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Chapter Seventeen With
her feet propped up on the med-supply box next to the room’s only bunk,
Meesahran Tofallin begins to nod off in the semblance of sleep.
Her long golden hair hangs down, uncharacteristically, about her
shoulders; the white streaks showing much more prominently in this fashion.
She brings her arms up and wraps them about her chest. Her coveralls tied down around her waist, with one of the
arms coming loose and dangling down at her side. Now and then the figure
lying prone in the bunk stirs and Mees’ head bolts up, only to relax upon
seeing no change in the unconscious figure’s condition.
He moans a bit, and Mees sits up, rubbing her eyes and stretching out her
back. She takes a look at the
bandage swathing his head and then stands up and crosses the room to the water
basin. Taking a wet cloth from the
basin, she walks back to the pale figure. She
carefully begins to remove the bandage while applying the wet cloth to loosen
the gauze. As she is about to take
the last piece of gauze from the man’s head, his eyes begin to flutter and
work to open. Finally
he is able to force the lids to remain open, and he then tries to find something
to focus on. Seeing only a great
gray blur, he furrows his brow and tries even harder, but all that comes from it
is a clearer gray. He then tries to draw in a deep breath, hoping that more
oxygen will clear his eyes. As he
inhales, a sharp pain in the back of his head provides him with an instant
reminder of his current predicament. “Guerfel!”
is all he is able to utter, but the swearing brings a smile to the face of the
unseen woman behind him. “I
was thinking more along the lines of ‘love sick nerf’ myself, but fool
works, too.” Jae-Lee Reklaw
slowly rolls over in the direction of the voice. “Is
that you, Mees?” He squints his
eyes on the blurry figure. “I
can’t seem to focus, and I must be hallucinating, ‘cause you look like you
have a huge head...” Mees
looks puzzled for only a moment, and then remembers that her hair is down.
“Nah, just huge hair. Why
else do you think I keep it tied up all the time?”
She turns and pours some water into a small cup.
Turning back to Jae, “Here, let’s get some more fluid in you.”
Placing the cup to his lips and raising it ever so slightly.
He takes a few sips and then moves his mouth away from the cup.
He
turns inward, wondering how long he has been out and what happened to get him
here. Mees, sensing his questions,
“Don’t worry, everyone is still in one piece.
Well, that needs to be anyway. You’ve
only been out for just over a day.” She
returns the cup to his lips and as he takes more of the water into his mouth,
she continues, “Master Mussiri has provided me with some instruction in the
healing arts, so you should be good as new, well maybe not new, but good enough
in a couple of days... You did lose
quite a lot of blood, but Master was a perfect match, so we just did a quick
transfusion.” Removing the empty
cup from his lips, Mees reaches for some of the food she has brought into the
room. Breaking off a small bit of
the bread, she places it against his lips and he opens his mouth, “However,
you may want to grow your hair a little longer in the back. I stitched it up as best I could, but you were missing a bit
of skin back there... What in the
name of Corel did they hit you with, anyway?”
Jae-Lee
reaches up, finds her timid hands and takes the bread from her grasp, “A
rather sizable and jagged rock, I think.”
Rubbing his eyes with his free hand, he continues, “I just wish I could
see straight right now.” Mees
smiles, “It should wear off sometime in the next twelve hours.” “TWELVE
HOURS! Owwww...” His shout brings
much more pain than he realized it would. “Calm
down fly-boy. We just had to give
you some meds that can affect your vision, to prevent any infection and to get
you out of the system with no questions.”
Mees puts her hands on his shoulders and moves to position him so that
she can continue to re-dress his wound. With
a grunt and another moan, Jae-Lee abides by her gentle manipulation.
“What did you give me?” “Let’s
just leave it at meds, and call it even, okay?”
Her avoidance has Jae more than a little worried. “Mees,
please don’t make me reach back there and throttle you.
It’s gonna hurt me worse than you and I just don’t have the energy.
What did you give me?” She
sits up straight and contemplates her answer a moment longer, but as soon as
Jae-Lee begins to roll back over, she stops him, “Okay, okay, we gave you some
of that stuff that fights rot infection in neeks...”
She cringes as she says the last words. Jae’s
reaction is one of dread, “Aww, please tell me you did not feed me any mynock
slime?” Meesahran
smiles for the first time since feeling the strike to Jae-Lee’s head,
“Sorry, buddy, but it was the only way to keep the port authority guys off our
backs and still get you some treatment... Oh,
and don’t expect to be allowed back on Commenor again without a complete and
thorough physical.” Mees chuckles
a little with the last statement. “Oh
great, just what I always wanted. You really are a great friend, Mees. Who wouldn’t want some big burly man checking all of your
orifices for rot infection?!” Mees
out and out laughs at his response. “Thanks.” “I’m
sorry, but it was all we had to work with at the time...
Besides, at least that way Xaxan will know you’re clean the next time
you go to call on Xana.” Jae
rolls over with great speed, and pain, but his shock dampens much of its
affects, “What are you talking about?” “C’mon,
Jae, I’m not blin-... I mean,
I’m not stupid. Besides, that
lip-lock you guys were engaged in when we arrived was more than enough for
anyone to know what was going on.” Mees
shrugs off his reaction, knowing how private a person he is when it comes to any
kind of relationship. “What
kiss?” His eyes, though cloudy
from the medication, betray his confusion to Mees. “You
really don’t know what I’m talking about do you?..
Well, I guess you must have been a little delirious from the blood loss,
but you kissed her, buddy.” Jae-Lee
leans back in the bunk and contemplates her revelation.
He kissed her... I kissed
Xana, and I can’t even remember it! “Look,
if it’s any consolation, it looked to me like she was returning the favor.
