Episode 7 - FASERUNR
Date: 592/1/2732
Patient: Sung Fang, human
Patient ID: 34565432
Presenting Complaint: Seizure Activity
Hello, welcome to The Vesta Cl- have we met before?
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Please consider supporting us on Patreon! The bonus story for this episode is called ‘Timeless’ and is available here!
To avoid spoilers, content warnings are available at the bottom of this page!
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[MUSIC: The Vesta Clinic Theme]
[SOUND: incoming call]
FAYE:
Who's - ? Oh, no. Sec, can you - ?
[SOUND: call answered]
XAELEST:
Faye! Are you alright?!
FAYE:
Yes?
XAELEST:
Twenty-nine seconds ago, you reported a lime, category II security alert.
FAYE:
Oh. Oh. [laugh] No, it's fine. It's - ah - more of a potential threat than an active one. You can sit back down.
XAELEST:
Oh . . . I - [Clears throat] It's good to be ready if actual threats occur.
[SOUND: chair through the call]
Right. Good. But you should really inform me directly of any security issues!
FAYE:
Dr Adra, I put it through less than a minute ago . . . Are you okay?
[SOUND: another incoming call]
Ah - [unsure]
XAELEST:
Add him, Sec.
[SOUND: call connected]
DAKARAI:
Alright! Who’s catching the sharp end of this pipette?
[MUSIC: the lab radio]
XAELEST:
[Tired and exasperated] No-one.
DAKARAI:
Okie dokie! In that case . . . Which vent are we hiding in? The Violet Deck vents are the widest, but they're right by the engines, so I’d avoid them unless you want to get a sweat on.
XAELEST:
That's not funny.
FAYE:
I feel like there's a story here?
DAKARAI:
I feel like there's a story behind why you just called a limey! Are you alright?
FAYE:
Yeah, I really didn't realise it'd cause such a fuss! I just had to confiscate -
[SOUND: an item is lifted from the desk]
- This from a patient and I think they might try come back for it.
DAKARAI & XAELEST:
What?!
XAELEST:
Is it real?
FAYE:
Hah, oh, yes. He was definitely using it.
DAKARAI:
Well, slap my arse and send me up Olympus. You know, I used to wear my mum's watch around the pod and pretend it was one of those.
[SOUND: the item is placed back on the desk]
XAELEST:
I bet that wasn't annoying in the slightest. [Yawn] Right. That needs to go in the vault as soon as possible, Dr Underwood.
FAYE:
Yeah, yeah, I told him it would.
DAKARAI:
Unless you want to give it to me to look after for a while . . .?
XAELEST:
No! No. Europa’s freckles, that would be the last thing we need right now.
FAYE:
Oh, um, Dr Adra, while you’re here. . . Thank you for the new decorations in my clinic room.
XAELEST:
I -
DAKARAI:
What new decorations?
FAYE:
Um, well my favourite one is the new sticker on my scanner which says: THINK! Do you need this scan? Um, and then, in smaller print underneath: Each use of this machine is a potential waste of Clinic resources. Consider the clinical need for this investigation before performing it.
Unfortunately, [Laughs] I only noticed the sticker once the patient was already in the scanner.
DAKARAI:
[Laughs]
XAELEST:
I put one on my scanner too! We can't afford to waste Clinic money unnecessarily!
FAYE:
[Sarcastic] Great! Now you can think about me pissing away resources while you scan your own patients.
DAKARAI:
Xael, is everything okay, honey?
XAELEST:
Yes! I'm just - I'm trying to revise. So if you could both keep imminent threats to the clinic to a minimum?
DAKARAI:
Yes, boss!
FAYE:
I'm sorry for disturbing you, this probably isn't even a threat -
XAELEST:
No, I'm . . . Glad you're alright. Call me if you need me.
[SOUND: Dr Adra leaves the call]
DAKARAI:
Aw, see! She's 'glad you're alright'.
FAYE:
She's glad I'm not making trouble for her.
DAKARAI:
[Laughs] Sure.
So, if you're not going to let me have a wild night with your seized Martian tech, they're showing some early 2600s Earth Horror on the streams tonight. You wanna watch it together?
FAYE:
Ah. Sorry, I actually made plans for this evening.
DAKARAI:
What? I can't watch Earth horror streams on my own!
FAYE:
[Laughs] I'd love to but - Nicola is going to call.
DAKARAI:
Nicola? [Remembering] Oh! Your partner . . . How is that going?
FAYE:
Fine? Why?
DAKARAI:
No reason! It's just you said you'd had trouble finding a time when you're both free . . . But, after? They always save the best shows 'til last.
