He shrugged then. "Like you said, it's still all speculation...

...and we need to take everything one step at a time. Which means that we'd really better take a break..."

He paused one final time, eyeballing his mug of caf. "...and get some warm caf. Although we never did finish that grand tour of the ship, and we still have some time."

He trailed then, standing, extending a hand. "Shall we?"

[ 03-30-2008 08:21 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

--------------------

"The Vong?" I repeated, gulping. "Here? I mean, that is what they grow?" I pointed to the distant cluster.

"Does this mean that they might still be hanging around? I mean, you know about these things; maybe those are kinda leftover from when they were first here, and have been forgotten."

Or are here because nobody in the galaxy knows about them, I couldn't help but think gloomily to myself. Which goes a long way toward letting me know the planet we were traipsing about upon. Perhaps not by name or system, exactly...

But sure as there are womprats on Tatooine we had to be about the as far as we could get from anything resembling civilization. Otherwise someone would have found and disposed of these amphi-things.

Right?

I sighed and stared dully at the amphistaffs, which only appeared to writhe mockingly in turn. Suddenly our chances of being found seemed to have plummeted even below what odds my own past luck would have provided us.

Then I perked up a little.

"Well... maybe we can use these ourselves, do you think? Are they dangerous?--" Now, that was a stupid question, wasn't it, ya ol' pirate... "I mean, could we make use of them? And hey, maybe there might be other Vong stuff growing here that we could use to help us get off this rock. They had to communicate with each other somehow, right?"

[ 04-04-2008 10:33 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Yaoksi Joao ]

--------------------

It really had been far, far too long, with entirely too many interruptions in our life...

"Sure, Flyboy," I said as I stood up and grasped his hand. Thoughts of our brief idyllic moments on K'eel Doba flashed through my mind then as together we headed out of the tiny galley...

--------------------------------------

Once again, an idyllic moment between us was shattered. This time, however, it wasn't because of someone being inexplicably yanked away, or torn to shreds, or otherwise attacked by unknown and unseen forces. The steady bleep, bleep, bleep of the ship's proximity detector filled the little ship with its announcement that we were soon to arrive at our destination.

"Up and at 'em, Flyboy," I grinned, leaning over to place a kiss on Terrin's nose. I rose from the little bunk where we had been recalling some of what being married was all about, reclaimed my scattered apparel, and headed into the gangway.

"I'm going to check and see if there are any gravitational anomalies hanging about. Then it's on to..."

I ground to a halt.

On to something ELSE wanting to further disrupt any future idyllic moments we would have together, sure as there's Treasure on Roon!

I shook my head, and found my seat. There I waited patiently the few moments until we reverted into realspace; once that was accomplished, I took a quick scan of the unknown into which our faithful engines had placed us. Another, more serious scan provided me with...

"Nada," I announced with not a little relief. I let out the breath I didn't know I had been holding, then performed one more scan.

"Well... we're certainly out in the boondocks," I announced cheerfully, happy that there at least wasn't anything untoward hanging about as an immediate threat. "And," I continued, "there's a planet up ahead."

I leaned forward, letting my gaze run quickly over the readouts I was getting.

"Hmmm... few oceans, lots of fairly young mountain ranges -- tall ones, too -- hey, this place is gonna be cold and dry, so while I start a scan for lifeforms why don't you go see what we have in the way of gear."

After blowing Terrin a kiss I turned my attention back to the work ahead of me, which was to implement a planet-wide scan that would search for and isolate the life signatures of a particular combination: one male human, and one female Ryn.

Not a combination one would expect to just find by happenstance alone, not this far away from the rest of the known galaxy. If that combo was discovered, the odds were pretty good that they would belong to our missing Captain Joao and his little companion.

I leaned back in my seat and tried to enjoy what I suspected would be the last quiet moments I would get for some time, should this scan prove fruitful. Not that I really thought anything terrible was going to happen, but gads it sure seemed that all through the most recent years of my life, whenever I thought things were bright and rosy something dark and sinister reared up out of nowhere to burst my little balloon.

At least this time I'm gonna be mentally prepared! I vowed to myself as I settled more comfortably in my seat to wait.

[ 04-04-2008 10:54 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

--------------------

Damn, but he sure hoped they wouldn't need the latter...

