Kato gripped Sonya’s arm, knelt slightly, and lifted his right leg in a striking position. He then pulled Sonya down violently by her arm and kicked his leg out as hard as he could, hitting Sonya’s left knee. Just as before, bones and surrounding ligaments snapped.
With the sudden tearing of Sonya’s ACL, robbing her of any support, gravity became the dominant force and Sonya began to collapse to the ground.
Kato relaxed his grip and let go of Sonya, turned his right hand upward with his fingers and thumb curled in, and brought the palm of his hand straight up into Sonya’s face, hitting her directly in the nose. The cartilage in Sonya’s nose couldn’t withstand the force and completely crumbled. Sonya’s head snapped back with the sudden force. The C1 and C2 vertebrae that connected at the base of the brain cracked and Sonya’s entire body collapsed to the floor instantly.
The entire sequence of moves had taken less than one second.
Sonya’s body lay, completely limp. Kato stood in place for a moment before sitting - more like collapsing, really - down on the floor next to Sonya’s body.
Nava rushed in with a first aid kit, followed by Alice. Navya went to Kato and Sonya immediately, but Alice stood in the doorway, taking in the scene before her. Kato’s arms and head were covered in blood. Sonya was on the floor not moving. A construction bot was in the corner of the room with a metal bar in its grasp. A cart was in another corner of the room. There was blood all over the floor. At first, it didn’t seem obvious, but Alice could now see that there was a path of blood that started from the doorway, moved to the table in the middle of the room, and came back again to where Kato now sat. There clearly had been a fight and the fight had clearly been fierce, but also very decisive.
Sonya was entirely dormant; even her chest wasn’t moving.
Navya was at Kato’s side and began to inspect his wounds.
“Kato are you okay?” Navya asked as she was fully into her routine. “Does this hurt? What about this?” She kept asking as she probed the area around his wounds.
“I’m fine,” Kato said, not even wincing at his injuries.
“We got the emergency call,” Alice said. “What the hell happened here?”
“Sonya attacked me,” Kato replied. His words were ragged and he had to breathe hard in between most of the words.
“We need to get you to the medbay Kato,” Navya said. “You’ve got some serious wounds here.” Navya knelt next to Sonya to do a quick inspection. Kato stood up and began to walk to the medbay.
Navya sighed very heavily. “She’s dead,” she said. Navya looked up at Alice and then to Kato, who was slowly walking away. Only a few steps into his walk, Kato fell to the ground on one knee and vomited on the floor.
Navya and Alice rushed over to help Kato up.
“Kato, this is very serious. You can’t just go walking around like that,” Navya scolded him. “Alice, help me get Kato to the medbay. I need to look at him right away.”
Alice nodded her head as they both dragged Kato to the medbay.
Navya performed her preliminary check on Kato, then decided to run him through the UMAC. She would need to see the imaging to make any conclusive diagnosis.
While the machine ran, Navya moved to the other side of the room and beckoned for Alice to come close.
“Can you get Sonya?” Navya asked Alice quietly. “I want to take a closer look at her. But don’t bring her in here. Leave her in the adjacent room and wait until we’re done with Kato.”
Navya went back to the machine and continued her procedure. Alice went back to get Sonya. She was going to stop in the docking bay to get the cart but remembered seeing it in the mess hall.
When Alice entered the room where the fight had occurred, she took it all in again. Something seemed off though like something was missing from the room that had been there before. After a moment, she realized the construction bot was gone.
She had a job to do with Sonya, though, so she didn’t put much more thought into it. Bending down, she hefted Sonya’s body and placed it on the cart. It wasn’t too difficult to lift her small body in the low gravity, but it was still awkward, especially doing it to a friend.
Alice placed the cart with Sonya in the adjacent room just as Navya instructed, then went back to the medbay. Kato was still in the UMAC and Navya was looking at the monitor.
Alice walked up to Navya and pointed at the screen as she spoke. “How bad is it?”
