The Pharmacist and The Prince

PPE Acquired

Ebony was back in the squishy building. Except this time, she was here with Aische and Ulrich and not the King Regent.

Not that it made any difference or she would have preferred him to be here. No, she was fine. Totally. Completely. Perfectly fine.

Shut up and focus, she told herself.

Ebony sat at the same table, in the same workshop where she had been yesterday. But this time, she sat at the head of the table, with Aische and Ulrich flanking her.

The skinny man, who had now introduced himself as the Chief Textile Magicker, placed the modified tarpaulin PPE on the table in front of her.

“Milady, this is the material you asked for. We spent all day and all night working on it and we think it will meet your specifications perfectly.” The Chief stood by the side, hands folded behind him, watching as she examined the material.

Ebony picked up the suit and rubbed the material between her index and thumb finger. The material responded immediately, crumpling and creasing under her touch.

Perfect, she thought. It was perfect. This was the perfect texture for the PPE.

She lifted the suit off the table, the white material unfolding. Perfect weight too. She stood up and pressed the suit to her body. It was well made. She turned it in and out. No seams except for the adhesive latches at the back to hold the suit close.

“I have to say, Chief, this is perfect workmanship. Just perfect and in such a short period of time too. It is really impressive.”

Watching the group of textile magickers, all grown men, flush like little girls was utterly gratifying.

“Thank you, milady. Your words are too kind.”

“I’m just saying the truth. This is really great work.” One more issue remained, though. “Has the material undergone any quality control tests? Regarding its breathability and ability to prevent chemicals from getting through. And its leakage and puncture-proof ability. Things like that.”

The Chief bobbed his head in agreement. “Yes, milady. We conducted the most strenuous of tests on the material. We initially felt that reducing the weight of the tarpaulin would reduce its effectiveness but that was not the case. And along with the coating, it seemed to have increased its resistance to wear and tear, milady, as you predicted.”

Ebony was not surprised. The tarpaulin that was being employed as the roof in this building was, fortunately for her, the high-density polyethylene type of tarpaulin. Which had very poor breathability. The space between the particles were just too small.

But by increasing the space within the particles, like for example multiplying the space by two, the breathability increased by two. And the weight reduced in half, since the half of the materials have been replaced by space.

Then coating it with a special poly coating, which the guild already had present as they worked with tarpaulin regularly, prevented it from tearing easily, puncturing, water, mildew and even UV rays.

Ebony moved the suit away from her, once again examining it. It was truly a remarkable turn of events. She had acquired PPE in a fantasy world.

“I will try this on. Is there a place where I can change?”

Seeing how the magickers recoiled, she could surmise that it was quite an unusual request, but she didn’t mind. She had to try it out.

“Is there such a place, Chief?” she repeated.

“Well,” the chief magicker started, looking very uncomfortable, “we can vacate this room for the lady, if it will be okay?”

“Sure. It’ll be fine.”

One by one, the magickers and Ulrich shuffled out of the room, leaving only her and Aische. Once Aische helped her out of her dress, she undid the latches and stepped into the suit, pulling it up her body.

Perfect, she reiterated. Just perfect.

Ebony cast her mind back to the first time and last time she had worn PPE. She was conducting an experiment for her pharmaceutical microbiology lab and she had to collect a sample of the very contagious and very deadly Ebola virus.

When she had been handed the PPE, her first thought was “How am I going to breathe in this? I’ll be sweating buckets under it.” The material looked like you could use it to suffocate a person.

But once she had put in on, her second thought was “Will this thing really protect me?” and that was because of how light and breathable it felt. The project came and passed without a hitch, though. The PPE really did what it was touted to do.

Ebony now wore PPE for the second time in her life. In a different world but still, she felt it would do the job again.

The suit was not slim-fitted. It was loose, the fabric hanging off her. She waved her hands and walked about. The mobility was good. But that was for her.

For someone like Ulrich, who would be wearing one of these to treat patients come next week, it would be a little tight. The magickers obviously made the suit with her in mind. She would have to tell them to make different sizes to accommodate the various workers in the isolation centres.

