Sweat beaded down Tarrik's forehead, dabbed away by the nurse droid.
'Thank you, Tombee,' Tarrik said absently as he clamped another artery shut. After several hours of hard work, he felt that, finally, he could start to breathe easily again. While he was sure that the other Nexus had taken every care to keep Fenn stable and safe, the simple matter is that they weren't medical professionals, had no real clue for how to safely transport a wounded body, and consequently Fenn's wounds had opened up and they had been bleeding internally for the last several hours. Any longer and Fenn would have been beyond help. It was only due to his his and that of two other surgeons, working tirelessly. 'We need another blood bag hooked up, he ordered to no one in particular.
'Yes sir,' said Tombee, its usual neutral, soothing tone faltering a little, 'I must remind you, sir, that his-'
'Their'
'That their arteries shows previous signs of intravenous injections. I must find another, untouched site to administer-'
'Yes, yes,' interrupted Tarrik, and it was no great difficulty to let a little irritability creep into his voice. 'Do whatever you must, just get it done, and no more talk. We're not here to speculate, only fix them,' and less of that kind of talk, the better, Tarrik thought, in case someone starts putting two and two together.
'I think we're safe to finally bring in the transplant team,' said one of the other surgeons, lieutenant Binas. She waved up to the gallery, looking down on them. Tarrik saw, out of the corner of his eye, several people rush out of the room.
'What should we do first, liver or kidneys?' he asked her.
'Your choice.'
'I've always been partial to a bit of liver,' he joked.
'So funny, Doctor,' she said sarcastically.
'I do try,' he smiled behind his face mask. 'My parents wanted me to be a comedian, but I disappointed them by becoming a doctor.'
Somewhere in the crowd of nurses, someone rewarded Tarrik with a snort. Tarrik took that as a win.
The three surgeons began preparing Fenn for the transplants, poking around in their open body cavity. Even as he focused on his work side, he watched their movements carefully, worrying at how they poked at Tarrik's previous work.
'Strange,' the third surgeon, lieutenant Amojji, remarked. 'I'm seeing none of the carbon scoring or charring you'd expect from a blaster discharge.'
'I modified blaster, perhaps,' Tarrik offered.
'Hmm,' said Amojji noncommitally.
'There does seem to be evidence of previous operations,' Binas put in.
'I'm afraid I didn't look at their medical history,' replied Tarrik, 'but they could have had an operation before being shot. A battle wound, perhaps.'
'Perhaps,' said Amojji, his voice studiously neutral, giving nothing.
The doors to the surgery opened and several nurses and surgeons came in, carrying small sterile transport boxes.
'Either way, now is hardly the time for such a discussion. We've business to attend to,' Tarrik accepted one box, which contained a cybernetic liver. He held the box open, inspecting the contents, before a beside him took out handed it to one of the newly arrived transplant surgeons. They looked over the settings one last time, checking that it matched exactly to Fenn's specifications, before they delicately placed the new liver into Fenn's gut, soldering the old biological arteries, veins and other ducts to the new, artificial tubing. Opposite, binas and Amojji worked on that side's kidney and stomach. Tarrik took a moment to check Fenn's vitals as they worked. Any surgery was a trauma on the body, but to receive multiple transplants was taking a large risk. To his relief, though, Fenn seemed to be holding up rather well, given the circumstances.
The door opened and Tarrik saw another man enter. Tarrik frowned at him. He was tall, lithe, and with dark skin, and Tarrik knew him from sight, he'd seen him walking around the base, but didn't know him offhand. Despite the fact that he now wore protective medical garments, Tarrik knew he wasn't part of the medical staff, that was for sure.
'Apologies for the interruption, surgeons,' said the newcomer. 'I have just come on behalf of the good trooper's squad. They'd like to know how the surgery is progressing?'
'They're quite stable,' said Tarrik immediately. 'We're just working on instable the new hardware right now.'
'Ah, wonderful news!' said the newcomer happily. 'They will be so happy to hear they're,' he paused. 'They?'
'Yes?' Tarrik looked at him expectantly. 'Is there anything more I can do for you, officer...?'
'Skirata,' the man offered. 'Captain Skirata.'
'Well, captain, I'm afraid we'll all somewhat busy. If you don't mind?'
'Of course,' Skirata said at once, holding his hands up apologetically. 'Please, continue. Pretend I'm not here.'
Tarrik was happy to do just that, as he took Fenn's new kidney in hand. Beside him, the transplant surgeon poked at the ducts connecting where the kidney would have been. 'Strange,' he muttered.
'Indeed, sir,' Tombee perked up. 'Your colleagues had remarked of signs of previous procedures. As you can see, these ligaments and ducts have been neatly clipped-'
'That will be all, Tombee,' Tarrik said sternly. 'Now hand me that damn kidney.'
Behind him, the exit slid open, then shut. He paid it little attention.
The intestines came next, and that was a job unto itself. Every surgeon present and most of the nurses had a hand on it, working to lay the coils in place. It wasn't exactly as a real human's intestines would have been laid out - as an artificial machine, it didn't have to be exact, but the cybernetic implans took inspiration from the real thing and it was delicate work to get everything correctly lined up with the necessary network of blood vessels and ducts. At last, Tarrik could look down and truly, finally relax. All the damaged and destroyed organs had been replaced, all that remained to was to close Fenn up, using the biocybernetic latticework of skin and muscle, that would replace the musculature that they'd lost. It would be just the work of a few minutes, and Fenn would be better than new.
Then came the sound of blaster shots.
