#16 Snake in the Grass
Goose chewed at her bottom lip anxiously as she inventoried the medbay's supply room for the third time that day. She knew she'd be restless until the troops came back, so she tried to keep busy as much as possible, to the point of cataloging everything like there was no tomorrow. Even that had become difficult, since the med droid had finally arrived after dozens of requisitions, and put everything in perfect order. At this point, she was only triple checking what she knew to be better organized than she could have done herself. She just had to get her mind off of what was really bothering her.
Over a week had passed, and no further sign of a spy had been found. The jedi's investigation had hit a dead end almost immediately, citing a lack of evidence and a 'muddled feeling in the force,' whatever that was supposed to mean. In her opinion, the jedi hadn't really believed too strongly in the idea of a spy in the first place. They just wrote it all off as bad luck, no matter how much she insisted they were wrong. After all, how could bad luck explain a stabbing?
However, she could understand how they had been lulled into such a false sense of security. Most of the fighting had been relatively low-scale recently, generally just small skirmishes and street fights. Casualties had gone down as well, and Goose hadn't had to do more than two surgeries a day all week. None of their attacks had failed, and nothing that had gone wrong could be traced to a source any more treacherous than human error. All in all, it had been a good week for the Grand Army.
But it had been far from a good week for Goose. Now that she finally had the opportunity to get some hard earned rest, sleep eluded her. All the standing around made her more restless than ever, and she found it harder and harder to fall asleep. The specter of another clone, like Davo, dying under her care haunted her day and night. She hardly left the medbay anymore, since she was always keeping an eye on the recovering wounded like a mother hawk-bat. It didn't help that Jules was never around, having rejoined his squad after the med droid showed up.
She missed his company, and a droid really wasn't a good replacement for conversation. She'd started going stir-crazy after only two days on her own, but hadn't been able to work up the will to go out and find someone to talk to. Part of this was due to her paranoia about leaving the medbay, even though the med droid was capable of managing things on its own, but the other part was that she'd developed a slight suspicion of clones she'd never met before.
This was all since the night Davo was killed, when she'd realized the spy had to be a clone. Now she was on edge whenever she was near any of them, jumping at shadows, always getting the tingling feeling of being followed, though it was probably all in her head. The troopers had picked up how high-strung she was, and were giving her a wide berth. She was lonely during the days, hardly slept at all, and her mind was never at ease. In other words, Goose was miserable. But otherwise, morale on base was high, with no fear of a spy to keep anyone else up at night.
And that was what worried her. Apart from the events of the night of Davo's death, the Republic was faring unusually well in the war. If there ever had been a spy, the jedi believed him to be either dead or gone. Then they had suddenly been presented with a golden opportunity, to trap the advancing droid army between two towers in an ambush. It was too good to be true, but it was also too good to pass up. In other words, Goose believed it was a setup. All of the troops on base would have to be dedicated to the attack, meaning the spy would have to be among them, if he even existed.
Goose had tried to object to the plan, but by then it had been too late. She'd even asked to go with them, so that she might reduce the mortality rate by treating the wounded as soon as possible, out in the field. They'd denied this as well, so she'd been left behind on base with no one but a med droid to keep her company. It had been too eerie to walk the deserted corridors, so she'd sequestered herself in the medbay, prepping to receive the casualties she dreaded.
It was the waiting that was the hardest part. She'd had a bad feeling about this all along, and the troops were overdue. Goose still hadn't figured out her earpiece, so she couldn't listen in on the comm chatter to find out what was keeping them. By all estimates it should have been a rout, but she was starting to worry that there had been a problem. If something had gone wrong, then at least some of the wounded should have been evaced already. But still there was nothing, and Goose began to fear the worst.
She wavered between asking the med droid to comm someone for an update or just figuring it out herself, when she heard the approaching whine of a gunship's engines. Relief and panic washed over her at the same time as she grabbed her medkit and hustled to the landing pad. It was all the way on the other side of the base, however, and the gunship landed before she reached more than halfway there. As she neared the landing pad, Goose saw a few wounded men straggling up the corridor.
This wasn't entirely unusual, since there were always some walking wounded out of every conflict, but she had to find the more urgent cases that needed surgery first. She waved to the group and ran up to them. There was a collection of blaster burns and a few minor shrapnel wounds among them, but nothing life threatening. Goose felt the urge to start treating them immediately, but they would have to wait.
"Troopers, do you know where the rest of the wounded are?" she asked them breathlessly.
