DAY ONE
Everyone who could stand had gathered by the windows to watch the destruction first hand. A few boys rolled up to the side in wheelchairs or hobbled over on crutches, their friends picking them up and propping them against the wall or holding on to their shirt collars for a good view. The only ones who weren't pressing their faces to the glass were the ones left in bed; their arms and legs blown off from a weapons malfunction in the hangar bay a few days prior. If they were lucky enough to have woken up from the anesthetic by now, then their tired eyes were glued to the top portions of the massive window of the medical center, where Hosnian Prime had just shifted into view.
The young stormtroopers, all in their hospital gowns and regiment ordered sleeping clothes, cheered as a ghastly red light shot out across the star system. It illuminated the entire room in a blood colored glow, causing their wide eyes to shimmer as the phantom energy cut through the darkness of space like a knife. Suddenly, the beam of light separated into five threatening pieces, seeking out not only Hosnian Prime, but the rest of the system as well. The men's mouths hung open with a mixture of excitement and awe as the energy finally connected with its intended targets.
With each explosion came wild cheers from the crowd, and the boys turned to each other in congratulations as their ultimate goal was realized. The people that they had been taught to hate for their entire lives were finally dead; extinguished from the galaxy as if they had never existed at all.
"Aw man, I wish I'd been there with the General to see it!"
"We did it! They're dead!"
"Long live the First Order!"
A small nurse in the farthest corner of the room ran out into the hall. Searching for the bathroom, she found the door and stumbled in, covering her mouth until she was at the toilet. Unable to fathom what she had just witnessed, the young woman threw up, the unsettling amount of death churning her insides into a hot slime. After she had emptied her stomach, she sat down on the floor and laid her head against the stall, panting. Her short brown curls glued themselves to her forehead with sweat, her body shaking relentlessly as she recounted over and over again what she had just seen.
How many were there? She asked herself, her eyes blurring over with tears. How many people died?
A chill washed over her as the spirits exploded by, their haunting presence as obvious as their silenced screams. She shut her eyes and balled her fists around the hem of her white skirt, desperately trying to gather herself before Dr. Bahli found her. If he saw how distraught she was over the long awaited deaths of the enemy then she would be in a great deal of trouble- again. Day by day she was beginning to question whether or not she should take her father's advice and marry. At least then she could go home. She would be free from the suffocating Finalizer and its deranged crew members, each one more radical than the next.
Sweat dripped down her neck, reminding her that she needed to get going. Slowly, she raised herself up off of the bathroom floor, balancing herself by leaning against the stall. Only slightly dizzy, the nurse grabbed the latch and unhinged it, her fingers slipping before they could open the door all the way. She pushed the door open with her shoulder and found herself alone, with only her pale reflection for company. Her dark eyes were wide from her nerves, and her bouncy brown curls were frizzy and damp. She stumbled to the sink and flipped on the cold water, splashing it on her face to try and snap herself out of this nightmarish state. The napkins crinkled as she yanked them out of the container to dry herself, the thin paper scratchy against her skin.
A knock on the door startled her. Straightening her uniform, she stuttered, "Y-yes? Just a minute!" She cringed as her nervous voice gave her away.
"Minerva, come out and see this! We got the sorry bastards!"
It was Dr. Bahli. His elitist accent was unmistakable, even through thick metal doors. Minerva looked at herself one last time in the mirror and let out a shaky breath before poking her head out of the bathroom. She looked up at the good doctor and blinked repeatedly, holding back tears. "We sure did, d-didn't we, sir?" she mumbled, mustering a small grin.
Noticing her ghastly appearance, Dr. Bahli frowned with his thin lips and asked, "And what's the matter with you?"
"Nothing, sir." she replied, looking at the ground. "It's just... such a relief is all. Um, this victory is... a miracle, sir. I'm so relieved..."
The icey man looked at her, expressionless. After a painfully long time, he finally spoke. "Indeed," was all he said before returning to the medical bay.
Minerva finished wrapping the boy's leg and tied the bandage off into a bow, earning a small smile from the injured trooper. He'd suffered serious burns when practice with a flamethrower turned deadly. Apparently they had been unable to remove his friend from his armor before the plastic had melted into him. This one was lucky enough to be closest to the fire extinguisher. He looked at her adoringly for the gentle measures she took with him. When she listened to his story a few days prior he was honored to even have an audience. Having just turned 18, he wasn't even out of training yet.
