Chapter 8: The Response
“Attention,” the communicator on her desk burped to life with an all call, “We have a Mass Casualty Alert at the convention center. I say again we have a mass casualty event at the convention center. Stand by for dispatch!”
“Louis!” Janet yelled, “Get the car and tell the palace infirmary they may have incoming. Computer, Connect me with Admiral Klond.”
“I’m here chief,” The communicator replied, “We got the message. We’ve launched the alert birds, and I’m rolling the heavy iron. The Evac Hospital is ready to accept casualties.”
“Copy all,” Janet called, as Louis her aid and driver roughly pulled her through the door. His job was to get her where she needed to be.
“Trena Fire, Bat Six is responding to the convention center.” Louis called her old tactical call sign. She was now Chief 1 on the planet wide fire emergency network.
“Roger Bat Six,” The AI replied, “Stand by for dispatch. All stations, we have a Mass Casualty alert at the convention center, Task Forces one, three and nine. Air rescues one and two; cave in pods one and two. Mass casualty pods one and three.”
The AI had gone to it major incident response protocol. The AI by calling for task forces was emptying whole fire stations. It was the fasted way to dispatch whole stations, and since that included the ladders, the rescues, the engines, the medics, including the specialty equipment such as cave in and mass casualty pods it was the most efficient way to get the troops moving.
It was sheer bedlam getting out of the palace offices to the chief’s buggy. The palace was going to lock down mode. They were reacting to a headless state protocol. They didn’t know if they had lost the Queen or not. So they were acting as if they had. Finally they made it through to the entrance where the chief’s buggy was parked. When the sirens came on and they started for the entrance people and things started to get out of the way. Louis her driver took the center lane and started to move through traffic like a man possessed. The Trena Traffic Management AI was giving them and the other responding companies a clear shot to the convention district. When they got closer to the convention center two hover cycle cops started to leapfrog the intersections for them. Louis fell in behind Rescue 1 and they were soon sandwiched between Ladder 1 and Rescue 1. They arrived on the scene as the other companies began arriving.
“Battalion Six on the scene assuming command. We have a multistory convention complex with some smoke showing. Rescue 1 get in there and give me an assessment; Engine 1 take a line in. Medic 1 get me triage set up in the parking lot. Ladder 1 get me an LZ up.” Janet looked across and saw ES 1 coming in. Technically her boss until she had been seconded to the evacuation command. “Joe get staging set up I have IRS,” (she pronounced it as iris), “resources inbound and they’ll need to have a place to stage out of.”
He nodded and called, “ES 1 to all units, Chief Able has command, and Chief Timken has staging.”
He walked over to where most of the arriving fire equipment was arriving waiting for an assignment.
Every Last Mother's Child Page 69