Chapter 23:AD 2100 Inner Belt – Virgil
Throughout history, the mess decks on Earthbound oceangoing ships provided a location for auxiliary medical services. The added space was used in times of strife to provide an open area to treat the wounded. A place where doctors made the hard decisions about who lived or died. Battlefield triage, it was called. Another example of man playing at being God.
When humankind made the leap into space, the thought of treating mass casualties never crossed the early astronauts’ minds. There was never a crew large enough to warrant the need for triage. As the ships grew in size and complexity, larger crews were taken into the dark. Family ships not only carried crew but the whole clan, including children. Never built for fighting, the ships still needed a p
