The Doctor of Mindabaal

[Cathul Thuku]

In this relatively calm environment, with no major offensives planned on either side, Cathul could now take house calls. Also, she spent weeks on Skor II tending to patients from Hoth, Ison, and other patients that survived the ill-fated Anoat sector campaign, with the occasional one-day breaks. Emergency and combat medicine were the really big things to her during this entire time. Much like it was the case in the Atrisia campaign, and the original Skor one. On Mindabaal, there was still quite a bit to do after the devastation inflicted by the Sith back in the day. Seven years after the Sith civil war, they still couldn't get the proper basic infrastructure, even though the spaceport took two years to fully rebuild. So she deployed one of those umpteenth missions, to go help a grossly neglected, war-torn planet, whose reconstruction took a while. Of course, with one of the hospitals still being built, and the local authorities making partial opening of the hospital as it is being built. She is scheduled to meet with her first patient of the day, one [member="Vereshin"]...

 

[Vereshin]

Walls, white like the coats of the doctors who passed by, caged Vereshin with a slow and closing violence. A strange woman pushed his wheelchair through the halls of a Mindabaal hospital after a call to the emergency services from his hotel. Resting a limp head against the seat, a hospital gown covered his malnourished frame. Bones jutted from his tiny legs and wrists, the size of a child's and rising tension gripped his chest in a vice. He was frightened. A bag of necessities sat on his lap beneath his skeletal hands and a wrist tag bore his name.

V. Sabek. Presently being treated for malnutrition. Refuses to eat. The plastic tag read the surname he seldom used and the white walls blurred before his poor vision. Breathing deeply, Vereshin clenched his lips shut and tried not to utter a squeak. He did not assume the staff knew he was Sith and kept his mouth shut on the topic. They wheeled him down a corridor to his room. The nurse lifted him out of the chair like a baby and into the bed. He looked around in a rising panic for the things he brought with him upon arrival.

"Excuse me, may I have my books?" Vereshin managed to ask. He could not bare a night in this place without at least something to read. The nurse only glared as she forced a catheter into his person. Cheeks darkening in anger, he batted her hands away while her frown creased. She wheeled around an IV stand and began to insert the needle into his hand. The Sith swallowed and looked away. He could not stand the things. A member of staff shortly arrived with the reading material he brought from his hotel.

"The healer will be here soon, Mr. Sabek." They set the books down on the side table and turned away. Giving only a silent smile in response, Vereshin caressed the pouch on his lap with his tiny fingers and felt around for the zip. He found his glasses and quickly restored his vision. Running a palm over his face, he decided he needed to shave and already felt jarred at his routine being disrupted. He sighed and glanced over to the books. Picking up a Vitiate text, he flipped open to a random page and busied his mind with the arcane equations.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Already, with [member="Vereshin"] showing indications of having to be fed through IV drips, according to the nurse that went from the ward where the patient was located, with a Vitiate book in hand, Cathul knew something was afoot. But she needed some time with the patient, some questioning before she could act upon it. Yes, she heard of a case or two where careless people, including but not limited to, dark-siders, just refused to eat. However she could sense that maybe the truth is more complicated than a refusal to eat alone, which, unfortunately, she could not treat on her own, by virtue of her complete lack of psychotherapy competence, while also knowing that refusal to eat treatment often comprises a psychiatric treatment. Upon following the trail that led to Vereshin's ward, she realized the patient of the day was... corrupted by the dark side. Intensively. Of course, she would need to ask a few questions about the patients' habits of dark-side usage, or even whether he was used dark-sided powers on, as well as more details about his sickness. At this point, she still had a lot of info left to go to make a diagnosis.

"I'm Cathul, and I'm the healer assigned to your case. I may be asking a couple of questions before I can begin to formulate a treatment plan. First of all, since when did you refuse to eat? Also, what happened then that you feel might have caused you to stop eating?"

