[i]One of the things that Eurocorp loved to tout in their glittering self-promotional slideshows was their health care system. The ads loved to contrast Eurocorp's high quality low cost system, Euromed, with ramshackle systems in Nova and Korporat, sharing horror stories about incompetent doctors in dingy hospital rooms and plagues ripping through foreign slums like tornadoes, topped off with a sobbing mother talking about how the utopian Euromed facilities saved the lives of her and her family, and at such an affordable cost no less!

The unspoken truth is that Europa's best healthcare system ran on one simple rule: Don't get sick.

Okay, that is a bit unfair to EuroMed. After all, to the obscenely wealthy, Eurocorp's health care was perfectly serviceable, excellent even. For everyone else, if you got sick or injured, you went on the list, and when your name came up you had an appointment. Of course the waiting lists would last a month if you were lucky, but for a fee in the form of a Special Emergency Payment, or a SEP if you're in a hurry, you could always jump ahead in the list. Or get a decent doctor. Or get into a hospital in the district you lived in. Or getting the medicine and equipment on time, and in a decent enough condition that it might actually work. All easily payed for with SEPs, of course, for the full patient experience. Patient choice!

Suffice it to say, if you did not or could not get a SEP in, you waited, and when you finally got noticed you usually got stuck with the new doctors, such as fresh-faced immigrants from Korporat like-[/i]

"Doctor Hayes?" the receptionist called out. "Your patient is waiting for you."

"Coooooming!"

Ophelia Haye's singsong tone of voice jarred so much with the setting that it forced everyone to stare as she slid into the busy waiting room. One of the men waiting to be seen spotted the doctor leaving inky black footprints behind her and decided that he could have his throat checked some other time and all but ran out the door. The receptionist, a sleepy-eyed girl who largely went by Alex just a few years younger then Hayes, stared unblinking at her.

"What? Oh, this," Ophelia Hayes realized, gesturing towards the smock she had on, practically drenched with some foul-smelling black substance. "Had to run some repairs on an older Dorn model augment. Really ancient, really messy."

"I can...uh...see that," Alex remarked. She winced as the doctor pulled off her gloves with a snap, threatening to fleck the foul smelling liquid across her desk.

"Don't worry, it looks a lot more disgusting then it actually is," Ophelia Hayes ensured, taking off the smock and wrapping it up into a bundle with the gloves. "And admittedly it was pretty disgusting. Especially when the enemic valve came loose and this stuff just came gushing out of his-"

"DOCTOR, the next patient!"

"Crap, you're right! Gotta go!"

Ophelia Hayes left for the examination room, giving the receptionist time to rub her temples in frustration as she darted off into the back, in her enthusiasm nearly knocking over another doctor headed in the opposite direction.

EuroMed quality healthcare indeed.