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The Red Menace: Latency

Written by Gus Kritikos and Kerryn Offord

Wednesday, 28 November, 1635

Grantville High School Gymnasium, 1500 hours.

Caspar Weybrecht's forehand smash had the shuttlecock shooting through the air straight at Anna Krause. It was only by virtue of her lightning reflexes that she was able to get her racket up in time, and it was blind luck that the racket was perfectly placed to rebound the shuttlecock over the net where Caspar couldn't return it.

"Twenty all," Norma Sims called.

Anna gave the crowd that had gathered around the hotly contested match an "I meant to do that" grin as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. Opposite her Caspar, a senior, was positioning himself to return her serve.

"Players ready? Serve!" Norma called.

Anna dropped a graceful underhand serve just over the serve line in Caspar's court. He struck the shuttlecock back with a slicing backhand that sent it curving toward the rear of the court. Anna's return set Caspar up to take advantage of his powerful forehand. However, this was the third and deciding set of a hard fought match and Anna had learned a lot about Caspar's playing style. She was set for the slam when it came and her return had the shuttlecock sailing high over Caspar, toward the back of the court. He had to rapidly backpedal and only just got his racket under the bird. The shuttlecock flew gently over the net and was a gift for the waiting Anna. Caspar remained near the back of the court, ready to field the slam that she was obviously set up for, so instead, she used a minimum of force to drop the shuttlecock just over the net. Caspar dove desperately, getting his racket under it, but without enough force to lift the shuttlecock over the net.

Anna smiled down at the boy sprawled at her feet and reached out a hand to help him back up. He ignored her hand and rolled back under the net before rising to his feet. Unnoticed, the shuttlecock fell at his side.

"Humpf!" Anna exhaled indignantly before raking the shuttlecock under the net. She bounced it up with the tip of her racket, and with the shuttlecock in hand walked to her serve line.

"Match point!" Norma, called. "Players ready? Serve!"

Caspar's rejection of her offered hand told Anna that she now had him psychologically beaten. It was now just a matter of scoring the required point. Her underhand serve was high. It was a gift that Caspar couldn't possibly resist if he wanted to save the set, and he returned it with an overhand smash that just cleared the top of the net. However, Anna hadn't sent that gift without good purpose. She'd bet herself that tired and beaten as he was Caspar wouldn't try anything fancy. Instead of attempting to cut the shot she firmly expected him to revert to basics and go for maximum power. That meant he'd slam in a direction perpendicular to his shoulder line, which was exactly what happened, and Anna was ideally placed to make a cross-court backhand return that caught the tired Caspar flatfooted.

"Game, and match to Anna!" Norma called to loud cheering, and some jeering, from the players who had gathered to watch the match.

Anna opened and closed her right hand several times to release the cramps built up over the three hard games as she walked to the end of the net nearest the coach. She wiped the sweat from her palm before reaching up to offer her hand to Caspar. She wanted to compliment him on the match, but he looked past her as he quickly mumbled his congratulations for her win before hurrying off toward the coach.

She was shocked at Caspar's behavior, but before she could chase after him to demand an explanation, the coach blew her whistle for attention.

"Caspar, I know the match lasted a bit longer than expected, and thanks for sticking with it until the end. I'll catch you later," Norma said.

Caspar gave Norma a quick salute of acknowledgement before hurrying off to the showers. After he disappeared through the doors, Norma turned back to Anna. "We've had a lot of interest in our expanded Winter Tournament this year, and we need an extra open grade mixed doubles pairing to balance the draw . . ."

"I don't have a partner for mixed doubles," Anna said.

"Don't worry, I know just the person."

Anna swung around to see who Mrs. Sims thought should be her mixed doubles partner. There was nobody behind her, just the still swinging doors out of the sports hall. She stared blankly at the doors as she slowly realized who Mrs. Sims meant. She turned in horror. "Nooooo," she wailed.