 

[Vereshin]

A thunderstorm gathered above the city outside and the roar of clouds drew Vereshin's attention to the window. Footsteps entered from the door. The figure in the corner of his eye drew closer while he pretended to focus on his book. Huddling back into the hospital bed, his little face spied the Twi'lek over his spectacles as he leaned further back into the pillow. A gulp formed in his throat as she asked her first question. He did not know reveal the truth about his abuse of the Dark Side. A pause held between them and he decided to respond in the most simple terms.

"Since I joined the Sith." Vereshin peered over his glasses and spoke with a monotonous tone. He began his training very young and the effects of corruption did not take hold until he approached adulthood, when his use of magic grew rapid. The thought now occurred to him that the Dark Side itself only partially assisted in the decline of his health. The cause was ultimately complicated and arose from a pairing of Dark Side abuse and systematic trauma.

"It hurts me to eat, my stomach won't take anything." He turned away and set his book on the table. Remaining wary about suggesting any vulnerability, Vereshin was not ready to admit he starved himself to subdue anxiety. The corruption corroded his body and left him intolerant to most sustenance. Eating was simply too painful at times.

"Erm, am I allowed to smoke in here?" His tone softened with a smile of black teeth as he reached into the bag on his lap and found a cigarette. He held it idly in his hand and eyed Cathul with a slight plea. He looked at the window and wondered if it could be opened. The cigarettes aided in calming his nerves in the least.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Sorry, but we cannot give cigarettes to patients: we'd risk making the surrounding patients or staff sick. Also, do you lose sleep, feel tired or otherwise feel worried about something?"

So he chronically refused to eat since he started Sith training? she thought, upon the patient describing his symptoms; it's entirely possible then that it might have coincided with a certain drill. Her own experience of Sith training wasn't nearly as unpleasant as the sort of Sith training that would lead acolytes to accumulate some sort of dark-sided toxins that led to the sort of problems; yet only a handful of spells could have that sort of side effects on Sith. She knew Sith could spam Force-lightning, Force-horror or other staples of the dark side without suffering from that sort of side effects: the first thing that comes to her mind is an attempt at creating Sithspawn that went awry, but she knew that the dark side was dangerous to use, and overdose, too. Just that the common dark-sider spells taught at the acolyte stages are not usually the kind of spells to cause the sort of problems he has been describing. Maybe he had irresponsible trainers or some such thing... she thought again, while faced with the fact of the dark side presence in [member="Vereshin"]. But, before then, she had some blood taken for the purposes of blood testing by a nearby nurse, so as to make sure that there isn't some poison induced by the dark side.

"I often hear about how Sith training includes intense spellcasting training, with the hazards it poses. What dark-sided Force-powers were you made to learn? Were there times where a Force-power backfired on you in your training?"

 

[Vereshin]

A disappointed pout formed on Vereshin's mouth in response to his request being declined. He slid the cigarette back into the small bag in his arms and turned away to look at the rain. Cathul asked about his sleep habits and he raised his eyebrows in response with a smile.

"I sleep very often, sometimes after dark." Vereshin answered while the nurse hovered over his bedside and prepared to take blood. He squirmed in fear and tried to relax, diverting his gaze to the window and breathing deeply through the pain. The nurse finished and patched up the puncture wound on his arm. He coiled as she released him and wrapped his around his shoulders. "Fighting makes me worried, so I do not live in the Sith temples. I don't have much money and often cannot afford food." He admitted his fear of violence and explained that he lived in his own home, which was demanding financially. "Fighting and people make me worried." He added with levity.

"I study at university in between practicing sorcery. Managing both has been very stressful." He explained when Cathul asked about his powers, denying that they caused him any real harm. "My instructors don't force anything, I practice magic at my own will. I'm currently experimenting with reality and planes." A smile of pride appeared on his face when he mentioned his studies, feeling subtle delight at the chance to talk about magic. Studying physics aided in applying the mechanics to sorcery, but pursuing both took a toll. Vereshin quietly admitted he preferred the life of a university student to a Sith Acolyte, at least when he was desperate for some sense of normalcy.