FAYE:
Uh, I said I'd help Xael revise.
DAKARAI:
Oh, really? She didn't ask me to help her revise.
FAYE:
I mean, she didn't exactly ask me either.
DAKARAI:
[Laughs] Ah, I see, you're doing the old 'put yourself in Xaelest's orbit until she decides she likes you' method. A very good technique for her, I must say.
Oh, oh!
FAYE:
What?
DAKARAI:
I'll come be a fake patient!
FAYE:
Uhh, I don’t know . . .
DAKARAI:
I can do a really great Venus Goat Flu!
[Puts on the voice, nasal and breathless] Excuse me, Doctor, you see, I've been burying my nose in the thick hide of my lifestock and now I can hardly breathe.
Or . . . Oh, oh! Guess this one!
[A different voice]
Help me! I'm lactating!
FAYE:
Okay, okay, stop! That's . . . Actually pretty good.
DAKARAI:
Um, don't undersell my talent, please.
Right! You dictate that letter before Xael tells me off for distracting you. I'll get food and then, when you’re done with er . . . [He’s forgotten her name] your thing, we'll ambush her.
FAYE:
Okay. Sure. Okay!
DAKARAI:
[In the voice of fake patient #2] Ugh, I'm so excited! I'm lactating!
FAYE:
Ooookay -
[SOUND: Sec ends the call]
[MUSIC: Lab music stops]
Thanks, Sec.
[SEC: affirmative ping]
I -
I'm not even sure how to order this letter. I feel pretty sure that the first quarter of the consultation - of each consultation - was a mess. But at least it wasn't my fault this time.
[SEC: typing on screen]
You're right, all the letters do start the same regardless. I guess we can take it from there.
Date: 592/1/2732
Patient: Sung Fang, human
Patient ID: 34565432
[MUSIC: begins]
Hm . . . Shall we try it chronologically?
[SEC: affirmative ping]
Fang is an 8.6 vesta year old - or 31 Earth year old - gentleman who presented - multiple times - to the clinic today seeking . . . Seeking a new prescription for his anti-epileptic medication.
Let's . . . Start with some backstory. From what I understand, Fang was born and raised in Great Elysium on Mars. He lived there until he was around the age of 26 Martian years and now describes himself as having no permanent address. I was told that his next of kin all still live there.
Fang was first diagnosed with epilepsy at 4 years of age.
[SEC: questioning ping]
Uh, 4 Martian years.
He trialled a range of treatments throughout his childhood and teenage years, until the drug voniramate was discovered and he was started on it. He was then seizure-free for all of his late adolescence and twenties -
[SEC: questioning ping, typing on screen]
Uh, sorry, that's a seizure free period of . . . 5.5 Vesta years.
Fang eventually explained to me that he used to work at a technology museum in the centre of Great Elysium and a colleague there was the person who supplied him with his FASERUNR.
[SEC: typing on screen]
Oh! No, with an F, actually. One N -
[SEC: typing on screen]
No. Hang on. F A S E R U N R.
[SEC: typing on screen]
[Laughs] Yeah, it's gross, isn't it?
[SOUND: picking up the device, button click, ticking sound]
What experience have you had with these, Sec? Did the, uh, Prof ever use one to cram more hours into a day?
[SEC: negative ping, typing on screen]
Yeah, they - they can be pretty dangerous. Time travel in general has never been considered a particularly safe way of getting around.
[SEC: negative ping]
If it's anything like the streams, you have to press these . . .
[SOUND: two button clicks]
and then twist it -
[SOUND: mechanical whir]
[SEC: questioning ping, negative ping]
[Laughs] I'm not actually going to do it!
[SOUND: button click, ticking stops]
Correct me if I'm wrong -
[SEC: typing on screen]
I know you will.
[SEC: affirmative ping]
Correct me if I'm wrong, but FASERUNRs treat time as like a - a progressive, linear-ish waveform made up of discrete points which can be thought of as moments.
They allow the user to move through time, through these moments, but not through Space?
[Pause] You trying to wrap your processors around that?
[SEC: affirmative ping, typing on screen]
I'll take kind-of right!
Then, on top of that, there are numerous physical - as in body - physical - as in, physics - and psychological factors which affect how many moments occur in a given time period and whether or not a user can access them.
It's really complicated.
[SEC: typing on screen, questioning ping]
Okay, for example, say you had an interview for something and it was really important and you'd spent ages preparing for it. Your experience of the five minutes leading up to the interview is completely different to the experience of the interview itself. You'd spend that five minutes constantly on edge, waiting for incoming calls, checking that you haven't spilled food all down your shirt and staring at your outstretched hands trying to determine if you were anxious enough to actually give yourself a tremor.