Satisfied then that he at least had a good start on items they would need, he headed back to the cabin, feeling Eagle II beginning to descend like any spacefarer would. He reclaimed the copilot's chair. "Allright, we should be good on cold-weather and climbing supplies, I've pulled them and they are ready to go," he stated. "How are those life-sign readings?"

--------------------

"Besides what could we do with them. As you yourself have said you probably couldn't handle a lightsaber to be effective so a eel sword that can bite out your own throat would be easier?"

I should have paid more attention to my history classes at the academy, my brother would know all about the Vong and if they had anything we could use.

"I don't know much about the Vong other then their weapons and tactics," I admitted. "After the war we had with them the Jedi where convinced that they would no longer be a threat again. The technology was so different and alien that at that time no one bothered to study it and how it worked so the knowledge was lost over the years. My people where devastated by them during their attack on Mandalore, but for all these years my people have been taught and trained in case they ever came back. And to me this looks like it could supply thousands of warriors and if the rest of the planet is like this then we are in for a fight."

Looking over the field of amphistaffs it was almost as if I could see the fight before us all.

"Hey!"

A blinking orange light snatched at the corner of my eye and dragged my attention back to the panel. Quickly I began letting my fingers do a spirited salsa on the controls, isolating and zooming in on what the scanners were telling me they had discovered.

"I'm getting life-readings of a human and Ryn... but it seems the human readings are magnified. If it's Captain Joao, he's with another person!"

I turned to Terrin, letting the expression in my eyes speak volumes. Someone might be holding him captive... or not. But this planet was pretty far away from anything remotely resembling civilization, which was why the Vong had entered into our galaxy via this quadrant.

I knew the Vong had taken an occasional prisoner, whom they hadn't killed. What they did with said prisoners, however, was something about which I was clueless, but I bet it hadn't been pretty.

They had been pure geniuses when it came to cross-species hybridization and splicing techniques...

"I don't have any of Captain Joao's biological data in order to try a DNA verification, but who else would be here with a Ryn?" I went on, trying to banish the latter image from my too-active imagination.

"Should I send a general broadcast out, do you think?"

I turned back to the board to quadruple the scan-range, so as to see if there were any other mysteries this remote rock might be holding. But other than the human/Ryn discovery and myriad patches of the weird life-readings I had found earlier, the planet appeared to be barren of anything other than microbial life.

[ 04-06-2008 10:05 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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"Well," I snorted again in false bravado. "They're not here yet. And maybe they're not coming; maybe these things seed out or something, and this is just a patch run wild that's left over from when they were here before."

I tightened my grip on my little Ryn companion and gave her a reassuring squeeze. For although there was no obvious evidence of Vong habitation in the vicinity, other than the amphistaffs, on the other hand there wasn't any way to determine if they might possibly be orbiting this planet in a ship. Having little to no knowledge of the Vong, I hadn't a clue as to their past logistics; I only knew that they came, they attacked, they killed, and had been conquered.

And conquered enemies quite often come back for revenge. The thought popped into my head, rejuvenating the chills that had been subsiding within me. I tried my best to shake them off.

"What do you suggest we do, Kyan?" I asked as I scanned the remainder of the landscape stretching out before us. It didn't look too promising; I didn't even see anything that might be water; what these amphistaffs lived on beat me.

--------------------

...but what about those higher lifeform readings? Anything in our databanks at least remotely match the readings?"

He paused then, frowning. "That bad feeling we all so often get is coming back to me now," he admitted. "At the risk of scaring the poodoo out of those below and being perhaps excessively cautious, maybe we ought to not do a general broadcast unless we know what exactly is down there other than a Ryn and potentially two humans. After all, Shayla said this planet is near where the Vong came into our galaxy, and they do have totally natural "technology." For all we know there could be some of those kriffing villips down there or something."

--------------------

"Amphistaffs??" I said, arching a brow as I turned to Terrin. "What the--"

I needn't have asked anything further. With an prescience that was almost scary, the computer obligingly filled me in on exactly what it was it was finding in patches here and there on every continent this planet possessed. The description was brief, but disheartening for the myriad questions it provoked in me.

"Those are Vong weapons!" I exclaimed, tapping the screen with one finger. "What in Hell's Seven Circles are they doing here--?"

I trailed off, finishing my question by shooting Terrin an incredulous look, my head now buzzing with an incredible array of ifs and maybes and oh god nos that struggled like demons for expression.

"If there are Vong weapons down there, maybe the Master was right. Maybe they really are coming; maybe they've sent an advance scout, maybe one of them captured--"

I couldn't finish aloud, but turned back to the monitor and stared at the scrolling data. Then my look hardened.