"When are you going to begin the healing? I want to go home." Becoming nervous, the Sith was eager to leave the awful place and continue his journey home. He missed his apartment and his cat and determined to return to his studies. The Jedi healing process was uncertain to him and he did not know what to expect. "I need a bath." Vereshin stated in a tone almost demanding. He felt flustered and sweaty, desiring his comfort and privacy away from the meddling hands of doctors.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"You just mentioned that you were doing unsupervised magical practice, in between your studies as a university student. You might have fallen prey to the hazards of the dark side without knowing or realizing it. However, I can understand you being nervous over fighting: it's a pretty common Sith training thing to stress one's fighting skills as a life-and-death thing. Also, what exactly are you afraid of in the people at the temple?"

Fighting made [member="Vereshin"] worried, and it was understandable. As far as she knew, Sith trainers at temples often pressured their trainees to threaten to cut them off if they lost in battle, or otherwise showed unsatisfactory progress. Strength was a big thing to them, and she knew it. But she began to feel as if she's somehow back in her therapist days. That was just where she was headed. It was painful, thinking of all those patients she had back on Mandalore while the nurse returns the results of the blood testing being undertaken on Vereshin. Those results were just - startling - but she had to do something. There were some dark-side-induced toxins in the blood. Yes, he was filthy and needed a bath, but treatment had to come first. On a sidenote, as far as she knew it, life as an undergraduate is quite different from life as a graduate student, assuming, of course, that one is enrolled in a research-based graduate program; even then non-research graduate programs are still somewhat different from undergrad in terms of life as a student. But regardless, she does not feel that it's overly relevant to the problem at hand.

"As for treatment, there is an experimental Force-treatment, which will be aimed at the dark-side toxins, but the bath comes after the treatment because of the treatment's effects. Also, you will be hooked to a dialysis machine"

She had the patient hooked to a dialysis machine, as is customary when dealing with blood problems of that nature. And then began the very first burst of light-sided Force-energy. She heard about Force-light, and she also realized the dark-sided toxins were sensitive to a certain Force-wavelength band. So she focused very hard to be herself a source of Force-light within that particular band, directed at the blood tubes going out of the patient's body; while, of course, the patient's body would have a different sensitivity inside that band, the toxins would be broken down into inert stuff that would then be filtered out by the action of Force-light.

 

[Vereshin]

Vi recoiled in his bed as Cathul continued to ask questions he found deeply personal. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of nose and fidgeted nervously as he struggled to comprehend a diplomatic answer. The Dark Side was only as infinite as the light. The rage and hatred the Sith preached were a fraction of the scope of the Dark Side which could be practiced by a Force user. While generally a passive person, the feats of Vereshin's sorcery distorted the laws of nature and the very mechanics of the Force. The corruption which poisoned him was real.

"What do you mean "what am I afraid of?" He pushed her words sternly, his tone soft and frightened. Both eyebrows creased in desperation. He did not understand how one could demand a question with such a broad and obvious answer. "In the Sith Order, if you do not fight well, they beat you. Do I bloody look like I can fight well?" He paused and looked at Cathul deeply. "Not a day has gone by since I have not been afraid. My stomach is poorly all of the time, I can barely eat and only in isolation do I know comfort." Vereshin expressed more than he felt comfortable with. His hand shook and he looked around frantically for his notebook, desperate to scribble mathematics to relieve the present anxiety.

Then, Cathul mentioned the dialyses treatment. Vereshin slammed his lips shut in terror and clenched his shoulders, moving his back deep into the pillow and fruitlessly refusing to move. Nurses gathered around the side of the bed and unhooked the intravenous drip and catheter, which was now full and lifted him into a waiting wheelchair. His heart rose rapidly into his chest and heaved up and down. He held his breath for as long as he could before releasing, his wrists and legs trembling violently while the hospital staff wheeled him to the room holding the dialyses machine.

