The More Things Change...
Military bases were never, in Etain’s experience, beacons of quiet, and this one was was no exception, particularly in the medical bay. Everywhere she could hear the sound of machinery, the humming and beeping of droids and monitors, the far-off announcements that “Lieutentant So-and-So is needed in Command”. Medics, both organic and droid, rushed past in quiet agitation, arguing about bacta supplies and patients’ treatment.
It would never have been comforting- listening to the moaning of wounded soldiers and feeling their pain seldom was- but it could almost have been familiar. Etain had been a General for as long as she had been a Knight, after all, had spent more of her adult life quartered in make shift barracks than in the Temple.
But what got to her were not the normal small sounds of a military med wing, even one as haphazardly constructed as this. Instead it was all the sounds missing that were threatening to drive her insane.
Gone was the precise footfall of clone soldiers trained since childhood to fall in time, the familiar flash-trained Core World accent hinted with Jango Fett’s Concordian drawl. Not a single flash of brightly patterned white body armor, much less commandos in their familiar and beloved katarn kit, could be seen among the mass of human and non-human faces in their patched assemblies of “whatever there is to wear”. None of the medics here addressed her as General- that was reserved for the older woman Etain had met only once, still deep in the throws of carbon sickness.
Maybe there was a blessing in that, given what little she could remember of the final moments of pain before she had woken up here, but at the moment rather than a relief all it felt like was a stark reminder of how deeply alien everything was - of how badly everything had gone wrong. And sitting in her narrow bed in the medbay after her latest treatment, Etain had plenty of time to reflect on it. It wasn’t as if she had any connections here who would come seek her out, and the General had forbidden mere idle curiosity until Etain was better recovered. In practice, it meant very few people really spoke to her, leaving her plenty of time alone with her thoughts.
Between the temporary carbon-blindness, the half-healed ancient lightsaber wound, and her general disorientation, they’d placed her in a restricted wing- more of a long room only half converted from storage, honestly- with a single other patient.
A storm trooper, an unaware nurse had told her in the low undertone of gossip, an escapee from the First Order. The woman’s face when Etain politely explained she understood neither of those two things had been... something.
Still, in absence of anything else much to do- and in desperate need for anything else to occupy herself with, Etain hadn’t been able to help but speculate. The medics had generally tried to keep her from learning too much too fast- they were worried about her mental state, she gathered- but she had seen the lightsaber wound and known instantly what it meant.
She’d even, much to her doctor’s horror, done her best to use the Force to encourage the start of his healing. But carbon-sick and suffering from her own injuries, she hadn’t been able to do much. Still, they’d learned something from observing her own scarring, and had been able to apply it to his treatment. That had to be something.
And now, it would seem, he was awake. Had in fact woken shortly after Etain had placed herself in a three-day healing trace to flush the rest of the medications from her veins, according to the Nurse, but was still being housed here for the time being. He’d been gone when she woke up, off in a debrief maybe, leaving her to sit and turn a small blaster-singed toy nerf over in her hands, wondering what had happen to this man who was so clearly a stranger as she was.
But her curiosity was destined to be sated eventually. She smiled when she heard the approaching footsteps, placing the nerf in her lap and looking up with a decidedly searching gaze.
“They told me you’d woken up while I was asleep. How are you feeling?”
