Can you stomach the feta gouda?

[Cathul Thuku]

The ANS Lothal, the newest ship in Therapy Command's inventory. For the time being, it serves more like a makeshift hospital than any actual combat role, even though it is designed for long-range fire support. After taking care of a batch of patients from Kaeshana while teaching one time-displaced Jedi, wearing ARC trooper armor, how to use Force-healing and Detoxify Poison, it was good for Cathul to actually do what made Therapy Command, well, Therapy Command: combat medicine. However daring it was for the Alliance to use a battle fleet as a support for medvac/casvac, ultimately it didn't amount to that much: the two Incuses were hit and, more importantly, the fleet carrier and the battlecruiser, transforming injured into dead. But somehow, the First Order learned that Cathul is an admiral that isn't to be trifled with, and certainly not Cyrus Tregessar. It was the grisly fate of a significant fraction of the patients being ferried. Some of those medvacs had only the ability to provide basic healthcare; other patients, even gravely injured, still had to wait for them to be treated. Because battle meditation allowed every organic crewmember in her surroundings to work more effectively, she activated it so that the best healthcare could be provided. Severe was the case of Dax Fyre, who was being brought to one of the temporary surgery wards inside the ship:

"Admiral, [member="Dax Fyre"] has been waiting for far too long!" the triage nurse told Cathul, under the effects of battle meditation.

"Prepare surgery ward 5-7; I'm on my way"

 

[Dax Perl]

Dax drifted in and out of consciousness. The murky blackness always returned. Sometimes it bore dreams. Other times it held nothing. In his waking moments, Dax was vaguely aware of a pain in his abdomen. The cool kind that let on know it was serious. Oddly enough, Dax found he didn't particularly care. Everything seemed to distant, far away and detached. His dreams were broken and fractured. The disturbing ones bore forth his worse fears.

A dark night was lit by the raging fire of a fallen city, the buildings which made up it's bones burning to their own skeletal forms. There he stood, among the dead and dying, relishing in the life-energies they gave unto him. Death could not claim him. He was death.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"What the feth? The First Order did that?"

She then turned to the triage nurse. "What do we have here? A gastric perforation!"

Because a very limited amount of work was done on Kaeshana for the ship's medical facilities, there still was quite a way to go to ensure that the sickbay will be fully operational. Damage control teams were hard at work building the next room over with battle meditation for her to use. It might be risky to use two Force-powers at once, if she was to use Force-healing for anaesthesia at the same time as she was using battle meditation. The patient, one [member="Dax Fyre"] who also was a veteran of Kaeshana, was on a hospital bed, with one Also, what she immediately spotted - a perforated stomach - called for something radical: a cybernetic stomach. The hole was too big to be repaired with sewing only. Since it was, well, a gastric perforation, there was a medical emergency. Sure, she could do a number of things without the need for surgical droids: stuff where the Force can negate the need for surgery (like cancer removal, heart attacks, or galls), but there were those things where the Force couldn't negate such a need, usually transplantations or ablations. This was precisely one such case. Mending the areas around the requisite incisions is one thing, but she knew that mending holes that big with the Force would mean that it would have been better to outfit a cybernetic stomach.

"It appears that the First Order pierced a hole in your stomach in combat. But don't fret: there is a cybernetic stomach for just that sort of occasions. You will be under general anaesthesia, which is Force-induced, when the procedure is underway. Do you have any questions?"

 

[Dax Perl]

A voice seemed to pierce the dense smoke which surrounded the Rogue. It pushed the morbid scrne away, dissolving it into nothingness, the bright white lights of the operating room taking their place, blinding him.

"...the First Order pierced a whole in your stomach..." were the first words to reach his ears. And theyhurt. The deafening explosions of the First Order Destroyer crashing into the planet, the following carpet bombing, the walker's turbolazers. All had become a heaven shaking din of battle that Dax had become accustomed too. Now the quiet was deafening.

"Pierced a whole in my stomach? Ya don't say doc?" the Rogue said sarcastically,his hoarse voice cracking with suppressed pain. "How quickly can you get me back in the field?" the Knight asked.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Let's see: the procedure itself may take a few hours, you may have to spend a day or two in intensive care, with one or two weeks of preventive period where you must stay out of combat duty. For any transplantation, blood transfusions are required because there is a loss of blood in the procedure. Now, if you don't mind, what's your blood type? Also, a few skin cells will harvested so that you can have a new skin over the stomach hole"

The closest comparable to a stomach transplantation, in terms of surgical implications, is a liver transplantation. In terms of blood banks, [member="Dax Fyre"], being a half-Epicanthix, half-human, what's common for humans, will work on Epicanthix. Now the problem is real: if a dozen workers around the surgical ward are under the effects of battle meditation, I'm worried about my ability to provide for the Force-induced general anaesthesia. It can take anywhere up to twelve hours, although the growth of replacement skin, much as would be the case for major third and fourth-degree burns, may extend this somewhat. Mechis 3 showed that I can only keep battle meditation activated for so long before my Force-batteries are exhausted, even though I'm using battle meditation outside of combat, she thought. Usually cybernetics are less prone to rejection than organic transplantations, but it's the replacement skin part that may cause some issues.

