Chapter 9: New Davin

~~ November - Week 45 ~~

Lee and Sean were talking about the neighbours.

Lee was hoping to get around to most of the communities on Futura to check how they were getting on. She wanted to go check out the three large townships that were apparently the original settlers on Davinia.

These were the towns in the north that Allan’s people still traded with but not on as friendly terms as with those in Tuath. Possibly, because they were the people they had bombed and vice versa.

Aeron’s people had mostly stayed out of the war. While they still harboured fear and resentment, it wasn’t as bad as the East coasters. The three largest cities north-east of Arden were inhabited by people who were related to the people from the northern cities that had been involved in the war.

Most of the people had vacated south-east after the bombing and now formed the new region they called the Trinity State. Aeron said the towns had kept the original names but added ‘new’ in front as well, but most people didn’t bother adding the new for the cities and referred to the others simply as the ‘old’.

Alaric was the largest and closest to the sea on the south-east coast. New Bonner was north-west of them in the plains and Cavy was west in the mountain range that ran parallel to the coast but also went further inland.

Alaric was the primary port and manufacturing sector. It was held by Queen Marianna la Faure. Bonner was mostly farming and grazing it was held by Queen Paris la Bonner.

Cavy was further inland and controlled by King Petri Roux. They mostly mined but also grew grapes, apples and other crops like olives that like the cooler dry weather.

While Allan’s people made the trains, farming equipment and most of the autos many of their metal alloys and parts came from Trinity State. Zan also imported parts from here. The other significant imports from the region were wines, stone fruits, apples and olives.

Because Aeron hadn’t been bombed or shifted and he had a large faerie population he also had vast forests. He exported a lot of timber to the Trinity State for their barrels and other industries. He had told Lee the week before that he had heard there were rumours of a plague in the Trinity Cities.

He told her they had similar problems about twenty years before. It was one of the reasons that, their exports to Trinity had dropped below what they had used to be. The plague tends to kill at least one in five infected and left as many again severely scarred.

Aeron informed Lee that they knew visitors from Earth had come and that they had flying machines. So, if Lee would like he was sure he could get word to them to organise an official visit. Lee agreed.

Aeron had contacted Lee the day before. The dignitaries of the Trinity State were expecting them the next day if they came. However, they had warned Aeron they did have sickness in the three cities.

So, unless they planned to help, don’t expect a lot of pomp and ceremony as things were not good. Alaric, in particular, was not a healthy place to be as this was where the sickness had started.

Lee and Sean were discussing the best way to help the people. They decided to pack up Allan’s old transporter. They fitted a small recycler/replicator unit to reproduce their immunisations and spare injectors disinfectants and extra clothes.

They remodelled both of the entrances with a new decon-unit. So, the people could be carried, or walk through one. They then got scanned, immunised and walked out the other side, through the second decon-unit.

They could set up thirty beds for those too sick to walk to stay overnight in the hold. They would take Doc Von and the local doctor they had acquired Dr Twinning, Qu and DT. Terry and Hilti would Pilot.

The transporter could only carry six crewmembers. If they need more people, Sean would come back and get them. They decided on the parking lot of the hospital as the best place to land.

When Sean and Lee transported to where the transporter was setting up, they found the town was like a ghost town. Lee and Sean headed into the hospital and found the staff were rushed off their feet.

There were sick people everywhere. They were lying in the hallways on gurneys. The general populous had been told not to come to the hospital anymore, as they couldn’t help them.

Lee collared a guy in a gown. “What the hell is going on here?” she asked.

The guy was exhausted. Lee was surprised he was still on his feet. He was also sick. He wiped his face and focused his weary eyes on her, “They’re just dying. We have no idea how to help them. It’s never been this bad before.”

“Come with me,” Lee said.

“I can’t, I have to find some way to help them,” he said, trying to pull out of her grip.

“Mister you are as sick as they are. If I don’t help you first, you can’t help me, help them. Please come with me?” she asked kindly.

He nodded, sighed and went with her. Lee commed Doc Von, “Doc, I got your first customer, are you guys ready?”

“Dropping the doors now Lee,” Terry came back. Hilti was to stay locked in the pilot’s cabin in case anything went wrong and they had to take off. Terry wanted to help, so his job was reloading the injectors and manning the replicator to produce whatever they needed.

“By the Gods, what is this thing?” the Doctor asked as they escorted him up the ramp.

Sean replied, “This is one of our transporters. We have set the hold up as a mobile hospital. You get to be the first patient.”

Sean walked him into the decon-unit, “This unit basically kills any bugs or virus on your skin. I’ll need you to strip off. Then I’ll give you a clean set of clothes to wear on the other side.”

Sean got him stripped and activated the unit. He walked him into the cleanroom and gave him a loose singlet and elasticised shorts and a pair of flip-flops for his feet. He then escorted him into the examination area and got him on a table.

“Okay Doc Von, let’s see what he has and if Lee’s fix will work.”

“Hi, who have we got here?” she asked the man.

“I’m Dr Yarra. I can’t help them,” he said forlornly.

“Well hopefully you will be able to after I check you out,” the doc said. She ran the medical scanner and extracted some blood for the diagnostic machine that was built into it. She bought the virus up on the monitor.

“It’s definitely viral Sean, but I have no idea what it is. Let’s see if the magic shot will work,” Von said and placed the injector on the man’s arm and triggered it.

Dr Yarra looked at his arm and then rubbed it as it made him feel funny. He felt a warmth infuse his whole body, and he shook himself. “How long do we have to wait until you know if it does work?” he asked, worried about his patients.

Von smiled at him, she looked at her minder and said, “Well, it’s been about five minutes let check?”

“Five minutes? You can’t know in five minutes?” he said disbelievingly.

“Well, you tell me, Doc, how do you feel?” Von asked him.

The man suddenly stopped and thought about it, “My headache is gone. I’m not sweating anymore.” He touched his own forehead. “I think the fever is abating.”

Von placed his arm back in the receptacle and took another blood sample. She keyed in for this sample to be put up on the other monitor. She watched the monitor for a minute and then flicked the screen around for him to see.

The two pictures were on each side. “The one on the left was the active virus in your system when I first tested you. The one on the right is now showing no live virus but the antibodies that killed it.”

Dr Yarra looked between them amazed. Neither Sean nor Von had doubted for a minute the injection wouldn’t work. After all, Lee had made it.

He said to the doctor, “What we would like to do is have all of you patients walkthrough here and get a shot. If they are too sick to walk, then we will put them through on the gurneys.”

“Why not treat them in the hospital?” the doctor asked.

“Because that place is going to have to be stripped and fumigated before anyone gets treated in there again. This virus most likely moves by contact, so if someone sick touches something the next person who touches it also gets sick,” Doc Von told him.

“Do you people have a radio station or something similar?” Sean asked.

Dr Twinning pipped in, “Did you mean the News-caster?”

“Yes, we have that system. Most homes have a receiver,” Dr Yarra replied, guessing why Sean wanted to know.