Sick bay

"Alive, but his life force flickers. We must get him to the sickbay immediately."

- Sayar Dun'La, on an injured Gar Stazi

Sick bay, also spelled sickbay and also known as a medical center or medical wing, was an area on both starships and non-mobile bases where the sick and injured were healed. It was similar to a medcenter or a hospital. The Queen of Empire, FarStar, Reciprocity, Tantive IV, Chu'unthor, and the Alliance were examples of ships that had sick bays. The areas were often furnished with hospital beds and bacta tanks, and could be staffed by sentients and medical droids alike. The medical frigate Redemption included ammonia chambers, where species that breathed ammonia could recuperate after prolonged exposure to oxygen.

Sick bays were distinguished from medical frigates, which were vessels dedicated mainly to the transportation and care of the wounded and convalescent, and which were primarily staffed by medical personnel. Although the Redemption included a sick bay, they were usually limited to smaller areas aboard non-medical starships, such as a single room or wing. The latter was the case with the Jedi Order's Chu'unthor training ship, which housed a medical wing composed of dozens of healing and hospital rooms. Their purpose was to teach Jedi trainees healing arts which they could then use to aid the physically and mentally impaired.

In 3,962 BBY, former Jedi Padawan Zayne Carrick pretended that the entire crew of the Axehead frigate Reciprocity had been quarantined to the vessel's sick bay as part of a ruse that allowed him to board the Phaedacomm space station in the Phaeda system. Millennia later, the medical center of the CR90 corvette Tantive IV healed the injured from the Battle of Kattada. Later on in the Galactic Civil War, Rebel Alliance agents Stevan Makintay and Ketrian Altronel planned to raid the sick bay of a transport used by the Galactic Empire in order to find an antidote to the xebonica poison, which had been administered to Altronel, but a rescue by other Alliance agents prevented the need. She was later treated in the sick bay of the Alliance's Eyrie Base, which became the site of a skirmish between Makintay and Imperial Major Nial Pedrin.

The Gand bounty hunter Zuckuss was taken to the Redemption sick bay in the year 3 ABY after his ammonia-breathing lungs received oxygen burns. While he recovered, a ceremony was held in sick bay to promote Rebel agent Toryn Farr to the rank of commander&mdash;she insisted on the location so as to allow Zuckuss to attend. While the Gand was in an ammonia chamber, the famous Rebel Luke Skywalker was in the sick bay's solarium receiving a cybernetic hand.

The CR90 corvette FarStar Captain Kaiya Adrimetrum was confined to sick bay in 8 ABY after being rendered comatose by a poison native to the planet Sebiris. The year 25 ABY saw Major Showolter of the New Republic Intelligence Service sent to the Luxury liner Queen of Empire sick bay by Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon, after being injured in an attack by Yuuzhan Vong warriors.

In 137 ABY, during the Second Imperial Civil War, Admiral Gar Stazi of the Galactic Alliance Remnant was betrayed and shot by Shipman Tealart aboard the Imperious-class Star Destroyer Alliance. Gravely injured, the Admiral was confined to sick bay and treated by the Jedi healer Sayar Dun'La while Captain Jhoram Bey took command of the Galactic Alliance Core Fleet during a subsequent space battle with the forces of Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire. Bey's attempts to flee into hyperspace were repeatedly thwarted by the pursuing Imperials, and when Stazi figured out that the enemy was tracing the frequency vibrations of the Alliance communications array, he was barely able to whisper as much to Bey from his hospital bed. The revelation allowed Bey to thwart the Imperials and win the day.

Behind the scenes
"Star Trek and Star Wars helped several generations create a [sic] visual images of health care's future that include diagnostic "wands," sick-bay beds with magical sensors, needle-free injections, virtual doctors, robot nurses, and much more."

- Douglas E. Goldstein, in his book Medical Informatics 20/20

In real life, sick bay is a nautical term dating back to the days of sail. As there were relatively few places on shore where ill seamen could be treated, most ships had sick berths located in the vessel's stern. The name "sick bay" was derived from the stern's rounded contours, which suggested the shape of a bay. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines sick bay as "a compartment in a ship used as a dispensary and hospital," and, more broadly, "a place for the care of the sick or injured." For example, the United States Navy's USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the entire world, includes a sick bay in the fore of the vessel's berth deck that was historically used to treat sailors injured in battle and by various maladies.

Sick bay is a recurring theme in the science fiction and space fantasy genres&mdash;in addition to Star Wars, it has appeared in such franchises as Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica. In his book Medical Informatics 20/20, author Douglas E. Goldstein credits the sick bays seen in the Wars and Trek franchises with helping inspire the future of health care.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic&mdash;War 3
 * Star Wars: Empire 6: Princess... Warrior, Part 2
 * Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * Star Wars: Legacy 42: Divided Loyalties
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * Star Wars: Legacy 42: Divided Loyalties
 * Star Wars: Legacy 42: Divided Loyalties