Broken Bones

[Desmond C'artyom]

Desmond eyed the warzone that had once been Zenith Prime. A fortress world that had seen millennia of battle, death, and destruction. It's people finally having enough of the warmongering nation, rebelled in a brutal campaign against their leading government. In a fit of change the Grand Moff supported the rebels. Recognizing the crazed warlord of Zenith Prime for the maniac he was, he was ousted and an election held in place in which the people supposedly voted in the Imperial faction by a landslide. Now with the endless resources of the Empire the rebuilding and reformation of Zenith prime has begun.

The Empire has hired countless physicians, architects, and doctors to help in the effort of building a peaceful community out of the once war torn world. Desmond and Inferno One were assigned to guard the medical convoy as it made its way through the world treating those who needed it most. Desmond searched his coat pocket as the speeders trundled slowly towards the next town. He found the tin in which he had been searching for and withdrew a small pouch of spice from it. He rolled a cigarette of the stuff and placed the tin back in his pocket.

He lit the smoke and was immediately gratified by a buz. He and his squad of clones watched all vectors of attack carefully. They were surrounded by open plains and a small village lay off in the distance. It would've been the perfect time for bandits or swoop gangsters to attack. Hiding in the brush, waiting… Desmond hated it. The waiting. Deciding he couldn't take the torture anymore the commando decided to strike up a bit of conversation with one of the doctors.

“The names Desmond. I was wondering what you think about what the Empire is doing for these people?” Desmond asked in his rich Imperial accent “So many of them don't seem to appreciate what we’re doing here,” The grizzled commando said “It makes me sick, that people would deny the stability the Empire brings to the galaxy,”

[member="Pamnis Hosk"]

 

[Pamnis Hosk]

She was above all things, in love with her profession. And a great deal of it involved helping others, serving to ensure their well-being and quality of life. She could not refuse when she was offered a temporary job by the Empire to assist the refugees of Zenith Prime, she had agreed to it almost before realizing she had done so. She wasn't disappointed with her decision, there was much work to do and even one pair of hands more made things a lot different.

She had recently finished her shift and was using her resting time to finish filling in some patient's reports she had fallen behind on, there was just too many of them. Luckily for her, she had a good memory and did not take long in finishing what had been left incomplete. Working had always been a gratifying experience for her, she truly enjoyed it and she just kept on silently thinking of her patients as she watched how officers, patients and droids walked thru and fro.

Her attention was concentrated in an officer in particular, who had approached her and started a conversation with her. Desmond was his name. "Pamnis." she introduced herself with a calm and kind tone. She was a very social being after all.

The conversation took an interesting turn and Pamnis took a second before delivering her answers to Desmond's questions, she was not one to reply deliberately whatever first crossed her mind. "I understand your view. As a Doctor, it is often that we deal with people who either deny or disparage our help," she began. "And in my personal opinion the Empire is doing a great good to these people. But at the end of the day you'll never make them all happy. Some because they might have a different definition for stability, others because of previous bias, others because of their own personal and probably incomprehensible reasons" Pamnis had always been very neutral and thus had met people with myriads of different ideologies and cultures. In her opinion, diversity was a positive trait but it also conditioned many people's thoughts and values.

[member="Desmond C'artyom"]

 

[Desmond C'artyom]

Desmond listened to what the woman had to say intently. She seemed knowledgeable as any doctor should. Desmond took another puff of his spice cigarra and his eyes became glossy. Under the influence of the drug he seemed to lose focus on reality.

“I think it's a crock of poodoo. The Empire brings peace wherever it goes. Freedoms must be sacrificed for order. Everyone who doesn't know that will learn quickly though,” Desmond finished, patting his rifle as he did so.

The convoy trundled along until it finally reached the village. Desmond stared at the shelled out town with a weary eye. Searching for any enemies that may be lurking in the recesses of the broken place. The destruction here was total and complete. Blaster marks scarred the walls, while large craters pocketed the streets. Half collapsed buildings lay strewn about like broken toys. Anti Imperial graffiti was sprayed across a few buildings and Desmond sneered at the propaganda. Small children ran towards the convoy arms wide open and Desmond and squad began to throw toys to them. The children stopped and grabbed the toys greedily. A bit of color in their war ruined life.