****

The weather mirrored Anna's mood. It was dark and miserable, with sleet rattling on her umbrella as she hurried the last few yards from the tram stop to the hospital where she was due to start her shift on the Emergency Department admissions desk.

"You're running a little late, aren't you?"

Anna was startled by the sound of another voice. She looked up and smiled when she identified her foster mother. "Badminton practice ran a little over time," she explained.

"I expect you're doing extra training for Winter Tournament," Garnet Szymanski prompted.

"Yes, and Mrs. Sims wants me to enter in the mixed doubles as well."

"Well, that's good? Isn't it?"

Anna sighed. "She wants me to pair up with Caspar Weybrecht."

"Nice boy. Good brain in his head. He did well in the EMT program," Garnet said.

"He's a prig, Mama Garnet."

Garnet shook her head. "That doesn't sound like the Caspar I know. You must be mistaken."

"He's a poor sport," Anna protested. "He couldn't get away fast enough after I beat him tonight."

Garnet paused. "Are you sure there isn't a good reason why he ran off?"

Anna paused. Mrs. Sims hadn't seemed to mind that Caspar hurried off rather than hang around after the game. "He might have been late for something, but he couldn't even meet my eyes when we shook hands at the net."

"He might have a lot on his mind, what with the new semester entry exams for the B.N./D.O. program at Jena coming up soon," Garnet suggested.

Anna was distracted. That was the same program she hoped to get into, and she had a question that had been teasing her for a while. "Why does the new program lead to a Doctor of Osteopathy rather than a Doctor of Medicine?"

Garnet grinned. "In order to keep the time to gain an undergraduate degree reasonable they've dumped a lot of the content the universities insist is required before they're willing to grant a B.A. Creating a new nursing degree was the obvious solution, but there was still the problem with the existing M.D. programs."

"I would have thought that the university would have been happy to adopt the up-time medical curriculum," Anna said, a little confused.

"You're forgetting one important fact about the universities," Garnet said.

"What?"

"That they are all run by men." Garnet grinned. "There's a lot of chest pounding and bragging rights involved, and one of the most important things Jena University wanted to do is differentiate their medical graduates from medical graduates from lesser schools like Padua and Bologna. The easiest way is to give a different doctorate to those people who have been taught the new, up-time, medical theories."

Anna had to smile at that. Padua and Bologna were Italian universities, and until the up-timers arrived, they had been two of the highest rated medical schools in the world. Even with Herr Stone's help, it was going to be years before Padua offered anything comparable to Jena's medical faculty. "So anybody calling themselves an M.D. won't have trained in the new medical techniques?"

"That's right."

"I wonder what Dr. Adams thinks of that?" Anna wondered out loud with her tongue firmly in her cheek.

Garnet lightly smacked Anna's hand. "Enough of that cheek, girl. Instead, why don't you tell me what you've been doing lately?

"Dr. Abrabanel has asked me to do some research for his lectures to the medical students and resident physicians."

"Oh?"

That one word question was a good indication that Garnet knew more about her activities than Anna had hoped. "He's planning a series of lectures on epidemiology, and he wants me to re-do my posters from last year with the current information to help illustrate," Anna said in the vain hope that Mama Garnet didn't realize just how much time she'd have to devote to the project.

"I know you want to make me and your family proud. You are doing that. And, I want you to know that your sister is already paying enough for your room and board, so you don't really need to work." Garnet paused for breath. "Anna, when are you going to make time for yourself?" she demanded.

"I do," Anna protested. "I do make time for myself. Don't I play badminton?"

Garnet shook her head. "That's not really what I mean, Anna. You should be going out to parties and meeting people."

Anna turned a beady eye onto Mama Garnet. "You mean boy type people?"

"Well, yes."

Anna glared. There was nothing she could possibly say, so she took advantage of the fact that they were just outside the entrance to the hospital to abandon the conversation.

****

"Anna, we have a small problem," Nell Bowers, the hospital admissions clerk, started. "Mrs. Norris has called in sick, so you're going to have to manage the desk on your own. I hope that won't be a problem?"

