Doctor Ben Al Saruff

Ever since the very first days of the Palpatine's reign, Ithorians received numerous Imperial visits, usually looking for their medicines, but also for more "exotic" products, including a wide range of drugs. The Imperials dedicated an impressive amount of resources to investigate the effects that certain synthetic and vegetal compounds could cause in different intelligent species. What the Ithorians had carefully developed as medicines for a species could be turned into very different things for others: stimulants, narcotics, will repressors, poisons... The Ithorians did not ignore what the Empire was doing with their products, and offered as much opposition as their pacifistic spirits would allow them, but they were forced to collaborate. Bribes were soon discarded as inoperative by the Imperial agents. Instead, torture was found to be very useful when used on these beings, whose tolerance to pain was not high at all. Whenever they found a certain scientist or medic to prefer death to collaboration, threats over friends and relatives were used. When everything else failed, the Imperials discovered that burning a section of jungle, or blowing away one of their floating gardens, was the worst thing they could do to the Ithorians, and faster than the standard methods. They could be forced to do anything if that was the only way to prevent the natural life of their planet to be massacred...

There were very few cases of active resistance. In the almost unthinkable case a Ithorian committed any violent action, he or she would be immediately exiled by their own people. The only other option came from an old galactic saying: "If you can't beat your enemy, help the enemy of your enemy to do so." It was this philosophy that lead the Ithorian government to secretly provide the Alliance with the medicines they badly needed, and looked the other way when a few volunteers decided to join them as doctors. One of the first Ithorians who offered his services to the young Rebel Alliance was Ben Al Saruff. A doctor on his home planet, he managed to overcome his revulsion for the violence he saw every day by his strong desire to help saving lives, applying his immense knowledge and expertise to that end.

His last destination was the famous medical frigate Redemption. Months after Endor, he was transferred to the Wolf's Den, whose medical facilities soon started to be severely modified under his close inspection, as he would repeat later on the Wolf's Lair. A part of it looks more like a garden than anything else. Besides being a place for the convalescents to rest in a relaxing environment, it is the source of many of Ben Al Saruff's remedies, more confident in his ability to obtain medicines from his plants than he is in the standard synthetic products. He doesn't despise technology, though, and the latest generation of surgeon droids are working for him.

Ben Al Saruff has the rank of Lt. Commander, but he never makes use of it. Not a very talkative being, nevertheless he is always extremely gentle, especially with his patients, and doesn't even look disturbed when some of them insist on calling him Benny. For most of the crew and pilots, he is simply the Doctor, though, and everybody means the capital "D" when talking about him.