“You know why we do that?” Desmond asked the doctor. “Because they might have bombs on them… It keeps them from getting too close,” Desmond finished a tinge of sadness in his usually monotone voice.

An elderly man approached the convoy with a missing arm and Desmond halted him with a raised hand. He inspected the man, carefully patting him down and wanding him over with a metal detector. The man came up clean and Desmond nodded him along to be treated. The one armed man approached the doctor “Cybernetics, please,” The man pleaded in broken basic.

[member="Pamnis Hosk"]

 

[Pamnis Hosk]

She would lie if she said she agreed with every single regulation, specially with the punishment the transgression of some of these had but she knew better than to say that out loud at the moment. After all, the reason she had come to this planet was to help people in a very serious and deep need, not to question the ideologies of the faction that was acting as the bridge and assistance of that help. Being in war-torn places like this made her always go back to a thought she frequently had. There was a time in her life when she had terribly wished to become a Battle Medic. So many lives were lost just because there weren't enough of them. However, she knew this was impossible for her, at least until she learned a thing or two about not adding herself to the death count too. Pamnis, as it was, had only a slightly better chance than the kids grabbing for the toys at trying to physically protect herself from someone...least a trained soldier or a droid.

Pamnis listened with attention to the explanations Desmond gave, her eyes following were he guided. She suddenly sensed a pull within her, the Force alerting her of something important and so her green eyes turned to the old man with a missing arm slightly before he was noticed by Desmond. She waited almost anxiously and as soon as he was declared clear, she went to him and introduced herself with a sweet tone in her voice. She performed a quick check of his vital signs and reflexes such as ocular response and then asked some questions, necessary questions. Not losing any time, she then guided the man towards one of the tents where the medical staff in charge of this sort of lesions was staged. He thanked her and she responded with a kind smile. She waited with him until one of the other Doctors tended to him, and returned to Desmond. Just when she was about to speak, a little girl that had managed to get herself a toy passed running by in front of them and tripped. With fast reflexes and a surprisingly outstanding speed, Pamnis crouched and caught the child in her arms before she hit the floor. "Careful now, sweetie." She said and let the girl go, walking this time, to her family.

"I had imagined it would be hard, working here." she said, her tone a little bit saddened, "There's nothing that makes me happy than helping this people but seeing all this on a daily basis...it draws on you" Her green eyes landed on the red ones of Desmond.

[member="Desmond C'artyom"]

 

[Desmond C'artyom]

Desmond watched as the elderly man was treated for his wound and a cybernetic was picked out for him. The Chiss saw the robotic arm the doctor had selected for the man and shook his head

“Not that one, you’ll want the GS series,” The Chiss said as he fished in the crate of cybernetic replacements and picked one out. He handed it to the doctor who attached it to the man and Desmond took a look at the work himself. “Here, let me calibrate that for you,” Desmond said as he took hold of the old mans new arm. “Takes some getting used to, but feels just as good as new after a while,” Desmond said as he took hold of the elderly man's arm and prodded it with a needle. He wired the arm and processed the diagnostics. “Looks good on you. You're one of us now,” Desmond said with a chuckle revealing his own cybernetic arms and giving them a flex.

This brought a smile to the man’s lips and he flexed his new arm back at Desmond. As he walked away desmond rolled his sleeves back down covering his cybernetics once more. Desmond watched as Doctor Pamnis caught a falling child with resounding speed.

Desmond furrowed his brow and raised a hand towards the woman “Ma’am please. Don't touch the civilians without them being inspected first…” Desmond said incredulously.

She was either incredibly kind or Desmond was extremely morbid. He fretted of children suicide bombers, and justly so. They were in a war zone. But, this woman showed not a care in the world for her own safety, only that of others. Desmond would never understand. He heard the woman speak again and merely shrugged.

“I’ve seen worse. This helps,” Desmond said hefting the joint of spice between his index and middle finger.

He put out the drug and fished for the tin that lie in his breast pocket. He stuffed what remained in the bag and stuffed it back in his pocket. Already the a line of refugees was forming up and slowly trickling in. Stormtroopers scanned them and they were allowed admittance.

[member="Pamnis Hosk"]

 

[Pamnis Hosk]

The Doctor smiled a little to herself watching the interactions between the Chiss agent and the old man and was positively surprised by his ability to calibrate and adjust the cybernetic appendage. Of course, this was completely understandable once he revealed to have cybernetic arms of his own. She, of course, knew all she had to know about medical technology and employed it in her work, but truth was she was a more...hands on Doctor. Surgery tables and emergency rooms were her preferred area of work.