Anna paused in the action of removing her damp cloak. Sole charge of the Emergency Department desk? She swallowed a couple of times to calm herself. "No, that shouldn't be a problem. The last two nights I worked, Mrs. Norris just watched me as I filled out the forms and the logbook. I hope it's nothing serious?"

"Just a winter cold. Mrs. Norris should be back at work in a couple of days. Now, I'll leave you to get on."

Anna hung her cloak on the one of the hooks at the back of the admissions area, and settled in behind the desk. There was no one in the waiting room as she checked her supplies and sharpened a couple of pencils. She picked up her book bag and started to lay out the notes that Dr. Abrabanel wanted her to work on. "I'd better get working on this stuff while it's still quiet."

Anna dug into the small stack of reports she had brought with her. With a tally sheet and a precious plastic coated map of the area around Grantville, she started tracking the various cases of sickness reported in the area over the past month.

A train on the Bamberg-Saalfeld railway

Elisabeth Ochs laid her book down beside her and shuffled around in her seat in an attempt to relieve the pressure on limbs forced to remain seated for hours. Her family seemed to be coping with the journey reasonably well, but then, they weren't six months pregnant. She caught a movement in the edge of her eyes and looked up to meet the eyes of her middle stepson. She saw the way he was looking at the cover of her novel and raised her nose in the face of his obvious contempt for her choice of reading material.

"Couldn't you find something decent to read, Mommsy?" Twelve-year-old Hans Michael Weybrecht asked.

Elisabeth, who was happily enjoying her Regency romance, looked across to the book Hans was reading. "Saltzman, Siebenhorn, and Stoltz? You think I should be reading their Introductory Alchemy text?"

He nodded. "It's a very interesting book."

"I'm sure it is, and you really shouldn't use your Dr. Gribbleflotz Junior Alchemist Set to replicate some of their experiments."

"That wasn't me," Hans protested.

Elisabeth raised her eyebrows. "What wasn't you?" she asked conversationally. She cast an eye over the youngest of her three stepsons. Eight-year-old Hermann was restlessly sleeping in the corner next to the window. "I'm sure you haven't allowed your brother sufficiently close to your book for him to have read chapter seven."

"You've already read it?" Hans demanded in shocked tones.

She turned to look at her husband who was sitting beside her with her five-year-old stepdaughter asleep across his lap. Her marriage to Nikolaus Weybrecht five years ago when she was barely eighteen had turned out much more successfully than she could ever have hoped for. Nikolaus had a sense of humor, something sadly lacking in her own father, who was a contemporary of Nikolaus. Right now, his eyes were alive with humor at the stunned look on Hans' face.

"We both have," Nikolaus Weybrecht answered.

Hans held the textbook protectively against his chest. "Why didn't you say something?" His eyes switched between the smiling faces of his father and stepmother. "You didn't like the Heinkelmanns either," he accused hopefully.

"They are your mother's family," Nikolaus said.

"But they were being horrible to Mama Lisabeth," Hans said.

Elisabeth exchanged looks with Nikolaus. His late wife's family hadn't responded well when he'd married her so soon after Juliana's death of childbed fever, but Nikolaus had been desperate. He had a business to run, three sons, the eldest only thirteen, and a brand new baby daughter to care for. Most families would have understood him taking a second wife so quickly, but not the Heinkelmanns. Elisabeth was sure that one of the biggest causes of their upset, beyond her general lack of dowry and respectable family, was just how readily her stepchildren had accepted her. "They still didn't deserve having their salon targeted with a stink bomb." She was sure that Hans would have appeared a lot more penitent if she wasn't so obviously trying not to laugh at the memory of uproar that had resulted when the smell started to permeate the crowded room.

"I understand it's a most difficult smell to remove," Nikolaus said. "So don't be caught doing anything like that again."

"Or you'll be thrust upon your grandmother's mercy," Elisabeth finished. She was trying to be strict and condemning of the action, but Nikolaus' former mother-in-law had always been horrible to her.