“Kato is hurt quite badly. He’s suffered severe blows to the head. I’m waiting to take a look at the images from the UMAC. Depending on what they show, he could have several different issues. Ah, yes, see here?” Navya pointed at the screen. Alice nodded, but to Alice’s untrained eyes she didn’t know what she was looking at.
“He’s got an evolving subdural hematoma,” Navya said.
“I’m not sure what that is,” Alice responded.
“It’s a brain bleed. Essentially, there is blood pooling up between the skull and the brain. That places extra pressure on his brain. It looks to be getting worse, too. Let’s see here,” Navya looked at all the images as they were coming up on the screen.
“His left arm has a greenstick fracture, which is as good as fractures go I suppose. His left hand is broken and his right leg is cut and bruised. I can fix his arm and hand pretty easily, so that’s the least of his worries right now. We’ll need to get to work quickly once the machine is done. We’ll put Kato on the operating table.”
“Isn’t this something Li would help you with? Are you going to use the automatic surgery procedure?” Alice asked. She knew that the UMAC had the ability to perform surgery using its own AI, but that was usually seen as a last resort.
“I’m going to do this by hand. It’s just you and me right now, so get ready to help,” Navya responded.
Blood didn’t make Alice woozy, but she didn’t seek it out either. Alice followed Navya’s lead and prepared herself for what was to come. It didn’t take much longer for the machine to run its procedure and give its full diagnosis. Navya took Kato out of the machine and carefully moved him to the operating table in the room.
“Alice, I need you to grab these drugs from the medical cabinet while I get this set up here. Listen carefully: fentanyl, diazepam, dexamethasone, betadine, and LET gel. Also, grab that plastic bottle that’s filled with water.”
Alice kept mental notes of the drugs and went to the cabinet to grab them. Meanwhile, Navya continued to work on Kato.
“Alright, let’s connect this,” Navya spoke to herself. She grabbed a device that looked like a small hula-hoop and placed it around Kato’s head near his eyes.
Alice returned with the drugs and saw a machine nearby light up, showing various and important data such as blood pressure, heart rate, and blood oxygen saturation. The machine started making a distinct beep... beep… beep sound at intervals. Alice knew that this was an electrocardiogram, or EKG, which measured the electrical activity of the heart.
Alice thought about how lucky Kato was to be alive during this time. Medical technology was amazing. Instead of electrodes, blood cuffs, oximeters, and other instruments, now only one device gave all the important information, including information that would have required invasive instruments in the past.
“Alice, hand me the fentanyl,” Navya said as she started an IV in Kato’s arm. Then she administered fentanyl into the IV.
“Kato, the fentanyl is going to help with the pain,” Navya said. Then she turned to Alice. “It’s time for us to scrub in and suit up. Let’s go.” Navya and Alice put on surgical masks, sanitized their arms and hands, and donned surgical gowns. Navya also put on special surgical eyeglasses that would be extremely helpful during the upcoming surgery. Before making their way back to Kato, Navya grabbed several surgical instruments. Each instrument had been sterilized and placed in sealed bags ahead of time to be used quickly in emergencies such as this.
Navya activated her surgi-glasses. They magnified and sharpened her view, making it eas
ier to see what she was working on. They also showed her information about Kato’s vitals, allowed her to see images the machine had taken, and displayed a symbol directly on Kato’s head indicating the exact location of the brain bleed.
Next, Navya began to shave Kato’s hair directly above where the brain bleed was. It only took a few moments for her to shave a quarter-sized area. Then she placed a blue cloth with a hole in it around the shaved area.
“I’m going to administer the diazepam. It's an anti-seizure medication. Then I’ll use dexamethasone. That will help reduce brain inflammation. Alice, I want you to use the betadine to sanitize the area I just shaved. Then use the LET gel in the same location. That will help numb the area and reduce bleeding.”
Alice did as instructed while Navya administered both of the drugs through Kato’s IV. When Alice was finished, the shaved section of Kato’s head was a deep yellow color.
