Shaken Foundations

[Prennis Keeoli]

Medical Deck, Consolation Medbay
/ [member="Primat Ren"] \
†††

​

It was almost as if the past few weeks had never even happened.

Immediately upon her delayed return to the Malice, Aes'ona found yet another crisis awaiting her. Thankfully this one didn't involve a Sithspawn--or so she assumed--but arguably something just as deadly: an alarmingly bad wave of dysentery.

It wasn't as if her trip through the Core had been uneventful. On the contrary, the witch doctor Imani had left a lasting impression on Aes'ona and Jedi Master Grayson had given her almost too many thoughts to digest. But she simply was not afforded much time to dwell on them or introspect. However, it did not require much time for her to realize that the interactions with both men had shaken up her core beliefs, albeit in different things.

The former in her practice, the latter in her faction.

One thing was for sure, her adventure as Aes'ona was over. Now it was necessary to be Doctor Terrani. Her personal life could wait until she finished her duty.

Couldn't it?

Terrani sat slumped in her desk chair, reading the preliminary disease report that Doctor Madine had drafted and sent her.

​

Source Location: FIV Malice​

Contained: Yes​

Initial Diagnosis: Dysentery​

Reporter: Dr. Zanthier Madine, ID/GPM, M.D.​

​

Most of the affected appear to be Stormtroopers. No evidence has yet been collected, but Alacrity Team suspects a mess hall source to this outbreak.​

​

As she read, Terrani drummed her stylus pen on the top of her desk nervously. She hadn't lied to Madine per se. Dysentery had been the initial diagnosis.

​

Until a common cafeteria(s) utilized by the victims is identified, all food and drink should be sent for testing to the lab of Doctor Zainther Madine, Fleet specialist on infectious disease and general preventative medicine. Please label packages with mess hall floor numbers. Seal in airtight containers and send with an organic escort.​

​

Any expression of the symptoms of dysentery, especially in troopers, is to be treated seriously and proactively. ​

The doctor stopped reading there.

In truth, even she had no idea what this truly was, though certainly poisoned sustenance wasn't the culprit. But what was? It was better in her mind to sign off on creating a slight panic aboard than order the report revised to proclaim the truth and cause a full-blown one.

She tapped on her datapad to approve the document and then swiped to bring up her observation notes from her rounds. She squinted, perplexed, skimming it over. Absolutely none of it made sense. The victims complained of expected symptoms, but Terrani had yet to find anything physically wrong with any of them.

Setting both her pen and datapad down on her desk a little harder than she meant to, she got up and walked directly out of her office onto the medical deck. She wasn't at all sure where she was going, but, as she thought, It can't confuse me more.

 

[Varian Alaric]

Life was boring now without being in the company of Varas. It felt so monotonous now more than ever, it was something that Primat has not realized about his life now until he didn't have someone to love anymore. All of his love had now been replaced by bitterness and loneliness, he still had the friendship of Marrisckal of course. Though, she seemed to be spending more and more time with that Praetorian Guard, Eight, recently. Their wasn't much for the young man to do anymore, he didn't have much of a motivation to do anything now. Varas had planted seeds of doubt in him about what the First Order was, though those doubtful and traitorous thoughts were meaningless now. He wouldn't leave the Order now, now more than ever. He would have left weeks ago when he had been in the company of Varas Ren, now however, that idea seemed so stupid. They would have easily been caught, imprisoned, and then indoctrinated once-more into the philosophy of the First Order and the FOSB would have kept a much closer eye on them.

He wouldn't ever leave the First Order now, it was all he had left other than his family on Tamora. And Primat didn't want to just go back to his families farm, despite how much he enjoyed being there. He wanted to make something of worth with his life, he wanted a meaningful and useful life where he knew he had at the very least, accomplished something to where he would not be forgotten in the grand scheme of the Galaxy.