 

[Dax Perl]

A sudden well of anger gave the Rogue a burst of strength. His arm shot out from where it had been lying on the cot and grabbed a fistful of her shirt, the man forcefully pulling her down, close to his face. "You need to get me down there now." he growled, a wave of menace unexpectedly rolling off of him. This went beyond a desire to help his men down below. He had a score to settle. And he had every intention of doing so.

His grip finally relaxed and Dax let the doctor go. That had been...unusual for him, "S...sorry. Just get me down there ASAP." he said, laying back down onto the cot. He needed to be down there. He needed to retrieve his saber...

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"You can't return down to the surface just yet in this condition" she told [member="Dax Fyre"] after being pulled down. "The whole point of medvac is to allow injured combatants to live and fight another day. In time you will be able to fight the First Order again. You will likely get another chance to get back at whoever did that to you"

Force-sedatives might be in order here, especially after Dax, in a burst of anger, tried to pin her down. Using the blood stains near the skin being used as a basis to grow some replacement skin, the triage nurse performed a quick blood type test and, from there, the nurse collected some of the relevant blood units, to be put inside a refrigerated case so that they can be used when needed over the course of the procedure. The sickbay on that ship is comparable to what's on the Trimaran-class. I'll grant the triage nurse that much: she is more expedient with battle meditation activated than without it, which means that it works, she thought, while gradually decreasing the intensity at which she is using battle meditation. Then again, the Trimaran wasn't a hospital ship by any stretch, nor was it designed to handle medvac missions beyond perhaps an emergency capacity in a system campaign, like Kaeshana was. Perhaps for the next major engagement against the First Order, Therapy Command should be bringing an actual hospital ship in tow.

"As for the cybernetic stomach, it will allow you to eat almost everything with little fear. Only a few viruses can penetrate the cybernetic stomach, including the Ragkhoul one. The sort of viruses it is still vulnerable to will often kill the people infected with it in short order nonetheless. Just a few moments before the procedure begins"

 

[Dax Perl]

Dax nodded silently, and took a few deep breaths. "Just...no needles." The man could handle being stabbed, cut, burned, shot, blown up, pretty much everything...except needles. Anyone who was close to the man would probably be laughing at the man right now, given how he tended to act like a tough guy.

In truth though, Dax found he didn't really care about fighting agains thte First Order. At least not on Kaeshana. He'd joined the fight because he was asked. The Outback was asked. The Rogue's loyalties would always lie with the ragtag bunch of smugglers and others who wanted to nothing but from the galaxy but to determine their own fates. He wasn't a Jedi any longer. He wasn't a member of the Alliance.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Don't worry, the Force will make you go under anaesthesia without needles. That said, anaesthesia will begin in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... now!"

While anaesthesia can be done needle-less, using Force-healing, he will be asleep when the needles of blood transfusions will be inserted, that is, until they are no longer needed. And even then he will still be asleep when the needles of blood transfusion are removed, although the awakening will be close by then; for now, however, she just turned off battle meditation and on with the Force-induced anaesthesia. For some reason, it took more energy to do the Force-induced anaesthesia than it would on a normal patient. Also, the droids began to take up positions around the surgical cot, whereby [member="Dax Fyre"]'s cybernetic stomach will still be installed. In comparison, a heart attack would be much simpler for her to cure. But she knew how risky this was: it was an experimental procedure, there were few good cybernetic stomachs on the market, and there wasn't one of these left onboard the Lothal after the procedure ended. That was risky, and very much so. Meanwhile, the rest of the equipment has been activated and work continued in the nearby rooms, albeit at a slower rate.

 

[Dax Perl]

"5...4...3...2...1"

Dax was vaguely aware of the inky blackness, his sight lost once more in the oblivion of sleep. And then there he stood once more. On the field of battle. Except war had not yet ravaged the place yet. Long green grass took the place of the smoldering ash and broken bodies. The city still stood, lit ablaze, but with a different kind of fire. The kind that indicated life. The sky above hik had not yet become darkened by the dead grey clouds. The world stood.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Sure, the MedCorps accepted that finances force them to make Force-users learn Force-healing as soon as they entered it, but clearly finances were more worrisome to the military bureaucracy than they were to the New Jedi Order. Stationing Force-healers across the major ground and naval commands was the main thing that the GADF pushed for but was difficult to implement. Hospital ships were lucky to get more than one; the crew of the Lothal was lucky that Cathul was temporarily onboard. As for her role in the procedure, it was simpler than a Force-chemotherapy to her: this time around all she had to do is to remain focused on the patient staying asleep, providing additional small doses of sedatives with the Force if the concentration of sedatives is close to the point where the patient may prematurely awaken. Not like that patient that took six hours to cure from a cancer using Force-chemotherapy; here most of the actual surgery work was done by droids. Only when the blood vessels around the stomach were obturated could the transfusions actually begin. With [member="Dax Fyre"] asleep, his old, damaged stomach was painstackingly being replaced by a cybernetic one under the watchful eyes of medical droids. Once the cybernetic stomach was in place, Cathul began using the Force to sew the blood vessels from the stomach to the main ones in his body, with Dax still asleep.