"Why are you so nice to me?" he asked, whispering. He looked around to make sure that none of the others were listening.
Minerva smiled and glanced up at him as she packed up her supplies. "Because I like to be nice. And I like you. I like all of you boys." She zipped her case shut and sighed, grinning. "And besides, everyone deserves a little kindness every once in awhile."
The boy laughed quietly through his nose and nodded his head. "Well that's the first I've heard of it. I'll have to tell that to my squad leader. Maybe then when I come back he won't have a mop and bucket waiting on me for latrine duty." He smiled brightly, tapped the bandages on his burned leg, and added, "Not that I mind water anymore."
Laughing, she squeezed his shoulder and said, "Get some sleep, darling. I'll be back to check on you in the morning."
Delighted by the pet name she had given him, the boy flashed a toothy smile in her direction as she walked away. She put her kit under her arm and made her way down the length of the massive white room, towards the control panel. Brushing her short curls behind her ear, she cleared her throat and opened the little blue window. "Lights out, gentlemen. If anyone needs to use the lavatory speak now or forever hold your peace."
A resounding "No thank you, ma'am," erupted from the 20 or 30 men and boys in the facility.
Minerva gave a single nod. "Goodnight then. The medical droid will be in and out occasionally as always if you need anything."
"Goodnight, ma'am," spoke the room.
Without a second thought Minerva slid the lighting down to 0, with the only remaining lights coming from the patient's machines, the passing star system, and the bright blue security light around the borders of the room. Her white heels clicked across the black tile floor, triggering the door to slide open to the rest of the medical bay. She was practically blinded, as always, by the brightness of the operating lobby. Before she was out the door though, a young man still buttoning up his pajamas blew her a kiss. She was too tired to blush.
Dr. Bahli was seated at the break table sipping on a cup of coffee when she walked in to return her kit. The permanent dark circles that resided under his powdery blue eyes seemed even darker as he looked down at his datapad, his pointer finger flipping through memos as fast as he could. He seemed concerned, but Minerva was ready for this day to end; she decided she wouldn't ask what was wrong. The thought of her bed was practically orgasmic at this point, especially after the horrors she had witnessed this afternoon. Only a few more minutes and an elevator ride and she would be wrapped in its government issued sheets, as snug as a bug in a rug. All she wanted was a bit of privacy. Just enough to cry.
She shoved her plastic box full of gauze and rubbing alcohol into its place in the supply cabinet and locked the door with her ID number. As soon as the last digit was entered she turned on her heels and walked to the exit, her desire to leave forcing her body to move quickly.
Just as her fingers touched the long stainless steel handle, Dr. Bahli commented, "I wouldn't take off your uniform. A shower might be questionable, too." He swapped his data pad for his cup of coffee, and after taking a sip explained, "The Resistance was spotted making a move on Starkiller. If that thing blows we're going to get the worst of it when it comes to wounded. You know that old fool Renley on Dreadnaught can't even tie his own shoelaces."
Punchy, Minerva leaned against the wall and asked, "You honestly think they're going to blow that thing up? You know that's the Supreme Leader's baby." She rubbed her tired eyes as she remembered watching the thing being put to use. She gathered herself as soon as she felt the tears resurfacing. Crossing her arms, she managed to look at him again to ask, "You don't think this is really going to be another Death Star, do you? Surely we've learned by now how to make a proper horrifying, indestructible, super weapon."
Without looking up from his datapad, Dr. Bahli stated, "One should always be prepared for the worst, Nurse Caulder."
Minerva stood there and stared at the floor for a moment before walking out into the hallway, not saying goodbye, just see you later. They both knew she would be back soon. She wrapped her arms around herself more tightly this time as she made the trek towards the service elevators, where three lieutenants of varying heights and builds were standing, talking about something while the elevator came back down to their level. They were babbling about Starkiller. She stood a few feet away from them, eavesdropping on their conversation without meaning to. All three of the men noticed her, but she didn't salute. One of them glanced down at the little nurse questioningly, but decided to pay the girl no mind. Her curls and innocent brown eyes had always helped to throw off predators, and besides, she was only a nurse. She was outdated and tired. They carried on as if she wasn't even there.
"My wife is on the command deck with him. She keeps memoing me about how nervous he seems. See?" commented the tallest of them.
He stuck out his wrist, where a small blue hologram floated out of his watch. Worried letters that were too small for Minerva to read were rounded off by multiple exclamation points.