Walking through the halls of the FIV-Malice, Primat became distracted by the data pad in his hand. It showed a picture of him and Varas on the beach of some far off tropical world with a parrot perched on his shoulder. The young couple's faces were both beaming in joy and unadulterated happiness. The young disciple recalled that when he had tried to grab the parrot, it had bit his hand and finger some and all Varas had done was kiss the little injury to try and make him feel better Remembering that moment, he couldn't help but smile in joy and laugh softly at recalling it in vivid memory. Why did we have to break up? Why, why couldn't we have just worked and stayed together? Why? Primat's finger scrolled through a number of pictures of the two of them, stopping at last on a picture of the two of them on Tamora, his homeworld. That was when she had met his parents, and the two young lovers had done all sorts of wondrous things there. Such as the young disciple teaching the young female Ren how to farm and till soil, something that she had not...overly enjoyed.

Primat suddenly made contact with something, no someone. The resulting impact had made the small data-pad drop from his hands and hit the hard ground below, cracking the screen and causing the image to flicker for a few minutes before completely shutting off.

[member="Dr. Aes'ona Terrani"]

 

[Prennis Keeoli]

/ [member="Primat Ren"] \​

[SIZE=9pt]†††[/SIZE]​

Terrani hadn’t had time to save herself from the collision, as she had not been distracted by her datapad but by her active mind still seeking out an answer to the medical mystery. However, as soon as it had happened, she sobered enough to realize that the man’s datapad had been knocked out of his hands. She noted, as well, from her peripheral vison what he wore; it was only a simple tunic, but it struck fear into her heart.

Because of it, she doubted he was Stormtrooper or an ensign officer.

That left only one option.

While careful to keep her eyes adverted, Aes’ona knelt to pick up the datapad. She turned it over once to examine it and she winced when she saw that there was nothing she could do. “I-I’m so sorry, Ren,” she began, not knowing the proper address for him. Getting up, she bowed her head and offered the tech back.

“I’m such a clutz," she added with a soft, awkward laugh, knowing full well that she wasn’t. It was just that she would have said nearly anything in the current moment to avoid the anger she had heard rumors of some Ren unleashing on crew members.

Wait.

Then she cocked her head, allowing her gaze to rise and seek out his. A second wave of realization had washed over her. Had he been reading the medical report before she had run into him, or vice versa? She spoke her next thoughts aloud, “D-do you feel sick, sir?”

 

[Varian Alaric]

[member="Dr. Aes'ona Terrani"]

Primat just stood there for a few short seconds, looking physically unfazed by suddenly walking into Dr. Terrani. Though physically he looked like nothing had happened, mentally and emotionally he was fuming in anger and sheer annoyance at the female doctor who he walked into. The image of both him and Varas smiling in joy was still imprinted in his mind as his eyes shifted towards to look at the fallen datapad. It looked like, at least physically, it was without any damage. Though as soon as the doctor had outstretched the datapad to the young Ren, he snatched it out of her hand to look it over. He wanted, no he needed the pad to be alright. Even though the two of them had fallen out of grace, he still wanted something...even if it was just a picture of the two of them being happy together so that he would be able to remember the fond and sweet times that they had had together with one another. He still of course felt bitterness about what had happened and he wanted to be back with her desperately, though he knew that it was just folly to think of that. All that line of thinking would do would lead him to is disappointment and baseless dreams and hopes of a better life.

Primat's glacier blue eyes glazed over the cracked datapad screen in hand, the fingers of his right hand trying to turn the device back on. Though, it was to no avail. The Ren's eyes shifted upwards towards the frightened face of Dr. Terrani. He spoke to her through half-lidded eyes with a sharp edge of venom to his voice. "Tsk, thanks a lot. Now I can't even recall or look back on the fond pictures of me and my uh...," Primat started swiftly before suddenly stopping midway through his sentence. He didn't know what to even say to her. He and Varas had never told anyone about the two of them being together, and yet here he was about to tell this random doctor about what had happened. Their was no reason for him to tell her, of course. Though deep down he needed to get his contrite and anguished feeling off of his chest somehow, someway. "...uh, m-my ex-girlfriend now." Primat spoke the last part with an edge of regret and sadness to his voice, though he didn't know if the female doctor had noticed.

