Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station

The clinic's medical care, including the potential for limb replacement, is essentially inaccessible to you.

The narrative follows a patient who experiences a painful, swelling bite from a miniature beetle in the hydroponics bay of an Interplanetary Relay Station. The bite causes a spreading purple rash. Seeking medical attention, the patient encounters a chaotic and inefficient clinic where the posted wait time is six hours, with an additional four-hour wait for a mobile tracker. A patient behind them eats the clipboard used for check-in, leading to further confusion. The patient attempts to bypass the queue by approaching the nurses' station. A human nurse advises quarantine, while an alien nurse, a Uranian Doodoo, unexpectedly bites off the patient's arm in response to a garbled attempt at communication, cauterizing the wound. The patient is then presented with a stack of forms for a prosthetic limb, which they begin to fill out. Subsequently, the patient is led to an exam room that is also infested with insects. After a brief encounter with a doctor who denies the request for a prosthetic, and a confrontation with clinic security (a Tarmandian Spacemite), the patient ultimately leaves the clinic with a lost arm and a spreading rash, facing the reality of no known cure for the initial ailment.

The story satirizes the complexities and frustrations of navigating bureaucratic systems, particularly within healthcare. The narrative highlights the futility of seeking efficient care when faced with overwhelming wait times, lost documentation, and alien biological threats. The station's medical facility prioritizes process over patient well-being, suggesting a systemic failure to address critical needs.

This narrative implies that in advanced, interstellar societies, the challenges of universal healthcare can become amplified by interspecies communication barriers and absurd levels of administrative red tape. The story's "choose your own adventure" format, with its numerous loops and dead ends, mirrors the disempowering experience of patients trapped in failing systems, where simple solutions are overshadowed by complex, often comical, failures.