Chapter 17 Chapter 17 Death of the Commander

In the dream, Nicole was only ten years old and was playing in the woods behind the house.The house is located in the suburbs of Paris.She suddenly felt that her mother was dying.The little girl panicked and ran into the house to call her father.A kitten meowed and blocked the road.Nicole stopped and heard a scream.She left the path and galloped through the trees, branches whipping her skin, the kitten following her.Nicole heard the screaming again... She was woken up.She saw Garros Tabry standing there with a look of horror on his face and said, "It's Posov. He has a terrible stomachache."

Nicole immediately jumped up from the bed, put her coat on her body, picked up the consultation box, and followed Gallows into the aisle. "Looks like appendicitis, but I'm not sure," he said as he walked briskly. Elena Tugyeva was kneeling beside the commander, holding his hand. The general was lying stretched out on the bench, his face was pale, and beads of sweat were dripping from his forehead. "Oh, Dr. de Jardin is here." He smiled reluctantly, trying to sit up.A sharp pain made him lie down again. "I'm in pain, Nicole," he said calmly. "I've never been in so much pain in my life, not even when I was wounded in the army."

"When did it start?" She asked as she took out the scanner and medical examiner and began to check all his body data. At this time, Frances and her video camera also started to film the doctor's diagnosis process behind Nicole.Nicole gestured impatiently for her to step back. "Maybe two or three minutes ago," General Posov said with difficulty, "I was sitting in a chair watching a movie when I suddenly had a sharp pain in my stomach, here, in the lower right side of my abdomen. It felt like it was on fire inside. " Nicole turned on the scanner and checked the data records of the last three minutes in the micrometer in Posov's body.She stops at the painful spot and examines it carefully.It is easy to diagnose from his heartbeat and endocrine conditions, but she wants all the data.

"Garos," she said to her colleague, "go to the medical storage room, please, and get the pocket specialist." She handed Tabry the code card that opened the door. "A low-grade fever indicates that you have an infection in your body," Nicole told Posov. "All internal data indicate that you are in pain." Tabri returned with a small square box.Nicole took a data crystal out of the scanner and put it in the expert diagnostic machine.For about thirty seconds, the screen lights up.The above shows that there is a 94% probability of appendicitis.Nicole pressed a button to see other possible symptoms.There may also be symptoms: hernia, muscle strain, drug reaction.But the probability is not more than 2%.

"I have two options," Nicole thought, "I can send all the data back to Earth for a comprehensive diagnosis, every diagnostic procedure..." At this time, Posov curled up in pain. Nicole looked at him, mentally counting the time it would take to comm and the doctors to program the diagnosis. "Then it will be too late," she thought. "What's the disease? Doctor." The general asked.His eyes begged her to end his suffering quickly. "Probably appendicitis," Nicole replied. "Damn it!" He looked at the others, all of them here except Wilson and Takashi, who were studying the images, "but we can't wait, we have to sort things out before the first and second assaults. In the meantime, I It will gradually recover." There was another burst of severe pain, and his face was distorted.

"But," Nicole said, "it's not yet confirmed! First, we need some data." She received the data from his body again, and this was the new data from the two minutes since she arrived in the lobby.This time there is a 92% chance of appendicitis. Nicole was about to check for other possible ailments when the commander grabbed her by the arm. "If we do the surgery sooner, then the toxins will spread less in the body; and the surgery is done by a surgical robot. Am I right?" Nicole nodded. "So if we're wasting time waiting for the doctors on Earth to come to a consensus diagnosis—ouch!—I'm afraid we're going to be terminally ill."

"How does he know what I think?" Nicole wondered at first, but later realized that the general was only proficient in various procedures on the spaceship. "Is the patient trying to instruct the doctor?" Nicole said with a deliberately light smile. "Of course I wouldn't be so presumptuous." The commander blinked. Nicole looked at the monitor again, and it still showed a 92% probability of appendicitis. "What do you think?" Nicole asked Gallos for advice. "I've only seen appendicitis once before," replied the Hungarian. "Only once, and that was when I was a student in Budapest. The symptoms were similar."

