Chapter 11

Nurse Sanquhar helped Kathleen to get on the hospital bed, which had a body shape fitted on top, to ensure that Kathleen was in the correct position for the procedure. Next, she proceeded to rearrange the gown to expose the injection site, covering up the rest of Kathleen’s immediate body with a couple of towels. The Doctor had meantime busied himself with checking the instruments. The nurse told him when she was ready, and he turned round to observe the patient.

“Excellent, Nurse. We should now step aside for the scanner mechanisms to determine the exact injection point, and establish the angle, direction and distance involved. This should only take a minute or so.”

The three scanner units moved to make their separate determinations. These were displayed on a monitor screen for the doctor’s use. He had a framework for his needle set up, so he adjusted the positions according to the monitor’s readings, and moved it until the monitor showed that they had a match for the entry point.

The nurse swabbed the spot with a painkiller solution, to deaden reaction to the needle, and after telling Kathleen that he was about to begin, he warned her, “Do not move your body for the next couple of minutes please. It is important that you cooperate in this way, otherwise we have to use restraints.”

Kathleen promised to behave, and he began the injection. The long needle was slowly pushed into her skin and down through the muscle to the deposition site. Doctor Robson grunted his satisfaction as the needle point arrived where it was needed, and he depressed the plunger, pushing the bead and a small amount of sterile water into place.

He checked the monitor screen, and was pleased to note that it was within the sphere of effectiveness for the bead to accommodate itself.

He slowly removed the needle, and gave a sigh of satisfaction at a job well done.

“That’s it, Miss Malone. The target bead is seated where it should be, and it will make its own adjustment to be pinpoint perfect by the time the nanos are injected in a few days.”

“Can I walk around normally while this is happening, Doctor?” She wanted to know.

“Certainly. The guide bead is unaffected by your normal body movements, I am informed. You can go about as usual until the time of the operation, Miss Malone.”

“So I can go to a wedding?”

“Of course. Is that what was concerning you, Miss Malone?”

“Among other things, Doctor. Friends are getting married in a day or two, just before the operation.”

“Lovely. You know when to be here for the operation. Enjoy the wedding, Miss Malone.”

Elizabeth took Kathleen’s arm to escort her back outside. To their surprise, A car was sitting there waiting for them. The driver came up to them: “Corporal Kathleen Malone?”

“Yes.” she said, mystified.

“Mrs Diane Kempe asked that you be driven back, to save your injured hip.”

“How nice of her! Can my escort come along?”

“I see no reason to refuse, Corporal. The lady is?”

Elizabeth declared herself. “Sergeant Elizabeth Frobisher.”

He tipped his chauffeur’s cap to acknowledge her. “Sergeant.”

He opened the rear door and the two ladies entered, with Kathleen having difficulty with the turn. Once in, he asked them, “Where to, ladies?”

Kathleen declared, “I am temporarily staying with Elizabeth and her family, so she will direct you, sir.”

There was no-one around to see them disembark from the Governor’s car at the accommodation block, so there was no ‘wow’ factor in their arrival. They made their way to the Freeman room, where Elizabeth sat Kathleen down and made her a cup of coffee, in deference to her friend being American.

Elizabeth confided, “As we are back early, this gives me a chance to show you our wedding dresses, Kathleen, and you can try on your bridesmaid’s dress.” The parcels had been hidden in Kathleen’s room, so the pair moved there for the changing.

They had fun getting dressed up and examining themselves in the full-length mirror behind the bathroom door. Kathleen was pleased with the fit of her dress. “I was not sure the dressmaker could fit me with my odd shape at present.”

Elizabeth was encouraging. “It looks good, Kathleen. Your walk is of course awkward, but that is just for a few more days, hopefully. I am sure John will be stunned; he doesn’t even know you are our bridesmaid. It is perhaps time I told him.”

Kathleen smiled coyly, unabashedly pleased. Elizabeth mentioned, “Catherine hasn’t had a chance to try her dress on yet, so we will find some excuse for her to go through to your room, later on, preferably with you. Perhaps you can get upset and she can take you through here to calm you down, eh? Now, let’s get back into our normal clothes before John arrives.”

Elizabeth noted Kathleen’s prominent bust when she was down to her underwear, and noted, “Good breasts, Kathleen. John is a tit man, rather than a bum man, so that gives you a start. Your breasts, I presume, don’t sag when out of your bra?”

Kathleen blushed at the question, but agreed. “No sag, Elizabeth; youth has its advantages. I at least have some good attributes.”

“Don’t put yourself down, Kathleen,. Your breasts suit your height, and you haven’t put on excess weight, so once your pelvis is fixed, and you recover a normal posture, you will look great, girl!”

“Posture? Oh, I had forgotten about that.”

Elizabeth reassured her, “Quite simply, you have had four years of having your body movement adjust to your injury, so it will take a few days at minimum for you to get back to a more usual posture. I expect you will feel unbalanced for a time, and have to consciously stand straight.

It is not as bad as another case I knew. A four-year-old boy was in hospital for several months with diphtheria, and by the time he was ready to get back on his feet, his leg muscles had atrophied and he couldn’t walk! He had to learn to walk all over again.”

Kathleen was positive. “I’ll know what to expect, so it won’t be a shock to me when I feel unbalanced.”

“Right. Time to get back next door, and act as if we had just arrived a few minutes ago.”

Elizabeth looked at Kathleen again. “Damn. John is going to be surprised at you, when you are walking normally again. You will look great, my girl!”

They moved back to the other room; Kathleen grinning to herself at the compliment Elizabeth had paid to her. She was beginning to look forward to the operation.

