Admiral Raan woke up to find that it had grown dark. She still ached, but her head felt clear which suggested to her that she had obtained some amount of natural sleep rather than drug-induced one. She set aside the thermal sheet draped over her and sat up. She was in a heavy, utilitarian structure that looked like expertly assembled salvage, lying on a blanket. Not ten feet away lay a human with grey hair, similarly bedded down, a black medic's pack under her head for a pillow.
All around her lay sleeping quarians—all of them bearing a patch of medical tape on the armor or shoulder. She suspected this meant 'injured' as she wore one herself.
Raan got up quietly. The windows, carefully cut into the metal walls and covered with heavy well-anchored sheet-plastic, revealed the starry sky and flickering light.
Outside, she found other similar structures erected in a very precise circle. Lamps—both for heat and light—glittered in the central space, perhaps a hundred feet or so of it. Quarians milled about the space. From the pile of heavy crates, it was obvious there had been some contact between the Fleet and Rannoch itself, if supplies had made it down.
The outdoors were quiet, nothing like the Fleet.
"Admiral Raan," the synthetic voice was soft, purposely kept quiet so as not to startle her out of her wits. Turning sharply, she found a geth about her own height watching her fixedly. "Dr. Chakwas has not filed a patient release. You must return to the infirmary until such a time as release is given."
"I'm well enough," Raan answered unnerved, noting that someone had taken a technician's pencil and written 'ASC-5' in Keelish, and what was probably the same thing in several other languages.
"Dr. Chakwas has not signed your release, Admiral," the geth answered reasonably. "And she is very emphatic about the care of her patients."
"The Fleet has its own medics."
"Affirmative. Travel between Rannoch and the Fleet is being controlled during this period of transition. No one wants any misunderstandings." The geth watched her again with that mechanical fixity. "Please return to the infirmary. Dr. Chakwas will not object to being awakened in regards to your patient release."
Raan shifted nervously, wondering what the geth would do if she refused.
"I understand your concern," the geth promptly announced, raising a hand to the approximate location of an ear. "Dr. Chakwas. Admiral Raan believes herself to be adequately recovered, but refuses to return to the infirmary."
"Oh for the love of—" a voice that could only be Dr. Chakwas announced from some speaker on the geth's platform. A moment later, the silver-haired human appeared. "Admiral." The woman's tone said 'for shame' before she promptly herded Raan back to the infirmary.
Raan patiently bore with Dr. Chakwas' fussing. It was clear the woman was used to resistance from her patients but was also used to those patients eventually capitulating to her requirements—and sooner rather than later. "What is going on here?" she finally asked as Dr. Chakwas pronounced her fit for duty.
"Most people are getting some sleep," Dr. Chakwas answered. "Some of the geth are ensuring my patients don't wander far while I'm doing the same."
"What is ASC-5?"
Dr. Chakwas considered. "A geth under the temporary designation of being the fifth unit assigned to the Asclepius unit—medical care. Asclepius was considered one of the fathers of medicine."
"Ah." That made sense.
"You've a clean bill of health. I would recommend getting a little more sleep, but that's your decision. You can move into general population tomorrow."
"Where is Shepard?"
"Resting, under my orders," Dr. Chakwas answered grimly.
"She is…unwell?" Raan shifted nervously.
Dr. Chakwas' lips thinned. "After the last few days, wouldn't you be?"
Raan didn't wince, despite knowing what the doctor meant by that. Clearly the entirety of the Admiralty Board (with the possible exception of Tali vas Normandy) were to be tarred with the same brush. "I suppose so. I will be back shortly."
Dr. Chakwas nodded, then settled back on her sleeping pallet.
The geth unit was gone, not having entered the infirmary and Raan wondered if Dr. Chakwas had designated it a geth-free zone. Something in the way the woman ignored the machine when collecting her made Raan suppose the doctor wasn't happy about working in the middle of a camp on a geth-occupied world.
On her way out, she caught one of Normandy's crewmen returning from…doing something. The lad looked surprised to see her up. "Dr. Chakwas has released me," Raan announced.
"Ah, I see."
She suspected the lad might be in for an interrogation for why he, as the night shift, wasn't present.
The sky above was truly beautiful though, with the torturous forms of red sandstone reaching up towards it.
Raan walked a circuit of the brightly lit open space that formed the middle of the camp.
"Good to see you up, Admiral."
Raan jumped out of her skin at the unexpected, flanging voice of a turian. She whipped around to find Shepard's second sitting on some of the supply crates, Tali leaning familiarly against him, his other arm curled around his formidable-looking sniper rifle. "Officer Vakarian." She had to work to dredge up the name.
The turian nodded once. "Nothing's wrong, is it?"
She wasn't sure how to answer that truthfully. "Of course not."
"Good." He settled back against the crates, freezing when Tali shifted in her sleep before resettling himself.
Raan nodded to him, then continued her circuit. Outside the circle of light, behind the shelters, she caught shadows and gleams of light on metal indicating the geth were still present and keeping unsleeping watch just to make sure none of Rannoch's native predators came to investigate.
Rather than make her feel secure, Raan found herself uneasy at the idea of geth security units. It made the camp feel like a prison, and there was nothing she could do about it.