Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer) (62 page)

She woke at lunch, feeling much better. Her appetite improved, so
did her insistence on going to the bathroom on her own. She ignored the jibes
about how doctors make the worst patients as she stiffly walked back to her bed
on her own. She climbed in with a groan and then settled. “There's nothing
wrong with my body, just my head. It needed exercise.”

“True,” the admiral replied with a smile. “I'm glad your motor
skills are okay. We were concerned.”

“Problems?” Helen asked, getting settled under the sheet.

“No, remarkably not one. Sprite and Proteus did a good job. You we
were most worried about, since you went first. We learned from the experience.”

“Good,” Helen replied. “I need something to do. Something
productive.”

“I don't know about that just yet. I still need to finish
initializing your implants,” Sprite said.

“Which you can do. I can key stuff now?”

“As soon as I finish that yes,” Sprite replied from the admiral's
arm.

“Then I can key a machine to work on something then go to sleep
right?”

“A good idea,” the AI responded. “I have a short list. If the
admiral will jack in to the doctor?”

The admiral in question hesitated. “Is there any problems with
swelling? If I jack in so soon?”

“She's on enough anti-inflammatory medications to stomp out a
forest fire admiral.”

“Funny.”

“I'll be fine,” Helen growled. “Get it rolling.” Her eyes closed.

“Okay.”

The admiral jacked in. He could feel Sprite as her mental presence
ran through the connection into the doctor. The doctor stiffened a bit, feeling
something, a tickle, an electric shock run through her. “Sorry. Implant is
initialized. I have uploaded the relevant data and adjusted the ident package.
Keys are uploading now doctor,” Sprite informed her. “In order to use them you
will need to pass a medical board test.”

“Lovely,” Helen replied. “And I didn't study.”

“It's not just about knowing the medical knowledge, it is also how
you are willing to use it. Ethics,” Sprite replied.

“All right.”

“You'll do fine, just be honest, don't lie. Lie and it's bad.”

“And If I don't pass?”

“Doctor will you be willing to use nanites to destroy a person?”
Sprite asked.

“No!” Helen said, eyes bursting open. “Of course not!”

“Then I assume you won't use nanites to destroy a world?”

“No!”

“Then you've passed that test based on your read outs. Admiral, I
have to be the one to administer the test so you better get comfortable. This
will take time.”

“Will I have to do this with each of them?” he asked.

“Yes,” Sprite said simply as she pulled up the relevant tests.
“All right doctor, in view of your still healing implants we'll use a tablet to
visualize the questions. If that is okay with you?”

“Yes, let's do it,” she sighed.

“Which we need,” Sprite said to the admiral. He grunted and picked
a tablet up off the small table nearby. He could just barely reach it with the
jack tethering him to the doctor. She smiled as he stretched for it.

“You know you could ask for a nurse.”

“No, I got it,” he said, tipping the tablet off the table then
catching it as it fell. “See?” he said as she smiled. He handed it to her.

 She put it in her lap, holding it with both hands. An IV went
from her left hand to medication bags above and behind her. “Okay, now, what?”
she asked.

“I am uploading the questions now. Be advised I will be monitoring
your thought patterns as you answer them,” Sprite replied.

“Oh.”

“And I can take a nap,” Irons grunted, sitting back in the chair,
crossing his legs, and placing his left hand in his lap. “Or at least try to.”

“Shh,” Helen said softly, typing. He snorted and closed his eyes.

...*...*...*...*...

The next morning he woke to find Helen asleep, hand slipped away
from the tablet that was lying face down on top of her. “Is she okay?” he asked
quietly.

“She's fine. A bit of a headache.”

“Is there more?”

“No, she passed,” Sprite said. He stretched slowly. “Had a nice
nap?” Sprite asked, sounding amused. “So much for two hour power naps,” she
teased.

“Whatever. I take it you and Proteus put the time to good use even
if I didn't?”

“I wouldn't denigrate getting some downtime as bad admiral. And
yes, Proteus managed to resupply all nanites, through your material reserves
have been emptied out. You need to ingest or absorb more soon.”

“Make a note.”

“Already did. I left a note for the doctor, you can unjack and go
get some breakfast.”

“Good.”

“Let her sleep until she wakes,” Sprite said as they quietly
exited the doctor's room. The nurse standing nearby stared at him. The admiral
turned to show his right arm. A holo of Sprite's head appeared. “Doctor
Richards needs to sleep herself out.”

“Okay,” the nurse said dutifully.

“Her vitals are within normal parameters. She's had additional
swelling and may wake with a migraine again. If so I suggest the doctor look
into a better analgesic. If she inquires about us please let her know I'm
making the admiral go eat and get his chores done.”

The nurse snorted and smiled suddenly, eyes glinting in humor as
the admiral rolled his eyes. “Go on then,” she said waving. “I'm just glad we
didn't have to break the bed side leech bat out.”

“Yeah well, the good news is Doctor Richards is done. The bad news
is I get to do that again with each of the others,” the admiral replied. The
nurse frowned. “But not right away,” he said as his stomach growled.

She snorted and shooed him out.

...*...*...*...*...

The admiral picked up the news as he picked through breakfast.
What he heard made for grim listening, to many it would have disrupted their
appetite. He however needed to refuel. Even through the food he had picked from
the food replicator had a metallic taste to it. Apparently Sprite had dosed the
pancakes with a liberal doses of selenium and other materials to supplant his
material reserves.

He made the rounds in the warehouses, then got an idea and picked
up a portable medical replicator. It was mostly a shell, the actual nanites
would have to wait until a medic could initialize them. But that could happen
now, he thought, loading it, some cable, and a few odds and ends on a cart and
then pushing it out and back to the hospital.