They all stood silently, unnervingly quiet, and the one trooper with his helmet off looked at her grimly in the eye.
"We're it," he answered gravely.
Goose stared back, not understanding. There were only four of them. But they looked exhausted, like they'd just been through the worst ordeal and had only just barely survived to tell about it.
"That can't be right," she murmured, "there's no way casualties are so low from an attack of that size."
"Ma'am, anyone not able to walk didn't make it out of there," the same clone replied darkly, "alive or otherwise."
Her gut plummeted, icy dread trickling through her veins as she heard it, her worst fears confirmed. The spy. He must have betrayed them to the Separatists, and…
Goose felt her mouth dry out in fear. How many had died? The troopers in front of her were bloodied and scraped up, but from what they said they were the lucky ones. There was no way the jedi could deny the spy's existence now.
She was full to bursting with questions, but she had to help these men first. Her head still spinning, Goose brought them to the medbay and started treating their wound with the help of the med droid. In a way, she felt some sort of bitter irony. For a week Goose had feared a deluge of casualties, and true to her fervent wish, it hadn't happened. Instead, there'd been a massacre with few survivors. She felt numbed inside, hardly feeling anything at all as she went through the motions. It was almost like that first day on Christophsis, and she suddenly wished Jules was there to help her. But he had gone with the others, to fight…
It occurred to her that she had absolutely no idea what had happened to him, but she shook the thought from her mind. It wouldn't do her any good to worry about what she had no control over. She did, however, have a burning need to know what had happened. Goose didn't think she knew him well enough to call him her friend, but she still cared very much whether he lived or died. But it would have to wait. The trooper she was working on, a fellow with some shrapnel in his leg, did not seem inclined to talk. None of the others did, either, and she did not wish to bother them. There was no telling what they'd been through or what they'd lost.
Less than an hour later, all four men had been treated and two of them discharged, their wounds not being too serious. Goose glanced at the casualty report, which the med droid had compiled for her. The losses were staggering. Nearly half of their forces had been wiped out. She searched the list for Jules, and was somewhat relieved to find that his name wasn't there. He was all right, but there were so many that weren't. Goose sighed and shook her head. This all could have been avoided, if only the jedi had taken her seriously the first time.
Goose decided to hand the report over personally, rather than send it electronically. It was the least she could do, given how low morale would be after a defeat like this. She started out toward the command center, and almost immediately regretted it. There were very few clones in the halls, a subtle reminder of what had happened. What troopers she did see were battered and walked in a daze, as if they couldn't quite believe it either.
The enormity of it was only just starting to hit her. How could the Republic possible hope to hold the city with only half of its remaining forces? And with the spy still on the base… Goose tried not to think about it. She walked into the command center to see Cody and Rex bent over studying readouts on the computer consoles. So deep was their concentration that they both startled at the sound of the doors closing.
"Doctor Gosling," Cody said, sounding exhausted. "What are you doing here?"
She studied them carefully, trying to judge how bad things really were. They both looked like they'd seen better days. Their armor was scuffed and dirty, a far cry from their usual polished gleam. She also saw an angry glint in their eyes, a hardened look she'd never noticed before.
"Casualty report," Goose said by way of answer. "Thought I'd take it over myself, given the circumstances."
Rex accepted the datapad, a tight expression on his face as he read the list. It had to be hard for him to look over all the names of his dead men. He turned and walked away with it, clearly expecting her to leave now that she'd delivered the report. But she wasn't done, not quite yet.
"Actually," she added, "I also came because I wanted to find out what was going on. The wounded were a little less than talkative."
Cody looked up from his console, obvious anger on his face.
"You want to know what happened?" he asked bitterly. "We were betrayed to the Seps, again. And this time…this time we're sure it's one of our own."
Goose nodded silently, having already guessed this to be true. Even so, she wished it wasn't the case.
"How?" she managed to ask.
"We caught a trooper listening in on us, but he got away," Rex answered with frustration, throwing the casualty report down on a console. "Ran right into the mess hall. No one but brothers there."
The spy was getting bolder. Either that, or sloppy. Regardless, Goose was eager to help. She wanted this guy to pay.
"What are you doing now?" she asked. "Any leads?"
They looked at each other uncomfortably, and she knew right away they weren't going to tell her. Of course, they were trying to keep this a secret, but she figured that she deserved to know.
"Come on, you can trust me," Goose urged, beginning to get annoyed.
"Doctor, this is about one of our men, under our command" Cody finally said. "It doesn't concern you."