Grantville Train Station

Betty Jo Hunsaker struggled against the wind and sleet as she walked carrying her suitcase along the road. Somewhere ahead was a tram stop where she could catch a tram to the railway station so she could head back to Magdeburg. However, the wind was playing havoc with her umbrella and she was getting wet.

"Hey, want a ride?" a voice from the road called out.

Betty Jo looked up to see Carl Duvall had pulled up along side her in a pickup truck. She walked over to the open passenger side window. "I'm headed for the railway station," she said hopefully.

"So am I. Toss your bags in the back and climb in."

Betty Jo collapsed her umbrella and put it and her suitcase on the back seat of the crew-cab pickup before climbing in. She slumped down on the seat and smiled at Carl. "Thanks. It's a lousy day to be out."

Carl grinned and passed Betty Jo a cloth to wipe the rain form her face. "Tell me about it. If the shipment coming on the Bamberg train wasn't needed urgently, I'd be sitting at home."

"Well, I'm thankful you had to make the trip," Betty Jo said.

"Yeah, no trouble. I thought you were based in Magdeburg now?"

"I am, I was called back to help revise the curriculum for the respiratory therapy course. Just a few hours on the train and I'll be back home in Magdeburg.

****

Betty Jo let Carl carry her suitcase into the railway station. They found somewhere to sit while they waited for the Bamberg train to arrive. She was half-asleep when the train pulled in and slowly rose to her feet. She was just starting to gather her possessions when she heard the primeval scream of a mother in distress. Her head rose and she scanned the platform. She quickly identified the source and hastened over.

"My baby, my baby!" a mother wailed.

Betty Jo could see a visibly pregnant woman trying to comfort a young child thrashing about in its father's arms. Someone grabbed her hand, and she turned to see a familiar face.

Caspar Weybrecht dragged Betty Jo closer to the distressed parents. "Papa, this is Mrs. Hunsaker. She works in the hospital. Please let her examine Juliana."

Betty Jo reached for the child in the man's arms. They gently lowered the child to the ground before Betty Jo did a quick assessment. The girl was breathing but showed no other response. They had to get to the hospital quickly. She peered around looking for a face. "Carl! I need your truck. We need to get this child to the hospital, now!"

Carl ran up to Betty Jo, pulling the keys to the truck out as he ran. "Do you want me to carry the girl?"

"No, just get the truck." Betty Jo turned to the parents of the child she'd discovered was a girl. "Your daughter needs to get to the hospital fast. My friend has a vehicle that can get there quickly."

The father took the child in his arms as Betty Jo wrapped her arm around the mother and hurried them toward Carl's truck. Caspar took charge of his younger brothers. It took only a moment to get the whole family into the big pickup, and Carl took off in a squeal of tires. Betty Jo was too busy keeping an eye on the child across her lap in the back seat to react to the startled responses of the down-timers to Carl's driving.

****

Despite the bad weather, the trip to the hospital was mercifully quick. Carl screeched to a halt at the entrance to the Emergency Department. The vehicle had barely stopped before Carl was out and pulling the girl out of Betty Jo's lap and into his arms. He turned his shoulder to absorb the shock of the swinging doors as the girl started thrashing again.

Betty Jo helped the pregnant woman out while her husband chivied the three boys toward the still swinging doors.

Leahy Medical Center Emergency Department, Grantville

Anna was deep into her mapping when she was startled by the screech of tires. She heard some shouting and the double doors banged open. Carl Duvall barged into the emergency department, a slight child in his arms. Anna didn't need a second look to realize the child was seizing. She hit the buzzer to alert the duty crew.

Nurses and techs converged on Carl, and carried the thrashing child to the main treatment bay. Warned by the sound of footsteps coming down the hall from the main area of the hospital, Anna held out a clipboard with a blank chart. Doyle Jackson, the duty respiratory therapist, grabbed it and he headed to the treatment bay at a run, while two of his students followed in his wake.

