Chapter Text
Voyager Virtual Season 7.5--Episode 41
Disciples of Altruism
By Christina and Penny with jamelia
Prologue
Vidalia, Vidiia--June 28, 2381 (Earth reckoning), Stardate 57490.4
Brilliant orange and red flames spiraled and swirled upward, feeding on the buildings in its path. Denara Pel stood on the hill, mesmerized by the blossoming flames, her left hand holding a damp cloth over her nose and mouth. She'd never seen anything like it. Flames magically appeared blocks from the fire, caused by sparks carried by the fire-generated winds. Chaos ruled in the streets as panicked residents fled to the nearby park, to any open space that might be safe. Amazingly, it was only an hour since she had been among them, fleeing for her own life.
Denara stared at the wild scene below her and started to cough, even as she pushed the cloth tighter to her face. She shivered as another vortex of flames spiraled upward. The memory of her apartment building exploding into flame as she'd run out the door now seem oddly distant, almost as if it had happened to someone else.
"Denara," Dr. Krazel Lem, her assistant, said quietly as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "The first victims are coming in."
She nodded blankly. Her home for the past six years--everything she owned--was lost. All she had now were the clothes she was wearing. "Dr. Pel?"
The voice of her assistant cut through the fog of her brain. She blinked. "Patients?"
"Yes, Dr. Pel." She let him guide her away from the cliff edge overlooking the southern districts of Vidalia, the political capital of Vidiia.
"Do you know if the clinic is in the path of the fire?" she asked without hope as they walked toward what was going to become a makeshift triage unit and morgue. She knew their outreach clinic was gone--everything in the neighborhood was gone. The fire made it bright enough in the predawn light for her to believe that the entire district was doomed, but as she thought this, a wall of thick, toxic yellow-orange smoke started to engulf the hill.
"Denara, we'll survive." He stopped walking. "Are you all right?"
"I'll be okay. You?"
"Fine," he said it flatly. He wasn't any better than she was. "More survivors are arriving."
"Set up triage. Press any of the uninjured--anyone who can help--into service. We're going to need bandages, water...especially water."
"I've already started. Captain Por is helping to coordinate. Additional medical help is being called in from outside Vidalia. Water is going to be a problem. The district tower was makeshift, remember? It burned to the ground." He pointed in the general direction of where the temporary water tower had once stood. "They're bringing in water trucks, but apparently there's some problems accessing the main aquifer."
She nodded numbly as she surveyed the site. Someone had erected a large tent. "We'll need tables. And some means of heating water when we get it." She grimaced when he frowned. No, they wouldn't be allowed to start a fire, even to boil water. "Explain why sterile equipment is necessary--especially with burns. An ultraviolet source would also work. Or cerritonol if there's nothing else." She broke into a run when she noticed the Vidalia City Guard arriving, bearing stretchers.
"Dr. Pel?" a burly Vidiian female in the gray uniform of the City Guard asked. "If you would follow me. I'm Captain Por."
"How bad is the fire?" she barely coughed out. The smoke was getting thicker.
"I haven't heard anything official," Por said, "but I've heard most of the Meyel district is up in flames. They've started demolishing buildings to create a firebreak near the Horspant Hospital. We should be safe here; the prevailing wind is blowing the fire toward the lake."
Meyel and Horspant, she thought, two of the poorest districts in Vidalia. Too many temporary wooden shelters and not enough enforcement of the building codes. Too many desperate refugees looking for work and a cure for all their woes...just too many and not enough...
She took a deep breath--she had a job to do, there would be time later to think. "What do we have?"
"So far two burn cases and a sprained ankle. We've put them in the hospital tent. My troops are also working on finding tents to provide temporary shelter for the survivors. What kind of help will you require?"
"Other medical personnel? Equipment?" Captain Por shook her head, so Denara continued, "Dr. Lem is setting up a triage." They both glanced back at the fire. "Find me anybody who wants to help; anybody who is healthy." Por pulled the flap of the tent back and Denara walked over to her first patient. She just hoped Por was right—that the fire would go in the direction of the wind. The smoke sure wasn’t.