#and i went down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out the GAR structure

[tyedyeboogers]

Not me systematically creating all the clones of the 212th....

[sl-walker]

Preview

The air was still a little chilly as the city shook off night and headed into daylight, but despite not being dressed for it, Tally didn't really feel it.

"Mountain medicine?" he asked, incredulously. "Surgeon trained in the best medical schools in the galaxy and you used mountain medicine?"

Dawn was breaking over Aldera in pastel blues and golds; somehow, they had ended up out in the Royal Gardens surrounding the palace, pacing the tended paths and surrounded by the late spring flowers.  Before the pre-dawn glow had even come into the sky, Zan had taken him to an early-opening caf-and-tea shop called Turn Another Leaf on the boulevard that led to said palace, and had bought him a cup of herbal tea (citing that caffeine was the last thing he needed after his stim-overdosing) and the conversation hadn't paused but for that.

Now, Zan wagged a finger, grinning sheepishly. "I didn't use mountain medicine, Frayus did.  I just had it two-day shipped from my family on Talus and explained it to him once he asked me what I would suggest; we keep a stock there, imported from Iridonia.  I figured that your lieutenant probably hadn't been exposed to it, and he wouldn't have built up any tolerance to it, so it might do what it was originally used for."

The first thing they had done was circle each other in conversation, revealing bits and pieces back and forth.  Zan had apparently been a surgeon on Drongar, assigned to an RMSU, a pilot program that was quickly discontinued when the cost of maintaining the mobile surgical units and provisioning them became higher than just letting clone medics do what they could in the hopes of them eventually making it to a medical center.

Because, in the cold calculus of war, it turned out it was cheaper to let badly wounded clones die and be replaced than maintain dedicated on-planet facilities to keeping them alive.

Before that had happened, though, he'd had his hands inside the bodies of hundreds of Tally's brothers, while the GAR tried to protect the very expensive 'medical miracle' called bota.  Tally remembered some talk about it; it had been a cure-all, until a retrovirus introduced by someone -- no one even knew which side or if it was an outside group, everyone disclaimed responsibility -- had altered its genetic structure, making it permanently unusable and nothing more than a prolific weed.  Having no monetary investment to protect anymore, both sides abandoned Drongar.

"Someone reported me for using it on patients, back when it still worked -- troops and natural born soldiers -- and it turned into a mess," had been Zan's explanation, when it was still dark and they'd only just gotten started, and while that wasn't enough to win Tally's trust fully, his estimation of the zabrak went up several fold anyway.  Because bota was so expensive and coveted that of course it was for the rich and powerful civilians and not the people dying and bleeding to protect it; that Zan went against that (and paid for it) definitely was enough to catch Tally's attention and tentative admiration.  "I come from a wealthy, powerful family; they would have made an example of me if I hadn't.  Still, I was disgraced; I escaped criminal charges of treason and theft, but I was thrown out of the army and stripped of my accreditation in the civilian sector.  I had to pay back my wages, lousy as those were."  He had shaken his head there, heaving out a heavy-sounding sigh. "I'm good enough with a quetarra to live well, but--"

"Do you miss it?" Tally had asked, pointedly.

"I didn't think I would, but yeah."  Zan had held out his hands, fingers splayed, looking down at them. "At first, I was just relieved to get away without a criminal record, and to get away from the blood and gore and misery of the front lines, but-- yeah, I miss it.  Not war, but being a doctor.  Medicine.  Surgery."

In between all but interrogating Zan, Tally revealed little bits and pieces of how he knew what he did; it wasn't until they had been talking for awhile that he realized Zan was letting him get away with not ponying up an equal amount of information, and while that made him wary, he was kind of grateful for it, too.

Now, most of Zan's history was out in the open and the talk had turned to current medicine; in this case, a mountain flower native to Iridonia called rasash.  Because it was the first time Tally had ever had a doctor and a zabrak to prod for information and there was only so far that medical texts could take him.

