Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station

A choose-your-own-adventure short story set on an isolated interplanetary relay station that opens with a bite from tiny beetle-like insects in the hydroponics bay and a spreading purple rash. The protagonist rushes to a clinic whose marquee reads “hours since the last patient death: 0,” then navigates a labyrinth of bureaucratic farce: interminable wait times, a mucus-covered sign-in clipboard that a predatory Tarmandian Spacemite eats, an unavailable “mobile tracker,” and a pair of nurses - a weary human and a giant Uranian Doodoo. Branches of the narrative deliver grotesque solutions (the Doodoo eats and cauterizes the infected arm), Kafkaesque paperwork for prosthetics, exam rooms infested with the same beetles, and a security Spacemite whose predatory instincts doom those who flee. Many choices loop back or converge on similarly grim outcomes.

The piece uses interactive structure, dark comedy, and body-horror to satirize medical bureaucracy, resource scarcity, and xenophobic misunderstandings on a frontier outpost. Repetition and circular pathways emphasize the futility of navigating institutional care in a remote, absurdist setting; minor differences in choices produce comic or gruesome variations but rarely alter the inevitable trajectory toward harm or death. Short (about 2,100 words) and nominated for a Nebula, the work trades conventional plot resolution for satirical commentary and bleak humor.