“Hello. I’d like to ask, is it possible to buy vaccines for Roklera?”
“Roklera? You’re from another dome, correct? I can see why you would ask this. It’s not possible to buy outside of dome 6 since other domes only get a pre-determined supply of it.”
“That’s what I heard too.”
She nodded.
“Don’t worry, there’s no such restriction here. Since we produce it locally, we can always make more if we need to.”
That made me sigh in relief.
“That’s great. How many do you have in stock?”
“Why are you asking? Why would you need to buy more than a few?”
“Actually, my dome has an urgent need for a large quantity of it. That’s why I paid for the expensive gate travel to come here.”
“Hmm… How many is this large quantity?”
“As many as you have.”
“These are not cheap, you know?”
“How much is it?”
“It’s 78 lods each.”
A quick calculation told me I would be able to buy a bit more than 1.500 vaccines with my current money. This was trouble. No matter how I thought about it, 1,500 vaccines were only a drop in the sea compared to what I needed. Geola’s population was around one million. 1,500 was only 0.15% of that number. If this place even had that many of them ready in the first place.
“How many do you have in stock?”
“Let me check.”
She left the counter and went into the back office. A minute later, she came back and announced.
“We have 54 in stock. Just in case other people want to buy some, I can only sell you 40.”
“40…”
Things didn’t look nice. I pondered about my options for a moment before deciding on my next move.
“I’m asking just in case but is there a way I could buy the vaccine recipe?”
This made her laugh.
“Haha. Vaccines aren’t made with a “recipe” but I understand what you mean. No, you can’t buy the production method. How would we earn any money if the laboratory sold off their secrets?”
“Right… Then, Please sell me those 40.”
“Yes. That’ll be 3,120 lods.”
I paid her and she brought me a pack of glass capsules containing a small amount of liquid.
“How should it be injected?”
“This one is administrated via intramuscular injection. You should ask a professional to do it.”
“One last question. How long does the effect last?”
“For a lifetime.”
“I understand. Thank you.”
I said goodbye and went out of the pharmacy. This place was just one of the many pharmacies in the dome but going through all of them wouldn’t change my situation. The main issues here were money and available quantity. Even if we assume I somehow manage to convince a laboratory to produce a million of them, I wouldn’t have the means to pay for them.
Since the situation was urgent, there was no point in standing around doing nothing. I found a quiet place and teleported to Geola. Judging by the amount of sel used during the teleportation, dome 6 was indeed very far away from dome 82.
Geola looked the same as the previous day. It was still quarantined and surrounded by a large number of fighters. I was stopped by a couple of them on my way to the tent where the two rulers of the city were staying.
“Stop. You’re not allowed to continue further than this.”
“Yes, I know. I’ve been called by Miss Vejas regarding the pandemic outbreak. Please check with her, my name is Tila Urtek.”
“Wait here. We’ll verify if that’s true.”
The one who first talked signaled to his colleague to go check. He entered the tent and came out almost immediately.
“It’s true. She told me to bring him right this instant.”
The two soldiers seemed a bit impressed and escorted me with more care. There wasn’t more escorting to do, however, and I was soon allowed to come inside the temporary crisis headquarters.
The two Vejas, young and older, weren’t alone this time. There were several more people, all looking like important officials, all of them around the main table and discussing the current situation.
“C1 is propagating like wildfire. If we don’t do something soon, thousands will die.”
“Who doesn’t know that? And? Do you have any amazing ideas?”
“We can’t afford to let it spread anymore… It might be cruel but we need to “take care” of anyone infected.”
“You’re insane!”
“It’s not like I want to do this either but what other choice do we have? We’re powerless against this disease.”
“My son was infected, you madwoman! Are you saying you want to “take care” of him too!?”
Two of the officials stood up and glared at each other, full of murdering intents. At that moment, Crali noticed me and clapped her hands loudly.
“Enough! We’ll take a break for a few moments. Everyone, go out and cool your head. I need to talk to this person.”
She pointed at me and they all turned in my direction.
“Who is he?”
“He’s someone I tasked to help with the pandemic.”
“Miss, we can’t leave you alone with some random man like this.”
“My mother is here. Are you saying anything could happen to me?”
“…Of course not. Please excuse me, my Lady, miss.”
The “Lady” in question didn’t even bother looking away from the book she was currently reading and the official pulled a face full of helplessness. One by one, all of them exited the tent, the two who were fighting still glaring daggers at one another. Once they were out, Angin closed her book and stood up from her sofa. She watched me attentively as she asked.
“Any result?”
“I have good news and bad news. What do you want first?”
“The bad news.”
“The bad news is that I don’t have the means to acquire enough vaccine to save everyone.”
There was a long silence until Crali shouted.
“There’s a way to save infected people? What’s a vaccine? No, wait, don’t do any stupid good and bad news stuff, explain everything from the start!”