"How'd you know that it would work on a hybrid?" he asked, plunking himself down to sit on a bench and finishing the dregs of his herbal tea; he'd gotten rid of the headache, but he could still feel his own exhaustion.

"I didn't, but even if it didn't work, it wouldn't have hurt him any.  Humans occasionally gain a taste for it; it doesn't have any medicinal effect on them, though."  Zan shrugged and lowered himself down to sit at the other end of the bench. "It was known to work on inflammation in zabraks long before we kept records of those things, old clan remedies.  Over the past tens of thousands of years, it became a common thing in most family pantries; everyone stocks it, drinks it, and it doesn't really do anything for anyone these days because it's so commonplace everyone's built up a tolerance.  It's tradition, it tastes good and reminds them of home or family.  But since he was isolated, I thought he probably hadn't been exposed to it and that it was worth a try as the most gentle way to get his immune response under control."

Tally had stolen Zan's datapad, which was networked to the palace's medical wing, and had called up Maul's stats.  And they were improved; it wasn't a cure-all, he was still a mess, but he was a mess whose status was under control and who was actually resting properly for the time being.  Slow-wave sleep, something Maul desperately needed at this point.  "How'd you know he was isolated?" Tally asked, bluntly.

Zan's usual reaction to his prodding, especially when it was sharper, seemed to be either amusement or sheepishness.  Now, he sucked a breath in through his teeth and rolled his shoulders in the warm morning light. "That's another long story.  Are you sure you want it now?  You look like you should probably go back to bed for awhile."

"I'm sure."  Tally smiled, just a hint of sharpness in it. "Because I might just be a medic--" And there, Zan snorted at him. "--and you might just be a quetarra player now, but let's not pretend there's no deeper reason why you're here to 'consult' with."

"I can't go into that part," Zan answered, raising his brows again. "Not yet.  That, you'll have to take up with Viceroy Organa."

"I intend to."

"As to the rest--"  The zabrak took a deep breath and let it out, then leaned back against the bench and tipped his head back, sprawling there.  "He approached me after I was back on Talus for a little while, feeling wretched.  He invited me to meet with him.  Then he proceeded to grill me to within a centimeter of my life.  You've talked with him-- he's a gentleman, but he's certainly not lacking any speed.  He had apparently been vetting me before I even knew his name, and he asked me enough questions to make it clear that he knew a lot more about me than any public records might show.  Then, just as I was feeling like I was either being recruited as a spy or about to be buried in an unmarked grave, he offered me a place in Aldera here, and an audition with the Orchestra."

Tally chewed on that for a few moments.  Long enough to feel a little shiver in his spine; a thrill of fear.  Or maybe hope.  Or maybe some tangled up combination of the two, a hint of something much bigger than expected on the horizon.

"And just in case you ever need to know, I'm working on Maul's situation too."

Tally knew his brain wasn't up to speed right now, but he was starting to get the sense of just how far Organa had been going since he'd told Tally that on Corellia.  He had thought the man was trying to find some legal loophole, but now -- presented with a compassionate, principled, disgraced zabrak surgeon who had apparently been maneuvered into this, if kindly -- he was starting to suspect that it was a hell of a lot more direct action in nature.  "He wants to know if those cybernetics can be cracked without killing Maul in the process, doesn't he?"

Zan reached over and swatted him on a shoulder. "Come on, don't push.  I'm sure he'll bring it to you before long.  He made it incredibly clear how much he respects you and how nothing gets done without your involvement."

Tally's eyes wanted to close without his permission (again), but his eyebrows went all the way up at that. And completely outwith himself, he felt a sharp rush of affection for the Senator from Alderaan.  His crush had died on Corellia, but the respect he had for Organa hadn't, and now here was another reminder of why: For Bail's faith in him, for the fact the man was working on exactly what he had said he would, but--

But also, for loving Maul that much.

For the first time since before Felucia, Tally could almost feel hope again.  The loss of Rabbit still was digging a hole in his heart, but he felt a little like he could breathe past it easier than he had been.