Qar woke up with a jolt
and the strong feeling that something was wrong. She sat up on the bed
in the staff room and listened for a moment, but no alarm could be
heard outside, or any other unusual noises, just the faint backdrop of
the nurses talking in the corridor, trolleys being pushed around and
the faint hum of machinery.
The clock on the wall told her that she had slept ten hours straight,
which was no surprise as she had had hardly any sleep for the last
three days. She had been at the end of her twelve hour shift when the
fateful call arrived and she had rushed to the ambulance to attend to
residents of the flat that may have been injured when a c-wing crashed
into their apartment block. They had not expected the pilot of the
c-wing to have survived. Nor had they any idea that he might be an
important person.
Ten hours?
Qar, pulled her crumpled coat over her equally crumpled clothes and
rushed out into the corridor.
Damnation, they had promised to call her if anything happened! She
could not believe that her patient had been stable and resting in his
coma for such a long period of time. She had been adjusting his
medication and life-support again and again for more than thirty hours
to keep him alive.
Yes, it had been almost five hours without any changes occurring when
she finally bowed to her colleagues demands to get some sleep.
The door to the emergency room was wide open – and the bed
empty.
Skidding to a halt in the door, Qar stared at the empty bed for a
moment without comprehension. She hadn’t been dreaming, had
she?
No.
It was possible that Anakin had died, however little she wanted to
contemplate this possibility.
Qar turned around, staring along the corridor. Somebody here had to
tell her what had happened!
He had been hanging onto life by a thread as thin as a silky
moth’s snare. She could imagine Dr Dryden saying in that
wheezy tone he adopted when talking to relatives of deceased,
‘it was to be expected…’
“Nurse Robbins,” Qar shouted as one of the nurses
stepped out of their office.
The look on Robbins’ face showed clearly that she really,
really did not want to be the person to break the bad news to this
scary doctor.
“What happened?” Qar asked, pointing into the empty
room. “Why did nobody wake me?”
Robbins sighed and, without taking a step closer to her, said,
“Dr Hadasht. Dr Dryden, Dr Barrett and Dr Tokokagi have
decided to overrule your objections: the patient is being transferred
to Alma Serena.”
“What?” Qar could not believe she was hearing
correctly.
Robbins shrugged. “The patient was in a stable condition. On
Alma Serena he can receive adequate care.”
The nurse lifted her hand in a gesture of helplessness and walked off,
no doubt relieved to return to her duties.
Qar closed her eyes, trying to stay calm. That was Dr
Dryden’s handiwork supported as always by the faithful Dr
Barrett. Barrett who would never say anything against her great idol
even when it was blatantly obvious that Dryden had not kept up with
medical advances for the last decade at least.
Stable? Qar turned on her heels and walked towards the cafeteria. Well,
perhaps ‘the patient was stable’ –
didn’t he have a name? Qar wondered irritatedly. He was a
person, an individual and had been one of the greatest heroes of the
recent war, he was not just ‘a patient’.
– This stable condition that Barrett and Dryden had diagnosed
– and that had been approved by Tokokagi, Qar had surely
thought he would have had the guts to speak his mind – this
stable condition was so close to death that it would be enough for
somebody to cough at him might kill him.
How did they expect him to survive the eleven hours in hyperspace to
Alma Serena?
There they were. All three of them, sitting around a table in the
cafeteria, sipping their coffee with sweetener and skimmed milk. Apart
from the three doctors the cafeteria was empty – it was still
an hour before the morning shift officially ended.
Qar stopped at the door, and forced herself to breathe very slowly.
Calm, she told herself, you have to be
cool and calm and objective. If you burst in onto their coffee break
with wild accusations you wont get anywhere.
“Ah, Dr Hadasht!” Dr Dryden called out.
“Finally woken up, I see.”
Qar suppressed the urge to shout at him that he was a stupid bastard,
endangering her patient’s life. Instead she forced her
features into a smile and walked down to their table.
“Come, join us,” Dr Dryden said. He looked bleached
out as usual, grey hair, sallow skin, grey eyes.
Dr Barrett looked all the more colourful with her jet black hair and
layers of makeup. Dr Tokokagi had at least the decency to look
embarrassed.
“You have found out about Skywalker being transferred to Alma
Serena?” Dryden asked.
Qar bit her lips and nodded.
“I hope you did not think he died?” Dryden asked.
“We would have woken you if there had been any deterioration
in his condition.”
