The Systemic Lands
Chapter 646: Day 5,222 – Medical Treatment

Doctor Katz

“That should be it for your tongue,” I said while looking over the Avatar. It had taken quite a bit of work to heal her tongue, but I felt it was the most important to help stabilize her mental health and help her learn to eat once more.

She didn’t say anything. Just lay there in bed, her empty sockets looking upwards at nothing. Her eyes would be a lot harder to fix. They would be the last step. I got up and left her room. There were two guards inside and other two outside at all times.

None of them said anything as I left. “Doctor Katz, Clarissa wishes to speak to you,” a servant came and told me. I paused and nodded, before going to her office.

One of her minions shut the door behind me and I took a seat in front of her desk. “How goes the treatment?” she asked.

“Slowly. She hasn’t been saying anything either, even mentally, for a while. I am hopeful this is a positive sign she is regaining her sanity,” I said. Clarissa was silent as poured herself a drink. I noted she didn’t offer me anything, but I didn’t mind. I could tell she was under a lot of pressure, and my request to heal the Avatar had been a selfish one. I didn’t like seeing her suffer like she had been. And it was only the help we received the last battle, which had allowed me to convince Michael to let me go through with it.

“Your time could be better spent elsewhere, like Jacob’s research. It has run into numerous roadblocks,” Clarissa said and pushed over some papers. I picked them up and looked them over. After reading through the reports I set them back down.

“I see. He is more suited to the role of research compared to me,” I said. I never liked being put in charge of research. I preferred healing. But I had agreed since there was no one else. I didn’t trust Jacob, but Clarissa could handle him. I was content to focus on fixing people, not on weapons.

BANG! Clarissa had slammed her hands down on her desk and I jumped a bit in my chair in surprise.

“Doctor Katz, maybe you didn’t get the memo, but we are hanging on a knife’s edge. While I understand that healing the Avatar can provide future benefits, that doesn’t excuse you from your other duties. Where do you think your funding comes from? And yes, that food growing project is being continued,” I blinked at that, I hadn’t realized.

“I can sense your surprise. You haven’t followed up on it at all. I am concerned that the Avatar is manipulating your mind in some way. Care to explain your lack of concern about things that are life threateningly important or even things you advocated for?” Clarissa asked and I looked off to the side and then down.

After a minute of silence, I looked up and Clarissa was glaring at me. “I am not a researcher. I am a doctor,” I finally said. I couldn’t put my feelings into words, just that I felt tired.

“Do you like living? If you are planning to commit suicide, let me know, so I can make the arrangements,” Clarissa said.

“No! I just…I just prefer healing. I am useless in combat anyways. Better to stay back and work on fixing people,” I replied. I could sense the anger rolling off of Clarissa. I knew she couldn’t retire, and Emperor Michael couldn’t retire in any way. But I felt like I couldn’t contribute. Jacob was better at research than me. I preferred to do what I was good at.

“You can’t have one foot in and one foot out. If you want executive level privileges and to be able to comment in high level meetings you need to put in the work. If you just want to be a healer that is fine, but I am forbidding you from commenting on any high level decisions or in meetings going forward,” Clarissa said.

I opened my mouth and then closed it. Objecting to this would be a bad idea. I knew how both Clarissa and Michael operated. While Clarissa wouldn’t kill me, she could cut off funding and make things difficult for me if I didn’t agree with her. And stepping back did come with a price, she was right. If I didn’t want to contribute, then I couldn’t expect to have a say.

“I understand,” I replied.

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“I am glad there is an understanding. Don’t make me regret it. You will be kept on staff as a Doctor, but all your other positions and expense account will be revoked. The food growing program will be handed off to someone else,” Clarissa said with a tired tone. “Now get out,” she replied, and I left her office.

Clarissa

I watched Doctor Katz leave. I wanted to scream and rage at him. People were picking the worst times to fall apart. The fact he hadn’t gone off with Michael was a bad sign, but this tepid attitude was too much. I needed people focused on the problems at hand.

