Ground Zero: Prequel to Numbered Series by Magus Tor

Author:Magus Tor [Tor, Magus]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Magus Tor Books and Games
Published: 2015-04-02T07:00:00+00:00

***

The time was growing near. Every Year Five student had to inject. But, of course, each had to wait until a suitable patient had been found. Aurelia knew that the patients would be sick with little or no chance of survival. These were considered the best candidates for the Trainees first injections, since the psychological stress of injecting someone likely to die anyway was less. But that didn't ease her worries. She spent more and more time thinking about what her father had asked her.

“If you fail to inject someone that is supposed to be injected, what will happen to that person?”

She was still uneasy about taking life. But the more she thought, the more she thought she could understand what he was getting at.

“They will die anyway,” she said to him, coming to his desk one evening.

“Ah,” he said, putting down his screen. “You've had time to consider then?”

She nodded, and perched herself on the edge of his desk.

“If I refuse to inject a patient, someone else will do it anyway. I'll then become a Failure, and will not have had any other effect on the outcome of the situation, making it illogical to refuse to inject someone.”

“Very good,” said her father. He appreciated logic. “Take it further.”

“I'm not sure yet,” she admitted. “But I think that you're telling me that if I disagree with the system that it's better to fight from inside than from outside. Maybe that if, when, I'm qualified, I will be in a better position to change the system.”

“Possibly,” said her father. “Though you might also not be.”

Aurelia nodded her head in acquiescence of this. “But by becoming a Med Worker I can save lives, as well as taking them, and include the possibility of trying to change the system. Whereas if I refuse to perform injections I can save nobody, because I will become a Failure.”

Her father's blue eyes clouded a little, but he nodded in agreement with her. “Sometimes, Aur, there's no right answer. You must learn this. As hard as it can be, there are times when the only thing that you can do is to mitigate the negative, rather than removing it altogether. Life just isn't black and white.” He smiled at her. “It would be boring if it were. There are millions of shades of grey in between, and it's up to you to navigate them as best you can.”

It was a comfort to her. She remained worried, but intellectually understood what she was being told. The situation was made slightly better when Marnee's distinctive tone sounded from Aurelia's screen.

“I did it,” she said, the moment that Aurelia clicked the com icon. “The call came this afternoon when I got home, and I had to go straight back to the hospital. But I did it. I injected.”

Though Marnee was her best friend, Aurelia hadn't shared all her thoughts on injecting with her. To think as she did was tantamount to treason, and she knew that Marnee had not been brought up in the same way as she had.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.