Vi whimpered incoherently while they lifted him out and onto the examination bed. The humorless doctor stood by and watched him without any apparent compassion. Physical contact was torture, let alone multiple needles and tubes being inserted everywhere. Equations coursed through his head in jumbled blocks which he struggled to organize amidst his distress, and without a pen and paper. They strapped him down and his little face begged desperately to Cathul to let him go home.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Now I understand one of the big reasons behind the Sith's C2 problems: they put so much stock on the individual combat prowess over any actual tactical and command skill. Sure, having a leader that can actually fight well will earn the subordinates' respect, but discipline can only do so much. Sev'rance Tann proved as much, she thought, upon listening to [member="Vereshin"]'s explanations of his source of fears. So many bulbs were lighting up in her head while the patient's blood was being pumped into the hemodialysis machine: not only he was not using anger and hatred like normal Sith would, he was using different methods to get the dark side, at the cost of creating dark-sided toxins that resisted normal Detoxify Poison. Clearly the technicians, such as the nurse, were closely monitoring the vital signs as well as the dialysis process and, while Vereshin's heart was accelerating for a while, it was not enough to be a cause of concern on its own. Also, even though she could pick up on ambient equations, she made no real effort to understand any of them, except perhaps those related to optics.

"I understand that you might be a little hurt, right now, but this is for the better. Once it is over, you will feel a lot better, return home and take the bath. In fact, it is crucial that you take the bath as soon as possible afterward because some of the toxins' residues will seep out of your body and get out through the skin's pores"

By now, Cathul started focusing her own light-sided energy by throwing more and more Force-induced photons at the dialyser, and with each additional Force-induced photon making it to the intoxicated blood, a molecule of the dark-sided toxin was broken down into an inert component. The process of using Force-light, which spikes at around 575nm, continues until the whole blood has gone through the dialysis several times. Because she knew that each pass took some of the remaining toxins from the body until she could feel the concentration of said toxins going down to a more acceptable level where it was safe to allow him to leave. When that happens, the needles are removed, a gauze was applied over the patch of the skin where the needles were introduced (on which she also used regular Force-healing to allow faster, scarless recovery), and then she could probably predict just how relieved the patient would be after undergoing several passes of hemodialysis.

"The dark-sided toxins have been removed from the body, but it will take anywhere between a few days and a few weeks to see the corruption of the dark side diminish. For the time being, you may return home"

 

[Vereshin]

The nurses secured restraints around Vi's arms and legs while he thrashed with all the vigor he could manage in his malnourished state. Tiny barbs pierced his skin and slid beneath his flesh. Tears welled up in his eyes as he fought for his dignity throughout the treatment. He felt every nuance and trace of metal as they touched him and held him down. Cathul hovered around the dialyses machine, although she seemed very far away as his vision blurred. He did not understand how the machine work or what the doctors were doing, only focusing on holding his breath for as long as he could before releasing.

As the treatment continued, Vereshin felt his mouth become dry, his arms and legs shook until they fell limp and warm tears stained ran down his cheeks. He rolled his head to the side and squealed as they drew the needles out of his skin. The gauze patches felt sticky and awkward as the nurses applied them with busy hands. They loosened the restraints and allowed him to sit upright. Hair disheveled and face wet in exhaustion, he sighed deeply and placed his forehead in his hand.

"Thank you." Was all he said to Cathul as he flopped his legs over the side of the bed. A nurse helped him to stand and guided him to locker room where they kept his clothes. She left him alone to change, the feeling of the warm garments unpleasant on his slept-in and filthy skin. He changed out of the hospital gown into his daily clothes, dark suit pants, lace-up shoes a long jacket. He flung the black and grey scarf over his shoulders and trudged out of the locker room and into the waiting corridor.

"Pommy, it's Vi. I'm at the hospital on Mindabaal and have no way of getting home." He keyed the number of [member="Pom Stych Tivé"] into the communicator on the wall and longed for the sound of her voice. The tone picked up and he admitted his circumstances while wiping his face, waiting for her to arrive and take him home.

/end thread​

[member="Cathul Thuku"]