The Mechanics of Us

Part 1: The Surgeon

Chapter 1

    Twenty years ago, I was finishing up my residency at the hospital in the cities. I was a trauma surgeon and a good one. I had quite the track record with only three deaths under my belt, and those three deaths were something even the stigmatized medicines and procedures could not fix. The forms of medicine and practice that were not accepted or condoned by society coined the name "xiolytic," and it was something only a few surgeons taught but the practice itself forbidden. There was a preconceived notion that those medicines hindered a person's intuitive abilities and polluted their inherited celestial energies. The training itself dealt with the implantation of machinery in another person to save their life or limb. This often meant a person's appendage would be replaced by a robotic replica, or their veins and nerves would no longer be organic but metal. In essence, all of their intended potentials were stripped away from them and are now less than.
On the contrary, there are forms of medicine that are accepted and practiced extensively. These methods were given the name "Rein," and the premise behind these methodologies stems from the concept that we are only as good as what we offer our bodies. Rein uses only organic organisms and materials from this world. These organisms and materials take forms in simple plants, animals, microorganisms, anything that was given life from the stars.
The stars played a vital role in our practices; I remember in med-school my old professor would say this quote over and over again, he had a broken record, old, feeble, and repeated what he said in a raspy and hoarse voice. The saying goes, "born from the stars and destroyed by them." The first time I heard this quote I was perplexed. I did not understand what he meant and at the time the shared interpretation was that we are all born from stars and since death is something we can not subdue, our medicines derived from the earth could not always prevent it from happening. It seemed simplistic, made enough sense, and followed the medical code of conduct. Nothing much else to think about it. But, there came an unforgettable and prominent day, October 30th of 2098, when I realized just what that professor meant.
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My day started just as it always did. Woke up at 5:30 AM, go for a six mile run, get back at 6:30 AM, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, and leave by 8:00 AM. The commute to the hospital at which I worked at- "St.Francis Research Hospital" was about a twenty-minute drive, and I clocked in at 8:20 AM sharp. My day did not deviate from these segmented time slots, and I made sure that each hour of my day was used for some reason. I did not enjoy the leisure and made sure I was prompt, tidy, and orderly. I found any time I was not working or being productive to be a waste of my potential.
On this specific day, I remember talking to a fellow about the new research on red sea sponges that possess antibacterial properties that our scientists are trying to replicate and create a natural strain for human use. Another gift from nature that we humans can use for keeping ourselves radiant and lively as the stars have intended. The fellow I was conversing with was going on about their extracts of callyspongia crassa and how they have isolated the protein strand, which encode the sponge's cells to secrete the antibacterial mucus. To say I was intrigued would be an understatement, and my attention was fixated on every word. So much so I didn't hear the sirens blaring from outside, or the nurses shouting my name, or the young woman and her husband shrieking at the sight of their daughter on the gurne. All I heard was my colleagues' voices and faint noises in the distance.