Dial H for Heroics

Josie had built an operating room in the hospital without realizing it. She shook her

head when her bird pointed the space out to her. She had even built an observation

deck which she was sure was a thing out of television instead of how real hospitals

did things.

The meeting had gone as well as expected. The Amazons divided themselves into

sections. One section would stay at the House and keep it up and guard the land from

outsiders. They would also keep watch in case the mushroom people woke up and

wanted help.

One section would do both where they would help clear the sleepers off the yard and

put things up and keep the supplies going for the new facility. They formed the spine

of the support group that both sides needed.

The third group would be the primary caregivers for the sleepers after they wake up.

They would operate the scanners, check for anything wrong, take care of anybody

trying to use the hospital in the neighborhood. They would be the ones that would

have to splint broken bones, give aspirin, test for diseases.

Jane was going to run everything with Hilda as her number two at the house and

running support for the House until she decided to leave or not. Jane had asked her

to pick someone to be her number two to take over for her if she did leave.

Madam Harp and Massa were put in charge of the Hospital, running the day to day,

and asking Jane for important decisions. They were in charge of picking shift leaders

to run the floors and make sure everything ran smoothly with potions, food, and

support services.

Josie and Elaine were the Amazons’ outside consultants, and primary clients. They

funded everything, but they could only ask for certain things, and if the group needed

extraordinary help, then the champion of order would have to step in.

Jack was her number two.

Josie had remained as quiet as possible at the meeting with Sir Harp at her side. He

had started giving lessons to the Amazons in sword fighting since the dinner. He

nodded at his students as they recognized him.

“Everyone who is working here can take the tour one at a time, or as a group as we

get set up,” said Jane. “For now, you are going to have to guard the estate, and make

sure none of our possible plague carriers is taken from us. You are in charge, Kara.”

“The house will still be here when you get back,” said the gate woman with a mock

salute.

“All right,” said Jane. “Map, please.”

Two women hung a map of the city on the wall. They stepped back to give their

leader room to move.

“This is the Hospital,” said Jane. She indicated a dot in the northeast quarter of the

city. “This is us.” It was another dot in the northwest. “Jack is going to put in doors

to let us move across this space instantly. That way we don’t have to worry about

traveling across the city unless we want. There will be a code on the door so that no

one but us can use the door at either end. Even though we are helping Jack and Josie,

we have to protect ourselves.

“We are going to be hiring adventurers to help us. They will be acting as guards and

orderlies. I don’t mind you getting involved with them, but if there is trouble, that

adventurer will be kicked. I want things to run smooth so the less problems we have,

the better I will like it.

“If you can’t, or don’t want to do the work involved, I will grant a severance. I do not

say this lightly. I need all the help I can get. On the other hand, dissatisfaction causes

problems and I would rather smooth things out while we are getting started than being

halfway into things and having a bunch of you pull out.

“Before we move on, are there any questions?”

“Why are we doing this?,” asked a woman in the back.

“Josie?,” said Jane. She looked at the champion of order standing by herself.

“I asked Jane for help,” said Josie. She looked at the woman in the back.

“So we just stop what we are doing to help you?,” said the woman in the back.

The crowd separated from the woman so they wouldn’t get caught in anything like

lightning, or dragon’s breath, or anything that looked like being turned into a toad.

“Yes,” said Josie. “There are a hundred million real reasons that you should help me.

There are a hundred million reasons why you should help anyone. I need the help to

move these people out of here just like I, or Jack, helped you when we didn’t have to.

We expanded our mission statement since the Society only cares about you as a side

issue to whatever mission they want us to do. As far as they are concerned, you could

be on your way to anywhere in chains, waiting for something bad to happen to you.

They could care less as long as their goals are met. What are the lives of a few women

worth in the grand scheme of things compared to the rest of the world? If you don’t

want to help, that is fine too. I don’t rip people’s ears off no matter what Hilda says.”

“And Josie is paying us to do this,” said Jane. “So while she is not trying to hold that

over our heads, she is making sure that we can stay and have enough to eat without

having to beg in the streets, or go back to the houses, or try to find a place to live with

no money to do that. Are there any other questions?”

“Are we going to help people from the streets?,” asked another woman.

“Madam Harp?,” said Jane.

“The mission profile is help anyone we can for pay,” said Madam Harp. “Massa and

I are hoping that we can help people and then send them on their way. We know a

couple of alchemists that might help us with potions, and we know some healers that

we can ask to help out. They will have to be trained like we will have to on how to

use the tools the building has.”

“Cleaners and scribes? Please raise your hands,” asked Massa. She nodded at the

sections lifting their hands. “Cleaners, you will have to handle the dirty linens, and

make sure the worst parts of things are destroyed. If someone is sick, their bedclothes

can carry their disease to other people. You have to be careful in how you do things.

