Doctor Who: Surprise Holiday

Chapter 7: Patient Zero

At New Berlin General Hospital, an overhead speaker in a staff lounge used by medical technicians suddenly disturbed the quiet.

"All units. Code One, Linden and Wilhelm. Delta three six. Code One, Linden and Wilhelm. Delta three six."

"Three-five-two responding," Karla replied, acknowledging the alert. Karla and her emergency medical technician partner sprinted for their assigned ambulance and jumped in.

Karla switched on the lights and siren as she pulled out of the hospital. Her linx automatically brought up a navigation aid, which she turned off with an annoyed flick of her eyes, and locked the controls into manual drive mode. She'd rather do the driving, and she already knew their destination.

"What the hell, Karla!" exclaimed her partner as he ran an equipment check. "Since when does anyone dispatch verbally anymore?"

"It's only used for extreme emergencies, to drive the point home I imagine," said Karla as she cautiously slowed for a corner before picking up speed again. "Didn't you catch the delta thirty-six?"

"I can never remember the damn alerts," her partner muttered as he paused to look it up. He paled at the results. "Oh hell no..." he breathed.

Contagion alert.

The medical community worried about the possibility of a pandemic, going all the way back to the foundation of Neuesonne. Neuesonne's relative isolation in the galaxy—they only had two or three thousand visitors each year—combined with the benign Neuesonne environment, left the population with a relatively poor immune response. While visitors were screened, there was always the fear something would slip by, or worse, one of the indigenous lifeforms might someday mutate enough to make the leap to humans. Could that have happened, he wondered?

"We're not equipped for that kind of response!" the partner said to Karla. "What were they thinking? They should have dispatched an MIU!"

A Mobile Isolation Unit was specifically designed to transport highly contagious individuals. The probable need for such a safeguard was so low, even the capital city of New Berlin, the population center of the planet, had only three MIU's, and that was before recent budget cuts.

"It is what it is..." Karla said as they turned onto Linden. "Let's hope it's a false alarm."

Their destination was marked by a cluster of people standing near a prone figure lying on the sidewalk. Karla pulled up slowly, and the bystanders moved back. Even from the driver's seat, Karla could see something was wrong. She set the brakes.

"On second thought, this could be the real deal. Break out the bunny suits."

Her partner groaned. "I hate the bunny suits," he complained.

"Everybody hates the bunny suits," replied Karla as she climbed out of the driver's seat. "When were they last inspected?"

The partner opened a rarely used storage bin and pulled out two sealed packages. "About three and a half years ago," he replied as he examined them. He tossed one to Karla.

"That's just great..." commented Karla as she tore open the package and shook out a suit. Newer would have been better. A lot better.

Karla and her partner climbed out of the ambulance, sealed head to toe in white isolation suits. The sight caused the bystanders to immediately back away from them as well as from the victim on the sidewalk. Karla knelt down beside the person. Her linx was already connected to New Berlin General, so the doctors could see and hear everything she did.

"The patient is approximately mid-thirties, female...." Karla slipped a band around the patient's left wrist, which would monitor and transmit her vitals. "She is conscious but unresponsive, airway open, breathing shallow and rapid, BP low, severe fluid loss..." Karla trailed off as she noticed the darkened tips of the patient's fingers and toes. "What appears to be the start of necrosis in her extremities...."