my hand off. Yes, she was angry.

I know, she wasn't angry as such, but extremely scared and worried about her adoptive brother, and I suspect she is not accustomed to dealing with emotions such as fear. So, for Kayo Kyrano, fear presents as anger.

I gave her as much reassurance as I could, once I had Mister Tracy on the table. We will do our very best for him, but he is a very, very sick young man.

He is in a sepsis coma, so I currently have him on high doses of antibiotics, administered intravenously; his blood pressure is frighteningly low, so he is undergoing treatment to raise his blood pressure. In the meantime, he has started to show signs of organ failure. We have him on a ventilator and kidney dialysis. We are standing by with the heart machine as well, but I am hoping .we can pull him back before it gets that far.

Now he is thus stabilised, we need to work on his shoulder. He is not really strong enough to undergo lengthy surgery, but we do urgently need to debride his wound, because this is where the infection started, and the antibiotics will be only delaying the inevitable if the source of the infection is not dealt with.

I am relieved to find that the bullet, still lodged in his shoulder, is intact. I had been concerned that it may have shattered, or even moved through his body, which has been known. It is lodged in his shoulder-bone, which will need to be re-built, but that will have to wait. John Tracy is not nearly strong enough to withstand that kind of treatment yet. Perhaps in a few days. He is not moving until he awakens from his coma in any case.

If he does.

We have done everything we can for John Tracy for the moment, so we keep up the drug treatments and wait to see if he responds. I have hopes that he will recover, considering fact that he is otherwise an extremely healthy and fit young man without any other underlying conditions to cause complications.

I have given the Colonel my report. I know she will be completely honest with the family and give them the news exactly as it is.

I rely on her for that. Speaking to relatives is often one of the hardest parts of my job, and one that I do not relish when the news is not good. In this case, since she is particularly close to the Tracy family, she has insisted on acting directly on their behalf.

I hope I can give her some good news soon.