Febris

[Luka Balmore]

It had been a long night of restlessness, he had awaken no less than a half a dozen times throughout the night to clear his nose and get a glass of water which of course inevitably led to him getting up a couple of times to use the refresher. He was not exactly sure how much sleep he had actually gotten, but one thing was for certain, all of his years of training in the science of medicine and the near art of force healing he along with so many others had no clue how to cure a common but nasty called. He hoped his eyes and felt his nostrils were tender as he gently rubbed them nearly the one hundred millionth time. He was quite sure if he sneezed or coughed again a banner with confetti and streamers would cough indicating that he had broken some intergalactic record for number of sneezes and or coughs in a day. It was going to happen any minute now. He'd take the dubious honor and wear it and all of it's pride for others to see.

He sighed a bit and swung his legs over his bed, his plaid pajama bottoms had been warm throughout the night, perhaps a bit too warm, it really depended on the moment. He looked over to see that his roommate had already gone for the day, the Zeltron Padawan must have gotten fed up with the disturbances. Luka found a light cream shirt in his closet and pulled it on over his head. He grabbed his datapad off of the nightstand and paged through the list of cases in the infirmary for the day. Praise be, there was nothing that required his attention exactly. He sent a brief note to all of the healers and non-sensitive medical staff on duty indicating his current condition including a fever of 38.9 degrees which punctuated the fact that he would be taking the day off.

Good Morning,

I regret to inform you that I have come down with a virus of some sort and will be unable to report to the infirmary or the service center today for the health and safety of you my colleagues and of course even more so the patients that we must put above our own well being. I deeply apologize for the inconvenience, my current body temperature is fluctuating between 38.9 and 39.2 degrees, if it worsens perhaps I shall be seeing you today.

I hope you have a lovely day.

Luka Balmore
Senior Padawan Healer
Comm: 6DH889Z27

Of course had their been an actual life or death scenario that did REQUIRE him he would of course report to work, but for one there were more senior healers on duty today and two, there was no such emergency unless one of them was sicker or dead...dead would indeed be sicker...barely he thought to himself. Normally he was proud of his half-Sephi heritage they certainly were the dominant genes in his body, but when it came to sickness it seemed to him that it tended to hit Sephi's harder than others. He pondered this for a long moment and thought about checking out a book on Sephi genetics from the Archives and perhaps Johnathon would deliver it to his room if he asked nicely. Then he thought about that for a moment longer and decided he would probably lack the attention span to adequately read and process the information today. He opened the music section of his data pad and selected a piece from the Holo Heroes Symphonic soundtrack that began playing.

He sneezed.

Again.

He looked around the room, no banners, no streamers, and no confetti. He feigned disappointment with a sigh and walked over to his tea station. Some students had workbenches, Luka had a tea station. He opened a drawer and found his tin of chamomile loose tea and then a tin of dried mint leaves. Carefully he measured out the appropriate amount of each before mixing them in his steeper.

Water. That was needed, Luka went to the sink in the refresher and filled his kettle with water. He then held the kettle with both hands and the twenty year old healer closed his eyes. Inside the kettle the water began to glow blue for a brief moment before returning to it's natural state. This was his personal trick, it removed impurities from the water better than any filter and made his tea a class above just about any other he had ever tried. He walked back to his tea station and turned the burner on and placed the kettle on it gently. He coughed covering his mouth in the process before he opened the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of honey along with his favorite mug. He took the honey and flipped the cap open and squeezed it over the mug until the bottom of it was coated in a thin but not so modest layer of honey and placed the mug on a saucer. Just then the kettle started whistling, it conjunction with the music that was playing it gave of an interesting vibe that he pondered for a minute before removing the kettle from the burner and the whistling soon ceased. He poured the water into the mug and quickly stirred the honey with a spoon before placing his steeper in. Five minutes should do it he reasoned.

He took the mug and walked over to his bed and he carefully set the mug and saucer on the night stand. He looked across the room and spied his favorite book sitting cold and alone on the edge of his desk. It was the tale of a young girl who despite all odds saved the galaxy from a deadly plague using only a bit of common sense and good old fashioned luck...and of course science. Did he really want to stand up again to go get it? HIs legs ached and it just wasn't worth the six or seven steps there and then the six or seven steps back. Luckily, he was a Jedi. He raised his hand and the book flew into it from across the room. He wondered what he would do if he was a non-sensitive, being sick must be a million times worse when you actually have to physically get up and do things versus making them come to you. His wrist beeped with a get well soon message from one of the PA's. He smiled and reasoned his tea was done. He took the steeper out of the mug and placed it on the saucer. Normally, he'd clean it immediately but not today. He grabbed the spoon and stirred the beverage more, he he could feel the mint already opening up his sinuses, mixed with the warm chamomile and honey it would soothe his sore throat as well.

He opened the book to his bookmark and began reading, getting lost in the captivating book he absent mindedly sipped the tea, which brought with it the soothing sensation of being completely cured if even for a brief moment. Luka crossed his legs, settled in completely with his favorite beverage and his favorite book and made the best of his sick day.