“I suppose I’ll have to give him a tip beforehand,” said Dr. Kintain.
“Don’t you dare,” joked Dr. Sato. “Dr. Burns won’t have any part of it.”
Chapter 38 – Healing Thoughts
Dr. Sato, The Imagine, Rocky Mountains, CO
Hours after Dr. Sato met Epoh and got Dr. Kintain situated, she got a call from one of their advice nurses. Something terrible had struck one of their medical team. She was vomiting, terribly cold and was in a state of confusion.
Dr. Sato made her way to her infirmary to pick up some potential medications and was heading to go see her sick staff member. She practically ran into Dr. Kintain when she turned around in the hallway outside of the infirmary as he was walking by. It was late, almost midnight.
“I’m sorry. I am in such a hurry, I nearly ran you over.”
“What’s the rush? Is everything ok? No problem. I needed a bit of a jolt. Getting prepared for this voyage has me a bit on edge, wondering how we’ll all be able to work together without a place to exit.”
“Well, at the very least, we have some pretty impressive exercise equipment and virtual reality when we feel like taking that proverbial walk.” She smiled. “I’d love to chat more, but I have a sick crew member who is on my medical staff who I have to tend to.”
“Oh dear. That is awful. I’m sorry to hear. Let me know if I can help in any way.”
“Of course, Dr. Kintain.”
She hobbled to the medical team’s quarters on her crutches. Only a few days on these, she thought. As she presented her facial recognition details, the door opened. Inside, Dr. Olivia Stooniper, a member of her team for at least ten years, lay there, moaning. She was in complete distress, discomfort wracking her body. She twisted in her sheets, and her clothing was completely soaked through. The air conditioner was on, but it might not even have made a difference in providing Olivia any real comfort.
“Olivia, what happened?”
“Well, Helen, I’m feeling slightly better. About two days ago, I was feeling alright, and then I just felt total exhaustion overcome me. I was standing at the window in one of our labs and thinking about what you had said about our schedule and the assortment of experimentation. I was anxious to get started, and a bit worried that you might not be able to gain more assistance from Dr. Kintain when he arrived. But I figured when the time came, you’d inform us. Well, in the meantime, I was for some reason very worried that the DNA that we collected wasn’t safely stored, so I panicked, checked on them, and of course, they were fine.
“Then, I recall, walking out into the cave for some ‘fresher air,’ thinking that possibly I was getting myself worked up about when we would get the clones started, if they would be successful, how you and our team are going to handle all of this, despite our theoretical knowledge, and I found myself lost. I don’t mean lost in my thoughts, which I was, but lost outside of the cave in the wooded area nearby. I literally had only moments ago absentmindedly said hello to a few people working in the cave on preparations, but they barely registered in my mind. I definitely was lost in thought.
“So, the only thing that got me back into my body was a quick flitter out of the corner of my eye that ran across my foot. I almost screamed, since it was so sudden and alarming. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a long tail. I assume it was a rat, but I have no idea if rats live in or near caves. Well, I thought none of it, realizing that there are probably rats that live there, but I felt fine then. I somehow managed to find my way back to the opening of the cave. I got back to the ship, hoping there was no way rats could get on board. Once I got back in the lab, I started to consider some ways that we might be able to work with our limited storage capacity, and came back in here. I woke up, had a good day, and also went to bed with a lot on my mind last night.
“I don’t always sleep well, depending on whatever it is we are working on or if something personal is getting to me. I often work out a lot of stuff while I sleep. So, having a restless night at first just felt fine. But then I started to feel really feverish and some of the things that were troubling me didn’t have anything to do with bioethics, clones, or what failures we may face or challenges.”
“I rarely get a full night’s rest with my head going in a million directions. But what happened after you saw the rat and returned to the ship?”
“You’d think if I was tossing and turning, it would just bother me what was in the newspapers. All the sloths, envious losers, greedy bastards, wrathful oligarchs, and the lack of gumption on the part of religious leaders constantly tempering anyone trying to do anything about fixing the environmental problems we face.”
Dr. Sato said, “I can relate. So much of it leaves me feeling sick. If I wasn’t motivated by our meaningful work, I don’t think I could watch, just based on pain avoidance alone.”
“Normally, that’s what causes me to lose sleep, but I started thinking it was something physically wrong. And then I found a tick.”
“Oh, Olivia. Did you pull it out?”
“Yes, but I hadn’t found it until this morning. I saw a rash all over my wrists, palms, ankles and soles of my feet. Then—”
“Rocky mountain spotted fever. Oh god.”
“Yes, so I got Dr. Gene Finaren to quickly bring over some doxycycline. He’s run a lab test, and it’s a confirmed diagnosis. I’m hoping we don’t get to the IV stage.”
“Well, let’s monitor it. I bet you’ve caught it in time. I’ve realized that Lyme disease is unlikely to be spread here since that type of tick isn’t found in Colorado, but there’s Colorado tick fever, RMSF, tularemia, and tickborne relapsing fever. I’m glad you were able to get it out within the first few days. At least this can’t spread. So, don’t worry, we won’t throw you in…” Dr. Sato leaned forward and whispered in Olivia’s ear, “with the clone.”
With that, Olivia’s eyes opened wide in excitement. “It’s here?”
“HE’S here.”
“Is he everything you ever dreamed of?”
“Well, if I’d been dreaming of Dr. Kintain!” She laughed.
Olivia’s eyes showed some sparkle.
“Look, Olivia, get some rest. We need you back in the lab. I’m expediting our cloning schedule and I need you right there to get things going. No use taking walks picking up ticks if we’re taking a much more difficult trip.”
“Maybe we’ll just go through the tea cup up in the sky or touch Polaris on our way?” Olivia laughed. “I suppose, I might have some rare hallucinogenic effect from the doxycycline if I’m picturing touching the stars. I get it. I better get some rest. Look forward to seeing the clone.”
“Oh, you will.”
Dr. Kintain, The Imagine, Rocky Mountains, CO
In the meantime, Dr. Kintain had returned after a late-night walk and running into Dr. Sato to set up Epoh’s accommodations the way he liked them. He’d noticed that during the conversation between Epoh and Dr. Sato that Epoh had retained a great deal of knowledge about the ship and about the potential good he could contribute in the coming months. Winter brought with it many challenges in Dr. Sato’s mind as she’d shared with Dr. Kintain. As they discussed his meeting with Dr. Sato, it appeared however to largely escape Epoh. However, Epoh had learned that the testing had happened in September after some failures during the earlier part of the year and that the ship was already filled with their passengers. The passengers were allowed to still come and go and were adjusting to life on the ship.