Second Chances (88 page)

“Another teenager?”

“They are all we have. Most of the adults are doing other tasks or not medically trained or inclined,” Sandra said. At first they were stiff.

“You think I shouldn't be here. Stepping on your...turf?”

“Not at all,” Sandra said, taking her smock off the hat peg by the door and slipping it on. “That's not it at all,” she said.

“Then you are concerned over my abandonment of my patients,” the doctor replied in a resigned ton. “I knew it,” he muttered.

Sandra waved it off. “I consult all the time, Doctor. In fact, since you are here I'd appreciate your opinion on a few cases,” she indicated the ward. He nodded, expression changing to a polite mask.

As they walked he explained his patients were in good hands with his two nurses. She nodded.

As they made their way through the ward, they dropped into a professional demeanor as they checked over each of the patients. “You have a lot of amputees. Many of our people who suffered such injuries died,” the male doctor said.

“We've got a few field medics,” Sandra said. “Tina is the medic for the Mountain Village. She and Nicole did triage on this lot when they came in,” she said, indicating the six people who were still in the infirmary. One had a torso bite to his abdomen. He'd lost a lot of intestine and skin, so much they had thought he'd die several times. Infection, however, had been kept at bay. Sandra kept him in the infirmary because it was sterile and allowed her to treat the healing wound with ECM powder and skin grafts.

“It is remarkable that he is healing so well,” Doctor Schwartz murmured thoughtfully. “Skin grafts obviously.”

“And ECM. We're treating all the scar patients with that and stem cells to accelerate healing.”

“And is it working?”

“To some degree. Not as much as I would like,” Sandra admitted. “We may be missing something,” she said.

The Doctor frowned, but then thawed when Cassie brought in Tucker. “Is he yours?” the doctor asked as they left the ward.

“No, he's my little brother,” Cassie said. “We're out for a walk,” she said. She put the little guy down, but he immediately scowled and then climbed to his feet. He tottered a bit, clinging to her leg for support.

“For such a boy to look that well developed, you must not have any issue with nutrition or other problems,” Doctor Schwartz murmured, hunkering down. The tyke hid a bit behind his towering sister's leg until the doctor played a bit of peek-a-boo with him. That got him over his anxiety and into interest in the newcomer.

“Come on you little munchkin. Ester will want you back in a bit,” Cassie said, reaching down with both hands. Tucker looked up and then grabbed each pinky with a chubby hand. “He's got quite the grip,” Cassie mock gasped. She walked, bent over as the little guy walked with her.

“He is a very-well developed child. We are seeing such in our community but not on his level,” the male doctor said. “My compliments,” he said, nodding to Sandra.

Sandra smiled politely. “Thank you,” she said, bowing a nod in return of the compliment. “About the development....”

“So, you noticed it as well?”

Sandra nodded. “Yes. I'm recording it. I'm wondering where he's getting the energy now. Obviously the growth spurts are happening at night. I'm concerned about mental development though.”

“Cognitive functions are not impaired? We've had one case. Autism of some form, I'm not sure if it was due to malnutrition or an alien environmental factor we've overlooked.”

Sandra frowned at the dark tone and the use of the past tense. She didn't like the sound of that. “No, they are advanced as well,” she said cautiously. “Nutritionally he's fine, no sign of deformity...”

“I would suggest slowly starting him on solid foods if you haven't already. I know the rule of thumb is different...”

Sandra nodded. “He's already gotten his first set of teeth in,” she said, then winced in memory. “Believe me I
know
. He
bit
me nursing the first time over two months ago, and I scared him when I howled,” she said.

The doctor snorted in reply. “Have you...um, checked his feces? Run any lab tests you can and compare his intake to output?”

“You mean to see what level of calories he's burning? To see how his body is developing? That's a good idea,” Sandra mused as the doctor's face cleared.

------*------

“May I make a request of you?” Rabbi Weiss asked, sounding concerned but doubtful. He was followed into Mitch's office by his doctor.

