Autopsy Turvy

Posted on Thu Oct 3rd, 2024 @ 1:26pm by Lieutenant JG Toareth Rouen (née Darqa)

1,206 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Fortuna
Location: Xachara: Hospital
Timeline: Current

Toareth busied herself looking over reading and performing what experiments she could with the cultures the hospital staff had on hand. She had just begun looking into a sample of pollen from local plants when an orderly rolled in a gurney with a body atop.

"Doctor, I believe you asked for..."

"Yes," Toareth said, immediately dropping what she was working on. "I plan to do a full autopsy."

"Oh I've already done one, ma'am."

"You?" she asked, perplexed and looking the man over. He was clearly not a specialist.

"Oh, because of the situation, Dr. Devereaux trained us on using the autopsy machine. Just a quick scan, maybe 2 minutes, and," he snapped his fingers, "we have what we need."

Toareth was fumbling about in her satchel and pulled a case therefrom. Opening it, she had an array of tools, primarily scalpels and other such medical devices. "Oh, I prefer a more hands on approach. Eyes on as well. You get so much more information than you would from..." and she let her words trail off.

"Ma'am...I...do not believe this person would want their body cut into."

"Has the deceased any more interest or use of this body?"

"No ma'am...I..."

"Would the deceased want us to find answers?"

"Yes ma'am, but..."

Toareth approached the gurney, fully expecting to be given control of it and the situation. "And didn't Dr Devereaux tell you to provide me with everything I needed."

"Yes ma'am."

"And I need this." She placed her hands on the corpse.

"I just think it is a bit...barbaric(?)...maybe...to perform such an autopsy."

"Desperate times."

The orderly reluctantly surrendered control of the gurney and corpse and backed away, almost all the way back to the hallway, keeping his eyes on Toareth. "Do...let...me know...if you need...anything else."

"I sure will," she said.

After preparing her work area and setting a sensor to record everything...

"Dr. Toareth Rouen. Performing autopsy of specimen Darqa001. Sorry Rene but my experiments keep my maiden name. Beginning incision. Skin feels a bit tacky. Moreso than normal for someone deceased only 1 hour ago. Could be a result of this disease we are trying to eradicate."

Toareth cut two incisions across the chest and folded the skin up and over the head. She then retrieved her bone saw and started working at the sternum to separate and open the ribs to expose the organs underneath.

The recording sensor picked up everything, to include the sawing and crunching of bone as Toareth broke through. With a series of grunts, Toareth pulled and opened the ribcage.

"All organs appear to be intact. Specimen was a patient for appendicitis some years back I see. All the immediately visible organs, heart, lungs, stomach, and so on, appear to be a bit more on the bluish side than normal. That would signify a reduced amount of oxygen being received by said organs. Note to self, research oxygen absorption of mammalian lifeforms on planet Xachara and compare readings with that of M-Class planets."

"If there is truly a chronic de-oxygenation of the organs or reduced oxygen in the atmosphere, that could explain the cyanization of organs. But for a planet in its Phanerozoic Eon, oxygen levels should be three times as much."

Seconds pass.

"Something must be disallowing or restricting oxygen absorption. Proceeding with autopsy."

The sensor recorded her working about the cadaver's innards, moving organs around and getting elbow deep in guts.

"The autopsy machine used originally on this body suggested massive organ failure prior to death."

Toareth retrieved her hands and arms, stripped off her gloves and started scanning with her own medical tricorder.

"My readings indicate the same. Visual and physical inspection, however, suggests a near simultaneous and similarly massive organ failure. This person did not appear to die from a massive heart attack, or suffocation, or extremely high kidney values, and on and on. This person died of all of the above occurring all at once. Or within seconds of each other. Imagine yourself having a heart attack, and suffocating, and unable to see, and unable to hear, and unable to speak, and with a splitting headache, and with severe indigestion, and with a horrible UTI...just everything, everywhere, all at once."

"Computer, perform a radiological analysis of the specimen. Compare readings with that of M-Class standards. Include scans of the air inside this room, on this planet."

=^="Working."=^=

"Seems to me that a planet in its Phanerozoic Eon might have differing levels of radiation and even a slightly different physical reality than M-Class planets." She looked at the sensor array. "For laypeople, water might boil, on this planet, at a different temperature on average."

=^="Analysis complete. Specimen is eradiated with 15C at 1 part per..."=^=

"Wait wait wait. Did you say 15C?"

=^="Affirmative. Specimen is eradiated with 15C, The atmospheric makeup of Xachara also has amount of 15C."=^=

"Computer, what is the half-life of 15C?"

=^="On Xachara, the half-life of 15C is 2.449 seconds."=^=

"That is the same as on an M-Class planet."

=^="Correct."=^=

"I was not talking to you. For the record, it has been theorized that 15C can have a detrimental effect on living tissue in the way of causing it to reject oxygen. However, exposure to 15C has to be longer than 10 seconds. On Xachara..." she grunted and pulled a lung out for inspection, "...that time frame could be skewed. However, this unfortunate individual seems to have all the symptoms of prolonged 15C exposure. You would think whoever colonized this world would have thought of that and inoculated the people against it. Computer, what is the concentration of 15C in the atmosphere of Xachara when compared to that of a standard M-Class planet?"

=^="Xachara has an average of 4.5 times the amount of 15C in its atmosphere during the day. That concentration drops to 3.5 to 4 times the amount during the night."=^=

"So, there is part of the puzzle. Increased exposure to 15C."

=^="Correct."=^=

"Not talking to you."

At that moment, Jamie entered the room. She was looking at her PADD. "Dr. Darqa...er...Rouen. Apologies for my tardiness."

"Quite already crewman. I have been busy here. Besides I am sure you have something of a theory."

"Yes ma'am. I used your scanning technique and algorithm and it seems this planet is populated by plant and insect life forms that appear identical but are vastly different once you perform a deep scan."

"Yes, I was aware of that," Toareth said.

"But...you did not tell me that ma'am."

"I wanted you to come to the same conclusion without knowing what I was already theorizing."

"Do you know what this implies, ma'am?" asked Jamie.

"I am very confident I know what this implies." Toareth moved to a computer terminal. "Computer, display the replication matrix of this vaccine. Include the matrix's evolution over time as far back as its initial use. Also, display synthesizing methods of the vaccine to include its source code and pool of synthetic proteins."

Jamie looked at the screen along with her boss. She had to step back in shock at the result. Toareth, on the other hand, was not surprised in the least.

"Crewman Chadwick."

"Yes ma'am."

"Go find me a head of kale."

 

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