Anna turned back to the reception area where she saw Betty Jo Hunsaker leading a woman not much older than herself, as well as the rest of what she assumed was the patient's family, an older gentleman and three boys. By their dress, they were at least well-to-do Germans, but not local. "Willkommen, Herr und Frau . . ." She continued in German, "To the Leahy Medical Center. Please take a seat here and one of the nurses will be out in a minute to talk to you."

"Hello, Anna."

Startled, it took her a few seconds to recognize her recent opponent in his heavy coat. "Caspar," she acknowledged before giving her attention back to the rest of the family. Her first good look at the other two boys shocked her. The youngest one was obviously feverish, with matted hair and dull eyes. Anna's eyes widened when she noticed a reddish rash extending down his forehead.

"How long have they been ill?" She asked, gesturing at the two boys.

Caspar turned to his father and translated the question.

"Ill? Not Hans as well? Juliana and Hermann have been a little flushed and unsettled the last couple of days, but we have been traveling for four days. We thought it was just tiredness and travel sickness until Juliana fell down and started thrashing when we got off the train."

Anna glanced at Caspar. He was looking at his brothers with barely concealed horror. "Excuse me for a moment, Mein Herr. I must tell Dr. Shipley something. I'm sure that someone will be out to talk with you soon."

Anna picked up her telephone, pushed two buttons and held the hand piece up to her mouth. "Nurse Szymanski to the ED please, Nurse Szymanski to the ED please."

Having made her call she walked around the counter to the treatment bay where Caspar's little sister was being examined. Everyone was clustered around the child, now still and almost as pale as the sheet draped over her. Betty Jo and Doyle were at the head of the bed, supervising their students as they used one of the precious ventilation bags to breathe for the girl. Dr. Shipley was standing back a bit, watching as the well-trained team went through the initial life supporting steps. The child was not even resisting as the senior respiratory therapists supervised the two students squeezing the bag to keep the girl breathing.

Anna edged up to Dr. Shipley. "Dr. Shipley, we have a problem!"

"Oh? What is it, Anna? I heard you paging Garnet."

"The children out here . . . measles . . . I think they have measles!"

"Oh, great!" Garnet had come up behind the two as Anna was talking. "Doc, Anna can introduce you to the family so you can get more information from them. I'll get things more organized here. Take a couple of masks with you for the kids out there." She took a look around, noting that there was a student nurse in the corner busily writing down what was happening. "Listen up, people! We have a potentially infectious case here. Masks and gloves, everyone! Recorder, make sure you have everyone's name down on the list so that we can follow up on the exposures."

Anna left Caspar to introduce Dr. Shipley to his parents while she slipped behind the counter and gathered up her map and papers. It didn't take Dr. Shipley more than a minute before she was showing the two boys how to tie the masks on. "Anna, you have good eyes! It looks like all three of the younger kids have the measles. I'll have Garnet out here in a minute to go over things with Caspar's parents, but we'll be admitting the kids to the isolation ward." With her hand on the door to the treatment bay, she called out, "Garnet, break out the paraldehyde. We're probably looking at measles encephalitis."

The next few minutes passed in a blur. The father was left to comfort his wife and the two now very upset boys while Caspar answered Anna's questions. It was a welcome relief when the swinging doors opened and Garnet came through.

"I'm Garnet Szymanski, the nurse in charge," she said. "Your daughter is resting comfortably now, but she is still very sick. We need to keep her for a while so we can give her the medicine to keep her stable. However, she and your younger sons show all the symptoms of measles, which is a contagious disease. So, we're going to have to put your whole family into quarantine. One of our quarantine houses is right behind the hospital, so you can be close to your daughter." Garnet pulled a chair over to the desk so she could sit and talk with the family without anyone straining their necks.

The father looked thoughtful, "We are familiar with quarantine houses. Most towns have them. But, Frau Szymanski, what is this 'measles' and what is 'encephalitis?'"

