Not Everything is Black and White [TSE Dominion of Cadomai Hex]

[Ayda Elisantra]

Location: Cadomai, field hospital encampmenti
Objective: Meet with Dr Maeve Ar'klim
Post: 4



It were not only strange, but in fact a treat to come to a system that wasn't being torn apart by two opposing sides. Ayda, along with most of the doctors and volunteers on both her team and those already here have had no break for months...not with the Galactic Alliance and Free World Coalition falling within months of one another. Seemed the galaxy's aggressors were on the advance. And with that, millions...millions of refugees, wounded fighters and devastated civilians displaced or otherwise had been endlessly suffering.
And along with them, volunteer doctors like Ayda, Maeve and Dr. T'kar worked around the clock in long tiring shifts just barely keeping their heads above water with the amount of patients they served.

Ayda happily shook Dr T'kar's hand...a luxury rarely afforded them, as in most cases they wouldn't have had the time to meet as such. One or the other would be pulling a shift while the other took a few hours rest.

"Quiet is...nice..." Ayda replied, smiling to both Maeve and Dr T'kar. Yes, it was rare to come upon a hospital setting that wasn't hopping and on the verge of overflowing with more and more incoming patients...endless patients that seemed to batter hospitals like the waves of an angry sea. So it had been for the past few months.

"It's been quite a while since i put my feet on the ground and not have to shuffle them through the ER."
The invite to take a tour was just as out of the ordinary. Normally, they had to learn of their surroundings quickly. But as Ayda could see by the casual stride in many of the field hospital staff, there was time to properly look about the hospital...maybe see how things were set up.

"...but yes, I could definitely use good company to show me around.." She replied to Maeve.

 

[Maeve Ar'klim]

Maeve nodded, "yes a tour would be lovely." She wanted somehow to say to Ayda see if yo usee something I didn't. But how to say that without making it seem like she was looking for trouble.

"Dr. T'kar do you think that we would be able to set up an office here, you know so that other Doctors who wish to help can sign up?" Maeve figured if the Sith weren't as bad as she thought maybe they would have doctors who wanted to save lives.

Of course then they might just be taking prisoners and keeping them for experiments and Maeve just gave them an in, under the perfect cover of a program for refugees...oh man...just hit me she thought. She smiled though.

Dr. T'kar nodded, "fine let us begin with the ER since you are both so interested in it." Yes let's do that Maeve thought.

 

[Ayda Elisantra]

Location: Cadomai, field hospital encampmenti
Objective: Tour the field hospital
Post: 5


As a field hospital stood, it looked like it could have gone up not a week or two ago, it was for the most part new looking still and quite spotless, due to it's low usage, if it had any since the sith campaign had started on this system.

Dr T'kar, was more than happy to show Ayda and Maeve some of the new equipment, and amenities that were for the most part just waiting for the damn to burst. But it had not burst for weeks now, despite some small skirmishes by what little resistance there was. Seemed the sith had slipped their noose around the system in an uneasy fashion. Not that the medical volunteers who had come in numbers wished for massive cache of bodies to put together whole again, but it was definitely out of the ordinary , even for the sith not to incur such heavy civilian casualties.

'Dr T'kar...' A ward interrupted.

"I apologize for the interruption, but f you may..." The ward took a moment to breathe, '...you're needed in one of the receiving rooms. It's quite urgent, doctor..' So the messenger relayed to the Twi'lek.
Naturally, Ayda's left brow peaked before she looked over to Maeve. Something had just come up in another part of the hospital. Where they were at the moment was the emergency ER that was geared up more for the wounded..those whom had engaged or sustained injuries in battle or attacks.
Where Dr T'kar was following her ward, with Ayda and Maeve tailing behind, lead to another field medical tent. Only this one was more for ...comfort?

How odd, Ayda thought for a moment as they transversed from one sealed area of the tent-like structure to the inner part.

Ayda and Maeve followed suit, scrubbing and donning on their proper clean scrubs.
They still didn't know what the emergency was, but by the look and action of Dr T'kar, it didn't seem to be of life and death. Actually, Dr T'kar seemed to have a pleasant, if not an anticipating smile.

