Chapter 7: Inbound Medical

Nate had found a current address for Helen Barker, a Doctor employed by DND several years ago in a Military Hospital. Grant knew her quite well and asked to be able to meet with her and see if she would be a fit to their project. She ran a small clinic in Ottawa and lived outside of Ottawa in the country. According to Nate, her house was on about two acres of land at the end of a small dead-end road. Simon suggested that Blaze could use the shuttle and pilot Grant there in ‘cloak’ mode and so it was arranged.

Grant contacted her and they agreed to meet at her place in the country at 9:00 PM. They left Blazing Star aboard TS-1 at 6:00 PM and arrived in plenty of time (even allowing for the different time zones), landing quietly in her backyard. Leaving the shuttle ‘cloaked’ they disembarked, walked around to the front door and rang the bell.

Helen was surprised, as she looked at her security monitor of the front door, not just at seeing Grant and Blaze, but the fact that her security had not even detected their approach until they rang the bell. She recognized Grant and decided that the best way to unravel this mystery was to simply open the door and ask, so that is exactly what she did!

As she opened the door Helen said “Welcome Grant, right on time too! Please come in.”

“Hello Helen. Great to see you again!” said Grant as he walked in.

“Helen, I would like you to meet Blaze!” he said, introducing Helen to Blaze.

“Pleased to meet you, Blaze. My, what an unusual name! I suppose you get that a lot!” said Helen.

“Only recently!” replied Blaze with a smirk that only Grant noticed.

“Please come into the living room and be seated.” said Helen as she walked them into the living room where they all seated themselves. “Now you can explain to me, Grant, how you managed to get to my front door past all my security and perimeter alarms without triggering anything and I don’t even know how you got here. You didn’t drive in the front. Explain that to me, Grant.”

Grant, looking surprised, replied “I didn’t know you even had security, I’ll have to talk to Nate about that.”

A grin appeared on his face as he continued, “I could have had so much fun! Well, the fact of the matter is that we flew, so didn’t need a car or truck. We parked out back.” he said gesturing toward the rear of the building.”

“I didn’t even hear you land! You guys have helicopters that quiet now?” she asked looking a little concerned. “And the other alarms around the building, what about them?”

Grant looked really surprised at that. Blaze calmly said “I have adjusted them temporarily while we are here. I hope you don’t mind, they will be restored to normal when we leave.”

Blaze had informed Grant about her ability to read the truth from people. She had failed to mention any additional abilities concerning surveillance or electronic security systems.

“Okay, Grant.” said Helen, somewhat nervously. “I am familiar with your history somewhat, so I am only slightly unnerved by all this so far. What exactly did you want to see me about? You have to admit, you were pretty vague about it on the phone.”

Grant spoke “It’s been a long time since we have seen each other, Helen. You took real good care of me and my men when we got chewed up pretty bad over in Afghanistan. I’ll not soon forget that. I wanted to thank you again for all that you did. We got hustled out of there pretty quickly after and I never did get a chance to properly thank you.”

“It was my job, but I liked you guys!” said Helen. “You were always the ‘scary’ group around the base but never gave me or any of my staff a lick of trouble. You were the best of the bunch. Some of you were pretty badly hurt. I heard that a couple of you were shipped out. I always wondered what happened to you guys. It was great getting your call the other day!”

“So Helen, why all the security around here? What have you been up to the last couple of years?” asked Grant.

“Do you still have the same active security clearance with the Canadian Government, Grant?” asked Helen.

“Yes, but I am classified as retired.” replied Grant.

“Okay, then I can tell you ‘some’ of it.” said Helen. “You see when I was in Afghanistan, I was to keep my eyes and ears open for any potential ‘personnel’ problems. It seems that since I have been back to Canada, the press has been hounding me and anyone else they can find for information on what ‘really’ went on over there. It got ridiculous, so I installed security. DND is also monitoring it. They will know that there is a problem over here by now, and may be reacting.”

“I don’t think so!” responded Blaze. “I set all the devices to feed back the same steady ‘ready’ signals and the video ones to display the same empty video before we arrived. Since your door video camera is on a different system, I allowed you to see us at your door. That particular video has now been erased and replaced with an empty scene as well.”

“I’m taking you on all my missions.” muttered Grant. “I still don’t get it. DND monitored! There is a lot more here you are not telling us.”

“I can’t tell you more at the moment. Maybe if I know why you are here?” asked Helen.

“Well, this puts us all in a bit of a conundrum.” replied Grant. “What I have to tell you, I guarantee, is so far above your security clearance, that I’m not sure what more we can say. Okay, let’s try this. You have your own Medical Practice and run a clinic in Ottawa. How many people do you employ there?”