“Kato, these drugs are going to make you feel a little drowsy,” Navya said. “Let me stand there, please.” Alice stood aside as Navya moved back into the position next to Kato’s head. Then she began to take out the instruments from the pre-sealed packages. She selected scalpels, periosteal elevators, Weitlaner retractors, a high-speed perforating drill, and a few other tools. Alice stared at the drill for a moment.
“Are you going to do what I think you’re going to do?” Alice asked.
Navya followed Alice’s eyes staring at the drill. “Yes, I am. I’m going to make an incision in a moment. As I work I’m going to need you to either hand me or take away these tools. Pay careful attention and hand me what I need when I ask for it or take it away. Here we go.”
Navya’s surgi-glasses guided her to the exact location of the brain bleed. Just as Navya said she would, she made a linear incision in the shaved area down to the bone. Navya had noticed before that blood doesn’t flow from a wound on Europa as it does on Earth. The lower gravity allowed the blood to pool more.
Then, using the other tools she opened the area, exposing the skull. First using the retractors to pull and hold the skin aside, Navya then took the drill and placed it exactly in the center of the incision.
“Grab that water, please. As I drill, I want you to periodically irrigate the area. Take this tube and place it at the base. It will suction away the water and other liquids as we make progress.”
Alice was shocked to see a drill going into Kato’s skull, but she grabbed the water and tube while Navya began to drill. Once again, Navya’s special glasses helped guide her and let her know exactly how far to drill without any worry of damaging his brain. Alice squirted water onto the drill as it worked while keeping the suction tube below. Then the drill stopped.
“Hand me the suction tube and set this aside, please. We don’t need it anymore,” Navya handed Alice the drill, and then she grabbed the suction tube. “We’re going to need to irrigate the entire area. Take that bottle and spray copious water in here when I tell you to. Alright, go ahead, I’ll suction it out with this tube.”
Alice was nervous, but Navya was so confident that Alice felt like nothing could go wrong. She squirted the water into the hole in Kato’s head. At first, the liquid running out and being suctioned up was a dark, murky looking color. After several irrigations, the liquid running out was as clear as the water going in.
Navya was studying Kato’s vitals in her glasses when she said, “This is good. Really good in fact. I’m surprised at how fast the ICP is decreasing.”
“What’s ICP?” Alice wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to ask in the middle of work, but things seemed to be going very well up to this point and she figured it might be something good to know.
“Intracranial pressure. The higher the pressure, the worse it is for your brain. This is looking perfect. Time to close. Hand me that burr hole cover,” Navya pointed at the table where a circular piece of metal sat.
“Burr hole?” Alice asked as she handed the metal piece to Navya.
“This hole we drilled is called a burr hole. It helps relieve the pressure building up in the brain,” Navya responded and began to set the cover in the hole, then secured it with extremely small screws. After a few more irrigations and suctions, the area seemed perfectly clean. Then Navya closed the scalp with stitches, followed by silver staples to close the skin around the wound. After the surgery, Navya examined Kato’s arm and hand, as well as the cut on his leg. She applied a quick-set cast to Kato’s left forearm and cleaned and sutured his cuts. Unlike the surgery, these fixes were simple, requiring no invasive tools.
Finally, Navya moved Kato back to the UMAC and ran him through again. This time Navya was happy with the images she saw.
In under an hour, Navya had done everything that needed to be done with Kato. Navya was quite an impressive doctor. She had performed emergency brain surgery on Europa, undoubtedly another first, but one that would not be celebrated. Kato had been awake the entire time, too. For the hundredth time, Navya marveled at Kato’s inner toughness.
“Alright Kato, I think you’re good to go for now,” Navya said, putting the last of her tools away. “You’re lucky, believe it or not. The low-g environment changed how your blood flows in your body. It reduced the amount of pressure you were experiencing. We were able to handle the ICP with minimal difficulty because of that. You’ll make a full recovery, we just have to keep a careful eye on you. Try to take it easy. You took quite a beating. Also, I’ve fixed up your arm and hand. You won’t want to go around using it for a while, but it’ll heal quite nicely.” She paused and looked at the adjacent room and then to Alice, knowing that Sonya’s body was waiting.