The shortest man, barely an inch taller than the stunted Minerva, looked up at him. "Jeremy, she just hasn't been around the general before. It's only her first week on the job. You know he's always bugging out about some imperfection."
"Shh, don't talk about him out here." hushed the middle one, glancing up at the ceiling for cameras.
Ignoring his friends, the young man named Jeremy insisted, "But she keeps mentioning Resistance fighters infiltrating the base!"
"That's impossible! Those shields are impenetrable."
"Yeah, you know they don't have the tech."
The tall man considered their comments as he stuck out his watch again, a new memo shooting up at him. Suddenly the doors to the elevator opened, causing the three men to move forward in a huddle. Minerva went in with them, and stood by the buttons, pushing in her floor forcefully.
"Damn, this is bad," mumbled Jeremy. The two friends turned their heads around to look at him, as did Minerva. His eyes widened as he revealed, "Hux left the base."
"What?" asked the other two simultaneously. Everyone in the elevator gave eachother a nervous look, and slowly gathered around his projector watch.
For a while, Jeremy said nothing. He sat there reading his wife's memos with crazy eyes, his eyebrows arching in an unreadable way. He let out a shaky breath as his eyes began to water, making Minerva's heart race with anxiety. She hit the STOP button on the elevator, preventing the thing from moving. Dr. Bahli was right.
"What is it?" she asked, causing his friends to look up at him. "What's wrong?"
The visibly shaken young man pulled his wrist in closer to him and pushed a button on his watch, opening up a video feed. At first it was black, the signal weak, but eventually the image of a woman's lips came up on the hologram. She was panting, obviously scared and in a cramped space. As soon as she came into view the man yelled at her.
"Varas! Varas, are you alright? Can you hear me?" he screamed, his body shaking. "Varas, where are you?"
The audio that came back through the tiny hologram was cracked and distorted. "I'm underneath... desk... can... hear me?" She brought her datapad away from her face to show her husband that she was alright. There seemed to be smoke all around her, causing her to cough violently.
"Varas!" he cried. "Is there a way out? You need to get off of the base if they've blown the thermal oscillator!"
"I can't! Something's fallen through the roof of... command deck... the exit door... blocked!"
Sounds of rubble and falling debris covered up the rest of her attempt at communication. Suddenly, the screen went black again with a resounding blast, but the audio was still coming through. Everyone watched on in horror as they presumed she had been crushed.
"Varas! Varas!" he screamed, overcome with grief. "Varas! Are you alright?"
There wasn't a response, only the distorted sounds of fires burning and things breaking. Jeremy's face shifted into complete and total shock, as he began shouting into his wrist her name repeatedly. His two friends tried to comfort him, but Minerva had other plans. She opened the elevator door and ran out, headed back towards the medical center. Her heels clicked loudly as she stampeded on the door, grabbing a hold of the handle to prevent herself from falling. As soon as she entered the lobby she saw Dr. Bahli staring up at the notifications monitor, watching some woman talk about Starkiller Base.
She ran up beside him and immediately tuned in, breathing hard through her mouth. Without having to say a word, Dr. Bahli knew that she understood what was happening, and smiled strangely at the morbid thought of being right. The woman in charge of notifying Finalizer was practically in tears as she began instructing deck commanders to move the ship out of range, and for the medical center to begin expecting wounded through the C, D, and G gates. As soon as the locations of the incoming patients had been read, the woman's eyes shifted away from the camera and onto whatever was behind her. You could see her face become illuminated with an orange glow, her hands rushing to cover her mouth in shock. Minerva felt a chill wash over her as she pieced together what had happened. Starkiller Base had just exploded.
The blast from the explosion ricocheted throughout the ship, causing Minerva to lose her balance and fall to the ground. The thick metal walls of the ship let out a long groan as it tried to hold itself together. Dr. Bahli dropped his favorite coffee cup, shattering it into a million white pieces. Managing to grab a hold of the wall to stabilize himself, he looked around the room as beakers and glassware slid off of the countertops to join his cup on the floor. The sound of the engine ports along their side of the ship igniting rattled through the medical center as the pilots fought against the blast. Each booster shone a bright orange as they were pushed to their max, causing the operating lobby to be illuminated in their nerve wracking glow. Dr. Bahli and Minerva watched tensely as the star destroyer held on against the devastating blast. Bits of the planet, pieces of other ships, and debris from the inner workings of the base flew by with startling speed, the rubble occasionally hitting Finalizer in loud skipping thumps, only partially deflected by whatever was left of their shields. As soon as the battered ship had regained a completely upright position and the starboard ports were turned off, the doctor helped Minerva up.