So they would have woken her up if he had died, but not when they
decided to act against her explicit wishes and …
“When did you …,” she started, her voice
sounding harsh even in her own ears. Calm down, she
told herself.
“About two hours ago,” Barrett answered.
“He had been stable for more than twelve hours. We could be
reasonably sure that being put in stasis would not cause a
crisis.”
“You put him in stasis?” Qar asked, stopping next
to the table. “Are you insane?”
A stunned silence followed her outburst.
“Dr Hadasht I must ask you to remain objective, not let your
personal concern for the patient cloud your judgement.”
Dryden stated jovially.
Qar took a deep breath and forced herself to nod. At least he seemed to
have survived being put in stasis.
“We all admire what you have achieved with the patient,
Qar,” Dryden continued, “this was excellent work. I
think the efforts and dedication you showed in this case should
certainly bring your promotion to the senior staff much
closer.”
Was that promotion dangled in front of her to keep her quiet? Not log
her complaint about a patient in critical condition being transferred
against her, the consulting physician’s, explicit advice?
“They can look much better after him at Alma
Serena,” Dryden stated.
“Imagine the media uproar if he died and they found out we
had refused to transfer him there,” Barrett added.
So that was it! They were afraid the media might ask uncomfortable
questions if somebody with such a high profile, a Field Marshall and
Commander of the New Forces no less, died in their care.
“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Qar asked.
“We didn’t want to disturb you,” Dryden
told her. “You deserved a good rest after all the efforts you
made.
“I also deserved to be consulted about the treatment of my
patient,” Qar replied.
“We had already noted your objections,” Barrett
stated dryly.
“The patient had been stable for more than twelve
hours,” Dryden repeated stupidly. “We determined it
was safe to transfer him.”
“He did survive the inducement of stasis,” Tokokagi
said, entering the conversation for the first time.
“You all know that it’s the release from stasis
that is the critical procedure and extremely dangerous if the patient
is in a coma!” Qar exclaimed. Did she really have to lecture
them on text book medical procedures?
“He was in a critical condition and needs serious
reconstructive surgery, we cannot provide that here,” Barrett
replied. “We had to take a decision and we took it.”
“He was my patient, and it should have been my
decision!”
“Since when was he ‘your’
patient?” Barrett asked. “He was a patient of this
ward, not yours personally.”
“He was my patient from the moment I got him alive out of his
c-wing!” Qar exploded. “He was my patient because I
was for twelve-hours in emergency to stop him from dying! I kept him
alive until you incompetent bastards decided to transfer him because
you were too scared to shoulder the responsibility!”
“ Dr Hadasht,” Dryden interrupted her.
“That is enough! – We know you are under a lot of
stress and have worked long hours, but this behaviour is
unacceptable.”
“Good!” Qar stared at the senior doctor.
“If what you are doing is acceptable, moving patients that
should not be moved, if you treat them like some sort of embarrassment
that has to be left to somebody else’s responsibility as
quickly as possible, I am happy to behave in an unacceptable
manner.”
“Qar,” Tokokagi said, sounding very tired.
“It is too late to change anything. The ship to Alma Serena
left over an hour ago.” He looked at her intently, pleading,
“Don’t ruin your career for a lost cause. You did
so well with this case. Prof. Dereaux has even said you should
definitely be put down for the special merit award.”
Prof. Dereaux, why hadn’t she thought of it herself? She had
to talk to him at once. If he had spoken so positively about her work,
he must understand why she refused to have the patient transferred. Why
she had to make a complaint.
Without saying another word to her three colleagues she ran out of the
cafeteria.
“Qar!” Tokokagi shouted after her.
She just hoped the head of the accident and emergency ward was in his
office. Dereaux would see why she had to go to Alma Serena, too. She
ran all the way to Dereaux’s office, passing staff and
patients who looked startled at her passing.
When she reached Prof. Dereaux’s office, she knocked sharply
and walked in before she had heard any reply.
The seven heads of wards all turned around and looked at her standing
in the door. They were sitting around a large oval table in
Dereaux’s office and seemed not pleased at her interruption.
For a moment nobody spoke, then most of the assembled heads turned back
to the large display projected in the middle of the table. They
obviously expected that Qar, noticing that she had disturbed a board
meeting, would withdraw.
“Prof Dereaux,” Qar stated, looking at the
distinguished elderly physician, with his curly white hair and
amazingly blue eyes.
“Dr Hadasht,” Prof. Dereaux said, sounding not
pleased at all.
“I need to speak to you for a moment. It is urgent.”
