Aneep wandered without purpose down the softly lit ward of the medical bay. Given the severity of the rumoured attack on a significant First Order base that had been floating around the officers' mess she had expected to be busy. However, the med bay lay silent, its beds empty.

Perhaps the Finalizer was simply too far away to be of any assistance, but then again, wasn't that what hyperspace was for?

As chief medical officer, she supposed that she could ask for clarity from General Hux, but she knew that he was currently on an away mission to Starkiller base and it was unlikely that, despite her high rank, any of his lieutenants would give her any clarity on the matter. They were all so desperate to impress him that they would never deviate from his orders and divulge any information without his blessing. That's what happened when you served under the youngest General in the First Order, you built your ambitions early and learned to be diligent. The young and the hungry were nurtured and encouraged in the Order and Hux served as a shining example of what could be achieved in a relatively short amount of time if you showed dedication. You too could command your own ship, have a fleet of star destroyers and thousands of soldiers at your fingertips and of course, most of all, you too could have a direct communication with Leader Snoke. Yes, many young officers dreamed of being in Hux's shoes.

Though not all of them had a daddy who helped shaped the order. Aneep thought with a smirk.

Although she was perhaps selling Hux a little short, his father had given him very few advantages from what she could tell. Besides she was hardly one to feel smug, it was without a doubt her own parental ties that had brought her here. But still she shouldn't grumble. To be chief medical officer on the fleets flag ship, one that housed the highest ranking commanders in the Order was nothing to be sniffed at. Aneep was thrilled to have had her skills and knowledge rewarded with such an honour. There was no higher privilege that a medical office could receive (save perhaps tending to the Leader himself but that was not something that she wished for) and she could only imagine the qualities that the Order saw in her to have escalated her career so rapidly. She was, after all, only 32 standard years old herself. The thought struck her for the first time that perhaps she too stood as an example to those younger medical corpsmen who were hungry and ambitious like she had been, perhaps she was the medical model of General Hux.

Now that's a thought! She considered with a smile.

However, perhaps she and Hux stood for something different entirely. Perhaps they were being used as an example to the whole galaxy of what the Order could offer you if you had Imperialist parents. If you could prove your loyalties and the loyalties of your kin perhaps you got an automatic head start. Perhaps it is more who you knew than what you know to advance in the First Order. She considered this rather sadly for a moment before shaking off her qualms. She doubted anyone in the galaxy knew more about bacta treatments than she did, nor could respond to multiple casualties with the efficiency she had shown over the years. She was an expert in the field of plasma burns, laser wounds, radiation sickness and blood burn. She could singlehandedly treat a whole ward of broken soldiers without losing a single one with the efficiency that only a childhood of training by medically genius parents could offer.

Small hands also help. She mused. As well as the ability to triage without second guessing oneself.

She didn't like these lingering doubts over her competency. She'd never liked the idea that she'd advanced over others simply because of who her parents were and not on her own merit. Normally these sorts of thoughts never bothered her, but lately they had crept into her mind as each quiet cycle had rolled on to the next. The issue was that'd she'd been given time to think…the issue was that she was bored.

When one joins a secret and hidden organisation bent on restoring galaxy wide order as a young and naïve person you tend to imagine action and adventure. In Aneep's case she pictured being elbow deep in wards of wounded Stormtroopers, all bloodied and beaten waiting to be saved by the miracle doctor with the young face and shocking white blonde hair. That's the dream she had been sold and that's what she had imagined life in the First Order to be like. She could serve on the war torn battle wards of a star destroyer, saving lives and mending soldiers just like her parents had done over 30 years before her.

She'd been 21 when the fledgling Order had approached her and she'd been bored then too. Bored of knowing more than her fellow medical corps students. Bored of the endless papers she'd have to submit and the ceaseless amounts of reading and research she'd have to conduct. She'd wanted action, hands on experience, but it would have been another 2 standard years before she was out of simulations and into the real thing. There was not a damned thing she could have done about it. Despite her flawless results, her advanced knowledge and finishing at the top of the class every time there was no opportunities to advance her education at a faster pace. There was no quick advancement in the medical corps it would seem. The First Order had offered her more than that. Though she was no fool, she knew the offer could only come with one answer. Turning them down would have meant a painful accident for her on her way back to her dorm room she was certain (she supposed this was the easiest and most practical way to keep a secret society secret). However, she never needed the threats, she'd wanted to join. It was what she'd wanted and it's what her mother and father would have wanted too.

Eleven years later and she wasn't so sure anymore.

She'd done more research and reading over the first 5 years in the Order than she ever did as a student in the corps. She'd definitely had some hands-on experience just not as much as she'd hoped. You see the second way to keep a secret society secret is by not revealing yourself until you are ready. After eleven years of waiting she hoped that the day would come soon. Recently though, she had an idea that it might. Two days ago the ward had been bristling with impact wounds and plasma burns from a successful prisoner escape. That had been a wonderful change of pace! The prisoner had been a Resistance pilot so surely that meant that the fight was coming soon?