 

[Dax Perl]

If Dax could've held onto the image of that city he would've, but no sooner had the image coalesced within his mind, did it dissolve into smoke, drifting away and revealing yet another field of battle. This one much more real. Kaeshana.

Some peculiar insects sprang from a Sith, the one who'd stabbed Dax, towards [member="Joza Perl"], he lightsaber arcing upwards and intercepting the bugs, burning away into nothingness. Dax had a certain sense of surreality as he watched the scene, as if he stood on the planet himself. He couldn't tell if this was reality or not any longer. But it didn't matter. Here he was just a spectator to some grand show put on by the universe at large.

The Master's arm and saber bounced away as a light-shield materialized between them and the man would jump away, Joza continueing her attacks relentlessly. But something stole Dax's attention from the battle. A whispering filled his head, nothing he could distinguish. Wisps of words and clips of phrases. An obscure hymn...

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Obviously, one needed to be a good multitasker and have a good working memory if one wanted to become a good Force-healer: anaesthesia, knitting back blood vessels, and knitting back flesh along with the blood vessels were already big deals to keep in one's mind when a Force-healer is used for procedures like these, requiring anaesthesia. [member="Dax Fyre"] would soon awaken, but by then she had to make sure that there was no further loss of blood before he would awaken, because she then has to remove the blood transfusion device (of which there are about a few dozen onboard; needles on those things are single-use, for sanitation reasons) from Dax before he awakens. Because the Lothal is typically to be deployed when in a warzone, she decided that it was prudent to have one blood transfusion device for each patient, with one spare for every 20 patients. Sure, she knows better than to use Lothals as medvacs, but she tried things on Kaeshana and it didn't work nearly as well as she had hoped.

 

[Dax Perl]

The whispers bore Dax away from the scenes of battle as if he were the din of war himself, there and gone as quickly as he'd arrived. The lights, the colors, the sounds, they all faded away until nothing but the whispers remained. Whispers of the souls of Kaeshana. And then they too were gone. In complete nothingness, Dax stood. Nothing to see, hear or touch, he would've screamed if he had the body to do so. And then he understood. This was death, come to claim a piece of him.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Nearly seven hours after the procedure began, the procedure was almost over. The needle from the blood transfusion device was finally removed from the patient, which meant that there was no more blood loss (provided that there are no complications) from the cybernetic stomach, nor from the flesh being knit over it, using Force-healing. But Cathul's Force-batteries were exhausted; she couldn't use the Force anymore. Nevertheless, she was satisfied with the work she did onboard, and the first reports from the different medical teams, in the first major triage drill of the ship, which also served as the first major test of the sickbay, were being filed. Sure, there were a few tweaks that are seemingly required, but nothing that cannot be handled by the damage control or medical crews. Yet she knew that often, on a new class of capital ships, there was a need to work out some minor kinks. Once the Force-induced anaesthesia wears off, [member="Dax Fyre"] awakens, right in front of her.

"The patient awakens: no signs of complications"

 

[Dax Perl]

Dax dreamt no more. Only the Darkness received him. No more Light filled his sight to bring images of the world above or below, no more death or life. Just the completeness of the inky blackness.

The man awakened as if no time had passed at all. He looked around briefly, trying to assess where he was, what was going on. Then he remembered , he was on a medical vessel, he must've just come out of surgery. Still, he was beyond groggy, and only partially lucid. "H-how'd it go?" he asked sleepily. Given that he was still alive, the man should've taken that as a sign that things hadn't gone terribly wrong, still, his ind was still Force drug addled to process that fact.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"The surgery is a success for the time being. However, as I said prior to the surgery, you are to be monitored for the next day or two while you eat to ensure that the cybernetic stomach is working properly and, of course, you are to remain onboard the ship during that period. However, no dietary restrictions are in force at this time" she told [member="Dax Fyre"], while yawning afterward.

Across the ship, there are now plans to expand the weapons suite, with a few turrets of short-range weapons, or to outfit a long-range missile launcher capable of launching the terrifying Volksgrenadier rather than to outfit a bunch of short-range, light missile launchers, thus saving a few gunners for medical and damage control crew if that option is chosen. Although no plans have been made to enhance the defenses of the ship, or at least not by way of armor or shields. That being said, for the time being, the ship is flagged as a hospital ship; the First Order wouldn't attack the Lothal without risking it all in the commission of a war crime. Then again, it was the logical thing to do, since the missile launchers weren't outfitted yet: there still was time to outfit a Volksgrenadier if so she wished. That way, there could still a way to get some use out of a not-fully-operational ship, as was the case for the Hero of Coruscant and the Excubitor, over Hakassi and Inysh respectively.

"The Force-induced drugs will fade in time"

 

[Dax Perl]

"Then get me planetside." the Rogue mumbled, tossing off the sheets, "If I just gotta worry about eating, I need to be down there." the Knight winced as pain shot through his abdomen. The man attempted to stand and instead stumbled forward, the anesthetics still affecting him, his balance, and his depth perception. The floor began to rush up to meet him, all to keenly.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]