Dereaux looked at her, and finally turned to his colleagues,
“Will you excuse me for a minute.” He got to his
feet and followed Qar into the hallway. “Now, Dr Hadasht, I
don’t know what you think you’re
doing…”
“They transferred Field Marshall Skywalker to Alma
Serena,” Qar interrupted him.
“I know,” Dereaux said.
“He’s in no condition to be transferred
there.”
“I have seen your objection, but I agree with Dr Dryden and
Dr Barrett that the transfer was necessary…”
“Releasing him from the stasis is going to kill
him!”
Dereaux sighed, “Dr Hadasht, you don’t have a lot
of experience with this sort of transfer. I think you should bow to the
experience of the senior surgeons.”
“If I had done that during surgery, Skywalker would be dead
now!” Qar hissed.
Dereaux looked at her silently for a moment. “Nobody is
trying to take your credit for getting the patient this far.”
“Then why did nobody consult me?” Qar
couldn’t help it but her voice became louder and louder.
“He was my patient, my responsibility and they just ignored
my advice. I have to go to Alma Serena, too.”
“Dr Hadasht,” Dereaux had started, then he
exclaimed, “What? Alma Serena?”
Qar nodded. “I have to …”
“Look, Dr Hadasht,” Dereaux took her arm and
started walking her towards the stairs. “I know you are tired
and exhausted, that this patient meant a lot to you, but you cannot let
this become a personal crusade to you. He’s now the
responsibility to the team at Alma Serena, experts who know how to deal
with massive injuries like that.”
Qar let herself be guided towards the stairs, feeling irritated about
his attempts to brush her complaint off as petulance.
“As I said before, nobody is going to dispute your part in
the care of the patient. You will receive the awards you
deserve.”
“I don’t care about being credited with
anything,” Qar exclaimed, twisting her arm out of
Dereaux’s grip. “The only thing I care about is
Skywalker’s life and I seem to be the only one in this
hospital who does. I am the person who attended to him from the start.
I know more about his physical condition than anybody knows or any
computer can find out. I have to be on Alma Serena
…”
“Dr Hadasht,” Dereaux interrupted her.
“The patient is no longer in your care. You better accept
that. As for your behaviour I will excuse it as the result of your long
hours and lack of sleep. – Go home, take a few days off, and
put all of this behind you.”
Qar looked at Dereaux for a long moment. He just did not understand,
neither did he care about Anakin’s life.
“I see,” she said finally. She slowly unhooked her
name tag from her coat and handed it to Dereaux.
Dereaux started at the red tag with her name on it. “Dr
Hadasht, you can’t…”
“No, I can’t work in a hospital where the lives of
the patients are not important or where my professional opinion is
worth shit.”
“But…,” Dereaux started.
Qar ignored him and walked down the stairs. That was it. She was
through with this hospital, and she was relieved that she had taken the
final step. All she had to do now was collect her personal things and
leave this place for good.
If they thought she was about to give up on Anakin they were very wrong
indeed.
It took Qar almost an hour
and all the money in her account to organise transportation to Alma
Serena. She had not even known until then that there were only two
flights to the military hospital a day. With all the military personnel
on Chardri there should be more connections to Alma Serena. Qar had
missed the second flight by two hours, which meant that this was
probably the ship transporting Anakin Skywalker to the great military
hospital.
She could not possibly wait for the next schedule flight the following
day. It had taken her some persuasion and a not to insignificant bribe
to arrange for the pilot of a small cargo vessel to make a detour to
Nagamasa where she could catch a regular flight to Alma Serena. She
would arrive there three hours after the ship from Chardri. Now she had
only half an hour to get her things before Captain Ilard departed
– with or without Qar as she had insisted.
Opening the door to the apartment, Qar remained in the door for a
moment, listening. But the flat was empty, her husband was at work.
Qar entered with a relieved sigh. She really had no time to discuss her
decision with Pol now. It was just that sort of thing that made him all
of a sudden behave all husband-like again. They hardly exchanged a word
under normal circumstances – but they were still arguing, at
great length.
Dragging her biggest suitcase out of the closet, Qar started to pack
her things. Fortunately she did not need to take that much, her
hospital clothes, underclothes, and a few clothes for circumstances in
which she might not be able to wear her doctor’s uniform.
She plucked her portable computer into the main information line and
called up the hospital files. As she expected they had not yet blocked
her from accessing the patients’ files. They probably did not
believe she was really leaving. They would probably only notice in a
week or so that she really had no intention to come back. Or when Pol
called and asked whether she had completely moved in at the hospital.
