The Medical Bay

[Halmtier]

Upon returning to the medical bay, Niv-taro immediately kneeled in front of the lab table and looked at the jarred samples stored underneath. It had been some time from when he placed them there, but once again the result were the same. Moving over to the side shelves, he leafed through a small helping of datapads until he came to one marked 'FPEC- Ghesdune'. As he pulled it out he sat down on the small chair nearby and read through the last entry.

The Nagai reclined in his seat before punching in the next few sentences.


Once again the flaw in force healing over kolto/bacta has become apparent. It appears that the living cells expend large amounts of energy during accelerated mitosis that cannot be restored by current means of force healing.

The kolto still manages to pass through the phospholipid barrier and supply an artificial nutrient to the cells while they undergo accelerated mitosis, something the force is unable to emulate.

Strangely enough, organisms without mitochondria (IE: Photosynthetic cells) are able to counteract the loss of energy without relying on an alternative source. What really baffles me is that the consumption of glucose in both cells when repairing the same surface fractures is identical!

More research will be needed in how one may be able to engage in major healing processes with the force, without expending natural resources. Current emulation rate: 0%


Running his fingers through his long black hair, Niv-taro set the data pad down and sighed. There had to be a way to alter how one could use the force for larger wound / long term healing, but once again his research came to a dead end.

[Regnier]

Now she’d gone and done it. Weeks spent meditating, in trances, countless hours locked inside her chambers, no one came in, no one went out. She’d seen, felt, so much, so much that she couldn’t understand. She’d analyzed, processed, felt every detail with almost painful scrutiny, gone back to the source countless times, and she still had no idea what the visions meant. She even had a migraine to show for the amount of concentration, and nowhere near enough answers. Now, however, she had a lot more to show for it than a brutal headache.

Weeks spent in the same position on her desk, only moving her mouth to eat and eyes to read, hadn’t agreed with her, apparently. It had been such a subtle thing, too. An image had flashed into her mind, one she had never expected to see again, and she’d started, just enough that she’d lost her balance and gone off the back of her desk. She’d caught herself, easily, but had apparently moved too fast and strained something in her lower leg. As humbled as she felt, hobbling down the halls of the Jedi Temple on her right foor, cursing in several languages, she was starting to think she’d been in there more than a few weeks.

Glancing at the timekeeper on her belt, Kellick Vakkor cursed again. No wonder so many people had looked so surprised as she’d passed them in the halls. It also explained why she felt so stiff. Not weeks, months. Eight of them. The Council member hadn’t moved more than a few inches in eight months. If it had been anyone else but her, she was certain someone would have bypassed the lock on her door to make sure she was still alive already. How she’d managed it, she had no idea, and she wasn’t entirely certain she wanted to know. The Force had kept her there, of that she was certain, and it had also decided she’d been in her chambers long enough. She also wasn’t sure she wanted to know just how much she’d missed. She was sure the rest of the Council would have a field day with this, however. Just another thing to look forward to.

For now, however, she concentrated on getting to the medical bay without falling on her face. That would be just what she needed to make herself feel even more humble. Proof to the rest of the Temple that even members of the High Council weren’t infallible, she supposed. Of course, anyone that knew how much time she’d already logged in the medical bay would know that she certainly wasn’t.

Propping herself against the wall beside the door into the medical bay, Kellick muttered one last curse under her breath as she pressed a button on the console. The door hissed open, and she hopped through the doorway, stopping on the other side and leaning against the wall again, sucking in a deep breath. She’d forgotten how far it was from her chambers to the med bay. Of course, she’d never had to get there on one foot after not moving for eight months. She was amazed she had retained her musculature at all, actually. The Jedi Master glanced around a few times until her gaze came to rest on the Nagai seated by a lab table. He looked familiar, sure, but most anybody in the Temple did, and she had always been terrible with names. A Healer, if she wasn’t mistaken. She had spent more than her share of time in the med bay, after all.

