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CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
"Maintenance" Chief Lorgan said, "that's what you've been allocated to and that's where you'll stay." He was adamant on that.
Ana was asserting herself; a couple of weeks here and she could already see that they were low on trained medical staff. A couple of months and it had not improved; the number of injured were sometimes too much for the duty Doctor and the med droids to cope with. She had seen the makeshift morgue.
She knew she could help. She had the background. She had to try and so something.
She had tried to get hold of Commander Sato but his aide told her he was on a mission.
Captain Syndulla was Incommunicado, according to Chopper.
The Doctor was with Commander Sato, the med droid had said.
Wolffe and Gregor were back on Seelos.
Rex had...disappeared.
So she was left with the chief.
"But I'm a trained Nurse and you need medical staff. I can see that. They are run off their feet and if more than one squadron or team comes back injured."
Ana was trying to make him see she could be more useful.
"It's not that I won't do the cleaning, someone has to take charge of it."
She was giving it its correct term.
"Maintenance." corrected the chief as he fixed her with a stare. "Look" he sighed "You seem like a nice woman and I'm sorry that your ….boyfriend has stranded you here. But we can't afford to have any camp followers and you don't have the expertise that we need."
Ana was speechless, Rex abandoned her?
Camp follower? What the fek is that all about?
The Chief was continuing to speak but she heard little of what he was saying.
"Nursing don't count, it's Doctors we need." that was what he had been told to say by Captain Syndulla, and he always did what she asked. She was such a charming lady and he could not understand what she saw in that lanky space tramp she went around with. This one was the same, a good woman with lousy taste in men.
He shook his head and sighed.
"There is nothing else you can do. Someone has to do it." he said, giving her a datapad list of orders for the day and details of any droids out of commission.
She had not seen Rex since spending those few precious hours with him that night. He'd gone for a briefing immediately after with Commander Sato, who was in charge, and then he had just disappeared. She wondered what he was doing, hoped he was safe but questioned herself now, as to what she was doing here, especially after what the Chief had said. She had been allocated to maintenance, which in anybody's language included some cleaning, which she did herself. Due to the layout and nature of the base she was allocated three droids and a rota to clean it. This involved a great deal of walking, checking, replacing droids when they malfunctioned, which they did on a regular basis. Trying to repair them when they aren't replaced which was also on a regular basis; they weren't sentient, being little more than motorised dirt sucking machines. Although one did use water, most of the time, unless it had a tantrum and dumped it in the hallway. So her main task was following the Droids to clean up after them.
Someone had to do it she knew that.
The people she spoke to on a daily basis, could be counted on one hand. It appeared that cleaners or maintenance staff were almost invisible and weren't spoken to unless being told to do something.
Empty that.
Clean this.
Disinfect that.
Ana was lonely, lonelier that she had ever been on Seelos when there was just her in the house. She occasionally saw Wolffe or Gregor but mostly they were off base or training, or in meetings. There were always lots of meetings. Other people came and went, sometimes they just seemed to be passing through.
Hera and the Ghost crew, who she had found out were Rex's friends, after they found the clones on Seelos, were often away from the base except for Kanan. She had seen him, kneeling, meditating and had asked who it was; she remembered he had been blinded.
And you could not leave the base and explore the moon, no definitely not.
That was a no, no and she knew because she had tried.
One day, just to get away from the chemical smell of maintenance, she walked to the boundary and wandered through. Kriff never again. She had never seen such Fekking huge spiders, well she thought they were spiders; she had never run so fast to get back.
She never went that far again.
So she waited for Rex, longing for the time he came back, so they could talk some more; it was that thought that kept her going, day after day.
Then one day she was sent to the Infirmary.
The Chief had sent her there by mistake, she decided. No instructions, no orders. Just clean up the mess. Apparently one of the Doctors had complained.
Kriff! What a mess.
So she cleaned it up, following the protocols she had been taught when she was a nurse. It was probably old fashioned for the Alliance, all these Bacta tanks and fancy technical equipment etc but that had not stopped the blood going everywhere; it always looked far more than it actually was. So she gave it a thorough clean and disinfect; she removed all bodily fluids and body parts and disposed of them hygienically. That process has not changed.