"Okay!" Nicole made up his mind, "Go and get the surgical robot ready. Hellman, can you, together with Hiroshi Yamanaka, help send General Posov to the infirmary?" She turned to Frances again. Say, "I understand this is big news. If you obey three conditions, I can let you into the operating room. First, you must be as strictly sterilized as the medical staff; second, you must only be with your video camera." Stay quietly by the wall; besides, you must obey my orders absolutely." "Okay, no problem." Frances nodded, "Thank you." "I think we are in the same mood. What do we need to do?" O'Toole always spoke in this sincere tone. When Hellman and Yamanaka Hiroshi sent General Posov away, he and Elena · Tugeyeva has been waiting in the hall.

"Gallos will assist me during the operation, but it would be better for us to have one more helper. In case of emergency, we need it even more." "I'd love to help," O'Toole said. "I've had some experience working in a hospital when I was working for our charity." "Excellent!" Nicole said approvingly. "Now go disinfect with us." A surgical robot is a portable device.The equipment on the Newton is specially designed to deal with the current situation.On Earth, according to different diseases, more advanced fully automatic operating rooms are used in advanced hospitals.But surgical robots are also a high-tech marvel.It fits into a small suitcase and weighs only 4kg.It uses very little power and, with the proper settings, can be used in over 100 different situations.

Gallos unfolded the surgical robot.This electrosurgery looks nothing like it did when it was put away.Its ball joints and slender limbs are neatly arranged for storage and transportation.Gallos checked the robot's manual again, picked up the main control box, and fixed it on the side of the hospital bed where Posov was lying. At this time, Posov's pain eased slightly.The brash commander kept urging to hurry up. Gallos entered the identification code, and the robot automatically extended its special arms, some of which had four fingers and a scalpel at the end.Gallos entered the data settings for removing the appendix into the robot.