”It would seem that I temporarily forgot how to land properly.”

A few choice words of Bothese that would make one of the furballs blush slipped from her lips as she hobbled across the room towards a bed.

[Halmtier]

Hearing the door slide open, Niv-Taro turned to face the leaning and somewhat indignant female. He recognized her immediately, not because he had dealt with her in the past, but due to her position on the Jedi High Council.

Without hesitating, he arose from the seat and moved to help the limping Jedi to the nearest bed, looking her over simply as they walked. No external wounds, and no bleeding was apparent- but he assumed there was more to it then a hurt leg due to Kellick vanishing for many months and suddenly reappearing here, in the medbay.

After seeing her to the bed, Niv flicked at a small switch located underneath the medical bay computer and watched as the screen flickered into life. Navigating the system, he came to a long database of names, and started to search for hers.

"Vakkor, Kellick was it? That's quite a limp you've got- anything else?"

[Jace]

Jace had felt an odd presence return as he was sitting in the council chambers. All the other council members seemed to be feel it also, and they all looked up at the same time. Jace looked around at the rest and then at the grandmaster

"Master, Shall I go investigate this situation?"

The Grandmaster nodded his head slightly and Jace made his way down from the council chambers. He sent his consciousness out into the force and followed it. He passed some Jedi in the hallway who seemed in slight shock at what they had seen. Jace eventually arrived at the medical bay, and made his way in. He saw an older Lady and a who he assumed was a Jedi Healer. He suddenly then recognized who the lady was and smiled.

"My my Master Vakkor so you have finally shown yourself after all these months. Some of us were starting to worry you know, your presence had almost completely vanished. What have you been doing if I may ask Master Vakkor?"

Jace then turned to the healer and asked

"Is Master Vakkor alright? does she have any serious injuries?"

Jace was sure he was in for an interesting story.

[Regnier]

Kellick leaned back into the bed, giving the ceiling a withering stare, her eyes nearly watering from the light. Sometimes, she was amazed at how horrible her luck could be.

"Yes, that would be me." She sighed and closed her eyes, sealing out the light. It was times like these that she was certain the Force had a sense of humor. A very crude one. "Well, I'm fairly certain I just pulled a muscle. I've also acquired a migraine that would make a bull rancor cry and every inch of my body feels like it's made of wood. I'm honestly amazed I haven't noticed any signs of muscle atrophy. I'll live, but the next few days should be rather interesting."

She managed a grin, which rapidly turned into a grimace as her head continued throbbing. "I'll probably need more attention after the rest of the Council is done with me. Now that'll be a show to look forward to." She muttered, bringing a hand to her forehead. Her thoughts drifted back to the image she'd seen just before the...accident. She stopped, shaking her head slightly. "Hmph. I don't even have a good story for this one, either. Just the makings of a good joke."

She squinted slightly at the door as she felt another presence approaching. A familiar presence. She leaned back and closed her eyes again before he entered. She heard the door hiss open, the footsteps, and then the voice. She smiled half-heartedly. "Oh, nothing important, Master Beleren. Just falling off my desk and hurting myself. But I suppose that is what happens when you are in a visionary trance for eight months and don't move at all, then have a vision of yourself dying...again." The Jedi Master leaned up slightly and opened her eyes, focusing on the other Master, suddenly taking on a much more somber tone. "Something is coming, Beleren. Something big. I don't know what, and I don't know when; I haven't been able to decipher enough of the visions yet. But I've been doing this long enough to know something is going to happen, and we probably won't enjoy it too greatly."

[Halmtier]

Niv-Taro gave a sympathetic smile as he typed in a few more details into the console. When the other master entered the med bay, he only gave a short nod of welcoming before finalizing the console records.

“Looks like you encountered either an unlucky force of events, or overwhelming events of the force- neither are known to leavethe mind in a good position.”