Kato grunted and drowsily nodded his head slowly in the affirmative.
“Try not to move your head too much, especially not quickly. Alright, Kato let’s get you back to your room,” Navya said as she unfolded a gurney that was stowed away in a cabinet in the room. Carefully, Alice and Navya moved Kato to his room and got him in his bed. All rooms in the Habitat could double as recovery rooms for anyone unfortunate enough to need them. Computers would keep a careful eye on all the vitals of Kato. He was asleep by the time he was lying in bed. Navya and Alice began to walk back to the medbay.
“I want to get Sonya and run her through the UMAC as well,” Navya said to Alice. “Let’s get her in there and take a look.”
It was more difficult to get Sonya in the machine than Alice would have thought. Her arms and legs needed to be ‘re-bent’ into a position that gave enough room for her to fit in the machine. Once she was in, the computer screen lit up red almost immediately, giving a warning.
*Object Detected. No Life Signs Detected. Continue?*
Navya hit the Continue button on the screen and the machine began its work. Several times the screen lit up with a warning of serious problems it was detecting. Finally, it stopped as it finished its diagnosis.
Navya sat, staring at the screen for several minutes, looking at the images.
“What is it Navya?” Alice finally asked.
“Something weird. Something interesting,” Navya said.
“Navya? What does that mean?” Alice asked.
“I’m afraid we need to do an autopsy. And, we need to do it right now.”
THIRTEEN
Neuropathology Autopsy
Felix heard loud noises and woke up to find himself lying on an uncomfortably flat surface. As he opened his eyes and they adjusted to the light, he realized he was on the table in the mess hall. The noises hadn’t gone away though. He propped himself up on his elbows and turned his head to find out what was going on. Oddly, he saw Sonya and Kato moving around quickly. No, they weren’t just moving around quickly, they were fighting.
Rolling off the table, he made his way to the nearby hallway. He thought his jaw and head would hurt, but they felt pretty good. Hiding around the corner, he watched everything unfold. Suddenly, there was a flurry of movement between the two fighters and loud sounds like branches breaking. Just as suddenly as the movement began, it stopped, an
d Kato stood still while Sonya was on the floor.
Alice and Navya ran in and then carried Kato away. They were gone. Felix walked over to Sonya. Even though Kato had been covered in blood, Sonya had no blood around her at all. Her left arm and left leg were both bent at ninety-degree angles that arms and legs don’t normally bend at. The person who had attacked him a short while ago lay dead at his feet.
He saw her tablet on the ground and picked it up. There were some unfamiliar buttons. They were in seemingly random positions on the monitor and were not labeled. He pushed one and suddenly he heard a sound from behind. The construction bot that was in the room had made a noise. He pushed the button again and the construction bot moved again. He took a closer look at the tablet and pulled up the history of the unit. The last thing on the history was a new program. He pulled it up and looked at the code. Felix had had plenty of experience with coding, and this code was a jumbled mess. According to the logs, Sonya had coded this.
Felix looked closely at the unit and its history. The program he had written for the bots to add shielding to the drone was still there, including the note he had left at the end:
*Press this button and everything will run automatically: easy!*
He stood alone in the room and got angry with himself. It was rather unusual for him to get this angry. What was going on and why hadn’t he seen it coming? He pushed aside his thoughts of Sonya attacking him, of Sonya’s lifeless body sitting on the floor, and began to focus on the present. He pushed the ‘compile and run’ button for his program and followed the construction bot as it left the room.
It made its way through the halls to the hangar where another construction bot was located. The bot he followed got into its pre-programmed position and simply sat there. The tablet was flashing at him:
*No drone detected. Program execution halted.*
Of course, Kato and Alice hadn’t taken Little Missy out yet, leaving all the work for him to do. He thought for a moment. Sonya’s report had mentioned the RIID on Little Missy. She had wanted to get her hands on the instruments from Little Missy to analyze the data. Now was as good a time as any to access it. Maybe the data could help reveal what was going on.
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