#15 Darkest Before the Dawn
Goose was falling asleep, and she didn't much feel like resisting it. It had been well over a day since last she'd gotten even the shortest moment of rest, and it had been nothing like the all-nighters she'd pulled in med school. There'd been one man stabbed in the shower and fourteen of Rex's troopers to deal with already that day, and it was only five in the morning. The sun wasn't yet up, though you'd never be able to tell inside the base.
She still wasn't exactly sure what had gone wrong, but from the few rumors she'd heard Skywalker had tried to lead a surprise attack at night, only to be ambushed himself. But now she was so beyond the point of utter exhaustion she hardly even cared. The moment the last patient was taken care of, Goose had shuffled out of the medbay in a halfhearted effort to hurry to her quarters to sleep before anything else came up to bother her.
But this was not to be, and before she'd made it even halfway there she'd been intercepted by a rather distracted Captain Rex, then just about dragged away to the command center for debriefing. So there she was, standing in the very nerve center of the Republic war effort on Christophsis, still wearing nothing more than a now-bloodied robe, at five in the morning. At least there weren't too many troopers around to see the strange figure she must have cut.
After all, the exertion was really starting to get to her. She was swaying on her feet, and she was sure that she looked just as bad as she felt. Perhaps even worse than that, since she'd gone a bit lightheaded. Her only saving grace at the moment was that there were no chairs in the command center, because she surely would have fallen asleep the second she sat down. At the same time, there was no guarantee that she wouldn't do the same while standing up, either. Commander Cody was in there too, pacing back and forth as if was talking to someone, which he probably was, and Rex just stood there silently. The jedi were nowhere in sight, and Goose was getting decidedly cranky.
"It's the kriffing buttcrack of dawn, and I haven't slept all night," she grumbled snarkily. "Will someone please just tell me what's going on so I can get to bed?"
They both seemed to stare at her for a long moment, then Cody pulled off his helmet. She'd never talked to the commander of the 212th before, though she'd seen him in all of his orange striped armor in passing, and was marginally surprised to see a rather livid scar just above his right eye. Clones were almost indistinguishable except by their armor or hairstyle, so it was interesting to see that he was permanently different. However, what registered the most on her still sleep deprived brain was the serious set of his face. There was a tired, harried look about him, as if he'd not slept for as long as her.
"Doctor Gosling, we have reason to believe there is a spy on the base," Cody said gravely.
Goose could not say she was altogether surprised. After stumbling across a dying man in a shower, there probably wasn't much surprise left in her at all.
"Well, the thought did cross my mind," she yawned as she replied.
He studied her face some more, as if looking for guilt, and she realized but didn't care that she sounded too flippant.
"Doctor, this is a matter of utmost importance. A spy could ruin our chances of winning the city," he continued grimly. "What exactly happened last night?"
Well, Goose had been expecting this for a while. Of course they'd want answers, even if she had none to give. She took a deep breath and rocked on her heels a bit, trying to find a good place to start. The exact details were a little fuzzy, but she was confident they would come back, sooner or later.
"It was late, after the wounded were med evaced, and I wanted to take a shower," she began slowly. "I walked into the 'fresher, stepped in some blood, then came across a body. At least I thought he was dead, except he wasn't, so I called a medic and got him to the medbay. I don't know much of what happened."
Somehow, both of them managed to keep their expressions utterly neutral. It was a very poor description, but she doubted that she could do much better at this point. She couldn't tell what they were thinking, if they believed her or not, and she shifted her feet uncomfortably. Goose noticed for the first time that there was still blood on the bottoms of her feet, and she wondered how it all bothered her so little. Shock. That had to be it.
"Do you have any idea what the weapon was?" he pressed on.
Her thoughts were brought back to the matter at hand. She thought on it for a moment, not sure of it herself.
"The knife had to have been remarkably thin, and long. It was deeper than you'd expect from such a small entry wound, so it must have been sharp, too…" Goose trailed off as it dawned on her. "A scalpel. That has to be it. I don't know of anything else on base that could have made that wound."
The two clones looked at each other. They both shared the same grim expression.
"Do you have any idea how the spy could have gotten a scalpel?" Rex asked tactfully, though his meaning was plain.
Goose understood instantly how it had sounded. The man had been attacked with a scalpel, which she had easy access to, and she was the one who had found him. For all they knew, she could have done it. She groaned inwardly. Perfect.
"The ones I've been using are meant to be disposable," she sighed. "I throw them away all the time because the battery always runs out. Anyone could have taken it out of the garbage, and you don't need to turn a vibroscalpel on for it to cut."
Rex started pacing this time, and Cody only rubbed his chin in contemplation. She wasn't sure, but she hoped she wasn't under suspicion. If that happened, how would she ever get to take a nap? Goose mentally groaned. This was all just…ridiculous. Of all the people in this war, it had to her, didn't it?