Walking back towards Kellick, he placed his hands on either side of her temple before concentrating. Focusing first on her aura, then her heart beat, and moving deeper inside of very biology that created and allowed her to exist, Niv attempted to located physical disturbances in her structure. With a steady pulse of force made energy acting much like a sonar, he could see (if one could call it that) the inner matrix of her body. Gradually slowing the pulses, he relaxed his grip and slipped away from her being while moving his hands away from her head. Shaking both of his hands out, he addressed both of the council members.

“Aside from a badly pulled muscle and an over strained mind, her body needs little more than a good meal, lots of water, and some distressing. Once your leg is looked at, slow movements, such as walking would be a wise idea before engaging in anything strenuous. Eight months is a long time to be inert.”

Slipping behind a small divider to where a large series of code locked cabinets lay, he typed in the access number while continuing.

“Still, I think we can get those first two issues in order with little trouble.”

As Niv-Taro spoke, he was routing through the collecting of vials and jars until he found a small box filled with an assortment of vials topped with corks. Carefully he pulled one free, revealing the faint blue liquid contained within before he returned to the bedside of the Jedi master.

“With your permission, I would like to work on rebinding your torn muscle ligaments, and perhaps loosen the tension points on your head caused by stress.”

[Jeh'rad Verai'cal]

Jeh'rad walks through the doors, wearing his untraditional garments. He is holding a napkin against his chin. When he sees two council members in here, he freezes.
"What happened? Have the council been attacked?" looks worried.

[Jace]

A worried look crossed Jace's face as Master Vakkor had explained what she had saw, but he quickly put on a easy smile.

"Well do not worry yourself too much Master Vakkor, I wouldn't want the strain harming you anymore than you already are. When I return to the council I shall let them know what you have told me here, and we will await your full report until then. First, make sure you have gotten yourself fully healed."

He then turned to the Healer and said politely

"Healer Niv-taro, please make sure Master Vakkor is fully healed before she decides to run off somewhere else again. It would be quite troublesome if she disappeared again without a word."

As he finished his request another Jedi walked in, Jace vaguely remembered him, a Guardian he believed.

"Ah not to worry Guardian Verai'cal, no one is being attacked. Just some council matters that needed to be discussed and the return of a council member from her, well mental pilgrimage"

[Jeh'rad Verai'cal]

Jeh'rad frowns. He ahd been in the order before any of these two council members started wearing diapers. Every single mission he had been on since he attained the rank of watchman, he had been handpicked for by the council, apparently only to be forgotten. He thoguht back for a moment, considering what would have happened if he had not turned down the oppertunity to be in the high council himself.
"Watchman..." Jeh'rad corrects him and dwells further into his thoughts. His mind still echoes from battle. The dark side has left a small taint on him. A drop of blood bleeds throguh the napkin and splatters on the floor.
"Damn it! " Jeh'rad curses as he folds the napkin.
I would just heal it myself, but I have too much on my mind right now, and I can't enter a meditative stance while holding a napkin to my damn chin!" He seems very upset about this.

[Regnier]

"Meal..." Kellick grimaced as her stomach growled slightly. She was nearly ready to eat military rations. Nearly. "I really wish you hadn't gone and said that...I was trying to keep my mind off of that as much as possible."

She smirked at the healer's words, returning her gaze to the ceiling. "Tell me about it. And I had thought a few weeks in a bacta tank with just over eighty percent of you bones broken was bad..." At least that had yielded a good tale. Being nearly killed by a long-dead homicidal dictator that just so happened to also be one of your ancestors wasn't the most frequent galactic occurrence, last she'd checked; and she did spend a lot of time in the archives. "'Strenuous'? I do tend to be one of the least physically active people in the Temple, my friend. Or, that's the plan, anyways. I seem to have a bad habit of deviating from the plan when it will end in extreme physical pain and/or death. Still, I probably spend more time in the archives than the Master of the Archives himself..."