"Y'know, I'm sick and tired of one thing after another just up and coming, time and time again, always, we never get a break, never get time to rest..." Gulping, I drew myself upright, and after letting a single, immense shudder ripple through me managed to regain a semblance of composure.

"We've got to know whether or not it's Captain Joao down there," I finally said. "No more wondering what's right, no more but ifs or perhaps maybes.

"I'm broadcasting... now... and devil take 'em all if it's the damned Vong down there. At least if it is them, and-- and even if they hurt Captain Joao--"

Oh please, no-!

"--well, then at least we're up here out of harm's way. At least we'll have proof, and we'll have a chance to hot-foot it outta here and tell somebody!"

With that I turned back to the controls and sent out a general hail on all frequencies. Hopefully, if one of the two human readings did indeed belong to Captain Joao, he'd respond, and we could take it from there.

Wherever "there" would lead us.

[ 04-06-2008 10:57 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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"Would you mind, with my arms pinned like this and I don't have delicate enough control with my tail to operate a comm link," I said in a sarcastic tone. "I think some one is trying to talk to us. It a general hail on all frequencies so if you to can stop debating weather eel sword plant thingies are dangerous and or useful and answer the line."

--------------------

"If you won't honestly answer me who you are you expect me to believe you would tell an unknown signal instead?" I asked. "I have no problem reveling myself to them, a word of a Jedi is still worth something I believe."

The ryn hesitated at first but reluctantly handed or tailed the comm link over to me. It was more sophisticated then most comm links I have used before, but I could still identify the controls I needed.

"Unknown persons, This is Master Kyan Jetiis'ad of the Jedi Order. The vessel I had been traveling on had crashed here a few days ago I am the only survivor but have met two others who arrived here somehow as well. We are in need of assistance, over."

"Master Jetiis'ad, we are Terrin and Galen Danner aboard Eagle II,," I opened in reply, then paused a moment and shot Terrin a thoughtful look. Yeah, the guy could say he was a jedi, he could say he was the reincarnation of ol' Palpatine himself; the major point was that from our end we simply didn't have a clue as to his real identity. I thought I was well justified to be following in Terrin's suspicious footsteps, particularly since we had only just discovered the living Vong weapons that were growing on this planet.

I chewed my lip a little, then leaned forward once again.

"May I ask as to the other members in your party?" I asked politely. "Not to mention the coordinates of your crashed ship."

Finding the latter would go a long way toward proving the veracity of the purported jedi's words.

--------------------

Now there were words for a spacer's sore ears! Hastily I disentangled Link from me, letting her go with an apologetic smile as I then reached toward Kyan and snatched up the comm as if it was solid gold.

"Galen, hey lil gal!" I burst out joyously. "Am I ever glad to hear you guys! It's me, Yaoksi; I've got Link with me too."

I paused a moment and raised a brow to Kyan before continuing buoyantly on.

"Oh yeah, the jedi? I suppose he is one, but I've never met one to gad about in Mandalorian armor. But be that as it may, we'd sure appreciate it if you guys would drop in for a spell... a short spell...

"One just long enough to get us off this blasted rock, which..."

I paused a moment to reflect, and could not keep ensuing tone of disbelief from my voice as I then continued.

"...which I haven't a clue as to how we got here. But nevermind that now; just get yerselves down here as soon as you can, right? Are we ever glad to be hearing from you!"

--------------------

...kriffing hell, years...???

...the voice was unmistakable.

Terrin shot a relieved look then Galen's way, although the idea of a Jedi in Mandolorian armor was a bit unusual, to say the least.

"As we are to hear from you," Terrin responded then to Yaoksi. "After all, I do believe we stil owe you a ship..."

Trailing then, Terrin looked at Galen again, leaving the final call as to their next move in her capable piloting hands, certain now that he trusted at least one of the individuals below with everything that he held important to him.

[ 04-26-2008 11:17 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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I quirked a brow at Terrin's seeming reticence, wondering why he wasn't saying much to our lost comrade. I mean, yeah, it might be that Yaoksi was actually a captive of this Mandalorian-clad "jedi," but I didn't think so. The relief in the voice that crackled over the comm just sounded too real, too unfettered, too...