Nicole came into the room, already in her gloves and white surgical gown. "Have you checked the software yet?" she asked. Gallos nodded. "While you're sterilizing, I'll be doing all the preoperative testing," she told him.She beckoned Frances and O'Toole into the small room, where they were standing outside the door. "Feeling better?" Nicole asked Posov. "Not very nice," he grumbled. "I've given you a little sedative. The robot will give you general anesthesia for the first step in the operation." As Nicole changed in her room, she went over the whole operation in her head a little, as is the procedure prescribed in surgery.During the simulated training, they had rehearsed. She entered Posov's personal data into the robot.During the operation, the patient's condition must be continuously transmitted to the robot, so the scanner of the micrometer must be connected to the robot all the time.Nicole carefully hung the wires in place and secured them.She made sure that all the software had passed its self-tests.Finally, she went over it again, carefully turning the pair of tiny stereo cameras that worked in sync with the scalpel. Gallos returned to the room, Nicole pressed the switch of the robot's main control box, and two identical surgical procedure sheets were quickly printed out. Nicole took one and handed one to Gallos. "Is everyone ready?" she asked, looking at General Posov.The commander of the Newton spaceship nodded.Nicole activates the robot. One of the robot's hands injected the anesthetic into the patient.A minute later, Posov lost consciousness.Under the precise guidance of its eyes, the robot's other three hands cut a small incision in the patient's body and separated the possibly diseased organs. Frances' video camera recorded the details of this later-to-be-known moment in history, while she occasionally whispered comments into the hypersensitive microphone. No human surgeon has such agility and dexterity. In less than two minutes, the patient's appendix was exposed.The sensor with its own power supply monitors various physiological indicators of the patient all the time.The robot automatically covered the incision with folded gauze to stop the bleeding. According to the predetermined procedure, thirty seconds are reserved to observe the diseased organs, and then the robot will continue to work and automatically remove the appendix. Nicole bent down to examine the exposed appendix carefully.Strangely, there was neither edema nor inflammation in this organ. "Look, Gallows," she said in amazement. At the same time, her eyes were on the hands of the stopwatch, counting the remaining observation time. "It looks very healthy!" Gallos, from the other side of the table, leaned over to watch. God!The operation must be stopped!Nicole thought.Eight seconds left. "Shut it off!" she cried. "Stop the operation!" Nicole and Gallos reached out to the main control box at the same time to shut down the robot. At that moment, the entire Newton ship tipped over to one side, Nicole was thrown backwards, hitting the wall behind him, and Gallos tipped forward, hitting his head on the operating table.His fingers were reaching forward, touched the main control box, slid away, and he fell to the floor.General O'Toole and Frances both fell in the corner. A burst of "wow, wow..." sounded suddenly.This is the alarm sound of the micrometer. Someone must have a problem in this room.Nicole quickly checked General O'Toole and Sabatini, they were all right.She struggled to stand still, turned to the operating table, struggled to grab one of the legs of the operating table, pulled herself over, then held on to the operating table with all her strength, and stood up shaking. As soon as her head crossed the operating table, she felt blood splattering.She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Posov's body, blood was bubbling from his wound; the scalpel was sunk deep into his belly and still going in cut.It was Posov's micrometer that screamed "Wow, wow"!Before the operation, Nicole had entered commands to set his allowable tolerance data range very wide. Seeing this horrific sight, Nicole realized that the robot hadn't stopped the operation; she was terrified, and couldn't help feeling sick.She struggled to maintain her balance, tried her best to resist another swaying force, tilted her body, and stretched out her hand to turn off the power of the robot. The robotic hand retracted from the blood and folded.Nicole tried to stop the spurting blood. Thirty seconds later, just as suddenly as it appeared, the mysterious force that shook the Newton spacecraft disappeared again as suddenly.General O'Toole found his footing at last, and came to the side of a desperate Nicole. The scalpel wound was so severe that Nicole watched the commander bled to death. "My God! My God!" O'Toole cried out, looking at his friend's body. The alarm sound of "Wow, Wow" was still ringing. Frances resumed the camera and just recorded the tragic scene of the last 10 seconds of General Posov's life. It was a sad and long night for all the Newton crew.In the two hours following the operation, Lamarr underwent a series of postural adjustments.Like the first time, each adjustment lasts about one to two minutes.Earth finally confirmed that Rama's spin rate and orbit had changed.No one knows the exact intention of these changes of the alien spacecraft, it may just be a kind of "direction change" to regulate the orbit of perihelion.However, the changes in speed and orbit were not obvious, and Rama still flew along an escape orbit far away from the sun. Everyone aboard the Newton, and people on Earth, were stunned by General Posov's deathblow.The news media and people from all over the world are singing his praises; his colleagues and friends are even more appreciative of his outstanding achievements.His death was reported as an accident, attributed to Rama's sudden and inappropriate movement during a routine appendix operation. But in the eight hours since his death, people were asking: why move at exactly this time?Why does the robot's automatic protection device fail?Why didn't the doctors who were monitoring the scene turn off the power of the robot in time? Nicole, de Jardin is asking the same question to himself.She has made a written report and sealed Posov's body in a vacuum coffin and put it in a large storage bin at the rear of the "military cabin" for future investigation.She quickly filled out an accident report; O'Toole, Sabatini, and Taburi all wrote reports, too.However, Gallos did not mention that when Rama moved, his hand touched the main control box.At this moment Nicole did not suspect that his omission was important. The telephone hearing with officials from the International Space Agency was excruciating.Nicole was the target of a barrage of stupid questions.Several times, she had to tell herself not to get angry.Nicole once estimated that Frances might play tricks at this hearing and deliberately hint something to people; but she didn't think that the Italian female reporter's report would be fair. In a news interview, Nicole spoke to Frances about her horror at discovering Posov's wound was covered in blood.After the interview, Nicole locked herself in the room, saying that she wanted to sleep for a while and rest.In fact, how could she have the mind to rest, she recalled the critical moment during the operation again and again.Was there anything she could have done to change the ending?Is there any possible explanation for how the robot's automatic protection failed? After careful consideration, Nicole believes that it is simply impossible to say that the failure of the robot's automatic protection system is caused by a flaw in the design.Before leaving the factory, these robots have passed strict tests and inspections, and it is impossible to pass any problems.Therefore, there must be a mistake somewhere.It may be that she or Gallos missed the initial setting of the automatic protection in the rush; it may also be that some accidental accident occurred in the chaos after the spaceship shook. She recalled and searched in vain, trying to find some answers.She felt very tired and depressed, and finally fell into a deep sleep.Only one thing was clear to her: someone had died, and she was responsible for it.