"'Measles' is what we call this particular infection, because it is different from smallpox or chickenpox. All three of them start out with the high fever, feeling bad and loss of appetite, but the rashes are different. With measles, the rash is flat and redder, as you see along your youngest son's forehead. If we were to take the masks off the boys, we'd see little white spots on red rings inside their mouths as well. Up-time, we learned that those signs, taken together, are a result of a specific infection. 'Encephalitis' is from the Greek words for 'brain' and 'inflammation' and means that the brain itself is affected by the infection. You might know this type of infection as a 'brain fever.' What it means is that your daughter is very sick, but now that we've controlled the seizures, we believe she'll make a full recovery."

Caspar spoke up. "Frau, this is something only mentioned in the EMT course I just finished. Will I learn more in the study of small life, the microbiology?"

"Yes, Caspar, you'll learn more in your microbiology classes. Now, there's only a small chance that your brothers will get much sicker than they are now, but we don't want them to infect other folks, so they need to keep wearing those surgical masks." Garnet gestured to the masks over Hans and Hermann's faces. She stood up and offered her hand to the family. "They were almost ready to take your daughter upstairs when I came out. Let's go back so you can see her, then I'll have Mrs. Hunsaker escort the rest of you upstairs to see the boys settled. You, Caspar, are just young enough that you will have to spend a couple of days in the quarantine house, but it will be safe for you two, as the parents, to stay with the kids for now. Mrs. Hunsaker will show you over there after that. She'll have to stay there, anyway, for a couple of days."

Anna had been catching up on the last of the paper work while Garnet spoke with the family. She handed three charts to Garnet and stepped back to let the group shuffle through the doors. She could hear Garnet and Dr. Shipley explaining what had happened to the young girl, including the need to keep giving her the medicine for at least a couple of days to let her body heal.

Anna finished making her entries in the logbook, and turned back to the reports she had been mapping. She had a new urgency to her actions, looking for evidence of more cases of measles.

She didn't look up from her work until Betty Jo and Caspar walked back into the Emergency Department lobby. Papers were strewn across the desk and it looked like the map in the middle had developed a case of measles of its own. A rattle of sleet against the windows reminded her why she'd been able to work for so long without being interrupted.

"Anna, I need the key to Snell House. Caspar has to go into durance vile until he's cleared of infection. I get to stay as well."

Anna passed the key to Betty Jo, who couldn't miss the tears in her eyes.

"Honey, what's the matter?"

Silent tears ran down her face as Anna pushed the map she'd been working on across the desk.

Betty Jo stared at it blankly at first, before the meaning of all the dots and dates registered. "Oh, my! It looks like we've got a full fledged outbreak starting, and we missed the beginning of it two weeks ago!"

Anna bowed her head in shame. If only she'd started the mapping as soon as Dr. Abrabanel passed her the reports. Instead she'd put it off for over a week so she could train for a silly badminton tournament.

Thursday, 29 November, 1635

The Leahy Medical Center, Emergency Operations Center, Grantville, 0600 hours

"Okay, folks, let's settle down so we can figure out what we need to do next." Garnet Szymanski's voice broke through the buzz of excited chatter as she called the meeting to order.

"You should all have heard by now that we have three confirmed cases of measles in the hospital. One is in serious condition while the other two are resting comfortably. In addition to these three, we also have more than a dozen cases in outlying areas, including several reported from day cares, and at least another fifteen up-time folks with uncertain immune status who have been exposed. We've opened Snell House already, and the other quarantine houses should be reopened by this afternoon."

Garnet paused to look around. This epidemic was going to be the first challenge to the Sanitary Commission since the brush with smallpox and an unknown infection back in 1632, and it was the first real test for the hospital's new Emergency Operations Center. Everyone in the room was terribly aware of that fact.

"Early this morning, Dr. Abrabanel, as Chairman of the Sanitation Committee, issued official travel restrictions for our state. Public Health Officers have started trying to identify anybody who might have come into contact with the infected family before they boarded the train in Bamberg. The train in question was stopped and quarantined in Magdeburg before passengers could leave, so hopefully we'll be able to control the disease there. Dr. Shipley, would you give us a rundown on what we're dealing with?"