Doctor Katz was losing his motivation or had already lost it. He was just going through the motions. While I wanted to say this was a surprise, it wasn’t. It had been a long time in coming, but he eventually was worn down mentally.

The mass deaths from the sphere were probably what had done it. So many deaths with no way to counter them had been a heavy blow to his mindset. It wasn’t PTSD, but something close enough that at the end of the day it didn’t make a huge difference. Even in victory, he was mentally struggling.

“Dammit!” I picked up my metal cup and threw it against the wall. It bounced off with a clang. That made me feel a bit better, but not my much. Pointless anger wouldn’t help anyone.

All these idiots having issues, and I had to keep it all togeather. At least Michael had his head on right. But he only had to focus on himself for the most part. I had to keep this place from falling apart as people had emotional breakdowns.

Doctor Katz’s voice in meetings was important since he was a counterbalance that Michael respected enough to listen to. The fact he hadn’t been willing to push back, showed that he had broken mentally. While he might recover in time, it was doubtful.

Not every mental break was a sudden shattering. Doctor Katz’s mental state was like a castle built on sand. The tides had gone in and out, wearing out the foundation, but now it was crumbling into the ocean after a violent storm had done just enough damage to push him into despair.

This was the kind of situation where a person would have a mid-life crisis or find a new job. But that wasn’t an option. I couldn’t just replace people like I could back on Earth. There was a limiting hiring pool and trust was a huge issue. People who were competent didn’t just grow on trees and there was a huge personnel shortage at the moment.

Losing all those cities had seriously hurt my ability to recruit people. I couldn’t just appoint anyone to positions. They had to have stats, competence, and an understanding of the world we were in. I couldn’t afford to have bureaucrats messing things up. I needed a military force that understood the chain of command.

At the lower levels I could make compromises, but Doctor Katz had been a part of Michael’s team. Now he was drifting away, or had drifted away. There was no one to replace him with. Jacob could handle the research, but I needed someone who understood the nuances of what he was doing. The moment he thought he could get away with anything there would be trouble.

I didn’t have time for everything that needed to be done. Samantha was scheming and not being helpful. Same with other people. I closed my eyes. This was why Michael kept me around. I couldn’t just purge everyone. I needed smart people, but those people tended to think they were too smart for their own good and tried to scheme in some way.

“What to do?” I muttered to myself while straightening out the paperwork on my desk. I would have to begin a massive change in organizational structure. This was going to be the death of me. Fine if Samantha wanted more rope, then she would get more rope. I rang a bell and a messenger quickly entered my office.

“Summon Samantha here,” I said and he ran off. I longed for the days of e-mails and phones. It made everything so much easier. I pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and began drawing a new organizational chart.

There would be more Directors and Doctor Katz was going to be replaced by Jacob. I had no choice but to trust the former Master Fleshcrafter. There was no one else to put in that spot now that Doctor Katz was retiring to focus on healing. I let out an annoyed scoff at that. Everyone was weak. If you were going to break down, then do it in a way that won’t affect others.

I began listing out other names. The bureaucracy was going to become massively bloated for the foreseeable future. There would be a huge hiring spree. Then in a couple hundred days, once people had a chance to get comfortable there would be a mass purge. Everyone, even remotely involved in any kind of corruption would be publicly executed in one mass sweep.

The smart ones who were able to hide what they were doing or didn’t scheme at all would be left. I didn’t want to do things this way, but I couldn’t keep up with everything myself. I needed to get back to focusing on high level issues. If I had, then maybe I would have realized this Doctor Katz mess much earlier.

The expenses would be annoying, but any scheming should be shut down for a long time once a purge occurred in the future. And even if people weren’t killed in the purge, the various parts of the government would be trimmed down.

I wouldn’t be telling anyone either. Not even Michael. He wouldn’t want to get involved and the more people were caught by surprise, the better. The main thing was to not crack down too hard on the military. Well my auditors would gather information as time went on. I would fill the positions quickly, without checking into how competent people were and see if they sank or swam in their new jobs.