This is an excerpt from Ships of Clement Sector 15: Milligan-class Hospital Ship. Written by Wendy Watts and Michael Johnson, this excerpt describes an important organization within the Clement Sector setting. Logo by Bradley Warnes.
The Lady of the Lamp Society
The Lady of the Lamp Society was formed in 2056 by a group of nurses from the United States and Canada after it was determined that the usual international aid organizations were incapable of handling the disasters and wars of the period on their own. These nurses banded together to provide medical assistance wherever it was needed.
In the early years of the organization, they were mainly active in the United States, The Southern Alliance, California, Canada, Mexico, and the nation of Cascadia. As the organization grew and gained assistance from major corporations, the coverage expanded to become system-wide by the early 22nd century.
When mankind went to the stars, The Lady of the Lamp Society went along as well to provide assistance. On many worlds in Earth Sector and later in Clement Sector, The Lady of the Lamp Society was able to save lives during times of conflict, natural and man-made disasters, and outbreaks of disease.
The Lady of the Lamp Society has offices in Hub, Franklin, Cascadia, and Sequoyah subsectors. They have recently expanded into Peel and Dade Subsectors with the intention of having an office in every subsector colonized by humans.
The Lady of The Lamp Society is the only civilian medical organization that operates a fleet of hospital ships and fast response medical ships. Crews for these ships are drawn from highly trained ex merchant and navy spacers. For medical staff, the Society draws on its own nursing personnel, staff and contracted doctors and co-opted staff from Doctors across the Stars. The Society often works with Doctors across the Stars, which provides for much greater resources to draw on when needed.
The lamp is emblazoned on the side of all hospital ships. It has become a symbol of expert care in tough situations and a sign that the angels of mercy have arrived to save the sick, injured, and endangered.
Being only armed with sandcaster turrets and a point defense node array the Milligan-class relies on her ship’s identification beacon to announce her non-combatant, humanitarian role within naval service. Society owned hospital ships use the same beacon identification protocol that the military use with appropriate differences to broadcast operator status. There has not been a recorded attack on any hospital ship in human occupied space since the Sino-Indian conflict of the late 22nd Century.