Dr. Susannah Shipley stood. "Thank you, Mrs. Szymanski. Each of you should have a handout covering this material, as well as the symptoms of measles. We have two major problems. Just like with smallpox, the up-timer community has low herd immunity to measles. We have a large pool of people born between 1959 and 1980 who may not have full immunity, and we have many babies born since 1999 who have no immunity at all. The other problem, and one I think we must not underestimate, is that many up-timers won't report an occurrence of measles because they believe it is 'just another childhood disease.'" She stopped to take a sip of water. "We need to launch a publicity campaign to ensure that all infections are reported." Susannah glanced over at the head of the Emergency Operating Center. "Georg, you'll have to take charge of that."

"Radio and newspaper?" Georg Lenkert asked as he made a note on the pad in front of him.

"We'll probably want to add an announcement on the TV as well," Susannah answered.

"What do you want me to put across?" Georg asked.

"We need to tell people what to look for, and what to be aware of. Patients are infectious for about ten days starting from about four days before a visible rash breaks out, so they have to be kept isolated for that time."

"How do you know to isolate someone four days before the rash appears?" Georg asked.

Susannah shook her head. "You can't, so we'll have to record the names of everyone an infected person has come into contact within those four days so they can be quarantined. The incubation—or latency—period runs between one and three weeks, so we have a minimum of a month of work ahead of us. We can expect that up to twenty percent of the folks in our area who get sick will need more care than they can get at home, and up to five percent will die either from the measles or from a secondary infection despite our best care."

"I assume you don't want me to broadcast that little snippet?" Georg asked.

Susannah stopped speaking. After staring into the distance for nearly a minute, she smiled grimly. "It might be the shock to the system the up-timers need to make them treat measles with the respect the disease deserves."

"Dr. Shipley," Kirk Walker, one of the Sanitary Commission's enforcement staff, called. "I notice you're only worried about up-timers. What about down-timers?"

Garnet winced at the question. She wondered how Dr. Shipley would handle Kirk, but it was Georg who spoke out.

"Most down-timers are already aware that any fever with a rash can be a killer, Herr Walker. We don't need a media campaign to tell us that."

****

Garnet escaped from the meeting room and wiped the sweat from her forehead. Someone bumped into her and she turned to see Georg beside her. "For a moment there I thought Dr. Shipley was going to murder Kirk."

A grim smile lit Georg's face. "No jury would ever convict, but it would have been an unnecessary distraction, otherwise I wouldn't have spoken. Anyway, can you get me a list of nursing and medical students who have already had the measles?"

Garnet nodded. "You're thinking about using immunes for your field teams?"

"Yes. I just hope we have enough."

Garnet smiled. "With school out due to the quarantine, I believe we'll have enough. I can almost assure it."

Georg looked at her quizzically but she refused to say anything more.

Friday, 30 November, 1635

Sanitary Commission Office, Leahy Medical Center, Grantville, 0800 hours

Georg Lenkert looked up as two teens peeked into his office. "Guten Tag, Anna, Caspar. You are right on time!" He closed the book he had been making notes in and got his heavy coat. "Anna. You have your maps with you?" She held up the leather messenger's case hanging across her chest. "Very good. Then if we're ready, let us get our vehicle and go and collect Katharina." Garnet had proven true in her prediction and every Commission team that had gone out in the past two days had a pair of older teens willing to help, if for no other reason than to get out of sick-child-sitting duties.

They stepped outside to a brisk but sunny day. Even the wind didn't cut as badly as it had just two days ago because of the bright sunshine. Georg turned to Caspar. "Did you train with the new ambulance buggies in your EMT class?"

"Yes, Herr Lenkert. We had to practice working in them as they were being driven down some of the rougher roads, and also had to take a turn as the patient for the others to practice on."

Georg grinned when Caspar shuddered. He would put money on it that he was re-living lying on a stretcher on some of those roads. "Even with pneumatic tires, the suspension can't deal with those roads if you're trying to go fast."

