The Man Who Sold Mars (20 page)

“Thank you, Selena.”

“Thank you, Stephen.”

I thanked Tot too.  “God’s speed, aunt
Tatyana.”

All of mission control sent me off ”God’s
speed.”

And so the long lonely voyage began.

* * * * *

Two weeks into the routine of the
mission, following an Extra Vehicular Activity and making the final repairs to
primary and backup systems so that the ship could be controlled from Earth if
need be, dragging and down, I returned to my crew quarters to see an indicator
on my com panel displaying that someone was trying to talk to me.  I keyed a
button and live video played on the com screen revealing Tot and Se in a tight
close up, grinning at me while holding a cake with lit candles and wearing
party hats.

They shouted “Happy Birthday!”

“Thanks.  I’d forgotten.  So how are you
two?”

Selena said, “You tell us.”

The close-up pulled away to show the two
of them in my YSR bedroom in negligees, Selena’s motherly belly arching below
hers just a little.

“I would say that you two are doing
mighty fine.”

Tot grinned, “That Lube Mr. Hemmingson
gave you—“

Selena winked, “Get it.”

Together they said, “Quick.”

* * * * *

Two days later, we celebrated Valentine’s
Day.

Then we started spending all our nights
together.  I stayed on Eden time and with the camera in my room they saw me and
I with theirs saw them.

It was an unexpected discovery, I’d been
so busy with Mars as a mission that I’d never thought of using the video feed
for life.  And I used them for life, spending as much time as I could with my
loves.

* * * * *

George’s eyes sparkling, he filled me in
on our second mission.  “Do to an unfortunate series of events, the U.S. was
not able to make the launch window with our stolen Prometheus.”

I grinned, the sparkling in my eyes
matching his.  “Ahhhhh, that’s too bad.”

“I’ll be the second man on Mars.”

“I’ll save you some planet.”

We laughed.

“This time we will launch the Mars
Transit Vehicle and crew separately and rendezvous in space.  Less stress on
the crews.  More power to propel the MTV with a greater margin for error.  Our
shuttles are conducting operational test and will be ready soon . . .”

* * * * *

Then that terrible fire happened, that
I’d been warned about when I was eight, bringing cataclysmic but not
irreparable damage and I knew the sirens would be on Mars waiting for me.

* * * * *

I worked long, long hours to make the
repairs from the fire and after a particularly tiring day I lay in my bed while
Tot and Selena narrated Charles Dickens’
A Christmas Carol
to me.

Tot read, “
I don't mind calling on you to believe
that Scrooge was ready for a good broad field of strange appearances, and that
nothing between a baby and rhinoceros would have astonished him very much.”

And
Selena, “Now, being prepared for almost anything,”

“He was
not by any means prepared for nothing;”

“and,
consequently,”

“when
the Bell struck One,”

“and no
shape appeared,”

“he was
taken with a violent fit of trembling.”

“Arrrrgggggh!”  I felt an incredibly
sharp pain on my right side that in an instant became unbearable.

Alarmed, Tot and Selena asked, “What Is
it?”

In unbelieving, escalating pain, I threw
up.  “Appendicitis at worse, kidney stone at best.”

I walked, crawled, lunged to the infirmary. 
There I hit the button which flooded the operating chamber with antiseptic
gas.  I grabbed a PDA keyed in appendectomy and it gave me the numbers
identifying the instruments I would need and their location.  Once the surgical
chamber was filled with the gas, an instant later exhaust fans whirred to life,
whirring the gas throughout, and then sucking it out.  In a flash, the room was
filled with breathing air, a light indicated it was habitable and the door
opened.

Having the tools, I opened the door, entered
and bolted the Wireless Autonomous Surgical Robot (WASR) in place.  I pulled out
the surgical tools and placed them on the surgical bed’s magnetized surgical
instrument platform so that the magnets locked.

Having everything, I hit the com button
and saw the surgeon was there along with my friends and her colleagues.

Yumana, the original surgeon scheduled
for this flight, stood in front of my friends in the surgical center.  “So you
think you might have appendicitis.”

“Either that or one of those alien things
is trying to launch through my side.”

She grinned.  “Let’s have the robot run
an ultrasound.  I removed my suit, and tied it off around an object in the room
so that it would not float away in the event we lost power to the artificial
gravity generator, and climbed into a harness with large open areas and
magnetized regions to hold surgical devices, and then lay on the surgical table. 
The robot responding from a signal from Earth performed an ultrasound on my lower
right abdominal region and side and the doctor looking at the information
transmitted to her frowned without end.  Announcing the findings, she said, “It’s
not an Alien, but it definitely wants out.  We also have a bit of a problem.”

I looked at her even more worried.

“It’s not with you.  It’s with the
tools.  You are so far out that the latency signal delay is too great for me to
adequately control the surgical robot from here.  Its movements will be too
jerky.  You have two options, allow the robot to perform autonomously or take a
local anesthesia and perform the surgery yourself as I guide you through it.

“If I let the robot do it, I’ll be a case
study and a first regardless of whether it’s successful.”

“Yes.”

I was damned if I did or didn’t.

“OK.  I’ll do it.”

“You’re in a lot of pain can you
concentrate?”

“I don’t have a choice.”