Ayda looked over to Maeve, as they were securing their medical masks. Both their eyes questioned each other..but both knew not what lay beyond the scrub room and into the main medical chamber.
But that would soon enough be revealed, as Dr T'kar bid them to follow her and enjoy the miracle.

Miracle?... Did Dr T'kar say miracle?...
For a moment neither Ayda nor Maeve got that meaning.
Not until they crossed the threshold.

"Gasp!..." Ayda's eyes grew exponentially. A most wide smile would have been present if not for her mask. But a smile nevertheless did exist, however hidden by it.
They had entered a delivery room...and a mother was ready to give birth...




[member="Maeve Ar'klim"]

 

[Maeve Ar'klim]

Maeve followed suit washing and donning the protective clothing.

It was a great pleasure to see that it was a delivery room, babies were the best. One day she hoped to have one at least. For now she was quite content letting someone else have them and she able to cuddle with them.

She had attended a number of births probably as many Ayda but it never got old it was always exciting to see new life come into the galaxy. She smiled brightly behind her mask and watched the monitors thumping along with the heartbeat of the baby. So fast hard to believe it was a baby its little heart going so fast.

Babies though to bring into the world were work that was why it was called labor there wasn't anything easy about it. She stepped just a bit closer in case another pair of hands were needed.

[member="Ayda Elisantra"]

 

[Ayda Elisantra]

Location: Cadomai, field hospital encampmenti
Objective: Tour the field hospital
Post: 6



It were to be the little pure's first experience disconnected from the temple upon which it had nurtured it.

It was life's very first experience outside the mother's temple. Ayda had seen and bared witness to a lot of births, but really had never been the one to coax the pure out from the mother's temple. It were not that she didn't feel it her place. On the contrary, she had wanted to so many times, but never the opportune moment for her to have gotten that chance. And here again, she was as excited as an expected mother in seeing the pure emerge to become a living soul on its own.
...but not until the umbilical cord detached the two. That was the real moment of one's true spirit or divine journey of the soul, as it was in a sense on it's own.

"Hello you..." Ayda silently welcomed the new soul into the realm of living souls. Her smile was ear to ear under the surgical mask and she leaned as far forward as she could without impeding the Twi'lek doctor in completing her task.

'Dr...if you could...' their host doctor drew their attention, gesturing with her head to the side tray.
'... clamp the umbilical?' She asked, seemingly wanting to share this small miricle of life experience with them..

Ayda looked over to Maeve and the tray...seeing the polymer clamps and the surgical scissors. She nodded to her companion, for Maeve to have the honors.
Ayda stepped aside as the newborn feeling itself being separated from the mother's spirit start to cry out..longing to be huddled and surrounded by that spirit it had been sparked from. Somehow or other, the pures could feel the initial separation even before their umbilical were severed.

"I'm sure Dr Ar'klim will enjoy the experience..." Ayda said, once more coaxing her companion to go ahead and step up.

Naturally, the baby was immediately given to the mother to hold and in a minute it definitely recognized who it were that was now holding it in the strange but wonderful new world. Ayda although did reach for a sterile prepared towel and started to wipe the baby clean, getting another clean towel to help the mother start wrapping her new pure spirit.
There was no rush really in cutting the umbilical. Actually it were preferred to wait a minute or more for the blood to fully balance out in the newborn.

Ayda looked over to Maeve, who no doubt had as big a smile as she, reaching for the sterile clamps...





[member="Maeve Ar'klim"]

 

[Maeve Ar'klim]

Sure she would she stepped closer the mother appeared exhausted yet read Maeve nodded taking a clamp from Dr. [member="Ayda Elisantra"] she quickly applied the clamp and then cut the umbilical cord.

She wondered if one day she would have a child and have that look on her face. Dr. T'kar had placed the child on the mother's chest, skin to skin the best way to keep a baby warm and to set in that they were family. She suddenly missed her mother and her Aunts, and Sisters. But were they still her family? Gosh she wished she could get this resolved.

She smiled though, "Congratulations" then she stepped back. She looked at Ayda and knew from just her eyes how excited she was to have witnessed this new life coming into the world. Such a miracle.