He got a few odd looks pushing the cart, but managed to ignore
them. Getting the cart up the stairs would have been a problem had he not had
gravitics. He took a firm grip with both hands on either side of the cart and
then initialized the gravitics as he looked up.

“Up, up, and away, Sprite teased as he rose. He heard a woman gasp
but just smiled as he maneuvered around the spiral stairs through the center
hole and up to the ICU ward's floor.

He landed with a slight thump and then pushed the metal fire door
open, pulling the cart with him.

“Shhh!” a nurse admonished him, waving frantically as he made a
clattering noise.

“Sorry,” he replied softly, trying to keep the thing from tipping
over as he got it over the threshold and into the hall.

“What is that?” she demanded, coming over.

“Medical replicator its' something for Doctor Richards.”

“Well, if you didn't wake the dead...” she sighed, shaking her
head and making a tisk, tisk sound, clutching her tablet to her chest.

“They'll be fine. Hopefully I didn't startle anyone.” He pushed
the cart over to the doctor's room and peeked in the window. Helen was looking
up sleepily. She stretched and then put her glasses on and hit the nurse
button. He snorted. Perfect timing. You better get her breakfast,” he said to
the nurse.

She looked, made a note, and then left with a slight sniff. He
snorted and entered.

“Hi doc,” he said.

“I've got to do something, just sitting here is killing me by
degrees,” the director said firmly. She grimaced at the IV.

“Funny you should mention that...” Irons said, pushing the door
open wider in order to get the cart in. She looked at it and then smiled.

...*...*...*...*...

A few hours later he was watching Helen play a game when Doctor
Zane, La Plaz, and nurse Joy entered her room.  Helen looked up with a frown
but kept working on her project. She'd quickly grasped her implants, she had
some computer experience so that made it a little easier for her.

A screen was in front of her, the others seemed upset over seeing
the director playing a game with yellow and blue icons instead of reading
papers or issuing orders.

That resentment and annoyance ended briefly when they realized she
was using her implants to control her side of the game. “What is she doing?”
Doctor Zane stage whispered to the admiral.

“Practicing,” Irons explained that games are a good way to learn
how to do things, they take the pressure off of the problem and make it
enjoyable. “We tend to learn things easier if we enjoy the process,” he told
the audience, giving them a once over. He'd spent his entire focus on Doctor
Richards, neglecting their progress. He'd have to remedy that soon.

“But that's still not getting us any closer to where we need to
be!”

“Ah, ye of little faith,” the admiral replied, pointing to a small
gray box nearby. A panel on the front was blinking.

“What's that?” Doctor Zane asked.

“A batch of vaccine,” Helen replied slowly, trying to focus. “The
admiral had me key up a medical replicator which that is. Now it's creating a
thousand doses of black pox vaccine.”

Zane blinked. He looked at La Plaz who shrugged.

“I know, it's not this strain, but it is a strain, the strain on
file. Something right now is better than nothing. We'll find some volunteers
and test it.”

“Here guinea pig, here guinea pig...” Zane replied with a lurking
chuckle. Helen snorted and then swore as she lost her concentration and the
game erupted into chaos before ending with a blaring red sign.

“Crap.”

“I guess that's not good?” Zane asked, glancing at the display. He
shot a look at Helen who was scowling. He winced slightly, feeling he had
something to do with that. He always could crack her up a bit, sometimes his
timing though...

“It happens,” the admiral replied. “Trying to multitask is hard.
Doing it with implants is even harder.”

“Yeah well, I wouldn't have lost it if someone hadn't distracted
me,” she said, giving Zane a dark look. He spread his hands. “Who me?” He asked
innocently.

“Yes, you,” she said, still glaring. “I can get that,” she jerked
her head to the replicator. “Up and practice. This is going to be important
soon. La Plaz you need to do this too?”

“The game?”

“It's a sim. Simulation actually,” the admiral replied. “The icons
are basic bots. You send directions to the bots.”

“Oh.”

“Practice for when you control nanites to take apart a virus,”
Sprite replied. Zane and La Plaz looked at her. “Can't you do that?”

She snorted. “I have some nanite control abilities but I was
purpose built for other tasks. Proteus can up to a point, but again, purpose
built. In its case for engineering tasks, not medical.”

“Oh.”

“So, why not build a medical AI?” Zane asked, wrinkling his nose.

“Don't get her started,” Helen sighed looking down and rubbing her
brow with one hand. She was starting to get one of those headaches again. “I
agree to some degree,” she said, looking up to Sprite. “And I agree it should
be voluntary. But a dumb AI may be a better option if your ethics are kicking
up. Something right now is better than nothing.”

“I'll... I'll think about it.” Sprite replied slowly.

“Please do Commander,” Doctor Richards replied.

...*...*...*...*...

Sprite conversed with Zane and Richards through their implants as
both an exercise, and a means of discretion. They talked about the chain of
command, both humans were getting sleep teaching when they found downtime to
rest. Zane was curious about the subject. As a civilian he had a vague concept
in mind, after all, Doctor Richards was his superior, but it was a bit
different with the various ranks and such in the military. “So do we bow or
something?”

“Salute. We'll work on that. Right now, it's not as important as
getting this bio-weapon handled.”

“Ah.”

“I was just wondering why he doesn't, well... why he's not um...”

“Why he doesn't take charge? He does to a point, but he's a key
holder. You can't dictate what to do and be on hand for that all the time. The
admiral is a hands on guy, a doer. He likes to get his hands dirty.”