Ben Kenobi AU: Medicine

[last_kallig]

It's been about a month since Ibani was thrown across space-time and into Ben Kenobi's life. She's been adapting in that time, and investigating the local flora for medicinal properties. SOME good, at least, has come out of being poisoned for months on end by Overseer Ragate, as she's found a few candidates!

"I've found two things that Kreya might find useful," she explains to her father as they rest inside, away from the heat of the day.

She gestures to a weed that even Bantha seldom eat, which makes it relatively common. "This one, with some alteration of the pH, helps with wound healing - especially when preventing infection." She grins. "Dolo helped me discover it, actually. I found her eating the plant, but only in specific places. It turns out the ground there is more basic, rendering it safe for her to eat."

She sighs. "I'm sure the Tusken know of it, and so much more! I'd love to share knowledge with them."

Comments

[acertainpov]

Ben has taken to enjoying this part of the day - while there's quite often work to be done, he particularly enjoys the times when there's nothing, when he can persuade Ibani to stop, to recognise that there's no urgency, nothing to fight or prepare to fight. When they can just be in the hut, together.

Of course, there's usually a lot to do. Like right now, he's busy with his hands spinning out some bantha wool that eventually they're going to been for clothing repairs, or even new clothes for Ibani herself: he's hoping she'll put on more weight even in the desert as they are.

When she points out the weed, he puts his spinning down and picks up the plant, studying it closely. He recognises it, but hadn't known that bantha eat it, ever.

"I speak some Tusken," he remarks. "But gaining their trust long enough to sit and share knowledge won't be easy. We're invaders in their land, you know."

[last_kallig]

Just being is proving hard for Ibani, it's true. She was never allowed idleness as a slave, and as an acolyte she spent what 'spare' time she had working toward the next edge, the next trick, that might keep her alive. And she's not sure who or what she is, now that the fight she was in is forever over, lost to time.

She will gain weight when she starts growing again, which could be soon. She's been more hungry the last few weeks, as if her body is wanting to prepare for something.

"Ah. That would explain a lot." Her smile turns bitter. "I suppose some things never change, invaders claiming territory and those native to it fighting back."

[acertainpov]

Ben smiles sadly, resigned to his fate as unwelcome guest. He wouldn't chosoe to live here, it's true, but he also doesn't have the choice to leave Luke, or to make Owen and Beru leave their home.

He's reminded gently by that thought, that Ibani still hasn't met the Lars family. That will come, he assumes, when they have reason to buy water from them.

For now he leans towards her, holding the leaf in his hand.

"Show me how you can tell," he says, eager to learn a use of the Force they can do without manipulating it, without drawing attention to themselves. "What does it feel like?"

[last_kallig]

Her smile turns reassuring at his sad smile. It's not like the whole mess with the Tuskens and the settlers is Ben's fault!

The meeting with the Lars family could be interesting, especially since Luke's Aunt and Uncle are likely going to wonder where the hell Obi-Wan Kenobi suddenly got a fourteen year old child from, and WHY.

"It's partly what I sense from the Force, and partly knowledge of things I've learned." She's eager to show him, leaning toward him. "It would be easiest to show you by touching your mind, if that's okay?"

[acertainpov]

Wordlessly, Ben nods his assent, leaning forward himself in a mirror of her. He automatically holds the plant between them, in the palm of his upturned hand, so they can focus on it together.

His mind when she touches it is warm, receptive, and if she didn't know better, it would still seem like he was force-blind. He's not actively hiding from her, of course, he's just well used to maintaining this resting state.

But he's there, ready to learn.

[last_kallig]

Her own mind is warm when it touches his, gentle, but excited to show, to teach. She begins with her own body, with the mechanisms it uses to heal, to fight infection, what they 'feel' like in the Force. Then, she shows him what kolto, the bacta equivalent in her time, 'felt' like, the myriad components in it to help with healing and infection.

Components with similar functions have a similar 'feel' in the Force, so that's what she's looking for. She turns her awareness to the plant, and the echoes she wants are there, though in far lesser amounts than they were in her memory of kolto. It won't be NEARLY as effective, but it's better than nothing.

She switches to looking for poison, for danger, and those feelings are stronger. The plant contains a myriad of toxins, which is why it goes uneaten in the desert. Overseer Ragate's methods were cruel and torturous by any reasonable standard, but they DO mean that Ibani knows perfectly well what the various 'kinds' of toxin do, what they feel like, and how to neutralize them.

"The more lethal neurotoxins are in concentrations far too small to affect even an infant, they're meant for insects", she explains, mentally shoving those toxins aside. "The one in the greatest concentration won't kill directly, but it will cause massive vomiting and diarrhea."

[acertainpov]

And that property, he realises, is what would make it so useful in fighting infection, keeping wounds clean.

He lets that realisation pass between them, nothing as crude as direct telepathy, but an understanding and an inquiry about whether he's right. And in return, he searches his memory and gives her a feeling of what bacta feels like, how that would mirror kolto and where it would differ, and how that reflects the specific feel of the plant.

[last_kallig]

"Yes, but it would be too dangerous at this potency," she replies. "But we can get around that."

She's fascinated by the bacta, how it differs and how it is similar. More things to look for!

"If we change the pH, the poison shifts like this, doesn't bind as readily. But that doesn't matter for our purposes when there is so much of it and we are targeting creatures of microscopic size."

[acertainpov]

Ben nods slowly, thinking hard himself at all the possibilities. Then he stops, and is quiet, and sits with the plant in his hand, meditating on the toxin in it by himself.

Then he pulls back, breaks the mental contact with her in order to smile warmly in real space.

"This is really useful," he says. "Craya will be pleased if we can get it to work."

