vets to talk to me about battlefield medical procedures. You know, super-trauma surgery and shit. I recorded everything. Then I was lucky enough to get these two surgeons to talk to me. One is from UT-A Hospital, a cardio guy, and the other is a lady from Beth Israel in New York City. She’s a neurosurgeon.”
“How much of a lie did you have to tell them?” Derry asked.
“A pretty damn big one. I told them I was working on this new induction technique, and the venture capital guys wanted me to do a little brain picking of some of the top surgeons in their field,” he answered.
“Venture capital?” Brian asked.
“Yeah, you don’t think surgeons are just going to talk to some stranger over the net without both an ego boost and the chance they might show up as a credit once the company starts to mass-market the product, do you?”
“Company?” Brian asked. “Product?”
“Jesus, Brian. Stop being dense. I lied to the doctors, telling them we had a company, backed by the venture capital boys up in Silicon Alley and Houston, working on prototypes of a revolutionary new learning system. I told them I wanted to talk to some top technical people in their fields of expertise, while hinting at the possibility that if they talked to me, gave me a good half hour or more, they’d maybe get a secondary gig of being an adviser when we went public with the product.”
“I think he’s too high to understand you anymore,” Derry whispered to Garret.
“I’m not too high. I just don’t understand what this has to do with anything,” Brian said, annoyed.
“Look. I got the point of view of the real vets, guys who were getting shot at and blown up over in Namibia and Turjistan. Real good descriptions with references to all kinds of field manuals. Stuff that is public, but isn’t part of the e-pamphlets that the military puts on the net for everyone to read. The good stuff. How to clamp down on spurting arteries. How to cauterize a stump after an emergency battlefield amputation. Shit like that.”
“God,” Brian said in awe.
The Receiver was beginning to kick in hard, his mind almost visualizing the chaos and terror of having to amputate a fellow soldier’s leg while bullets whined around him.
“Yeah. Then I got the two surgeons to fill me in on proper, standard surgical techniques. Stuff that is done in a hospital setting. All the tools, procedures, all that. They linked me out to university holos and textbooks. Videos. Actual lessons from teaching hospitals. Real solid data on shit that only a real doctor would be able to decipher.”
“Okay, so what’s the point again?” Brian asked, still not quite understanding, his ability to understand anything quickly fading as the air he breathed started to glow and change colors, depending on if he inhaled or exhaled.
“The point is that if I did everything right, and you did everything right, all three of us should be able to walk into a hospital or onto a battlefield and perform surgery. Assuming we can’t just fly like Superman through the doors of the hospital.”
CHAPTER 5
November, 2043
None of them learned how to fly like Superman. However, all three were uneasy knowing that they could probably walk into any clinic or surgery ward and pass as a real doctor. The three of them thought they would be elated to have found success with their experiment. Instead, as they quizzed each other for hours, too many ‘what if’ scenarios where they debated or agreed on advanced or emergency surgical procedures ended with an uncomfortable silence.
“This is just too heavy,” Brian said after they’d decided that the induction lesson wasn’t going to fade, at least not within the first six hours that they’d been testing each other’s knowledge.
“Think about it,” Derry said, “We all learned the same exact thing. I’d bet before the flash, we all had about an equal understanding or expertise in the subject of trauma
“How much of a lie did you have to tell them?” Derry asked.
“A pretty damn big one. I told them I was working on this new induction technique, and the venture capital guys wanted me to do a little brain picking of some of the top surgeons in their field,” he answered.
“Venture capital?” Brian asked.
“Yeah, you don’t think surgeons are just going to talk to some stranger over the net without both an ego boost and the chance they might show up as a credit once the company starts to mass-market the product, do you?”
“Company?” Brian asked. “Product?”
“Jesus, Brian. Stop being dense. I lied to the doctors, telling them we had a company, backed by the venture capital boys up in Silicon Alley and Houston, working on prototypes of a revolutionary new learning system. I told them I wanted to talk to some top technical people in their fields of expertise, while hinting at the possibility that if they talked to me, gave me a good half hour or more, they’d maybe get a secondary gig of being an adviser when we went public with the product.”
“I think he’s too high to understand you anymore,” Derry whispered to Garret.
“I’m not too high. I just don’t understand what this has to do with anything,” Brian said, annoyed.
“Look. I got the point of view of the real vets, guys who were getting shot at and blown up over in Namibia and Turjistan. Real good descriptions with references to all kinds of field manuals. Stuff that is public, but isn’t part of the e-pamphlets that the military puts on the net for everyone to read. The good stuff. How to clamp down on spurting arteries. How to cauterize a stump after an emergency battlefield amputation. Shit like that.”
“God,” Brian said in awe.
The Receiver was beginning to kick in hard, his mind almost visualizing the chaos and terror of having to amputate a fellow soldier’s leg while bullets whined around him.
“Yeah. Then I got the two surgeons to fill me in on proper, standard surgical techniques. Stuff that is done in a hospital setting. All the tools, procedures, all that. They linked me out to university holos and textbooks. Videos. Actual lessons from teaching hospitals. Real solid data on shit that only a real doctor would be able to decipher.”
“Okay, so what’s the point again?” Brian asked, still not quite understanding, his ability to understand anything quickly fading as the air he breathed started to glow and change colors, depending on if he inhaled or exhaled.
“The point is that if I did everything right, and you did everything right, all three of us should be able to walk into a hospital or onto a battlefield and perform surgery. Assuming we can’t just fly like Superman through the doors of the hospital.”
CHAPTER 5
November, 2043
None of them learned how to fly like Superman. However, all three were uneasy knowing that they could probably walk into any clinic or surgery ward and pass as a real doctor. The three of them thought they would be elated to have found success with their experiment. Instead, as they quizzed each other for hours, too many ‘what if’ scenarios where they debated or agreed on advanced or emergency surgical procedures ended with an uncomfortable silence.
“This is just too heavy,” Brian said after they’d decided that the induction lesson wasn’t going to fade, at least not within the first six hours that they’d been testing each other’s knowledge.
“Think about it,” Derry said, “We all learned the same exact thing. I’d bet before the flash, we all had about an equal understanding or expertise in the subject of trauma
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