The girl was shaking with nauseating disbelief at witnessing yet another planet full of people destroyed. Only a few hours ago had the Hosnian star system been eliminated. Was there no end to this cruelty? She was dizzy, practically on the verge of passing out before a well-meaning slap brought her up to speed. Dr. Bahli was screaming at her to get it together, and the sight of him so passionate made her focus on his words as best as she could.
"Go and check on the men already here," shouted the doctor, holding her shoulders. "I'll take the medical droids down to the transport gates and locate the wounded. Go! I'll contact you when I'm down there."
"Yes, sir!" she replied, incredibly nervous. As soon as Dr. Bahli had left her side, the girl ran out into the medical bay, her heart beating out of her chest. The men were out of their beds and screaming at each other to be quiet, watching the woman on the monitor try and explain what had just happened. Minerva went to the lights and turned them back on again to get a good look at the damage. A few things had fallen over, but all-in-all everything seemed to be alright. The control panel had bolted the devices and beds to the floor with emergency restraints, just as the system had practiced. For once in her life, Minerva was extremely grateful for First Order protocol.
"Is anyone hurt?" she asked in the loudest voice she could muster. Her hands flittered around as if she didn't know what to do with them, only adding to her already flighty, brittle appearance. A few protests came from patients who had been jerked out of sleep, but other than the occasional minor discomfort, everyone seemed to have made it out unharmed. A massive sigh of relief left her small frame, allowing her time to think. Remembering her list of patients and their ailments, Minerva hurried over to a man who had recently replaced his old prosthetic leg with a new one, just to make sure that the wires were still attached.
"Can you still move the cybernetics, sir?" She asked anxiously, picking up his purely mechanical leg and bending it at the knee. "Push it back down and see if we're still connected here. That blast might have shaken something lose."
He did as she asked, or at least tried to, and as soon as he realized that he couldn't feel it anymore, shook his head frustratedly. "Dammit!" he cursed. "Of course I can't move the blasted thing. I just got this model a week ago!" He hit his stainless steel thigh and shouted, "Don't worry, Miss Caulder, I've had all sorts of prosthetics. Just give me a few minutes and I'll have it running again. You go and help those wounded coming in through the transport gates. We're fine here."
Minerva looked around the room, double checking that she hadn't missed anything before shaking her head in agreement. "You're sure you don't mind, Captain Chambra? The skin might start rejecting the leg without the proper wiring. I can go and fetch my tool kit. It won't take me long to plug in your N.S. bearings."
"No, no," he replied, swatting her away. "Hurry up and help move them in. That explosion was... devastating for our Order. It's safe to assume that there will be a great many casualties." His eyes clouded over thinking about it, but he quickly gathered himself into a serious and sullen frown. "Now go. I'll manage them until your return."
Minerva nodded and hesitantly backed away, panic slowly setting in as the fear of seeing so many patients down at the gates worked on her stomach. She imagined the badly burned bodies and the haunting stench of them; the eerie sweetness of their baking muscle and the awful frying of their hair. How many of them would die, and how many of them were already dead? Having served on Finalizer for only the better part of a year, Minerva had seen very little action compared to what was waiting for her in the transport gates. She questioned herself, and wondered whether or not she would snap under the pressure. Taking a moment to stop and think, she quickly patched together what little courage she had left and made her move.
She swallowed her fear and ran out of the med bay, stopping at the supply cabinets to grab a field kit and sling the straps over her shoulders like a backpack. The massive black bag dwarfed her in size and she struggled to carry it, but she knew that the people coming in would need more than just a band-aid. With everything she had she jogged to the elevator, slamming the hangar level button with her fist. Set to emergency mode, the thing took off like a flash, sending Minerva straight to the bottom in seconds.
Red warning lights were the only thing left on in the elevator after the blast, and their incessant flashing made it difficult to see which floor she was on. She leaned in to the control panel to watch the numbers jump from 34 to 1, and as soon as the doors slid open she hobbled out, looking around the dimly lit hallway to the gates. Squinting her eyes, she was able to make out what the sign said at the top of the wall, an arrow pointing right telling her which way to go. She flipped her body around and began jogging down the winding metal hallway, the sounds of alarms going off in the distance behind her. Her breathing was rough as the weight of the bag seemed to double. Her shoulders were pulled backwards by it, causing her to lose her sense of balance. After a minute of awkward running, she rounded the corner into the massive hangar.