"Yaoksi, we'll be there asap. We're rounding the edge of what is your local horizon; give us time to complete this orbit and get down to you. It won't be long; our scanners show an empty field about a kilomter from where you are--"

One filled with those writhing things; maybe we'd be lucky and our landing thrusters would crisp them!

"We should be down in about twenty standard minutes or so.

"See you then; Eagle II out."

With that I let my fingers race across the control panel, typing in a spiraling landing orbit that would terminate in the field I had just mentioned. Then I sat back, emitting a little sigh of mingled relief and happiness that we had solved the mystery of Captain Joao's whereabouts so quickly and easily.

Even though that solution appeared to have raised two other, bigger mysteries.

--------------

Twenty minutes later, our little craft was settling happily into place, clinking and pinging as she vented gases and extraneous heat generated in landing her. I put all systems on standby, popped on external cams, and settled as well into my seat.

"Don't forget, Terrin; they might only be a kilometer away, but that's still a kilometer of unknown territory, with a patch of amphistaffs between you and where scanners position Captain Joao and his party. Take a blaster along with that med-kit and supplies. Yaoksi's been here awhile, and he might be hurt or hungry or both.

"And take a blaster," I finished with as with the flip of a control I opened the hatch.

"I'll keep tabs on you with scanners, videocams and communicator. Don't be long, Flyboy; I'll be waiting for you here."

[ 04-27-2008 11:02 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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"That must be your friend's vessel, we need to cross that small patch of amphistaffs so there is some things you need to know first and you might want to relay this to you friends as well. The immature amphistaffs attached to the polyps are easy to avoid so can be written off as less dangerous. The mature ones however will prove much more dangerous they can shred through durasteel, are resistant to lightsabers, and can spray a paralytic poison about 20 meters. Short of a suit of mandalorian armor there is little that can protect you from them."

Removing my helmet I tossed it over to the Ryn, and my shoto over to Yaoksi.

"The helmet is somewhat heavy but it should protect you from the poison." I said. "We need to move fast keep behind me I'll take care of anything in front of us if anything comes from the side after the two of you use either my shoto or your vibro dagger to hold it off until I can deal with it."

I saw the look of uncertainty on the Ryn's face. So I knelt down and calmly looked her in the eye.

"Ke'baatir, don't worry about it." I stated. "We will make it, we must make it."

Rising I turned to the ship and brought my lightsaber out igniting it letting its white light shine against my armor.

...and particularly the patch of writhing things. Terrin took the blaster from his belt and clutched the trigger, calculating his approach to the others, unable to see them for the distance and the creatures. Although the patch was densely packed, there did seem to be a particular growth pattern. Terrin figured that the patches that were lower to the ground may be less of a threat, so he began working his way in that particular direction, making certain not to get too close. Still, he paused long enough to get a good look at them before going too much further along. The evil creatures seeemd to be growing from a single "stalk" in groups of three. As he began to move once more, the nearby amphistaffs seemed to stretch towards him.

As he continued to move along and look ahead, Terrin became increasingly aware of something else as well. Every so often, in the distance and particularly in the patches of larger amphistaffs, he saw movements of something he couldn't quite make out...

...but at any rate he was almost positive what he was seeing was nothing attached to one of the stalks. He raised his commlink to his lips, opening a general frequecy, feeling the need to warn the others.

"Hey everyone, I'm more than mid-way through the amphistaff patch...

...and I keep seeing movement on the ground here. I haven't seen anything specific yet, but I've got a funny feeling that some of these things are detached from whatever-it-is they're growing from. Be careful."

Sending the message off, Terrin heard movement in front of him so, uncertain as to what might be lurking, he raised his blaster...

--------------------

He arranged them into a line with him at the front, Link in the middle, and Yaoksi in the rear. They didn't to have any trouble maneuvering through the field occasionally Kyan would stop and wave his lightsaber at something, by the time Link looked over she could barely see something slither away. Just about to the a quarter of the way through she heard Terrin's message come in over the comm. Link was about to answer it but remembered that Yaoksi should still have it. I turned to face him when she saw something start flying through the air at him.

Link stabbed at it with her vibro dagger but it looked like it altered its trajectory in mid air and before she knew it she felt a sharp pain coming from my wrist. Looking down at her hands Link saw from her left arm just below her hand was an amphistaff latched to her wrist. Link felt her entire hand go numb but every pain receptor erupted like her hand was on fire.

"Yaoksi..." Link started screaming. "Make it stop, make it stop, MAKE IT STOP." Unable to take it anymore Link fell to the ground screaming in pain.