“Scribes, you will be responsible for making sure to keep records of all of our bills

that are sent out, what we did for each patient, the patient’s name, any taxes for the

city and duchy, expenses. I know that it is normal to skim some of the coins moving

around, try to keep that to the minimum. Understood?”

Some of the faces looked indignant at either the implication they were thieves, or that

they should be called out in front of everyone else.

“Nurses?,” asked Madam Harp. She looked at the women who raised their hands.

“The hospital is equipped with the body scanner. We will have codebooks for you.

We hope that you will go from taking care of people in their rooms to directing new

people according to the tools we can give you at the moment. You may have to learn

things about potions, healing bone breaks, stitching up injuries, and so forth. Massa

and I will be learning right beside you so don’t be afraid to ask questions about

things.”

“Is there anything else?,” asked Jane.

The women reacted in the negative.

“Step forward, Marla,” said Jane. The slight woman did so. “We’re going to operate

today. We’re going to try to save your twins.”

A hum went through the crowd. There were some comments that made Marla cringe.

“So everyone on duty is going to go to the hospital right now,” said Jane. “We are

going to look everything over, check everything. Cleaners, scribes, nurses, general

support, I need you to look over your stations, figure out what you need to operate,

and then put together a list of things. As soon as we can get the alchemists, we can

dispense potions to people who need them. Marla is going to be the first patient. Then

everyone who has the growths will be next until they are clear. Then we will start

waking up our sleepers. Once we clear the lawn, Jack is holding more victims in cold

storage that have to be worked on and moved out. Either these new women join us

after we get them back on their feet, or they are moved out to wherever they want to

go. Once we are done with this giant task, we will decide if we should close the

Hospital and disperse everything. Josie, start moving us so we can walk around and

figure out what we are going to do.”

Josie nodded. She called on Zatanna. She hooked all the women helping her to fire

birds that she sent across the city. The hospital staff burst on the manor grounds one

by one as each bird reached its destination, the lobby area with its information desk.

Josie and Sir Harp were the last to disappear from the lawn.

Madam Harp and Massa led the crowd through the ground floor. A cafeteria, offices

for the scribes and administration, a set of rooms marked Emergency, and another set

marked Operating Rooms were at the end of the long hall. Portable scanners were on

the walls, lines indicating direction were on the floor. A picture of Steve Austin’s

profile caught Josie’s eye as she walked at the back of the crowd.

One of the cooks broke off and checked the kitchen. She shook her head at the lack

of ingredients. The first thing they would need was supplies so the Amazons could

eat.

“What is the Emergency section for?,” asked one of the nurses.

“If we have someone hurt from the street, we bring them in, and tell them what’s

wrong,” said Madam Harp. “If we can fix their problem, we do that. Scribes will have

to get their name and home so we can collect our due from them.”

“If they have to stay, we move them into a room until they can move out on their

own,” said Massa. She pointed at the elevators.

“Operating Rooms?,” said another woman.

“They are for taking things out of people that shouldn’t be in them without killing

them,” said Madam Harp. “We might not be successful, but we are going to try.”

“This is where we are going to work on Marla,” said Josie from the back. “Let’s see

the room.”

The crowd filed into the room, circling the sunken area where the bed would be rolled

in. A scanner and an equipment rack stood to one side. Space for more equipment was

marked by spaces in the floor.

“We’re going to need disposable gowns too,” said Josie. “That way we can dress our

patients in things we can burn when we don’t need them.”

“I’ll put it on the list,” said Hilda. She brushed her mane from her face.

“Marla, we’re going to get you a bed,” said Josie. “Then we’re going to get started.”

She looked around. She pulled out a piece of paper, and pen. She wrote down what

an artificial womb should have in it with the help of Supergirl. She made it big

enough for growing twins. They were going to be very premature, and she hoped this

would be enough to do the job.

Elaine and Massa came in with a rolling bed. They locked the wheels in place when

the thing was under the scanner’s awning.

Josie turned into Zatanna and wished for the artificial womb to build itself from the

paper and idea of a machine. She made sure to add whatever coins she had in her

pocket to add to the material.

She didn’t want the thing to collapse if the mana fled the air.

She changed back as soon as the spell finished.

“Get up on the bed,” said Josie. “This isn’t how I would like to do things, but

everyone is going to want to know that I didn’t turn you into a puppet and send you

back to them.”

“I understand,” said Marla. She climbed on the bed.

Josie turned on the scanner, checked the equipment rack. She could do the job if she

knew how to use the equipment. There were no pain blockers, or any drugs. She

would have to make her own with Doctor Occult.