The ceilings were unbelievable in height, and as she gaped up at them she realized that ships had started relocating to make room for the incoming vessels. A troop carrier was headed her way, and suddenly she felt as if she might be run over. She quickly dodged the hulking thing and narrowly escaped the ramp that jutted forth after landing. A few pilots that were on the floor yelled at her to get out of the way, but she was too focused on getting to Dr. Bahli to shout back. As soon as she had navigated the length of ships, she found herself out in the open of the unusually empty room.
There was Dr. Bahli. The man in the white coat.
"Doctor!" she called breathily, waving an arm as best she could without falling over. "Doctor, I've brought another field kit!"
As she trod closer to him and the medical droids, something started to seem off to her. As soon as she realized what it was, her heart sank. Where were all of the ships? The doctor looked on out of the force field at the darkness of space, waiting on someone, anyone to come in. From the time of the explosion to now, not a single soul had made it aboard.
"Where are they?" she asked, eyes wide. She put down the heavy bag and approached the doctor. "Did... Did no one make it? Where is everyone?"
Without taking his eyes from the shield he stated, "There were just that many casualties. Believe me, I've called Dreadnaught and Imperator. They've got no one." As if his own statement had woken him up, he drooped his shoulders and rubbed his tired eyes. "I've told them to keep waiting anyway. Surely, for the love of the Order, someone's made it out. The general himself was on the base."
"General Hux?" asked Minerva, remembering what the man in the elevator's wife had said about him seconds before her death. "I heard that he fled the base before it blew. He left the command center with minutes to spare. Why isn't he back aboard the ship already?"
The doctor gave her a questioning look, but before he could respond a ruined hulk of a shuttle appeared outside the shield. The medical droids immediately prepped themselves, with sounds of their supplies and various arms shifting around echoing throughout the hangar. One of the engines had exploded, causing the ship to limp in miraculously. As soon as the entire body of the ship had made it past the shield membrane it fell to the ground in an incredible thud, crunching the metal landing gear and denting the floor with a great screech. Two emergency relief droids floated overhead to put out the engine fire, the water from their hoses turning it into a grey smoke. Sparks flew as the ship dug into the hangar until finally, it stopped, prompting the medical team to move in.
Because the ramp had been smashed, the passengers pried open the emergency exit door by the ship's wing, causing a black cloud of dense smoke to spring up from the cockpit. A pilot ran out grasping the hand of a little boy, obviously a party member's son, who was coughing up a lung as the water from the response team soaked him. Two more men crawled out like insects, their arms and legs disguised by the grey swirls of smoke. They were carrying a woman under her arms and legs, as she had blacked out from lack of oxygen. The first thing that Minerva noticed about her was the fact that she was pregnant, and extremely far along.
She ran to her side as Dr. Bahli checked the little boy, wiping dirty tears away from his chubby face. Minerva could hear him screaming, "Mommy! Mommy!" as the medical droids dragged him away from the ship. She put her wrist to the mother's chest and allowed her bracelet device to scan the woman's body in a quick blue glow.
As the men continued to carry her, Minerva asked them, "H-How long has she been unconscious? Is she wounded or b-burned?"
"Lady Kurlish passed out from the pain as soon as she was burned," informed one of them in a strained voice, pausing to cough. "It's on her left side. The fire grazed her just as we closed the ramp to the ship."
Minerva shook her head and maneuvered around them, making her way to the pregnant woman's side. Her eyes widened as she examined the blood red blisters and melted black skin across her ribs, hip, and stomach. "My god, no wonder she passed out. Her dress is burned to her body." she mumbled to herself, looking to her bracelet for her health information. Her oxygen levels were extremely low, just as she thought, and her blood pressure was extremely high, creating the perfect conditions within her body to kill her poor baby. Thinking of the child, she asked, "Where is the father? Did he make it?"
The pilot carrying her legs grunted, "No. The ceiling fell in and hit him in the head." Morbidly he added, "We left without the body."