"How long after he was attacked do you think it was before you showed up?" Rex questioned.
She was brought back once more to the present. Though it was probably all subconscious, the two clones had been closing the distance between them and her. She was beginning to feel cornered, though she had no reason to. They were on the same side, and she had nothing to hide.
"Judging by the blood loss, a minute or two, tops," she estimated. "Had I shown up even a few minutes later he'd have been dead already."
Rex stopped pacing and looked over at Cody.
"Don't you think it's too convenient that a spy chose to attempt a murder just as the good doctor decided to take a shower?" he asked him.
"It could have been that the spy wasn't counting on her to show up, and that he ran away when he heard her coming." Cody offered.
Goose listened in silence. At least now they were probably getting on the right track. She wondered how anyone could have heard her in time to get away without her seeing. Then it came back to her.
"I was whistling," she blurted.
Both clones stopped abruptly and stared at her quizzically.
"What?" Rex asked, clearly thrown off by her comment.
"I was whistling while I walked through the corridors," she added quickly. "He…whoever it was must have heard me."
They nodded, then both started pacing at the same time. She wondered if they even noticed it.
"That makes more sense," Cody started contemplatively, to no one in particular. "The spy had some motive to kill Davo, but heard the doctor and ran before he…finished the job."
"Who's Davo?" Goose interjected, confused.
Cody seemed like he wanted to continue his musings, but Rex answered her anyway.
"Davo is the clone you found in the shower," he told her absently. "We asked around in the barracks."
She nodded slowly. They'd definitely been busy. It was odd to her, though, that the mystery clone now had a name. Davo.
"So the question really is, who would want to kill Davo?" Cody went on.
Her mind raced. It had occurred to her before, but it hadn't seemed nearly as important as saving Davo's life at the time. Now, with a free moment to think it over, she had a creeping suspicion that she was right.
"Well…" Goose said tentatively, "I did give this some thought earlier, and I think I might have an idea, but I don't want you to take it the wrong way. I think it may have been a clone."
As she'd expected, the two of them were staring at her disbelievingly. Had they been less disciplined, she imagined they may have gone slack jawed. And she couldn't really blame them. She knew how close knit they were, and she'd just accused one of their own of treason. But she had her reasons.
"If you think about it, there is no better explanation," she explained hurriedly. "The walls of the 'fresher are covered in mirrors, and sound echoes so much in there. It would have been nearly impossible for anyone to sneak up on someone in the showers, let alone a trained soldier. Whoever tried to murder Davo must have been someone he trusted, or at least wasn't suspicious of. That's why I think it had to be a clone."
They all lapsed into silence at the new insight. Both of them wore the same blank expressions, but she knew that inside they were not so stoic. She could tell they didn't want to believe it, but they also couldn't contradict it. Still, the revelation had a definite ring of truth.
"That…makes things much more complicated," Rex finally said, and he sounded pained. "We have to keep this under wraps. It won't be good if this spreads…especially if we don't know if it's true."
Goose felt badly about how clearly upset they were, but it could not have been helped. Nothing about this situation was any good.
"We're going to have to put Davo under guard, in case the spy comes for a second try." Cody added, "How is he doing?"
"Not so well, last I checked," she let out a sigh and shook her head. "There's not much to do besides wait, at this point. Would you like to come with me to the medbay? I should look in on his condition anyway."
"Will he be awake?"
"Not likely, but I won't say impossible," Goose replied with private sarcasm.
Cody didn't seem all that interested, but Rex certainly did. No doubt he wanted to visit all his men in post-op to check on how they were recovering.
"So long as the jedi are still investigating in the showers, I may as well go down to the medbay, just in case he's awake," Rex spoke up.
The commander seemed to understand his true intentions perfectly, and he swiftly nodded his assent. He probably would have done the same, had their roles been reversed.
"Right. I'll stay here and keep an eye on things," Cody affirmed.
Goose took it as a dismissal, so she was headed to the door before Rex had a chance to pick his helmet up from where he'd set it down on the holoprojector console. Even with all that had just been said, she still couldn't take it too seriously because it felt so surreal. At that point, her main concern was getting into real clothing, not a robe that may come undone at an inconvenient moment. Given her slow, shuffling gait, it was no hardship for Rex to catch up to her. He walked with his helmet tucked under his arm, and kept such a brisk pace that she soon found herself falling slightly behind.
Now that she noticed it, Rex looked just as exhausted as Cody did, surely having some connection to his failed attack. She supposed it wasn't something he wanted to discuss, but she still had an itching desire to know. It was still a ways from the medbay, so Goose allowed herself some time to think of a roundabout method of asking. However, her head was still quite bleary, so no discreet query presented itself. Out of ideas, she asked the next most pressing question on her mind.
"So why exactly do you suspect a spy's behind all of this?" she asked him.
Rex didn't really seem to want to answer, and for a few moments he didn't. Then he relented, though he was still hesitant about it.
