Universally maligned noise.
When someone is sleeping and with a heavy head invariably will disturb the incessant beep, beep of the continuing world around.
Alarms.
Doors.
Communiqués.
The source of the noise was inconsequential. Sure, in a few moments when the cold sobriety of accepting your inability to return to sleep, it becomes important, but for those few moments all that matters is that some bastard somewhere took it upon himself to rouse you from your sleep, and you want to know why.
Decker wanted to know why.
On this occasion the beeping was his communicator in his main room. Decker knew of few people outside his sphere of close work associates who knew his frequency, so expected another command to return to the office for a late night miracle discovery he always, invariably, told them could wait until morning.
“What. This better not…”
“Decker, is that you?”
To say that Decker was surprised would be an understatement. “…Maxson?” He had a graying beard and a face full of dirt, and the wrinkles on his face made him look a decade older then when last he had seen him, but undeniably beneath the years of shit caked to his face and the wearing down of his body done by time, it was no one besides Maxson, only and inexplicably, Maxson.
“I hope I didn’t wake you.”
Decker, unsure what to say, fussed his hair. “Well, yeah. What are you doing, where are you? Where have you been? I couldn’t get an answer on your com…”
“Shut em off.”
“…I came by your place…”
”Moved.”
“But where? Why? What…?”
“Decker, do you remember the last time we were face to face?”
Decker slowly nodded.
”You may not recognize me, but my name is Doctor Richard Grey Maxson. I am a scientist, more specifically, a technological research analyst working under the deploy of the Coalition Medical Corps, an arm of the Galactic Coalition. I was assigned to a project known internally as P38-1X9. You have undoubtedly come to know this insidious project as Pancea. Its spread through the Galactic Coalition was heralded as an end to disease. A new future with a better, healthier people.
The best laid plans of men…
What instead ensued could be grossly understated as the worst in a series of admittedly lengthily and catastrophic disasters. In a small amount of time, those injected with Pancea began to experience… side effects. They were becoming ill, some seriously ill, as a result of an adverse reaction with Pancea. Though we tried to avoid accepting it, Pancea was making our own people ill.
Today I stand before you not unapologetic and self-assured but very much a conflicted man. I will not lie and try and pretend that this disaster did not occur. I will not lie to you and tell you that it was the fault of foreign manufacturers or the people who injected Pancea using it improperly. I will not credit Imperial Propaganda for overblowing this situation. I am here to apologize.
Because of an oversight in the development of Pancea, the metal casing chosen for the Pancea probes was one that a vast majority of the Coalition was allergic to. How such a grievous error could occur, I am not sure. What resulted was people’s bodies rejecting Pancea as if it, itself, was an infection, in some cases this led to severe stomach illness that required immediate medical attention. Thank the gods that we discovered this, and inadvertently a thanks to Imperial scientists as well for making the situation so public. It was partly because of the scandal that scientists began to work so hard, so fast.
Within Coalition space no person who took Pancea has died. Within Coalition space everyone who took the treatments is alive and on their way to recovery. There are still people in a serious condition but they are getting better, not worse. To these people I would like to apologize. I would like to admit to the mistakes that were made and I would like to place the burden of those mistakes on my shoulders. I do not want to blame anyone for what ultimately was my mistake. As a research analyst and moreover the senior research analyst it was my judgment as to what testing procedures Pancea underwent and for how long. To put things into simple, laymen’s terms, I jumped the gun.
When I began to see dailies of the research on Pancea’s effects I rushed the program ahead to human trials. These trials, which can normally take years before beginning and then years before conclusion, began, and ended, within a series of months. This was my error and mine alone. I became… blind, to everything but the positive potential of this treatment. I let my medical professionalism and conservatism slip by the wayside. It was a terrible error of judgement and I apologize profusely for doing it.
Now that I have seen to the reversal of the errors that I made, and Pancea is being redistributed in a safer, better tested variant, I feel that I owe something to everyone who was effected by my misjudgment. As such, pending this moment I am resigning my commission as a Coalition doctor, effective immediately. I will not allow myself the opportunity to make another mistake that will effect millions of lives. I cannot trust myself not to repeat the mistakes that I have made and I do not think, as it is now, I can ever forget the results of my last mistake or the ill faces I saw everyday as a direct result of my lack of judgement.
I want to issue one last apology to all those that trusted me, and all those who worked with and worked for me. If any of you suffered from the lack of professionalism I displayed, I apologize to each of you. I hope you can rebound from this incident and have long and effective careers in the medical field. It is true in my belief that there is no more important or more rewarding career available inside the Coalition or beyond then the medical practices. There is nothing that can compare to the saving of a life, the curing of an illness, the hope and happiness that can provide beyond the person. Helping people to live better lives is what the Coalition was founded on, and to everyone in it, I hope that you continue your work and fight the good fight.
To all the civilians within the Coalition; Pancea is a good drug. It will save many lives that would have been irreparably ill before. If you don’t think now is the time, then don’t hesitate to wait. But the earlier mistakes that I have made have been corrected. Don’t hesitate to ever seek it out if you need it. It is a live saver and it is a miracle of modern medical engineering, and it can, and will, save you where prior you would have no other hope. It is my most profound hope that no loss of faith or trust of the Coalition medical service will result from my personal mistake. I ensure you, nothing like this will ever be allowed to happen again.
I want to leave you with something a man smarter then me once said. It doesn’t matter how long you spend at the top or how quick it took you to get there; the true measure of a man is how long he’s spent at the bottom. Failure builds character; success just breeds arrogance.
I hope that there’s some truth to that.
Richard Maxson, signing off.”
”Grey…?”
“Look, pack a bag. Tell your hootchy coochy you’ll be back in a couple of days, just get ready and get on a transport.”
Decker furrowed his brow, allowing a frown to cross his face. “Fine. Where?”