The medical droids had a gurney prepared for her, and Minerva helped the men put the woman down. After she pushed a few buttons on the side of the machine, a lifeforce screen covered the patient in a blue light, helping her with her breathing. Immediately after her vital signs could be projected, a bright red warning screen popped up, alerting Minerva to the fact that something was very, very wrong. The system inside the gurney began searching for a diagnosis, prompting the nurse to head out with the pilots as quickly as possible. However, just as Minerva was about to leave with them, another ship showed up outside of Finalizer.
As soon as it's magnificent black wings collapsed into position, Minerva immediately recognized it as belonging to the triumvirate. Unlike the little family's burning remnants of a ship, the command shuttle was spotless. It landed elegantly in the hangar, as if they weren't in much of a hurry. Knowing that her patient could die, Minerva quickly got back to work, focusing on keeping the lady and her baby alive. One of the medical droids could help the shuttle passengers if they needed it.
The pregnant woman was still dead to the world, and wasn't giving any signs of waking up soon. The computer was desperately scanning, but couldn't provide an answer for what was wrong. Even with oxygen being pumped into her system, her eyes remained tightly closed, her breathing difficult. Somehow, between the time that she'd been placed on the gurney to then, little red bumps had appeared on her throat and mouth. It was incredibly bizzare. Minerva reached into the gurney and felt for her pulse, pressing her thumb into the lady's thin wrist. Her heartbeat was slow, but there. They were halfway across the hangar when suddenly a commanding voice yelled at her to stop.
"You! Nurse!" shouted someone from the command shuttle. "Come here immediately!"
Before she looked up to see who it was, she hollered back, "This patient is in critical condition, sir. One of the medical droids can help you with-"
"I said for you to come here, girl! Now!" Screamed the voice. "Look at me when I'm addressing you!"
Still busy with the woman, she ignored him for the sake of her patient, but noticed that the gurney had stopped moving. The pilots helping to push it had stopped in their tracks, and were obviously looking at something else. Irritated by their apparent lack of understanding regarding their lady's condition, Minerva glanced up at the men and shouted, "Keep going! The baby is in distress! She'll die if we don't get there quickly! I can't diagnose her here!"
The men refused to look at her, and were instead gazing at and saluting to the other end of the hangar. Angry, Minerva glanced over to what they were so focused on, but when she saw who had been addressing her, she swallowed regretfully. The redheaded General Hux himself was glaring at her with his piercing blue eyes as a man was lowered down from the shuttle behind him. She looked at the ground, unsure of what to do. After a few seconds, she decided to entrust the woman to the droids and to Dr. Bahli. She will be alright, she told herself. She gave the woman one last sympathetic stare before she began running towards the general.
Her little white heels clicked against the hard tile floor as she hurried to her leader's side. As soon as she reached him she paused to adjust her skirt before offering a nervous salute. "My apologies, general. That woman is pregnant, and I was only trying to-"
"You're that Caulder girl, aren't you?" interrupted Hux, twisting his gloves in his hands as he looked everywhere but at her. He was nervous and jumpy, like a child who had done something wrong and was trying to hide it. His face was even paler than usual, and it seemed like he could never quite stand still. It was apparent that he cared very little about what she had to say, seeing as how his precious base had just blown up -on his watch- not 20 minutes past. Before Minerva had a chance to respond to his question, he scolded her by saying, "The next time I have to scream for your attention you will be off of my ship and back on board that tin-can Perseverance with your father."
Minerva blinked, "Yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir."
"I never should have agreed to any remaining human nurses," he spouted fumedly, seeming to preach at her in every flitting direction. He stuck a judgemental finger in her face. "Look at you. How inefficiently tired you are. You look as if you've seen a ghost. You aren't going to cry are you? Well, I don't know; you seem more like the fainting type to me. Are you going to drop dead here in a moment?"
Confused, nervous, and already on edge from what she had seen earlier that day, Minerva hastily tried to defend herself by stuttering, "N-No, sir!" Hoping that no one had ratted her out about having to run to the bathroom to collect herself, she replied, "It's just that... the base... it's such a huge loss, sir." Suddenly her eyes shifted as she realized something. She whispered, "I had friends there..."
Hux didn't move, glaring a hole right through her. After he made sure that she was good and stunned, he continued on as if nothing had happened. Pointing to the man on the gurney rather accusingly, Hux told Minerva that, "This man will have no access to a bacta tank, per the Supreme Leader's orders, and he will have no pain relief of any kind." He began putting his gloves back on, making quick glances to the medical droids around the hangar. "If I instructed a droid to do this I think it would malfunction. Maybe there is a use for you still. Can I trust you to treat the man as ordered?"
