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Zeroes had already started to come around when they were poked roughly. They grumbled and tried to raise a hand to bat away the offending vod but something held them in place.
“—roes! You—“ whoever was speaking sounded frustrated and a little scared, and Zeroes made an effort to crack their eyes open. As they did so, they became more aware of their surroundings. Everything hurt, even things they weren’t aware could hurt, and something was burning nearby, an awful mix of metal, fuel, plastoid, and other things that Zeroes didn’t have the capacity to contemplate.
“Whosit?” Zeroes slurred as they opened their eyes to find a blurry vod hovering over them. They still weren’t totally sure what had happened.
“It’s Nightingale.” The vod, one of the medics assigned to medevacs, said. “We’re going to get you out of here in just a second. Anything hurt particularly badly?”
“Dunno?” It all felt similar, but Zeroes’ brain felt like a scrambled egg, which didn’t help.
“Alright.” Nightingale said. She was touching Zeroes with no discernible pattern, probably doing medic things. “Just hang tight.”
“Threes?” Zeroes asked, and the medic nodded.
“Getting him settled in the transport now. You’re both going to be just fine.”
“‘Sgood.” Zeroes slurred as their vision started to go black around the edges once more. Nightingale was talking again, and it was probably important but Zeroes couldn’t seem to focus on it.
They woke once more as the transport rocked in the air. Their eyes felt gritty, like they had been filled with sand, but they forced them open and tried to look around.
“Steady vod.” Nightingale was still there, holding Zeroes’ stretcher in place as they rattled again. “Threes is here and we were able to get Peri and Plen out as well.”
That jogged Zeroes’ memory. They had been marking a supply drop, the two logistics vod’e in their lartie had been needed on the surface as replacement for other injured vod’e. Then they had taken several unlucky shots and gone down.
“They’ll live.” Nightingale said gently in answer in Zeroes’ unasked question. It wasn’t a promise of much, but it was something at least. And the medics kept everyone they could on the ships. “You’ll live.”
“Good.” Zeroes whispered, and then they lost consciousness again.
When they woke up a third time, they were in the med bay on the Negotiator and the inside of their mouth tasted unpleasantly like bacta.
They blinked a little to try to clear the crust from their eyes and found that the medbay was dim and quiet. The only sounds were the beeping of machines and the occasional soft rustle of fabric. Everything still hurt, but it was much more a low level hum than the sharp scream it had been before, and they were comfortably warm.
Their hands were resting outside of the covers, and Zeroes flexed their fingers experimentally. The fabric under their hands was not the rough standard-issue blanket, nor was it one of the many knitted blankets that had started to take up residence in the med bay as more and more vod’e took up knitting. Instead it was made out of soft cotton and Zeroes shifted a little to try to get a good look at it.
It was a patchwork blanket, a riot of colours and embroidery. They traced an embroidered porg with a finger, the texture grounding.
As they looked at the varied designs, they caught a glimpse of the next bed over. They were encircled by the same set of curtains, allowing Zeroes to see Threes, looking pale and wane, sleeping under his own patchwork blanket.
“He’s going to be alright.” Zeroes flinched, having not noticed Helix ducking around the curtain, and he laid a comforting hand on their shoulder. “The four of you were very lucky.”
He started to run through some medical checks, thankfully not expecting Zeroes to say anything. They weren’t able to force any words out, but they still had a question, so they reached out and plucked at his sleeve. Helix looked up from his datapad, concern wrinkling his brows.
They indicated to the blanket, and his frown smoothed out just a little bit.
“Your batchers brought them when we brought you out of bacta. I sent them to get some rest, but I’m sure they’ll be back soon.”
Zeroes nodded their thanks, and let Helix get on with his tests.
.