Part 14: - Breaking the emulation

14 - Breaking the emulation

(NEW Music: On the Cutting Edge of Medicine.)







"Are you worried?"

"I wouldn't say worried. We're down one doctor and assistant. How are we supposed to operate with two of our best people gone?"

"Derek has potential, but he's far from perfect. I wasn't going to send him off to Caduceus without an assistant he's comfortable with. Besides, Caduceus is supposed to assist us in finding new staff."

If Greg had asked me whether or not I wanted to bring Angie with me, I would have said no and never looked back, personally.

"I see... Still, I didn't expect Stiles to be the selfless type."

"Do you think he'll be able to handle the pressure?"

"I suppose we'll find out."

"He's going to be surprised... I didn't get a chance to tell him about Sidney."



"An international organization which seeks to eradicate disease. 'Caduceus USA' is the name of the American branch. There are additional branches in Europe and Japan. The US branch researches special anti-infection measures as well."

"It was originally established in 1980 as a top-secret offshoot of the Department of Health and Human Services. Once the organization went international, the central agency was renamed Caduceus USA. They are authorized to act on their own, outside of government approval."

"Derek Stiles, you can come in now!"



"...Huh?!"



"It's nice to meet you. I'm Sidney Kasal, the Director here. My brother's told me a lot about you. I'm glad you decided to come."

"Sidney Kasal, age 35: Chief Director of Caduceus. He dedicated his life to the study of clinical medicine after his wife died of illness."

"Oh yeah... I think Dr. Kasal mentioned having a brother. Uh, I mean-- It was an honor to even be considered for the job."

"Angie Thompson, you can come in as well."



"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, too. You're young, but I hear you're hard-working, and as sharp as a tack. I look forward to seeing what you both can do here at Caduceus."

"Thank you, sir. I'll do my best."

"The Secretary of Health and Human services should be here shortly. When I told him you were both coming today, he insisted on stopping by. He's in charge around here, so I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of him."

"Right this way, Mr. Secretary..."



"Well... perhaps it would be more appropriate to say 'thank you.'

"Richard Anderson: Current Secretary of Health and Human Services. After a long career in politics, he became the Director of Caduceus."

"Thank you for accepting such a dangerous job. I'm told that operating on GUILT puts the surgeon at risk, too. And we still have no idea who's responsible for spreading it."

"...."

"But, from what I hear about you two, you're up to the task. Scientific advances, DNA treatments, changing social environments... We live in challenging times, and it's our responsibility to research and create treatments which ensure the stability of world health. What I mean is, I'm pleased to have you both on board. I hope you'll do your best, and take your work seriously."

"Yes, sir!"



"And this is Dr. Clarks, our expert surgeon."



"Stephen Clarks, age 42: Caduceus' head surgeon -- has a wife and two kids. His kind demeanor has comforted many sick patients."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Stephen Clarks."

"Nice to meet you, Dr. Clarks."

"This is our anesthesiologist, Dr. Myers.



"Cybil Myers: A well respected Anesthesiology specialist. She used to be a police officer, but left the force to practice medicine. She's intelligent and very spirited. Some call her the 'Iron Vixen.'"

This is pretty much the only character in the series to actually have a stated specialty they stick to. More or less.

"You're from Hope Hospital, right? Isn't that Greg Kasal's office?"

"Do you know him?"

"We went to med school together. He helped me in a lot of ways. I'm actually the only one here who knew Sidney was his younger brother. Anyway, if you have any questions, feel free to ask."

"Of course. It's nice to meet you."

"Some of our staff aren't here today, so you'll have to meet them later."

"Think this will lighten our workloads?"

"Doubt it. Have you taken a look at the list of incoming patients?"

*Sigh.* Oh well.

"Do you guys get to work with a lot of patients here?"

"The public doesn't know yet, but we're on the verge of an outbreak."

"Congress recently voted in favor of a budget increase, but... that won't be good enough. We're going to have you start treating patients tomorrow. So, for today, let's get all that paperwork out of the way."

"Sounds good."

(Music: The sound of crickets chirping. Use your imagination.)



"It's pretty late."

"Yeah... Hey, why'd you come to Caduceus, anyway?"

"...Does it matter?"

"Uh, well, I just wanted to know why you joined Caduceus, too."

"Dr. Kasal recommended me."

"That's not what I meant. Before, it seemed like you knew something about GUILT, so... does it have anything to do with your father's disappearance?"

"Not really. Caduceus has the newest technology and research material. I wanted to be here, on the front lines of modern medicine. It's the same as your wish to become a master surgeon. I want to be a master assistant. That's really all there is to it."

"I guess that makes sense. We'll work hard, together."



"Huh? It sounds like someone's on the phone."



"I gotta run. Yeah, I'll get back to you, dude. -...No way...."

"..............Tyler?!"

"No way. No way! You seriously work here now?!"

"Tyler Chase: A Caduceus surgeon. He went to med school with Derek. Tyler's very optimistic, and tries to keep everyone in a good mood."

This is Dr. Chase. What a subtle reference!

"Y-Yes...?"

"And it's very nice to meet your gorgeous assistant..."

"M-My name is Angie Thompson. ...Nice to meet you..."

"Man, I heard 'em say the new doctor was Stiles, but... This rocks! I didn't think you were adventurous enough to join Caduceus.. And, I mean, you weren't exactly an 'A' student, man. But, they've been hyping you here as a 'highly skilled surgeon.'"

