Earth and Beyond

Amazed, Atland manufactured the medicine and administered it. He would have to wait for hours to see if it worked, but he had other things to figure out anyway. Leaving an M.A. who had finally appeared to carefully monitor Jack, he went to the prosthetics lab to discuss Jack’s needs. When he came back to the pre-op area, he had e-files of suitable prostheses handy on his Pocod. Now he refreshed himself on amputation procedures and formed a plan for how to re-cut and prepare the stumps. He cleared it with Lopez electronically while checking Jack’s status. The patient turned out to be as rugged as his looks. The alien microbe had cleared his system, and his vitals were good. It was time to begin.

As horrible as the injury and the consequences of it were, the surgery was relatively simple. He supposed that was why Lopez was allowing him to fly solo on it. In this case, he didn’t even have the mental trauma of actually cutting off damaged legs. Setting to work, he carefully lasered off the burnt ends of the upper thighs. His M.A. immediately applied a scabbing medpatch spray to exposed flesh as soon as Atland was satisfied a new area was clear of rotting flesh and potential toxins. A DV was standing by, but Atland did the work by hand as was his boss’s preference. He’d hated that at first, but had come to appreciate that sometimes he could do a better job himself. They’d all learned they couldn’t rely on having a robot to do the work. The process was slow and laborious but not difficult, at least not for someone with Atland’s skill. Finally, he was finished. Now came the part he was more worried about, having the patient awake for the first time since the accident and deal with his loss. He was ready with replacement leg options, but had to prepare for the necessary counseling.