The knights are rather less helpful in answering Felix's questions than they'd like to be. They are, after all, knights - they often receive wounds in battle, which must be treated, and which your average farmer doesn't need to be nearly as concerned about. And even before they were knights, they were both nobles, distancing themselves further from the common peasant.

To make it worse, the knights are ignorant of all but the most basic first aid. The best either of them can do for a fallen comrade is to try to beat off the attackers, stop the bleeding, and get him to someone who knows something about medicine. (Apparently the Lady Sephrenia knows a lot about medicine). They do know that, on occasion, when one is ill, a healer might prepare some sort of concoction and give it to the patient to drink - but they have no idea what goes into such a concoction.

However, they do tell Felix a lot of what he wants to know. There's no widespread medical infrastructure; no centralised control of medication. There is a university that trains doctors (at Borrata), but the trained doctors then head out to establish practices in other cities, where they must make do with simple, primitive medical techniques; fire to cauterise wounds, herbs and various infusions to treat sickness - Felix would not be surprised to learn that doctors of the time use leeches to bleed patients (If he asks, he'll find that no, they don't, but neither knight has any idea why not). Surgery is unknown, and for many diseases the only treatment that can be given is to isolate the patient until the disease has run its course.

In short, local medical science is pretty medieval, even a simple modern medical facility will be able to produce miracle cures on a daily basis.

Felix goes slightly pale at what he hears. Any medical facility will definitely need quarantine areas to deal with the sick that are brought in. The sooner they can get new types of medicine to deal with that the better. Felix adjusts his estimate for where he wants to put the hospital, moving the planned area slightly farther away from the ship. Advice from Doctor Vanderbilt is needed before they get started on that.

If nothing else distracts him, he'll focus on getting the smoke house up.

By the time everyone gathers for supper (Sir Ulath, claiming he has worked out a roster, claims that it is Sir Bevier's turn to cook) the smoke house is about half done. Sir Bevier cooks up those parts of the manticore that Nathan had not smoked and some of the vegetables previously bought from the farmer's into a reasonably palatable stew, and everyone comes out to eat - though most of the ship's complement give the surrounding woods some very nervous glances. Piper seems immune to worry - in fact, she gives hugs and kisses to whoever seems most afraid, reassuring them.

"What meat is this?" asks Dr. Vanderbilt.

"It's manticore, Doc." Nate proclames somewhat proudly.

"And it tastes far better then bobcat, let me tell you. Way less tough and gamey."

"Ah, right, the thing with the poison tail. Nasty venom, that. Paralytic and fast-acting." Dr. Vanderbilt nods.

"I still don't see how anything this big could get off the ground," states David.

"Is there any chance that there are more of them out there?" asks Thomas, nervously.

"Never say never Thomas, but I think it's unlikely. Most big cats are solitary hunters, and as an added precaution, I've kept it's urine and the oils from it's scent glands, and I've been marking the area around the ship. That ought to keep all sorts of nasty things away."

"Apex predators don't generally have, or need, paralytic poisons," says Dr. Vanderbilt, nervously. "Do we know if there's anything around here that eats manticores? And if so, are we going to be attracting it?"

"I could see it being usefull for easy food storage. Attack a herd of prey, sting a few, eat one, and keep the rest for later. It's a good question though. I'll ask."

Nate relays Dr. Vanderbilt's concerns to the Knights.

"Trolls, ogres, dragons, behemoths, cockatrices, cragadiles, gorgons, rocs -" begins Sir Ulath

"There's no such thing as rocs," argues Sir Bevier.

"They live in the mountains," said Sir Ulath. "Very rare, but I did find a dead one in the snow once. Wasn't much left of it - snow leopards had got to the corpse - but it had feathers and it was the size of a dragon. That makes it a roc in my opinion. We've still got the beak mounted above the door of our chapterhouse."

"Doctor Vanderbilt, I talked to David about it and he seemed to think it's something to look into. Can I count on your help in setting up an external medical facility? We'd be trading medical treatment for supplies and currency. Help us get a stable source of food for a balanced diet and any number of other things we might need."

Felix listens to the conversation between the Knights and Nathan.

"It's like we fell out of space and into a book of tales about fairies and legend. Trolls? Ogres? Dragons? This place is nuts."

Nate nods as the list goes on.

"I'm definately going to need a bigger gun. And maybe an anti-tank rocket or three."

He grins at Felix.

"Hey, any sufficiently advanced technology. We were frozen for I don't know how long, and in that time who knows what kind of genetic engeneering and tinkering happened. What seems like myth and magic is likely just surviving creatures and technology of a bygone era. I suspect that when we get this hospital of yours up and running, we'll get a reputation for being workers of great magics, just because noone knows otherwise."

"And in that time they decided to go to the books and make a bunch of creatures from legend before dying off in a cataclysmic event that sent society's technological levels back to the Medieval Times? I think it's just as likely that we fell through some sort of anomaly and ended up in a kind of parallel universe where the local gods happen to be the Brothers Grimm. We're not going to get any answers on that front any time soon, I don't think, so it's best not to think too hard about it. I know I don't plan to."

While they eat, Felix goes over a rough sketch of his plans for the medical facility. A simple structure to house the patients and medical equipment for the treatments. Lodgings for friends and family of the injured should any be required. One or two of the smaller domes for quarantine, treatment and study of diseased individuals. Find out what the most common pathogens are, what forms they take and how to prevent or otherwise treat them in order to protect our own people. Should it prove easier another one could also be erected to offer a perfectly controlled environment for production of medication. Added to the designs are enough windmills to power everything with excess getting funneled back into the ship.

He opens discussion to everyone, taking ideas from Nathan, David, Doctor Vanderbilt, and the others present on how to improve or refine the design going forward. He's especially open to criticisms regarding security. Combat isn't his forte, so he'll ask Nathan and the Knights about their thoughts on what to add to the designs.

"I'd certainly be willing to help," says Dr. Vanderbilt, "but to really make it work properly, I'd need some staff. Rose here - " she nods at the young lady in question - "is a good nurse; I'd also need a receptionist, someone to handle appointments, schedule things, and generally take away the burden of administration so I can spend more of my time working medical miracles."

On the subject of security, Sir Ulath asks "Exactly how sturdy do you want this place to be? Do you just want it to keep out dangerous animals, or do you want it to be something that can withstand a fairly serious siege?"

"Do you think we'll need to weather a siege?" Felix asks of the Knight. "I mean, if the worst of our problems is the odd wild mythical beast attack I think that's pretty good..."

Felix turns to Doctor Vanderbilt. "Someone can be an administrator, I imagine. Once we start getting food in we'll be able to wake up a fair few more people, I think, depending on various factors."

"I think it would be easier to build something sturdy out of local materials. Those domes were designed to keep out the weather, and at worst a reducing atmosphere. They'd make decent tents, but won't stand up to much abuse. We have lots of trees about, so I'd say we work with those. I also think it would be a good idea to put up a pallisade wall and a ditch, but that would be more for keeping rhe local critters and any oppertunistic theives out rather then any armies."

Nate turns to Ulath.

"We gave up on walled cities and sieges ages ago once we developed the capability to destroy any possible walls within a matter of minutes. The focus now is on stopping an army before it gets to your city, or recaiming it after you've withdrawn to consolidate your forces."