Come to think of it, Qar thought as she down-loaded Anakin
Skywalker’s complete medical files, she had no idea where Pol
was. For all she knew he might be lying dead in a ditch for a couple of
days by now.
But there was no time now to worry about her possible responsibilities
for her husband. She had to leave within the next five minutes. She got
a sturdy bag and put all her anatomy and surgery books into it along
with her disks and the portable computer. Having a last look through
her wardrobe she grabbed her black evening dress and put it into her
suitcase. It was unlikely that she would needed it but it was the one
piece of folly she allowed herself to take.
She bagged her stuff from the bathroom and squeezed it into the
suitcase.
Time to go.
Qar slung the bag around her shoulders and dragging the suitcase behind
her she made for the space port.
It was only when the
little ship, the Wanderer, pulled out of
Chardri’s gravity that Qar realised just what she was doing.
She had left her job, her flat, her husband and spent all her money to
follow one patient who had been transferred to another hospital. There
was no guarantee, it was actually unlikely that the staff at Alma
Serena would employ her. She knew that most people who looked at these
facts would think she had lost it completely.
But she knew it was the right decision. Mad as it may seem to other
people, she was sure that this was the course for her to take.
Qar looked around the small cabin, the Captain’s cabin, Ilard
had relinquished to her. She did not feel mad at all, she felt
liberated and on the right way.
Anakin Skywalker was her responsiblitiy, whatever her idiotic
colleagues said.
It was – somehow – odd that she felt such a strong
responsibility for this Field Marshall Skywalker. It was not as if he
was the first patient she had brought back from the brink of death, or
the first time she had spend hours and hours sitting at a
patient’s bedside making sure nothing went wrong. None of
them had ever made her feel so personally involved.
Was it that somehow he was more to her than just an assortment of
bones, muscles, nerves and organs, a problem to be solved? He was a
person. He had touched her mind and his uncontrolled emotions had
exploded in her head.
Perhaps he had done something to her mind when he touched it, made her
feel responsible for him, planted the suggestion that she had to keep
him alive no matter the cost.
But even as she thought of this she knew it could not possibly true. At
the time, Anakin had been in no condition to plant such a specific
suggestion in her mind. He had been unable to control his abilities,
the emotions and thoughts that poured into her had escaped him without
him being able to control them.
Additionally, he had not seemed to be intend on surviving, quite the
contrary, he had wanted to die.
The brief moments when his mind had touched hers had certainly formed a
link between them. It had turned him from a interesting patient into a
person. She also admitted that she was fascinated.
Qar opened her bag and pulled her computer out.
The emotions she had felt had been so intense. Of course generally it
is impossible to feel other people’s feelings.
Still…
She could analyse her motivations for the rest of her journey, she
would probably not find the one thing that made her so certain that she
had taken the right decision. It was time to prepare for her arrival in
Alma Serena.
Opening her computer, she called up Field Marshall
Skywalker’s medical files and got to work.
The Great Military
Hospital on Alma Serena was even bigger than Qar had imagined. The
complex of chunky grey buildings seemed to go on for miles. They were
connected by covered walkways on several floors, between the buildings
gardens were kept for the less seriously injured patients to stroll
around in or just sit in the sun. Further on the gardens turned into a
large park that stretched all the way to the space port.
Qar looked out of the window of the shuttle bus taking her to the
hospital. The road seemed to lead in a straight line from space port to
hospital, the monotony only broken by a few soft hills. Qar had never
wondered what the planet Alma Serena would be like. If the weather was
anything to go by, it seemed it had been selected as the site of the
Republic’s largest hospital for it’s pleasant
climate – at least here near the equator.
The shuttle was filled with people, some of them in uniform, most of
them visitors, but also some patients. Qar spotted them easily, not
only those with bandages around various parts of their anatomy, but
also the other long-term patients who just had this hospitalized look
about them.
As far as she could tell there was no other personnel on the shuttle
bus. Did they travel to the hospital with a different service, she
wondered. Would it make her attempt more difficult or would nobody
notice?
She had arrived on Alma Serena three hours after the ship that had
brought Anakin Skywalker in. Having used the time she had on the way
here to study his medical files, she was even more worried than ever
about the problem of releasing him from the stasis. Not to mention that
the previous complications resulting from earlier and – as
far as she could judge – sloppy surgery would make any
reconstructive efforts very problematical. But before they could tackle
such problems of how to replace his lost hand or lost eye and other
such niceties they had to get his vital organs to work again. That was
the major problem they were facing now.
