"Commander, this T3 Andromeda-class Interstellar Medical Ship of ours is fitted with 1,000 top-grade medical pods, able to give long-term treatment to the gravely ill. Beyond that, within the ship we sort patients by the severity of their wounds into red, yellow, and green treatment zones. Red is the critically ill, needing a medical pod to be healed. Yellow is the gravely wounded — serious injuries, but not life-threatening; treated in a medical pod as the case requires. Green is the lightly wounded, who can receive swift treatment and placement in the light-injury zone. Besides the medical pods, we have 10,000 critical-patient beds in all, and 100,000 ordinary-patient beds; every bed is fitted with hibernation-pod equipment, so that when the ship makes a warp jump, these patients aren't affected. There are large communal hibernation pods as well. In special circumstances, the T3 Andromeda can carry up to 300,000 people through warp travel. And in the ship's hangar there are a certain number of battlefield unmanned rescue pods, which can carry out the transport and rescue of critically wounded patients aboard warships still in combat — and can perform emergency rescue of crew who've escaped a fallen warship in escape pods." Sis Ram kept up her introduction all the way along.
In truth Zhao Chen knew the T3 Andromeda well enough already. This was more to satisfy Shen Yan's curiosity.
"So those are the unmanned rescue pods!" Shen Yan, through the corridor's transparent glass, happened to see the cylindrical objects docked, one after another, in the hangar.
"Yes. These unmanned rescue pods come large and small; the large ones might better be called unmanned rescue boats, the small ones under three meters long, holding just one person. Inside they have mechanical arms that can automatically grab a patient and settle them within the pod. The pods' outer shells are strong enough to withstand a T2 warship's regular main-gun fire. This is a vital technology for rescuing the wounded on the battlefield!" As Sis Ram explained this, her eyes held something like worship for the Zhao Chen beside her. As far as she knew, this T3 Andromeda came of ship technology the Commander had produced. With this technology, the numbers of those killed in battle could be cut, on the battlefield, by at least half!
Just then, Sis Ram received the report sent back by the medics who'd examined Grandma Shen. She looked at Shen Yan, then at Zhao Chen.
"Sis Ram, just tell me my grandmother's condition straight. Yanzi's not afraid!" Shen Yan said firmly. Zhao Chen nodded slightly.
Sis Ram began to lay out Grandma Shen's condition. Grandma Shen's illness came of long years of working in an environment of a certain radioactive element, which had left her body severely eroded. Before this, Grandma Shen had already undergone one course of treatment; her internal organs, through certain advanced medical means, were basically under control now. Only the radioactive element within her brain couldn't be cleaned out. This too was the cause of Grandma Shen's persistent clouded state.
"I have one piece of bad news and one piece of good. The bad: Grandma Shen's condition is indeed very grave, and it will be very hard to cure completely in a short time." Hearing this, the look in Shen Yan's eyes dimmed somewhat. "The good news is that the T3 Andromeda has the ability to treat her — but it needs a long treatment cycle, an estimated year and more to cure her completely. On average, once a week she'll need to enter a top-grade medical pod."
The news Sis Ram delivered left Shen Yan overjoyed and, at the same time, her feelings a tangle.
"I heard my sister say that one use of a top-grade medical pod like that costs tens of thousands of star coins…" Shen Yan bit her lip; from the look of it, she was worried over the treatment cost.
Zhao Chen patted Shen Yan's little head and laughed. "You treated your big brother to a meal before; your big brother helps see to your grandmother's illness — call it even between us, neither owing the other."
Shen Yan looked at Brother Zhao Chen; young as she was, she was clever, and she knew this was Brother Zhao Chen helping her selflessly. What was one nutrient-ration meal worth? Her eyes couldn't help reddening and welling up.
"If there's no objection, then we can begin the first treatment now." Sis Ram looked at Zhao Chen.
"Begin," Zhao Chen agreed.
"I'll go arrange it — excuse me a moment." Sis Ram went off to see to Grandma Shen's treatment.
Zhao Chen, meanwhile, took the chance to bring Shen Yan to the T3 Andromeda's ship canteen.
"These… I can eat all of these?" Shen Yan gulped, looking at the desserts and ice cream before her — things she'd only ever seen in advertisements.
"They're all yours," Zhao Chen said with a smile.
Shen Yan hesitated, and only when Zhao Chen urged that it'd melt if she didn't eat did she pick up a spoon and start.
"Sho good…" Shen Yan wore a look of pure enjoyment, her words a little slurred with the cold in her mouth.
Amid this lovely mealtime—
A rush of hurried footsteps came.
"Yanzi!"
A familiar voice. Shen Yan looked over — there stood her sister Shen Bing, watching her anxiously.
"Sis!" Shen Yan gave a start, then, like a child who'd done wrong, was somewhat at a loss.
"Don't blame Yanzi — I was the one who had her keep it from you. I thought that if I offered to help your grandmother openly, that pride of yours might not be able to accept it. So I acted first and reported after." Zhao Chen looked at Shen Bing, his old class monitor, and smiled.
Shen Bing looked at Zhao Chen, her feelings complicated. "I… I can cure Grandma myself…"
"And how long will you need? A year? Five years? 10? You can wait — but can Grandma Shen? And I treat Grandma Shen not because you, Shen Bing, are my class monitor, but because Grandma Shen is a veteran worthy of respect. A veteran like this — had I never seen such a one, then so be it. But now that I have seen it: the Empire won't act, so I, Zhao Chen, will!" Zhao Chen said gravely.
Shen Bing bit her lip; and just as she made to speak—
From behind her came a call. "Bing'er… Yanzi…"
Shen Yan looked past Shen Bing, her face all astonishment. "Grandma…"
Shen Bing turned her head, and stared in disbelief at Grandma Shen, walking toward them step by step on a cane — her eyes, compared with the clouded look of before, far clearer now.
"Grandma!" Shen Bing, moved, clapped a hand over her mouth. In this whole stretch, though Grandma had woken from the cryo pod, she'd stayed clouded of mind, muttering only of things long past, knowing neither Shen Bing nor Shen Yan at all. And now she could call out both their names — and those kindly eyes, were they not the eyes of Grandma before she'd fallen ill?
"Grandmother, your body is still very weak just now. You mustn't move about too much." Sis Ram appeared behind Grandma Shen, pushing a wheelchair, and helped Grandma Shen to sit in it.
"It's only… only that I haven't felt this comfortable in so long… I wanted to walk a little more…" Grandma Shen said with a smile, then let her gaze fall on Zhao Chen, and said gratefully, "Was it you… who treated this old woman? Thank you…"
Zhao Chen stood straight, placed a hand over his chest, and gave a military salute. "It's we juniors who ought to thank you."
Grandma Shen, looking at Zhao Chen's bearing and his gesture, felt — for some reason — that he was so very like the beloved of her youth, the one she herself had ordered to the front to fight with all his valor. The two figures seemed, for a moment, to merge into one.