Earth Awakens (The First Formic War 3)

Bingwen read to the doctor the full diagnosis: acute pain localized to the right iliac fossa; elevated white blood count; rebound tenderness and guarding in the right lower quadrant of the abdomen; he shared the numbers for hemoglobin, hematocritin, blood sugar; he described the results of the ultrasound and CT scans, which had identified an inflamed appendix with pus, fibrin, and congested blood vessels on the surface. Bingwen didn't know many of the English words and thus what their Chinese equivalent would be, so he simply pronounced them in English and hoped the doctor understood.

When he finished, the doctor said, "How old are you?"

"Eight. But I don't understand most of what I'm telling you. All I know for certain is that Niro needs surgery immediately. Can you come?"

"Yes. I'll send someone to get him right away. You did good."

Two soldiers arrived minutes later with a gurney and took Niro away. Pipo insisted on going with him, but the soldiers wouldn't allow it. When they were gone, the crowd dispersed. Bingwen could see the adults whispering to each other, passing the news.

Pipo stared at the exit where Niro had gone, and Bingwen tried to reassure her. "The doctor sounded kind. When I told her it was appendicitis, she didn't seem nervous. I'm guessing she's done that surgery many times before."

Pipo turned to him, and for an instant he saw the girl she had been before the war, small and afraid and delicate.

Mama Goshi asked to see the Med-Assist device again. "Where did you get this?"

"From a soldier," Bingwen told her. He didn't want to tell her it was Mazer's and that Mazer was somewhere in the facility. He worried she might try to return it to him.

She gave it back to him and said, "Come with me."

Bingwen followed her to the nurses' station where a boy lay on a cot.

"He says his ears and jaw hurt," said Mama Goshi. "Can your doctor pad tell us why?"

Bingwen looked at the boy, and the two nurses seated around his cot regarded Bingwen curiously. They were not real nurses, Bingwen saw. They were mothers and grandmothers from farming villages, simple people, doing as best as they knew how, which medically wasn't much.

Bingwen set up the device and followed the instructions. Soon the device asked that he attach an otoscope head to the camera lens. It showed him a picture of one, and he asked the nurses if there was such a thing in the medical supplies. One of them left and returned with a few options. Bingwen attached one as best as he could and continued. The boy had a severe inner ear infection, and the Med-Assist recommended the appropriate dose of antibiotics and pain medicine.

Mama Goshi had him scan other people next. A woman had a ruptured disc in her neck. A man had a sinus infection. A crying baby had acid reflux. A pregnant woman wanted to know the sex of her unborn child. Some of the people he could help; others he couldn't. Sometimes they had ailments the device couldn't identify. FURTHER LAB WORK REQUIRED, it would say. Or ADDITIONAL TESTS NEEDED. Or PLEASE SEE A DOCTOR FOR FURTHER ASSISTANCE. Other times it prescribed medicine that the fac

ility simply didn't have.

Word of the failures didn't spread nearly as quickly as the successes, however, and soon people from Fang, Fire, and Wings were coming for a diagnosis, forming a line that stretched down the tunnel.

Bingwen pulled Mama Goshi aside. "What you're having me do is rather dangerous," he said. "I'm not a doctor. The device is for emergencies in the field, when a real doctor is inaccessible. It's a last-resort option. It can be wrong. These people need a real doctor."

"We don't have enough," said Mama Goshi.

"Then we need to get some," said Bingwen. "Can you take me outside the facility?"

"Why?"

"The Med-Assist can't get a sat connection this far underground, and I know someone who can help."

She announced to those waiting in line that they were taking a break. Then she took him up a service elevator to the garage. Bingwen had retrieved his radiation suit, and he slipped it on once they reached the main door. Two soldiers guarding the exit stopped them when they approached.

"He needs a moment outside," Mama Goshi told them. The men looked at each other, shrugged, and let Bingwen out.

"Knock twice to be let back in," said one of them.

"And don't let the Formics eat you," said the other.

They closed the door behind him. It was night out. Bingwen walked a short distance away until he got a strong signal. He checked the time. New Zealand was four hours ahead. It was the middle of the night there, closer to dawn. She had told him to call at any hour, however.

She answered on the third ring, her voice groggy. "This is Kim."

"It's Bingwen," he said. "The boy. From China. I'm sorry to wake you."

She was instantly alert. "Bingwen. I've been so worried. Are you safe? Where are you?"