Ando

Chapter 21

A/N: Hello. I received a request for an update on Sera, the insecure town baker, and also on Odds, our brave, womanizing, one-armed pilot. Since we are back in Sera's perspective, this picks up the story exactly where we heard from her last as she watches the ships land. Sera is the creation of Impoeia.

The landing of the ships had turned the clinic into a hive of activity. Volunteers, both troopers and townspeople, were working together under Karyn's direction. Sera stood, frozen and wide-eyed, in one corner of the clinic, trying to avoid the chaos. She clutched at the plasticlear containers of baked sweets in her arms for comfort.

Sera shivered and tried vanishing into the wall, eyeing the door with vivid plans of escape in mind. The smell of antiseptic, which could not quite hide the coppery tang of blood in the air, and the frantic activity called up memories Sera would rather see buried and forgotten.

All that was missing was the scent of burning wood and the heat of flames pressing against her skin and she'd be back-

"Sera," Karyn acknowledged her briefly, looking up from where she was treating a trooper. Her gloved hands were covered in blood. She looked back down again, immediately focused on her lifesaving work. Sera looked away.

"Thanks for helping out. Your efforts should pick up a few flagging spirits around here." She looked up again briefly, her eyes searching around the room. "Quinn," Karyn called across the room to one of the troopers and the man limped towards them with an odd, careful gait. "Could you give us a hand? Sera, brought these snacks for the troopers."

"Yes, ma'am," Quinn gave a polite nod to the doctor, and reached for the containers. Sera stiffened, her eyes drawn to those big, strong hands reaching towards her, capable of snapping her in half - breaking bones, bruising skin. A tight pressure on her arm called Sera back to reality. She blinked and shoved half the containers hurriedly into Quinn's hands, nearly toppling them. both. The trooper was quick, and finely coordinated. He caught them easily. He looked at her oddly, Sera quickly averted her eyes. She stared down at the tips of her shoes as her face burned with shame.

Quinn shrugged and held up the containers. He studied them. They were filled an assortment of her pastries and El'la's most popular sandwiches. The trooper looked over to Karyn, catching the doctor's eye for a moment and flashing a smile that exposed too many teeth for Sera's liking. There was just too much on a man - and these troopers especially - that could do damage to a woman. "These are perfect. You'll have your friends full, Karyn. None of my vode will be able to stay in bed once they find out there is food."

Karyn laughed goodnaturedly and Quinn's smile widened.

He turned his attention to Sera and she froze.

No- no- no.

She backed away a step.

He nodded his chin politely in perfect decorum. "Thank you, ma'am." He gestured backwards with one free hand toward his injured companions. "My brothers thank you, as well."

Sera couldn't speak. She was frozen in place.

Quinn shot Sera another quizzical look before heading off to the kitchen.

Karyn looked up from where she still had her bloodied hands busily working over the trooper.

"You know he isn't actually going to hurt you. None of them are."

"I know," Sera whispered. And she did know. It just didn't help. But Karyn didn't look like she was going to give up on the subject, so the redhead fought to change the topic, blurting out what she'd hoped to tell Karyn in private.

"We need to talk," she began, "about the shortages..."

Karyn sighed, exhaustion momentarily causing her shoulders to droop. Sera shut her mouth almost instantly, surprised. She hadn't seen Karyn this tired in five years; not since the end of the war. None of them thought they could take another step, but somehow Karyn had kept them all going. Unconsciously, Sera's grip tightened around the one container still in her arms, until her knuckles were white.

In the back of her throat, she could still feel the acrid choking smoke from the fire that destroyed the hospital and smell the smoke of the beautiful Andoan pine used in many parts of the waterfront building.

"How bad are our supplies?" Karyn asked in a low whisper. She probably didn't want to alert the rest of the volunteers.

Sera cast nervous eyes about the room. "I've got a list," she finally said. "Maybe...maybe we can talk about it...in private," she added, moving closer to Karyn. She added the last in a hoarse, hopeful whisper. She glanced down to see how close Karyn was to finishing with her patient. Anything to get her away from this room filled with people - with men, in varying stages of undress, hurt, and exhaustion. Some of them were looking at her.

But Karyn was already shaking her head. "Sera, I can't. There's only Mako and I taking care of all the injured troopers. It's going to be a long time yet before we can finish treating them all."

A loud, metallic clatter shattered the respectful silence in the hospital, followed almost immediately by a trooper's voice, low, but admonishing.

Karyn sighed and rolled up her sleeves, looking ready for battle. She nodded to a nearby volunteer. "I'm done here. Just finish applying the bacta bandage. Clean him up a little, if you can."

The clattering continued on the other side of the room, followed by a violent bout cursing.

