Saturday, 12 May 2018

Hospital On The Moon

"...she wanted us both at her hospital, on the moon in the twenty-fourth century. I was in no shape to protest.
"She had me take a kettle-hot bath and sent me to bed. An electronic skullcap gave me many hours of sleep.
"Eventually I received clean clothes, something to eat (I didn't notice what), and guidance to her office."
-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 333-465 AT 2319, p. 374.

Doctor Kwei-fei Mendoza has brought Carl Farness from 302 to 2319. They are both in the Time Patrol but the rest of the hospital staff will not be in the Patrol so how does Mendoza account for the sudden appearance of her strangely garbed patient? This question has not occurred to me before. In the twenty fourth century, we gather, people are on the moon but they will not know about time travel any more than most people do in the twentieth.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I think it's fairly obvious, the Patrol had SECRET facilities on the Moon of that 24th century, for times when its agents needed urgent and quick treatment using a more advanced medical science than what we have now. So I would expect Dr. Mendoza to not be that surprised at unexpectedly meeting Patrol agents.

Sean