"Last night, General Skywalker led Torrent Company on a mission to destroy some generators. We had been planning it for a week, and it should have crippled the droid army," he said bitterly, with almost a grimace. "It was all top secret, yet somehow the tinnies knew all about it. It was like they were waiting for us, the way they just appeared out of the alleyways in the dark."
She nodded solemnly, understanding for the first time what was plaguing him. Their losses must have been significant, especially since droids have the advantage at night. It would not have been surprising if the troopers in the medbay were the luckier ones. His lips sealed themselves in a tight line after that, and Goose knew better than to bother him again. They passed the rest of the walk in an uncomfortable silence. Goose wanted desperately for all of it, the war, everything, to just end already.
Goose led the way into the medbay, and was confronted by Jules's panicked face the moment she stepped into post-op.
"Doctor Gosling," he said breathlessly, still trying to sound formal in front of the captain. "He's dead, and I just can't explain it."
Dread settled into the pit of her stomach, but she decided to ask the obvious anyway.
"Who, Jules?"
"The trooper from the shower, the one who was stabbed…" Jules trailed off as Goose pushed past him.
Davo.
There were a few other clones in the medbay, probably visiting their buddies who were injured. They all struggled to get out of her way as she rushed to the back of the room, where Davo was. And sure enough, he was dead. This didn't come as too much of a surprise, since he'd all but died before on the table. There had only been a slim chance he'd make it long enough for Goose to operate again, but now that there was a spy involved she couldn't rule out anything.
"Has anyone been in to see him?" she asked calmly, though she really wasn't feeling that way.
Jules looked almost terrified, probably believing that he would take the blame for it. After all, how could he know there was a spy behind all this?
"I– I don't know." He stammered a bit. "Lots of men have been in to check on their squad mates, and I was too busy taking care of a burn to keep an eye on everything. I didn't even know he was dead until one of the visiting troopers came to tell me."
Goose groaned and rubbed her temples. She'd left Jules here alone with a blaster burn victim, knowing full well that he could treat it on his own. It wouldn't be his fault if a spy had gotten past him, since she never should have left him by himself under the circumstances. Besides, there was still no proof that Davo hadn't just died of his injuries.
"Jules, it isn't your fault," she sighed. "I should have stayed to help you."
Rex had ordered everyone out of the room to give them more privacy, though he undoubtedly was keeping a mental tally of all the men who had just left. The wounded could be trusted to keep quiet, especially since the majority were still unconscious. Goose looked over Davo's still body carefully, trying to find any sign that the spy had been back. There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary, except that he was dead. She reached up to unhook his blood bag from the IV stand, since he wouldn't be needing it anymore, but stopped herself short. Given the time that had passed and Davo's low blood volume, the bag should have been nearly empty. But it was almost as full as when she'd first hung it.
"Jules, I thought you said you didn't see this patient until after he'd died," Goose said curiously. "His blood bag looks like it was replaced recently."
"What?" he asked incredulously. "I haven't changed anyone's blood yet, and I certainly didn't let anyone else do it."
Jules was sounding increasingly defensive, and Goose was sorry that she couldn't just tell him what was going on. Rex, who had stood in the aisle way in stern silence the whole time, finally spoke up.
"Doctor, do you suspect foul play?" he asked gravely.
She honestly didn't have an answer for him. If no one had changed the blood, how could it possibly be so full? Unless…
Goose frantically followed the thin tube to the point where it entered his arm. There was a small prick mark where Jules had put in the IV in the showers. Now the needle was put in about an inch away from that. She gasped as she realized what had happened.
"Someone took the IV out of the vein and stuck it in the muscle," she said in a rush. "The transfusion never reached his bloodstream and he bled out. Hypovolemia."
They all stood in stunned silence. It was all so simple, so easy. The spy had merely waltzed in, moved the needle, then sauntered on out without as much as a second glance. At least this proved that the spy had to be a clone, since no one else could have come in with none the wiser. The question was, what motive would any clone have for killing one of his own?
"I…had better inform the jedi of…this," Rex finally said, clearly in even more distress than before.
Jules looked absolutely bewildered, and Goose was impressed that he'd not asked what was going on yet. He'd probably sensed that he wouldn't be told anyway, and was discreet enough to keep quiet. Had she been in his place, she would have been half out of her wits demanding answers. Rex replaced his helmet on his head, then strode out of them medbay, fists clenched at his sides. She and Jules stood silently for a while, neither sure what to do next.
Goose didn't quite know what happened to clones once they died, since Jules had always taken that particular responsibility. She never knew Davo, and didn't have the slightest idea who had killed him, or why. But he had died in her medbay. Had been murdered in her medbay. The least she could do was show him a little respect. His eyes were already closed, so she had no need to shut them. She took out the sabotaged IV line, then switched off the vitals monitor. Goose spared a moment of silence, then pulled the sheet over the face of the man she had found dying in a shower.