If those guards had been even a little later, I think it might have
gotten a little steamy in that courtyard.”
Mees gives him a little nudge in the arm. “Stop
it, Mees. You know that’s not
cool...” He reflects a moment on
this turn of events. Is this
something that could make sense? I
mean she’s an educated, high-class lady and I’m not much more than a street
vrelt... Yeah,
but you’re the one she kissed back, nerf herder.
Mees
smiles as she projects back at him. “I
forgot I can’t do that around you, huh? Must
be the knot on my head.” Jae
grins sheepishly at his mistake. “I
wouldn’t worry too much about it right now.
It will likely be sometime before any of us can make it back to
Commenor.” And with that,
Meesahran returns to tending his wound. But
Jae-Lee Reklaw has something new to consider in his path.
Could he ever reach a point in his life when settling down might be an
option? And could Xana be a part of
that life? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Walking,
somewhat unsteadily, Jae-Lee Reklaw enters the cargo bay and takes a look at his
beloved ship. It is then that he notices a pair of legs dangling from the
rear of the cockpit. “What
are you doing, now?!” He calls up to Meesahran. “Oh,
I was just hooking up the power-couplings, so that you can get this wounded bird
into whatever repair facility you’ve got waiting on Kuat.”
Mees’ voice is muffled by the depths in which she is crammed into the
back of the cockpit. “C’mon
out of there, it’ll be fine. I
can get it towed if I have to. Nija
can figure it out once I reach her.” Mees
pops up out of the cockpit, “You mean she doesn’t know you’re coming?” “Well,
that depends on whether or not she’s gotten my transmission yet or not...
She has this system, that you can put the word out that you need her, but
she only responds when she wants to and only on her terms.”
Jae walks stiffly over to The Burn as he explains. “Sounds
like an,.. Interesting arrangement.
She’s not very trusting, from the sounds of it, huh?” Mees hops down from the ship. “Nah,
but she grew up kinda like us, but without the benefactors that we lucked into.
So, she’s a little on the skittish side.
Plus she grew up on Kuat, and if anyplace is worse than Corellia to be a
street vrelt, it’s Kuat.” They
both nod their heads in agreement. Mees
picks up her tools and walks around to the workbench on the other side of the
ship. She begins tinkering with
something, but from his current vantage point, Jae cannot make it out. He
speaks up as he slowly progresses in her direction, “Wha’cha working on,
Mees?” She
calls over her shoulder, “Just something I’ve been messing around with.” Jae
gets right up to her, “I hope it’s not something you took out of my ship.”
He takes a seat next to her, “You know, there’s something that I
still don’t get... Why was Xana
out in that part of the city?” Mees
turns around with a hand on her hip, “I’m not totally sure, but the
impression I got was that she’s been digging around for information on her
brother’s business dealings since she hit Commenor...
Saw a bunch of security reports that mentioned her activities and the
fact that she has become quite good at slipping past her shadows.”
Mees brings a hand up to her opposite shoulder, “I don’t think things
are going terribly well for Dear Xaxan and Xana is probably trying to cover his
tracks.” Looking Jae straight in
the eyes, “She is a lot more than some eye candy and a social secretary,
ya’know?” The knowing glance
she gives him says more than he realized it could, and she turns back to her
task. Jae-Lee
stands with great effort and walks up to Mees’ side, “Good to know...
Well, is there anything I can help with?”
He reaches over and places a friendly hand on her shoulder, but the
reaction he gets is anything but friendly. Mees
wheels around in a reflexive reaction and has Jae’s arm in her hand before he
can comprehend what has just happened. The
look on her face is one of pure ferocity, but it fades the moment she sees
Jae’s shocked expression, and she releases his arm, quickly turning back to
the bench with her hands planted firmly on the top.
“Hey! . . Sorry, kid.
Didn’t mean to wake the sand-panther.”
Jae holds up his hands in mock surrender. Noticing her silence, he tries to bring her out, “What’s
got you so keyed up, Mees? I’ve
never seen you react like that before.” Still
facing the wall and looking down onto the work surface, Mees softly speaks,
“It’s nothing, just a reflex.” “Well,
remind me to tell that to your next boyfriend.
Otherwise he might end up like some orange goo.” Jae tries to get her
to laugh, but her silence continues to weigh on him. “Yeah,..
No need to worry about that one... Look,
I need to get cleaned up before my shift at the helm, are you going to be all
right in here? Or should I get
Master Mussiri to help you back to bed?”
She turns away from him and quickly proceeds to the door, never looking
him in the face. “Mees?”
Jae calls out to her as she hurriedly departs the bay.
What was that about? “A
great many things have changed since your last meeting, my friend.”
Master Mussiri steps out of the shadows and walks to Jae-Lee’s side.
Extending a hand, to assist him in returning to a standing position,
Master Mussiri smiles at Jae. “Apparently,
but it seems that not all of it was good...”
Jae continues to look at the door Mees walked through.
“That’s the second time she’s pulled away from me like that.” He shakes his head while struggling to get up.
“It just doesn’t make sense. She
was always so demonstrative; I was the skittish one.” Master
Mussiri makes certain that Jae is standing solidly and then takes a step away
from him. “Change is constant,
young one. And many times these
changes are not what is expected nor desired.”
“You
know why she is behaving this way, don’t you?”
Jae-Lee’s stare bores straight into the gray one. “I
know that you are in need of far more rest, if you are to recover by the time we
reach Kuat. Please, rest and
content yourself with the knowledge that she is well and within our
protection.” Jae is about to challenge the man to an answer, but realizes that he may not be strong enough for such a confrontation right now. Maybe later, but not now.
Creator: PtrsonsZOO (Jennifer)
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©2002 Rocky Mountain Fan Force
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