Minerva turned to look at her new patient. She could see that Lady Kurlish wasn't the only one who had been badly burned, but the dark-haired man's wounds seemed to be much different. She was able to discern that they had somehow been cauterized, as if the flames from the base had burned hot enough to immediately create and close off the wound. They had taken off his shirt to expose the angry red slash that stretched all the way from his right shoulder to his face. Under his left collarbone was a spot of the same nature, but it seemed to be an extremely deep laceration, almost like blaster fire but with an extremely hot beam.
His left hand was trembling and covered in blood as he pressed it against his side. She noticed now that he had blown a hole in his abdomen the size of a coffee cup, and was applying what little pressure he could muster to try and stop the bleeding. He had clearly lost a lot of blood, and was slipping in and out of consciousness. Why hadn't these men helped him? she asked herself. They haven't even bothered to give him a rag.
His eyes showed a type of pain behind them, but not the kind that he should be feeling. It was emotional pain. Such an obvious sadness that it made Minerva curious. Who was he?
"You can trust me, sir," she replied, maintaining eye contact with the broken toy. She looked back at Hux and asked, "But why must he be denied treatment? If he was placed in the bacta tank his wounds would be healed one hundred times as quickly. I can promise you that he would be out of the medical bay by tomorrow morning."
Hux glared at her. "I asked you for your loyalty, Caulder, not your questions. These are orders direct from our Supreme Leader. Isn't that good enough for you?"
A small tension grew between them, but Minerva speedily obeyed him. "Of course, sir." She said, looking him in the eye to make it sincere. "I will care for the patient as charged."
Minerva let out a string of curses as she backed the gurney into the elevator, the emergency sirens still blaring at ear-piercing volume. The man's light brown eyes were still open, but it was only a matter of time before he would black out. The blood gushing from his side had turned darker as time had passed, telling Minerva that an organ had been punctured somewhere along the line. She watched as the elevator crawled back up to the medical bay, glancing down at her patient with each passing digit, her head on a swivel, as if she was expecting him to disappear. His hand was slipping off of the blaster wound, but Minerva put it back for him. She kept her gloved hand on top of his and pressed it against the seemingly bottomless hole of blood.
He looked at her with his sleepy eyes, half shut and grey as he fought the urge to pass out. He stared at the dark brown orbs that floated nervously in her skull as they searched his body with intense calculation and hypothesis. She appeared to be incredibly afraid and undeniably disturbed about something, as occasional reassuring whispers passed through her chapped lips in a subconscious attempt to calm herself. Watching her flit and flitter with uncertainty was annoying to him, and it was plain to see that she was still fairly new to the job.
"Pathetic." He murmured.
Minerva flipped around to look at him in disbelief. "Please, don't talk. Don't tire yourself." She replied, taking a handkerchief and wiping the sweat off of his forehead before it landed in his eyes. She stuck the soaking thing back in her pocket and checked his vital signs on the edge of the gurney. After she read a few things she looked away, more tense than before.
"I don't even have to read you," he mumbled, parting his thick lips slowly, "to know what you're thinking about." He let out a long sigh and winced at how the movement felt in his chest. With sad eyes he groaned, "Stop touching me."
"Shh." Minerva gave him a pleading look. "Please, we're almost there. It's going to be alright." Her brown eyes shot to the door as the elevator finally came to a stop. She walked behind him and placed her hands on the gurney's motion controls, pushing him out into the hallway.
Rambling from blood loss, the delirious man below her mumbled, "Let me die. No one would miss me anyway. Not anymore." He frowned weakly, eyes closed, and asked, "Is he angry with me?"
"Shhh!" sounded the little nurse. "Sir, please don't die -or even think of dying- anytime soon! Stay with me!"
"Let me go!" He croaked through strained breath. He quickly began to lose his mind, as he questioned Minerva strangely. He asked her in a harsh whisper, "Why did I listen to you? Why did you make me do it?"
"Do what, sir?" asked Minerva, beyond concerned. Realizing that she was steadily losing him, she decided that talking might help after all. "Sir, what did you do? Stay with me! Answer me!"
His vision slipped. Just before he blacked out, the man's last words were, "I trusted you."
Hey! Thanks so much for checking out my story! Please leave a review to let me know what you think so far, what I did wrong, and what I did right! I love hearing back from my readers! Thanks again for stopping by! Expect the next chapter very soon!
- Molly