She narrowed her eyes at him in growing anger. She was already in this too deep to not get involved. How could they think she could stay out of it after what happened to Davo?
"Like the Nine Corellian Hells it doesn't!" Goose suddenly snapped at them both, a week's worth of anger flaring up. "The spy murdered one of my patients in my medbay, and there's no telling how many others he's gotten killed. That makes it personal."
The two clones looked surprised by her outburst, having never seen her put quite so much emotion into something, but it also seemed to convince them.
"All right, Doctor," Cody said wearily. "We're trying to determine how the traitor got his messages out."
"Yeah, and so far we haven't had any luck," Rex added dejectedly.
Well, at least it was a place to start. Still, there was one thing she was curious about.
"And the jedi?" she wondered aloud.
"They're…conducting their own investigation," Rex said evasively.
Goose hadn't expected to get much more out of them, so she left it at that. She stepped around to check out what they'd found so far. The two clones turned back to what they'd been doing before, though they probably had already hit dead ends. Most of the things they were looking at, like old communications logs, wouldn't yield much without days of careful analysis. They certainly didn't have that much time. What caught her eye was a readout on a datapad plugged into a blue astromech droid. She skimmed through it, and was surprised when it began to look familiar.
"I think this R2 unit might have found something," Goose said slowly, cautious of jumping to conclusions.
"What, the spy?" Cody asked impatiently.
Goose looked it over again, not sure of it herself. There was no denying it, though. She'd seen the pattern before.
"I don't know, maybe," she said with growing certainty. "Here, take a look at this."
She passed it over to Rex, and the two clones studied it for themselves. Both looked puzzled by what they saw.
"It just looks like static to me," Rex said as his brow furrowed.
Somewhat exasperated, Goose took back the datapad and started jabbing her finger at the data readout, pointing out what she meant.
"Yes, but see how it shows up every few days? It's spotty, irregular, nothing you'd notice day to day," she explained, her heart skipping a beat in excitement. "It's one signal riding disguised on top of another. Piggyback, if you will."
She gave a self-satisfied grin, the first smile she'd cracked in days. Finally, they were one step closer to finding this guy. However, her elation was not to last long.
"So you've seen this before?" Cody asked with some suspicion.
She winced a bit, her grin faltering. It seemed that she was not beyond doubt after all. Of course, had anyone else found a clue with such little searching, she would have been suspicious too. She didn't mind answering, it was just that she suddenly realized that she hardly knew these men at all. Goose had never intended to share her past with them, but at this point she had little choice.
"Well…yes," Goose began tentatively. "Back when I was in med school, on Corellia, I used to be really into swoop bike racing. I even started street racing, which was….more or less illegal," she winced a bit with chagrin. "Anyway, we used piggyback frequencies to organize races so law enforcement wouldn't find out until it'd already happened."
Embarrassment tinged her cheeks, and she wasn't quite sure what they would think of her admission. Laugh at the very idea of it? It probably had been ridiculous to watch her, an arrogant med student her first time off-planet, ride a bike that had dwarfed her. Looking back, she regretted most of the things she'd done in med school anyway. She studied their reactions carefully, but they must have learned long ago not to give themselves away because she still couldn't tell what they thought.
"So that knee injury…" Rex said slowly, his face taking on a solemn look, though both looked like they were holding back mirth.
Chagrined, she nodded. It was amazing that he still remembered her knee brace from nearly three weeks before, but at least he hadn't outright laughed at her.
"…was from a swoop crash, yes," Goose said quickly, trying to back herself out before she dug the hole deeper. "But that isn't the point. Look, all of the signals are coming from the same computer terminal, every time."
"Slick's barracks," Cody said gravely, eyes lit with recognition, any sign of levity gone. "Only Slick's men would have access to it."
"Wasn't Davo one of Slick's squad?" Rex asked.
Cody's eyes widened in revelation. Goose recognized the name as well, suddenly remembering her brief meeting with Slick not long after Davo's death. He'd come in with the rest of his squad to pay his respects to Davo. Slick had made the greatest impression on her because out of all of them, he'd seemed the most aggrieved. She felt sorry that he'd have to receive such bad news again so soon. Meanwhile, Rex and Cody had gone right on with their deductions.
"Of course," Cody said. "Davo must have seen too much, but didn't realize it. That explains why he didn't put up a fight in the shower."
"He trusted the spy because it was one of his own squadmates!" Goose jumped in breathlessly, too caught up in her excitement to realize the grim mood of the two clones.