"D-do you feel sick, sir?”

"No, I'm not," Primat said with an apparent confused and actually insulted tone to his voice. I may not be sick physically, but emotionally I'm a train-wreck of illness I suppose.

 

[Prennis Keeoli]

/ [member="Primat Ren"] \​

†††​

At his harsh tone, Terrani recoiled and took a step back. Her stomach churned as he spoke, and she identified two different emotions that caused it: fear of him and pity for him.

Strange.

Still, her instinct for self-preservation decided that comforting an angered Ren about his past relationships wasn't an outstanding choice at the moment, so her fear overtook her pity. And her fear only worsened when she realized that her well-meaning question had offended him.

"My apologies, sir," she began, trying her best to enunciate clearly when all she wanted to do was mumble an apology and scurry away. She did allow herself to drop her gaze again, however. "My team and I are dealing with a small outbreak. I thought that maybe you had been afflicted."

Quickly, she continued, "Though it appears not. Thank the Leader." Like some cute and fluffy herbivore cornered by a predator, she glanced up once again, for this animal at least had the opportunity to try to talk her way out of trouble before she ran. "You can bill Doctor Terrani for the trouble." She gestured to the datapad. "Excuse me, we're--"

As she had been speaking, a man in a uniform matching hers exited a nearby medbay and began approaching them. For a moment, he looked apprehensive of Primat, but pressed on. When he was an arm's length from Aes'ona, he reached out to touch her shoulder. "Terrani."

She turned on her heel. When she took in her assistant's saddened expression, she almost forgot about her other companion. "Launderslaug?" she asked with bated breath.

Kiearan sighed, then replied, "6786. I called it."

Terrani furrowed her brows and asked, "Just now?"

"Just now."

As quickly as it had come, her astoundedness faded. "He can't be dead," she argued, lowering her voice at the last word as if the concept was unknown to either man in her company. "I want to redo the pronouncement." With that, she began hurrying away, past Launderslaug, toward the room he had come from.

 

[Varian Alaric]

[member="Dr. Aes'ona Terrani"]

Primat's glacier blue eyes watched the woman carefully as she spoke. His eyes remained fixated in her, while his mind went elsewhere to try and bring back his emotions and to calm himself down. Having been more impulsive and emotional lately, lead to many instances of what he had just done. Speaking out impulsively, without a filter, and with a full range of an emotional spectrum which primarily consisted of anger and self hate at himself. He had not been the same since him and Varas had split apart, his emotions were in constant turmoil and fighting with one another. He didn't find himself to be as happy as once had been. He hadn't actually been happy at all recently. All his emotional range consisted of on a daily basis was either anger, a self-hatred of himself, or a neutral emotionless spectrum of disgust and self loathing towards himself and his mistakes. He had been meaning to talk to somebody about his issues, though he had not found the time nor a person who was willing to comfort a grieving and emotionally lost member of the Order of Ren.

The young man's blue eyes jumped to his right as a new person entered the scene, a doctor of some sort. He could tell by the concern on this Doctor Terrani and the newcomer that something was amiss, though he wasn't sure if it was his place to intervene or ask questions. Despite that, he asked a question to the doctor Terrani had walked past. "What's...going on, here?"

 

[Prennis Keeoli]

/ [member="Primat Ren"] \​

†††​

Before he could jog away to stop her, Launderslaug was addressed by Primat. Firstly, he shrugged, and then replied, "Dysentery's goin' around. Just had our first casualty. But don't worry. Just avoid mess halls meant for Stormtroopers."