The shuttle came to a halt in front of one of the buildings.
‘Radiation Poisoning Ward’ a mechanical voice
announced inside the bus.
Several off the passengers and two of the patients disembarked and the
shuttle travelled on.
Qar hoped she would be able to find the recognise which of the many
entrances she had to get off at.
‘Main Entrance and Information’ the voice announced
at the next stop.
Qar grabbed her bag and followed the other passengers off the shuttle.
She had left her suitcase at the space port, thinking that she might
make a more authentic impression if she did not arrive weighed down
with luggage.
The Main Entrance like the rest of the hospital was big. It was also
obviously not made for the use of sick patients. Several steps led up
to two pairs of double doors. Between the doors and reaching up to the
fourth floor a relief of the Republic’s coat-of arms was
decorating the front of the hospital.
Qar hesitated for a moment, letting the other people get ahead of her.
The Entrance Hall was equally impressive, the floor paved with gleaming
white marble, the walls panelled in precious woods. Opposite the doors
was a large, oval desk staffed by at least twelve smiling, extremely
young people.
That, Qar assumed, must be the information.
Taking a deep breath she walked up to the desk. Boldly does it,
she reminded herself.
“Good evening,” she said to one of the cheerful
receptionists, “I am the consultant surgeon for Anakin
Skywalker, could you please tell me where I can find the senior
physician dealing with the case?”
The young man continued to smile at her, though he managed to look
somewhat startled at the same time.
“Ah…,” he made. This was obviously a
situation he was not prepared for.
“The additional files took longer to assemble than we
expected,” Qar added with what she hoped was a long-suffering
smile, the ‘you know how things never go as you
expect’ look.
“Prof. Cagliari and his team are in a meeting about this case
at the moment,” the receptionist answered when he had
consulted his computer for a moment.
“Am I that late?” Qar exclaimed. “They
need the data I have here.”
Don’t over-do it! Qar reminded herself.
If the young man thought she was acting a bit too enthusiastic he might
check whether they expected somebody.
But her fears seemed to be unfounded, the receptionist smiled, and
said, “Meeting Room C2 on the fourth floor.”
“Thank you.” Qar turned and was on her way.
First obstacle passed – and with surprising ease. Stepping
into the lift, Qar thought that the fact that this Professor Cagliari
was in a meeting about the case meant that they had at least not yet
done anything rash and Anakin Skywalker was hopefully still safely in
stasis.
If only she could persuade him that she was here as official
representative from Chardri hospital. Qar took a deep breath and told
herself that she just had to pretend she had all the right in the world
to be here and who would question it? After all, she had all the right
to be here, she had saved Anakin’s life and she would do
everything in her power to ensure he would stay alive.
The lift came to a stop and she stepped outside. A nurse, sitting
behind another reception desk, looked at her, but before she could
challenge her right to be on this floor, Qar had stepped up to the desk
and asked briskly: “Meeting Room C2?”
“Third door on your left,” the nurse replied
automatically, “but…”
“Thank you,” Qar smiled graciously and ignoring the
repeated “but?” from the nurse walked to the
meeting room, shoulders squared, her bag with her computer in her hand.
She did not even bother to knock and just entered the room.
There was no need to ask whether she had come to the right place. The
room was darkened and a holo-projection of a deformed-looking body
hovered above the table in the centre of the room. Around it four
people in white coats sat, all turning around when she stepped in.
“I’m sorry, I’m late,” Qar said
and without any further explanation sat down on one of the empty chairs.
There were two humans, both men, a blue-skinned Witorian, also male and
a grey skinned female of a species Qar was not familiar with. For a
moment they all stared at her, then they exchanged looks and turned
their attention back to the holo projection.
Qar turned her attention to the three-dimensional image of Anakin
Skywalker’s mutilated body as well. She could admire the
excellent projection, this unit was obviously of higher quality than
any they had on Chardri, but what exactly this display was for was
something she could not guess.
“The question of reconstructive surgery has to wait until we
have stabilised his general physical condition,” the Witorian
stated.
“We can’t do anything without taking him out of
stasis,” the grey-skinned woman said. From the tone of her
voice it sounded as if they had been discussing the problem for a while.
“Of course not,” the Witorian replied. He looked at
Qar and blinked rapidly.
“The question is whether he’s going to survive the
release,” one of the humans said.