She needed a drink.

 

[Ayda Elisantra]

Location: Cadomai, field hospital encampment
Objective: Free time...
Post: 7




What was there to do when everything had been done? All the prep work, inspections, supply inventories, and safety meetings all were in order and completed. There were still no major..nor minor skirmishes. Not that they wanted it, but they certainly had prepared for it. The field hospitals were just basically operating like any normal hospitals one would find in just about any system not in conflict. A broken bone, a common rash, cold, sprained joints.... headaches and an occasional but not too common, births. The only death reported in the last 24 hours was an elder woman in her 120's that had died in her sleep.

Ayda stretched on her cot outside one of the tents and reached for her iced tea that was on a makeshift side table..
"Still no word on reassignment." She said after taking a sip from her straw.
"There are many conflicts out there..." She lazily pointed up to the blue clear sunny skies. "...and we're asked to stay put....sigh... we're just wasting time here...that's what we're doing..." Ayda took another sip from her iced tea, before turning over to sun her back.

What else could they do? They were following proper protocol in all aspects of their current campaign. only that there was no campaign...no conflict here for them to do what they did best...be doctors. And the answer from the organization, 'Doctors Without Borders' had been for the past two weeks for them to stay put a bit longer.
Cadomai was still in the process of being occupied by the sith...only there was no resistance to speak of. And while the sith had overall taken the system, they had not even bothered to check out the field hospitals. No harassment or threats from the sith for them to leave...nothing at all.

"Say Maeve..." She turned her head, laying on her stomach now, on the cot she was using outside to to sun herself.
"I know we never really talked about our past. So you know, I never knew who my mother was..." She said, in a sleepy voice, for she were fading ..lazying out under the Cadomai sun.
"I...yawn...
I got to thinking about her...my mother...who she may have been...what she looked like..." She gave a little stretch trying to ward off falling asleep.

"The baby...
The one we delivered last week looked so much like her mother...sigh..." She was drifting in and out, fighting her sleep. It was hard to not doze off lazing about in the afternoons with nothing to do when all their mundane .

"I was just wondering if you won't mind telling me about your mother...your family..." Ayda got up on her her elbows, lifting her torso, and peered over her sunglasses to make eye contact with Maeve.
She had wondered about Maeve...if the girl had a family...if the young doctor had a mother. It was something Ayda had wanted to ask a while ago. Just that with their hectic and busy schedules working around the clock in their last two campaigns, there had been no free time for them to ever spend like two fiends..lounging about...sunning under clear blue peaceful skies before...

 

[Maeve Ar'klim]

[member="Ayda Elisantra"]

Talk about her family well that wasn't really difficult, but in some ways it was. "Sure I can tell about them." She pulled chair over and smiled thinking about her family.

"My family has two parts really there's my blood family, and my clan family. WE all make up Clan Ordo. My mother is a healer she lives quietly right now well sort of she got her medical business and recently she's taken up selling flowers. Its odd to see her do so."

Then Maeve got quiet for a minute, "My father was a great leader, a wonderful father and a warrior. What he liked best though farming." She laughed remember all the times and days on the farm growing up. Watching her parents fight with each other, and love one another. "My father was killed in the Mandalorian Civil war." She was sad still...she missed him. She wondered at times if he would be proud of her of who she was.

"I have a twin brother named D'ral he's off being nomadic. I miss him too." Her twin brother..what a PIA he could be...but then that was what family was for wasn't it.

"You say you never saw your mother? why?" Curious she had to ask

 

[Ayda Elisantra]

Location: Cadomai, field hospital encampmenti
Objective: Free time...lazing out in the sun...
Post: 8




"I don't know much at all about my parents at all, as I was 2....never was able to know where they were from...who they were..." It weren't difficult to talk about it, as she had no more information on who they were even when she got hold of her records. And she had done so as she was a doctor and had the proper authorization. Naturally, she had hoped for some medical records of her birth...maybe a DNA file. But nothing. She had been brought to the orphanage by no other than what she discovered to be Imperials for some reason or other. And that avenue was and currently still was a dead end.