Aneep had excelled that day. All personnel that had been brought to her alive had exited the med-bay healed within 2 days. It'd had singlehandedly taken her 2 days to mend more than 20 individuals. She hadn't slept the whole time the crisis was in motion. She'd been busy, stressed and overworked and she'd loved every moment. Now the ward stood calm and empty once again.

I'm far too efficient. She thought to herself with a grimace.

She turned and walked back to her data pad, sat and resumed her work. She was currently updating the personnel's medical files with the various treatments she had recently administered. Much of this work was usually done automatically by the medi-comp but the sudden flurry of activity had taken everyone off guard. After the planned ground assault on Jakku some casualties had been expected, however the animated prisoner escape from the ship itself only a few hours later had not been anticipated. The computer had become confused and overworked due to the sudden volume of swift treatments that had been administered within the first hour of the incident. Aneep didn't mind so much, medical records were all part of her duty, though she reminded herself to speak to Tec team about upgrading the system soon. She could have had the medical droids take care of it, but in truth she was procrastinating. She had no wish to return to her mountain of research into a more efficient nutritional portion for ground troopers. The research was interesting and useful to the Order but it was not what she wanted to do. She was not designed to sit and pour over medical journals, to theorise and pontificate as was the need in traditional academia. What she was designed for was action. She wanted blood and guts and a person's life in her hands. She wanted to cut and patch and feel the wetness beneath her fingers. She was not the type of medical officer to sit back and direct droids as they administered the treatments, she wanted to feel it for herself. That's why she had insisted on only a skeleton crew of medi-droids to assist her. She'd rationalised it to General Hux when she'd been appointed the promotion by arguing that you do not recruit the most brilliant medical mind in the galaxy and not allow her to get her hands dirty. He'd liked that. Hux always liked to see his officers display their arrogance and ego. He'd admired her that day and had granted her request. A foreign thought floated through her mind as she stared at her data pad, she wondered if he had ever admired her in any other way. Was the General even capable of admiring anyone for something other than their work ethic? Was he even in possession of a libido?

Aneep physically snorted with laughter at that thought. Hux with a sex drive? It was almost unimaginable! The man was buttoned up so tightly that she doubted that he could even feel his extremities. He was fairly attractive though, she had to admit. She'd always been fond of that flaming red hair he kept so measured and controlled under all that setting lotion. His hair was as secured and rigid as the rest of him, inside and out. She tried to imagine it looser and more tousled, like she had just run her hands through it. She pictured him a little roughed up with his collar button undone and decided that she liked that image.

He'd look far more relaxed, more attractive and much sexier.

Sexier? Attractive? General Hux? She couldn't decide if he'd love or loath to be thought of in those terms. She laughed again. If she was beginning to think of Hux in that way then it was surely an indication of her own frustrations. She was sexually deprived to the point of distraction. How had she not noticed it before now? Come to think of it when was the last time she had copulated? Six months ago? A year? Certainly not since she'd secured her promotion to the Finalizer and that had been… two years ago! The realisation dawned heavy on her and she exhaled loudly.

"Damn." She said aloud to the empty room.

It was entirely the promotion's fault of course- it was a celibacy of circumstance. It's not like the Order banned sexual encounters, romantic attachments yes, but not sex. Sexual intercourse was positively encouraged so long as it did not interfere with your daily duties. Pregnancy was a non-issue as all nutritional rations in the Order contained contraceptive substances (a scheme that she herself had been instrumental in developing) and so personnel were encouraged to arrange copulative encounters with viable partners at least every quarter. However, this was where her problems lie. Sex was only permitted between personnel of equivalent rank across the various operational areas in the Order. On the Finalizer this left her with three potential partners; General Hux, Captain Phasma and Kylo Ren (whose own dubious rank she only supposed made him viable). It was a narrow pool indeed. Hux's sexual appetite was seemingly non-existent, Phasma was so devoted to her work that she'd never deviate long enough for either of them to enjoy themselves, and for all Aneep knew Kylo Ren might be a pasty, balding, scarred horror beneath that mask (her father had worked on the medical team that had developed Lord Vader's bacta treatments so she knew such a thing was possible).

It had been months since the Finalizer had rendezvoused with the rest of the fleet and she had no idea if that circumstance was going to change anytime soon. This sort of thing usually never bothered her. Clearly it didn't as she hadn't realised that it had been so long since her last sexual encounter, but after a full on two days of intense and successful treatments she felt alive, full of energy and the thought of sex was rather appealing.

Sex with the General though? I must be mad if I was thinking about that.

Ultimately it was ego that would stop her. The thought of appealing to Hux for sex was just too mortifying to bear. That didn't mean that she couldn't imagine scenarios in private though. She was only human after all.

A sudden beeping from the communication array startled her from her fantasising. It was an incoming transmission bound directly for the chief medical officer so she knew it must be important. She answered it promptly.

"Dr Grias responding."

"Prep the medical bay immediately for an impending emergency. A single patient but this gets precedence over all other orders. Top priority. No other personnel to be involved. Discretion is advised as is maximum security."

"What's the authorisation?" she replied, bemused.

"Authorisation Q10H87. Do you comply?"

She did and turned away from the console in shock. Q10H87 was the General's authorisation code. What on earth had happened on Starkiller Base?