Pamnis frowned slightly, not out of anger but out of slight surprise. Of course, she knew the reasons he had to be weary of the civilians but she did think he might be a bit over the limit with his utter mistrust in them. After all, they were refugees not prisoners or deranged lunatics. "I'm pretty sure little girls don't naturally explode, Desmond." She said, with a slight cunning smile and a raised eyebrow. Besides, if the girl had actually been carrying some sort of explosive, she had been standing near enough to die anyways regardless if she had helped her or not. However, what the agent didn't know was that she was Force-sensitive and the reason for her apparent carefree nature was that she trusted her sensing abilities to know if she was in any immediate danger.

Her expression changed slightly when he signaled to the joint between his fingers. "Though I see your point I can't say I approve of it. Would be quite unethical of me, wouldn't it?" She said. As a Doctor, she felt it her personal duty to spread prevention. Of course, everyone was still free of choosing but it would be wrong for her to restore health and not prevent its future detriment.

[member="Desmond C'artyom"]

 

[Desmond C'artyom]

Desmond nodded as the woman spoke. He knew he was being paranoid, but there was protocol and if there’s one thing a Imperial respected, it was protocol. Even so Desmond had his own reasons for distrusting the local populace. While the woman had her own secrets the Chiss had his fair share as well.

He was in fact an AI. The subconscious from his former life downloaded onto a computer chip upon his first death. He has since been integrated into the body of several different clones. Copies of his former self. He had “died” several times and each time the chip was recovered and placed into a new body. The Imperials decided it best not to waste such a well trained and loyal servant of the Empire, and so the Chiss was forever damned to fight, die, and fight again.

But, the Doctor was correct. Desmond was to distrustful.

“Forgive my paranoia, there's simply rules to follow is all,” The Chiss said quietly.

He silently stewed as he remembered the last time a suicide bomber had attacked him. He died that time too. Still, he was alive now and vowed to not let anyone under his supervision pass away. So he was sure to be extra cautious.

She disapproved of Desmond's use of spice and he chuckled. “I suppose I should quit, but I don't think I have it in me,”

A refugee approached the duo. He was skin and bones, but with no obvious signs of injury. Desmond nodded in his direction. The Chiss had seen his type before too. He and this man were one and the same. Addicts. Desmond was unsure how to handle such a situation. Usually he'd just run them off, but he didn't want to seem hypocritical in front of the good doctor. He had seen men like this break their children's bones in order to get drugs from the doctors. This man hadn't stooped so low, but even so Desmond bet he had it in him.

[member="Pamnis Hosk"]

 

[Pamnis Hosk]

"No need to apologize, it is your job to keep us safe until ours is done. I'd probably be much worse than you if I were in your shoes." She admitted, chuckling a bit. Pamnis knew a lot about keeping her calmness in bloody scenarios but the ones in which her life wasn't threatened. She was sure she would be a ball of nerves if she had the full, direct responsibility over the well-being and integrity of such a large group of people weighting down on her shoulders. She was usually more than capable of shouldering responsibilities and working under pressure but something inside her felt that the Imperial Officers' job would be a little bit too much for her.

She offered him a small, kind smile when he commented on his drug addiction, "You know, after all this time working as a Doctor I've come to the conclusion that at least 70% of the work is on the patient. You won't heal them if they don't want to be healed. They won't feel better unless they are motivated to do so. The mind is capable of incredible things. The trick is making yourself believe it." She explained. People often underestimated the power of the mind over the body. Many illnesses were of a more psychosomatic nature than an actual, physical complication. How many people were there who's stomach hurt because of simple nerves? She had learned that thoughts and mental predispositions had an immense impact on the body, and part of the healing process involved trying to keep the patients in a positive, determined state of mind.

​Her positivism plummeted some many degrees down upon seeing the poor man, destroyed by an addiction caused by an abuse. Even while understanding how an addiction worked, in the most literal of ways, she still found it hard to understand how people could let themselves fall such lengths. It was a behavior not worthy of sentient rationality. Her green eyes traveled to those of the Officer, asking for confirmation to assist the man.

[member="Desmond C'artyom"]