“What are you suggesting, that we leave him in
stasis?” the other one replied.
For a while nobody said anything.
Qar studied the rows of numbers displayed on the top of the holo-plate.
They changed on occasion, so they were probably on a direct feed with
the actual stasis unit Anakin had travelled in. She unpacked her
computer and opened it. Calling up her own analytical display she
compared the figures with the last readings taken on Chardri.
Just as she feared. Anakin was almost clinically dead by now. Without
the live-support machines to keep his body working, the only reason he
was not really dead was that he was in suspended animation. His heart
was still beating that was a positive sign, but judging from the lack
of any movement from his lungs she doubted they would do anything but
gently fold in on themselves as soon as the stasis field was turned
off. The oxygen content in his blood was already well below optimum.
She suddenly became aware that the other doctors were staring at her.
“I think we’ll have to take the risk and pull him
out of stasis,” she stated. “If we have the
necessary equipment prepared we should be able to get him on
life-support quickly enough.”
“But the shock…,” the woman doctor
interjected.
“I know,” Qar cut her short. “But we have
to probably inflate his lungs and then get him on an iron lung at
once.” She looked around, at each of the physicians in turn,
all of them stared at her with the same surprised expression on their
faces. “This man is not going to breathe on his
own.” Standing up, she pointed to the third vertebra of the
hologram’s neck. “The fracture was not particularly
serious in itself but in combination with the severe trauma caused by
the fracture of his skull here,” she pointed again,
“not to mention the extensive damage to the lungs
themselves…”
“Professor Cagliari said something similar,” the
woman said.
Qar looked around again, so the Professor was not here? What could that
possibly mean?
“If we get his breathing sorted out within a very short
period, I am quite certain we can get him through.” Qar
continued. “As long as we have everything prepared and set
up…”
“Who are you?” one of the human physician asked.
“I’m sorry,” Qar replied,
“I’m Dr Hadasht.”
“You treated him on Chardri, didn’t you?”
the woman asked, surprised. “Why did you put him stasis in
the first place?”
“She didn’t,” somebody behind her said.
Qar turned around and found herself facing another doctor, older than
the others.
“Professor Cagliari.” Qar tried to judge from the
serious expression on the older man’s face what he thought
about her presence here. How did he know she did not put Anakin in
stasis? Was that in the medical files that had arrived with the patient?
“Dr Hadasht, pleased to meet you.” A thin smile
appeared on Cagliari’s face. This had to be a positive sign.
“I have just spend the last half hour trying to get hold of
you on Chardri, I did not know you were on your way here.” He
shook her hand, and before she could try to explain her presence here,
he continued, “I have to say I did not expect your colleagues
on Chardri to have the curtesy to send you here.” Her
discomfort must have been plainly visible on her face, as Cagliari
raised his eyebrows. “They didn’t then?”
he asked.
“No, I decided to come,” Qar replied.
Cagliari smiled and patted her on the shoulder. He sat down at the
table. “Now that’s what I call dedication.
– But let me introduce our team here. As you may have
guessed, Dr Chowkelti is the anaesthetist,” he pointed to the
grey-skinned woman, “Dr Roberts is the internist,”
one of the men nodded, “Dr Berberov is our specialist in
spinal injuries,” the other man smiled briefly at Qar,
“and last but not least, Dr Serentil, restorative
surgery.” The Witorian man nodded curtly at her. “I
am in overall charge,” Cagliari concluded.
For a moment nobody spoke. Prof. Cagliari contemplated the holographic
version of their patient, all the other doctors looked from Cagliari to
Qar.
“So,” Qar said, as nobody else seemed to dare to
open his or her mouth, “I think we should get Skywalker out
of stasis as soon as possible.”
Cagliari looked at her and nodded.
“Dr Chowkelti, would you assist Dr Hadasht with the
preparations,” he announced. “As Dr Hadasht has
treated the patient so far, I think she should continue –
with our support, of course. But before we can think of anything else,
we have to get Field Marshall Skywalker out of stasis without killing
him.”
There was a strange feeling overcoming Qar, she was put in charge of
Anakin, her patient. That was much better than she had expected or
dared to hoped for. But there was also a feeling of inadequacy rising
in her, fear that she might screw things up. Something might go wrong
and it had not even necessarily be her fault even and Anakin might die.
She could not bear to think of that possibility. She had managed so
far, but how much of that had been luck, and how much skill?
Trying not to show the trepidation she felt, she smiled at Dr Chowkelti
and said, “Let’s get going!”
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