"I've got to see to this. Some of the troopers are experiencing post-traumatic episodes," she turned towards Sera, who was busy trying to control the shakes that were strong enough to rattle her teeth. "If you have any more treats, there are more injured over on the medship. Mako is in charge over there."

Karyn hurried off.

Sera rushed out of the clinic to get away from the shouting, angry voice that sounded too much like Lars.

Lars when he had been drinking.

"Sera, come here now." -

Nothing ever good came of those four words. Only marks she needed to cover up with her longest tunics and stories about her 'clumsiness.' She burst outside into the cold air and tried to remind herself that Lars was dead and gone now. Her head began to ring, and for a second it felt as if her husband had delivered a mighty blow to the side of her head.

Tears escaped her eyes.

Would everything always remind her of Lars?

Would it always be like this?

She rushed toward the medship- anything to take her mind off Lars. The memories were too much.

# # #

The medship wasn't far, which was nice, because the ground was beginning to thaw and that meant mud. Lots of mud.

Sera actually hesitated at the entry ramp of the big medship, not so much intimidated by its size as horrified at the idea of entering all that cleanliness with her muddy boots. She peered around what she guessed was the entrance to the ship, half hoping and half fearing to spot one of the troopers and hand him her burden.

But the ship was, far as she could see, deserted.

Sera licked her lips and glanced around, feeling like an intruder even as she took a reluctant step forward.

Karyn asked me to do this, she told herself over and over again. Karyn asked me to do this. It's alright for me to be here.

The ship didn't quite smell like Karyn's infirmary. The scent of antiseptic was there, but it was overlayed by a complex layer of machine oil, air that seemed slightly stale and another scent that she could only describe as….blue.

But it was alien and not just because Sera hadn't seen a space-worthy ship since her early teens. The dimensions of...well, everything was off. She could have driven a speeder through the corridors and the ceilings arched high above her head. She felt very small and insignificant and if she hadn't already been used to that feeling, Sera would have turned around then and there and left, her courage having deserted her.

She also would have become hopelessly lost if it hadn't been for the helpful markers someone had scribbled in a neat hand at every intersection.

She turned her head about, trying to see how bad the trail of mud was she was leaving behind. Much to her relief, it wasn't that bad. But, even small splatters of mud seemed at odds with the gleaming new ship. How did the troopers keep it so clean?

Cockpit….cargo hold….crew quarters….main medbay…. auxiliary medbay..

Sera frowned. Not sure which medbay was the right one.

She took a deep breath and headed into the nearest one. Durasteel doors cycled open taking her by surprise. Everything on Ando was decidedly 'low-tech' and getting more so as the years passed since the war. This medship made a startling contrast with technology even better than what they had in the Ando hospital.

Sera winced. Don't think about. Block out the memories.

She froze as she heard voices.

"The Lieutenant said to prepare this room for the vatlings. He doesn't like the idea of them being over at Fisherman's Hall."

"There's plenty of volunteers over there from what I heard."

"I think that's the issue. Too many volunteers. Things are getting out of hand."

"Ah. Civvies are a strange lot. Well, it'll take us several hours at least to convert this room over. If the Lieutenant could give us a hand, it would go faster. Maybe Razor, too."

"Alright, I'll comm him. I think he's working on powering down all of the other ships. He's been super busy, with Odds out of commission, and he's trying to get the Captain to rest, but Captain Catcher won't-"

The man speaking cut off mid-sentence. "I thought I heard someone come in the back entrance."

There was dead silence in the room. She halted in her tracks, and then slowly began to backtrack, hidden from the others by piles of medical equipment which had been pushed around the room.

"You're hearing things. They're only using the main medbay for now."

"I'm sure of it, Tek. My eyesight is poor, but my hearing is perfect."

Sera's heart leapt into her mouth and sweat poured down her cheeks and onto her neck.

"Come on, Gears, focus. We have a lot to do and I want to actually get a few hours rack time."

Sera heard the sound of tools clattering down. "No. Now I smell something. There's definitely someone in here, and I don't think it's another trooper. Who's there? Identify yourself." The voices were firm with authority. Demanding. She heard armored footsteps quickly coming toward her, pounding against the slick floor. She shrieked in panic, dropping the containers on the floor. The footsteps came across the corner to where she'd been standing, but she had already taken off running down the corridor making her escape.

# # #

A/N: OK, that's all I can do for this week. I'm headed to the Oakland A's/Phillies game today with the 501st for "Star Wars Day" so I have to run in a few minutes. If you're watching the game, you can look for me. I'm always the short stormtrooper and I should be escorting Vader onto the field when he throws out the first pitch, (at least that's where it looked like I was on the most recent agenda.)