"I was too young...less than a year old when I became ward of the system Lianna. I guess I am part of a Clan too, if one could see it as that. I mean my relationship with the Allied Tion Med center...that's on Lianna also.
I entered the healer program on Rhinnal as the orphanage was a branch of the Rhinnal Medical University hospital. I think they realized I was drawn to healing I think...hehe..." She did find it funny and it was indeed what seemed to have happened when the orphanage realized she was quite intelligent and excelled in her studies. It was only natural that they directed her toward Healing. After all, the orphanage was a branch Rhinnal Medical University, which had ties to the ATMC (Allied Tion Medical Center) on Lianna,. There at ATCM she was able to obtain her doctor degree and volunteer for the organization 'Doctors Without Borders'.

"Then again, I don't know.... I could have been like a scientist...or an engineer.." She sat up, wide awake now, as she was in good conversation with Maeve.
"...only that ATMC had a medical school and not a University of Engineering...Hahaha..." She laughed. Laughed because although she wondered if she hadn't gone to medical school as to what she would have liked to do.
But no matter all the fantasies she had at being something she currently wasn't in the realm of the living...a healer was the most natural thing she felt she would prefer to be. Even for her entire lifetime.

"But I think I would have been drawn to Healing regardless. It ...it just fits...its what is in my heart...you know?" She then said. Trully it was and as often times she would daydream of something else, whatever it was, had not the same satisfaction of keeping her own spirit glowing. It kept it clean...almost blemish free, if she were to explain it. Although she wasn't ready to expose herself yet to Maeve. Not that she didn't trust her companion, no. It was difficult to explain to anyone, her felt connection and purpose. Ayda herself was still figuring it out and to what extent her connection was. Many she felt would not understand...or accept her for whom she were.

"Anyway, not much at all to say about who my parents were really...sigh..." She pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them.
"...that was why I asked about yours. And I would like to learn more of them...your family and Clan, if you won't mind sharing."




[member="Maeve Ar'klim"]

 

[Maeve Ar'klim]

[member="Ayda Elisantra"]

She wasn't sure what to say she had met other orphans. Orphans who lost their parents due to war or work. But never someone who knew nothing of them at all. So what could she share about her own that Ayda would find useful.

"Well, there's one way to help you answer your questions. You could just come and meet my mother. She's usually not hard to find any more" not like before. If anything her mother had become quieter in her advanced years. It was hard to know how much longer that she would be around too. Maeve didn't want to think about that either. But it was there.

"My mom is older she likes tea" Maeve laughed, "its a staple around our house. So...would you like to meet her?"

 

[Ayda Elisantra]

Location: Cadomai, field hospital encampmenti
Objective: Free time...lazing out in the sun...
Post: 9


Surprised.

Surprised, for it were quite unexpected, that she'd get an invite into someone's home...family structure.
Ayda had never been invited by an individual to meet their extended family, nor have a chance to see their home.
Home had always been the state and hospital subsidized orphanage and then the hospital dorms when she was indoctrinated into the healing society of the hospital body. It had only been natural for her to go from the orphanage and it's school to the dorms of the hospital and its University. It were after all her only family, or clan so to speak as she had known.

For but a moment, she were speechless. Her orbs seeked Maeve's, to gauge the dept of her sincerity. It were undulled...a genuine invite.
"I...I would like that, yes.." She replied, wondering to what means she would present herself to one's mother. A mother was whom had constructed the foundation of one's temple. Maeve had built upon that. And of course, the spirit of one's father was what sparked a new spirit to come to light. It took two spirits to spark new life.

" You said your father died in a civil war..." There was nothing civil about any war as far as she had come to learn in her mortal life. Still, Ayda knew that many spirits would fight and die for rightful causes. Many still for reasons beyond what she herself could understand in staking a mortal life on. But the understanding of sacrificing one's life so that others may live or not be killed, she understood. It were much to her own core existence.
And farming...
Something about coaxing the earth to bear fruit, somehow seemed so natural to her than anything else mankind did to sustain life.