John turned up after a while, accompanied by Catherine. He complained about routine. “It is the same everywhere. Every organisation had to tell you that things are done in a specific way; but there is no consistency between organisations. In some ways it is like politics or religion: ‘OUR way is the only right way to do things’. If only it was true!”

He sighed. “Time after time, I had to ask, ‘Why must it be done this way? What is the rationale for this?’. Mostly the answer was that this was how it was done by the first colonists. My response was, why should it always be so? The first colonists were facing an unknown planet and had to go carefully. We now have an established colony, with more knowledge of our surroundings, and thus more freedom in our approach to matters within the colony.”

Catherine wanted to know, “Did they listen to you, darling?”

“Not at first. They tried to tell me I was new and so couldn’t understand all the ins and outs of the problems. That was a bad move, on their part.”

“In what way, dear?”

“I demanded to know what exactly were the problems that could be dealt with by their procedures. I asked for them to be listed for me. Everything they could think of was a feature of the starting colony, and not of today. They were stuck.

I pointed out that in my army experience, it was sticking to the old rules that led to disaster. When the First World War started, the top officers were still in the mindset of cavalry charges and troops marching in formation against the enemy. This didn’t work any more, against machine guns, massed artillery, and more accurate gunfire.

It was not as if these developments were unknown: they had been employed half a century before, in the American Civil War. The idea of ‘sticking to the tried and tested rules’ was a failure.

I stated that we had the opportunity to adapt to the situation that now existed. We had to learn from experience. What existed even a year before had changed, and the procedures should change with it.”

Kathleen was fascinated. “John, you manage to speak a lot of common sense. I am in awe of your expertise. I hope they were, too.”

“Eventually, yes. I reminded them that I was the training officer, and this was part of my remit. They decided to set up a working group to examine all the procedures that had developed, and see A. Whether they were still valid; B. If not, what should replace them; and C. Should the procedures be applied generally or just in the department.”

He chuckled as he thought about it again. “Sounded like a bureaucratic way to get out of a bureaucratic mess!”

Elizabeth was interested. “I think you should tell Colonel Kempe about that tomorrow. I am sure she never intended her department to get so tied up in red tape.”

John nodded. “You are right, my darling. Good common sense from you. I’ll do that tomorrow.”

“And the day after that is our wedding, so tomorrow evening is a girls’ night – Me, Catherine, and Kathleen. I don’t think I had mentioned this, darling: Kathleen will be our bridesmaid.”

His face lit up. “That’s great! I thought you would have to do without a bridesmaid, but if Kathleen is up for it, then fine.”

Elizabeth added, “Yes, dear. Kathleen is up for a lot of things. She gets underestimated in so many ways. You should pay more attention to what she has to say, and how she behaves. She is not just a pretty face.”

John frowned as he listened to Elizabeth. This was a bit stronger than he expected. He turned his attention towards Kathleen, who was looking in with interest. She noticed his attention, and blushed prettily.

John spoke directly to her. “Kathleen, when Elizabeth speaks, I know that I have to listen. She sees things that I miss. In our marriage, she will be my social adviser, as I spent too long as part of a body of male soldiers, many of whom only viewed women as targets for their urges. I never took that stance; I was too naive towards women at the time, and it took a long time before I recovered my balance as regards women.

I mention this so you will understand if I have been saying or doing the wrong thing towards you. If so, I apologise profusely. If I have failed to observe something, I apologise for that sin of omission, my dear.

I may be efficient at doing things, from experience, but I other areas, I am a mere tyro. Curiously, tyro was originally a military term. In Latin, it means a recruit!”

Kathleen laughed in delight. “John, you never cease to amaze me. You come out with fascinating statements that enlighten me further. I am not surprised that you got both these girls to fall for you. I would find it just as easy.”

John failed to pick up on this. “Oh, I don’t think they fell for me; I fell for them. They just have talents that drew me to them. It was Elizabeth first of all. I was told to get close to her, to discover what she was up to, then I got hooked. Catherine was different. She decided that I was acceptable as a potential spouse, and drew me into her snare. It didn’t take long before I hardly knew whether I was coming or going, being dangled by two completely different girls. Eventually they told me I was stuck with both of them. They had made that decision, not me, but I am happy with it.”

Kathleen sighed, “That is so romantic, John. You make it sound as if you had no control over what was happening, but I don’t believe it. You are not a pushover, my dear.”

“Well, perhaps I did play my part in the whole proceedings, but the impression I was left with was of being a fish being drawn into a large net; Catherine on the one side and Elizabeth on the other doing the hauling.

They will of course tell you different. They will put it about that I swept them off their feet while brandishing my war club, or something like that. But putting it simply, we fell in love with each other, and had to live with the situation. I am sure the same will apply to you, and you will feel you didn’t have much control over it.”

“Oh, yes, John. That is quite true. Isn’t it, Elizabeth?”

Elizabeth smiled graciously, allowing her smile to morph into a smirk. “You are quite correct, Kathleen. It is like catching an infection: there is little you can do about it, except scratch the itch. In our case, John was the infection. You would agree with that, Kathleen.”

“I do, Elizabeth.”

John felt something was passing him by, but was not sure what. His stomach told him to move on.

“Girls, shall we do something about a meal?”

Elizabeth started, “Oh, my, yes. Look at the time. We had best get to the canteen if we don’t want to queue for hours. Kathleen, do you need to pick up anything from your room?”

John noted this automatic assumption that Kathleen would be eating with them, then remembered it was he who said she needed support prior to her operation; and accepted that this was correct.

Kathleen looked out the window to check that the weather was still fine for what she was wearing, then accepted that things were ready to go.

“I’m ready, thanks.”

Elizabeth announced, “Right. Catherine, John, and Kathleen, let’s go.”