It was well past midnight, when she stood back and checked the room; it was finished. All the detritus from the treatments had been removed, all surfaces cleaned and disinfected, and now she really needed to sleep, so she walked in a daze back to her quarters, downed a flask of water and collapsed on her bunk.
.
Next morning, she rose, showered and dressed, as usual, noted there was a message from the Chief, which was unusual, and reported for duty again. Another day of relentless cleaning but first she had to see the Chief.
He didn't look up when she entered but then he never did; she didn't think he ever looked up for anyone.
"You cleaned Med Room Three Alpha last night?"
"Yes. Is there something wrong?"
"Don't know but Dr. Niemans wants to see you about it now." He added, looking at her but not asking the question he wanted to. What did you do wrong?
She was asking it herself. She nodded and set the droids to work before she set on her way. She had never seen this particular doctor, in fact she had only seen one of the other Doctors, even though there were three supposedly here split between the base a Sato's command ship plus med droids.
She wondered why they wanted to see her; they couldn't possibly complain that med bay wasn't clean, it was spotless when she left it. If fact, they could Karking well shove it, if they said it wasn't good enough.
"Ana Sant?" An unknown voice rang through the empty med Bay a few seconds after she entered.
"Yes?" Ana replied, sounding calmer than she actually felt, searching for the owner of the voice.
"I understand that you completed a full medical clean up of this med Bay?" The owner finally emerged from the rear of the medical room, a tall, slim human woman who looked to be in her mid thirties, carrying some medication.
"Er yes. Is there a problem?" Ana spoke warily.
"No. However, I was particularly impressed with it, much better than what some of the droids can accomplish with all their expertise and programming."
"Oh. Er...Th...Thank you." Ana stuttered a little; she had not expected a compliment. She wasn't normally complimented on her cleaning; it was just accepted when it was done and complained about when it wasn't.
"I've been looking at your file." The doctor continued to look at and sort differing medications, as she spoke. "You are a trained Nurse, at Seelos General, Capital City, Seelos, I understand?"
"Er Yes, I'm a bit out of date and probably not skilled enough for some of this up to date equipment." Ana looked around as she said this, some of the apparatus she saw, she couldn't even guess at its use.
"Yes, I suppose Seelos is a bit of a back water." The Doctor continued to read her file, although Ana hadn't realised that she actually had a file until now. "How long ago is it that you actually practised?"
"About fifteen years. On a regular basis"
"And your area of expertise was Trauma?"
"Trauma. Then I moved onto Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy."
"Good. We get a lot of trauma." The Doctor paused again, "You can always learn how to use the instruments, if you have the basic background." Replied the Doctor, "I did."
She put all the medication she had been checking through back into the cabinet and locked it.
"We need medics of all kinds and skill levels; we aren't like the Empire and can grow our troops on trees, or otherwise." She paused. "The troops need to be treated, and quickly." The Doctor turned around and fixed her with a stare, "so why didn't you say you were a nurse and volunteer for medic duty?"
"I did but they said they had enough medics or nurses and it was Doctors they needed." Ana said it quickly and it sounded very defensive.
"Pah! Bloody Idiots." Replied the Doctor, "will they ever learn."
Dr Niemens handed her a data pad, "Here, you can start studying now." Ana opened up the datapad, looking at the number of files it held.
Kriff!
That was bad enough but the actual files were enormous. "It'll be hard work." Dr Niemens continued, "And I'll expect you to work here, in addition, every day. No distractions. Okay?"
Ana nodded "Okay."
"Get this tunic on." the doctor handed her a white tunic, "we've got a team coming in hot, in ten."
The med droid was putting out the instruments.
"There'll be six hopefully."
Ana realised any less than six would mean fatalities.
The reality of the rebellion hit her.
And she started her upskilling under Dr Neimens that day, when the injured pilots came in and Chief Lorgan was left with a great deal of maintenance to do.