The Master watched the healer as he collected a vial of...something. She had a few guesses as to the contents, but she'd learned long ago to trust a Jedi Healer when they gave you something, because they generally knew more than you did about it. And with the amount of time she'd spent in the medical bay, Kellick knew quite a bit about injuries. She nodded at the Nagai. "Go ahead, my friend, do what you can. This isn't exactly my favorite place to be, no offense intended. Probably because I've been here more than my brother."

She stopped and closed her eyes again. It suddenly struck her that he wouldn't have the chance to catch up, either. She sighed. It had been for the best; he had been falling apart at the end, and they'd both known it. Still, she had a strong suspicion that she would always feel like she had a missing piece.

Kellick grunted. "Who, me? Worry? Remember, I'm just the seer; it's the rest of you that are supposed to worry about what I see coming. I just try and figure out what it is. I think I'm about ready to stop trying to deal with these things directly, before I get myself killed again." Really all she was worried about at the moment anyways was deciphering her visions before reporting to the rest of the Council. She had a strong feeling that missing something could be catastrophic for a great many people. Still, she was going to have to at least wait until she could think straight. Walking straight could wait a little longer. "'Mental pilgrimage'? Hnh, that's one way of putting it. I suppose my mind did wander off on its own for awhile, didn't it? Next pilgrimage, I'll be sure and pack a bigger lunch."

Kellick didn't bother looking up as the new presence entered the room. She knew who it was. Now, she didn't claim to be all that close to the Epicanthix, but the man certainly had his own, distinctive...feel. Those like him weren't exactly a common sight around the Temple. "Watchman Jeh’rad Verai'cal...it's been awhile. Granted, I've been out of touch for more than a little while..." She grinned half-heartedly as she tilted her head slightly to look at the man. "I would warn you about your feelings, and that...touch of darkness I sense, but I sincerely doubt I would be telling you anything you haven't heard before a few billion times. I never was much one for lectures, anyways, especially to those more than twice my age."

[Jeh'rad Verai'cal]

"I had a run in with a Dark jedi... I think I might have turned him, but I had to let him go. He left a taint on me, like he did with any place he had been, and everyone he had been in contact with. Rarely do you find someone who's anger radiates miles away... " A drop of blood splatters on his boot and he looses his focus on the covnersation.
"Crap! Why won't it just stop bleeding?!" He shakes his head as a medical droid assists him.
"... Mental pilgrimage you said? Did it pay off? One usually does not spend 8 months in a trance for naught..."

[Halmtier]

Popping the top from the jar, Niv-Taro chuckled. As he dipped his fingers into the bluish goo, He silently listened to the conversations going on around him. It was rare for the medical bay to see such activity all at once, and it slightly overwhelmed Niv; Then again, he was a shut in that liked his private time, avoiding most social situations if he could.

Slowly he rubbed the salve over Kellick's leg, it's cold surface slowly seeping into the skin. Once the leg had mostly osmosed the fluid, he then began to clean the surface of the leg and wrapped a thick bandaging around the lower calf and knee. Standing back up, he moved around to the back side of the bed.

"Could I get you to turn and face me?"

Niv-Taro placed his hand on either side of the jedi's temples once again, and closed his eyes. It took slightly longer to focus, due mostly to the sounds around him, but eventually the steady heart beat from his patient was all that he heard. He slowly focused on the points where his fingers made contact, feeling the tension of the muscles and the stressed aura from her mind. Internally massaging the nerve endings with the force, he lightly pressed and rotated his fingers on top of the temples, focusing his thoughts deeper into the muscle ligaments, past the dendrites, and works on smoothing the tension creased lines of cells. Nearing the end of his work, a sudden flash of thought to fast to decipher moved between Kellick and Niv-taro, causing him to release his grip suddenly and back up a bit, startled. He looked at her dumbfounded for a moment before shaking his head.