--------------------

Hadn't Kyan said something about poison?

Operating on little else than pure adrenalin and my gut, I grabbed the tail of the flailing horror, dug my feet into the rocky ground, and pulled with all my might. It merely writhed in response, the scales which covered its sinuous body slicing into my hands like tiny razors, sending fresh blood flowing down upon its glistening body. I only tightened my grip, and pulled again as Link's rising crescendo of screams tore through my head, adding impetus to urgency which somehow provided me with just that last little bit of strength I needed. With something approaching a subliminal wail the thing finally loosened its hold, now snapping back toward my face as though trying to rid itself of the thing which had the effrontery to remove it from its prey.

I didn't give it a chance to latch onto victim number two, but let momentum carry me a full one hundred eighty degrees. Still whirling en route to completing a full three-sixty I let go of the amphistaff, and sent it flying into what I hoped would be the oblivion produced by my companion's weaponry. I didn't bother to make sure Kyan finished the job I so poorly started, but completed the pirhouette and fell heavily to my knees at Link's side.

"Oh my god," I could only whisper, for she didn't look good. What skin that I could see through her silky fur had gone a sickly grayish-white, and greenish smudges now encircled her eyes, making them enormously bright. The place on her arm where the amphistaff had latched itself was already swollen to twice its normal size, and the swelling didn't appear to be stopping anytime soon.

I didn't know what to do. I had no med-kit, no real training. All I could think of was to simply lay my hands on her, shushing her like a mother would a crying baby, trying to keep her as calm as possible so the poison now coursing through her frame would move more slowly.

"Ssh, ssh, Link. It's ok, you're going to be okay..."

She didn't seem to hear me; I cast a desperate glance up to Kyan.

"You used to be a jedi, or were going to be one; surely you can do something!"

Then the thought struck me that there was indeed something I could do. Somehow, throughout those frantic seconds following the unexpected attack I had managed to regain my grasp on the comm-link. I now raised it to my lips.

"This is Yaoksi, Link's been attacked by one of these amphistaffs, and we don't have any medical supplies to speak of and I think she's been poisoned; Terrin, Galen, whoever is coming get yer hiney here asap!

"Yaoksi, out."

[ 05-06-2008 06:37 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Yaoksi Joao ]

--------------------

"Yaoksi, this is Galen still on Eagle II. I don't know if Terrin got that, but I'll make sure he does. He's en route to you now, and he has some medical supplies. We have..."

I trailed for a moment, gulping with dismay as the image of our tiny medical facility leaped before my eyes. Khaandon alone knew if we had anything to combat amphistaff poison; I pushed that worry aside, however, and continued as memories coming from my days on remote planets with Dad leaped to my defense.

"We have a small med-bay here; hopefully we'll be able to tend to Link when you get aboard. In the meantime, keep her calm and keep the injured part lower than her heart. Whatever you do, do not go cutting her to remove any poison, and don't try to be fancy with a tourniquet. She is going to need all her body parts when she's well! Just get somewhere safer if you can. Terrin should be with you soon; oh, he reports that something seems either to have removed itself from where it's growing, or else there's something else in that patch you're in, and it's not attached to the ground. Keep an eye open, and be careful guys; you'll be aboardship and off this rock in less than half a standard hour.

"I'm relaying to Terrin now; hang in there. "Galen, out."

With that I opened an immediately channel to Terrin, and squirted Yaoksi's message to him.

"Hurry up, Flyboy, and for all the Treasure on Roon be careful. Those things bite, and they're poisonous; Link is down, but Yaoksi is with her. They need medical supplies asap, so double-time it, love. We have to get them out of here.

"Galen, out."

[ 05-06-2008 06:41 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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"I am a Jedi, but I can't use the force." I answered. "I'll explain later, right now she mostly appears to be in shock. The poison should act very slowly, at least it does on humans. The vongese made it slow so they could watch you suffer."

When was that med kit going to get here.

"From what was taught to me about those things poison was don't get bit. We need to find a way to stop the poison from spreading past her arm, I just can't think of how..."

I cut myself off when I caught the glint of my shoto lying on the ground next to Yaoksi, I picked it up and looked at it a few moments before holding it out in front of Yaoksi.

I shut my eyes against the terrible sight of what seemed to be so innocent an object as an untriggered shoto, unwilling to even contemplate the horror Kyan was now suggesting. But I couldn't keep further images, other, more horrible images, from playing vividly against my inner lids.