“Shoot,” Mitch said. He waved for the men to be seated.

“Our community is small. Unfortunately, none came with a proper Torah that belonged to the synagogue. I had a small collection in my personal library but it burned to ash in a fire.”

Mitch nodded. “I'm sorry to hear that,” he said and then looked at the Jewish doctor. Both men looked absolutely serious about the situation. He tried to keep a grave face. “Here, let me look it up,” he said, accessing the computer database. Mitch looked up the files on Hebrew worship. He found they had them on file. “Which one?” he asked, looking up to the two men. “There seem to be a lot of Torahs,” he said, showing them the files.

“All?” Doctor Schwartz asked dubiously.

“But they aren't kosher,” the Rabbi argued.

“I don't understand,” Mitch said, now confused.

“They have to be written properly on deer skin. Calf skin is acceptable for the newer scrolls, but Torahs should be written on deer skin,” Rabbi Weiss explained.

Mitch frowned. “The closest thing we've got to that are great elk I think. They live in the mountains or northern herds. There may be caribou, I'm not sure,” he said shrugging. “You'd have to ask John or you can check with the other northern communities and trade.”

“I see.”

“I can supply you with the text. You can then copy it with...what did you say, kosher?” Mitch asked, pulling out his tablet and then accessing his files since his desktop was in use. He hadn't specified religious files, but apparently the team had included them. He found them with a word search, then pulled out a memory stick. He plugged it into a USB port and then copied the files to the drive. “This would be easier if I was plugged directly into the database,” he grumbled. “It's downloading now. You can view it...”

“Yes. A Sefer Torah must be handwritten with kosher ink and skins,” the Rabbi replied. “Gevil...” he murmured, looking concerned.

“Well, you can trade for the supplies you need if you don't have the materials and then do your best. I'm just supplying the text from my files,” Mitch said. The Rabbi nodded.

“I am not a scribe, but it will be a labor of love to do,” the Rabbi said, bowing slightly to Mitch. Mitch nodded back. “Hopefully my handwriting will be legible,” the Rabbi said, now sounding worried.

“I'm guessing that it has to be handwritten?” Mitch asked. He pulled the memory stick out and then handed it to the Rabbi.

The Rabbi took the device and then put it in his pocket. He nodded. “Handwritten, all five books of Moses. My thanks,” he said. Doctor Schwartz nodded.

“You're welcome gentlemen. Good luck with that,” Mitch said, shaking his head as the Rabbi and doctor withdrew.

------*------

Doctor Schwartz and Sandra narrowed down some of his communities more persistent gastrointestinal issues to water. “Proper water treatment. Dysentery's no joke,” Gunny Usher said when Rabbi Weiss requested trade for membrane water filters.

“We have been using plants and homemade charcoal, but obviously it isn't enough,” the Rabbi said.

“Are you using it individually or combining it with other methods like boiling?” Chief Roberts asked.

“Individual. Those most persistent cases come from those who are out in the field and stop to drink from a stream or river,” Weiss replied, wrinkling his nose. “The theory being that the parasites can't stay in flowing water,” he said.

“And that's not true,” Gunny Usher said. He looked over to Mitch. “Can you fix them up?”

The Rabbi turned expectantly to Mitch. Mitch nodded. “We have a basic care package. I can get you one of those and then we can work out what you need long term after that,” he said cautiously. The Rabbi nodded and smiled.

“Can you make enough for export to all the communities?” Gunny Usher asked. “I'd like some for my people as well.”

“If anyone is interested, we can work up a list and then start production once I have the materials to make them,” Mitch said. The Rabbi blinked. “Unfortunately, we're not quite up to
Star Trek
. We can't replicate something from nothing; we need the raw materials to get started.”

The Rabbi nodded. “Indeed. Energy cannot be created; it can only be transformed from one form to another or in this case material,” he said. “Wise.”