[last_kallig]

"There's enough natron in the desert that I should be able to alter the juices from plants that grow in normal soil." It will mean a hell of a lot of grinding, but she's used to hard labor.

"I'm glad you think she'll be pleased. Though we'll need to come up with a cover story for just HOW I discovered it. Always accidental cuts and bruises and coincidental exposure to plant juices, I suppose."

She huffs, slightly frustrated. "The other plant, I've only managed to find one old seedpod. I think it must be the wrong time of the year for it. It could be a good painkiller, but it activates a lot of the same neural pathways as addictive chems."

[acertainpov]

"We don't need to have a cover story for everything," Ben says with his usual steady confidence. "Not with Craya - she'll ask no questions unless she needs the answer."

What she suspects already about her old hermit friend isn't going to be altered by his new daughter knowing medicinal botany.

"But," he says, putting the leaves down and picking up his spinning again, "tell me about this seedpod. I might be able to help with my local knowledge."

[last_kallig]

"That's good, makes things easier."

She absentmindedly rubs the scarring under one, the letters and numbers that marked her as a slave. She's pretty sure she's decided what she wants added to change them, but she's not sure Ben would approve.

"It's a seed pod, about this size," she makes a circle with her fingers. "There were remnants of a sticky sap in the dried pod, that's where the painkiller was. It might be from a flowering plant, but I'm not sure."

[acertainpov]

Ben watches her fingers rubbing her face, and makes a mental note to follow up on that, see if she's decided what she wants to do with it.

But he listens to her words, looks at the fingers, and then he smiles in recognition.

"Yes I know that flower," he says finally. "They grow in crevasses around the plateaus - it's the wrong time of year for seeds I think, but we can go look for some tomorrow morning and I'll show you the rest of the flower."

[last_kallig]

"Thank you," Ibani replies, her happiness an almost palpable thing. "That would be a big help."

"If the drug is as potent fresh as I think it is, it will need to be used with great care, but it should be able to help with even the greatest pain."

She's sure she doesn't need to tell Ben about the psychological effects of pain that go along with the physical.

[acertainpov]

She absolutely does not, but his use of drugs to help with that is often limited - although in his experience drugs can be used to ease physical pain long enough to help him with the harder job of easing the psychological effect.

He smiles happily at her reaction, and lifts a hand to apparently smooth some hair out of her face, although that's just an excuse to offering her physical contact and affection.

"I wonder if that is a secret the Tuskens are already in on," he reflects. "If it's as good as you think, I'd be surprised if they were ignorant of it."

[last_kallig]

She leans into his touch a little, craving contact and affection. She's still learning that she CAN ask for that, never mind HOW to ask for it.

"Almost certainly," Ibani agrees. "Hypospray would be the best way to administer the drug, but there's no way we're going to be able to manage that." She shakes her head. "Making something safe to be injected is complicated and expensive. I'd be surprised if anyone on this planet but Hutts involved in the chem trade had the means of making them."

[acertainpov]

"Yes," Ben says thoughtfully, working through the idea in his mind. "There are ways to administer drugs other than directly, of course."

Anything from inhalation through to ingestion could work.

He thinks for a second longer before breaking into a smile again, eyes crinkling as he beams at her.

"This will be a useful little project for us. Well done."

[last_kallig]

"Thank you," Ibani replies, flushing a bit. She's been starved of positive feedback for a long time, so getting it now is like a drink of water after a long drought.

"I like helping people. I...couldn't where I was before." Either place. "Although I should probably make a change soon, if I'm going to be meeting more people." She remembers Kreya noticing the scars under her eye, and she's sure Kreya won't be the only one who notices.

[acertainpov]

Ben nods, knowing exactly what she's talking about. He puts his work down again, and shifts closer to her, so he can run the tip of his thumb against the scar in question.

"Have you had any thoughts?"

[last_kallig]

"I have," she says after a moment. "I..." she stops.

"Did they teach you about the Sith species, who they were before the Exiled Dark Jedi who would become the Sith Order found Korriban?"

[acertainpov]

Ben just shakes his head silently. He might be persuaded to think that maybe the Jedi Order were deliberate and nmisguided in their selective teaching of history, or it maybe that is was so long ago to be of limited relevance. It's most likely somewhere in the middle.

[last_kallig]

Ibani isn't surprised at his shake of the head.

"They were relatively similar in anatomy to humans, although some Sith alchemy was apparently required for them to produce children with the Exiles. My biological mother, whoever she was, had Sith blood in her like some 97% percent of the Sith Empire's population at the time."

"There is, or was I suppose, a cave system on Korriban that had ancient cave paintings preserved in it, and the oldest piece of Sith writing that we know of." She smiles. "It's a poem, both creation myth and love story. It was a comfort to me, when there was little comfort to be had."

"The symbol associated with the poem, Fire and Water, is likely too risky to use, even now. But, the other art pieces are simple geometric shapes, and should be safe enough."

[acertainpov]

Ben smiles back, mirroring her own. It would be nice to give her something that gave her comfort from home, as long as it wouldn't put her in dangher if someone made the connection.

"I might have to check out some designs first," he says. "Make sure there aren't associations they've picked up in the milennia since."

[last_kallig]

"I can draw out the one I was thinking of for you, if you want? It uses the scars that are already there, which ought to make things easier for whoever is doing the work."

[acertainpov]

Again, he nods.

The traditional way of drawing things out in this hut is to use a stick and scratch in the dirt. Ben glances over to where there is a convenient stick, and for the briefest of seconds, and not for the first or last time, he considers using the Force to call it to them.

Instead he pushes himself up by his old man knees and fetches it himself, handing it over to her.

"Show me."