Tolk le Trene

A female Lorrdian, Tolk le Trene served the Galactic Republic as a military nurse during the Clone Wars, a galaxy-spanning conflict between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. During 20 BBY, two years after the start of the war, le Trene was serving as a scrub nurse for a Corellian surgeon named Jos Vondar at Republic Mobile Surgical Unit 7, which was located in the Jasserak Lowlands of Tanlassa near the Kondrus Sea on the planet Drongar. At RMSU-7, le Trene served under Vondar, who was a Captain and Chief Surgeon, as well as a Human colonel named D'Arc Vaetes, who commanded the medical facility. The world of Drongar was an unpleasant place for the Republic forces stationed there, with powerful electrical storms, high temperatures, and high humidity.

During the time le Trene was stationed on Drongar, the planet was the stage of a fierce battle between the Republic and the Confederacy, who were both fighting for control of the bota fields on the world. Bota was a rare type of plant that could be made into a drug that had many uses, both medicinal and otherwise. While at RMSU-7, le Trene served with not only Vondar, but also several other individuals including an Equani minder named Klo Merit and a Zabrak surgeon named Zan Yant, who became friends with Vondar at the facility. At some point during her time at RMSU-7, le Trene became attracted to Vondar, although she did not make her feelings immediately obvious to him. The fighting on Drongar required le Trene and Vondar to operate on a large number of clone troopers, who were all genetically identical. The clones were brought to the medcenter from the battlefield using medlifter transports, and there le Trene would assist Vondar during surgery. Frequently, the surgeons would have very little time in between the arrival of new wounded troopers due to the heavy fighting.

Tolk le Trene and Vondar frequently had to deal with malfunctioning medical equipment during surgery, which forced them to use less technologically advanced methods, as they did while performing surgery on troopers injured in a in Poptree Forest. Soon after the battle, a Mirialan Jedi Padawan and healer named Barriss Offee arrived at RMSU-7 to join the staff there shortly before more wounded clone troopers arrived for le Trene and the other surgeons and nurses to treat. Soon afterward, le Trene, Vondar, and Yant showed the new arrival around the base including the facility's cantina, a place where many of surgeons and nurses went to unwind when they were off-duty. There the four met Den Dhur, a Sullustan reporter who came to the table due to the presence of a Jedi. After the Jedi arrived, the facility continued to receive many seriously wounded troops from the battle, forcing le Trene and the others to work long shifts, although Offee was able to aid them by using the Force to heal some of the injured.

As the battle continued to rage, Klo Merit, who was secretly working for the Confederacy, sabotaged a that was carrying bota to be taken off the planet. Tolk le Trene was one of many individuals who noticed the bright flash that occurred when the transport exploded in midair. Around the time of the sabotage, le Trene and Vondar's surgical ward was able to keep eighty-seven percent of their patients alive. Vondar also developed an attraction for le Trene, but was reluctant to pursue it further due to his Ensterite background, which prohibited him from marrying anyone not born in the Corellian system. Near that time, instead of supplying the surgical staff with medical droids, the Republic sent the surgical staff a protocol droid with the designation I-5YQ, which Vondar assigned to data storage and secretarial duties. During a period of particularly fierce fighting, le Trene and the rest of the medical staff at RMSU-7 were overwhelmed with severely wounded clone troopers, many of which died. At that time, I-5YQ helped le Trene and Offee with their work in determining the treatment priority for troopers by attaching a priority label to each one. Several days later, while drinking with Vondar and Yant with Offee present as well, le Trene witnessed Den Dhur's revelation of a holorecording that showed a Republic combat instructor named Phow Ji kill three separatist mercenaries with his bare hands, an act which Yant and Offee viewed as murder.

Around that time, Tolk le Trene started to let Jos Vondar know that she was attracted to him by doing things like leaving the in use diode off to the surgery's dressing room so that Vondar would accidentely walk in on her while was changing clothes. However, Vondar thought that she had merely discerned his own attraction to her and was having fun by embarrassing him. While stationed at RMSU-7, le Trene sometimes played sabacc, a card game, with Den Dhur, I-5YQ, Klo Merit, Barriss Offee, Jos Vondar, and Zan Yant. Besides the usual surgical work, another important event occurred at RMSU-7 around the same time. Klo Merit, although working for the Black Sun criminal organization instead of the Confederacy, used poison to kill the base's quartermaster, a Hutt named Filba, due to the Hutt's greed in smuggling bota for the organization. The murder caused quite a bit of commotion in the camp, and required le Trene's friend, Jos Vondar, to perform an autopsy to determine how the Hutt died.