“I'm glad you think so,” Mitch said. “Others sometimes forget that,” he said, fighting to keep his voice even. “Some communities also want electrical power for various things including electrical fencing for self-protection, and lights. Do you have any ideas?”

“As a matter of fact I do...”

------*------

“So despite setting the alarms off and stinking Ducky's lab up to high heaven, it worked?” Mitch asked.

“I'm never going to live that down am I?” Vance asked wryly, one hand rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

“Even the ladies gave us hell,” Brian said, shaking his head. “Lisa said we both stank to high heaven. I'm in the dog house, and I didn't do anything,” he said in disgust.

“Right. Serves you both right for doing it indoors. But it worked?” Mitch asked.

Vance nodded. “Once we got the chemical formula figured out, sure. I've got Bob and Lisa rigging up smoke mortars and delivery systems now. We'll have them ready to install on each vehicle when it comes in. Rigging up the control wiring is a pain in the ass, but we'll figure it out.”

“And the good news is, now that we have a system, Bill assured me we can build it into new construction. No retrofitting,” Brian said.

“Good,” Mitch replied with a nod. “What about the lights and speakers?”

“Lights were easy. We've got them rigged, including spotlights. Speakers we've got sorted out. We'll have to refit the current vehicles, but once we've got it tested we'll be okay.”

“Okay. Sound FX chip?”

“That's....a bit of a problem. For now we're using a simple sound FX system, tones, klaxon, that sort of thing. We don't have the computer chips for FX chip production,” Brian replied.

Mitch nodded. “Gotcha.”

“Sam has the highest risk. He's had one bite; Ward lost a good piece of his quadricep when some sort of eel creature bit him in the creek. But you know about that,” Vance said, making a face.

Mitch nodded. Fortunately, or unfortunately when it came to Ward's bit of luck, it had happened on the road to Copper Town so Jackie had been able to fly out with the chopper and airlift the wounded man back to base. Sandra had stabilized him and then injected him with a cocktail of ECM powder and stem cells in order to try to rebuild the muscle. It was too early to tell if he'd regrow the lost muscle tissue, but it looked promising.

“Paul wanted a mortar system. I don't like the idea of a rocket delivery though, so we're looking into compressed air. The problem is, it takes a minute to get it set up.”

Mitch nodded. “And in the field you may not have a minute,” he said.

“Right. But we can't leave it pressurized all the time; that's an accident waiting to happen or a failure.”

“Right.”

“Right now they have guards on duty,” Vance said. “But every man on duty is one less working or driving.”

“What about that idea with raptor butter? Didn't Ducky or someone suggest it?” Mitch asked. They'd found that certain animals had scent glands in their thighs and anus. They rubbed a sticky jelly like substance all over plants to let other animals know they had been there. Hyenas were famous for it. It was an effective way to mark their territory.

Brian wrinkled his nose. “Boss, you really want to go out and collect some? Besides, Ducky told Paul, who told me, it'd be a bad idea. Real bad. As in, other predators and animals smelling it and thinking it's a threat or challenge.”

“Okay, pass,” Mitch said, shaking his head. “Keep on the smoke idea. But don't...,” he held up a finger.

“Set them off indoors or our ass is grass,” Vance said. Brian chuckled as Vance held his hand over his heart. “Lesson learned the hard way, boss,” Vance finished.

“Right. Go on with you then,” Mitch said, waving them out.

------*------

Mitch was a bit disappointed when the meeting broke up three days after Weiss joined them. Each of the home communities agitated for their people to come home and help with the work. The Southerners were battered by a series of storms. The Prairie had a close call after a thunderstorm sparked downspouts.

“Some things change, the more they stay the same,” Adam said in resignation, shaking his head.

Mitch nodded as they shook hands. There had been little or no progress on anything he'd hoped for except the agreement to barter to form the basic economy, and borders. A general exchange of information and help was tentatively agreed on, but no details emerged.