While she talked me through the local anesthesia
procedures I was performing on myself and I started an IV drip with
antibiotics, additional anesthetics, . . . I thought back on what I’d learned
during training on something I thought I would never have to do.

The appendix
is a narrow, small, finger-shaped
portion of the large intestine that generally hangs down from the right side of
the abdomen.  Appendicitis occurs when the interior of the appendix becomes
filled with something that caused it to swell such as mucus, stool or
parasites.  The appendix becomes irritated and inflamed.  Rupture or
perforation occurs as holes develop in the walls of the appendix, allowing
stool, mucus , and other substances to leak through and get inside the
abdomen.  An infection inside the abdomen known as peritonitis occurs when the
appendix perforates.

Peritonitis is an inflammation of the
peritoneum, the thin membrane that lines the abdominal wall and covers most of
the organs of the body.
 
Peritonitis might sound minor, but thanks to modern antibiotics it wouldn’t
kill me, but make me spend the next week or so wishing I was dead.

I had no doubt my appendix was going to
perforate and explode like a nuke and I needed to get it out before that
happened.

Still reviewing, I remembered
the laparoscopic
appendectomy surgical technique was minimally invasive involving making tiny
cuts in the abdomen and inserting a miniature camera and surgical instruments. 
As many as three to four incisions were made.  It used a telescopic rod lens
system that was usually connected to a video camera.  Also attached was a fiber
optic cable system connected to a “cold light source either halogen or xenon to
illuminate the operative field.

During the procedure the abdomen was
essentially blown up like a balloon, insufflated, elevating the abdominal wall
above the internal organs like a dome.  The gas used was CO2, which is common
to the human body and can be absorbed by tissue and removed by the respiratory
system.  It was also non-flammable because electrosurgical devices were
commonly used in laparoscopic procedures.

Instruments: graspers, scissors, clip
applier, etc. . . were introduced into the abdomen through trocars, hollow
tubes with a seal to keep the CO2 from leaking out.  This was a great procedure
for space because it kept the blood in.  An open procedure could have blood
floating about and getting in the way in zero gravity.

Anesthetized I was feeling better.  Not
much, but . . . and the real test was to come.  The difference between theory
and practice.

We began by pressurizing my abdominal cavity
to 15 millimeters to insufflate my abdomen and form the operating theater to
remove the appendix.

I inserted the camera through my,
umbilicus, belly button, and I made two 5 millimeter ports for insertion of the
long instruments and placed the trocars in each.

Then the real fun began.

The appendicular artery runs in a layer
of fat called the meter appendix and I sealed it with heat from a biopredic
diathermic.  On the monitor I watched the flesh sizzle like fat on burning
charcoal, as the device heated by electrical current cauterized the artery.  Believe
me that is not one of my more pleasant memories.

The artery was then divided, in English
it was cut, using scissors.

The appendix was attached to the first
part of the large bowel colon, also known as the caecum.  The meter appendix
was divided all the way down the base of the appendix where it met the caecum.

I then lassoed the appendix with an end
loop, which is a surgical device employing a slipknot and placed at the base of
the appendix and tightened.  It was then divided with scissors.  Again, in
English cut.  I then continued the process with two further endoloops.  One
slightly above the first and the other above the second at a significantly
greater distance.  The appendix was then divided, cut, between the second and
third endoloops.

A stream of puss indicated the acute
inflammation that was present.  More would have discharged had it perforated.

The area of the discharge was then
thoroughly irrigated by warm saline and then it was suctioned out.

I also thoroughly irrigated the pelvis
area, containing the bladder, sigmoid colon, small bowel and iliac artery and
vein.

I replaced the 10 mm camera in the
umbilicus with a 5 mm camera in one of the other ports to allow extraction of
the appendix through the umbilicus once it was placed into an endocatch bag.

I closed the wound and checked my IV drip
with antibiotics and anesthetic.

Yumana grinned.  “Congratulations Dr.
Young.  We completed this procedure in 22 minutes.  On Earth it’s usually 20 to
30 minutes for an experienced physician.”

Not at all in a celebratory mood I said,
“Yeeeeeaaaaaaahhhh.  I think I was significantly more motivated than those
physicians.  I’m a little freaked and traumatized so . . .”  I never completed
the sentence, I blacked out.

Tired, I came to seeing everyone watching
me with awe.

George said, “Welcome back Rip Van Winkel.”

I turned my head towards the clock and
saw the time.  “Only 12 minutes have passed.”

George smiled, “And a day.  You did not
move from that spot we were worried.”

I glanced back at the clock.  I had lost
a day and my IV was empty.

I waved to Selena and Tot, “Hey babes.” 
Sad and tearing they waved back.

“Hey, Selena.”

”Yes.”

“If you spend a million hours in labor. 
It will never compare to this.”

I laughed and my friends joined me.

Hemmingson said, “Your new handle is
Jason.”

I smiled.  “After the unstoppable monster
in those
Friday The 13
^th
movies.”  I grinned broader.

I got up placed four IV bottles on the
rack, inserted medications within them, connected one to me and space weary
grinned at my friends, while I reached to turn off the com button.  “Thanks,
but I can hardly keep my eyes open.  I’m turning off —“

They chorused, “No!”  So I left the
camera on and slept under the watchful eyes of my friends.

* * * * *

Later, I lay on my bed watching Tot and
Selena read to me the end of Jules Verne’s
The Mysterious Island
.