You might recall in perfect detail that the interviewer was brushing a piece of hair out of her eyes when the video finally connected. Or the disinterested line of her mouth as you tried to fix yours into a friendly smile.
But, the interview itself? If you can’t remember a single word you said, how are you meant to travel back to a discrete moment within it?
FASERUNRs seem to work on the idea that the experience of time is an integral property of time itself . . . And - maths. I'm sure there's a whole lot of maths involved too.
[SEC: affirmative ping, typing on screen, questioning ping]
[Enthused] Yes! So people can return to times they weren't alive for. The technology apparently takes an average of the experiences of other people in that time.
I think I maybe watched too many streams about time travel as a kid . . .
[SEC: affirmative ping, typing on screen]
Right. How on Earth am I meant to piece together this presenting complaint?
Sec . . . Your memory systems are probably more robust than mine . . .
[SEC: affirmative ping]
Open up your recent files?
[SEC: file open]
Eh? What's that one? The most recent one? I wonder if you caught some of the consultation?
[SEC: negative ping]
[Pause] Are you going to open it?
[Pause] Sec?
[SEC: file open]
[MUSIC: piano]
[SOUND: static recording sound]
PROFESSOR:
Now, did I tell you about my latest thoughts on the Solari development, dear?
[SEC: affirmative ping, typing on screen]
[Chuckle] Well, at least I have you to keep me on the right path.
FAYE:
Oh.
[SEC: negative ping, file closed]
[MUSIC: piano stops]
Okay.
That's not what we want . . .
[SEC: negative ping]
Was that the Professor?
[SEC: negative ping, negative ping, negative ping]
Alright! I wasn't going to pry.
[Pause] Do you often - ?
[SEC: negative ping, typing on screen]
Okay! Sorry.
[SEC: typing on screen]
The presenting complaint was severely limited by the patient's use of their time travel device, a FASERUNR 60.
[MUSIC: begins]
I recall Fang entering the clinic room with an unassuming smile. I - um.
He greeted me with the standard Martian hand gesture, tucking his thumb into his palm as he did so as a sign of respect. But I remember feeling the unsettled side of perplexed as he then dove straight into the clinic chair and proceeded to nod through my introduction as though - as though I was wasting his time.
I paused, taking in the dark smudges under Fang's eyes, as I must have done every time he walked into the room. I knew from his triage notes that he was a Martian-human and, stars, I spent enough time training around the Red Planet that it wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility to bump into a patient more than once.
'Have we met?'
Fang blinked at me. Smiled. 'Not that I know of.' He said. Then, no doubt feeling the liar's pressure to elaborate: 'People say I have a familiar face.'
'Must be that.' I said.
[SEC: typing on screen]
Well, I was hardly going to push the issue, was I?
It's so weird. I have so many half-memories of the half-truths he told me. The more I try to pull one into focus, the more distant the other versions become.
One of the following is likely true:
Fang lost his anti-epileptic medication while time travelling. This sudden pill-free period provoked a seizure.
Fang travelled back to a time where a less effective and drastically less regulated version of his treatment was available for dirt-cheap.
Or - in fact, make that and/or - Fang travelled to the future and decided to upgrade to a new class of anti-epileptic and - I dunno, just didn't expect there to be consequences? . . . No, that's . . . Unfair. Let's say, Fang travelled to the future and may have had a change of medication there.
What I am - reasonably - sure of, is that Fang suffered a seizure whilst in a different time period. He presented to the clinic today to get a new prescription of his voniramate.
[SEC: typing on screen, questioning ping]
What? How did I figure out that he was using the FASERUNR?
[SEC: affirmative ping]
I think it was déjà vu.
[SEC: questioning ping, typing on screen]
Oh, of course! I'd never really thought about the fact that you wouldn't have that. I can tell you what it felt like?
[SEC: typing on screen]
You know, you're lovely when you use your manners.
[SEC: negative ping]
It felt like - The longer I talked to Fang, the more I felt this growing sense of unease that something was off. He was being so polite and friendly, but there was this twisting in my stomach that told me he was withholding something.
He had this . . . I guess you might call it a nervous tic, or, like, a self-soothing behaviour? He'd spin the FASERUNR around on his wrist three times exactly and then touch each of the buttons around the edge in turn. It was almost as if he was reminding himself that it was still there, still working. That he could vanish to another time if he needed to.
Seeing him do that was like . . . Was like - was like there was something scraping at the insides of my skull, demanding I acknowledge the feeling that I had seen that, been here and had this conversation before. I knew that I’d seen him playing with his FASERUNR like that before even as I knew that I had never seen a FASERUNR in the flesh before. I knew what the next words out of his mouth were gonna be before he said them. I guess it just clicked.
