#4 Meeting the Medbay
"So, you two got names, or what?" Goose asked immediately after exiting the mess hall.
They looked at each other in surprise, but overcame it quickly.
"I'm CT-7222." The first medic said as he pointed out which corridor to go down.
Goose rolled her eyes.
"You can cut the skrag, okay? You're clones, everyone has a number. I get it." She laughed tiredly. "But do you honestly expect me to believe you actually call each other by your numbers? Admit it. You all have real names."
The two medics, one now on either side of her, share a glance. Neither had replaced their helmet yet, so Goose could also see the grin the first medic passed to the second.
"Okay, you got us." The second medic chuckled. "My name is Coric."
"And I'm Jules." The first medic added, then jerked his head back toward the mess hall. "The Captain's name is Rex. He probably would have told you, if you hadn't been so sarcastic."
Goose's smile was almost apologetic.
"Sorry, but not sorry. I get like that when I'm hungry." She said shamelessly. "And since we're dropping the formalities, call me Goose."
"Goose?" Jules asked curiously.
"Yep. That's my name, don't wear it out." She answered amiably.
Up ahead, Goose noticed another set of large doors, similar to the ones to the mess hall.
"Hey, what's that?" she pointed.
"That's the training room." Coric responded. "Captain Rex keeps us busy with workouts and drills when we aren't deployed."
Goose lifted an eyebrow. Mandatory workouts. Ugh. Poor barves, she thought.
"Hm. Sounds…nice." She muttered.
He either didn't hear, or chose not to say anything.
"You want to take a look?" asked Jules, "You're welcome to use it too, if you like."
At that, she cracked up for no real reason she could think of, and couldn't stop for the longest time. Soon, it got to the point where she could no longer breathe.
"I-" Goose gasped for air. "I'm sorry, that was rude of me. It's just…I…" she giggled, and held her stomach when it started to hurt. Finally, she managed to marshal herself. Goose cleared her throat. "I hate exercise, and my favorite sport is avoiding calisthenics. I'll leave it at that."
"I see…" he said slowly, although he probably didn't.
They both now looked thoroughly confused.
"I'm not crazy, I promise. Or at the very least, I'm just as sane as anyone else who's dumb enough to get mixed up in a war." Goose sighed. "I think it's just that I've been away from civilization for so long, I'm still readjusting. It's been so many years since anything normal has happened to me that it all feels preposterous."
Jules nodded slowly.
"I can see what you mean," he said in agreement, "we had some difficulty adjusting to life off Kamino ourselves."
Goose wrinkled her nose.
"Kamino? I've never heard of it." She murmured curiously. "Is it your home?"
They both looked a little uncomfortable, and Goose wondered if she'd struck a nerve.
"I suppose you can call it that." Jules answered with a shrug. "I don't think we've ever really thought of it that way."
Goose decided not to press it any further. When he shrugged, Jules had shifted his grip on his helmet, and Goose had caught a glimpse of the interior, which flashed with a myriad of lights and indicators. She was intrigued.
"Your helmets look rather state-of-the-art," she said appreciatively, "what can they do?"
They both seemed eager to answer. Obviously, they both had quite a lot of experience on the subject.
"They do just about anything," Coric began excitedly, "Besides communications, it also displays tactical information like enemy troop numbers, and you can access data on different species."
"There's also a HUD, or Heads Up Display. It provides the locations of all of our troops, and-" Jules was cut off.
"Hold up a second." Goose interrupted. "You said it shows the locations of troops. Does it also the number of wounded and their locations?"
Jules studied her curiously before answering.
"Yes, of course." He replied. "Every suit of armor has a transponder which relays our positions and lifesigns."
Goose nodded slowly, chewing her lip as she thought it out.
"You see," she finally began, "if I'm really going to be combat surgeon, then I have to be in the loop. I'd rather not have this job, but the army has an annoying tendency not to take no for an answer. I'd rather be prepared. Do you think there's some way I can have a…HUD that shows me where the wounded are? Without an actual helmet, of course." She added hastily.
Again, the two medics exchanged looks before answering. Goose decided she'd have to ask them why they did that later.
"We might be able to come up with something." said Jules. "I have a few ideas."
Suddenly, another thing occurred to her.
"Also, I don't think a wrist comlink is going to cut it. An earpiece perhaps?" Goose speculated. "Or maybe a- oh! Is this the medbay?"
"Yes, this is-" Coric was never able to finish.
"The medbay!" Goose cheered, as if she had just discovered buried treasure.
She hardly waited for the doors to sigh open before she swept in and ran around excitedly, looking at all of the new equipment.
"Would you look at this OR? An anti-sepsis field generator! Bioscanners! Surgical droids! Bacta tanks!" she squealed in sheer delight. "Sweet creation, I feel like I'm in a toy store."
Goose giggled girlishly as she inspected her new domain. The medbay itself had a very linear design: at one end was pre-op, which led to the OR, followed by post-op and the recovery wards. Simply by walking down the length of it, one traced the path of a wounded trooper. At the end and to the left was the supply room. To the right was the morgue.
"And look over there! Real biobeds in post-op." Goose's excitement was unabated. "It's just…perfect."
Behind her, Jules and Coric were looking increasingly confused.
"If you pardon my saying so, this is just an average shipboard medbay." Jules said carefully.
Goose, who had been poking around in the scrub room, turned to him abruptly.
"Not to me this isn't! To me, this is surgical heaven. I haven't seen anything this sterile in three years." Goose laughed humorlessly, "Here, I can operate without worrying about bits of the ceiling falling into my patient, or losing someone to a staph infection we couldn't cure because we ran out of antibiotics two days ago." She shook her head. "No, this is an answer to my many, many prayers."
They all fell silent. Goose looked over the deactivated row of 2-1B med droids, at the end of which stood a GH-7 beside a DD-13.
"This is my staff, then?" she asked, unimpressed.
"This is all of it," Coric replied.
"I think I'm going to miss the nurses." Goose sighed. "I assume there aren't any other women aboard?"
"I'm afraid not, "Jules shook his head.
Goose made a face and looked irritated.
"I am really going to miss those nurses." She groaned. "Who am I going to talk to?"
Coric glanced at the wall chrono, and his eyes widened in surprise.
"Jules, it's almost 0900. We need to leave soon if we want to make it to the morning drill on time." Coric said. "The Captain won't be happy if we're late."
"You're right, we should go." Jules agreed reluctantly. "Is there anything else you need?"
Goose shooed them toward the door.
"No, I'll be fine." She answered. "I don't want to make you late. Go!"
They both slid their helmets back on and turned to leave. To Goose, they looked even more eerily alike when she could not see their faces.
"We'll see you later then…Goose?" Jules asked.
Goose smiled. "I look forward to it." She replied genuinely.