The Doctor Is.exe

Posted on Sun May 3rd, 2020 @ 7:40pm by Client The Narrator & Medical Officer Alex Garcia & Passenger Kol Wescott-Fitzgerald

Mission: The Forgotten Arm
Location: HIgh Elysium Tether Station, Mars Low Orbit, MCR: Onboard The Albatross
Timeline: Concurrent With 'Welcome Home, Now Go Away'.

Calling it a MedBay was an overstatement.
Calling it a sick berth didn't do it justice.

The compartment Kol lead Alex to was home to the sort of minimalist decor spacecraft designers and Swedish furniture makers adore. Every wall space had a compartment or locker, a display or machine lodged in it that had some sort of life-saving or sustaining quality to it. A pair of AutoDoc's took up the lion's share of the space, the padded crash couches festooned with swan-necked medical instruments and diagnostic tools.

The fact none of the components looked to have come from the same manufacturer, and the gel padding in the couches was being held fast by duct tape, should not have weighed on the mind.

"It's not much, but it's yours," Kol said with a shrug after the pair had had a moment to process the well enough equipped, yet rough around the edges medbay. He knew enough to know they had the basics but he couldn't help but wonder if the Doc would find the bay to be lacking. Just about everyone knew the Martians, although living hardy lives, had access to the most advanced systems. Not that the Docs preferences would matter all too much, it would be all they'd have until they hit their next port of call.

"I'm sure it's not up to Martian standards, it barely meet's UN standards, but I imagine any shortfalls can be made up by Wulf or Ken" Kol said as he strolled a small circuit around the room, tapping the interface on the autodoc gauntlet.

Alex looked around the room, noting that pretty near every piece of machinery was out of date, damaged, or non-functional, and every piece of furniture looked like it had been put to hard use. With an inward sigh, he stepped further in and ran his hand along the cold metal case of the nearest console, noting that the power supply was running to it.

Tapping the startup key he watched the console flare to life with a distinctly worrying hum. Around the room, the various machines it controlled whirred as well, as their servo-motors came online. Suddenly he was happy for all of the special training he'd gotten in regards to battlefield triage. At least with that a large number of potential injuries could be cleared up without using the tech here.

"No, it's most certainly not up to Martian standards. In fact it wouldn't be allowed on any ship I've ever been on," he replied, giving the man a level stare.

"Greetings from Win-River Diagnostic Systems."

The screen Alex had just turned on began to run a tutorial vid. A corporately approved Pan Asian woman of indeterminate middle age, with an accent that spoke to Earther roots with just the heritage of spacer vowel structure thrown in for good measure. The terminal she held in her hands looked outmoded, chunky, with a hard rubberised plastic lining going around the glass screen. The trio of flags behind her represented the United Nations, the Win-River Diagnostics Systems, and...UNMc. Little C: for colony, as in United Nations Mars Colony little C.

Somewhere within the Frankenstein autodoc's was a part, and a major part, that had been printed and sold before the Martian Proclamation of 180 years ago that saw the birth of the Martian Congressional Republic.

"Thank you for choosing Win-River Diagntoics Systems as your primary care provider. This short introductory video will highlight some of the features of your p87-B Auto Medical Diagnostic Unit. From its primary diagnostic function, through to cardiovascular microwave induction."

Alex looked at the screen, his eyebrows quirked up as he listened. When the video began to play he turned at looked at Kol. "Well, shit..." he said, unable to think of anything more appropriate at the moment.

As if on cue, Wulf's voice filled the room via the intercom system, "I'm rebooting the Autodoc's trial-ware, keep your hands and feet outside the ride until you hear the cheerful welcome warning, ok?" the tech explained.

Kol gave Alex a smile as he grabbed his terminal and opened a channel back Wulfs way, "Thanks mate, it's begun activation" Kol replied before putting the device back in his pocket. "Bet you've never worked with this piece of history" Kol joked, resisting the urge to tap the side of the machine affectionately after Wulf's request, "reckon you'll be good?"

Alex gave the bay another forlorn look and then turned to Kol. "One way or another," he replied. After all, there was no other option. Not on Mars anyway. He could probably go to Earth. Wouldn't be the most comfortable living environment, after growing up on Mars, but they'd probably find quite a lot of use for his knowledge of the MCRN. He'd even considered it right when he'd been discharged, but it went against every single thing he believed in so he'd scrapped that idea. "One way or another..." he repeated, letting his voice trail off.

The screen flickered, and the corporate-approved eye candy from two centuries ago vanished to be replaced by a more modern looking OS screen still running the Win-River trial ware.

"System reset complete. I am Diagnostic Emergency Response Generated & Resource Algorithm. You may call me DERGA. To aid in treatment please provide the name of primary caregiver, preferred vocal gender, and locational linguistic base." A pleasant androgynous voice spoke from the rebooted auto doc.

Alex felt a slight smile curl his lips. "Well, looks like we just got a pretty good improvement," he said. Glancing at Kol. "I'll be more than good with this."

From there he input the requested information and then watched as the system finished finalizing and booting up. "I'm going to go out on a limb and guess this won't be the only place I'm spending my time. It's a small crew and a small ship, bet we all wear multiple hats, don't we?" He asked, turning his attention back to the other man.

"Seems to be how it works around here" I'll shrugged from besides the autodoc gauntlet, "truth is though, I haven't reAlly been here too long myself and am technically not an official member of the crew at this point" he explained. He reckoned it was time he spoke to Mickey about changing that. It wasn't as though he had anywhere to go at this point, and he almost felt lost in limbo whilst he waited to see how things would play out.

"The crew's definitely not like the types of crew's you're familiar with though, that's for sure" the ex-agent suggested.

"I'm good with that..." Alex replied. He wasn't really, he craved the structure, and the regimented living he'd built a life on. But that wasn't something he could have for the time being, so he had to deal with what he had at hand.