Images of Terrin Danner laying pale and white in entirely too large a puddle of his own blood, one arm torn excruciatingly from its socket... a follow-up image of him laying faint and wan beneath the capable appendages of my med-bot as the unit determined the feasibility of prosthetic attachment... yet one more of my own knees, now turning redder by the minute as I scrubbed and scrubbed the deck, trying with all my might to utterly eliminate every last drop of blood from them as though by the act of their erasure the entire, hideous event would miraculously never have happened at all.

Would there be blood this time, too?

I shook my head, dragging my gaze from the shoto and up into Kyan's face. The expression I found there was no less grim.

"Does it have to happen this way?" The words barely made it from my mouth. I cut a glance down at the young Ryn, knowing that in this day and age a prosthetic looked and felt every bit as natural as the missing member.

What it would do to her emotional state, though; now that was an entirely different matter. I knew she was a tough little cookie... but whether her fortitude went all the way to the bone or not I had yet to determine. I simply hadn't known her long enough yet.

Hurriedly, I went on. "I mean, are you sure there's no other option? No antidote? No anti-venin? The Vong were here quite some time ago; surely something had been developed. If we only just keep her calm and quiet, like Galen said, and keep her arm lower than her heart..."

I trailed, letting my glance slide away from the dark look I saw flit across Kyan's face and back onto Link. She was awake and alert, but seemed somewhat feverish. Her arm was now grotesquely swollen from just below the elbow all the way to her fingertips. Here and there blackish skin peeped through fur gone suddenly dull and lusterless; I gulped, not liking the look of that at all.

I looked her square in the eyes, and to my surprise thought I saw something close to understanding shining there.

"Link--?" That was all I could stammer as I now laid a hand against her cheek, and simply let it stay there.

--------------------

...and was promptly latched onto by one of the trios of amphistaffs. Terrin didn't take the time to find out what it was, but instead kept moving again, just in time to hear both Yaoksi's panicked message and Galen's. "I should be close," he responded to both, concern in his voice. He let that concern move his feet, and keep his body on the alert. By the grace of the fates, as he continued to move, Terrin could hear voices...

...at least one of which was familiar. Very cautiously, he approached. "Captain Joao?" he called then, already knowing from the desolate area that he was probably approaching those he sought but not wanting to approach and alarm anyone. He kept moving, and in short order reached the three only to see Yaoksi on the ground with a very pale little Ryn, her arm looking swollen and painful. Yaoksi had blood and cuts all over as well, but for the moment only had attention for the little Ryn.

Terrin nodded to the third unknown party with Yaoksi, assuming from the fact he was carrying a lightsaber that he was the Jedi, and then promptly dropped to the ground and unstrapped the medkit from his shoulder, looking more closely at the Ryn's injuries and hurting for her. "We're going to get you somewhere safe and try to get you better," he said to her then, trying to reassure.

Then he looked towards Yaoski. "I have some antivenin, but I don't know if it'll help," he said softly, concern etched in his voice. "I do have some pain killers and sedative that might at least alleviate the pain though. And you have injuries that need to be looked at, asap. But most importantly--"

He trailed a moment, looking about their surroundings for emphasis, "I think we need to get out of here."

With that he reached into the medkit for an injectable painkiller to give to the Ryn, hoping to at least make her trip back to the ship a little more bearable.

--------------------

It was hard to speak Link was short of breath, but she didn't know if it was the poison like Kyan said or if it was her own fear of the possibility of dying.

"I think I can feel it rising through my arm," Link continued. "It's paralyzing my arm but... I can still feel the pain."

Link reached out with her other hand and latched on to Yaoksi's arm. She tried to look at him but her vision was blurry from her tears.

"I'm scared Yaoksi," Link cried. "I don't want to die, please help me. If you think Kyan's idea will work then let him. Just don't let me die."

--------------------

"Are- are your med-droids as good as I remember them?" I stumbled, screaming at myself that this was going to happen again, that once again someone in my care was going to lose an arm. But rant and rave though I might, deep down I knew if Link's arm wasn't removed, and removed fast, she would probably die.

I refused to let that happen, especially when she was laying right there beside me, being all big and brave...

I swallowed thickly, and waited for Terrin to reply, knowing his answer would be the final straw laid upon the opee's back...

[ 05-06-2008 09:56 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Yaoksi Joao ]

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