“Currently, there are four Doctors, two of them are Surgeons, twelve nurses, full and part time, two receptionists and myself.” Helen replied. “Nineteen people altogether not counting cleaning staff.”

“What do you plan on doing with the rest of your life? Run the clinic? You know that doesn’t sound like the Helen I met in Afghanistan.” said Grant.

“You are right there. I really do not feel that our Medical knowledge is being advanced enough. Research is so controlled by the big corporations and it is all about money. Everything I do now has to be about bringing in more money. That is starting to rub me the wrong way. In Afghanistan, it was all about giving you guys the best care possible. I enjoyed that! I felt like I was doing something really great! At least we are not under the same pressures the Americans are under. They don’t even have a functional health care system for the average man. I am so thankful we are in Canada.” replied Helen.

“If there was an opportunity for you to get back to what you feel are the important issues, saving lives, providing medical service to those that really need it and at no charge to them, would you, could you, close down the clinic and move?” asked Grant, holding his breath.

“If it was truly for the sole benefit of the patient and I had unrestricted assets, then I would and could do that. What you are describing, does not seem to be on this planet, however. Nobody has a system exclusively for the patient, never has, and probably never will.” Helen answered.

“That may be true as you know it, but we have a need for highly qualified medical people who are willing to take a small leap of faith and join a group of people who will be dedicated to doing just that!” replied Grant. “This project also has considerable high security requirements. Are you interested in hearing more?”

Blaze interrupted, “Excuse me, Grant, but may I ask a few questions?”

“Yes, please, go ahead.” replied Grant remembering her ‘truth sense’.

“Helen, you don’t know me, and probably don’t trust me, but I just want to tell you that I sense that you and I will never have anything to fear from each other. In fact, at the moment, we, Grant and I, have a lot more to fear from you. If we were to guarantee to you that what we have to explain to you would only be intended to benefit all people and not just those that could afford it or were in positions of power would it help in your decision?” asked Blaze.

“Absolutely!” she replied with no hesitation.

Blaze continued, “Then, we will explain it all to you, but we must have your guarantee that you will tell no-one what we have to say to you unless we all agree on the disclosure. We further guarantee you that we intend no harm to anyone unless they intend harm to us first. This information is so far above TOP SECRET that even your government has no idea of what we know or are about to tell you. Will you agree to this?”

“Yes, I will agree to keep it all confidential.” replied Helen.

“Good.”, replied Blaze. “We are asking you to join a project. There is a small group of people currently in this project and we need more. We need Medically trained people. You are eminently qualified and have excellent references. Would you like us to show you part of what we are talking about?”

“Yes, what do I need to do?” answered Helen.

“If you have a Medical Kit here in your house, go and get it!” said Blaze.

As Helen left the room, Grant said “What are you doing Blaze?”

Blaze replied “She needs to believe. She is torn, but wants to help better the system. I am going to show her that it is possible.”

Helen returned a moment later with her medical kit.

Blaze stood and said “Describe me!”

“Let’s see, you are female, about five foot eight inches, blonde, with dyed red and orange hair, appear to be about twenty-five years old, healthy complexion, with good posture. You are intelligent, articulate and appear quite strong for your size. You have a body most women would kill for and most men would die to get at.” replied Helen with a grin.

“Examine me and tell me what you find!” said Blaze with a blank expression on her face.

“Let’s see,” said Helen “grabbing Blaze’s right arm and wrapping a blood pressure sleeve around her arm. Pulling out a stethoscope and placing it on Blaze’s arm as she pumped up the sleeve, Helen said “Nice warm skin, good tone, BP is, huh? What the hell?” Helen moved the stethoscope over and above Blaze’s left breast and exclaimed “No pulse, no heartbeat. How?”

“I am not human, Helen. I am an android.” replied Blaze. “How much time have you got before you are noticed missing? We have something very important to show you.”

“I have tomorrow off. We have so much to talk about. I need to know everything about you. Where are you from? Who built you? Oh sorry, I am just so excited at this. I need to calm down. You are a perfect specimen. Are there more like you? Oh, forgive me.” blabbered Helen.

“Grant, I think Helen would like to see our project, shall we go? We have transportation out the back.” said Blaze. “We can tell her about the history on the way.”

They boarded the shuttle after Helen had secured her house once more and Blaze had reset all the security to normal.

“You’ve got to tell me how you do that! Oh, was there any internal security?” said Grant to Blaze.

“No internal monitoring at all.” said Blaze with a bit of a grin.

“What kind of helicopter is this?” asked Helen. “I have never seen one that looks at all like this and it’s so quiet.”

“It isn’t a helicopter, Helen, it is called a Transport Shuttle and it’s also virtually invisible.” said Grant.