"..was what he fought and died for, all still exist?" She asked, being curious if what he sacrificed his life for was still viable...like the farm...his family homestead which had been a foundation of his temple...his character.
Knowing more of Maeve's parents gave Ayda more insight as to how Maeve came to be whom she were. And she were of good spirit from what Ayda could gauge stemming from solid foundations.

"Your homestead...the farm?"

 

[Maeve Ar'klim]

Was what he fought for honorable, did it still exist?

"My father fought for what he believed to be right. It started out that he fought to save the life of a child, but in the end it was beliefs that drove [member="Preliat Mantis"] to kill him.It was..." she thought a few moments about it, "It was how he wanted to die, fighting. Mandalorians are warriors its best to die on the field of battle than at home of old age in a rocking chair. Didn't make losing him any easier on anyone even the man who killed him had his regrets." Maeve stared at the ground this what Ayda asked was difficult. It was a mix of culture and what they as a Clan had believed in. She had been mandalorian her whole life...until someone said she couldn't be one anymore. All because...well because.

"My homestead is...everywhere...there is the farm. There is also a house on Alderaan, and one on Aldera and one somewhere else that my mother won't tell me about until I'm older. I don't know why" She smiled, "I'll find out where she is and that's where we will go. I'll send her message...later."

Maeve sighed a little harder than she wanted, "So you were raised in a hospital...that had to be interesting...what's that like?"

[member="Ayda Elisantra"]

 

[Ayda Elisantra]

Location: Cadomai, field hospital encampment
Objective: Free time...lazing out in the sun...
Post: 10



"Uhm....like.... maybe something like being in a Clan?..." She shrugged her shoulders, not knowing how to explain how it was for her to grow up in an orphanage on Rhinnal.

She had always wished for a mother..a father figure too. But Ayda had only the means of observing such family structures on holo-vids and sometimes visiting couples; whom to her knowledge, came shopping for children to adopt. Only, she had never been called on twice to speak with such people. Many found her too reclusive...too peculiar as she observed them...and quite too intelligent to boot, for their taste too.

But that never impeded Ayda, for she wasn't unhappy among her caretakers and other homeless children. To her, the life she lived among mortals was what she considered normal. What they expected of her as far as school work and grades, she supplied. Her given chores, she completed them without complaint. She easily slipped through her grades and gave no one any reason to inquire/test her for any abnormalities or even potential force connection. Ayda simply eased all her caretakers and teachers minds, for she never caused them any grief, or get into any trouble. She was just always a pleasure to have around, however peculiar she was.

"I mean, they were kind and looked after me when I was too small to take care of myself. I was bathed , kept warm and not know hunger..." She looked into her distant past, recalling early sparks of memories as a child would.
"I would say I felt...safe....loved even..." She formed a smile, as those memories could well have been yesterday's, they were so vivid. For a moment she was there, getting her face washed and spoken to with a kind and sweet voice of a caretaker...telling her she was a good girl...a sweet girl. That she should make more friends..play with others...

"Sigh..." She took in a deep breath, looking around the encampment once she returned to the now.

"I would not have taken this assignment if I had premonitions it would be more like a vacation than a service to the needy." And that was what it had turned out to be for the past three weeks. After all their mundane chores and daily tasks and rounds completed, there was little to do other than catch some rays and tan their skin.

Someone was heard whistling in their direction. There had been a few male acknowledgements from some of the other volunteers and doctors, while the two were out of their scrubs, bearing some skin. It was certainly unusual for anyone to see them, especially Ayda in cut offs and short top, as she was for the most part always very conservative. But after her daily chores were completed, she'd be out of her scrubs and into her makeshift civies. Well, they were considered home/field made out of spare clothes. But they served quite well as summer wear around the encampment since nothing pertinent was going on.
And they weren't the only ones lounging around...

"I just never had so much...free time to...to do nothing...Hehe.." Ok, so she wasn't complaining.
But it did give her merit to consider maybe taking a sort of vacation. A vacation like time off to actually go with Maeve to meet her mother. That at this time not only sounded wonderful, but was quite plausible.

"Maeve...do you still feel connected to your mother...even while you are here on Cadomai?" She asked, for Ayda whom could not remember her mother couldn't remember ever feeling her, despite she was 2 when she entered Rhinnal System orphanage.