* * *
The next day, Gallant went to the fleet hospital to visit Kelsey. When he walked into her room, he did not see the old-time, sterile hospital setting with tubes and instruments. Instead, the space resembled her room from her Oregon home. There were numerous holographic representations of her personal items and many pictures of her home and family. Soothing music played quietly in the background. Under her bed were all the modern monitoring devices, hidden from view but able to maintain a complete medical picture of the patient. Her medical condition was being monitored remotely in a nursing station on the floor.
She sat up in bed wearing a comfortable dressing gown. She was still groggy from her recent surgery and medications, so she barely recognized him. He remained in her room for several hours, telling her about his debriefing and reassuring her as much as possible, even though he wasn’t sure how much she would remember afterwards. As Gallant began to get up, he noticed that an incoming video call was buzzing for attention. It was from Kelsey’s parents on Earth. He left quietly to give them some privacy.
After his visit, he went to the hospital reception room to see a doctor in order to have his wounded arm treated. A nurse greeted him as he signed in. She led him to a treatment room where she began removing his bandages. “Tsk, tsk. You should have come in sooner for additional care,” she said, shaking her head in disgust. “This is a serious wound, and it requires serious care, even though the initial aid you received was actually quite good.” She continued to fret over the arm for several more minutes before she placed a sterile cloth cover with a hole that exposed his burns. Then she administered an analgesic and prepared the area for the doctor’s ministrations. The nurse said, “The surgeon will perform the skin graft procedure using the skin grown from your stem cells. He will cut away dead tissue and graft on the new skin.”
The treatment room was filled with instrumentation and medical devices in stark contrast to Kelsey’s room. Gallant sat on an uncomfortable chair before a metal table; his arm had a covering cloth. There was no music, but instead a constant chatter filled the room from an AI unit that was intent on repeatedly describing to Gallant his medical condition and all the raw and gory details of what the surgeon was going to subject him to.
Gallant waited patiently for twenty minutes until the surgeon came in to the room and began to treat him.
The surgeon was a middle-aged man with a lean body mass and vigorous appearance. He appeared to follow his own medical advice about healthy living. He didn’t offer any chit-chat and got right to work.
Gallant watched as the surgeon peeled away his damaged skin and performed the skin graft. Then he applied collagen and healing gels.
The nurse applied a bandage and a covering sleeve to his arm.
“Come back in two days and have the bandage changed,” said the surgeon.
“Thank you for all your help,” said Gallant as he got up the leave. The nurse smiled and said, “Don’t forget to return in two days.”
“Thank you," said Gallant, satisfied that he could return to full-duty status.