"With all that has been going on, I guess... I suppose being so close to your mind would cause some harbored feelings to transfer. I, I apologize master Jedi. I did not intend for such a thing- to breach your privacy."

Niv turned from her embarrassedly, taking the now empty jar and placing it by the cleaning facility.

"Your headache should be all but gone though- and your leg will be better in around a day if you give it some rest."

Though he saw nothing and felt only a small twinge of her emotions, Niv-taro felt he had broken an unwritten rule of doctor-patient professionalism.

[Regnier]

”I’ve always felt ridiculous giving my elders advice, but if it were me, I’d want to take the time to reflect on such a taint. Some of the Council might lynch me for saying this, but being touched by something that dark…is not always such a terrible thing. It may indeed have its uses. My brother spent his entire life in this Temple with a taint on his heart and his mind, but he used that taint to become something better, not something evil.” Kellick paused and sighed. ”Listen to me, rambling on like some old mystic. At least I still have the vocabulary of a normal person.”

”Would you people please stop calling it that? You’re making me feel like I belong in a sanitarium, not the Jedi Temple…” She shrugged slightly. ”But yes, I suppose it did. I still have yet to make sense of it all, and I don’t like saying things I’m not entirely sure are true, but I have a strong feeling we’re heading into a storm. Who, what, when, why, and how I don’t know yet. I’ve misinterpreted things before, so I plan on taking my time on this before I go spewing prophecies of our doom and all that good stuff.”

Kellick followed along with the healer, doing what she could to help him, and savoring the feeling of…well, considerably less throbbing. Some of the things good healers could do rarely ceased to amaze her. Then again, some of the things she was capable of still amazed a few people. Everyone had their talents; hers just tended to put a lot more people in medical bays than get them out. Or maybe it was just her innate ability to attract angry people that did that.

But then, just for an instant, the healer and the Jedi Master connected on a different level. She saw into his mind, as she was certain he had seen into hers. It was gone as soon as it had come, and she had not had enough time to really even see anything; just a flash, a split-second of feeling transferred between minds. But she had not been expecting it, as it was readily apparent the healer had not. Her eyes snapped open, and she stared blankly at the Nagai for several seconds. She blinked a few times. ”That was…unexpected…are you…did you…eh, nevermind, it’s not important.” She leaned back again and watched him, noting his expression and his…feeling. She smiled, genuinely now, as reassuringly as she could. ”My friend…no apology is needed. These things, well, they happen. It was no fault of yours…likely it is my own state that is to blame. I am not as concerned with my privacy as some in the Temple. I had a twin, if you may remember; before his death…”

She trailed off, her tone changing from consoling to just being tinged in the sorrow that would always be there, before shaking her head slightly. That feeling, that emptiness, always snuck up on her like that. ”Well, before that, I had very little in the way of actual privacy. He could feel my emotions, my thoughts, from here when I was on Tatooine, as I could his, and they were not something we could hide from each other. This is nothing I am not fully used to.”

[Jeh'rad Verai'cal]

Jeh'rad looks at Kellick, with a look that is hard to determine, he tilts his head and watches the scene pass by.
"I'm not your brother Master Kellick, and I'm didn't call you anything... And a sanitarium you say? Don't all the high council members belong in sucha a building? Hmm? " He winks to her.
"Personally, I think you have to be a little a insane to accept a position as jedi high councilar. " He grows thoughtfull again and watches as Niv and Kellick speaks. He remains silent at sits in a chair.

[Halmtier]

Glad that he did not offend the master Jedi, Niv-Taro bowed ever so slightly.

"I can assume those times were tough. This time, however, you got away with very little damage. You should be fine as long as you give it a days rest."

Finally done with her healing, Niv turned towards Jeh'rad and watched the droid patch up his bloody chin. The sound seemed small and he believed that the jedi would be fine with the droids care, but common courtesy caused him to inquire anyways.

"Will you be alright with the droid, or should I look that over?"