“There is a reading from the scanner up here,” reported one of the nurses. She pointed

at a screen that popped out of the front of the theater to show what was going on with

Marla, and her kids.

“Codebook?,” asked Massa.

The nurses looked around. One of them found one. Then another.

“All right,” said Massa.

“Marla,” said Josie. “This is going to be easy, because I am going to be using Doctor

Occult. Ordinary healers won’t have it as easy as I am going to make it look.

Everybody ready? I want to make this fast. The twins will need to be put in the false

womb as soon as we can so they don’t die during the operation. I don’t want you to

be scared.”

“Just don’t rip my ear off,” said Marla. She smiled.

“I’ll do my best,” said Josie. “Everyone wash your hands. We don’t have latex gloves

to cover them, but we can at least wash up first. Clean hands will help keep germs

from making Marla sick after we are done.”

The ladies washed their hands in the ready room just outside the operating theater.

Josie hoped this wasn’t a big mistake. They reentered the area. She spotted the future

nurses going over the codebook for the scanner.

“All right,” said Josie. “The first thing we are going to do is put Marla asleep and

numb any pain she might feel. Then we are going to operate and take the twins out.

Once we have them safe in the womb, we will reverse everything and make sure that

she comes out all right. Marla, there is going to be a small risk to you and the babies,

but we will do what we can to save all three of you. I want you to close your eyes and

start counting.”

Josie checked the area one more time. She preferred blowing people up over trying

to do medical procedures. Madam Harp and Massa stood on the other side of the

table. Madam Harp nodded that they were ready. Jane and Elaine stood on her side,

ready to help where they could.

She listened to Marla counting.

She hoped she was doing the right thing. She called on Doctor Occult.

Josie extended her scan to overlap what the machine was doing. She picked out a

thousand spots that needed to be fixed. She didn’t have time to do all of them. She

had to concentrate on the babies so they didn’t kill their mother trying to get out of

her womb.

She put Marla to sleep, and shut down the pain receptors in her head. She nodded

when the scanner agreed with her assessment. She pulled Marla’s tunic out of the way

before she took a bottle of iodine from the equipment rack and covered the sleeping

woman’s stomach to kill any surface germs. She pulled a scalpel from the rack and

cut the skin where her scan said she had to. She frowned as she asked for Madam

Harp to help her hold the skin back.

The scanner gave a lot of recommendations on what should be going on. It had

detected the magic in use with the results, but not the actual cause. Some of the

crosses turned to checks as Josie, Madam Harp, and Massa worked.

“We’re going to need the life support womb, Elaine,” said Josie. “Open the door for

me. I will have to put each girl in its place so it can grow big enough not to need it

any more.”

“Ready,” said Elaine. She stood beside the door, ready to close it when the babies

were put in.

“We’re ready to cut and clamp everything,” said Madam Harp. Massa nodded at her

side.

“I’m never having children,” said Jane.

“I don’t have a lot of time,” said Josie. “Let’s see what we can do before I time out.”

The women worked as quickly as they could to take the twins from the womb. Josie

used Doctor Occult to keep them safe until she had them put in their protective

place. The scanner in the machine gave codes on the girls as they floated in its care.

Elaine nodded as she looked at the codes.

Josie and her assistants put Marla back together as rapidly as possible. She kept an

eye on the watch as she worked to make sure her patient didn’t bleed out. They made

the last stitch just as her persona wore off.

“The scanner is not quite saying she is clear, but there are a lot less codes present,”

said Massa. “You saved her life.”

“You did that,” said Josie. She took a breath. “We need to clean up. Marla and her

girls need to be wheeled to a room. I don’t remember if we set aside room for babies

here. Massa, the machine has to be plugged into the wall of her room. I gave it a

battery charge, but if the power goes out, it will kill the twins.”

“Any volunteers to take Marla and the babies up to her room?,” said Jane. “Someone

will have to sit with her, and we are going to start our paperwork with her. Cooks and

support, make sure we can start feeding people in the next few days. I doubt we will

need more than soup at first.”

“She is going to need a change of clothes for when she wakes up,” said Elaine.

“I will handle it,” said Madam Harp. “Before we break up, do any of you think you

can copy what we did? Do any of you want to work on learning how?”

Three women stepped to the front of the overhead deck.

“You are our new midwives,” said Madam Harp. “We expect you to serve in rotation

when we don’t have any mothers present. Until then, I want you to take care of Marla

and make sure her life supporting machine for her twins is plugged in. You might as

well think about what you need for the hall while you are there. I am going to let you

make up your schedule right now until Marla is back on her feet. I will ask Josie to

get you some material to help with your training. The midwives will need a dedicated

scribe. I need a volunteer.”