Artwork by Tithi Luadthong.
“Code Blue! Code Blue! Clear the way!”
Skylar watched another victim of the highway collapse head into the emergency wing. The Samaritan EMS had been bringing them in for the past hour since the hospital closest to the scene hit capacity. She flattened herself against the wall to make way for the trauma team with heavy rifles and body armor pushing a stretcher. Before she worked here, she only saw the Samaritans in action on the street: weapons out, securing the scene, and getting the patient into their armored hovercraft ambulance.
The person on the stretcher wasn’t her responsibility right now. Skylar’s patient was already in the ER, barely alive thanks to her magical treatment. Now she had to deal with the worst part of her job. As she entered the waiting room, she heard a chime from her company issued palmtop computer. The AR display in her contact lenses showed a timer tracking her interaction time in the waiting room. If she stayed too long, it would get reported to the corporation as unpaid socialization time.
On the other side of the pastel waiting room, Skylar saw the person her computer displayed as the next of kin for her patient. As Skylar approached, she removed her magical focus, a brown fur masque from the top of her face. Then she lowered a surgical mask, revealing her blue face, sharp cheekbones, and aquamarine eyes. Combined with her short white hair, Skylar was a striking example of the ice-touched Glacier species.
“Mrs. Mendez, we need to talk.”
Mrs. Mendez stood up from her chair, with a worried look on her stone face. Her disheveled, dark hair was pouring out over a pair of rock-like horns that framed her ears. Like many other earth-touched Crags, her clothes were frayed where her skin had cut through the cloth. The little boy next to her stood up and clutched her hand with both of his. He was still in his pajamas. Skylar guessed he was around ten, too young to discover if the wild magic affected his genetics. Both of them looked worried and exhausted.
“What’s happened to Michael?” Mrs. Mendez demanded. “They wouldn’t tell me anything except that he’d been in an accident. The net reported about the highway, some rogue mage blew up a bridge. I don’t understand why we allow any magic inside the city in the first place. It can’t be used or controlled, only stopped.” She let the words hang between them for a moment, then she realizes something. “But Michael doesn’t drive so… he must have been...”
Skylar tried not to wince at the generalized accusation and ignored the glare of Mrs. Mendez. Skylar started speaking by rote, choosing her words carefully. “That’s right. He was under the bridge when it collapsed. As I’m sure you know, Ashen like him are particularly prone to broken bones. The debris crushed his entire right side. The arm, leg, lung, some ribs, and part of his skull are all fractured or broken. We’ve managed to stabilize him, but he’s still unconscious.”
Mrs. Mendez gasped in surprise that didn’t reach her eyes. “Daddy! No!” the little boy cried, hugging his mother’s leg as tears burst from his eyes.
Mrs. Mendez crouched down to hug her little boy, her voice becoming several shades softer. “Now Luis, baby. It sounds scary, but Daddy is gonna get all fixed up by the doctors. He’ll be home soon, and he’ll have all kinds of new shiny parts. Just like Uncle Lorenzo, okay?” Little Luis took a few steadying breaths before nodding and wiping his eyes.
Mrs. Mendez stood back up to address Skylar, “That sounds utterly horrible,” she said, “but if he’s still alive, he can be fixed with augmentations. We have health insurance from his night job, and…”
Skylar put up an icy blue hand to interrupt, “That’s why I’m here talking to you, Mrs. Mendez. It seems that your insurance expired weeks ago when Michael lost his job at Reclamations, Inc. You’re right--if it were active, your plan may have allowed us to replace the damaged areas with cybernetics, or restore him with magic. Without insurance, we don’t have his prior consent -- or a method of payment -- so we need you to decide for him.”
Mrs. Mendez’s face flashed from confusion, to fear, to anger, “HE WHAT!!??!!” When she stomped her foot, the chairs shook. “Weeks ago!!! If he didn’t have a job, what was he doing every night?!?” Skylar took a half-step back, unable to answer. Mrs. Mendez clenched her teeth, “Without that insurance, we’ll never be able to afford so much work.”
Skylar sighed as she read the corporate script, “Geoponics Biotechnology has work programs in place to allow you to pay your bills over time...”
“You mean slavery!” She said it loud enough to draw the attention of everyone in the waiting room.
Skylar looked away, unable to argue for the detestable corporate policies. The poor woman didn’t have many options, all the hospitals belonged to Geo Bio. This all reminded Skylar of her short-lived music career. Of what her manager tried to get her to do out of fear of losing her contract. She ended up blacklisted by a megacorp and couldn’t sing for a living anymore. So she started a new one in nursing, and she was trying to keep her head down this time.