"Tell me about it," Caspar muttered.

****

Anna looked at Caspar quizzically. He didn't sound stuck up when he was talking to Herr Lenkert. Maybe Mama Garnet was right about him after all. She turned her attention back to where they were going, and just in time, because just as they turned the corner they were confronted by a gleaming white carriage with a pair of horses hitched to the front. A stable boy was standing at the head of the horse on the left, while the horses had their noses buried in feed bags.

She dropped her overnight bag and walked around the ambulance, admiring the bright blue six-armed crosses that adorned both sides and each of the doors. Picked out in gold paint around the large crosses on the sides were the words "Leahy Medical Center Ambulance Corps, Grantville, SoTF". She could only marvel that such a big wagon could be drawn at speed by just two horses, especially when the postal coaches never had fewer than four horses.

Georg joined her in her examination of the vehicle, but his examination wasn't concentrated on the paint work, he was paying close attention to the wheels and springs. Anna followed him, paying closer attention to the construction of the vehicle. The most noticeable feature was the wheels. They weren't wooden wheels, they were up-time tires.

"Herr Lenkert, this is very different from any other carriage I have ever seen. Is this something that the up-timers brought with them?"

Georg shook his head. "No. They had so many of the automobiles that most of them couldn't even ride a horse or drive a team when they first appeared in Thuringia." He rapped the wooden side of the ambulance. "This little beauty is something the Sanitary Committee dreamed up for when there isn't an up-time ambulance available."

"How is it possible that just two horses can pull it so fast?" she asked.

Georg rapped the side again. "This is made from plywood attached to a lightweight frame. And, that's fixed to a box section steel chassis. All up, we're maybe half of a ton lighter than if we'd built the same thing using our old methods and wood, and of course, the up-time pneumatic tires help."

Anna met Georg's grin and smiled.

"All ready here, Herr Lenkert!"

Anna jerked at the sound. She'd completely forgotten about Caspar. "What have you been doing?" she asked.

"Checking everything we need is in place and secured." He glanced back at Georg. "I am ready to go."

"Very good, Caspar," Georg nodded. "Pass the feed bags to Caspar," Georg called to the stable boy. "Anna, you'll be in front with me navigating. Up you get." He took Anna's overnight bag and added it to his own bag under the seat before he helped her up the high step before climbing aboard himself. He took up the reins before glancing through the window into the cabin behind to check that Caspar was seated. Then he gave a little slap with the reins, and the horses started moving.

****

The ambulance barely pulled to a halt outside Snell house when Caspar swung open the back doors and jumped out. A young woman, bundled up against the chill and holding a large basket in one hand and an overnight bag in the other, hurried over to him. Caspar accepted the heavy basket she thrust into his arms before she tossed her overnight bag in and scrambled up after it. When he got to his seat the woman was already seated with her bags secured around her. She unwound her scarf and smiled at Caspar.

"Nice to see you again, Caspar," Katharina Schrey said. "Betty Jo said to tell you that you're lucky your father remembered that you had measles when you were your sister's age. Otherwise you'd still be with her in Snell House right now, and she's stuck there for at least another two weeks."

Caspar gestured to the faces at the hatch separating the cabin from the driver's seat. "Have you met Anna Krause?"

Katharina held out her hand for Anna to grasp. "Oh, I've heard good things about you from Dr. Abrabanel. We're all sure you'll get into the BN/DO program after you graduate from high school."

Caspar stared at the blushing Anna. He'd known her for most of the semester as just another badminton player. Now, suddenly, he was confronted by the fact that she not only wanted to get into the BN/DO program just like him, there were actually important people who thought she'd get in.

"Thank you, Frau Schrey."

"What's with this Frau Schrey business? Georg, what have you been telling these children?" Katharina demanded. Then she turned and held her hand out to first Anna and then Caspar. "Call me Katharina. Now, Georg, can we get a move on?"

"Of course, dear."

Caspar settled himself in his seat as best he could ...