"Wh-What? Nobody told me anything about that... I don't want people expecting too much of me right away."



"People can change a lot in three years. You know?"

"What about you? You were probably one of the top 5 in our class."

"I guess you can see for yourself, hm? Good luck, man. We oughtta throw a party or something. See ya!"

"I can't believe Tyler works here. Oh, sorry. Tyler's a friend of mine from school."

"Yeah. I kind of figured that out."

"He was the professor's favourite, so I assumed he'd stayed in school. Potassium chloride, huh? I wonder if he's doing animal testing."

PETA wouldn't like this game.

(Music: On the Cutting Edge of Medicine.)





"We obviously need to treat them ASAP, but we don't know how. So at the moment, we're trying to slow the disease's progression."

"I had a lot of trouble operating on GUILT as well."

Which is probably a polite way of saying "you assholes seriously didn't try burning the damn thing?" To be fair, not many people seriously consider using a laser cutter on lung tissue.

"Today's patient is similar to your previous experience with GUILT. I watched the video footage of your surgery at Hope, but... you moved so quickly I couldn't tell what was going on."

Aw. You're making me blush, Sid.

"I'm looking forward to seeing you in action today."

"Let's see what you got!"

"Don't put pressure on me."

"Dr. Myers will handle the anesthesia."

"No problem."

"Myers is a tough chick, Derek. If you screw this up, she won't ever work with you again."

"Stop trying to scare the newbie, Chase. Well, it's a difficult operation and we don't have room for mistakes. Just do your best, kid."

"You got it."

(Music: Patient Profile)



The patient is a reference to Judy Reyes, actress of Scrubs' Nurse Espinosa.

"Today's patient is a GUILT victim brought here three days ago. Derek, you've actually operated on this exact strain before."

"It was called... Kyriaki, wasn't it?"

"Correct. This GUILT hides inside organs and creates lacerations. Removing it, however, should be just like removing any parasite. We wanted a simple case to evaluate your skill."

...What was that about not being able to treat it, then?

"There's only one objective in this procedure: -Remove the Kyriaki. I'll leave the exact details of the operation to your discretion. Let's see your talent, Dr. Stiles."

"Yes, sir."



(Watch This Operation: Mission 3-1, S Rank.)

(Music: GUILT)

"This is the same strain of GUILT that Ms. Reid contracted. Let's begin."



This operation, like Sidney said, is basically a memory test to see whether or not you can remember what to do. If you fail, Sidney tells you they've made a mistake and you get to make the Walk of Shame back to Hope. No pressure.



The reason why you should always suture the big lacerations last in this case is because from now on, once the large lacerations are taken care of, Kyriaki will spawn. Getting rid of the small ones first gives you a longer time before vitals start to plummet, as well as a chance to boost them.



"The patient's vitals are dropping! You have to suture the lacerations!"

God, Angie, shut up! Stop giving bad advice, they're only at 60. Generally you shouldn't start raising the vitals or suturing on Kyriaki patients until all the little ones are dead. You can use gel to stabilize until then.



There are five Kyriaki to kill. Now is the time to learn that letting the vitals hover around 20 is 100% A-Okay. Do what you need to do and don't even think about the vitals until they hit 15.








I love how Sidney just stops the operation to talk to you and the patient is still bleeding to death.

"Let's treat those last few wounds and close him up."



"We were, Angie. That's very observant of you. GUILT creates cells with an unnatural chirality. Using the Chrion Test, we can detect they emit."

Medical Bullshit: In real life, the "chirality" of a substance normally refers to the chemical or biological asymmetry an object. This is called an enantiomer in organic chemistry. Basically that means that the substances are the same chemical makeup but structurally are mirror images of eachother, much like a pair of left and right hands. In chemistry, changing enantiomers can change the way a substance behaves. For example, the rectus thalidomide enantiomer actually did work as a medication that reduced morning sickness - the problem was that once it was inside the body, it sometimes switched to its sinister conformation, which is toxic and caused severe birth defects. In biology, it can be seen in the handedness of shells.

"So far, that's the only way to reliably distinguish GUILT. Remind me to give you the Chiron test equipment later. Sorry I wasted all that time, Derek. Finish up by suturing the incision."

GUILT-related "chirality" probably has nothing at all to do with that, however, and is just some word they used to reference to Chiron the Centaur, teacher of Asclepius. Though it does seem like they at least tried to make it sound at least a little accurate, because different chemical chiralities do have different behaviors when it comes to wavelengths of light. I don't think it works quite like that, but I'm no organic chemist.



In the video, I S Rank this mission. It's easier than Please Let Me Live because you are not required to boost your score. Just a fair amount of Cools, boost your vitals at the end, and finish in about three minutes. It shouldn't even take you that long.

I went so fast I broke the emulation about 30 seconds in. Notice the lag at about 50 seconds: this lag is natural on the physical copy, especially when fighting three Kyriaki at once, but actually works to your benefit. It gives you extra time to think. You'll notice more lag from now on as we meet different GUILT.



"He's still got a lot to learn... but that was incredible!"

"Stiles finished thirty minutes earlier than we estimated. Hopefully the patient will recover quickly, as well."

"Heh... looks like times have changed."

Next Time: A brand new space cancer.