Anda at the Earthquake

Anda woke up, and yawned. As she rolled over onto her other side, she looked at her clock. 03:00. Why had she woken up so early; it was nearly 3 hours before she had to get up and go to work. She sighed, and switched on the radio near her bed. Maybe some music would help her to sleep. She listened to two or three songs before the news came on. She was only half listening, when she heard them say something along the lines of "an earthquake has destroyed the capital city of Cruix, with few survivors. Volunteers and donations of all kind are urgently needed". She sat bolt upright in her bed. Doctors would be an obvious need. She tripped out of her bed, and rushed into her clothes, before charging out of her room, on her way to the medical bay.

She went straight to her boss, annoying him, by waking him up so early, but when she told him why she had come, he gave her permission to take as much time off as she needed to help them. He even offered to send others over to help, if he got permission from his boss. Anda thanked him profusely, and, after preparing a medical kit for herself, rushed over to the docking bays, in the hopes of getting a lift to the nearest planet which had a link to Cruix. She managed to get one direct to the planet by bribing the driver with 20 strips of latinum.

As they neared Cruix, and its capital, Anda could clearly see the amount of damage that had been done. Practically no buildings were standing, and the ones that were looked as though they could fall down at any moment. It made her feel sick to her stomach to look at it. The shuttle landed at about 06:14, and Anda got out. She headed over to the hospital. As she entered, Peter Truart, who had been rushed over to Cruix as soon as possible, looked up, and saw her.

"Excuse me," he said kindly, "but you don't look as though you are in need of medical attention..."

"No," she replied to him, "I'm actually here to help. I'm a doctor."

"Really? I didn't expect to get volunteers this early in the morning," he said, with a tired look on his face.

Anda smiled, "Well I woke up really early this morning, and I heard about what happened, on my radio. I came as soon as I could."

"Well we could definitely use your help," he said, indicating to all of the injured victims in the room.

"Where do you want me to start?"

"Where ever you can."

As he said this, a badly injured sracknai was helped through the door. The right side of her body was badly burned, and both her arms were badly broken. Peter rushed her over to a operating table, and examined her injuries, with Anda close to his side.

"Her arms are both badly broken. We might be able to save the left arm, but there is nothing we can do for the right…"

The sracknai groaned, both from pain, and the thought of living without an arm.

"What's your name?" Anda asked her.

"Eleni..." the sracknai said, cringing with pain.

"You're going to be fine, okay Eleni. You'll get through this," Anda said to the sracknai, just as she passed out.

After Peter had finished removing the right arm, and Anda had finished fixing up the left arm, he turned to her, "I'll leave you to finish off putting ointment onto those burns. Take her to a room when you're done. I need to go and check on other patients." He smiled at her, "You did a good job, you know." And with that he left the room. Anda smiled after him. She was going to have her hands full helping out here.