"Slick's not going to like any of this…" Rex said with a grimace.
"No, he's not," Cody shook his head, "but if one of his men is giving away our intel, we're going to have to find him and sort this out."
Without another word, the two of them started out the door. Goose set down the datapad on the console, then gave the R2 unit's dome a pat to let it know it had done good job. She chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment, but made up her mind quickly. This was not something she was going to miss.
"Hold up," She called after them. "I'm coming with you."
They stopped, and Rex gave her a harried look. For a moment she hoped he would be too tired to object, but it didn't last long.
"No," he said flatly. "You're a doctor, not a detective. Cody and I will handle this."
Taken aback, it took her a moment to protest.
"Even after I helped you?" Goose demanded. "Come on, I want to get this guy as bad as you do!"
Both clones regarded her with icy stares, and she wondered if she'd crossed a line, though she didn't know how.
"We're about to go inform a tight-knit squad that one of them is a traitor who murdered one of their squad a week ago," Cody said harshly. "That'll be bad enough as it is. How much harder do you think it will be for them if an outsider is there watching?"
Of course. How could she have been so blind? The knowledge that another clone, one of their brothers, had sold them out must have been tearing them up inside. She felt awful for ignoring that fact. Goose felt even worse at hearing the way Cody had just about spat out the word outsider. Was that what they really thought?
"No offense, Doctor," Cody added belatedly.
"You're right," Goose bowed her head, mentally kicking herself for being so obtuse. "I'm sorry."
They nodded their acceptance of the apology, then grimly continued on their way. Goose stood there uncertainly, dithering away while she tried to decide whether or not to follow them. They deserved their privacy, she understood that now, but at the same time she very badly wanted to see the spy taken down. After all, she had just spent a week in a state of paranoia, and it would soothe her conscience to personally see him arrested. The stronger urge won out, so she ended up following them at a very discreet distance toward the barracks.
Several troopers passed by her on the way there, but none seemed to realize that she was tailing their commanding officers, much to her relief. It most likely they were still mourning their losses, however. She felt even worse about following Rex and Cody, but decided it was too late to turn back. They finally entered one of the barracks, and she crept up as nonchalantly as possible in case any more troopers came down the corridor. There was no way she could press her ear to the door without triggering the proximity sensor that opened it, so she had to try her best to listen through the wall.
It was tough to make out anything, since the walls were still relatively thick even though it was a temporary base. She couldn't hear more than a word or two out of every sentence, not nearly enough to follow the conversation. To make things worse, all the clones had the same voice, so it was nearly impossible to tell who was speaking without seeing them. But Goose stuck around anyway, because she was determined to see this through. It did occur to her that she'd get an earful if they discovered her, but that mattered little at the moment.
Eventually, her patience paid off, and she heard some sort of commotion within the barracks. Suddenly, several raised voices started all at once, though she still couldn't tell what they said. Goose pressed her ear closer to the wall in an attempt to hear better what was being said, but to no avail. She wondered impatiently what was happening as she ran through scenarios in her mind. Then she heard a few thumps, as if someone had fallen to the floor. The door hissed open, and Goose jerked away from the wall, a guilty look on her face, worried that she'd just been caught.
There was something familiar about the clone that came out of the doorway. It took a long moment for her to realize that it was Slick she was looking at, though he was hardly recognizable. An ugly sneer twisted his face as he saw her, and there was a look of such malice in his eyes that she froze where she stood. Her mind slowed to a standstill, as if the figurative gears in her head were stuck. Slick started running down the hallway in her direction, but Goose only continued to stare in stunned paralysis, uncertain of what she was even seeing, though she had a growing suspicion.
"Slick?" came a hoarse shout from within the barracks "Slick's the traitor?"
And with that the gears clicked back into place, her mind resuming its normal speed. But by then Slick was already upon her, and it seemed that out of nowhere his fist connected with her face. Pain blossomed in its wake, and the blow sent her staggering several steps backward. Goose tried to regain her senses, but by the time she did it was too late.
Slick charged on past her, Rex and Cody following in hot pursuit. In her mind, which was still numbed with fear, Goose jumped out of their way so they could catch him. In reality, she tripped over her own feet and fell against the wall with a groan. She stared after where they'd disappeared around the corner, still processing the events of the last few seconds. Slick was the spy. He murdered Davo, one of his own men. Then he'd come back to the medbay, to the scene of his last crime, to do what? Apologize to Davo? Gloat over his body? But that couldn't be it. Out of all of the men who had come to pay their respects to Davo, he was the only one who had cried.
