Nobody Listens to Kix
Previous | Next | Masterlist
Case 00465: Admiral Wullf Yularen
"Admiral, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. I was treating the men in the temporary medbay in Hangar 3," Kix explained as he hurried into the overflowing medbay to find Admiral Yularen waiting for him. "Were you injured in the bridge explosion?"
"Slightly," the stern admiral revealed. "A few cuts and bruises, hardly worth treating."
"It's all worth treating, sir," Kix replied firmly. "We have the time and the supplies. Besides, the infection rates in these cramped quarters are abysmal."
"Whatever you believe is best," Yularen accepted.
Kix could almost sing at the relief of having a patient who didn't seem intent on his own destruction. "Please sit, Admiral."
The older man gave a sharp nod and looked for a place to sit. As all of the beds were taken by men in too poor condition to be in the temp medbay in one of the hangars, Admiral Yularen was forced to perch on a stool Kix kept in the corner. When he moved, it was ginger, and Kix watched him settle onto the very edge of the stool and wince as he clutched at his ribs.
After Kix had collected some bacta gel and a set of adhesive stitches, he stepped back to the admiral, careful to keep his tone bland. "I will need to do a full exam before I start treating you. My scanner is currently being recharged after examining so many of the men, so I'll need to do a manual check for injuries."
"I've already detailed my injuries," Admiral Yularen reminded crisply.
"Yes, sir," Kix agreed patiently. "But in battle, the adrenaline and shock can make men miss injuries that could harm them later on."
"Medic Kix, we both know I am beyond suffering from the effects of adrenaline," Yularen's shoulders were stiff with displeasure. "I am far too experienced to fall prey to the shock of an injury."
Kix squared his own shoulders. If Yularen wanted to be direct, Kix could meet him toe-to-toe. "Your ribs are injured, sir. There's no amount of experience that can stop shards from puncturing your lungs if any of them broke completely. Remove your shirt."
"I do believe I understand what the commander and captain complain about so often," the admiral muttered. Kix ignored him in favor of testing the officer's torso. He really had killed the power supply on the medscanner, so the examination was going to be more hands-on than either of them would have preferred.
After thoroughly mapping Yularen's injuries, Kix sighed. "Well, your ribs seem to be intact."
"No small feat, considering how you were pressing on them." Kix rolled his eyes before he could fight back the motion, but the admiral took it in stride and continued to test his knowledge. "From what I understand of bacta, there is no internal application."
"Not without going through the bloodstream, which can be dangerous," Kix confirmed. "I can issue you some pain meds, but I want to take a look at your left calf. I saw a bad burn there. What happened?"
Admiral Yularen looked confused for a moment before his expression cleared. "I was dragging a trooper away from the bridge and my leg hit a scrap of hot metal from the control panels."
"You pulled a trooper to safety?" Kix asked, unable to fight the question back down.
The admiral was seen as the main administration officer on the Resolute. He had served in the GAR for a few decades, but as an officer. That was an important distinction when it came to how he had treated and been treated by others.
Furthermore, he had never spoken in favor of the clone troopers. Unlike most prior GAR officers, he had never treated the clones like lesser soldiers - or at least not more than any officer did to the men they outranked. However, Yularen had never said anything to insinuate that he particularly liked or even cared about the men. He did not use their names, preferring to simply refer to them as 'soldier' or 'trooper'.
With all of that, Kix thought his surprise was justified, but Admiral Yularen seemed thoroughly insulted. "Yes, several troopers, as a matter of fact," he answered coldly. "I have served in my share of battalions and fought in countless battles. I never leave a man behind."
"Of course not, sir," Kix agreed, absorbing himself in examining Yularen's leg. The burn was severe, already blistered in a quickly-swelling mass of skin.
As he prodded gently at one side of the burn, Admiral Yularen hissed out a breath. Kix frowned. "Admiral, how long did you continue to help after you were burnt?"
"It happened with the second trooper," he admitted. "I worked for quite some time afterward. Perhaps an hour or two."
Kix nodded. That explained why the burn was so far along. He would have expected the admiral had come to the medbay only minutes after it had happened, not hours. "I'm going to apply burn cream and a bacta patch. As I'm certain you already know, burns are disproportionately painful. I'll issue you some high-strength pain meds for it."
"Whatever you feel is best."
For all of his uncertainty about the admiral, Kix had to admit that the man was tough. During the application of the cream and the patch, there were several times at which Kix had expected to be reprimanded by Yularen, but the admiral had remained silent. For security reasons, the high-strength pain medication was locked away in a closet not attached to the medbay. With a short explanation to the admiral, Kix left to fill the amount he intended to prescribe.
When he returned to the medbay, Kix found Admiral Yularen in deep conversation with no fewer than four injured troopers. Each had sustained damage to their legs, ribs, head, or spine during the bridge attack and had to stay in the medbay where Kix could keep a close eye on their condition.
Even as Kix watched, Snare and Bet made a joking comment toward the admiral, one better-suited to the barracks than a conversation with a superior officer, but Yularen fielded it with an eye roll and an almost-hidden smirk.
Kix cleared his throat. "Admiral, here are your pain meds. Have one with every meal and one before you go to sleep. You've got enough for three days, but you'll need to come back so I can change the bacta patch tomorrow evening."
"Thank you, Kix," Admiral Yularen said before turning to fix the men with a steely glare. "Behave for Kix. He's a good medic. I'll hear no excuses if you come back and begin complaining about your injuries."
"Yes, sir," Quasi said with the sloppiest salute Kix had ever seen.
"Don't do anything we wouldn't do!" Gurr requested with a grin.
"I have yet to find anything you men would avoid doing, so I can safely promise that," Admiral Yularen said dryly. "Thank you again, Kix. I will see you tomorrow evening."
When the admiral had left the medbay, Kix eyed the troopers lying in their beds. "I didn't know you were so close to the admiral."
Snare shrugged. "He saved our lives. He dragged each of us and a few other men away from the bridge. I would have burned to death if it wasn't for him. Can't help but be friendly after that."
Kix nodded, but with little other response he could make, he just said, "Lights out in two minutes, men."
As he went to flick the lightswitch to shut down the piercingly bright overhead lamps, Kix mused over the revelation. He would never have expected the admiral to take such an interest in the men, but it was a welcome surprise. In the current political climate, clones needed all the friends they could find. _________________________________________________________
A/N - Thank you to everyone who has liked posts from this series and special thanks to those of you who have reblogged! I appreciate you!
50 notes
·
View notes