During her service there she met and fell in love with Corellian Republic surgeon Jos Vondar. le Trene was briefly suspected as being a saboteur by Jedi Padawan Barriss Offee as she had been onboard the MedStar frigate at Drongar at the time of an explosion and afterward her attitude towards Vondar became more distant. However le Trene's coldness was due to the fact that she had learned Vondar would lose his position if she continued their relationship. She had needed an opportunity to think, and this was perceived by Offee when le Trene opened her mind to the Jedi.

Despite his people's traditions barring marriage to offworlders, Vondar brought her to his homeworld after the cessation of fighting on Drongar. Accompanying them on their journey was Vondar's great-uncle, Admiral Erel Kersos.

Although a Lorrdian, le Trene was essentially a baseline Human both genetically and physically. She had fair skin and shoulder-length brown hair that she frequently wore pulled back using a scarf. Jos Vondar found le Trene to be physically attractive. During her time of Drongar, she sometimes wore a musky, yet fresh scent that Vondar found to be nice. When the surgical ward was overwhelmed with severely wounded troopers, sometimes le Trene was emotionally affected by the suffering and loss of life. Tolk le Trene was not opposed to drinking alcohol, which she sometimes imbibed with Vondar, Den Dhur, and Zan Yant.

Although she was attracted to Jos Vondar, Tolk le Trene found it amusing when she observed the Corellian looking at Barriss Offee, RMSU-7's new Jedi arrival. Although Vondar found her attractive, he initially did not want to have a relationship with her due to his Ensterite upbringing, which forbade him to marry anyone not born in his home system. Using her ability to read body language, she was able to tell that something was bothering Jos Vondar, but he initially refused to mention that he was lonely or that he was attracted to her. Eventually, le Trene took matters into her own hands and let Vondar know that she was attracted do him by doing such things as leaving the in use diode off on the surgery's changing room so that Vondar would see her partially undressed. She also did her best to cheer him up when he was depressed by his work and the war.

As a Lorrdian, Tolk le Trene was able to sense the mood of nearby sentient individuals from their expressions and body language with ease. In her duties as a scrub nurse, le Trene was trained both to diagnose injuries and use various pieces of equipment. At some times during the battle on Drongar, she was able to determine which trooper's injuries were too severe for survival, and also what priority and treatment should be given to those who could still be saved.

She was trained in the use of both pressor generators and the more primitive hemostats to stop bleeding in a surgical patient. She was also able to pump into a patient, utilize a hemosponge to clear an antisepsis field, as well as use a handheld bioscanner.

In her basic weapons tests, she scored the rating with pulse rifles, while earning the lower rank of with sidearm blasters. While playing sabacc, le Trene was able to keep her face calm to keep from betraying the type of hand that she held. Den Dhur believed that her skill at reading people would give her an edge in the game, although not as much as great as the advantage that could be gained by Offee or Merit.

Tolk le Trene was created as one of the main characters for MedStar I: Battle Surgeons, a 2004 novel written by Steve Perry and Michael Reaves as part of the Clone Wars multimedia project and as the first part of the MedStar Duology. Later that year, le Trene again had a major role in MedStar II: Jedi Healer, the concluding novel of the duology written by Perry and Reaves. In 2005, Tolk le Trene appeared in "MedStar: Intermezzo", a short story written by Perry and Reaves that took place chronologically between the two MedStar novels. In the story, le Trene received her first pictoral depiction, which was created by Randy Martinez. "MedStar: Intermezzo" was originally published in Star Wars Insider 83 but was later released on Hyperspace in 2008, before its closure in 2011. In 2012, she was featured in the MedStar entry in The Essential Reader's Companion, a reference book written by Pablo Hidalgo that detailed Star Wars novels and short fiction in chronological order. In the book, le Trene was pictured along with the rest of the MedStar Duology cast in an image created by Chris Trevas.

• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
• The Essential Reader's Companion