Tauren Invasion Snippet 4

 

Chapter 4

 

TauG9-77

 

“My such a fuss!”Admiral Richards said in a mock dismay voice as the black bear cub continued tosquall. “What's all the hubbub about, bub?” she asked in a teasing voice.

She winced whenthe bear cub squalled again and then looked about him blearily. Bear cubs couldbe extremely loud like this little fellow. He was complaining at being handledand probably the parlous state of his stomach.

He was clearlydehydrated and would not take to a bottle. According to the report his motherhad been found dead in her home. He was half the normal weight for a cub hisage. According to the report his stool had splinters of wood, cloth, and bitsof carpet in it. Not much there to eat in his room apparently.

She watched aNeodog nurse cuddle with the bear cub, walking him around and trying to soothhim as she checked the contents of his stomach and intestinal track with anX-ray scan. She sighed in relief after a moment; it was clean of debris andobstructions. “Well, that's a relief.”

She turned backto see that the nurse had even gotten the little guy to suckle. She smiled atthe glow of pleasure from the dog. The cub seemed to take to the bottleurgently.

“How did youmanage that?”

“I dabbed alittle honey on the tip and warmed the bottle. He liked the sweet flavor apparently,”the nurse murmured. She looked around. “We need a rocker,” she said.

Helen nodded.“Pediatrics, where this little guy belongs, at least as long as we're here,”she said.

“Yes, ma’am. Willhe be going down to the planet?”

“As soon as theyfind someone to take care of him,” Helen replied as she finished writing up herreport. “Weight daily. Keep an eye on how much he eats. Stool cultures daily,especially if there are any signs of infection.”

“Yes doctor.”

“Watch for gas,”the admiral said as she went on to the next patient.

That was the nicething about visiting worlds; she was getting plenty of practice with differentspecies. There were three groundside medical sites set up. They were shiftedevery ten days. The public was continuously informed about the sites. So fareverything was looking good though, no signs of the plagues.

That was arelief.

She left the ledlined X-ray suite and moved past the isolation room and then on to the nextbay.

The planet wasagricultural in nature, but they'd recently suffered a series of miningaccidents. Apparently with contact with the Federation, the planet's industryhad re-opened some of the mines. They had run into problems though.

A rash ofaccidents had been a major concern and a reason to invest in safety measuresand training. The crude air compressed chisels in the mines were known aswidow-makers for a reason. And explosives were dangerous, black powder evenmore so when not handled properly.

Silica dust wasanother big problem and not just for the miners. It got on their clothes andnot only caused respiratory issues with them but also their family.

Half of Site Bwas dealing with the respiratory issues while also dealing with injuries andlosses in hearing. She made a note to look into finding a way for the nativesto use hearing protection.

“An ounce ofprevention is worth a pound of cure,” she muttered.

“So, what do wehave here?” she asked, stopping at a bay where a man was sitting on the edge ofthe bed. Only the worst cases were sent up to the ship.

“Pineapple bitme,” the guy said a little too loudly. “You really feel it in your chest,” hesaid and then began to cough.

She eased himback into his seat. He was missing some fingers on one hand and had a badlymangled arm. The wounds were months old. Someone hadn't set the bones right.

“I can't lift thegear,” he said over and over.

She shook herhead. She'd seen a picture of the air chisels after she'd asked how some of theinjuries had been done. They were fifty kilogram monsters that frequently brokedown. It was very gritty dangerous work.

“We'll fix youup,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. She looked to the ward nurse andthen went over to consult with Doctor Bently. He quietly pointed out that theywere going to surgically repair the bone and brace it. His hearing could berepaired but what was the point if he was going to go back in and destroy itagain?

“No clonedtissue,” he said with a frown. “We don't have the time to do the fingers,mores' the pity.”

“Straightenwhat's left, fix the eyes and hearing and ribs,” Helen said. “Do what you can.Triage,” she murmured.

“Yes, ma’am,” hesaid with a nod.

“Do the hearing.When he recovers, make sure someone gives him information about hearingprotection.”

“I doubt he canread. But we'll give it a go, ma'am.”

“Good,” she said,patting him on the arm before moving on.

It was like thatall over the ship and at the ground stations. Fortunately, they didn't have todeal with the plagues this time, so work like this was a welcome change.

She made a swing throughtwo more wards and then checked out the cloning tanks.

The cloning tankswere reserved for critical organs since their time was limited. That meanthearts, lungs, livers and so on. One cloning bank was for making blood andblood components. Another for skin and muscle grafts. It still amused her thatthey had to explain that they needed to take blood and other samples in orderto make it. The people were ignorant but settled down once you patiently gavethem knowledge.