Aische’s quiet voice came from behind her. “Milady, is the…uhm…suit to your satisfaction?”

Ebony turned and smiled at the girl. “It’s perfect.”

Things were looking well for Ebony. She had instructed the textile magickers to create face masks, diversify the size of the PPE and the construction of the mattress were going well. Even the construction of the isolation centre was going very well.

If she stuck her head out the window and crooked it far enough, she would be able to see the construction work going on in the front gardens of the apothecary.

The construction workers had arrived this morning and went straight to work. They had told her, yesterday and this morning, that the construction would be done by the end of the day.

Slightly unbelieving, she had bidden them well and left for the Guild of Textile Magickers, only for her to return in the afternoon to see a partially completed building.

It had taken both Aische and Ulrich to close her gaping mouth and drag her away.

The worst part was how silent the construction was. If Ebony had not seen the workers and the structure, she would never have guessed that any sort of construction was going on.

Ebony shook her head at the thought and turned to concentrate at the work on hand. Last night, she had completed the writing of her textbook for the health workers. It was about ten pages long. She would later include more explicit instructions when she was finished synthesizing drugs to help treat the patients.

Today, she would be synthesizing her first product. A hand sanitizer.

It was as she was riding back from the Guild of Textile Magickers that the idea had come to her. She was thinking about writing a pamphlet for the general populace that would contain information about the virus and how to use the face masks that the textile magickers were making.

Then she realized that she needed to give the people more that they could use to protect themselves and the answer was the clear bottle in her backpack. A hand sanitizer.

Ebony sat at the table of in the makeshift laboratory s***h office in the apothecary. The window provided her a view of the sun high in the sky. Ebony turned to the maid beside her.

“Aische, what time is it?”

Aishce scribbled a rune on her palm and looked up. “It is two hours and nine minutes past noon, milady.”

Ebony hummed. 2:09pm. It was still early. She hoped she would be able to finish the hand sanitizer today.

It really was not hard to make. The major component and the active component was the alcohol, that is, ethanol. 70% ethanol, to be precise.

But to make it, you need 100% ethanol or something close to 100%. Then, the addition of the other components like aloe vera gel and the essential oils will reduce it to about 70% ethanol and it will be safe to use.

So where to get 100% ethanol?

Ebony turned to Ulrich, sitting on her left. “Ulrich, where can I get 100% ethanol?”

Ulrich tilted his head, like he was not hearing properly. “Eth…ethanol, milady?”

“Yes, where can I get it? In any concentration.”

“I…have never heard of such a…a…What is ethanol, milady?”

Ebony frowned. It was not looking good. “Remember, it’s Ebony, Ulrich. And ethanol is…” Ethanol was an organic compound; a simple alcohol with two carbon molecules. But she couldn’t tell him.

“Ethanol is alcohol, basically. The alcohol that you find in wine, beer, vodka, rum and so on. Those drinks all contain ethanol. It was makes you intoxicated.”

Ulrich nodded. “Well, if that is the case, then can the wine and beer not be used instead? It has the ethanol you seek.”

Ebony shook her head, sighing. “I can’t. if I were to use those drinks, then I would have to distill them to get the alcohol out and distilling is…”

Ebony paused. Sat up straighter and looked around her. Was distilling impossible? No. No, it wasn’t.

It was one of the most basic chemical processes. All she needed was a heat source, a cooling source, two beakers, a cork, a thermometer and a collecting glass tube. And of course, the alcoholic drink.

She stood up, Ulrich and Aische standing up with her, and began walking around the laboratory to see the equipment on hand.

“Distilling is quite a simple process. Substances, compounds have different boiling points. One way to separate them whenever they are in a mixture is to heat the mixture and allow the different components to boil out at their unique boiling points.”

Ebony paused when she saw a glass cup. She picked it up and examined it more carefully. It could serve as a beaker.

“Once your required compound boils out, you simply collect it and cool it down. Then, you have the pure compound. Quite simple.”

The look Aische and Ulrich gave her told her that they didn’t see anything simple in that. It was fine. She would be the one distilling.

“We need to gather materials. I’ll make a list.” And she did.