Page 7 of Resolution
“Office?” He raised his bushy white eyebrows. “What do you need an office for?”
“Private consultations with patients or their loved ones, a place to do my charting and research?—”
“All right, all right if the staff can find you a spot with a desk and a chair I’ll authorize it but no remodeling. No large expenditures of resources. The general likes things the way they are.” He wagged a finger at her as if she was a child.
“I’ll keep that in mind. I’m supposed to get a bracelet identifying me as medical?” She made it a question.
For answer he jerked open the desk drawer and pulled out a pink bracelet, tossing it in her direction. “We get extra rations and extra work credits at the supply warehouse.”
Melly allowed the circlet to fall and then picked it up. “I’ll need one for Tamsyn, my assistant, as well.”
Grumbling to himself he re-opened the drawer and extracted another pink bracelet.
“And will I be getting one of those?” she asked, pointing at the curious thick black bracelet on his right arm. “Since I’m now the other doctor?”
Sharpton slapped his hand over the bracelet as if he feared she’d try to steal it off his bony arm. “You will not. These are only for the senior members of the Glastine staff, the people originally chosen by the general to help him establish this place. You’d better get going since our first patients will no doubt be arriving shortly.”
“Of course, doctor.” Melly rose and left the office. Hearing voices, she followed the sound and found Tamsyn in conversation with several women in an open office area. Relieved to find her friend here, she was tempted to give Tamsyn a hug but restrained herself. The nurses were watching and decorum should be preserved. She was glad to have the rancher at her back today though. She gave Tamsyn her pink bracelet and then, seeing Rochelle down the hall, she excused herself and chased after the janitor. “Dr. Sharpton agreed I can have an office although he set limits on how much effort we could put into creating one.” And I won’t be here long hopefully. Keeping the thought private, she suppressed a smile at the prospect of escaping this place.
“I’ll have one fixed up by lunchtime,” Rochelle promised. “It may not be much but you’ll be able to shut the door and have a bit of privacy. This place will keep you busy though, from what I’ve seen.”
Tamsyn came up to them, holding a stack of folders with papers threatening to escape. “The head nurse said these are our first patients today and we’re to start in exam room one.”
Repressing a sigh, Melly took the incredibly old-fashioned paper records. “Point me in the right direction.”
With a laugh, the janitor did so and Tamsyn followed Melly through the hall and around the corner.
“What have we gotten ourselves into?” Tamsyn asked, fiddling with her new pink bracelet.
“I’m not sure. I hope we can get ourselves out when the time comes,” Melly said. As they passed a supply closet, she stopped. “We’d better put on scrubs. I need a white jacket at least.”
“I think we’re kinda on our own to figure things out,” Tamsyn said as she rummaged through the closet shelves.
“Although Dr. Sharpton assured me he likes things done a certain way. I get the feeling the staff, aside from Rochelle, are waiting to see us mess up.” Melly took a deep breath as she rolled up the sleeves of the too-large jacket. “At least the practice of medicine remains standard and the human body is unchanged across the centuries.”
They gave themselves a rapid self tour of the facility, finding five empty patient rooms, a gleaming operating room that appeared to Melly to be completely modern and ready if needed, which comforted her about the care she could offer her patients here, and a locked pharmaceuticals room which her pink bracelet unlocked.
Stepping inside, Tamsyn gasped. “Oh wow, they have stuff they haven’t even unpacked.”
There were containers marked for the pharmacy stacked everywhere and the shelves were crowded with containers of injects as well as pills, lotions and fluids. A stasis unit for blood hummed in the corner and when Melly lifted the lid, it was full as well. There was another stasis unit full of blood samples, which she found odd. Why would they be storing those?
“There you are,” said a scolding voice from the hallway.
Suppressing her immediate guilty reaction, Melly turned to see the head nurse at the door, tapping her toe impatiently. “Yes?”
“Your first patient is waiting in exam room one,” Ledalia said. “Do you remember where it is?”
“Of course.” Melly closed the blood sample stasis container and exited the room with dignity, Tamsyn on her heels. She refused to justify herself to the nurse as she passed. It was perfectly normal for her to need a tour of the place before she started practicing medicine here and now she considered the issue further, how strange no one but the janitor had had any interest in showing her around.
“The next three patients are in the waiting room” Ledalia said with a sniff. “Shall we get them into rooms for you?”
“That would be fine.” Melly paused at the decontam unit on the wall beside the door to the first exam room and ran her hands through the ray. “The facility is surprisingly well equipped.”
“General Quantike wanted to be sure we could care for the population at Glastine in all ways,” the nurse said in a tone of warm admiration. Melly noticed she too wore one of the strange black bracelets next to her thin pink Medical band.
“Have you been with Dr. Sharpton a long time?” Melly asked.
“Thirty years. I helped him set this facility up—he and the general said my input was invaluable.” The head nurse visibly preened.