[SEC: typing on screen]
It definitely took my patient by surprise when I recovered from that helpless sense of déjà vu and insisted that, in order to proceed with the consultation, he was going to need to remove the device and hand it over to me. He didn't even try to keep the guilt off his face.
I watched, face as stern as I could make it as he spun the FASERUNR round on his wrist. Once. Twice.
And then he caught my gaze and stopped.
'What if I don't?' He asked after a long second.
'Then . . . I won't be able to help you.' I said.
When he handed the device over there was an awkward pause where we were both holding onto it, hands almost touching, as he, uh, decided whether he could actually let it go. There was a consultant back on Earth when I was training, who used to whip people's crutches away from them the minute she thought they'd recovered enough to walk. It almost felt like that's what I was doing.
With the main obstacle of Fang rewinding time when he wanted to adjust his story removed, I attempted to take a thorough description of the seizure itself. This, [sigh] was also limited by the lack of collateral accounts of the event. However, the unverified story goes like this:
Fang had just travelled forwards to the Frost Quarter on the Northern Bank of one of Triton's cryolava lakes. I’m assured that the landscape becomes quite the spectacle in this time period, the shimmer of nitrogen clouds above making the ice a reflective, pearly sheet, punctuated only by the ladders of methane bubbles which stretch out below. The bitter temperatures scare away all but the most resilient of travellers and my patient told me that it's by far his favourite place to go when he needs to be alone.
The last thing he could remember before the seizure was looking out across the beautiful plane of ice. He opened his eyes to the dark rumble of clouds overhead and the sensation of the cold ground seeping through his suit and trying to hook itself into his bones.
Fang could not be pinned down on a rough estimate of how long he was unconscious for. But then, I guess he's developed quite a nebulous relationship with the passing of time. What I did manage to confirm, however, was that he'd experienced an episode of incontinence, had bitten his tongue and he felt like he'd gone twenty rounds with that really big guy from GLADIATORS: NEPTUNE.
It -
[SEC: negative ping]
- Fine. Upon regaining consciousness, Fang reported urinary incontinence, tongue biting and a characteristic post-ictal fatigue and myalgia. Better?
[SEC: affirmative ping]
Boring, though.
[SEC: negative ping]
In my opinion, given Fang's known history of epilepsy; and the fact that, for whatever reason, he was off his voniramate, we can say with some confidence that this episode was a breakthrough seizure.
Fang reported only a mild ongoing headache and, fortunately, no weakness or sensory changes which could indicate something more sinister.
Ever the King of deflecting my questions, even without the assistance of time travel, Fang just shrugged when I asked him why he came to the clinic instead of going to his family physician on Mars.
'I just need my prescription refilling.' He said. I don't know if he was trying to convince me or himself.
Fang permitted me to examine him, all the while eyeing the FASERUNR on the desk as though it was about to be snatched away into some hidden vault. The examination revealed nothing more than a nasty set of abrasions on Fang's tongue.
Despite . . . Warnings from my senior colleague about the need for a cost-benefit analysis when deciding whether or not to scan patients, I didn't feel comfortable sending Fang away without scanning his head given that this would have been his first seizure in - what did we say? Five and a half Vesta years?
[SEC: affirmative ping]
Nil was found on imaging but the report is attached.
[SEC: attach file]
Thank you.
So . . . Reassured that this episode wasn't due to some sneaky underlying stroke or brain tumour, I had some. . . Bad news for Fang.
'Tell me what you already know about the Board for Control of Temporal Travel.' I prompted him once he’d got comfortable back in the chair.
'No!' He said.
We went through the BCTT's checklist for Legal and Righteous Use of devices such as FASERUNRs for people with chronic health conditions - like, epilepsy. The checklist highlighted a few - um - issues with Fang's use of the device.
Firstly, all owners must be legally registered with the Board. That's true whether they have a health condition or not. They must regularly - at least once an orbit - be reviewed by a consultant doctor of an appropriate specialty. The look on Fang's face told me that it's been a little longer than a single orbit since he last saw a doctor.
Time travellers with epilepsy should be seizure free either on stable medication or off medication completely. They shouldn't travel during periods of dose adjustment or weaning, unless in an emergency.
Fang tried to argue at first. Once the prospect of leaving without the FASERUNR became apparent, he seemed very confident about the timings of things.
[SEC: typing on screen]
I know. Funny, that.