And with that warning, the doctor paused. "Er, maybe you meant with her? Something's bugging her, though I'm not sure what." He furrowed his brow, seemingly thinking over his planned course of action. He committed when he began, "This...might be outta line, but it'd help out a lot if you could escort her back to her room." He glanced backwards at the bay that she had disappeared into by now.

Looking almost regretfully back at Primat, he added, "Not that I'm trying to tell you how to spend your time, Ren. I think...she just needs a breather and I don't trust her to take it unless someone makes her. And I'd do it, but someone needs to stay down here to hold down the fort."

 

[Varian Alaric]

​

| [member="Dr. Aes'ona Terrani"] |​

​

"Dysentery's goin' around. Just had our first casualty. But don't worry. Just avoid mess halls meant for Stormtroopers."

At that news, Primat's almond brown eyes raised themselves. That dosen't sound like some...'little' issue, and yet here they are saying that it's nothing and not to worry about it. I'd get it from the FOSB, but the First Order Medical Ward? Maybe I'm looking too much into it. Maybe. The young Ren did tend to do that...a lot. He over-analyzed things and overthought certain, if not most situations. He was trying to get better at it and to just take things as they came to be, though with what had happened recently with his breakup with Varas, the man wasn't so sure if he should stop overthinking things or just continue his way as he had always done in times past. Whatever the reason the Medical Ward had to ward it off as nothing of great concern, edged the Ren on in curiosity and outright perplexion. He wasn't afraid of getting sick, he had fell ill plenty of times beforehand and he wasn't going to worry about getting sick now with Dysentery of all things. Though, Primat would avoid the stormtrooper mess-halls from hence forth, just to be on the safe side. He knew from experience what happened when one didn't listen to a medical professional, nothing good came about because of it.

"What's with the...nonchalant attitude? If a sickness is going around, why not handle that information with more urgency and caution. If I was someone from the Security Bureau, they wouldn't be happy with the nonchalant and...carefree way you're handling this, just a word of advice for the future," Primat mused aloud to the male doctor who was speaking to him, his glacier blue eyes looking sternly into the Doctor's before turning to follow the form of Dr. Terrani as she walked back to her quarters. Once he had heard the male's doctor suggestion, he nodded firmly before following after the female doctor, escorting her back to her room. At first, he was silent. He was embarrassed for his outburst earlier, realizing now that he had acted purely out of the moment and spite of aggression due to pent up emotions. He hesitated at first, before trying to muster up conversation to the doctor. "H-hey, sorry about earlier and for how I acted. I wasn't intending to act so brash and out of line..it just, all sort of had built up and I had someone to get mad out to vent out my emotions."

 

[Prennis Keeoli]

/ [member="Primat Ren"] \​

†††​

As Primat hesitated, Aes'ona was aware of his presence from her peripheral vision, but she assumed he was simply walking in the direction that she was. When he spoke though, she wasn't shocked. Eyes closing with a soft sigh, she tried to convince the Ren, "It's alright. I was the first target available. I did not take offense. " As they passed the medical bay that was now a morgue, Aes'ona avoided stepping inside. The struck up conversation seemed to give her the good sense to let literal sleeping, rather dead, dogs lie--or maybe it didn't and she simply did not want to risk being seen as rude.

Plus, she wasn't unaware of Launderslaug's desire for her to take the day off and come in new tomorrow. He had brought it up a few times that day, though the female doctor had managed to dismiss his concerns and shut him down each time. So she could only assume that her assistant had now recruited this Ren to his mission as someone she wouldn't, couldn't, in her right mind refuse.

Sighing again, she gave in and set her mental destination to her suite. They would have to walk around the medical deck to get there: Med-001.

"You really have no reason to be concerned," was the second thing she thought to say, unknowingly reinforcing Launderslaug's comments to him moments before. " Dysentery is communicable only through contaminated food. We'll find and eliminate the source soon enough."

After that, she paused, only to add, "I'm just paranoid, is all. Listen to Launderslaug, not me." Then she began to say something but stopped herself with a dismissive wave of her hand.