The War of Immensities by Barry Klemm

them. How
will the lady know when she’s wanted if you nicked her batteries?
There you go.”
    The harried
nurse hurried away to other duties. Judy sat the children on seats
and straightened them and sat beside them herself. Felicity
Campbell sat on the other side.
    “Now kids, this
is Doctor Campbell. She’s looking after Daddy while he’s here. Say
hello to Dr Campbell.”
    “Hello, Doctor
Campbell,” Leo said, extending a hand to be shaken.
    “Hello,” said
Sheila, suddenly shy and quiet.
    “When can we
see Daddy?” Leo demanded.
    “In a minute.
Daddy is asleep, but you can talk to him. We won’t mind if you wake
him. He looks a bit funny. He has this big bruise all over his skin
but don’t be scared because it doesn’t hurt him at all, it just
looks very strange and it will go away soon, okay?”
    “Why is he
asleep?” Leo asked.
    “Is he very
tired?” Sheila wondered.
    “No. He’s just
resting for a while, until he gets better.”
    “Can we go
now?” Leo asked.
    They each took
a child’s hand and made their way forward. Judy lead them to the
side of the bed. Leo stood on tip toe, but Sheila needed to be
stood on a chair.
    “Oh, yuk.”
    “Has he been
sunburned, Mummy?” Sheila asked.
    “It’s not even
as serious as sunburn, Sheila,” Doctor Campbell said helpfully.
    “He ain’t
asleep,” Leo was sure. “He’s just fakin’ it.”
    “What makes you
think so, Leo?” the doctor asked carefully.
    “He ain’t
snorin’.”
    “It’s a special
kind of sleep,” Judy said, trying to hide her chuckling. Dr
Campbell had a hand pressed over her mouth as well.
    “We put that
tube in his nose so he wouldn’t snore,” Felicity Campbell lied.
    “You can talk
to him,” Judy prompted. “Go on, tell him you’re here.”
    “What if he
wakes up?” Sheila whispered.
    “We want him to
wake up,” Felicity smiled.
    “Well, okay
then,” Leo decided and leaned as close to his father’s ear as the
plastic cocoon would permit.
    “Hey Dad! Wake
up!” he bellowed.
    “Go back to
bloody bed, son,” Brian Carrick replied.

*

    One hour later,
all hell broke loose in the isolation ward. Joe Solomon started
screaming in agony and with that bells rang all through casualty.
The nurses came rushing with crash carts and after a few desperate
moments, the interns sedated him again.
    “What’s going
on?” Lorna Simmons demanded, sitting up on her bed. Beside her,
Chrissie Rice was murmuring and twisting. Brian Carrick, with full
vital signs restored, had already been sedated.
    They settled
Lorna and sedated Chrissie, and the panic was over. Felicity
Campbell looked at the astonished face of Shirley Benson and could
only assume a similar expression occupied her own countenance.
Almost instinctively, they both went over to Andromeda Starlight.
Felicity determined a flicker from the eyes and Shirley took the
patient’s hand and spoke in a loud voice.
    “Andromeda. If
you can hear me, squeeze my hand!”
    “Go away,
Honey. I’m tired. Let me sleep,” Andromeda Starlight murmured.
    It remained
only to check on Kevin Wagner, the American, and Felicity shone a
light in his eye. It flickered.
    “Better get a
sedative course running right away.”
    Felicity stood
in the centre of the room and gazed around. A nurse was just about
to start removing the electrodes from Lorna Simmons’ forehead.
    “Wait a minute
nurse,” she called, remembering.
    “What’s
up.”
    “Bring up the
ECG on all of them.”
    Orderlies moved
to obey. After a moment, all five screens showed only the alpha
waves and each emitted its regular beep. And no two of them at the
same time.
3. EXACTLY
NOWHERE

    When Lorna hit
the water, the cold and wet slapped her entire body with a
devastating shock, bursting her back to some sort of reality. It
was like a nightmare—no, like someone had thrown a bucket of water
over her while she slept. A very big bucket of water. She was
completely immersed in it and sinking fast. At first she