[SEC: affirmative ping, typing on screen, questioning ping]
I reminded him, as gently and firmly as I could, of the epileptogenic nature of time travel. Not only would he be more likely to have a seizure, the theoretical risks of seizing whilst stuck between time points are . . . It’s the kind of hypothetical my physics teacher would have got mad at me for asking about.
And I was honest, I told him that the risks aren't well studied, it's not the kind of experiment that would get ethical approval on this side of the universe but, with that, we also shouldn't forget that the scientific community has no idea what would happen to time itself if someone were to get trapped outside of it.
'You don't understand!' Fang told me, 'I need this.' He reached impulsively for the now-bare spot on his wrist and slammed his hands down on the chair's arm-rests when he remembered the FASERUNR's absence.
I explained to him that I was sorry, and I was, but I couldn't legally return the FASERUNR to him. Once Fang is on a stable dose of his medication again and has been signed off by a specialist, he can contact the Clinic and we will return the device immediately. Fang's sad eyes fell to his empty wrist as it dawned on him that it could take years before that was the case.
I tried to sweeten the deal.
'We can overlook the fact that you used the device multiple times after your seizure in order to get to the clinic and in this consultation today. But, the BCTT need to be aware of this seizure and the consequences for not telling them are very severe.'
Fang went for his wrist again. His hand fell in his lap in defeat.
'I . . . Lost someone.' He told me, 'Back at home. And, my friend, he offered me the FASERUNR for a bit, the opportunity to live out of time for a while. I think he thought it would help me move on.'
'But you got a little stuck?' I offered.
'Something like that.'
[SEC: typing on screen, questioning ping]
I . . .
[SEC: typing on screen]
Does it matter whether I feel like I tricked him or not? I suspect that we got to this part of the consultation a number of times and each time he rewound time to try again.
[SEC: typing on screen]
Well, should I have just crossed my fingers and let him go with his medication? Or just called security the minute I realised that he was involving me in his time travel without my consent?
[SEC: typing on screen]
No, but do you see what I mean? I do feel awful about taking it off him. He's clearly grown so dependent on having it to run away from whatever was keeping him from home. There's no perfect way I could have dealt with this and I think . . . It's lazy to expect that the person you go to for help is going to do anything more than try their best with the options available.
[SEC: typing on screen]
Thankfully, Fang nodded sadly at my assertions that there were plenty of people back at home who would be delighted to have him back in the present with them. And, you know, if he's struggling, there's a whole lot of Space to travel as well as time.
[SEC: typing on screen]
[Laughs] Yes! Kepler 186f is looking for visitors. I should’ve given him one of those leaflets Sida sent us.
Fang left the consultation with a new prescription for voniramate. I have thoroughly reassured him that the FASERUNR will be sent back to him once he meets the BCTT criteria again. He gave it one last look before he left - just long enough to make me uneasy. Hence, the security alert.
I really wish Fang all the best. He is highly encouraged to reattend to a specialist epilepsy physician at home, but, I would gladly review him again should the need arise.
You know, Sec, there is definitely one good thing about Fang's time travelling.
[SEC: questioning ping]
[MUSIC: ends]
I've technically finished early. And, you know what? I'm going to start my evening by peeling that ridiculous sticker off the scanner!
[SOUND: chair, footsteps, sticker peel]
Oh, yeah! Can you add: Please forward this letter to the Board for Control of Temporal Travel. I'm happy to be contacted if they have further questions about the case.
[SEC: affirmative ping]
Signed,
Dr Faye Underwood
The Vesta Clinic
[MUSIC: The Vesta Clinic Theme]
CREDITS
This episode of the Vesta Clinic was created by AMC. It starred AMC as Faye Underwood, Kamen Cooley-Greene as Dakarai Solari, Ruby Campbell as Xaelest Adra, Christopher Stoops as The Professor and Sec as himself. Music by AMC and Ruby Campbell.
Please check out our show notes for content warnings, transcripts, and your prescription of: gender euphoria
If you enjoyed this episode and would like to help the show reach more ears, please tell someone who loves podcasts to check into the Vesta Clinic. You can also follow us on your social media of choice at @vestaclinicpod! We'd love to see you there!
Content Warnings: Referenced character loss (presumed death)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Sound Effect Attributions:
Spaceship compartment door.With pneumatics(8lrs,mltprcssng).wav by newlocknew at Freesound.org
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Connect2 by RICHERIandTV at Freesound.org
Critical Stop4 by RICHERIandTV at Freesound.org
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unfa's Menu Sounds by unfa at Freesound.org
sticker peel.flac by tim.kahn at Freesound.org
High Pitched Ticking.wav by _MC5_ at Freesound.org