She looked up toa line and frowned as she read it. The lettering was a bit flaky. LOX, LiquidOxygen. The LOX and liquid nitrogen were being fed into the equipment in theICU and surgery suite where they would be converted into usable forms for thepatients. She made a mental note to ask about the painting.

LOX was notsomething to be played around with. It was stored and run through an evaporatorto be turned back into a gas. But it was very flammable and explosive. Everypiece of equipment was marked and the machinery sealed to prevent a sparkreaching the materials within. If a compartment had a fire, it went intolockdown and vented to space to kill the fire.

“Ma'am, we havean issue with the water filtration at site C. The mayor in the town is givingour people a hard time about it,” Florence reported.

“They don't wantit anymore?”

“No, they do.They are replacing pipe that had scale and crap. The water is not potable. Theproblem is that they want the shuttle to remain past the scheduled lift-offtime.”

She frowned. “Howmuch of a delay are we talking about?”

“Indefinite,” theA.I. replied. “And yes, I told them that isn't going to work. They said they'dappeal to the governor.”

“Go ahead. Thoseare navy shuttles.”

“There is talk ofa sit-in. I believe they want us to offload the equipment.”

“Not going tohappen,” She replied with a shake of her head. “We need that gear.”

Some of theshuttles could filter water and even provide power to a given area. But it wasa temporary fix.

“They are alsogiving us flack about material.”

Helen sighed. “Ofcourse they are.”

Due to ignorance,most people just didn't understand how the replicators worked. They weretantamount to magic. They didn't care how they worked; they just expectedresults. They didn't understand that you need material to use as a substrate inorder to turn it into the object you wanted to replicate.

“Call the mayor,”she said as she strode into her office.

“Done. He'sonline now, ma'am.”

“Mayor … Garcetiis it? This is Admiral Richards.”

“Finally! Someonewho knows what they are doing! I've been telling your people I need thatequipment to stay in place!”

“I understandthat. You have to understand our time on your world is limited. Our time inyour region is limited. Other areas need help and support too.”

“Not as badly aswe do!”

“Sir, twolocations on this world have been hit by hurricanes. Thousands lost their homesand have no access to fresh water or power.”

“That is theirproblem.”

“No, it iseveryone's problem; otherwise, people start dying,” Helen said with a frown.She wished she could see him. Then again, maybe not, at the moment she wantedto ring his neck. “Now, have you put an order in for a new filtration plant?”

“We have. Butthere is a delay.”

She inhaled andexhaled. “Okay? So, are you looking at alternatives?”

“Your people saidtheir engineers can whip some parts up with a replicator or a small filterplant.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, but theyneed material they said. I don't have it!” he said peevishly.

She shook herhead. “Mister Mayor, it doesn't all come from the press of a magic button. Westill have to adhere to physics.”

“And that means?”

“Simply put,energy can't be created or destroyed, just transformed. The same for matter. Wedon't create it from thin air. We take matter and convert it into what isneeded.”

“I still don'tunderstand.”

“Okay, simpleexample, a chair. You want the chair made out of, oh, wood.”

“Okay.”

“You feed thereplicator power for the machinery and nanites and wood. The machinery takesthe wood, and the nanites turn it into the chair according to the design youchose.”

“Oh.”

There was a longpause. Her lips pursed as she hoped he was finally catching on.

“The same if itwas made out of metal or other things.”

“You said ittakes energy,” he said.

“The machinerytakes energy to run to process the material. Energy is needed to power themachinery to grind the material up. Energy is needed to power the nanites andthe containment fields.”

“Oh. I thinkthat's good,” Mayor Garceti said.

“I do too.”

“So, when can youdo it? You can have your shuttle back when we get it.”

Her eyesnarrowed. “I hope you didn't just threaten to hold a naval shuttle and crewhostage, sir,” she said sternly. “We take a very dim view of such things. I canand will take action,” she warned.

“Ah, no, not whatI meant,” the mayor said hastily.

“You provide thematerial to our people. We'll get you a basic filter system. We have blueprintsfor simple bush filter systems. You'll need to change the filters often butthat should get you through this crisis until your new system is back online.”

“Okay, yeah, Iguess that works.”

“Find thematerial and get back to my engineers with it. They have a list.”

“Okay, okay.Fine. Geesh,” the guy said and then hung up.

Helen shook herhead.

“Some people,”Florence sniffed. Helen snorted and then went back to work.

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