Tentatively, she lightly felt around her face to see how bad it was. He'd struck her left eye, though the orbital rim had taken the brunt of it. She could already feel her eye swelling shut, but couldn't tell if there were any fractures. Regardless, she would be fine, though it hurt like skrag. Shaking from the adrenaline, Goose forced herself to start walking in the general direction of the medbay. For a moment she felt a slight embarrassment that he'd taken her down so easily, then remembered he was a professional soldier. He'd been trained to do that since birth, or decanting, in his case.
She stopped at the door to the barracks, still in a daze, acting on an urge to try and make them feel better. If they were feeling even half as bad as she imagined it felt to have your sergeant turn out to be a traitor, then she bet they were feeling just awful. Her brain still flooded endorphins, Goose caught sight of a few pinup posters, and chuckled to herself, wondering how they'd managed to smuggle them in. Then she saw the shocked expressions of all the men huddled together in the room, and realized there was not a thing she could do for them. So she continued on her way.
It was a strange thing to be in shock. Goose couldn't be sure if it was from being punched or just the overall absurdity of the entire situation, but she was feeling quite lightheaded. It had occurred to her that if she had a real comlink, she'd be able to call the medbay to advise the med droid of her situation. She made another mental note to ask for one. Goose was sure she looked as dazed as the day she'd gotten her draft order, but that was all right by her because she didn't run into anyone in the hallway, probably since the alarm had gone off, and everyone was out looking for Slick.
Goose eventually wandered into the medbay, and was surprised to see Jules there. Or, rather, Jules's back, since he was in the middle of reaching for something on a shelf. Even with her mind made so bleary, she felt a wave of relief to see him safe.
"Oh, hey Jules," she mumbled blearily in greeting. "Watcha doin' here? I would've thought you'd be out looking for the spy like everyone else."
"According to Standard Operating Procedure, appointed medical personnel must attend the medbay during an emergen-" Jules began, then turned around to face her, and froze. "Goose! Your face, what happened?"
She considered him quizzically, but conceded that her eye probably looked a mess by that point and was likely quite disconcerting.
"Oh, you know," Goose shrugged. "Slick took a swing at me when I got in his way. Not a really nice guy, you know."
"Slick?" he demanded, "What does Slick have against you?"
Goose sent him another funny look, and decided that he must not have been told, for some reason.
"Didn't you hear?" she asked dryly. "Slick was the traitor all along."
Jules drew back in surprise, shock written all over his face.
"What?" he asked disbelievingly. "But…but he came to see Davo after…after he…"
Goose let him come to his own conclusions. Finally, Jules seemed to remember Goose's bruised state. He sat her down on the end of a biobed in post-op, then gingerly began to probe around her eye. Her temper unusually short, she slapped his hand away and hissed in pain.
"Just use a bioscanner, will you?" she snapped at him. "It'll be easier to find fractures that way."
He nodded silently, clearly stung by her sharp words. Goose would probably feel badly about it later, but at the moment her own physical discomfort weighed more heavily on her mind. Jules brought back a bioscanner with him, and quickly scanned the skeletal structure of her face.
"No fractures, but there is still damage to the soft tissue." Jules reported. "I'll get you some acetaminophen for the pain, it should also help with the swelling too…"
He trailed off as he realized that she already knew that, then went to go find the medication.
"I'd like a coldpak too, if you don't mind." She called after him, beginning to think she may have somehow hurt his feelings.
Jules nodded wordlessly, then proceeded to rummage around for one. To fill the empty silence and make herself feel better, Goose started whistling softly. She startled when she realized it was the same tune she'd whistled on the way to the shower that night a week ago, and she cut herself off abruptly. Jules came back with the supplies a few moments later, radiating concern.
"Goose, are you sure you're all right?" Jules asked anxiously. "You were hit on the head, it's possible you have a concussion."
Goose only hmphed at his distress.
"Honestly, Jules, I'm fine," she grumbled. "Just coming off of a cortisol rush, or something. Besides, I've been having a very odd day. Check my pupils, if it'll make you feel better."
Jules shook his head and handed the coldpak to her. Suddenly, like a clap of thunder and an earthquake all at the same time, the whole base shook in a massive explosion. The lights flickered and IV stands swayed, threatening to topple over.
"That sounded like it came from the weapons depot!" Jules said nervously.
