CHAPTER 30

The infirmary was as well equipped as a major hospital back home. It was certainly not as big but, it only had to service forty-eight people. Pam only hoped that their repair services would not be needed. She had come to know all of these people intimately and the thought of loosing someone was not comforting.

It almost made her wonder if she could objectively do her work now. The people she treated back in her Detroit ER had all been strangers. Even her regular customers were only just that, customers, patients, people to be treated and not friends. Already Pam had come to consider this little crew of hers as family. They had already been through so much together and the ship hadn’t even left Earth yet! How would she feel after six months into the trip? A year? Ten years?

For some reason Doctor Mike did not seem to have that problem. Pam had noticed that he went about his work with a professionalism that appeared to put him above everyone else. It was a kind of distance but, not exactly that. At the same time Mike seemed to have little problem changing that hat when the need arose. He could play to being just one of the guys and then in a heart beat go right back to being experimenter on the lab rats who happened to be the people he was just joking around with. Pam had tried that but could not make herself do it.

At the moment, Mike was busy with the one thing that had consumed most of his time for the past month or better. The ships decontamination systems were of particular interest to him. If the spaceship had been Jack’s baby, the propulsion unit Dee’s masterpiece, then this decon system was Mike’s work of art.

Apparently, going through the lengthy task of being poked with needles, doused with gasses, showered with strong jet streams of water, and even having your upper layers of skin burned off, was not enough. The ship had to keep the process going by releasing a mix of various gasses into the air that made the interior about as sterile an environment as was possible. Of course the use of the word sterility, mixed with breathing unknown gasses, was what had bothered more than a few of the crewmembers.

Mike had assured everyone that it was safe. If that were true then Pam had to wonder why he was always tinkering with the gas mixtures and various other controls. That was not to mention the fact that he had his ‘routine’ exams all set up to happen a week or so after each mixture change. Pam decided it was one of those things she really did not want to know about and let it go at that.

She had enough to do to keep her mind busy on things that she could control. All of the equipment had been checked and rechecked before leaving Earth. Unfortunately, almost none of it had been since it was installed on the Hermes.

Who knew what a rocket ride would do to some of the more sensitive gear despite the fact that all of it had been specifically built for this mission and was allegedly hardy enough to survive the trip into orbit. If it broke down later then there would be no replacing it.

After that, Pam had to test out all of the medical staff’s field gear. There was a lot of that. For almost every machine in the infirmary, there was an evil twin that could be packed up into a case. There was so much of this stuff that Pam was starting to feel as if running the checks were going to take the entire trip.

Carl Lopez seemed to be unhindered by that ‘work’ thing. His feet crunched away at the Velcro tape on the floor as he skipped into the infirmary like someone trying to avoid mud puddles. He quickly turned on the television set that was mounted high up on the wall. He floated right in front of it as he changed the channel over to a picture of the Earth that was being transmitted from the astronomy module.

“Thought this would make some great scenery while we did our thing,” Carl said. Then he saw the funny look from Mike so he shrugged and added a, “you know?”

Mike developed a quaint little smile but noted, “I think this trip is about what’s ahead of us. Maybe it’s time we all started looking forward instead of back.”

Carl shrugged again, “still a cool picture though, right?”

Suddenly Carl forgot all about the television set as he felt his body being slowly pulled towards the floor. “Hey!”

Pam noticed that she was beginning to feel heavy. Her clothes began settling down on her body and her pony tail no longer looked like a giant pole sticking in the back of her head. She protested, “Hey! Wasn’t there supposed to be an alarm when they started the spin?”

Now Mike found himself standing firmly on the deck with no need of Velcro. The first thing he did was dispense with the slip on covers for his shoes. The crunching sounds were annoying. He sighed to his medical team, “there most certainly was. I guess we can call that glitch number one.”

Mike keyed the communicator on his belt, to call the Command Module but, got no response. The only people that seemed to hear him were those standing right in the same room. “And that would make glitch number two. Carl, head down there and tell Jack please.”

Noting the sudden weight Carl had to let it be known, “won’t be as much fun as coming up here. See ya, wouldn’t want to be ya.” He left.

That left Pam with the feeling that maybe the radio’s could wait. She had a lot of work to do here and was now missing her help. Mike waived off the tasks at hand for a moment and asked her, “so, how did it go with your parents?”

Pam grimaced and felt embarrassed, “do you have to ask that now? Mom cried. Dad, well, he was being Dad. I already told you they didn’t want me to go.”

Mike took her hands and squeezed them friendly like. He gave a wink and then went back to his work station where he went about the task of setting it up for work in gravity. All the while he commented, “well I can sympathize with them on that count Pamela. I never had any children but, then it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out and we happen to have those to spare around this place. Nobody wants to loose a kid and that‘s what your parents are doing.”

That only made Pam a little more uncomfortable. She crossed her arms and shifted around her new found weight. Naturally she pretended that the sudden introduction of gravity was the reason her knees were shaky.

Then Pam told her boss, “well you don’t have to defend them Mike. You know they made it pretty hard on me. I can’t say the last year has been easy.”

“On any of us Pam,” Mike replied as he turned on his stool to face her, “but you are here.” There was a moment of hesitation. Mike was deciding if he should say something. Then he turned back to his work without another word.

Pam walked over to him. She almost tripped at one point. She had become so used to working in this room, without aid of gravity, that it felt as if she had to relearn her way around.

When she reached Mike she would not let this drop, “what were you going to say?” Mike said nothing but Pam went on fishing, “I mean, I don’t understand. What do you mean by that? I am here? Of course I’m here?”

Mike removed his glasses. After getting over some reluctance he looked to the young doctor, “well don’t get me wrong. You’re a good doctor, exceptional even. You worked hard to get here and you earned the right to be on this ship.”

“What’s that…” Pam was confused.

Mike stood up and put his hands on her shoulders, “Pam you know where I went to school back in the stone age?”

Why was that ominous sounding, “yeah? Same place as me? So you’re saying because we’re both alumni that…”

Mike gave a friendly and polite chuckle as he sat back down, “so did someone else you know.”

It felt like electricity shot up Pam’s spine when the realization hit her, “you went to school with my Dad?”

“Known him for years Pamela,” Mike said in a matter of fact kind of way as he loosened the straps on his keyboard. “He called me. Course I told him that if you weren’t qualified I couldn’t help him. Then again, I figured any kid of his would be more than that. So you proved to be.”

The shock left her speechless. Pam had a hard time even believing it. She took a step back and her knees wobbled. Mike pretended not to notice as he got up. He slapped her on the shoulder and said on the way to the door, “I have to check something down the hall. Figure I’ll be gone about twenty minutes. In the mean time you might want to see if the hard lined phones are working. You know, place a call down to Earth while we’re still in orbit.”

The door shut behind Mike. Pam felt tears welling up as she slowly, cautiously, walked towards the phone.