Yet A(nother) Year In Seattle
Sunday, June 6, 2066 – Filters
Day three of Martial Law and the Martial may be becoming part of the problem. I’ve had seven complaints from motor medics of being stopped en-route and detained for questioning because everyone knows only gang members ride motorcycles. This seems to be especially true of Meta-humans.
Three buses were stopped coming out of the Barrens, because… everyone knows that EMS doesn’t go into the Barrens…
I have delivered no less than three briefing reports to the Commander of the military operations, but to no avail.
On the public face of things, everything seems to be calming down but those of us ‘in the know’ know it’s simmering underground. Shootings are up just not the ones on the streets. I’ve tried getting this information to the Mayor, the County Council, and the Governor, but it seems that I now have to report through ‘proper channels’. Proper channels seems to be pass it to the duty clerk for the military detachment, have him filter it through a word processor that takes out anything negative, then pass it to his boss, who passes it through the filter and so on, until it reaches the Governor who gets a report that says it’s all sunshine and roses.
I wonder what would happen if I gave them a report that said the moon was indeed made of green cheese and leprechauns are hoarding chocolate…
Fortunately, I have filters of my own… alas, they only allow me to report what’s actually going on. At least they keep back most of the acerbicness.
Monday, June 7, 2066 – Packages tied up in red tape
Well, according to the news the military is working with law enforcement and EMS and together we are making a difference. Uhm… I guess we’re working together if by working together you mean the Military is dictating our actions and you can’t really call it second-guessing our calls since we aren’t allowed to act in the first place.
No, things are not all right in Seattle and they won’t be until we get to the actual cause of the problem. Currently, all we’re proving is that the military has bigger guns and better training than the people previously intent on taking their fight to the streets.
Needless to say, this has all put a damper on operation ‘take back my life.’
I tried to arrange a meeting between all the official parties but since it was initiated by EMS only the Marshal’s office and key members of Lone Star took it seriously. The National Guard Officers didn’t quite go as far as ‘there, there little girl you’re being emotional’ but it was close enough I almost laughed.
Unfortunately, they took that as a sign of my emotional state instead of having a keen sense of the ridiculous.
They’ll learn.
Tuesday, June 8, 2066 – Jaded
It’s a good thing I’m not the sort of person who likes to say ‘I told you so.’
Amid much hoopla, the Mayor announced that the ‘situation’ was under control and the guard would be standing down. He thanked the citizenry for their support in this trying time and hoped we could all put this madness behind us.
I tried to warn him it wouldn’t work but according to the military I’m just an overacting, overpaid medic who couldn’t cut it in the field.
Before the guard had even made it to the edge of town the mayhem had begun.
The only people taken by surprise were the Mayor and the Guard Commander. Me, I’m too jaded.
It’s simple really when you have a serious wound, and you apply pressure to get it to stop, you don’t let up until its healed or a doc is standing by to seal it up.
It’s true for wounds, it’s true for our not so civil, civil unrest.
The problem with applying pressure as your first reaction is the fact that there’s nowhere to go. You’ve limited your choices.
The one good thing about declaring martial law and this afternoon’s dog and pony show is the fact that it gave forensics enough time to go over the evidence from the first three crime scenes.
It gave us the edge we needed to at least start healing the wounds. The rest is up to Law Enforcement.
As it was it took the Marshal Service and Lone Star extending special ‘invitations’ to the interested parties.
The problem with ending hostilities is getting the hostile parties to see the other side. That was not a problem in this case since the first three shootings on all sides were started by the same parties.
They’ve agreed to allow law enforcement a chance to solve this before they resolve things there way.
Lord help me… I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.
Like I said… jaded.
Wednesday, June 9, 2066 – Ring Master
Sometimes it really feels like I’m not so much a Chief Medic as a combination ringmaster and day-care provider.
The good news: No gang-related shootings… as far as we know. And the bad news? With no outside forces or threat to unite us, people tend to revert to their basest forms. After being forced to ‘behave’ for five days everyone was acting up.
Domestic cases were up, as were fights, belligerency, and whining. In very low supply were patience, understanding, and tolerance. Sadly it wasn’t just the civilians. The Star, private security, my medics, and dispatch were all at it.
I swear Bri at her worst wasn’t as bad as all this. After five hours of everyone getting progressively cattier and cattier, I finally came on the radio.
“The next person who whines gets my job for a week.”
So far I haven’t had any takers.
Thursday, June 10, 2066 – House of Cards
They say people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, I say people who work in houses of cards should be really careful about their juggling.
Tensions are still high and we all have to tread lightly. The last thing we need is anything that could touch things off… The gangs are still behaving themselves, but everyone else needs a timeout.
We’ve gone from a combat zone to a military encampment to a combination circus/daycare. This means that we’re either playing with firecrackers in a tinderbox, or juggling hats to keep the kids in daycare happy, and we’re doing it knowing at any minute it could all come tumbling down.
Remind me again why I do this?
Friday, June 11, 2066 – Roundup
I’m wondering if there’s some missing survival gene that is common in my family, both by blood and through adoption. We’re medics, law enforcement, daredevils who all believe that the risk is worth it if you get the results you’re looking for.
My brothers were like that; Case was willing to risk his life to protect me; Philip and Nathan I met on the job and they were both risking their lives to help others… Trina was working herself to an early retirement working at the clinic and the hospital, the list goes on and on.
Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t trade them for anything but, after something like this last week, we have to try and track them down and something tells me I really don’t want to know what they were up to.
I’ll find out Sunday. Mom has requested a family dinner in the longhouse.
Saturday, June 12, 2066 – This space intentionally left blank
Nothing to see here; move along. Trust me on this you do not want to know.
Copyright 2010 M.T. Decker