Goose, whose head was starting to clear as the adrenaline worked its way out of her system, nodded slowly in agreement. A feeling of trepidation welled up in her once more.
"I told you, Slick's not a very nice guy," she muttered. "Finish up with me, then we can go check for wounded together."
"Are you sure you're up to it?" asked Jules cautiously. "You still don't look so good."
Goose stood up slowly, careful not to let blood rush to her head.
"It's nothing, trust me," she said.
He couldn't really object, since she technically outranked him, but Jules insisted on carrying the medkit for her anyhow. Goose didn't mind in the least, happy to let someone else do the heavy lifting for a change. When they arrived, they found the area to be utterly devastated. Either by luck or by design, no one had been seriously hurt in the explosion. The real carnage had been among the Republic's war machines. Most of the tanks, gunships, and much of the ammunition had been utterly destroyed in the blast. All that remained were the heavy cannons, according one of the troopers at the scene.
Goose didn't know much about how wars were fought, but she did know that they didn't stand much chance of winning without tanks or air support. She watched in helpless silence as the various crafts were engulfed in flames, then turned to head back. There was nothing for her there, and the blow to the head had made her quite tired. The entire day had been one long fiasco, from start to finish, and she wanted to get as far from it as possible.
On the way back to the medbay, however, she came across a sight that stopped her dead in her tracks. It seemed that Slick had been caught, after all. He stood opposite the two jedi, practically snarling and straining against Rex, who held him back. On the surface, he might still have appeared as identical as all the other clones. But even at this distance, Goose could see that something had changed. A wild, deranged look had entered his eye, almost that of a cornered animal.
"I–I love my brothers," she heard him say desperately. "You're just too blind to see it…but I was striking a blow for all clones!"
Slick twisted as if to break free, but Rex doggedly held on to him. Hatred, of him and all he had done, rekindled itself in her heart. It disgusted her that he'd even had the audacity to say that what he had done was right. Slick was a murderer, plain and simple. He deserved no better than what he'd given to Davo. Goose set her jaw and approached the group of them with a few stiff-legged steps.
"And I'll bet Davo thanked you for it," Goose said dangerously, not able to keep the malice from her voice, "as you stabbed him through the heart."
In an instant Slick's face drained, and his expression was one of utter anguish. For a moment, Goose almost believed that he felt sorry about it. But that didn't matter. Davo was dead, and it had been at Slick's hand.
"I didn't want to kill Davo, he…I…I had no choice!" Slick protested wildly as two guards came to drag him away. "I love my brothers. I love them! You don't understand…"
Goose ground her teeth as she listened to his shouts recede down the hallway. All of the men around her, both jedi and clone, looked shaken. So many emotions ran through her that it was impossible to tell what she was feeling. Anger? Revulsion? Despair? In the resulting stillness, it took her a long while to notice that she was trembling so badly the hand holding the coldpak over her eye was visibly shaking. She struggled to steady her hand while the jedi tried to regain their composure.
"Were we able to salvage anything from the weapons depot?" General Kenobi asked nobody in particular.
The question hung in the silence for a while, and no one seemed inclined to say anything. Though her mind was working sluggishly, Goose decided that she may as well answer if nobody else would.
"They managed to save the heavy cannons, but the rest is just about scorched," Goose offered, her voice somewhat shaky. "I just came from there, and it's still a mess."
The generals listened grimly to the bad news. They'd have to send the ship back to resupply, and then have to hold out for days until it returned.
"Well, that's good, because there are about a thousand battle droids on their way here," Kenobi said with some amount of sarcasm, though his expression was utterly serious.
A thousand droids… Goose hoped he was exaggerating, but for the umpteenth time that day she felt a cold fear gathering in the pit of her stomach. Things were about to get ugly.
"The fight goes on, gentlemen," Skywalker warned as he and Kenobi turned to leave.
"And lady," she added softly, though loud enough for the two clones to hear.
"Doctor, will you be able to operate in your condition?" Cody asked tactfully, in regard to the coldpak pressed against her eye
Her lips twisted into an ironic grin, even as that old feeling of despair gripped her again.
"I'll be alright as long as it doesn't swell shut. Even then, it looks like I don't have much of a choice, now do I?" Goose sighed wearily, all hopes for sleep dashed. "I guess I'll go prep the medbay to receive casualties, now. There's no telling what tomorrow's going to be like."
A/N: I'm sorry this update took such a while, so I hope it is long enough to make up for that. Please don't forget to review!